Seeing Sinai

The summer plans started out simple and innocent...Go to Nuweiba, rent a hut and live on the beach for a week. 

Then traveling began. We left Cairo about 3:00am since it was a 5 hour drive to the hut and we didn't want to be driving through the desert in the middle of the day. Makes sense, right? In a perfect world that's EXACTLY what WOULD have happened.

We made it to Suez in roughly a good amount of time after a little bit of fighting along the way (after all we went to bed around 1am and started driving at 3am). Then, we waited...and waited...and waited some more. The traffic was NOT moving!!!  The military closed the road random points in time and then would reopen them. Now the heat of the sun started...and we were sitting in traffic, no air conditioner in the car, a 2 yr old screaming because he was hot and stuck between 3 buses whom were emitting the most obnoxious amount of pollution and heat I have ever encountered. Solution to this problem? Wait, wait and wait some more.

Finally 2 hours later we passed the security gates. Did they card us? Ask us for his ID, my passport our marriage contract that so many people told us they would? Nope, they just waved us through.  At least we were moving and the air was circulating again, even if it was 110F air.  We paid our 2le ($0.34) to enter the cool dark tunnel that allowed cars to travel under the Suez Canal which connected the Africa side of Egypt to the Asian side of Egypt. It was wonderfully cool below!

We emerged too quickly (in my opinion) into the heat and desert of Asian Egypt. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures due to the military being all around and I, obviously, look like a spy.

Our first town we made it to was Taba. It is the border town between Egypt and Israel. From the hilltops you can see Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. My cell phone coverage was registered to the Jordanian frequency known as zain-Jo. My first text message from them informed me how how to win a 2011 Ford Expedition.

From Taba we were entranced by the beautiful clear turquoise blue waters with virtually no waves. We had the mountains on one side of us and the water on the other. Perfection in its finest!!

We finally made it to Basata Camp (half way between Taba and Nuweiba), exciting times! All I could think about was jumping in the water with ALL my clothes still on. The camp was beautiful and Eco-friendly. After prayer was over (we arrived on a Friday), we were shown to our hut! It felt great inside it! The hut was completely bamboo and allowed the breeze to come through the whole hut. It was positioned on the beach and about 500m away from the sea. The bathroom was a few hundred meters away also. This was paradise!! We swam during the day, played in the sand, and admired the view of Egypt and Saudi. Life was great...until night came.

The night was HORRIBLE there! The mountains gave off all the heat they absorbed during the day and the breeze was non existent. Jackson couldn't sleep he was too hot and started to scream and cry! He woke up everyone that was already asleep, I am sure.  We were assured by several people that around 10:00pm the weather would turn cooler...they either lied, or were just wrong! We pulled out all the cushions from out hut and placed them on the sand under the stars to try and rest. Jackson was naked including diaper, to try and cool him off so he could sleep.   He finally fell asleep around 3am, we did not. 

The next morning we made phone calls and found a place right down the street that had air conditioning. We packed up as quick as we could and headed there. Crazy Horse Resort, was our savior. The air conditioning was mediocre but compared to the previous day it felt like an icebox. Jackson took a quick nap (and so did we) after settling in. When we woke up we rushed to the beach to get back into the water. There was only one other couple in the resort with us, so it was like we had a private beach to ourselves (for a few hours until a group of 9 college age partying kids appeared).  The beach wasn't nearly as nice as Basata, but it was do-able. It has a lot of rocks which you had to carefully navigate around to insure you didn't cut your foot...but our room had air conditioner.

Food was great there (Mo thought differently).  After 2 nights there Mo decided that he wanted to see the rest of Sinai and asked if I would be willing to pack up and head down to Sharm el Sheikh. Of course I said, YES! So off we went.

From Nuewiba to Sharm el Sheikh (Sharm for short) was about a 2 hour dive between the mountains and by the waters edge. It was a very beautiful drive. We were now decided to leave remote Sinai and enter the tourist capital. We had a place reserved for us in Delta Sharm Resort. Its a residential/vacation compound with 10 pools and beautiful landscape. This is the first and ONLY place we had to show our marriage document so we could get a room together. We rented a 1 bedroom apartment assuming Jackson could either sleep on the couch or cushions on the the floor in the bedroom. The view was nice, it was overlooking one of the many gardens. The apartment was acceptable, you could tell no one had rented it in awhile and it needed a good cleaning. But Sharm itself was ideal for the tourists. There was every type of food imaginable (except for Taco Bell) and anything you wanted to buy was there. We met up with a friend who worked in SoHo in Sharm and he showed us around and took us to the famous Sharm Ice Bar. Jackson fell in love! We were given heavy winter coats with fur hoodies. We entered the room, everything (except the floor) was ice. There were ice chairs, an ice bar, ice statues, words carved in the ice. Jackson didn't want to be held or be in a jacket he just wanted to see and touch everything. Each night when we went back to SoHo he pulled us to the direction of the bar. 

The trip was only 8 days long but felt much longer (in a good way). Spending time with family 24/7 is what made the whole trip worth wild.