Day 12 - 9th July - Diving

Day 12 - 9th July - Hawkmen!! DIIIIIIVE!

Felt poorly.

Coach to oonas

Filled out forms still not knowing if I should go... Drank loadsa water... Still not decided. Me and sam made up some new dive signals to indicate the need for a toilet 'movement'... Ranging from a simple 'pull the chain' type motion, to a more elaborate 'mushroom cloud from the bottom' motion. We were also trying to figure out if the 'movement'' would float and go up or sink down. Now you may think that's gross and wildly beyond what normal people would discuss. To divers however, the direction things go underwater are important. For example, if you become disoriented, you can check which way your bubbles leave your regulator. They always go up, even in Australia, hence you know which way is up.

Now, for the toilet 'movement', you'd want to know which way it will go, because you'd rather it go down the back of your leg and out the bottom of your wet suit leg, than up the back (or worse the front) of the neck of your wet suit... Ultimately it could even fill your hood... Ewwww!

Decided what the hell and packed my gear for the boat.

We were taught the proper way to pack our boxes, wet suit first, regs, masks / boots / snorkels, BCD on top (back plate out) so the bladder is protected, fin down each side and weight belt thru the crate handles as a single handle to make it easier to carry. 'Job jobbed' as a neighbour of hours likes to say.

3 great dives.

Manta ray!

Totally knackered - left the key in the dive bag!!!

Reception wanted to charge us for it, but eventually understood that we could get it back. Still, they wanted to charge us for a spare key. We said no and so he said ok one of the cleaners will let you in. Good job I'd tipped them earlier in the week, he came promptly and opened the door.

Next problem was electricity - the room's power is circuit-broken, but by using the hotel key fob everything springs to life as you previously left it. We tried using one of the towel tokens as it was a similar size but nothing happened. This worried me as I was fairly convinced the fob had no electronics in it, so I'd kept the key in my pocket whilst in the pool. Hmmm maybe I'd killed it as well as left it in the dive bag.

I tried phoning Oonas... Phoning anywhere abroad where English isn't the first language, is like telling aliens to turn left at Mars... How do they know what left is and how do they know what Mars is?? So, over the phone you are devoid of hand gestures to clarify things, and the usual problems with 's' and 'f', 'm' and 'n' occur (always reminds me when someone asked me "is that m or n?" to which I replied "n as in Nigel Mansell...").

I 'spoke' at 2 or 3 people just asking for Nick or Corrie but they were out or busy, I'm not sure which.

Eventually I spoke to Terry who said we could come down and pick it up, but no one was coming out our way.

Then Sam tried switching a light on and it worked, with a towel token in the circuit breaker. The power goes out at least once per day which resets everything, so putting the towel token enabled the power but everything had reverted to it's off position. Saved! No need to go back to Oonas!!

We were all tired but went out for our pre-booked Italian meal in the hotel's special restaurant.

It was pitch black.

They lit a romantic candle for us that I think mice would struggle to make use of.

We ordered proper food from a proper menu and it was actually good, even though you couldn't see what you were eating. I used my Swiss Army iPhone to light up everyones meal so we could ensure we weren't eating other disgruntled badly behaved hotel guests remains.

It was somebodys birthday so that got sung an odd Egyptian tune that sounded like they were about to make a sacrifice to some ancient god. We joined in as best we could... We were then handed some of the birthday cake which was nice.

Turns out it was someone elses bday too, so the same thing happened... And we got offered more cake but were too stuffed.

I think we went and played cards and them got to bed totally exhausted.

Bye for now!

Cheers
Stootz

Day 11 - 8th July - Lazy People

Planned lazy day after the Bedouin nights session last night and some time to get energy levels up for tomorrows diving.

Got up late about 9.30 went for breakfast.

Met an older couple during breakfast that said they were having a terrible time.

Wrong coach @ airport, given wrong tickets for wrong people and wrong hotel. Eventually reached here after 50 minute drive on communal coach - the airport is less than 10 mins if u go directly.

Nothing for kids to do (but they haven't come with kids). Maybe they meant other people's were causing trouble?

Apparently we missed three fights in the hotel last night... Some girl dragging another girl by her hair out of their room. Some bloke hit a woman... Not interested though as that can happen anywhere. Towels are being moved and dumped off the sunbeds round the pool. They aren't having a good time at all.

We must have blinked and missed it all.

Connor lost his towel (prob stolen by the fighty people) so we were facing a 75 LE fine (about £10 in the Queens dosh). Sam went and blagged a token from the guy that hands them out, saying Connor returned a towel and forgot to get the token. It worked so no more fine lol! She's a star at that kind of thing... And complaining... in the sense of poor service = complaint... We holidayed in Portugal years ago and she was served some seriously undercooked chicken - despite a complete language barrier she complained solidly and didn't pay a penny for it. It's even more dangerous these days what with a law degree, legal practice course and a thorough understanding of all things in the 'sale of goods' act.

Threw Connor in the pool a few times and played piggy in the middle with his Crocs shoe lol.

The Egyptian curse finally struck me this afternoon so plans to go to Soho Square were scuppered. I didn't eat much other than soup and some bread and drank lots of non alcoholic drinks. Sam and the kids tucked into the 'mexican' themed buffet, some parts good some bad. The restaurant is a bit like that, there's lots of choice but I can see what some people are saying when they say its 'samey' and the quality varies. I'd give it 4 out of 5 for choice (especially if you only stay one week) but only 3 out of 5 for quality. You can usually judge the quality by the cut of meat used... Sometimes the dishes described as chicken, beef or lamb, bear only a passing resemblance to a former life as an animal. There are bones for sure, that's what the meat is normally wrapped around.

There should be something for everyone though so I wouldn't want to deter anyone.

I think the kids are enjoying the food the least, the buffet novelty has worn off, at least for Lissa. I think she wants a proper meal served to her on a plate, like in the Hard Rock Cafe. Connor is still like a puppy, bounding up again and again especially for desert.

Early night as we're diving tomorrow
- that'll be fun in this condition lol

Bye for now.

Cheers
Stootz

Day 10 - 7th July - Bedouin Nigh

Lazy day followed by Bedouin nights experience Inc star gazing.

Long coach ride with brief stop to wait for others by some grand peace sign from 1996.

More ppl got on coach then off to starting point.

Bedouin houses have satellite dishes etc cheating really lol.

Just before we got off the coach, the guide said : need to drink water... Sunblock, cover head. Outside temp is 47 deg C. Gawd!

Stopped in front of a lot of camels (40-50).

Brought our own head scarves from quad biking trip. Boy put them on us differently, just covering top of heads not faces.

Vicious sounding camel complaining loudly... It was Connors and he reluctantly approached to get on.

We all got on and up easily. Lissa had to swap for some reason.

Hard wooden knob on front and back of saddle. Not comfortable kept poking all of us in the back. Left bruised.

