Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

Friday April 2nd
After everyone agreed to getting up at 6 am (on vacation!) to travel by a "modern air-conditioned vehicle"  across the desert, we finally made it to Sharm el Sheikh (hereby referred to as Sharm) about 7 1/2 hours later.  Although it was a lot of the same thing - desert - it was still cool to see the Egyptian terrain and coast.  It was only supposed to be a 6 hour trip, but with "tea" breaks (disguised as bathroom breaks by our drivers) and the fact that every time we crossed into a new area/city we had to go through a checkpoint,  it took an additional 1 1/2 hours.  The checkpoints were interesting -  we would pull up to them, then our driver would give the Egyptian police guy a piece of paper, then in turn the police man would give him something back, and then we would be waved on by the man carrying the machine guy and on our way to the next checkpoint.

We couldn't quite figure out what the whole process was for (and our drivers didn't speak English), so we couldn't ask them what was going on.  Our tour guide in Sharm, Diaa, explained it to me later though.  He said that when traveling in Egypt you have to ask the Egyptian government for permission to go from point A to point B the day before you plan on traveling.  Then they give you a piece of paper that says you have permission to travel this area, where you are headed, and the nationalities of the people in the car.  This is what they were handing out the window.  I'm not 100% sure what the police man handed us back and I don't want to speculate here - especially since we didn't always get something back - very strange. 

One of the most interesting things was that each checkpoint had several men with machine guns (one would be standing behind an armored 4 foot shield), a guy holding a string that was attached to a device to pop tires (think the checkout area of a rental car place) that he could pull across the street at any time, and a supervisor that was usually doing nothing but drinking tea (they LOVE their tea!).  I'm guessing that Egypt has a low unemployment rate because the government employees everybody! (These check points kind of reminded me of the DOT - one person works - five other stand around to see what he is doing - not that the U.S. has a low unemployement rate) :)!  Sorry for the long description, but we never got a good picture of this process - I was scared to take a picture of the men with the guns! 

Now onto the good part - Sharm!

We arrived at our all-inclusive hotel, the Kiroseiz Three Corners Resort, around 2 - just in time to layout in the sun and start taking advantage of the "free" drinks!  The Kiroseiz was okay - I would give it about a 3 star (but I am judging on American standards, so maybe that isn't fair?)  My confidence about the cleanliness of the room was shaken a bit when I noticed that they refilled the shampoo and conditioner bottles (I think they were several years old) and there were splattered mosquito guts on the walls, but fortunately the sheets and towels were clean so I could deal with the other things.  The bartenders had to be "worn down" as the boys put it before we started getting good service, the pool was nice, the 2 beaches were pretty (you had to take a bus to them as the hotel wasn't directly on the beach), and the buffet food was extensive and what I expected for an all inclusive.  They did have a couple al a carte restaurants - we ate at the Indian one and it was amazing!!  All in all - good value for our money and I can't really complain.

Here at last!

(This picture was actually taken the day we left at 5:30 am which is why no one is here - it was actually really busy!)

The first night we ate at the Indian Restaurant, Bukhara -(I know Indian food in Egypt - but it was some of the best I have ever had)!  We received a lot of attention from the wait staff because there weren't a lot of people eating in this restaurant (you had to pay here so most people chose the "free" buffet).  This proved to be a lot of fun when they showed me how to cook naan (indian bread) by sticking MY hand into a 350 degree celsius (662 degrees F) traditional indian "oven".  I didn't burn myself (thank goodness) and my naan was exceptional if I have to say so myself:)! 

Dinner is served!

How do you make that delicious bread? Oh you stick your hand in this really hot oven?  Sure, I'll try.

After a bit of psyching myself up - I did it!  It doesn't seem like that big of a deal from the pics, but that mother was HOT!

Enjoying my culinary skills with the staff!:)

We ended the night at the Casino - I mean I am traveling with Nathan - hello!:)  The casino took all our money except for Nathan's - go figure! 

