Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

The first question I get when I tell someone that we vacationed in Egypt is, "How were the pyramids?"  Not to disappoint, but we didn't go to Cairo or Luxor or the Nile.  We were in search of sun and decided to go to the southern most tip of the Sinai Penninsula to a resort town called Sharm el Sheikh.  It is like Mexico and the Carribbean for Europeans and Russians.  Yes, Russians.  75% of our hotel was Russian and by the end of the week we could pick them out without even hearing them speak, but I won't go into that... It amazed us that the Egyptians spoke numerous languages, fluently: English, Russian, German, French, etc.  When asked where we were from, if we responded Holland, they would start talking to us in Dutch.  Then we would calrify and say America and their response was, "You are the first American I have ever seen!"  One worker went as far as to say that Allie and Tessa were the first Americans to travel to Sharm el Sheikh...I hope we made a good impression...


We stayed at a resort that had beautiful palm trees, flowering shrubs, wonderful pools and a few slides that Tessa couldn't go down enough!   It was on the beach as well and the water was beautiful!  Snorkeling was highly discouraged due to several shark attacks the month before, so, not wanting to be a statistic, we just observed from the piers.  We did go on a boat/submarine ride that allowed us to see some beautiful fish and coral reefs.  On our bus ride there, we passed numerous men sitting in tiny guard towers or shacks guarding what seemed to be sand and more sand.  They looked offical though, with uniforms and guns.  We decided not to stop and ask what they were guarding...

The highlight for all of us was an evening camel ride in the Sinai Desert. We took a 20 min. bus ride to a bedoin village where our camels and guides were wating for us. It was an awesome sight as we arrived and saw 100 or so camels and their owners on the sand. Our family was told to go with our 'guide' who was, no lie, about 4 years old. He led us to our camels and 2 other guides who were thankfully older; at least 5 or 6. As soon as we got on our camels and they stood up, Tessa got put with some other ppl and we didn't see her until the end. At first I was a bit worried that she'd freak out, but she later told me that she liked being up ahead of us. I guess that's after so many years of having to 'follow' everyone in the family...Camels are, to say the least, a wee bit uncomfortable. Maybe that's why you often times see bedouin ppl walking alongside their camels...45 minutes was plenty, and discovered that the recovery time from a camel ride is about 4 days...

Our 'guide' is in the red...

The views of the Sinai Desert were breathtaking. It is very mountainous and of course, dry. The only vegetation is an occasional acacia tree, which can survive up to 6 years without any water. On our drive into the mountains we passed a few small bedouin villages that had a dozen or so tiny houses built out of brick and a few sheep; very poor conditions. We passed a brand new looking school that remains almost empty because the parents want their kids to help earn money and they don't want their children to learn about life outside the bedouin lifestyle and be tempted leave.

Another one of our 'guides'

 After the camel ride we hiked up a small incline to catch gorgeous views of the sunset.  Then we were served tea by some bedouin men and learned the art of making bedouin bread; basically a chewy tortilla that is cooked on metal bowl over a fire.  The girls helped to make the bread by rolling it out.  A bit like making pizza dough, as Allie said.  Ahhh, except we are in the Sinai Desert, recoving from a camel ride, getting instruction from bedouin men, and cooking over an open fire.  Oh, and they are out of pepperoni...