Ride not painful but very uncomfortable. You can see why a lot ride side saddle or with legs crossed. I tried & it was marginally more comfortable. Tiring on the legs, inner thighs sore.

Not a nice smell, at all...

Riding in a train of about 50 camels.

Videos being shot. Managed some myself but very jerky as there's not a huge amount of rhythm to the camels lolling gait.

Connors tripped over a few stones making him squeal as it dipped suddenly lol.

We trudged on for ages... They told us the ride was 50 minutes long but we could abort early if we wanted to. Suddenly the whole experience turned into Stephen King's "The Long Walk" - no one wanted to be the the first to drop out, so we all marched on. One guy in a blue t-shirt was in agony, I think his man lumps met camel humps in a terribly confined space.

We got off and the boy guiding us demanded money. Not nice but we gave him some anyway.

We were led to a sheltered spot at the foot of a hill. Kin of like converted stables with cushions... We sat and drank water, recovering from the heat of the late afternoon.

We were invited to watch the sunset from the top of the hill, but it had already gone, so was a bit of a let down.

As the sun faded, candles were lit in makeshift holders on the tables in our stall. Only ours wouldn't light because Sam thought it was a bin of some kind and threw a drink away in it, so the candle was soaked lol.

As the light faded further we were invited for dinner at a table outside the stables. It was pretty good considering where we were but it was obviously brought in from outside.

The last light finally dipped away and we were left with a growing camp fire a short distance from where we sat. The Bedouins started singing and playing a makeshift drum... Then they got ppl dancing.. Oh dear!

We avoided the Bedouin shenanigans and were finally herded to a spot somewhere in what I'd call their car park. We looked up and couldn't believe the sight... More stars than any of us had ever seen in our lives... It was like something out of the start of a Hollywood movie. Utterly amazing.

Then an eloquent Egyptian man demonstrated exceptional knowledge of the stars, using a laser pointer that seemed to stretch all the way to each star he pointed at... He told us about the constellations and the star signs (I got called out and shown Virgo... It's on it's side in this part of the world but stands on one leg when viewed in England).

We got to look thru some powerful telescopes at Saturn and a star whose name I forget, but both were immensely small... I know that sounds ungrateful but years ago we bought Adam a half decent telescope in the year of Saturns closest approach, we saw the storm spot on the side it was that close.

We were herded back on the coach and home, bed was welcome as we were all knackered.

Bye for now!

Day 9 - 6th July - Quads

Another planned lazy day followed by quad biking.

4pm pick up in coach then out to the desert.

Lots and lots of ppl on quads and buggies.

Bought headscarves, they tied em on for us - we all looked the part. ;-)

20-30 in our group - must have been 5 or 6 other similar groups. It was more like a small quad-mounted army venturing into the mountains.

Gentle ride out single file - kids hassling us running alongside, tried to grab sam's wedding and engagement ring. Would have been one less Egyptian kid to feed.

Out into the desert - as expected it was painfully hot, more so in parts than others. A few people started to put their legs in odd positions on the bike as they rode on. I felt intense heat in my right leg and despite my initial thoughts of missing a bit with the sun cream, I figured out the engine was getting super hot and venting onto my leg. Now I was riding odd-saddle too.

It got ridiculously bumpy in parts: lots of close spaced deep ruts that rattled your fillings, bingo wings, dangly things and the bags under your eyes. It was reeeeally bad. The mountains were a mix of amazing, breathtaking, forbidding, and scary...

We were in the middle of nowhere.

Then unexpectedly, an outpost appeared. Then some shacks / houses began to occur with more frequency. We eventually came to a small village looking like an oasis in the desert.

So, we stopped off for refreshments - expensive water & tacky picture backdrops: smaller plaster versions of all major monuments like the pyramids, valley of the kings etc. This was the only bit of the trip I didn't like as it was really desperate and extortionate.

Back on quads to starting point - a dozy couple kept swerving and trying to go faster so got told to get out of line & escorted back.

Good fun but not as good as quads in Turkey.

Bye for now.

Cheers
Stootz

Day 8 - 5th July - Lazy Day

Just a planned lazy day today after all the excitement of yesterday...

Plan was to relax and then get dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe later.

The day was nice just relaxing, jumping in and out of the pool, reading etc.

At some point in the morning, the phone in our room rang and Sam answered.

"Yargen?" she said in her best German / Dutch / foreign accent thinking it was the kids phoning from their room...

"er hello" came the very English and confused sounding response... "I was looking for Sam and Andy? It's Nick from Oonas dive club"

I fell about laughing as Sam tried to explain she thought it was the kids, and we have this little joke thing saying "yargen" instead of "yes"... lol

Anyway, we booked in to do a boat dive on Friday morning, so that should be awesome as we'll be going down to 18 metres, our deepest dive yet by some 4 metres (12 feet-ish for the imperial traditionalists out there).

The HRC was disappointing though... we were herded thru with none of the charm and charisma of the previous visit.

There was some event on that they seemed to want us out of the way for. Our waiter was polite but lacked the Egyptian charm we've become accustomed to. He knew a lot less English than other Egyptians we've talked to so it was difficult even to order. Not his fault at all, I don't go abroad and expect everyone to speak english, that would just be rude.

I've connected with a lot of Egyptians by learning some basic greetings and stuff like 'hi', 'thank you', 'goodbye', 'peace be upon you'... They seem to really appreciate visitors making even the smallest effort.

However the waiter didn't spoil things, we made the best of it as the food was still good.

Bye for now.

Cheers
Stootz

Day 7 - Part 7 - The Sphinx

Day - Part 7 - The Sphinx

The Sphinx is impressive for a number of reasons. It's absolutely massive which is more impressive when you understand that it's made from a single piece of rock. The rock was already there before the second pyramid was built, and instead of smashing it down, it was carved into the Sphinx. Some people think the head is too small for the body, suspecting it used to be much bigger before being re-carved in the image of a later ruling Pharaoh.

We got some more good pics and finally went back to the coach for the airport, and home to Sharm.

The ride home was much the same as the ride there. Sam managed to sleep right to the point where we hit the Tarmac, which was another rough landing so she awoke with a huge startled look on her face. I thought she'd been dozing lightly and knew we were about to land, so I felt a bit guilty for not waking her... I think she thought we were crashing... Oopsie!

Kids went to bed, we showered and grabbed a JD & Coke from our fridge before slumping off to bed too.

I'm sure I haven't done the trip justice in writing this. There aren't enough superlative words to describe the mix of feelings and emotions. It's the kind of thing you can only experience directly to truly "get" what it means.

I hope to come back one day and spend more time in Egypt and the pyramids will definitely be on top of the list again.

Bye for now!