Saturday April 3rd

On Saturday morning, Josh, Nathan and I headed out to dive Shark and Yoland Reef in the Red Sea - 1 of the Top 10 places to dive in the World!  We used Colona Divers - who I highly recommend.  They were a smaller dive outfit - which I like because I'm not a big fan of overcrowded dive/snorkeling boats!

Josh recently bought a waterproof casing for his point and shoot and here are some of the pics he took underwater (of course Nathan now wants the same casing:)):

The port where we were checked for bombs, herded like cattle, then let on our boat.

Josh took this picture of me - I thought it was pretty cool shot!

very cool tiger fish

Not sure what this thing was, but it was running into us (it hit me on the back of the head a couple times) then it was using us as a shield to hide from and then attack smaller fish!

Underwater Group Shot - gotta have one of those!

Moray eel - ewww

After we got back, we all headed to dinner at the restaurant at the Coral Beach - not one of my favorites and I don't recommend it - stick to the buffet at the main resort!  We ventured down to the water after dinner and got on the floating dock, which we were then summed off of with bright fog lights and horns - good times!:)  But we liked what we saw, and decided to come back to this beach on Sunday. 

Sunday April 4th - Easter Sunday
It was a little strange to wake up in a Muslim country on Easter Sunday and them have Easter decorations all over the place - but I guess you have to play to your audience - right?  We enjoyed a nice Easter breakfast and headed off to the Coral Beach.

The Coral Beach was even prettier during the day.  We quickly figured out why it was called this when we ventured back down to the end of the floating dock and saw all the coral and marine life right there!  At the very end of the dock it made a straight drop off right into the very deep sea (which is why they were blowing the horn at us to get off it at night I guess!).

We were laying out - right on the sea!  And there is the infamous dock - don't fall off!

A little later in the day we rented a boat and snorkeling gear and headed to some pretty amazing reefs.  I love vacation!:)

"Jimmy" rented us the boat.  Thanks Jimmy!

"never thought i'd be on a boat" - I can hear T-pain now!:)

You go Yosh - drive that boat!  But seriously - can you do a better job than that other guy - I'm soaked!

Then finally onto one of my favorite parts of the trip - the Bedouin Dinner and Camel ride.  We all LOVED this part of the trip - and I highly (highly!) recommend doing this!  We loved our guide, Diaa, and we got a government appointed body guard (yes a body guard) so we felt like celebrities - I mean we already had Josh as our paparazzi!

Right when we got to the Bedouin camp we got on our camels.  Here are a bunch of our pictures because I love them so much!

Waiting for our camels...

aaaah - there they are!

We made it up without falling off - yessssssssssss!

Then Sara almost got eaten by my camel - priceless shot!:)

Okay - I think we are all ready - yalla beina!

I love this picture- thank you Paparazzi Yosh!

This was our scenery - not too shabby!

AEKDB - whatever that means:)

This was our tour guide Diaa - ask for him if you got to Sharm with Memphis Tours!

In the middle of the ride we saw this guy "playing" with two cobras -unbelievable!  We all said we wanted to see a snake charmer and this was close enough!

Then we saw this yahoo plaing with the cobras.

Are you kidding me?  Don't look away!

Oh you were just waiting for the perfect time to lean over, grab them, and...

PICK THEM UP!  Oh okay - carry on then!  Cheers!

Finally getting off the camel is the tricky part - they said LEAN back - you've got to make sure not to fall off!

I really hope I don't look stupid doing this:)

Phew - made it!

Then we hiked up to the top of this dirt "mountain" to watch the sunset in the desert!  Again wow.  Breathtaking!

Then they served us a traditional Bedouin dinner including their amazing tea - I've got to get my hands on some of that - soooooooo good!

This time we all got to help make naan - even Flat Stanley!

Finally, we headed to another area of the camp where we watched more belly dancing and whirling deverishes and smoked hookah (they call it shisha) - a water pipe filled with flavored tobacco - I swear it was just tobacco - swear!  We had a lot of fun with this - you would think we had never seen one of these "contraptions" before:)!

It's hookah time!

What do I do with this thing?

Here - I'll show you

Puff, Puff, GIVE - dude!

Will I still be able to run for office if this picture hits the internet?

