After celebrating Sophie and Brandon's wedding with the Nash family, I headed into London and caught a flight to Sharm El Sheikh for a week with my parents. This post is filled with exclamations and photos - it was a truly fantastic week!!
I didn't want to have the stress of losing luggage again (see
here for the horror of an 8 day baggage loss over Christmas on my last visit), so I only brought a carry-on this time. So traveling was really easy and simple. I took a red-eye from Heathrow to Cairo, and then a quick jump across the Red Sea to Sharm.
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| The view from my balcony! |
Once again, I was fortunate enough to be able to have my own room at the hotel and it was A-MAZING! It was nicely located about halfway between the beach and where my parents live, and it had recently been redecorated and was stunning!
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| Loved the inset couch! (Not pictured - massive bathroom, walk in closet, changing area, and living area!!) |
I spent the week having a truly relaxing and lovely holiday. I was able to squeeze in 7 dives, which was fantastic - although I did have some trouble equalising my ears properly. I'm still not sure why that happens sometimes, but not all the time. Two days we went out on the yacht Virginia, which was really nice and beautiful.
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| View of the hotel from the boat |
One afternoon Dad was off of work, so Mum, Dad, and I went out for a dive off of Tiran Island (which I just learned is actually part of Saudi Arabia, so can I count that as a new country?!?) and then the next day Mum and I went out for a full day's diving to Ras Mohammed National Park. We had a fantastic day with two gorgeous dives, including one around a shipwreck.
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| Lunch after the second dive |
We saw so many different fish - trigger fish, clown fish, moray eels, blue spotted rays, barracuda (including one HUGE one), jackfish, and much more! Also, during the surface interval between the two dives, a massive pod of dolphins that spent about twenty minutes swimming around our boat - so awesome!
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| This is a little hard to make out, but while underwater all the dolphins would swim right next to each other and formed a massive blob of dolphins - apparently it was to help teach the young ones |
When I wasn't diving, I was either relaxing by the pool or on the upper beach area with my mum - or we were escaping the heat by playing games in their house. We played lots of games throughout the week, so it was just my kind of holiday. I was also able to finish three books - so, for me, it really doesn't get better than that!
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| A hot bubble bath + tea + a book = pure luxury! |
Mum and Dad's car broke down while I was there, so we had to "rough it" by staying in the resort the whole time - what a rough life! We were able to go to most of the restaurants there, and Dad was able to join us most nights, which was lovely. The food was delicious at all of the restaurants (the chefs knew we'd be reporting back to Dad if they weren't!)
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| On the way to Sails, the restaurant right on the water |
We did the leave the resort one night, to walk down the road to the Savoy shopping area, where we stopped in at the Duty Free to buy some alcohol. You can't bring alcohol in duty free if you fly through Cairo, but then you are allowed 48 hours to go to a duty free store in town, and get some. I picked some up for my parents (and helped them drink some), and they make a notation on your passport - so now the only thing in my British passport is an Egyptian visa with a notation that I bought two units of alcohol!
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| View of the hotel at night |
It was Ramadan when I arrived, but it finished mid-week, and then it was Eid - I even got a cute plate of cookies and chocolate to celebrate! The whole place was decorated with lights and bunting, and everyone was happy that the fasting was over!
While there my dad interviewed for a position as head chef at the Four Seasons in Shanghai, and they have offered him the position and he has accepted!! I am super happy for them, as it will be a new challenge at work, and there will be lots more to do in Shanghai than there is in Sharm. I am glad that I've been able to make it out to visit four times, and will definitely miss the hotel there, and the diving. But I will be excited to explore more of Shanghai in the future.
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| Last lunch at the hotel - not too bad of a view! |