Day 7 - Part 6 - The Pyramids

Day 7 - Part 6 - The Pyramids

So, we finally found ourselves stood next to the Pyramid of Giza and it was simply beyond words. All the noise of the buses and tourists just faded away. It was truly a wondrous sight that made you think hard about how difficult it must have been to build. The heat. The basic tools. The scale. The manpower. A truly humbling experience to stand and admire something built over 4000 years ago.

We hurried off to the second pyramid, which we'd bought the extra tickets to go inside. I think the guide said it was 1 metre wide and less than a metre high, and it felt it. I contorted myself as best I could into half my normal height, not easy for a bloke 6 feet 4 inches tall. I was still taller than Lissa though as I'm sure she didn't need to bend down at all (lol soz Liss). We had to wait for someone to come up (same way in and out) before entering.

The steep angle, impossibly low ceiling, basic steps and oppressive heat made it tough going. It did nothing for my poor knees and Connor kept bashing his head on the ceiling - at least he wouldn't damage anything in there.

After a few minutes descending, there was a brief moment of relief as we emerged into a horizontal passageway. From the times I spent down places like Wookey Hole and Cheddar Gorge as a kid on holiday with my folks, I'd come to expect underground things to be cold... In this tomb, the heat inside was almost as bad as outside. The air was stale, thick and still. The sound was surprisingly dead too, with hard reflective surfaces like rock, I expected it to be echoing, but the walls seemed to soak up our words and the scraping noises of our shuffling feet. It felt like nothing was ever meant to leave the pyramid, and it was doing it's best to ensure things stayed that way.

Continuing on we reached the bottom of some more stairs, we wondered if it was the way out and we'd missed something. I doubled over and peered up the steep, chimney like opening and saw a stream of people coming down towards us. Mostly people from our coach that got out before the toilet-gate affair had blown up in our faeces, I mean faces (lol sorry couldn't resist). We let them pass and asked them if it was worth it... Clearly for some, the pyramids weren't THEIR childhood dream... "it's alright yeah" and other non committal replies came back.

Once they cleared out we headed up and into the burial chamber. It was a tall room about the size of a small banqueting hall, with an open lidded sarcophagus at one end. At the other end was a small, rotund, overheated Egyptian man who began reeling off facts about the room we were in, none of which I heard as I was too busy being in awe of where I was. Ok so there wasn't much to see, but that wasn't the point. All the effort from the design to the build of this amazing place, was done with none of today's modern technology. It was pure skill and craftsmanship. Hard work in oppressive conditions. Time, effort and dedication to their king. Qualities that seem lost on a lot of people today...

We stayed a few more minutes before heading out the way we'd entered, down the steps, along the corridor and up the steps to the outside world again. Creepy, eerie, chilling, fantastic, amazing, otherworldly... Hard to describe the mix of feelings, but it was a relief to be out, that's for sure.

To make the best use of the remaining time, we just started snapping and filming as much as we could. We soaked up as much atmosphere as possible before heading for the coach.

I really didn't want to leave.

It might sound weird but something felt very homely about being here. Like I'd been here before and was coming home... "welcome home" as the Egyptians say... Maybe it was...

Next stop was a short drive further up the hill to see all three pyramids together. There are actually 9 pyramids in all, the three main ones and six much smaller ones arranged in two groups of three. The main Pyramid of Giza is the tallest, built for the Warrior King, Ramses II. He lived into his 90s and ruled for 60-odd of them. The next tallest was his son's tomb, only he wanted it bigger than his dads pyramid, but this is disrespectful. So he complied and built his pyramid 8 metres shorter than his dads... But on higher ground... So from our viewpoint, the second pyramid looks taller than the main one. Clever bloke.

The third (smallest) pyramid is the tomb of the guy that built Ramses II pyramid - it took him 20 years to build the Pyramid of Giza, so having his own pyramid is understandable. We got more pics and video before boarding the coach for our final stop - the Sphinx.

Final instalment in Part 7...

Bye for now!

Day 7 - Part 5 - The Locals

Day 7 - Part 5 - The Locals

Stepping off the coach, we were immediately accosted by the locals trying to sell us everything that wasn't nailed down... and another guy approached trying to sell us the nails too.

The best advice is to say a polite "no thank you" and keep walking. NEVER get into a conversation with them. It may seem rude but they all have a bit of Moses in them, being experts at parting tourists from monies.

Don't go for a camel or horse ride... They go out to the middle of the desert and then ask for huge amounts of cash to take you back again.

The other trick is to nonchalantly hand you something and say "it's free my friend" and feign walking away. If you open / use / eat the free gift suddenly it's no longer free and you are hounded for payment.

They also try to catch your attention with phrases such as "asda price" and "cheap as chips" or "very cheap only one million English pounds". If you turn your head or laugh, they home in on you like a hungry mosquito on a trail of CO2...

I don't blame them, it is still a poor country by most standards. With tourism propping up a lot of the economy in the area, it's understandable to see people making a living any way they can - at least they haven't turned to crime, though some of the crap they were selling should have been made illegal.

Mostly, if you make it clear you are not interested they will leave you alone and in good spirits. There's no need to get shirty with them.

More in Part 6...

Bye for now!

Cheers
Stootz

Day 7 - Part 4 - Nearly There

Day 7 - Part 4 - Nearly there...

Finally we were heading for the Pyramids. This was the big one. Something I'd dreamed of seeing since I was a very small boy (and I'm very tall so it was a long time ago). The pinnacle of my boyhood dreams. This whole trip was really about seeing the pyramids for me...

We rounded the corner and saw the top of the Pyramid of Giza, standing tall over the shabby houses and shops below. It's a strange thing that the pyramids are typically shown in films as being in the middle of the desert, miles from anything, when they are actually on the outskirts of Cairo.

As we neared the parking area the anticipation was building and building... Nearly there... Years of waiting for this one moment. The guide stopped the bus for the tickets and then we continued on the coach up the hill... Some explanation of how to handle the locals from our guide only heightened the nervousness I was feeling at being able to stand and touch one of the original (and only surviving) seven wonders of the ancient world... We elected to pay extra to go inside one of the pyramids to see a burial chamber... Now I was bursting to get off the coach... "ok you haz one hours frrree time to explores... Have fun !" said our guide in his Egyptian accented English. I shot up out of my seat like a fat kid with the key to a sweet shop, who'd just had his gastric band removed... I nearly jumped out of the window to get out there...

Then I heard the words every parent fears, seconds before they accomplish a childhood dream... "I need the toilet, now!". One of the kids got stomach cramps and had to go there and then, or else. I cannot name which of the twins it was, for legal and health reasons (they are so embarrassed at the thought of their mates finding out, it may end up in divorce and me waking up with a camels head in my bed).

Tick tock tick tock.

There was a toilet on board but then we got the "I can't go with everyone listening" plea.

Tick tock tick tock.

