Hellgada

This morning we decided we were ready to move on from Luxor. We definitely enjoyed it, but were looking forward to somewhere a bit cooler and a bit cheaper. We took a bus west to Hurgada on the coast of the Red Sea. We were headed to Dahab, also on the Red Sea coast but on the Sinai Peninsula. There was no ferry across the Gulf of Suez from Hurgada to the Sinai Peninsula on Friday, so we were stuck in Hurgada for 2 nights. It wasn't too bad, since the ocean here is beautiful, and the weather was exquisitely cool(er).

We walked through town and found a reasonable hotel,the 4 Season. Sadly, it was not a member of the 5 star chain. In fact, the staff was rude and it was overpriced. But it was the cheapest clean place we could find. We dropped our stuff and put on our bathing suits to head down to the beach for a nice swim. Unfortunately, most of the beaches charge an 'entrance fee' of at least 15E pounds. What is this world coming to??? On the way, we passed a pub selling Stella beers for 5E pounds. Seeing this as a total bargain (it's the cheapest we've found in Egypt), we couldn't pass up the opportunity, so we sat down at a table outside for a few cold ones. Well, about 2 beers later, we really couldn't be bothered to walk ourselves down to the public beach, so we spent the rest of the afternoon parked right where we were. We got to watch some of Grosse Point Blank and most of Pal Joey a Frank Sinatra classic. On the third beer we thought it was time to try a Sheesha and we decided on apple flavoured. It was alright, very smooth and sweet. We finally left when the Celine Dion music and the creepy waiter (he called himself Crazy Mohammed and tried to 'sneakily' touch me on the leg or arm) became too much to bear.

We walked around for ages trying to find something cheap to eat for dinner. Finding nothing, we shared a pasta meal at one of the many Italian places which was far from cheap. With nothing else to do in this hole of a town, we went back to our hotel room and went to bed.