May 2008
10 posts
Cairo, redux
My last night in Cairo was spent at an expat party celebrating the birthday of Liza, one of Cairo’s most famous belly dancers, courtesy of Ahmed, general manager of the Hilton Giza, who sat next to me on the flight from Sharm the night before. It was a tremendous experience. Liza lives on the 22nd floor of a building along the Nile in Garden City, just south of the Four Seasons. Her views...
Dahab
Last day in Dahab spent snorkeling pristine reefs, one right outside our hotel, the other a 10 min walk away. Saw an incredible variety and amount of fish, including an enormous moray eel and a couple of lion fish, and what looked like a puffer fish? Dahab is still undeveloped enough that the reef is in good shape, but I saw a bunch of tourists walking on the reef (Russians, said the guy at the...
Ascent of Mt. Sinai
From Dahab, the drive to St. Catherine’s (the monastery at the base of .t. Sinai, home to Moses’ burning bush) takes about 2 hours. We set out at midnight, stopping briefly to pick up our tourist police escort, Walid, who rode shotgun with a semi-automatic 9mm machine gun strapped to his back under his suit jacket. I slept most of the way, trying desperately to compensate for the sleep...
Hurghada and Sinai
It has been an absolute marathon trip from Luxor to Dahab, a mellow little beach resort on the Sinai peninsula about two hours by car from Sharm el-Sheikh. We started monday evening at Luxor on a bus to Hurghada, a beach resort on the Red Sea. The bus was gloriously empty and air conditioned when we boarded - neither of which condition lasted. About two hours in the driver switched off the a/c,...