I could hear the sound of scales tipping back and forth in my head... "it's only the pyramids - your kids health is more important" weighing heavily on one side, the other said "bugger this! Childhood dream. Thousands of pounds. I could die on the plane on the way back or be trampled by a passing camel convoy - so let's go see some pointy buildings full of dead dudes, fat boy!". Sam and I stared at each other across the doubled over form of the afflicted child... The face Sam pulled confirmed that her mental guilt scales were also see-sawing with a similar dilemma.

Tick tock tick tock.

Finally they agreed to use the loo and the small queue of people had disappeared, so no more delays...

FYI - Loki was the god of mischief, not an Egyptian god so not sure why he was hanging round on our coach but he was definitely there... He played another trick on us... The last guy out of the toilet said "no bog roll left sorry!". If I could have got to him he would be camel food, and I'd use the shirt off his back as loo roll.

Tick tock, tick tock.

Despite being a god, Loki must have seen my face and thought "immortal or not, this Stootz guy is ready to get all 'dark side' on my ass and kill me with 'the force'... Time to go!"...

With his departure our luck changed, another kind traveller had a bog roll with them. The afflicted child was bundled unceremoniously into the loo with bog roll in hand... It was like a DIY mummification in a vertical sarcophagus, with toilet roll for bandages and a look of terror that an Egyptian king's servant must have had when their ruler died.

I'd brought some medicine with me so this was administered and we finally got out of the coach. Joking aside, I don't blame them at all and felt very sorry for them, it was just bad timing and bad luck... See I do care!

Bye for now!

Cheers
Stootz

Day 7 - Part 3 - Nile & HRC

Day 7 - part 3 - Nile & Hard Rock Cafe

Back in the coach a short distance to jump on a boat for a mini cruise along the Nile. It's absolutely huge and the only one in the world that flows south to north (or nouth to sorth as Lissa keeps saying). Our destination was the Hard Rock Cafe so we had high hopes of a good meal.

Our boat captain was racing another boat to get to the landing spot first, somehow the other guy got in first. Our captain wasn't impressed so there was the usual animated exchange, then he put our boat into a spin so he was hovering in the area, ready to go in when the space was free. As the docked captain backed out, the boats did and amazing dance revolving around each other just inches apart, bow to stern then port to starboard (didn't know I was such a salty sea dog eh?). It was either brilliant or lucky, but it was impressive anyway. Then we heard an almighty CRUNCH and everyone was jolted forward... Ok so they must have been lucky I thought, but then we looked behind to see a third boat had come upon us and crashed into the back of our boat. If we thought our captain was annoyed with the first guy... I thought he was going to jump on his boat and make him walk the plank on the end of a pointy sword.

Amazingly as the tirade continued, Captain Rams-a-Lot carried on heading for the dock and beat us to it! We were left circling again for a few minutes until he chugged away, then we landed and disembarked.

A short walk later and we were in the HRC. It was a buffet lunch but bizarrely there was nothing from the usual HRC menu, it was almost like eating at the hotel. Hugely disappointing!! It was included in the price so we helped ourselves making the best of it. One girl was so disgusted she ordered from the normal menu and paid extra... I wish we'd done that too. The waitress then tried to sell us a drink for £10 (drinks weren't included in the paid for element of the meal) and you could keep the Hurricane glass it was served in. I'd already got one from Rome and Sharm (earlier this week) so didn't want another. We ordered plain cokes and then heard the Brummies on the next table arguing with the staff about being charged £10 for a beer... It pays to listen and double check what they are saying to you, as they will politely sell you the shirt off your own back, and then ask for a tip, in the nicest possible way of course. :-)

Sam bought her HRC badge as she's now collecting them (she has two now - which means we have to go back to Rome just to get a HRC badge... I'm not arguing cos it's been my favourite holiday ever until we came here, now I'm split between the two!!). We went back outside for some pics of some very tall buildings so Sam could use her new wide angle lens (a birthday pressie). If you get in on the edge of a wide angle lens, you look really odd as everything is distorted a bit lol.

Back on the coach & off to The Papyrus Institute to learn how they made papyrus and used it. Fascinating stuff if you're into that sort of thing. I've always wanted a proper papyrus picture, so we bought one depicting a story of the judgement of the kings by Osiris in the afterlife. Their heart is weighed against something (sorry memory fails me) and if it's heavier, they fail the test and their heart is eaten by a weird dog like creature (possibly Set but could be totally wrong on that - and I have no internet connection to check these things). We bought another pic of the various interesting locations in Egypt & their significance, we then got one for free, but again the character name evades me. Our purchases meant we were last on the bus, which always sends Sam into a panic, but the guide was sat falling asleep in a chair in the corner of the room, as he'd only had two hours sleep the night before.

More in Part 4...

Bye for now!

Day 7 - Part 2 - Museum

Day 7 - Part 2 - Egyptian Museum

Onto the coach with our tour guide Shabib, or Shmameem or Sabeema or Savolkswagon or something like that. I tried hard but failed to get his name after many repeat attempts - he was a nice bloke too so I didn't want to offend... He told us the agenda was thus:

Museum first stop instead of the pyramids, due to cloudy conditions - the afternoon would see clearer skies and make better for the photography. It's 100LE per adult entry to mummy room - (so prob wont go in there).
Nile cruise
Hard Rock Cafe
Papyrus Institute
Pyramids & Sphinx
7.30pm flight home

We had terrible traffic due to the Egyptian President coming from / going to the airport - he lives quite close apparently. All side roads are blocked off... There are men on the roofs looking like FBI agents. They go all out for this guy.

Cairo is a built up city but we didn't expect it to look quite so run down. Between the shiny, well kept hotels and churches, there are a lot of shabby high rise dwellings. It was also overcast and smoggy, the air was thicker and harder to breathe here than in Sharm. The traffic is so bad and the constant horn blaring is a nightmare.

Some facts:
3 deserts: Western desert, Sinai desert, Sahara desert = 96% of total landmass in egypt is desert. All of the population (80m) live in 5% of all the land. Most of the people working in Sharm are originally from Cairo.

Nile is longest river in world and runs south to north (only one in the world that does).

First stop, the Museum. No cameras of any kind allowed so no pics. Excellent explanation of history of the royal families, mumification, sarcophagus, pyramids and more.

Saw the statues of the first ever pyramid builder and others for what seemed like every Egyptian that lived at that time. There were 10s of thousands of artefacts, everywhere on every wall, nook, cranny and crevice. Sometimes when you thought you were stood next to a decorative pillar, it was the leg of a 10 metre tall statue of King Tall-ifus and his wife Queen Nefer-mind.

It's so rammed full and they have thousands more artefacts never before seen, they are building another museum double the size, nearer to the pyramids. This place is huge so the new one will be jaw dropping. The guide said if you stop for two minutes at every item 24 hours a day, it would take six months to see everything.

