Week in Sinai, Egypt
Just spent the week in Sinai.. flew into Sharm from Warsaw and a transfer up to near by Taba. Took 12 hours to get there including arseing around at the airport etc, the mini van going up to Dahab was full of some rich drunk Polish guys being wankers but the trip up to Taba was good fun, hehe the driver even decided to mollest Sylwia's leg... how's that for service.
The hotel that was part of the deal was empty and in the about 6km south of Taba, opposite the famous Pharaoh's Island, absolutely nothing around there.. it was all good, until I discovered that beer cost the insane price of 20 EGP (that's 2 quid or 12zl).. usually in Egypt it costs about 5-7 EGP (a more reasonable price of 50p/70p, 2.75zl/3.75zl).. anyway despite the price it's good to be drinking Stella again.. it's a nice beer, especially to drink by the sea when you can see Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and a big fuck off fort on an island!
Have a bit of a walk around, some food, some Cleopatra's and a Stella or two then off for a kip. Woke up the next day with the intention of putting thing's right.. we head off to Taba in search of beer. Taba is the Israeli border crossing and there is a high military/police presence (even more so than usual). Anyway, there are banks in Taba.. but I couldn't find an ATM machine, and after a mooch around the shops we also found out that there is no beer in Taba.. only in Nuweiba (about 70km south) and in Israel (but I don't really want to risk the israeli stamp in my passport for a few beers).. so it looks like we'll either have to buy expensive beer or drink less.
A day or two later, it was off to Dahab.. the idea was to get the bus which had been told we were waiting on the road... well it didn't stop, so we began flagging cars down. Hitching in Egypt is easy, however similarly to Albania, almost all cars are taxis and you will get nowhere waiting for a free lift. Anyway, we flag down this 9 seater van - the driver Majdy Al Prince (002 010 10 17 804) tells us he'll take us there and back, with a bit of sightseeing for the reasonable price of a 100 pounds egyptian. He's taking four old English tourists from Leeds down there for a bit of shopping and they're paying twice the price than we are.. they're amusing and harmless, one of them learnt a bit of Polish from a girl she used to work with, they were however.. highly dangerous if you were a fly.
We stopped at a place called Diana Beach on the way down, Diana Beach is part of "Beer Sweer" a bedouin camp that's 20km north of Nuweiba and has cheap huts on a very very nice beach. A nice atmosphere, with a few backpackers, hammocks, tasty bedouin tea, hashish, great snorkelling opportunities and a camel visiting.
After that it's direct to Dahab, with a small stop to look at "Camel Mountain" and "Sinai", two mountains which supposedly look like their names. What were they thinking? One looks like a dinosaur and the other a splodge! Oh well never mind - you can see photos on my Sinai page (which will be added shortly).
Into Dahab and finally some shops.. oh yes, Dahab is a windy little town with a lot of backpackers in, good for windsurfing, the two ATM machines were not working when I was in town, lots of bars by the beach with cheap beer, reggae music, sheesha and good grub. It's a pretty nice place for relaxing or simply getting pissed. We were hanging out in Yum Yum's because the beer was reasonably priced (6 EGP) and the food cheap (potato wedges come highly recommended - you get loads plus a lot of tasty dips and bread for 10 EGP, sheesh kebab costs about 25EGP), plus they were playing good reggae and it was in a nice location but in fairness, none of the places are too different from each other. Had a bit of an argument with a cat about him trying to eat my dinner, the legendary waiter gets a squeezy water bottle and has a water fight with him, top banana.
Off to Adam's bar after that - beer there is 5 EGP and they have a good variety. Stella, Stella Premium, Luxor, Luxor Special, Luxor 10%, Saqqara, Saqqara Gold and Meister.
Luxor is a tasty beer that is a wee bit stronger than Stella and a pound or two more expensive, Luxor 10% does what it says on the bottle. Luxor is my no.1 beer, closely followed by Stella.
So after a few beers, it's time to get back to the car.. we bring back 20 bottles, bloody heavy - traipsing through Dahab in a rush with them. The others have bought a few things and are sitting with Majdy, who is having a sheesha and says he will take us to his mates alcohol shop in Nuweiba for a few more beers.
Nuweiba is a shit hole really, a poor Egyptian town with a few children asking for money, nothing there at all - Nuweiba Port and Nuweiba City are seperated, anyway the alcohol shop is pretty standardly ugly, similar to the ones in Cairo and not dissimilar from some legendary drinking holes in Portugal. Load up with a few more beers and a bottle of wine... decide to stay away from the Racardi, I used to drink a lot of the Egyptian brandy Vat 69 and it is not good for you in anyway or form.. I'd stay away from all the spirits. Whether it's Chavs Regal, Racardi or Stolichnova. The Arak looks deadly.
Ok, now we're sorted! The grub in the hotel which is included is the same stuff everyday, it's not bad but the beef is a bit dodgy.
Spend the next day relaxing in the sun, got these bastard sea urchin things in my feet.. that hurt. I popped back to the room and bumped into the beach cleaner/helper (virtually useless) guy who gets out a big newspaper filled with Bongo (an Egyptian blend of Marijuana.. bloody good stuff) and rolls up a joint or two, legendary fella.
