Monday, May 6th
We arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt this morning at 8am. Sharm, as the locals call it, is located on the southern tip of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on the Red Sea. Sharm's major industry is tourism. This is a beautiful resort city with very nice beaches, hotels, resorts, restaurants (including many US restaurant chains, like Fridays, Chilis, Hard Rock Cafe, and the fast food joints also), casinos, street cafes, and shopping. People like to come here for the beaches, snorkeling, diving, and other water sports. I took the shuttle into town today around 11am for an hour. It did not seem that hot but the sun was very intense. When I got back to the ship I saw the temperature was 97F. The humidity is very low here so it seemed quite nice to me. Anyway, back in 2005 the resort was hit by terrorist attacks carried out by an extremist Islamist organization against Egypt's tourist industry. 88 people were killed and over 200 wounded, most of them Egyptian, by the attacks, making it the deadliest in the country's history.
After working out this morning I ran into town for an hour on the ship's shuttle bus. I wanted to check out the place, try to find a camera shop, and buy a scarf for Rebecca. Indeed it is a lovely place with nice resorts and 5 star US hotels. Full of shops, restaurants, and tourist related stores. IT SEEMED ALMOST LIKE A GHOST TOWN. Construction projects have come to a halt. There were very few people on the streets and the shops were mostly empty. As our guide told us on bus trip up to Luxor, tourism is about dead in Egypt. One Egyptian guy on the street ask me where I was from. I told him, the USA. He says to me, "Why don't Americans come here now?" I told him, they were scared to come. Another young man ask me what I was looking for so I told him I was looking for a camera shop. He led me to one but they want $50 for a lens cover (which they did not even have). Another guy had told me to go to Radio Shack so I told they guy I wanted to go there. Again he led me to it. Well, next to it was a Cannon camera shop. I got a lens cover and cover to keep the sun off my lens when shooting in direction of the sun for total of $50. My credit card would not run but had just got a cash advance on ship before leaving it. I also bought Rebecca a white scarf to cover her head when visiting religious sites in Israel. The guy wanted $6 but I ended up paying $3 for it. So I had a successful shopping trip!
We sailed from Sharm El-Sheikh at 2pm and are presently in the Gulf of Suez. Tomorrow morning we will be entering the Suez Canal. The transit of the canal will take 10 hours. I would have liked to have spent more time in Sharm as it is a really nice place. Hopefully, the Egyptian government will get their "stuff" together soon and it will again be safe enough for tourism to flourish.
At lunch time we ran into Brad & Toni who were also on our 2010 world cruise. It was really special to see Toni as she was fighting cancer at MD Anderson in Houston not long after the world cruise. They just boarded in Safaga and will be on the ship all the way to Copenhagen. Tonight we are have dinner with Rose and Bill from Washington DC. They are huge Cowboys fans though. They are on the full cruise with us now and were also on our 2010 world cruise. Guess we will be talking about the Cowboy's draft picks tonight.
Sailing into Sharm El-Sheikh this morning.
Know you needed a mosque fix.
Street cafes and restaurants with shops behind them.
Below are some dinner photos from several nights.
Roland and Donna from Vancouver
"Skinny", an assistant waiter in center and Mario, waiter on right. Skinny brings our room service most of the time. Mario was waiter on our world cruise also.
Dinner last night in Prime 7. It was Bert and Lani's anniversary dinner (seated to my left). Other guy standing is Harvey and his wife Joan is seated on right side of photo. Ray, our cruise director, is seated to Joan's right. We had a great time.
After dinner we went to the show. A Polish mezzo-soprano singer, Agata Sava, was excellent. She sang mostly opera songs. We enjoyed it. Felt sorry for her as there were not many people in the audience due to long tours that day.
https://goo.gl/photos/BjQMQPdaus6r1CPz7
https://goo.gl/photos/aftmnheKqpg14NXP7
After working out this morning I ran into town for an hour on the ship's shuttle bus. I wanted to check out the place, try to find a camera shop, and buy a scarf for Rebecca. Indeed it is a lovely place with nice resorts and 5 star US hotels. Full of shops, restaurants, and tourist related stores. IT SEEMED ALMOST LIKE A GHOST TOWN. Construction projects have come to a halt. There were very few people on the streets and the shops were mostly empty. As our guide told us on bus trip up to Luxor, tourism is about dead in Egypt. One Egyptian guy on the street ask me where I was from. I told him, the USA. He says to me, "Why don't Americans come here now?" I told him, they were scared to come. Another young man ask me what I was looking for so I told him I was looking for a camera shop. He led me to one but they want $50 for a lens cover (which they did not even have). Another guy had told me to go to Radio Shack so I told they guy I wanted to go there. Again he led me to it. Well, next to it was a Cannon camera shop. I got a lens cover and cover to keep the sun off my lens when shooting in direction of the sun for total of $50. My credit card would not run but had just got a cash advance on ship before leaving it. I also bought Rebecca a white scarf to cover her head when visiting religious sites in Israel. The guy wanted $6 but I ended up paying $3 for it. So I had a successful shopping trip!
We sailed from Sharm El-Sheikh at 2pm and are presently in the Gulf of Suez. Tomorrow morning we will be entering the Suez Canal. The transit of the canal will take 10 hours. I would have liked to have spent more time in Sharm as it is a really nice place. Hopefully, the Egyptian government will get their "stuff" together soon and it will again be safe enough for tourism to flourish.
At lunch time we ran into Brad & Toni who were also on our 2010 world cruise. It was really special to see Toni as she was fighting cancer at MD Anderson in Houston not long after the world cruise. They just boarded in Safaga and will be on the ship all the way to Copenhagen. Tonight we are have dinner with Rose and Bill from Washington DC. They are huge Cowboys fans though. They are on the full cruise with us now and were also on our 2010 world cruise. Guess we will be talking about the Cowboy's draft picks tonight.
Where I bought my lens cover.
Below are some dinner photos from several nights.
https://goo.gl/photos/BjQMQPdaus6r1CPz7
https://goo.gl/photos/aftmnheKqpg14NXP7
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