Lots on Tutankhamen Inc his pants and flops (what some Egyptians call sandals). Saw his burial chamber containers: 3 boxes inside one another and in those, 3 sarcophagus inside one another, the innermost containing his mummified body. Stood face to face, 3 inches from his golden mask - amazing. He was a child king, ruling from the age of 9 and died suddenly & unexpectedly around 18 years old. He liked hunting a lot but his chariot overturned and he smashed his head on a rock. Two weeks later he was dead from Malaria, which is why his tomb was unfinished. It takes 70 days to mummify each body so, if someone chuffs over unexpectedly, the clock is ticking and whatever is unfinished in the tomb stays that way. I guess things start to smell pretty bad in the heat...

We went to the animal mummification room, which was bizarre and creepy. They mummified anything... Dogs, cats, birds, horses, scarabs, fish, monkeys, snakes and even crocodiles - they were all there. Creepy.

It's difficult to describe the scale of the place, you really have to go see it.

More in part 3...

Bye for now!

Day 7 - Part 1 - To Cairo!

Day 7 - Part 1- Night Bus to Cairo

Sun 4th July.

Actually it's the morning bus to the airport to get the flight to Cairo, but you get the point.

We had a short coach ride to the airport and went thru security. They seem obsessed with checking for the little Visa sticker rather than checking that the picture or details match the owner... We could have had two heads and been carrying a large ticking bomb with "I'm a bomb" written on the side, and still got thru. It's prob cos the visa costs $15 per person... Its all about the money. Anyway if you go out of Sharm you need one, apparently.

Once checked in, we went thru security again and headed for the lounge.

There are only three things in the departure lounge: a tiny cafe, a smaller shop and the toilets. We grabbed a coffee and ham/cheese croissant with coffee for breakfast, which was actually quite nice. Sam went for a ciggie (holiday smoking only she assures me) and I checked out the "shop". They sell 5 different watches, 10 brands of ciggie, 15 brands of perfume and 50 types of chocolate. For a country that regularly exceeds 40 degrees, I can't help wondering about their choice of confectionery.

Our flight has been delayed from 6.15 til 7am, not huge but it is annoying and the only one delayed... Typical!

It's 8.30 and we landed ok. Just. I may be wrong but I think this scare-o-plane was being "driven" on manual. Take-off was so steep, I suspected Captain Birk was trying to shake the loose change from our pockets into a box at the back of the plane. We often turned, braked and accelerated very sharply, which I think was his attempt to keep us all awake to take note of his excellent airmanship. We were then served a carton of Pineapple juice and a packet of Date biscuits... Now people have told me about the Egyptian sense of humour but come on! We're foreign. We're not used to the food or water. So, everything we consume is a toilet-timebomb and they serve us two things that are well known for enhancing your ability to pee out of your bottom, through the eye of Cleopatra's needle (thought I'd keep it topical). Anyway, the flight was short and as we landed (way too fast) Captain Kangaroo bounced us all the way to the terminal, just to free up the last few Egyptian sheckles from our shirt pockets, and make sure the Pineapple juice and Date biscuits had mixed properly in our stomachs to reach their full potency.

We finally got out of the airport and onto our coach.

More in Part 2...

Bye for now!

Posting problems

I seem to have found the limits of my blog posts as the entry below about the Cairo trip is severely truncated.

I'll split the entry up into several smaller posts and get them up asap.

Bye for now.

Cheers
Stootz

Day 7 - Sun 4th July - Night Bus

Day 7 - Sun 4th July - Night Bus to Cairo

Actually it's the morning bus to the airport to get the flight to Cairo, but you get the point.

We had a short coach ride to the airport and went thru security. They seem obsessed with checking for the little Visa sticker rather than checking that the picture or details match the owner... We could have had two heads and been carrying a large ticking bomb with "I'm a bomb" written on the side, and still got thru. It's prob cos the visa costs $15 per person... Its all about the money. Anyway if you go out of Sharm you need one, apparently.

Once checked in, we went thru security again and headed for the lounge.

There are only three things in the departure lounge: a tiny cafe, a smaller shop and the toilets. We grabbed a coffee and ham/cheese croissant with coffee for breakfast, which was actually quite nice. Sam went for a ciggie (holiday smoking only she assures me) and I checked out the "shop". They sell 5 different watches, 10 brands of ciggie, 15 brands of perfume and 50 types of chocolate. For a country that regularly exceeds 40 degrees, I can't help wondering about their choice of confectionery.

Our flight has been delayed from 6.15 til 7am, not huge but it is annoying and the only one delayed... Typical!

It's 8.30 and we landed ok. Just. I may be wrong but I think this scare-o-plane was being "driven" on manual. Take-off was so steep, I suspected Captain Birk was trying to shake the loose change from our pockets into a box at the back of the plane. We often turned, braked and accelerated very sharply, which I think was his attempt to keep us all awake to take note of his excellent airmanship. We were then served a carton of Pineapple juice and a packet of Date biscuits... Now people have told me about the Egyptian sense of humour but come on! We're foreign. We're not used to the food or water. So, everything we consume is a toilet-timebomb and they serve us two things that are well known for enhancing your ability to pee out of your bottom, through the eye of Cleopatra's needle (thought I'd keep it topical). Anyway, the flight was short and as we landed (way too fast) Captain Kangaroo bounced us all the way to the terminal, just to free up the last few Egyptian sheckles from our shirt pockets, and make sure the Pineapple juice and Date biscuits had mixed properly in our stomachs to reach their full potency.

We finally got out of the airport and onto our coach with Shabib, or Shmameem or Sabeema or Savolkswagon or something like that. I tried hard but failed to get his name after many repeat attempts - he was a nice bloke too so I didn't want to offend... He told us the agenda was thus:

Museum first stop instead of the pyramids, due to cloudy conditions - the afternoon would see clearer skies and make better for the photography. It's 100LE per adult entry to mummy room - (so prob wont go in there).
Nile cruise
Hard Rock Cafe
Papyrus Institute
Pyramids

Cheers
Stootz

Day 6 - Sat 3rd July - Lazy Day

Truly a lazy day... We all got up late around 11am and did nothing but hang by the pool and read.

We're saving ourselves for tomorrows big day... The trip to Cairo to see the Pyramids, cruise down the Nile and eat lunch in the Hard Rock Cafe... CAN'T WAIT!!

We have to be up and in the lobby by 4.30am for the flight, so we need an early night, but I'm not sure how well we will all sleep given we've done nothing all day, and slept for 10 hours...

We're getting showered & changed for dinner but things should be quite uneventful tonight.

Later tonight we are picking up the DVD of yesterdays boat trip to Ras Mohammed - should be funny and only cost a few English pounds.

It's 4.46am on Sunday morning and thought I'd add an update to yesterdays uneventful day...

We went for dinner as planned, it was busier than previous days as we now have to queue to get in, but it's only a 5 min wait.

