This morning, like always, we woke up, had breakfast, and met our tour guide in the lobby. We set out down the coast, keeping close to the Red Sea for quite a while.
We passed some beautiful coves, and several large hotels right on the beach, but the thing that was most plentiful was mike upon mile of little villages of identical huts or small buildings. Wadi told us that these were all owned by the Bedouin, and that they were camping sort of places for people who didn't want to spend a lot of money, mostly Israeli students on holiday. They're basically a room with a mattress or two inside, with a bathroom shared between all the huts. There may be a central dining room.
We then turned in and started through the mountains. Rather suddenly, it turned to desert with just some mountains sticking out of it.
We traveled through the desert for a while. We saw lots of Jeeps doing desert tours. During one of the wars between Israel and Egypt, Israel had gotten to this point in the desert, but had then left, leaving some of their trucks behind. The desert people have decided to use them for various purposes. One had a giant Smiley face painted on it, and was pulled up on a rock ledge to be used a sign for a camel pit stop.
After a couple of hours, we were at St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai. It's the oldest working monastery in the world. We took a little mini bus up the hill, and Wadi told us about the monastery. When. We got in, we looked at the church and the plant they claim is the burning bush. When they took cuttings of it and tried to plant it elsewhere, it wouldn't grow, so it must be magic.
We then climbed up the rocks in front of it for a way and got some pictures. The kids really wanted to ride a camel, so they took a camel ride down the hill, while the rest of us walked. The entire time - from the time we stepped out of the van until we got back I. The van (well, not inside the monastery itself, but any time we were outside the walls) there were people trying to sell us stuff. I bought a small book, but that's it. But even when I held up the exact same thing they were trying to sell me, and told them I all already had it, they still tried to sell me another one! Grr.
On the way back, we stopped at a Bedouin hut for some tea. We sat on pillows on the ground outside, while the man served us tea.
It was some herb tea, which was really vile, but I drank it anyway. There is a big sand dune behind the hut, and we climbed up it. Mom couldn't do it because of her knees, but the rest of us did.
Of course, they had things there for us to buy, but they weren't pushy, so I didn't object to buying from them. I bought a necklace, and Em got a wooden camel. It was a lovely, relaxing time.
Then it was off to Sharm El Sheik, our destination for the night. When we got there, Jeff was really upset, because he had booked a tour with 5 star accommodations for Egypt, and our hotel was definitely not 5 star. It looked like it used to be a really nice hotel, but had gotten very run down. Mom's doorknob came off in her hand, and she couldn't get out of her room. She had to slide her key under the door to me, and I had to open it from the outside. Our room was covered in dead flowers. It looked like they had blown in, and had never been swept up.
There was a small incident when we checked in. They wanted to see our passports, of course, which is fine. They said they would copy them and bring them back. So, I waited for a few minutes, and then they looked like they were done with us. I asked for my passport. They said they would copy it and get it back to me in about an hour. I said that no, I wasn't leaving the passport. They got annoyed, but they copied it and gave it back right away.
We got there at about 3, and the was a shuttle to the beach at 3:30, so we quickly got the kids changed and got on the shuttle. Jeff and Shirley went, too. According to the bus schedule, there was supposed to be a 4:30 shuttle back, so we would have some time to get changed for the 5:30 shuttle to the shopping area with the Hard Rock, Naama Bay. Once we got to the beach, though, we were informed that the shuttle back wasn't until 5. The driver said we'd have enough time to get back, so we decided to stay at the beach.
We sat on the provided chairs, and Jeff and Shirley went for a walk along the beach. It was lovely. The weather was perfect for me, though a bit cool for the kids in the water. It took Steven a while to get into playing, but once he did, he had fun. Em got in right away and then was freezing, so she got out, leaving Steven behind.
Jeff and Shirley came back and told us that a bit along the beach, there was a place to see fish in the water. We went down to where they had indicated, and saw like 3 or 4 lionfish in the water. Yikes! It was cool, though.
We all walked back up to the road to meet our shuttle. Every single cab that came by pulled over to ask if we needed a ride. We moved back away from the road, but still they stopped! The shuttle finally came and took us back to the hotel. We ran up to our rooms, the kids got changed, and we got on the other shuttle. It took quite a while to get to the shopping center for two reasons. One, the driver kept dropping people off in spots not on the schedule. I think they were his friends, and he was using the hotel shuttle as a personal taxi. The second is that the Sharm streets are very strange. Almost all of them are divided by a median, and there's nowhere to turn around. Our hotel was on the left side, and we had to drive a good half a mile to turn around, every time we went to the hotel.
We didn't know where in Naama Bay the Hard Rock was located, and it turns out it's very large. It isn't an organized shopping area with a map or anything, it's just a bunch of streets. We wandered for a bit, and were accosted by people selling things everywhere. You can't ask anybody for help, they'll want money. Em and I got pulled into one guy's store - literally. Mom and Steven hadn't seen us leave, and they got pulled I somewhere else. We finally got back together and found the restaurant. We had dinner included at the hotel, so we just had milkshakes. We went to the Rock Shop, and we all got some presents.
We started heading back toward the shuttle. When we got there, we discovered that it was only 7, and the shuttle wasn't getting there until 8. Crap. We didn't want to go back through the hasslers, so we went to the other side of the street, where it looked quieter. There wasn't really anything to see over there, but we walked though a little grocery store. We went back over to the other side, and hung out in the Ramada parking lot. It was the only place we could be without getting yelled at to buy things or have a cab pull over and yell at us.
We got back to the hotel and headed in to dinner. It was OK. The onion soup was good, but I didn't like the rest of it. Then back to the room. Jeff and Shirley were in the room next to us, and we could hear them struggling to get in to their room. For some reason, we had a connecting room with them, while Mom and Steve were on the there side of us, no connecting door. Dunno. Then, the karaoke started. There was one guy who sang every Neil Diamond song known to man, and he was actually pretty good. There was a girl who sang a very diverse selection, but sucked at every one.
Emma says - I occasionally enjoy cameling. That means having 4 separate camel objects that I love very much. I like camels quite a bit. I loved the Bedouin house. It was great. The tea was so good and I loved the sand, and it wasn't too hot or too cold, and it was relaxing, and I got another camel there. The Hard Rock was SO GOOD! It was absolutely delicious. We decided that what we had qualified as a milkshake because the straw stood up in them, unlike what we have gotten other places, which is just shaken milk. Lao Lao got me drumsticks, a little bag, and two pins!
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