I'm smiling for the next couple of the hours, not realising the sun is burning me like hell. I come back red, have a huge meal, already had enough beers..play table tennis, go to bed, visit the toilet a few times and then fill the sink up with puke.. lovely.
A day or two after, it's off to Pharaoh's Island, just across the way.. it's only 200m but it costs 8 dollars to get there and visit it, crikey. Oh well.. this is the island where the King of Jordan has his birthday parties, such stars as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Whitney Houston have visited and of course the Egyptian president Hosny Mubarek likes it, and we have it to ourselves. Snorkelling there is superb, the fort is reasonable (supposedly as grand as the citadel in Cairo and the fort in Alexandria) they're all nice but I can't get overly worked up about them. The fish though, were stunning.
Be a bit careful, there's a few dangerous things.. namely jellyfish (that can kill if not treated), a grumpy black sausage that stings you when you stand on it (1. don't stand on it, 2. if you do, don't worry it will only hurt for a while) , sea urchins (the spikes hurt when you get them in you, so try to avoid them, they don't do any real harm, don't try and take the needles out, just put a bit of lemon juice on them) and of course some wanker from the Hilton speeding through and hitting you on your chops with his flippers.. CUNT!
Off to Diana Beach for the last day, the plan was to try and get a camel to ride unfortunately it passed us while we were snorkelling. Delicious grub, spectaculr snorkelling, lovely beach with relaxed atmoshphere... a room there - which is warm and comfortable in a hut with a tele (ran by generator) costs 60 EGP for double.. but I reckon you can get it a touch cheaper. Hashish smoking was superb.. I'd had a few joints rolled by the guy who runs the place - Ali but they weren't up to much then Majdy and this guy dressed like Yasser Arafat invite me into a room with some fat Egyptian girl, they get into a "Who can roll the meanest, biggest, strongest joint" competition, I can't work out who lost but I couldn't stand up after smoking them, they were all excellent and I had been sitting on one of my legs.. thus the inability to walk for about 2 hours after that.
Good, good fun.. I'm not sure what went on after that.. we came back, met some Polish woman in the restaurant who invited us to hers to use a shower, apparently some guys gave us some strawberries but I don't really remember this very well. I slept off my state on the way to the airport, where we arrived 4 hours before the flight, thanks to our insane driver and the unorganised receptionist, we have no egyptian money or euros at this point, so just try and have a bit of a kip, when they finally let us through baggage to the check in desk, I discover.. I've lost my ticket. Bollox, eventually some guy turned up and wrote me a new one for free.. lucky that. We clear immigration, wait, the flight run by Central Wings was distinctly shit with no space to move at all and no food available to buy on the way back.
The hotel that was part of the deal was empty and in the about 6km south of Taba, opposite the famous Pharaoh's Island, absolutely nothing around there.. it was all good, until I discovered that beer cost the insane price of 20 EGP (that's 2 quid or 12zl).. usually in Egypt it costs about 5-7 EGP (a more reasonable price of 50p/70p, 2.75zl/3.75zl).. anyway despite the price it's good to be drinking Stella again.. it's a nice beer, especially to drink by the sea when you can see Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and a big fuck off fort on an island!
Have a bit of a walk around, some food, some Cleopatra's and a Stella or two then off for a kip. Woke up the next day with the intention of putting thing's right.. we head off to Taba in search of beer. Taba is the Israeli border crossing and there is a high military/police presence (even more so than usual). Anyway, there are banks in Taba.. but I couldn't find an ATM machine, and after a mooch around the shops we also found out that there is no beer in Taba.. only in Nuweiba (about 70km south) and in Israel (but I don't really want to risk the israeli stamp in my passport for a few beers).. so it looks like we'll either have to buy expensive beer or drink less.
A day or two later, it was off to Dahab.. the idea was to get the bus which had been told we were waiting on the road... well it didn't stop, so we began flagging cars down. Hitching in Egypt is easy, however similarly to Albania, almost all cars are taxis and you will get nowhere waiting for a free lift. Anyway, we flag down this 9 seater van - the driver Majdy Al Prince (002 010 10 17 804) tells us he'll take us there and back, with a bit of sightseeing for the reasonable price of a 100 pounds egyptian. He's taking four old English tourists from Leeds down there for a bit of shopping and they're paying twice the price than we are.. they're amusing and harmless, one of them learnt a bit of Polish from a girl she used to work with, they were however.. highly dangerous if you were a fly.
We stopped at a place called Diana Beach on the way down, Diana Beach is part of "Beer Sweer" a bedouin camp that's 20km north of Nuweiba and has cheap huts on a very very nice beach. A nice atmosphere, with a few backpackers, hammocks, tasty bedouin tea, hashish, great snorkelling opportunities and a camel visiting.
After that it's direct to Dahab, with a small stop to look at "Camel Mountain" and "Sinai", two mountains which supposedly look like their names. What were they thinking? One looks like a dinosaur and the other a splodge! Oh well never mind - you can see photos on my Sinai page (which will be added shortly).