We were part way thru when a family came in and "mum" was obviously dressing up for the occasion. She was a bit undertall for her weight with a face that looked like a bulldog, chewing a wasp, licking pee off a nettle... Despite her age, she desperately was trying to cling onto her youth, however she only hung onto her dress sense, or lack of it... Would have been fine if she was going to an 80s disco somewhere in Essex.

So, she sits with her family waiting to go up to the buffet when Sam turns to me and says "oh my God that womans nipple is hanging out... She saw me looking and put it back in!". So for the next 10 mins or so this was the topic of conversation between us, in-between casting furtive glances to see if said nipple was trying to escape again. At one point she lent forward and I swear both were out like they were hunting for water in a desert. About 10 mins later she got up to get food and as she walked past, one was out again... I though no one can be that insensitive, and sure enough she wasn't, she just happened to have a nipple shaped sunburn in just the wrong place after all!!!

Also, Sam wanted the same attention I was getting from the waiters because I was giving tips. So we found a 20LE note (worth around £3 prob less) and we waited until the waiter appeared. She hesitated and he was gone so waited for the next chance... This time she almost gave him the note but was just too embarrassed lol. Eventually she handed him the note like a right shy person - but it was a really good tip so she needn't have been so shy. Bless she does try that's why I love her!

Bye for now!

Cheers
Stootz

Day 5 - Friday 2nd July

Boat Trip - Ras Mohammed

Today was all about a boat trip to Ras Mohammed, a protected parkland covering the Southern most tip of the Sinai Peninsula and an area of the surrounding water too. This is because the coral is so important to the balance of life and takes so long to grow, it has to be guarded.

We managed to squeeze in breakfast before we jumped on the coach to the harbour. Despite getting up at 7am for the coach, we didn't get to the boat until about 10am due to other pickups.

We boarded the (boat name 3) and headed off down the coast. We made three stops for guided snorkelling tours of the shallow lying coral with lunch provided between the 2nd and 3rd sessions.

The first session was a mixture of utter chaos and the coolest thing I've ever seen... The crew urged us out into the sea once kitted up (we were using fins, snorkel and mask on each session) which we all did as instructed (not that we needed it as our BSAC training had taught us how to fit things properly). One of the guides was already in the water with a buoy and line tied off on the boat, which we were supposed to gather around... However most people were inexperienced, and as their kit was hired and not checked individually for fitting, there were a lot of people understandably panicking when their masks leaked. People made a grab for the line and clung on whilst trying to refit masks and snorkels.

I'm no expert with my fins but I know to stop kicking if I hit something... Other people didn't quite have that basic level of common sense and so there was much kicking in snorkels, so to speak.

Incidentally, flippers as everyone else called them, are what Dolphins have according to the diving community - who incidentally get all bent out of shape and beer fines start pouring in your lap... So, if you want to annoy a diver, call his fins flippers, then stand on the end of them and push him backwards... Priceless lol.

Anyway, once we distanced ourselves from the crowd a little, things got more pleasant and relaxed. We saw so many fish it's hard to remember them all... Parrot fish, anemone fish, glass fish, angel fish, wrasse, butterfly fish of various kinds.

We moved around a coral wall for quite a while before heading back... We noticed the smaller fish moving a bit quicker, followed by some bigger fish that were moving pretty fast too. Then from the depths, we saw them... Three shapes, bigger than anything we'd seen so far, easily as big as humans and gliding effortlessly along and up the coral wall... Three sharks moving so gracefully it suddenly sank home how unsuited to the water humans are, and why sharks haven't changed in evolutionary terms, for a few million years. With a barely detectable flick of their tails, they sailed underneath us, along the wall and beyond the reach of our underwater visibility.

The people that realised got excited, told others in the same area, some of who eagerly tried to find them, others panicked and headed off for the boat. Of course we stayed were rewarded with a return viewing as they doubled back along the same route and off into the distance. It was the most breathtaking thing I've ever seen and hopefully I captured some on camera.

Back on the boat we chatted about what we saw but all felt a bit sea sick due to swallowing the water and the sea getting a lot choppier. The others got to sleep but I didn't have enough room so tried to keep watching the horizon... When we finally reached our needy stop I wasn't convinced I wanted to go in as I felt so sick but I thought I'd notice the swell less if I was in it.. Sam thought the same so we both went back in but the twins stayed on board, as did a lot of other green looking people. Their loss was our profit as with less people it was easier to move around and not get hit in the snorkels. The water here was shallower, warmer and calmer too so we now had the best of everything. We saw just about the same stuff and some other new fish like the trumpet fish (3 together) and a 4 foot long eel of some kind snaking it's way along the bottom thru the coral.

Back on the boat and off again to the final stop... The boats here try to clump together when "parked" to allow people to swim. It looks odd when there's so much space all around them... And the Arabic language is hard to understand as well as interpret... The boat captains often had animated, shouty and angry looking discussions whilst parking up next to each other, but then broke into laughter at the same time. It's hard to know when they are actually annoyed with each other!!

Our captain looked a bit of a veteran so allowed a slightly smaller boat thru when it was trying to push in ahead of us. The smaller boat reversed in and promptly crashed into the boat next to it, as the bumpers on each boat were at different heights and the bigger boat had an upper level that completed cleared the smaller boats bumpers... Oopsie!

Our captain left them to it and moored up a little way up the coast. Food was served - fairly basic rice, potatoes, fish, pitta bread and kebab type beef but at this point we were starving so enjoyed the lot.

We all decided to go in for the final session which was more of the same amazing stuff but I spotted a box fish which is a crazy looking fish... It literally looks like someone has taken a normal fish and stuffed a small square box skeleton inside it... The result is a permanently surprised look, with pursed lips, on this cute little box shaped fish, with hugely undersized, teeny tiny fins flapping manically LOL.

The last thing worthy of a mention was some kind of manta ray that just barely came into our visible range before scooting off along the bottom. It was small but definitely a ray!

Then it was back to the boat, to harbour and on to the coach for home. All in all, it was a great day out, one of the best boat trips we've been on in all our trips abroad.

The evening was a lazy night where we just chilled in the hotel area, grabbed dinner and interrupted a game of cards and a PSP quiz game, with a number of cold beers. I've tipped a lot in the first few days and it pays off as we get drinks brought to our table before others and even before we've ordered them lol.

By about 11pm everyone was tired so the twins headed to bed as did we. Sam was tired so just read for a while before getting to sleep, but I went out on the balcony. Across the central pool area I saw a giant projection screen, showing Ghana vs Uruguay in the world cup quarter finals. The screen was blowing about a bit and quite small to the naked eye, so I grabbed my new video camera (bought at the airport) and zoomed in 20x magnification and it was perfect! I saw the handball & sending off of the Uruguayan player... The Ghanian striker missing the penalty, and finally, Ghana missing their penalties allowing Uruguay to go thru... What a shame...

