Egypt loose ends

The most lasting memory to Nikki and I about the Cairo Airport is that we would both not complain if we never had to experience it again. If you get the chance you should ask Nikki about her bathroom experience in the Cairo Airport. The thing I found most annoying was that the gates were organized by destinations, not by airline, or to separate crowds, and they were spread all over the place. We now know of at least 4 terminals that are separate parts of the Cairo Airport and spread at least a 10 minute bus ride from each other, one of the bus rides we went on seriously went to a bus transfer station where we changed buses in the city to get to another terminal. I digress, the picture below is a gate we had to go through, you see this is the gate to Sharm el Shiek, it doesn't matter how many or how few flights are going to Sharm el Shiek at any one time, this is the Sharm El Shiek gate they all go through here. On the other end of this gate you get in a bus that goes to your plane, which may be no where near this gate, but if you are going to Sharm you go through this gate. In this particular picture there were four separate flights going to Sharm all at 6pm, so the gate which was designed to hold one flights worth of people has 4. Also notice the TV screens hanging from the ceiling. They display absolutely nothing. Everyone is crowded near the door because when a bus pulls up an airport employee announces in a 6 inch voice without any use of microphone or PA system the flight information and then depends on the crowded room full of tourists to spread the information. Bottom line Cairo Airport and St Petersburg airport have a lot in common, both are competing for most inept airport ever.



I found this advertisement in a window of a pizza hut absolutely hilarious. I have always respected the company YUM brands because in almost every country I have been in I admire their ability to market the same brands of fast food restaurants (KFC, Pizza Hut and to a lesser extent Taco Bell) to the local populace in an effective way for that target audience. With that said what does it say about Pizza Hut or the american fast food industry that they advertise to Russian, British and European Tourists in Egypt with the headline "Sausage fun for everyone." Look at that pizza crust, it has sausages like little pigs rolled in a blanket on the edges. Wow that is interesting... somebody call a cardiologists, you may need one after that pizza.


This tree has the coolest bark of any tree we have seen, it almost looks like it is barnacled, neat huh? Aside from the airport the absolute most annoying thing about Egypt for us was the constant nagging of beggars and "sales people" trying to push their goods on tourist. They grab you and seriously hold you down to at best push their goods, at worst rob you blind. Notice the arm lock this guy has on me below, certainly not because we are buddies. It sort of ruins the whole experience of many of the tourist destinations around the old city of cairo as these people are everywhere.

Technical Difficulties, not another Move

For some reason our blog weather panel has started displaying the weather for Philadelphia Pennsylvania, as opposed to St Petersburg Russia. Not sure the reasoning behind the glitch, or maybe the higher meanings involved (I have certainly found out about the army's plans for our future locations in weirder ways??) however I am trying to fix the glitch, in the meantime the weather here is great, lows in the 30s or 20's, highs in the 50's and we haven't had snow since friday night, yup coming up on 48 hours without snow... thats something to celebrate.

Towel, Art ??

Now that we have been back in Russia for a week we should put an effort into finishing up the posts from Egypt, so here comes towel art..
The hotel we stayed at in Sharm el Shiek was simply amazing, anyone going to Sharm we would highly recommend the Hilton Sharks Bay resort. One of the oddest thing we saw every day at the hotel was that the housekeeping staff would make artwork out of your towels and linens every day, here are some of the pieces of work.
Sort of makes it a joy to come back to the room, not knowing what type of scene will be played out on your bed.

The alligator holding the remote....

Anyhow from towel art to the sunshine, sharm el shiek was a great place to unwind for a week.

We digress

This is what it looks like outside my window right now, Nope the springtime swarming mosquitoes in Russia aren't white. That's snow my friends and quite frankly I am tired of it. So lets take a trip back to Egypt, as Nikki said when she woke up this morning. "I am ready to go back...."


Check out the sunny desert mountains, what a great morning balcony view to read a newspaper and drink a pot of coffee from.
The Red Sea, By far the best snorkeling we have ever done, the coral reef wildlife was amazing.

A shipwreck on the Red sea.

Nikki touring the sphinx.

Camel lunch break.

I feel warmer already... I think I'll keep the shades closed for a while.

Fashionable Females in Cairo

While a vast majority of Egyptians are Muslim the society appeared fairly liberal (certainly when compared to Saudi Arabia or Iraq) in the public practice of Islam. Woman appeared free to choose (other than family pressures) what they wore in Public. Most woman we saw in Cairo wore clorful attire that still covered their heads but not their full face like the women pictured below.We did see quite a few woman though in full black cover like the woman pictured below. Now I would think that shopping for this get up would be quite easy and you wouldn't really have many decisions to make if you choose to wear the full black garb.
Apparently I am very wrong in that thought as check out all the model displays for the black garb at this fashionable storefront in Cairo. I wonder if they put models on the catwalk with that line as well?

Cairo skyline

On our recent visit to Cairo I learned some new things that I hadn't realized before namely- Cairo is the largest city in Africa, and its Nickname is "The City of A Thousand Minarets." A Minerat is the tower or towers attached to a mosque where the shiek or Imman can climb up to yell out the call to prayer that brings Mulslim men to the Mosque to pray 5 times a day. Now most of them house loadspeakers to save the Imman the trouble of climibing the Minaret. You can Learn all about Minarets from Wikipedia HERE. I don't think we saw a thousand Minarets in Cairo but we did see a lot, here are some pictures of the ones we did see..

Funny sign at the hotel pool in Egypt

The majority of tourists at the hotel in Sharm El Shiek were Russians, followed closely by British and then tourists from all over Europe. There might have been 3-4 American couples or families at any one point in time out of the 600 rooms at the resort. We meet one American family that lived in Germany but stayed at a different hotel in Sharm. Lets face it Egypt is a long way to go to find a beach. Due to the predominance of Russian and British Tourists most signs at the hotel were in Russian and English, curiously except for this one by the pool, which was only in English....

Several things of interest about this sign. First and Foremost... Wait for what? My friend is drowning at the bottom of the pool, wait for a dial tone? He is now turning blue, wait for the operator who speaks arabic? Then play sharedes over the phone? How bout I just yell "Help."

Secondly that the sign is only in English and not in Russian or Arabic tells me that apparently only english speakers have emergencies at the Pool, and apparently they are so impatient when they have their emergencies that they need to be reminded to be patient. More from Egypt coming soon...

Last day in Egypt

Sadly today is our last day in Egypt. We have been recharged by the sun and will head back to St Petes this evening. Here are some of the highlight pictures from this week in Egypt, we will post more detailed accounts once we are back home.

Here Nikki is enjoying the sun on a snorkeling boat tour we went on, I wish we could take pictures of the snorkeling sites, the red sea was by far the best snorkeling spot we have ever been to, much more colorful coral and amazing fish life compared to Hawaii or St Thomas.

And of Course there are the Pyramids, and the Sphinx.

As a side attraction while we were touristy shopping in Nama Bay we had a drink in a bar that served real espresso Martinis, one of Nikkis favorites that we have yet to find in ST Petes, doesn't that look amazing?

We arrived in Egypt, and boy is it warm, and sunny

We have been here most of 2 days now and here are some pictures form around the hotel, it is warm and sunny here, definitely a much need break from the winter and early spring of ST Petersburg.

The view of the Red Sea form the hotel is amazing, we went snorkeling this morning and the coral life is amazing, we have a boat excursion planned for Wednesday for more snorkeling and water exploration. Pyramids and Cairo are coming later in the week.

Nikki fits in so well with all the Russian Tourists, complete with her too chic shades...
More to follow from Egypt in the coming days...