Just kicked back smokin' some hookah - true, true

This was one of my favorite parts of the trip - just chillin' in the desert!  Great end to our time in Sharm!

We did end up going to the Na'ama Bay and the "Old Market" on the way home to try and buy some souvenirs.  It was just like a market in a poor country - dirty with lots of people trying to convince you to come into their shop - "great deal just for you".  We didn't stay very long though because Monday brought another car trip to Jordan!

But that's a story for another day!:)

Bye, bye Sharm - we'll miss you!

p.s. - Here is a link to the rest of our Sharm pics.

Istanbul and Cairo

Warning: The next couple of posts are going to be long!:)  If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you know that I am already long winded, but trying to write about everything we did in Egypt and Jordan - well, it's gonna take a couple pages!:)

Wednesday, March 31st
On March 31st we headed to Cairo (via Istanbul) for our 8 day Middle Eastern Vacation!  It all started on the train back from Colmar, France when Sarah, Zann, Nathan and I were discussing places we wanted to visit.  Egypt was the first placed discussed and we were all like - Let's Do It!  A bunch of planning emails, phone calls and dinners later we were booked!  I seriously couldn't believe it happened!  Yeah for living in Europe and the flight not being expensive or long to Egypt!  (It defnitely helped with my case of let's go NOW while we live in Switzerland!)

Once the trip was official, I put "Tickets to Egypt are booked " as my status on Facebook.  Sarah and Josh Teitelman saw it and asked to join the party!  After a bunch of yes we are coming, no we can't come, yes we want to, no we can't do the same itinerary, we finally get a "we are booked" from them - thank goodness!  I love it when a plan comes together - and thank you Facebook - you are a great thing:)!

The best priced flight we could get gave us a 5 1/2 hour lay over in Istanbul, Turkey.  We weren't pysched about that, but it was way better than paying the $500 extra per ticket to fly straight to Cairo.  The night before we left Zann had the brilliant idea to post "What to do in Istanbul on a 5 hour layover" on TripAdvisor and everyone said to go to the Sultanahmet District.  Way better idea than hanging out at the airport don't you think? Absolutely!

We actually ran into The Teitelmans in Istanbul (they had missed their connection), so they ended up on the same flight to Cairo with us.  Problem was - a bunch of people from their flight out of London missed their connections so they had to hang out at the airport to wait on their official boarding passes while we headed into the city.:(  Totally sucked but at least they made it on the flight with us.

To get into Turkey you have to have a Visa, so we headed to the Visa counter, paid the $20 bucks and were on our merry way (yes it was that easy).  We were advised to be back 2 hours before our flight which didn't give us much time, but still didn't deter us!

Everyone on TripAdvisor had suggested taking a cab, but my cheap wonderful husband was adamant about taking public transportation.  In hindsight, this was a wonderful idea - the traffic we saw from the tram was really bad and the Istanbul public transportation system was very nice and easy to use (but do remember to take out Turkish Lira before heading to the metro)!  The public transportation officials spoke great English and helped us get our tickets (fyi - it takes two coins to get there and two coins to get back) and told us where to switch to the tram.  Great first impression of Turkey!  (Just in case anyone wants to do this, take the train from the airport to Zeytinburnu then switch to the tram and get off at the Sultanahmet stop - it takes about 45 minutes). 

From what we saw, Istanbul was a very clean city and was even named the European Capital of Culture for 2010.  I would love to spend a weekend there to see all the sites (especially the Grand Bazaar:)) and eat some doner kebabs (I can't believe we didn't do this - I LOVE doner kebabs and to have one in Turkey?  be still my heart!). 

