This was waiting for us when we checked in. I happened to meet Mohammed later in my bikini, which seemed to make a big impression on him even though I was mostly behind our door. His arrangements became increasingly elaborate each day:
He was extremely attentive during our stay, always asking me or Sexy Englishman how the other was & checking on me when I got lost once, but it definitively tipped over into creepiness when we checked out. We were doing last-minute packing. He came to say goodbye & ask for SE's address, cell phone number & then our picture. Really bizarre. Especially when he gave us his address as Housekeeping at Hilton Fayrouz. We did really enjoy our flowers though, & marveled at the feat of engineering which is the peacock at the end. The blue neck is a towel, artfully folded to stand up.Our first night, Saturday, we were too hot to do anything except have dinner & go to sleep. We lounged by the pool in the morning while deciding on activities, & went quad driving in the desert later that night. It's so cool! They're little ATVs that go about 20 mph, which feels fast & exciting when you're bouncing over ruts & can hear & feel the engine revving. We had to go in single file but on the way out they let us go pretty fast. We stopped in a couple places to look at scenery & the only part I didn't like was when some teenage punks kept riding my tail on the way back. The asshole directly behind me actually bumped me once. I couldn't go any faster, since we had to follow the guide strictly & were kept in line by other guides on motorbikes. It was super fun - I'd love to just rent one & go explore by myself. We had dinner at Safsafa in the Na'ama Center mall complex (see LP for more info about most places I mention here) which was pretty good. That whole area of Na'ama Bay was hopping every night, even though it was the low season. It was nice to be able to walk around & see what was going on without getting in a cab. Although running the gauntlet of hawkers was a trial every time. Generally we just tried not to get drawn into conversation.
On Monday we did a snorkeling trip into Ras Mohammed, the national park protecting the reef. I can't believe how beautiful it is! The reefs starts just right there off the shore, barely a foot below the surface. We saw so many incredible creatures especially a lionfish, lots of colorful parrotfish, pikefish, etc. I got over my fear of snorkeling too. I used to be a swim champion & I've always panicked at breathing underwater. Just couldn't get used to it. This time the fish & coral distracted me, & once I got the hang of it I could let go of the blind panic & concentrate on looking around. Very happy about that. We snorkeled for hours, so much that I actually got the first sunburn of my life. I refused to believe that was what it was when SE pointed it out - I scoffed until I realized that it hurt & was red & generally exhibited the same characteristics as SE's frequent burns (he has classic fair English skin). We had so much fun we decided to SCUBA the next day. He has his PADI open water certification but hasn't done it in 5 years, & I'd never done it at all, so I just did a beginner dive from the boat & he came along to snorkel, opting out of the rather time-consuming refresher course. It's pretty cool. I had a hard time keeping the breather thing in my mouth & those tanks are awfully heavy but it's so cool to just swim right down to whatever's interesting & not have to come up for air after a minute like when snorkeling. I finally figured out how to equalize pressure in my head properly (hadn't quite got it the day before) & had a lovely time. Unfortunately I ended up with an ear infection later. When we woke up from our nap I noticed an earache. We started playing Scrabble waiting for the heat to lessen so we could have dinner, & the throbbing increased to metal spike level. I was whimpering & couldn't concentrate so we called the hotel doctor. He prescribed me nose drops, antibiotics & 2 types of ear drops for my "major ear infection." The drops, Advil & Excedrin made me feel ok enough to venture out for dinner.
We went to Da Franco (as LP suggested), close to the Hilton on the road by the beach, which was all right. The night before we went to Pomodoro at the Camel Hotel because it was the busiest restaurant on that strip but that didn't pan out either - it wasn't very good except for the potato leek soup. I could happily eat a gallon of that. We kept wanting to try Pacha Sharm but couldn't tell from outside if it'd be good, plus we figured it'd be the same as Pacha NYC with the overpriced, watered down drinks. & it's always more fun with a group of friends than just 2 of us anyway. Wednesday, our last full day, we met an American couple by the pool who were amazingly similar to us. They'd taken practically the same trip to South Africa before, they were from NYC, the list went on & on. We got along so well we made plans to hang out later. SE & I spent a lazy day between pool & a/c'd room, since I couldn't go in the ocean to protect my ear & SE was too hot. We had a few drinks with Cute American Couple at the Pirates Bar in the hotel & then wandered over to Na'ama Bay & settled on Fawanes for dinner. This was again courtesy of LP, but CAGirl & I were decidedly unamused by the cockroach that scuttled over our pita bread towards the end! The food was ok, not great - SE & I concluded that LP generally has a bias towards backpackers & their lean wallets, because their descriptions of most restaurants turned out to be exaggerated to us, coming from NYC & haute cuisine as we were. We soothed our feelings with a sheesha (water pipe) at Viva on the beach after the scary bug incident. CAC were really nice & hopefully next time we go out to Cali, where they just moved, we'll hang out with them again.
We had another cabbie incident on the way to the airport which was the final straw for SE. This one tried to tell us the fare was double - £100 - what the hotel said it was - £50 - & SE lost his temper. We had trouble getting to the right terminal what with our new-fangled e-tickets & me accused of being "China" again for about 5 minutes. I don't understand the problem, we saw a lot of American-Asian tourists, it can't be that weird to them. When we did at length get to the right place they were completely confounded by the e-tickets. We got them to accept that the tickets were real by showing them the itinerary SE had drawn up for us, although they would keep flipping to irrelevant pages over & over despite our attempts to keep them focused. "No, no, just this flight here, Sharm to Vienna to London - no we already did all this [first 6 pages], we're not going to South Africa." It turned out when we got to Austria that we didn't actually have e-tickets. They'd FedExed the paper tickets to Cairo for some unfathomable reason. We managed to get everything straightened out, luckily.
In Vienna I couldn't resist buying Chanel nail polish at duty free, since I hadn't found a salon in Sharm & wanted to look presentable for SE's friends. Sand, ocean & general traveling really take a lot out of paint. Most importantly, I picked up Harry Potter (& was probably the only person to pay full price that week - €30 = ~$40! Should have waited for the London price of £6.) I've been a fan since I read the first one, & if you haven't read it yet, you're in for a lot of crying. SE kept looking at my leaky eyes & trying not to laugh. In any case we made it safely to London in time for dinner.
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