After rinsing off the salt water - I had to check out, and was trying to leave my bag at the reception when a friend of the hotel guy came over and offered me a ride with his friends on a glass-bottomed boat. It was amazing. Gorgeous corals, beautiful fish, blue water, and a nice breeze.
I had gotten to know the host and his friend pretty well, and I didn't really feel like paying for a ride to the train station, so I agreed to go see old Sharm by night. Also, my train wasn't leaving until 3am, so it worked out. We went and toured the markets, saw some beautiful waterfalls, visited a shisha place, etc. It was nice to get out of the tourist area for a bit. However, there are pros and cons. At the restaurant, they wanted to treat a lady right, so they hosed down (literally) the bathroom so that I could use it. As I was leaving, I noticed the wall only went 3/4 of the way up, and above it, was a gorgeous clear view of the Sinai mountains. :)
The bus was good - comfortable - and of course with some funny experiences. ex: there was an adorable little 2 year old ahead of me who would not stop crying. His parents popped him up over the seat and he stopped crying, and started looking at me googly like I was an alien.... All in all, the bus ride was about 7 or 8 hours... putting me in Cairo about 8 hours before I had planned to be there because I couldn't find a guide and so couldn't climb Sinai. C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?
I was dropped at the side of the road in Cairo. Those of you who have seen Italy or Morocco with me? Nothing compared to Cairo. Finally, I found a nice couple who spoke some English and could point me in the right direction. Eventually, I found the metro, rode it to my stop... and realized that I needed to call my host, but was in a smaller part of town (think suburb) where public phones are harder to find. One of the controls at the metro came over to help me though, and eventually my ride came to meet me.
In the meantime, I got to people-watch for a while. Everyone is very excited to meet an American... especially one who knows a solid 5 words in Arabic. :) The general mode of transportation here is the microbus which is basically a 15 person taxi that leaves once it is full - or overfull. Sometimes, they have no doors, so you'll see people just standing on the running boards holding on. These cost on average 12 U.S. cents per ride... or maybe 40 cents if you have to go to the other side of town. Also, the people are incredibly friendly. Some have other motives, but for the most part, everyone wants to practice their English, help me, or get to know what's going on. It's been quite overwhelming due to the size of the city, the slight language barrier, the heat (ha), and the very different culture... BUT, it has been wonderful. :)
The thing I'm having the hardest thing getting used to? There aren't many public trash bins, and I can't for the life of me just throw my stuff on the ground (They have people who come and sweep it up and take it away every day) so I may or may not have a bag full of trash that I'm just waiting to find a place for. Silly American.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
September 25 - Sharm-El-Sheikh: I'm sweaty.... but lovin' it.
I've landed in Egypt, and boy, is it hot in the middle of the day. It's already 100 degrees (and I just found where I'm going next is going to be about 110).
Getting here was interesting enough. We landed, I bought my visa at the airport (it's a very pretty sticker), and proceeded on to try to find my luggage. Somehow, my sleepsack managed to disappear during the flight. Strange. Everything went fine except that in my hurry to avoid the attention of the border patrol, I forgot to get some cash.
Enter: mini-adventure. :) I asked a security guard where I could get cash, and apparently there is no place once you've left arrivals, but he hooked me up with a taxi driver. The driver SAID he knew where my hotel was, but turns out... he didn't. That just meant I got an awesome tour of Sharm while we looked for a cash machine (One we stopped at - the bank owner told me it was empty and to go elsewhere) and the hotel. Eventually, after 3 or 4 security crossing and a few phone calls, we made it.
As it turns out, I got a really sweeet deal. I payed 18 euro instead of 50, and so I didn't expect a private room with fancy towels, and a gorgeous balcony... with rooftop terrace, private restaurant, catered breakfast - you get the idea. It's pretty cushy here. It's kind of funny though to see goofy old (OLD) British guys walking around in Speedos though... "where can I play crick-ket?"
I was pretty exhausted so I just took a quick walk around to see all of the live music and Sufi dancing before hitting the hay for the night. This morning, I took the opportunity to go wading in the sea. It is so clear that I can see all of the beautiful rainbow fish just swimming around my feet. It was unbelievable! Like, surreal. Nemo's alive! (And so am I!)
Getting here was interesting enough. We landed, I bought my visa at the airport (it's a very pretty sticker), and proceeded on to try to find my luggage. Somehow, my sleepsack managed to disappear during the flight. Strange. Everything went fine except that in my hurry to avoid the attention of the border patrol, I forgot to get some cash.
