Best Western Marina Wadi El Dome Resort Suez

... discovered a KFC bag in her underwater expedition near the boating dock.




Pool that had a sign banning nannies from swimming

The fun in the sun ended when we piled in van back to Alex. On the drive back home we encountered a toy pistol totin' walad (little boy) and his younger brother situated in the back of a pick-up truck with the family goats. The boys first smiled ...

We apparently headed into the Suez Canal at 1am today but we were fast asleep. When we woke at 5am it was light and we had gone a fair way through the canal. They form a convoy with so many ships and they all head south (or north) until they get to the Great Bitter Lake, where they anchor until the convoy going either way has finished its transit, then they start the second part of the journey through the canal until they get to Suez, where they all go their separate ways ...

... years. The canal was nationalized by the Egyptian Government in 1956 and after a military action by Israel, France and Great Britain; it was allowed to stay in Egypt's control but was to be opened to all commerce. Today we entered the Suez Canal as the 19th member of a 27 ship convoy transiting north on the canal. We will make the 101 mile journey in eight plus hours as we proceed north toward our next stop in Port Said. Halfway thru the canal, we ...

... stationed on both sides of the canal. On the west side is the Sinai Desert but there were towns every now and again on the east side. The east side was very green but only because the land is irrigated and there appeared to be a lot of paddy fields. Whilst it was interesting it was not as spectacular as the Panama Canal.

... looking for the upscale hotels, we tried the Hilton but were too big for their underground parking. Finally we found the 5 star Conrad hotel which had a touring bus parking and after asking special permission from the tourism police we were allowed to stay...... As we could not afford a second night we planned to do the Egyptian Museum in the morning and see the pyramids on our way out of town and stay the night in Suez. The museum was within walking distance and we spend the ...

... searched fruitlessly for an internet spot but didn't find it though others did. Our search took us to a very nice hotel, the Helnon. We didn't succeed in connecting to their wi-fi, but it was nice to be in such a large room after the cramped quarters of the Clipper. That evening Nonny, the Dutch woman who teaches dancing on board, said she had picked up a book at random and started reading it. The ...

... a few hours earlier today as we sat by the canal itself watching massive walls of seagoing steal floating by. When we'd had enough of guessing what part of the world the next ship was from, and enough of the curious stares from the never-before-seen-a-westerner locals sharing the canal bank with us, we went back to the Suez bus station for the bus, the one we're presently sitting on, south to Dahab in the desolate and arid Sinai Peninsula. We have only been on ...

... garden and dates. A young boy wanted us to take his picture down in the well they were also very proud of, and we happily obliged. After a cup of tea, we were on our way with smiles and well wishes. Our next stop would be the Suez canal. There was a reststop just before the canal where we stopped to look at the ships lining up to pass through the canal. This was our only chance to do this because our driver ...

... but I stopped after one part I saw when an actress head-butted this guy who was picking on her. That sent me into a fit of giggles which were quickly stifled when a bunch of men nearby all turned around to stare at me, including the soldier who was now sitting half in the aisle for a better view and was thus unnervingly close to invading my personal space. I pulled up my hood, hunched down in my seat, closed my eyes and had evil thoughts about doing some head-butting of my own. There was ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>We had to depart at 8am so it came as absolutely no surprise that our pre-arranged breakfast failed to materialise, and I left Dahab feeling slightly disgruntled. This seemed to match the mood of the some of the Bedouin kids who descended upon our mini-van when we stopped to look at a couple of desert oases, who had no interest in being given some of our ...