Monday, June 9, 2003 (Sharm El-Sheikh - Egypt)


The luxury of laying in till four in the morning. Looking after us till the last. Friendly foreigners and strength in numbers.

Day 89. The horrifically early start to the day was nearly as bad as when we went to Abu Simbel last week. We had to get up at three o’clock in the morning then so by comparison, our four a.m. wake-up call this morning meant that we had a bit of a lay in.

Ehab was still doing everything he could to make us comfortable, even now. Last night, he apparently arranged, and paid for, the taxi driver that was already waiting for us outside of the hotel lobby. When we got into the taxi, he then gave us a bag with some water, soft drinks and a bag of chips – for the journey. It was a sad farewell at the dockside but we all did our best to put on a stiff upper lip. We left him with the promise that we would see each other again if and when we returned to Egypt. I really wanted it to be true but the fact of the matter is that we have no idea whether or not we will come back here or whether we will see our good friend again.

At the dockside, we met a couple of travelling Australians and, inevitably, struck up a conversation with them. They are very nice people and we sat with each other during the bumpy ride across the Red Sea to Sharm. The catamaran took just over an hour to complete the distance and we all had to have our baggage scanned on both ends, strangely enough.

Our new Australian friends from Melbourne will likely be our companions for a few days, it seems. We shared a taxi ride into town and we will probably stay in the same hotel for the duration. They are also going to Petra and Wadi-Rum in Jordan so we may even stay with them longer. Thanks to some ruthless yet brilliant negotiations on my part, we eventually decided on the hotel in which we now sit comfortably for a mere E£115 per night. The Australian woman was a little embarrassed by my haggling tactics but ultimately thanked me for negotiating what is an extremely good rate for the very nice rooms we secured in this very nice hotel. There is a nice pool just a couple of yards from our room.

Posted: Mon - June 9, 2003 at 08:31 AM        

©