In our (very) short time we were able to see the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, and just walk around and soak in the atmosphere for a bit.  We probably had enough time to see the bazaar, but we decided that actually making our flight to Egypt was a better idea!  (I also can't believe we missed the Hippodrome because I think it was right there where we were.  We didn't plan very well for Istanbul as we just thought about going into the city the night before!)  It was still a cool experience though and as Nathan and I count countries we visit - we got to "check off" Turkey!:)

The Blue Mosque

So you know Nathan's humor with the camera - he thought this was hilarious -

the Turkish version of Duke Power:)

After landing in Cairo, we all needed to buy our Visas to get into Egypt (we could have done this in our own country but we were all too lazy). This is also pretty easy to do but the line was kind of long  (because everyone else on our flight had to do the same thing).  The Visa cost $20 and they took Egyptian pounds, Euros, and Dollars (no credit cards so make sure to have cash)- funny enough we ended up paying in dollars!  Not sure where they even came from considering we all live in Europe:)!

Once we got our luggage we had bad news - Sarah and Josh's bag didn't arrive.:(  This was a major cluster because the same thing happened with everyone else from the original London flight.  I swear Egypt Air acting like nothing like this had ever happened before and major chaos ensued.  Really?  Can't you just check the computers - they had their bag tags?  About 1 hour and 45 minutes later they were told that their bags would "probably" arrive tomorrow.  Awesome - thanks for the vote of confidence guys.

We had heard that a driver was imperative in Cairo and that a tour guide would be nice.  Memphis Tours was rated #1 on TripAdvisor, so we decided to book our entire trip with them before we arrived.  We have never participated in a planned trip (as in - every hour is planned for you), but I will have to say it was nice in Egypt.  The cool thing about Memphis Tours was that we were able to "make up" our own itinerary and it was just going to be the 6 of us the whole time (no big bus of tourists - thank God!).  It was so great to not have to worry about anything once we got there, because all the "work" had been done prior to our arrival.  Nice change for once - no stress at all!

Although there were a few blips, we were very impressed with Memphis Tours and would highly recommend using them when heading to Egypt & Jordan.  Our drivers were safe and all our guides were very friendly and knowledgeable!  I have no idea how they do all the coordination for hundreds of people per day, but all in all it was way more smooth than I ever thought it could be - worth every penny in my book - for sure!

Our first guide - Hamada - who waited for almost 2 hours while holding this sign - and look he's still smiling!

Memphis booked all our hotels and we stayed at the Barcelo Hotel near the pyramids while in Cairo (it took about 1 hour to get there from the airport).  I thought the hotel was nice and clean (I would recommend it to you) and it was in a great location to start our tour of the Pyramids on Thursday morning.  Note: the traffic in Cairo is insane so it was great to already be near the pyramids!

The night we arrived in Cairo the boys set out to find money and drinks and to attempt crossing the street.  They ran into a police man that told them there was an ATM at the end of a dark alley (one of the only shady things that happened the whole trip and thank goodness they weren't dumb enough to find out if this was true), then an Egyptian street peddler left his ice cream stand to walk them to a "grocery store" - so nice!  They also crossed the street (twice) which was a major feat, because it was a free for all - with 4 actual lanes but 8 rows of cars mixed in with people and donkeys - definitely an experience!  And they didn't have street lights or stop signs  (only U-turns) so the traffic never actually stopped!

Night Cap at the Barcelo!

Thursday, April 1st
Thursday morning we met our guide, Mido, around 10 am and headed to the Great Pyramids of Cheops, Chephren, and Mykerinus.  (Cheops being the biggest and the "Great Wonder of the World").

Were those there last night?:)

  View of the pyramids from our car (about 5 - 10 mins from our hotel). I'm not sure what I was envisioning - but I didn't expect them to "pop up right there" considering we were in the city on a very busy street!

Mido was a very good and knowledgable tour guide who although was patient also kept saying "Yalla beina" translated from arabic to english as "Let's Go - quickly".  This soon became our favorite word as we were always "yalla beina"ing!:)   Mido also told us up front that he would never remember all of our names so he nicknamed us "Ramses" after Egypt's most powerful and celebrated pharoah - Ramses II.  So we heard a lot of "Yalla beina Ramses.  Yalla beina" all day!:)

Posing like the Egyptian Pharoahs and Queens - Mido made us do it - seriously!

You feel really small when standing next to the Great Pyramid!

See what I mean - tiny?!

The Great Pyramid is actually the one to the far left - it just looks smaller from where we were standing.

