Hurghada and the dolphins

I'm back in Cairo....what a journey.

The day long snorkel trip in Hurghada was fantastical!  We were aboard a beautiful yaught and some some amazing coral!  We were warned not to touch the coral while snorkelling but not told why.  A few people quickly found out why when they accidentally brushed up on it.  It was fire coral.  One guy in particular had huge welts across his backside.  It was brutal.  Still, it was so amazing to see....probably the best snorkelling I have ever done.

To top it all off, there were bottlenose dophins swimming with us in the water and they were swimming alongside some of the boats and playing.  It was awesome!  I saw a few huge stingrays in the water which was a little freaky.

  There are sharks in the water as well but apparently, they stay away from the reefs.  I hope that was true.  I certainly didn't see any.  Tons of German tourists around.  It seems like a very popular destintion for the locals.

Today, we took another convoy back to Cairo and went on a dinner cruise.  It was great.  Lots of dancing and there was a couple part of a Canadian reality tv show (with all the video cameras too) on the boat.  It is a Quebecois reality show...all in french.

Tomorrow, I catch a late flight to Bombay (Mumbai) India.  Looking forward to it.  Egypt has some amazing sights....really and truly fantastic and I am glad that I saw them.  I have to say though, that despite trying to understand, I was really not a fan of the Egyptian culture that I saw.

  I don't want to generalize but, I have never had such hastles whether it was walking down the street or trying to buy something.  For the most part, the Egyptian men were animals towards Western women.  Beyond rude.  By the end of the trip, I was pretty much disgusted with it.

On top of it, I will not miss "Baksheesh".  Baksheesh is the expectation that you give a tip for everything, even when the service was the most terrible you had ever had.  People pretend everywhere to give gifts and then demand money.  They can be very manipulative or tricky with this.  There seems to be a huge perception that Western women are sluts and that all Westerns are very rich and should give money.  They will try and rip you off of money anywhere you go, pretending not to have change, etc.

or pretending to forget about change.  I stopped giving people money until I saw my change in their hands first.

Whenever tourists travel long distances, police convoys are required.  Police convoys with armed (machine gun) police...a little scary.  When Jess and I were in Luxor, the break fast had just started and kid were setting off loud firecrackers in the streets (sounded like guns being shot) and the men were pretty much following us and leering us like dogs.  I will not miss this AT all!!

It is sad that this is what tourists sometimes see when they come to Egypt because there were a few nice or kind Egyptian's that did not behave in this way.  As I said before, loved the sights...not so much the people, unfortunately.