Why do vacations have to end.....?

Welllll, here I am in cairo again after a few days in Sharm El Sheikh and to be honest, I am not very happy about it!!! We (Zoomie, Chris and I) had an amazing  mini-break (as Bridget Jones would say) and I don't think any of us were ready to come home  as we shuffled up the stairs onto Egyptair flight 128 this morning.

Thursday was a holiday- labour day- and the flight to Sharm is only about 45 minutes, so we took a late evening flight from cairo on Wednesday night, getting in at a fairly reasonable hour.  

We had a really wonderful few days- it was so nice to breathe clean air and swim in the ocean and not think or talk about work at all (we made a rule!!), and I could go on and on about how incredible the snorkeling was {better than Pacific or the Caribbean side of Mexico, Hawaii and the Dominican put together!!} but it'll probably be more interesting for you  if I post some pictures and let them speak for themselves, and I'll just give you some of the more amusing highlights in point form: 

- One of our co-workers got us a great deal at hotel belonging to a well-known international brand in the centre of town, but "something" (aka higher rated business!) happened and they called to say we'd been relocated to another resort a bit further from the town centre. The location was fine, and the beach was beautiful but the service was TERRIBLE!!!! I'm not sure if the service is the same all over sharm, due to the difficulty attracting and retaining labour in resorts (we have that issue in the rockies too) or if it was isolated to this particular hotel, but save a few staff members, most of the employees looked  and acted as though they'd rather be getting an anesthesia-free root canal than working there. One of the more memorable interactions was from the front desk agent when I phoned to find out how to check telephone messages:

FD guy: allofrondask...

Me: hello? Front desk?

FD guy: yes, frondask.

Me:Yes, hi, there is a red light blinking on my phone, I think I have a message.

FD dude (I'm going to  go out on a limb and say that his name was mohamed): what?

Me: the message light. on my phone. it's blinking. how do I check my message? 

Mohamed: What? please say slower.

Me: message. phone.

Mohamed: I'm sorry ma'am, your english is very difficult to understand..

Me: what, MY english?!

Mohamed: yes, it is very hard to understand, you do not talk clearly. 

Me: ummmmm okaayyy, so you can't help me?? 

Mohamed: no. you are too difficult to understand. {hangs up}

Mush maool! (arabic for "unbelievable!")  In retrospect, maybe I should have spoken english in an italian accent...  (see next bullet)

 

-Besides a great South African couple that we befriended (Timo and Minx) we were the only english speaking guests at the resort, the rest were Russian or Italian. The guys in our crew stood out a little in their board shorts, as the rest of the men were wearing (my new fav nickname for a speedo) "grape smugglers". Also, I know you have been worried about this since the 80's, but the "rat tail" hairstyle is still alive and well in russia!! 

- I'm sure by now you've noticed my fascination with errors on signage and menus, wellllll on this trip, we had some doozies...... Our room rate included all meals, which were served buffet style, so each item was labeled. Yesterday's lunch featured, "peans", "parley soup" and "chicken winges"and each morning for breakfast, we ate a hearty bowl of "oaths". The coffee shop at the sharm airport proudly showed its versatility by announcing on a sign, that patrons were welcome to order either from the barista or "on their table". I know, I know, I shouldn't laugh, especially since my arabic is currently at a pre-school level, but I can't help myself sometimes...

On a more serious note, the Cliffs seem to be narrowly avoiding disaster lately-- I told you about the concert Tabitha was at last week where the floor collapsed... well 2 days ago, there was a terrible bus accident on the Sinai, a bus going from Sharm to Cairo, carrying 40 tourists flipped over and sadly, 8 people were killed. I drove this road about 3 weeks ago, and my parents will be doing the same in about 5 days.  Thanks to all of you who wrote for your concern, but we are (thankfully) all just fine. But they say bad things happen in threes don't they... so Mum, Dad, Michael, Uncle David,  Auntie Sherron, Tabs, Andrew, Nathan and Stephen, let's be extra careful and look out for each other over the next while, okay??!!!

In other news..... you might be interested in the latest goss in Cairo hotel circles! The Saudi ownership of  one of the biggest hotels in town has just banned alcohol completely!! Our favourite  blog for hotel news, vacantready.com has the deets...

Okay well that's all for now, I should go and mentally prepare myself for the 5 day week ahead. 5 days!!! In a row!! Mush maool!!

Hope you're all doing well, miss you!

C