Me "picking up" the pyramid - you HAVE to take the cheesy tourist pictures - right?:)

I just thought this was a cool shot looking off into Cairo but yikes the smog is bad!

We decided to go into the Chephren Pyramid as they only give out so many tickets to the Cheops pyramid and we were too late.  Not that there is anything to see inside the pyramids (everything had either been stolen or taken to a museum) but you can't go all the way to Egypt, stand in front of the pyramids, and not go in - right?  However, if you are clastrophobic, I vote that you think twice about going into the pyramids.  The walk way into the pyramid is only 3 feet high, so you are bent over the whole way in and the whole way out.  We were forbidden to take pictures (they even confiscated cameras on the way in), but somehow Sara's point and shoot made it!  So here we are at the pharoah's crypt - you can see this room had higher ceilings than the walk way - so it was a nice break from being hunched over, but it was about 15 degrees hotter and a lot more humid than the outside so no one stayed for very long:)!

The Pharoah's crypt

Then it was on to the Sphinx and the Valley Temple.  The Sphinx was truly amazing to see in person - it is said to be the oldest known monumental sculpture having been started around 2555 B.C.!  The whole time we were in Cairo I kept thinking about how intelligent the ancient Egyptians were and what they accomplished so long ago - it is almost unfathomable!  Wow!

Great shot of the entire Sphinx - thanks Josh!

It took this photo while standing out in front of the Sphinx - if you look closely you can see that the red awning in the middle fo the photo is a Pizza Hut! I definitetly wasn't expect that!:)

In between the pyramids and the museum we saw how Papyrus paper is made (and I had to buy a souvenir - of course), ate the best Chicken Swarma I have ever had, and saw the city streets.

You know if I was this focused during the demonstration... 

 I was definitely going to buy one!  We got the "Tree of Life" and I can't wait to frame it for our house!

It was really sad to see how some of the Egyptian people live today.  We were amazed at how many apartment building were started and never finished, but yet people still lived in them - including on top of the top level that was completed with blankets/tents.  Cairo is a very polluted city - not surprising since we didn't see one public trash can they whole time we were there!  That coupled with the fact that almost 7 million people live in 83. sq feet (plus tourists) it isn't surprising there is trash literally everywhere.

These buildings aren't really "under construction" they are basically done - at least that is what we were told - it is common for builders to run out of money so that is how the building will remain until more funding is available (which might be never).

I do like how everyone has Satelite TV though:)

Excuse me - can I park my donkey here?

Can you see the trash every where?  Very sad.

We ended our tour with a trip to the Egyptian Museum.  The highlight was King Tut's tomb collection, but we also really enjoyed the mummified cobra - we aren't that hard to please!:)  Again no photos were allowed so you are going to have to go for yourself!:)

Entrance to the Egyptian Museum

After a little siesta at the hotel we were picked up for our Nile Cruise - you know how I love to be on a boat!  The food was actually pretty good for a buffet (the hummus to die for), but the highlight was most definitely - the belly dancer and whirling dervish dance!  They were the best we saw while in Egypt!  We all recommend this Nile Cruise company - Nile Crystal.

"Mr. William, you have a phone call."

Cruising down the Nile - baby!

Belly Dancing (or just shaking it) on the Nile!

Whirlish Dervish!  This guy was amazing!

Put your hands up -  Put your hands up!

Finally after an exciting/exhausting day we headed up to bed.  And by we, I mean Sara T and I.  The rest of the clan waited up for the Teitelman's suitcase to arrive.   How much trouble could they get into without our supervision for a few hours- not that much right?  Wrong.  All I am going to say is that there was a bar - with alcohol - unattended.  And when you are not being waited on by the staff - what are you supposed to do? 

I'm not sure what happened between here and...

Here.  And I don't think I want to know for fear of imprisonment!:)
FYI - so they don't get into trouble (not sure if you can joke about this kind of stuff when in a Muslim country) - a waiter eventually came, and they told him exactly what they had poured.  And, that is their story and they are sticking to it!

Next up - Sharm el Sheikh!

p.s. - Here's a link to the rest of our pics from Istanbul and Cairo.