Bye for now!

Day 4 - Thu 1st July

Day 4 - Thu 1st July

First Dive with Oonas Dive Club - we got picked as planned around 7.45 and whisked down the road to the dive clubhouse.

I think we were both a little nervous for ourselves, Sam for the twins and me more for myself as I'm never sure if I can breathe properly. If I get anxious, it's worse so I have try to ensure everything goes right. Everything was ok although it took some time as our dive leader, Anne, is French, and we misunderstood one or two things. She was extremely patient and helpful - she deserved a medal!! We finally got kitted up and unfortunately had to walk a few hundred yards, thru the beach dwellers, to get to the sea, including our cylinders & weights in 30 deg C heat. The cool (!) 26 deg C of the water was very welcome. We knelt in the shallow waters, slightly sinking our knees into the sand, before donning our fins & heading to the buoyancy checkpoint. This is simply a quick check to see if you need more weights to stop you floating at the surface... You need to be neutrally buoyant, as the wet suits and saltiness of the water make you more buoyant. Both Sam and I had a couple of kg added to our BCDs by Anne, from a conveniently pre-sunk weight belt on the sea floor. We then descended gently to begin our dive.

Here are the details from my Dive Logbook:

Max depth: 14.3m
Dive time: 45 minutes
Water temp: 26 deg C
Time down: 9.15am

Amazing dive - our first in the Red Sea! Borrowed a mask that didn't leak at all, so that made things perfect overall. Shallow water entry. Saw fish immediately but not sure which ones! Buoyancy checks ok after extra weights added to my BCD pockets. Gradual descent swimming over and around lots of coral. Saw Parrot fish, lion fish, box fish, pyramid fish?, coral fish, & more that I don't know lol. Glided across underwater grass the size of a football pitch. Both of us managed a somersault but missed each other doing it. Few ear probs but nothing serious. Finally met up with lissa an Connor & their instructor for a photo op & deco stop for about 1 minute. Excellent dive.

**** end of log book entry ****

So I beat my max depth by 1m and dive time by about 20 mins... Not that I'm counting lol. I have a dive logged as 37 mins, but it was actually 2 shorter dives of under 20 minutes each, it's just the way the computer logged them.

Jon told us about the perceived arrogance of the Lion Fish... And he wasn't wrong. They are magnificent looking fish about the size of a persons head including all their spiky mane display. They are poisonous so not really prey to many things, if anything, in the sea, so they tend not to swim off if you approach them - hence the arrogance label. Other fish are curious and swim an inch past your mask, probably like excited and hungry puppies, but the lion fish has that sort of pet cat arrogance... If you call it, it ignores you, walks away and shows you its butt. If you give it some fuss, it allows you to fuss him, he's not grateful, he thinks you should be! It's like a "royal" with his subjects... That's kind of the lion fish's attitude. I did actually feel very grateful to see some, think we saw 4 in all in various places.

My other new favourite was the Trumpet Fish... Talk about looking like you're from another planet. It's like someone took a normal fish, got a rolling pin and rolled the thing out to three times it's normal length, but without the squishy bits in the middle coming out or the eyes popping like bubble wrap. It looks very odd and permanently startled, and always made me smile wen I saw it which makes your mask leak!

The photo we got with the four of us is brilliant but on another camera so can't upload it yet.

Back on dry land, we grabbed some lunch in the associated bar: burgers, chips & pizza type stuff, and talked about doing another dive later the same day. Everyone was keen but tired, so after a long discussion, we all agreed we were too tired, today had been great anyway so let's not spoil it and do too much.

Afterwards we talked with Nick about a boat dive to a max of 18m and the twins will go to 12m to be safe. Unfortunately we couldn't remember the days we'd booked excursions for, so we had to leave it til we knew the dates so we could book.

Oonas is such a nice dive club, full of really helpful people. Anne, our dive leader, said we could leave our kit to save us lugging stuff back and forth. She gave us crates with our names on, so we stowed our BCDs, regs, wet suits and a few other bits n pieces. We kept our masks & snorkels & fins in case we needed them for other trips.

They got one of the drivers to take us back to our hotel and we all crashed out for a few hours. Diving can be so tiring. I think we only had the energy to eat dinner, play cards and then get to bed, but it was an awesome day.

Bye for now.

Cheers
Stootz

Day 3 - Wed 30th

Day 3 - Wed 30th - Trips n Dips

10am met Mohammed (our rep we didn't know we had) in the lobby to look into some trips.

He'd put a leaflet in our door that listed the excursions available, most of which we wanted to do. Being the modernistic people we are, we always spend some time researching the location and potential trips, by looking at other peoples holiday reports on sites like TripAdvisor.com, and the sites of the local companies. So we were fairly clued up as to what we wanted to do and how much it would all cost.

Just before our turn came up with him, another guy jumped in front to ask some questions, he was ready to book his trips and pay the full asking price in the brochure... however Mohammed told him to wait his turn behind us. The guy sloped off and sat a few tables away to wait.

So we sat and talked for quite a while about the trips, and then started the haggling process when he gave us the price. There's no way I was paying full asking price for anything lol!!!

We were interested in quite a few trips that would net him a good days earnings, so I knew I had room to manoeuvre. After a lot of (friendly) haggling we got about 10% off everything, though he had to make some calls and convince some other people to let him do it.

So we booked the following trips:

- Friday 2nd July - Ras Mohammed Boat Trip Inc 3 guided snorkelling dives
- Sun 4th July - The Pyramids & Nile Cruise (fly to Cairo at 4.30am!!!)
- Tue 6th July - quad bikes in the desert (a favourite trip after doing the same in Turkey)
- Wed 7th July - Bedouin Nights & Stargazing (lots of good reviews & hopefully a more authentic side to the Egyptian way of life.

In-between that lot we also need to fit in some diving trips with Oonas Dive Club. They've been recommended to us thru our diving instructor Jon Drinkwater. Our plan is to go there later this evening, meet up with Nick and Corin and discuss what we can do in terms of diving trips - with the twins not qualified we need to make sure they don't get out of their depth...lol

So back to our rep... I went off to get some cash while Sam and Mohammed worked out how much we'd pay in each currency ( we used up some Euros and the rest on a bank card but worked out in US dollars cos the exchange rate is better - complicated it was).

When I returned, Mohammed told me I had driven a hard bargain ( I didn't feel bad because if they couldn't afford it they wouldn't sell it to you - they just walk away). Apparently, the guy that tried to push in ahead of us had come back to Mohammed, changing his mind about paying the brochure price after seeing me haggle him down! I was quite proud of myself lol.

