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.

What on Earth is Gordon doing in Egypt? Part I

By this point you might be thinking 'Great, Gordon is in Egypt, but what is he doing most of the time?'. Well, I'm not hanging out in ancient temples or cruising around on a camel (well, not yet).

Just a quick recap on what I study at UCT (feel free to skip this paragraph if you already know, or are bored): Electrical and Computer Engineering. This means that I basically do a BSc in Computer Science. I study everything that relates to Computers - Architecture(how it physically works), software engineering(how you systematically produce cool stuff to run on computers), data structures(how you organise your information), databases(how you structure your data structures), you get the picture. Then there is the electrical engineering part, which is light current focused. This means I mostly deal with electronics, especially digital electronics (which are used to build computers). You might be noticing a pattern by now.

I really enjoy it, considering that we study a huge range of technology that is extremely important. One particular area that I am really interested in is telecommunications, which in my not so humble opinion drive the modern world. On the downside, the degree makes us the nerds' nerds. I mean really, other engineering students get us to pick their computers. The Cairo street cats in the above photo have absolutely nothing to do with my degree, which is nowhere as cute.

Now back to the subject matter, what is occupying my time. As you might recall, Ismail runs a telecommunictations company, Systel. They provide and operate Motorola technology in Egypt. Not necessarily phones, although they do have quite a few classy phone shops. Mainly they work with the GSM (standard cellphone) infrastructure for the major providers (Vodaphone, Mobinil, something else), and provide a TETRA (similiar to GSM, but with walkie-talkie functions) network for the government's emergency services. The photo above is from their Zamalek offices(an island in Nile, near the centre of Cairo), where I worked today, on some hardware stuff. Ahmed, Ismail's younger son, who has a degree in Electronics and Communications, and has been working with the equipment for the last few months, and was giving me the grand tour today.

Systel also has quite an impressive building out in an area of Cairo called 6th October (apparently an important date). It is in an IT industrial park called the Smart Village, with all the big names in Egyptian (and World) IT. This photo is from the big highway that heads out that way from the city. It is surrounded by, in parts: a forest of palm trees, extensive agriculture and, rather worryingly, a new huge shopping mall. At the Smart Village Office, Systel develops software for telecommunication applications. Omar, Ismail's older son, who is doing a Masters in Software Engineering is one of their lead developers. Yesterday he was giving me a run down of the software they have been developing for the TETRA network, which is pretty cool.


For the last fews days I have been reading up the documentation on the some of the Motorola systems that Systel works with, and hopefully on Sunday I can get down to something useful.Yes, that is right, Sunday. Because the weekend is Friday and Saturday! That is going to have to take a little getting used to (luckily I am starting with a shorter week, rather than a longer one). Another thing that is going to have to take a little getting used to is the early sunset. Of course it is winter here, but still 5:30pm is a bit early. But I can't change these things, so it is safe to moan about them (a matter of personal preference).

Anyways, we are going out soon, considering it is a Thursday night (aka Friday night back home). So onwards, upwards and outwards!

Coming Soon: Cairo at night - "normal" vs Egyptian cafes!