Enter: mini-adventure. :) I asked a security guard where I could get cash, and apparently there is no place once you've left arrivals, but he hooked me up with a taxi driver. The driver SAID he knew where my hotel was, but turns out... he didn't. That just meant I got an awesome tour of Sharm while we looked for a cash machine (One we stopped at - the bank owner told me it was empty and to go elsewhere) and the hotel. Eventually, after 3 or 4 security crossing and a few phone calls, we made it.
As it turns out, I got a really sweeet deal. I payed 18 euro instead of 50, and so I didn't expect a private room with fancy towels, and a gorgeous balcony... with rooftop terrace, private restaurant, catered breakfast - you get the idea. It's pretty cushy here. It's kind of funny though to see goofy old (OLD) British guys walking around in Speedos though... "where can I play crick-ket?"
I was pretty exhausted so I just took a quick walk around to see all of the live music and Sufi dancing before hitting the hay for the night. This morning, I took the opportunity to go wading in the sea. It is so clear that I can see all of the beautiful rainbow fish just swimming around my feet. It was unbelievable! Like, surreal. Nemo's alive! (And so am I!)
Friday, September 24, 2010
Truckin' along...
So, after 7 hours on a bus, 5 hours in Chicago, 1 hour on a train, 3 hours waiting, 8 hours by plane, 1 hour waiting, and finally 1 hour by bus, I'm just now waiting to board my flight to Egypt.
Those of you who have read the blog or travelled with me before will understand when I say this trip is off to a good start. To begin, it was pouring on Wednesday night when I went to catch the bus. People had warned me about the people on the megabus (they weren't that bad), but nobody warned me that the emergency latch would break on my window. Keep in mind that essentially all the walls on these buses are window. Every time we'd drive by a semi or anything else that created the slightest bit of a wind tunnel, my window wall would fly open... you know... for easy escape or something. This is when I knew for sure this would be a good trip. :) They couldn't fix it, so about halfway through (in order to keep the kid in front of me from falling from a second story window, I sortof figured out a way to keep it shut most of the time.
We arrived early in Chicago, but thank God for bakeries. I found one that opened its doors at 6, and sat down for a couple hours to wait for the sun to rise and plan a few last details. Then it was off for a nap in the sun at Millenium park before catching the L out to the airport.
The rest went pretty smoothly, until this morning when we landed pretty early in London. I did a little begging and the driver of my transfer bus was nice enough to let me on without paying to change my ticket, so I'm a happy camper. :) England, outside of downtown London, is beauuutiful. Rolling hills, mossy roofs on adorable brick buildings and streams all over the place. I may just have to consider coming back here sometime, but now - Off to Egypt!
Those of you who have read the blog or travelled with me before will understand when I say this trip is off to a good start. To begin, it was pouring on Wednesday night when I went to catch the bus. People had warned me about the people on the megabus (they weren't that bad), but nobody warned me that the emergency latch would break on my window. Keep in mind that essentially all the walls on these buses are window. Every time we'd drive by a semi or anything else that created the slightest bit of a wind tunnel, my window wall would fly open... you know... for easy escape or something. This is when I knew for sure this would be a good trip. :) They couldn't fix it, so about halfway through (in order to keep the kid in front of me from falling from a second story window, I sortof figured out a way to keep it shut most of the time.
We arrived early in Chicago, but thank God for bakeries. I found one that opened its doors at 6, and sat down for a couple hours to wait for the sun to rise and plan a few last details. Then it was off for a nap in the sun at Millenium park before catching the L out to the airport.
The rest went pretty smoothly, until this morning when we landed pretty early in London. I did a little begging and the driver of my transfer bus was nice enough to let me on without paying to change my ticket, so I'm a happy camper. :) England, outside of downtown London, is beauuutiful. Rolling hills, mossy roofs on adorable brick buildings and streams all over the place. I may just have to consider coming back here sometime, but now - Off to Egypt!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Once in a lifetime?
So, life has taken another U-Turn, and I'm about to be on the road (tracks, water, air) again. I'll be leaving on Wednesday, September 22 for a tour of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel for a few weeks. Yes, I am aware that some unpleasant things have been happening in that area since I bought my tickets, but I'll do my best to be safe! I am pretty excited to see the "Holy Land", practice some language, and hopefully make some new friends along the way.
I know that I somehow managed to miss blogging all of Turkey on my last trip, but hopefully I can do better on this one! If any of you have any suggestions, recommendations, warnings, must-sees, etc., PLEASE feel free to share them. There's a lot that I have yet to learn!
I know that I somehow managed to miss blogging all of Turkey on my last trip, but hopefully I can do better on this one! If any of you have any suggestions, recommendations, warnings, must-sees, etc., PLEASE feel free to share them. There's a lot that I have yet to learn!
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