Egypt - Sharm El-Sheik - Travel Story

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Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Travel Story

Bus from Cairo to Sharm

To make the most of our time, we decided to take an overnight bus to Sharm El Sheikh – not a good idea. We were under the impression that this would be a fairly luxurious coach bus. The bus itself was not bad, but the one thing to keep in mind is that they allow smoking on the bus, so if you are sensitive to cigarette smoke you may want to find an alternative. In addition to the smoke, the bus driver had movies playing through the entire trip with the volume at full blast. Needless to say we did not get a very good night's sleep.

When we arrived to the bus depot all of the stresses of the bus ride just fluttered away. Looking out the window it seemed like we were in an entirely different part of the world. It was clean, people were friendly, and the main street was lined with luxury resorts with beaches just behind them. We stepped off the bus, took a deep breath of the wonderfully fresh air, and excitedly got a taxi to take us to our resort, the Sharm El Sheikh Marriott Resort.

Searching for Day Trips from Sharm

We spent the first day scouring the town for tour prices to see the Coloured Canyon, St. Catherine's Monastery and Mt. Sinai, Jordan, and to go snorkelling as this area is noted as one of the best places to snorkel. You will notice as soon as you get into town that much of it is catered to Russians. This is due to the fact that Sharm El Sheikh is the destination of choice for resort vacations for Russians. The tour company we decided to go with was actually owned and operated by Russians. They gave us the best price and provided us with all the tours we were looking for. Once we had finished booking we spent the rest of the day exploring the town a little bit, and then sat by the pool for a while before dinner.

Mount Sinai & St. Catherine's Monastery

The following day we had a trip planned to visit Mount Sinai and the St. Catherine's Monastery. NOTE: remember to bring your passport with you any time you leave the Sharm El Sheikh area as there are checkpoints where armed guards will ask to see your passport. Since we usually make a habit of taking only a photocopied version of our passports and driver's licenses, we asked our tour guide if this would be sufficient and he said it was fine. As soon as we got to the checkpoint and our guide saw our photocopied passports he became irritated and asked why we didn't bring them even though he specifically asked if we had them. We didn't have time to argue with him since we were approaching the guards so he told us to just try not to show ourselves and see if we can get by. Well as we expected, the guards noticed more bodies than passports so our tour guide had to do some convincing. We eventually did get through, and once we arrived at St. Catherine's Monastery he informed us that he had to bribe the guard with a pack of cigarettes to get us through, as if to say we should be buying the cigarettes. Of course this made us pretty mad since he was the one who said that the photocopies were fine so we pretended not to take his hint and went on our way.

Although the true location of the Biblical Mount Sinai is still in debate, the one at Saint Catherine is the one that is publicized as the Mount Sinai, and is the one that tour groups and religious groups visit. Whether or not you believe the story of Moses and the mountain, or that this is the exact location, the site is still something to behold. The Monastery sits at the base of Mount Sinai, and houses a bush that is said to be the burning bush where Moses saw God. A bush of this species is found nowhere else in the Sinai, and all attempts to transport parts of it elsewhere have been unsuccessful. Just inside the outer walls of the Monastery lies the main water source, the "Well Moses", where Moses is said to have met his wife, Zipporah. When entering the monastery you must cover up, so remember to wear pants and bring a shirt with sleeves to put on just before entering. Should you forget, you will have the opportunity to 'rent' a wrap that you can use while in the monastery.

On our way back we ran into the same guard and, as promised, our tour guide handed him a pack of cigarettes. It's amazing, and scary how easily one gets through these checkpoints. Still, I was glad we were not given any trouble getting in and out of the area.