Into Dahab and finally some shops.. oh yes, Dahab is a windy little town with a lot of backpackers in, good for windsurfing, the two ATM machines were not working when I was in town, lots of bars by the beach with cheap beer, reggae music, sheesha and good grub. It's a pretty nice place for relaxing or simply getting pissed. We were hanging out in Yum Yum's because the beer was reasonably priced (6 EGP) and the food cheap (potato wedges come highly recommended - you get loads plus a lot of tasty dips and bread for 10 EGP, sheesh kebab costs about 25EGP), plus they were playing good reggae and it was in a nice location but in fairness, none of the places are too different from each other. Had a bit of an argument with a cat about him trying to eat my dinner, the legendary waiter gets a squeezy water bottle and has a water fight with him, top banana.
Off to Adam's bar after that - beer there is 5 EGP and they have a good variety. Stella, Stella Premium, Luxor, Luxor Special, Luxor 10%, Saqqara, Saqqara Gold and Meister.
Luxor is a tasty beer that is a wee bit stronger than Stella and a pound or two more expensive, Luxor 10% does what it says on the bottle. Luxor is my no.1 beer, closely followed by Stella.
So after a few beers, it's time to get back to the car.. we bring back 20 bottles, bloody heavy - traipsing through Dahab in a rush with them. The others have bought a few things and are sitting with Majdy, who is having a sheesha and says he will take us to his mates alcohol shop in Nuweiba for a few more beers.
Nuweiba is a shit hole really, a poor Egyptian town with a few children asking for money, nothing there at all - Nuweiba Port and Nuweiba City are seperated, anyway the alcohol shop is pretty standardly ugly, similar to the ones in Cairo and not dissimilar from some legendary drinking holes in Portugal. Load up with a few more beers and a bottle of wine... decide to stay away from the Racardi, I used to drink a lot of the Egyptian brandy Vat 69 and it is not good for you in anyway or form.. I'd stay away from all the spirits. Whether it's Chavs Regal, Racardi or Stolichnova. The Arak looks deadly.
Ok, now we're sorted! The grub in the hotel which is included is the same stuff everyday, it's not bad but the beef is a bit dodgy.
Spend the next day relaxing in the sun, got these bastard sea urchin things in my feet.. that hurt. I popped back to the room and bumped into the beach cleaner/helper (virtually useless) guy who gets out a big newspaper filled with Bongo (an Egyptian blend of Marijuana.. bloody good stuff) and rolls up a joint or two, legendary fella.
I'm smiling for the next couple of the hours, not realising the sun is burning me like hell. I come back red, have a huge meal, already had enough beers..play table tennis, go to bed, visit the toilet a few times and then fill the sink up with puke.. lovely.
A day or two after, it's off to Pharaoh's Island, just across the way.. it's only 200m but it costs 8 dollars to get there and visit it, crikey. Oh well.. this is the island where the King of Jordan has his birthday parties, such stars as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Whitney Houston have visited and of course the Egyptian president Hosny Mubarek likes it, and we have it to ourselves. Snorkelling there is superb, the fort is reasonable (supposedly as grand as the citadel in Cairo and the fort in Alexandria) they're all nice but I can't get overly worked up about them. The fish though, were stunning.
Be a bit careful, there's a few dangerous things.. namely jellyfish (that can kill if not treated), a grumpy black sausage that stings you when you stand on it (1. don't stand on it, 2. if you do, don't worry it will only hurt for a while) , sea urchins (the spikes hurt when you get them in you, so try to avoid them, they don't do any real harm, don't try and take the needles out, just put a bit of lemon juice on them) and of course some wanker from the Hilton speeding through and hitting you on your chops with his flippers.. CUNT!
Off to Diana Beach for the last day, the plan was to try and get a camel to ride unfortunately it passed us while we were snorkelling. Delicious grub, spectaculr snorkelling, lovely beach with relaxed atmoshphere... a room there - which is warm and comfortable in a hut with a tele (ran by generator) costs 60 EGP for double.. but I reckon you can get it a touch cheaper. Hashish smoking was superb.. I'd had a few joints rolled by the guy who runs the place - Ali but they weren't up to much then Majdy and this guy dressed like Yasser Arafat invite me into a room with some fat Egyptian girl, they get into a "Who can roll the meanest, biggest, strongest joint" competition, I can't work out who lost but I couldn't stand up after smoking them, they were all excellent and I had been sitting on one of my legs.. thus the inability to walk for about 2 hours after that.
Good, good fun.. I'm not sure what went on after that.. we came back, met some Polish woman in the restaurant who invited us to hers to use a shower, apparently some guys gave us some strawberries but I don't really remember this very well. I slept off my state on the way to the airport, where we arrived 4 hours before the flight, thanks to our insane driver and the unorganised receptionist, we have no egyptian money or euros at this point, so just try and have a bit of a kip, when they finally let us through baggage to the check in desk, I discover.. I've lost my ticket. Bollox, eventually some guy turned up and wrote me a new one for free.. lucky that. We clear immigration, wait, the flight run by Central Wings was distinctly shit with no space to move at all and no food available to buy on the way back.
posted by dangaroo at 5:31 AM
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