We paid up but only after I pointed out Mohammed had counted the cash incorrectly, going over by 100 Euros. For a second I thought I'd say nothing and then worried that he might lose a hand for such a big mistake, and we might get chased thru the airport... again... Another story for another time from a trip to Fuerteventura... Anyway now Mohammed owes me :-)

We spent the rest of the day around the pool until about 4pm, then got ready to go to find the Oonas Dive Club. We'd been told it was best to catch the instructors when they were returning from their dives, later in the day.

We got a taxi, which we haggled on for a better price and got dropped off outside the dive centre by Aslef our driver. We spoke to Nick and Corin and booked a dive for us all out the next day, Thu 1st July.

We decided to walk along the beach for a while and then cut back to dry land and found a road snaking it's way between the beach and back of the hotels and restaurants. It lead us to what we think was the centre of Naama Bay.

I ended up whipping out the iPhone to get a map up & our GPS position & search for the Hard Rock Cafe. We found our way there in the next 5 minutes and just escaped the locals trying to harass us into their shops.

We had a great time, as always, in the HRC, got some souvenir glasses and badge before calling our taxi ride home to bed.

Bye for now!

Day 2 - Tue 29th - Evening

Tired tonight... Didn't do much other try out the evening meal in the All Inc restaurant and then head off to Soho square.

It's quite a nice place, not much hassle and full of weird statues!

We found a duty free shop and bars / restaurants etc but were too tired to enjoy so we walked home and got to bed.

Bye for now!

Cheers
Stootz

Day 2 - Tue 29th - Blown Away

So after breakfast, we all felt so tired we headed off for a sleep... Most of us didn't get much kip on the plane so we all felt better afterwards.

With our "just do it" motto, we headed out for the sister hotel Sunrise Island View, which selfishly hogs the beach from our hotel. First we had to get some beach passes & drinks vouchers as our all inclusive status doesn't carry to all parts of the other hotel. Next, we had to find the shuttle bus and hop on for the slightly longer than short journey to the "View". It's not that far but in this heat its just too much to walk... Along the way we saw some bizarre sights.. A traditional egyptian camel & his rider sat crossed legged at the roadside, but he was texting intently on his mobile phone... Weird.

We headed straight for Soho Square, the purpose built shopping area for the tourists, before turning off into our destination.

We headed down the steep steps to the beach and saw a number of jettys stretching out from shoreline. A lot of the coast has coral growing very close to the shoreline, so the jettys are plastic floating squares pieced together out over the coral into the open, deeper part of the sea. They basically keep the tourists away from the coral and destroying it. They even have coral police over here that will fine people that break the coral whether it's intentional or by accident.

As soon as we started down the jetty we were amazed at the fish we could see in the shallow water... It was probably only 5 or 6 inches deep.

By the time we got to the jetty platform, it was like we were floating above an aquarium with hundreds of multi-coloured fish in it. We were blown away. Sam jumped in first, thereby winning our annual competition of "I'm gonna be first in the sea on holiday" (she often cheats to win it by saying "hold my bag" while she runs to the sea lol). Lissa went in quickly afterwards and Connor eventually gig in after his usual shenanigans of "I'm jumping in / I can't / I'm jumping in / I can't", which can last up 20 minutes...

I was watching the bags whilst everyone else swam around, so I just got me kit off and got in... It's hard to describe in words, so I'll use a story Sam tells me often.

When she was a kid, her folks had an aquarium full of tropical fish. She'd press her face to the glass pretending that she was in the tank with the fish... Something I think a lot of kids have done at one time or another!

Anyway, this is just like that only better and for real - truly mind blowing stuff when u see it for the first time.

I'll post some pics when I can.

Bye for now!

Breakfast

After the morning dip we checked out the breakfast, which some people have complained about but we couldn't understand why - it was superb! Lots of choice, decent coffee and cool room to sit in.

Only downer is the bacon is all made of beef cos they don't allow pork of any kind... It's a bit weird but it's quite tasty.

Bye for now!

Cheers
Stootz

Taxi & The Hotel

Doing this retrospectively as it's been a helluva long day... It's 23.45 on Tuesday 29th and here's some updates.

After landing, our first taste of Egypt was confusion over the Visa system. I spoke with one of the flight stewards who said you don't need them so save yourself the $15 per person... Unless you want to go out of Sharm, say to visit the pyramids, then u do need one each. So we got in line, bought the visas and trotted thru security, not really knowing if we had bought the right thing, or whether we actually needed them!

Our first encounter with the Egyptian sense of humour (good we've been told) was an old guy checking passports... He took them all and sang some weird song whilst checking them. As he finished each one he pretended to hand it back to Connor and then whipped it away at the last minute... Leaving u with your hand out looking a right pillock. All in good humour though...

Sam sorted us a taxi at the airport after some haggling with the locals, I hate not being prepared for such situations (I would have booked in advance but paid more), so Sam's northern side came out and sorted it.

The driver haggled us to 150LE which is less than £15 so we agreed, loaded the bags and got on our way. The sun was coming up by now and gave us a gorgeous view...

Our driver was a comedian too and enjoyed telling us how he had only been driving for 3 months and ONLY had 8 accidents in that short time. This was while we pulled into the path of some oncoming minibus...

He joked about the football too...

"four one" he said laughing and apologising....

"not funny" I replied tersely trying to keep my best stiff upper lip in place & wondering if I could short change his tip ("baksheesh" is the local term for tip, and they are not shy in asking for it).

The hotel was very quiet, we were the only ones checking in, but the place was fully booked the desk clerk told us. Despite this they gave us two great rooms with pool views and situated near the restaurants and main concourse. We took the upstairs room & the twins got the downstairs one, both have fridges, air con, comfy single beds and decent bathroom with shower. Basic but functional.

Sam wanted to jump in the pool (bear in mind it was 6.45am local time... 4.45am back home) so of course we dumped the bags, got changed, told the twins and then jumped in... I thought everything would be warmer here including the pools, given it's supposed to hit 40+degrees... Lets just say it was refreshing, actually nice after the long journey from Sunbury.

So we were feeling pretty pleased so far: no delays, roomy plane, cheap transfer to the hotel and good rooms. Things are looking good!

Next on the agenda was breakfast... More on that soon.

Final approach...

We're in the final approach to Sharm airport & the flight has been brilliant! Being a BA flight I hoped the quality would be better than the usual Thompson or First Choice cattle class rides, and we weren't disappointed.

Just getting things packed away as we have about 20 mins to land. Sam is nervous again but she has every right to be as most planes crash on take off or landing lol

It's 4.30 am here and the pilot just said it's expected to get to somewhere in the low 40 degrees - can't wait!

Hoping I will be first in the sea as it's a regular family competition, but fingers crossed it's not via the plane ditching in the Red Sea lol.

Ears are popping now.

Next part of the adventure is to negotiate a local taxi to the hotel, barter the driver down to a bag of nuts for his fare & hope we don't get the wrong currency & pay £100 for a £5 taxi ride :-/

Oddly it's dark & I thought it would be light at this time of day over here...