To the Red Sea

Sunday 1 January 2012

Happy New Year!

Today we left Luxor for the 4 hour drive through the desert to the Red Sea coast. This transition marked the end of our visit to 'ancient' Egypt and the start of a short visit to 'holiday' Egypt. We sadly farewelled our very luxurious (I wonder if this word has any relation to Luxor?) hotel about 9am and got into the mini van we'd used before with the blue teddy bear heads on the head rests of the driver's and passenter's seats. We drove north for about an hour following the east bank of the Nile then headed north east through the desert. Once we got into the desert the driver drove at speeds of up to 130 km/hr. While the road was paved and in some places very recently paved the surface wasn't flat so we bounced up and down. After about 2.5 hours we stopped at a wayside coffee shop to stretch our legs, go to the toilet and--as this is Egypt--bargain for purchases. I bought several more pashminas--I love them--including one for Jade and Jade picked up a couple of handbags. We really must stop buying things~~

We passed through a mountain range that looked to be granite and then the Red Sea came into view. It was beautiful--with the dry beige sand, wide blue sky and the deep blue sea with traces of aqua water in the distance.We arrived at our hotel/resort, the Safir and checked into our rooms which are on the ground floor around the pool. The rooms are adequate but a definate step down in level from the hotel in Luxor. They are decorated with weathered dark aqua blue furniture, white walls and tiled floors except for the bathroom which is tiled in grey stone. Everything has a well used, beaten look about it. The kids wanted to go in the pool which is beautiful but the water is too cold. We had lunch by the pool then rested for a bit before I took the kids down to the beach area just next to the pool. By then it was 4pm and the sun and sun worshippers had left the beach. The water was warmer than the pool but still not warm enough for me. The kids played beach volleyball and since the ball kept going in the water they also went in to get it. This progressed to them passing the ball in the water until we all decided it was cold and time to go back to the rooms.

We rested then took a taxi with Ahmed to a restaurant for dinner. We didn't order very well from the menu and Jade wasn't impressed with what we'd chosen. There probably wasn't enough. I was trying to duplicate the type of meal we'd had at other restaurants with the dishes in the centre of the table but this didn't end up working out. After eating the kids and I got ice creams outside then we all walked back to the hotel.

BTW I have tried to upload photos but the internet connections I've had haven't been able to manage it so I will do this in a week or so after we get back to Australia.