Visit to Colored Canyon

The next day we were picked up at our hotel, and dropped off at a gas station where several other tour vehicles were parked. This is where people get grouped together depending on what tour they are going on. When we got to the car that we were told was our tour group, our guide told us that this was the car going to Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine's Monastery. When we told the guide that he must be mistaken because we were supposed to only go to the Canyon, he asked around, then told us that there was no such tour that day and that this was the tour we were to go on. Since we had already seen the Monastery, and were told it is much better to do these two trips separately, we did not want to o this. When we told him that we had already gone to Saint Catherine's Monastery and had no interest in going again he called the office where we booked our tour and they offered this trip to us "free of charge". We told him it was not a matter of money, but of principle, and the fact that we had very little time in Sharm and wanted to make the most of it. After much arguing back and forth, our guide got a phone call from the driver so he pretended he could not hear him, walked away towards the car, then before we could say anything he hopped in and they drove off leaving us stranded. We were completely outraged and stunned that they would just do that. A gentleman standing nearby saw that we were quite distressed and told us not to worry, that he would help. Since there weren't a lot of taxis driving by that area he flagged down a random car passing by and asked if they could take us back to the Marriott. Of course we had our reservations, but at this point we were desperate so we negotiated a price with them, hopped in, and hoped for the best. The guys turned out to be really nice and brought us back, safe and sound.

As soon as we got back to the hotel we marched over to the tour office and explained what had happened. The girl behind the desk was shocked and called her boss who was not going to be in until later that evening so he asked us to visit them again then. Even though our day was pretty much ruined, we tried to make the best of a horrific day and relaxed by the pool. With the sun shining and the beautiful scenery it was hard to stay upset. That evening we headed back to the tour office and spoke to the owner who was genuinely upset and surprised at the way we were treated. They couldn't do anything for us at that point because we had no more days left to take a tour on the house, so they refunded us the money for the snorkelling tour and apologized for what had happened. There was nothing left for us to do but to look forward to the other trips we had planned.

Colored Canyon - Take Two

After spending the day in Sharm, we were excited to finally get to the Canyon. The tour included a 2 hour walk in the Coloured Canyon, lunch in the small town of Nuweiba, and a stop off in Dahab before heading back to the hotel. The walk through the canyon was incredible. It was interesting to see the colours that the different striations produced and the formations that the rocks took on. There are a few spots on this tour that could be an issue for those who are claustrophobic, but for us it was the most fun. Keep in mind that there is quite a bit of movement from walking to squatting to climbing required so one should dress for the occasion. We had a couple of girls on our tour who obviously did not know what to expect. One was dressed in shorts the size of a bikini bottom, but not nearly tight enough, and one girl who wore a short jean skirt. When we got to the point where we had to squeeze under a large boulder and drop about 5 or 6 feet down there was a bit of hesitation from the girls, but there was no turning back so after flashing everyone who went ahead of them, especially our unfortunate (or lucky, depending on how you look at it) tour guide who was helping everyone down, we continued on our way.

Stop in Nuweiba

After our hot and dusty walk through the canyon we stopped in the small coastal town of Nuweiba for lunch. We had lunch at Ciao Hotel, and were given some time to relax on their gorgeous private beach. When we went the hotel was deserted so we were the only group there, which made for an incredibly quiet and peaceful time. There were shelters set up with mats and large cushions right on the beach so we found one and took a quick nap to the sound of waves and the feeling of the ocean breeze blowing by. After our relaxing afternoon in Nuweiba we headed to Dahab, another famous coastline town in the region. The coast in Dahab is dotted with small shops and restaurants that make up the town. It's often referred to as a bohemian town and you get a sense of this as soon as you arrive. We had dinner at Friends Restaurant along the strip. The food was not bad, but what we really enjoyed was the view of the ocean from our table. It was an open-air restaurant right on the water's edge. The atmosphere, with the large toss cushions, the trees, the colours and textures of the textiles, and even the stray cats all added to a wonderful experience. After dinner we had a little free time to ourselves so we wandered into some shops along the boardwalk, took some photos, then headed back to Sharm El Sheikh.

Day trip to Petra, Jordan

Read about our trip to Petra soon.