Filed under: Egypt
Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh, 2009, February
My first time in Egypt. Everything looked just like I assumed, hot and sunny, sand everywhere and mountains in the background. The airport we arrived to, looked really cool and modern, but the rest of the area looked kinda poor. I mean like, sand everywhere, the airport was surrounded by regular iron fences and a couple of outposts, with sleeping guards. The weather? It was really hot, about 28°C and I of course had a hoodie and jeans, because I just came from Finland where it had been about 10°C and wet.
The airport
Typical background
When the bus arrived, it was hotter inside than outside, but luckily the air-condition worked. On our way to the hotel there were many palm trees, flowers and bushes planted after one another. Every palm tree had it’s own lighting. At our five star hotel we had a beach nearby, great food, a really big pool, with a smaller one next to it… everything!
Outside there were mountains everywhere in the background. The nights were kinda warm, but perfect for a hoodie and jeans. There were many taxis all around and the price of them? Well, depending on where you go, you could get a lower price by nagging (like my parents did all the time :s). Inside a taxi, it was cool and fresh air (I guess, lol), but it had a funny smell wich can’t be described by words. Talking about funny things, I absolutely didn’t see any local women, even in the hotel! I really didn’t have much time in there (a week), because I took a little adventures while I could. Scuba diving & snorkeling and mountain hiking.
The palm trees' own lightnings. From our hotel.
Inside a taxi. Some other Finns joined on our journey. Oh yeah, those green things were some kind of "proofs" that you belonged to the hotel (other hotels nearby had different colors, like yellow. And your hotel's name, if you happened to forget).
Random photos:
Fountain in front of our hotel
Picture speaks from itself
Meet: Sparky (Don't worry, it doesn't bite)
Valentine's day
Every night there was a show nearby wich had very good, talented and funny performers. The music was really loud, but it didn't bother me much. The song collection was traditional "Arabian" kind of music, but still pretty good.
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Scuba diving and snorkeling
It had been two days since we arrived and it was time to do something rememberable. I went alone to Red Sea’s coral reefs with a couple other Finns from our hotel. Luckily our guide was also a finn, so it was easier to communicate and ask. The road took only about 30 minutes and there were a lot of speed bumps and same background on our way.
At the harbor we got wetsuits and blue swimming flippers. We had to wait like an hour, well not really, but it felt like it and then we finally got on a boat and took off. The voyage was pretty long and the ocean weather was warm and a little windy. The water was sooo clean and blue, that you would never see anything like that in Finland. The voyage wasn’t that boring, because we had the boat’s capitan telling about the equipment, coral reef, fishes, Egypt and its weather and other interesting things.
The harbor. Wharf was on the left. The weather didn't look good, but it got sunnier and warmer along with time.
You really could separate the coral reef, it was lighter than the water and there was already other boats with other people already snorkeling and diving under water. Wetsuit and swimming flippers on, time to under water. I got full equipment on and a quick tutorial of them. First the water felt cold, but it got really comfy and nice in no time, the water was really salty when I tasted it through mask. Under water I had the same guide guy from the hotel and he guided me and directed me with hand marks. Under the water was so cool, really beautiful coral reefs and awesome fishes. The fishes were really colorful, different-looking and some in little flocks. Touching them was forbidden, but why would i touch when i could only watch them hours. There was a photographer, who took pictures from the reefs, fishes and me. I was under water maybe over half an hour, bebause he had to guide others in my group too. The weather was was sunny and cloudy, but it didn’t prevent me to admire the awesome view. After that place, we moved to many other coral reefs that had different fishes and environment. Snorkeling was pretty cool, but the salty water and the waves were a bit disturbing. Scuba diving was my cup of tea and I absolutely prefer it.
It was a long, long day, but definetly something I will remember rest of my life. It ended up with a beutiful sunset.
Coral reef and the clean water.
BELIEVE me, that's Conan O'Brien.
A perfect moment to end a long day.
Rando Tikko
3 Comments so far
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Contents: Excellent
Perceptive, fluent and fun to read. You have a talent for storytelling, keep paying attention to the details around you, maybe writing is your cup of tea!
Media / appearance: Excellent
The pictures are stunning, the captions ineteresting to read and everything looks just perfect 
The Finnish translations for the 10 challenging words are missing, but I just can’t help it
Grammar: Very good
Comment by Ms Leino December 1, 2009 @ 8:21 pm- arrive AT the airport
- kinda = kind of
- planted one after the other
- nagging = valittamista, haggling over the prices = tinkimistä
- which words can’t describe
- tags that proved we were from the hotel
- wHich
- memorable
- could TELL where the coral was…
- one fish, two fish
- ended with a beautiful…
- No comma before “because”
Using the proofread button to get rid of the little spelling mistakes might be a good idea!
The grammar was very good, and the contents were excellent.
Comment by Hanna December 1, 2009 @ 9:52 pmYou wrote very substantial and funny. Things that you told reminded me of my trip to Egypt.
Your pictures were wonderfull and there were plenty of them, and that’s very good.
You write fluent english indeed. Your text is very easy to understand which is great. You’ve used many pictures taken by yourself so it’s awesome to have your own pictures, many people still just take them from the internet. But overall your text is easy to understand and written in fluent english. Wonderful!
Comment by Atte Mannelin December 17, 2009 @ 1:43 pm