nomadic tendencies: a brief respite in sharm el sheikh (meant to post this ages ago)

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at the end of march, at 7:30 thursday morning, TheMech and i had TheDriver take us to sharm el sheikh since there wasn't much going on mechanically onsite. sharm is an awesome resort town on the red sea across from hurghada. the trip was originally going to be one day only. a balls-to-the-wall drive up, party our heads of, and then drive back. after a long, fairly boring ride, we arrived to our hotel, the hilton sharm waterfalls, around 3:30 in the afternoon. it is located in the B-G area of the map there. we booked in, walked around the pools (there are 7), and headed to the beachside bar, the tipsy turtle. there was much time to make up for and no time to waste. there we met TheJo and her husband, TheJohn (known collectively henceforth as TheBritCouple). we had a few drinks with them as they suggested a few ideas of where to go in town that night. we also watched some of the hotel guests partake in the beachside end-of-the-day egyptian belly-dancing lessons (along with some who i assume were working girls doing some advertising). the tipsy turtle closes at sundown, so we closed our tab, and headed up to the middle pool for a dip. once there, we jumped in and noted what a refreshing though salty pool it was. this was my first experience with a salt-water pool. i'm not sure how i take it. my skin ended up getting a bit dry and was coated with a fine dusting of salt, my shorts dried looking like i'd been sweating in them all day. anyways, after that, we ran our separate ways to get cleaned up for a night out. we met up at 7PM at the 24-hour bar just off the hotel lobby, and ran into TheBritCouple again. we had a few drinks, then joined them on the hotel shuttle that took us to naama bay where all the hot spots are.

belly-dancing on the beach

at naama bay, TheMech, TheDriver and i went to the hard rock cafe for a few drinks to start. it was easy to get to, and why not do a touristy thing every once in a while. the bouncer was a BIG muscly black man with a tight black T-shirt on, a silver sequined australian-style cowboy hat and shiny silver boots. definitely eclectic. we sat at the bar and had a few drinks, taking in the atmosphere, then decided to grab a bite. our waiter was a goof who consistently ignored us for a table of blonds, slammed our plates down, just rather unpleasant. TheMech was more than happy to call the manager over and complain about him. the manager apologized for him and said he'd do something about it. after dinner, i stopped off at the WC, and on the way out, a waiter shook my hand and asked if i remembered him. i'm sorry, but i've met A LOT of egyptians and they kinda look alike if you meet that many. i looked at his nametag ("TheTato"), and didn't recognize the name, so i apologetically explained that i didn't know him. then he reminded me that i did. several weeks ago on our weekly intoxicated KFC run in alexandria, we saw a guy in a harley-davidson jacket. we thought it a bit odd, so we said "hi" to him and told him he had a nice jacket. we didn't catch his name, but during this post-bathroom-handshake at the hard rock cafe, i found out that that man in the KFC was TheTato. we'd run into the same guy, twice, over 700km away. we are famous all over egypt! he invited us to the HRC disco starting at midnight, and he'd be able to get us in free. when we got the bill, we'd gotten a 30% discount which TheTato said he took care of too, but that might've been the manager.

after a bit of lulling around, TheMech and i decided that we had to put our feet in the red sea. there's quite a bit of coral just below the water line at this part of the coast, so the hotel has a pontoon bridge running out to where the water is deeper. walking on this bridge certainly made one feel drunk if he weren't, and i'd pity the person who was. walking past the shallow coral, TheMech pointed out some large and beautifully-colored fish just dilly-dallying around (as much as a fish can dilly or dally). at the end of the pontoon bridge, it spreads out a bit to a seating area of sorts where you can chill with the rocking of the ocean or dive in. TheMech and i dove in and found the water to be a bit chilly but nice. TheDriver hung his feet in the water as he's not a very strong swimmer.

i kinda forget the rest of the trip, we were only there two days, so that may be it. there was ONE interesting story. we went to the rooftop of the camel bar on our last night there. TheMech noticed a table full of girls and went over to be social. after a few minutes, he invited TheDriver and i over to meet his new friends, some scottish flight attendants for thomson travel. we had a good time talking with them and the scottish accent just rocks. TheMech was on fire with stories and jokes. TheDriver took the next two photos while TheMech was telling a joke about an airplane. it was a good joke, he was the only one in on it. he's the pilot, someone's a co-pilot, and four people are engines. suffice it to say, by the end of the joke, i was the only remaining engine, i was "on fire", and to save the flight, the pilot had to put me out... with beer!

so, that's the end of that story and another thing off my checklist. i still have oktoberfest (jesus, that's taking forever) and scotland. i'll get right on those.