Miami Beach Resort Dahab

... affect your breathing and that could have been the cause of her breathing problems during the dive. Hopefully that is all it was.

Tonight our tour company organised dinner for us in the Bedouin tent near the beach. As we needed to leave for Mt Sinai at 11pm there was little point going into town. Dinner was a great selection of local foods but as we had a long night ahead of us we decided to eat quickly then got in a couple of hours sleep before leaving for Sinai.

... Want to swim? Pay to pass through the gates to the beach, and earn the right to wash down after the rolly-polly-floaty affair.

The water is pleasantly warm, and innocuous enough except for a mild iodene nose, until you reach around navel level.

Then the magic of chemistry begins to take over, and you feel lighter on your feet than you should.

Warning signs everywhere strongly advise against diving, and even lying on your stomach in the water.

Lean back, and ...

... When I woke, I took a walk around the small SCUBA town of Dahab to check out some of the activities to do there and to just admire the view of the beautiful Red Sea (I could see Saudi Arabia just across the water). We got a price quote on SCUBA diving and ATVs in the desert (being with my Sudanese friend Romani didn’t hurt) and decided we could afford doing both on the trip. That night, at roughly 4 pm, the group I was with, which included Sarah ...

... saying, we reached the top at 4am, I immediately bought a hot tea as it was pretty chilly up there, and COdy and I cuddled until the sun came up. It was beautiful.

There was a mass up on the mountain aswell with 4 different priests, each one spoke a different language. I am not a religious person, but I think anyone can appreciate the beauty of any kind of ceremony high up on a mountain top. It was special. Cody got a few really nice shots of it. We got several shots ...

... propositioned by a German, which made my night oh-so-much better, as you can imagine - he's lucky I didn't deck him too, trying to take advantage of a vulnerable and upset girl). My friends came out after a little while and after I told them what happened, the guys seemed pretty upset that I didn't go find them right away so they could help teach the guy a lesson for me. The girls just seemed impressed. I was in a pretty bad mood for the rest of ...

... me it was probably a case of nod and smile. Well, what an experience the drive was! 120km in a 60 zone, no road rules, cars racing each other, beeping madly, almost crashing into each other, noone bothers about lines on the road..It was like something out of a play station game and dodgem cars. Hysterically funny in an odd way, but I didn't feel like my life was in danger (lucky we had seat ...

... are truly a sight to see. They can easily be overwhelming, mind you hard to capture in a photograph. They don't really do anything just sit there, like they have for the last 4000 years. Amazing as they are now they truly would have been a sight in the day.

The only problem with the sight of the pyramids, apart from the ever encroaching city, are the touts and the people trying to get you on a camel. After a while of constant harassing Dino had had enough. As soon as ...

... a Visa for $15. So I get the Visa and go back to make sure I have enough time and he tells me no not that guy the other guy in the booth next to him (no way he was there 5 minutes ago but no problem). So I go see this guy and he tells me Egypt air will get me a bus with AC, visit a perfume shop, go visit the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and a "5 star restaurant" for the grand total of...wait for it....nothing. I was free with Egypt Air as a promotion to encourage tourists to ...

... tour, I had gained a much better understanding and appreciation for the peoples of both countries, obtained a much greater capacity of ancient history and even found a new appreciation for Middle Eastern cuisine. Of all my trips thus far, this tour offered my most well rounded experience, with a good dose of religious and political history, some great hiking and scenery, much exposure to new cultures/foods and good socializing.
Cairo, Egypt texaspeyton

... road.

I would have gladly accepted another 45 minutes of sleep and an air conditioned van over an hour donkey ride to the Valley of the Kings. When we got there the place was packed...even the crazy Columbian/Aussie group had beaten us there. Petra is very expansive, but impressively the valley of the kings is tiny. There are 30 tombs packed in a very tight area and intricately layered. No need to ride a donkey places to save time and energy ...