Sharm El-Shaik, an Egyptian Seaside Resort (Part I of III)

The Beach Boardwalk, Naama Bay

I'm sorry for a week long lack of blogging, but I was finishing up some work (3D modelling, damn vector calculus), and then I was jetting off to Sharm El-Shaik, a renowned holiday spot. I was there from early on Saturday to late yesterday (Tuesday) and I must say that I had a very good time, lots of thanks to Ismail for sending me. My activities however can be summarised quite succinctly: beach, lying in the sun, drinking and watching BBC in varying degrees of anxiety(it was covering the Polokwane conference).

Palm trees next to crystal clear sea

More specifically I was staying in Naama Bay, a sort of tourism orientated enclave, to the North of Sharm El-Shaik. Sharm El-Shaik itself is on the Sinai Peninsula, the little bit of land that separates Africa from Asia. As I mentioned above, it is a popular tourist destination (Europeans and Russians mainly) and is a world famous diving spot. The mountainous interior of the Sinai peninsula is home to the Bedouin people (nomadic desert dwellers, well they used to be) and Sharm serves as a gateway to the peninsula. A point of interest is that the Bedouin were the inspiration for Frank Herbert's Fremen people in the Dune Science Fiction series. I did meet a few of them (a lot work around the resorts and beaches), but I couldn't tell them apart from the other Egyptians straight away(this could be a failing on my part), usually it came up when I asked them where they were from.

More of the beach front, one of the many seaside bars (a potentially dangerous combination)

I arrived early on Saturday morning (I took the 5 o'clock from Cairo, arrived in Sharm International at 6 o'clock). The sunrise was quite spectacular, rising over desert mountains. I appreciate all sunrises I see, considering that 6 o'clock approximates to my personal midnight. I got to my hotel, Hotel Karamare, a very nice resort with some unfortunate decoration, and had a power nap after watching some BBC(my hotel in Cairo only gets CNN). Upon waking I hit the hotel breakfast, which unfortunately for the hotel's profit margins, was a buffet. Once full of every conceivable type of breakfast, I went for a stroll around town, town being the seafront part of Naama Bay.

Something of a cross between a pigeon and a starling, chilling in a beachside cafe

Naama Bay is both unique and generic: it is full of souvenir shops (all called 'book stores' for some reasons, the only writing in sight is on the postcards), and really, I must admit that most of the souvenirs are awful (as in crimes against taste awful); the scenery however is amazing: palm trees, desert mountains, crystal sea and try as it might, the people trying to sell crap just can't do anything about that. The atmosphere of the town is also nice, extremely relaxed, lots of cafes and people sitting around doing nothing. In particular the beachside bars and restaurants managed to hit the right note, and definitely were a positive.

The shore of Sharm, as seen from the other side

After my wanderings around town, I lay on the hotel beach and swam in the warm sea. Being the Red Sea (now I only need to swim in the Arctic and Antarctic seas), it is quite warm although it seem a bit saltier than what I was used to(I was probably imaging this). That night, after another exercise in profit margin shrinking at the buffet, I decided to take the nightlife by storm. But that is another story.

Coming Soon: Egyptian Nightlife (Part II of III), Cairo cafes, Sharm El-Shaik clubs, Seesa, funky house music and Russians, all the gory details.
Rus Mohammed (Part III of III), I snorkel around one of Egypt's only Nature Reserves, home to colourful reefs and mangroves, plants that live off salt water.