Marsa Alama

The dive center, run by Aquarius.

A smaller wooden boat, folouka. Nour and I went out on one of these for our first dive at Marsa Mekki. Aquarius has named all the various dive sites near their center, or they were already named. Either way each one has clear water, extensive coral reefs, and marine life to spare.

The Red Sea.

The hammocks, where Nour, Tom and Tomoun spent at least one hour napping every day. While I have learned how to sleep-in I still suck at napping. Oh well.

John-Baptiste (or JB if you are assumed to be a stupid American who cannot pronounce one of the more common French names), Peter, and Mathiue (here I will admit I have no idea how to spell this other horribly common French name-stupid American). Peter, 49-year-old PE teacher, was a joy to be around. He all chatted with all of us daily about teaching, politics, media, relationships and life. Peter spoke perfect English and felt bad when he could not remember words like amicable, I told him not to worry.

Nour and Tomoum on the boat. Only Nour and I went out on the boat, Tomoum was teaching Tom how to dive. The boat dives were amazing. I went down to 30 meters and saw amazing coral and fish!

The hut compound where we ate all out meals when not on the beach or boat and slept.

The Indiana Jones style rope bridge leading into the hut compound, which was across the road from the dive center and small cafe area.

Lounge chairs with the moon, around 5pm

Scuba Faye

Diving boat

Set up area on the large boat.

Some Egyptian environmentalism.

View from the larger ship we went out on one day for two dives and the site we started at for one dive.

My hut.

Lounging chairs where I spent a considerable amount of time getting super tan! OK not really that tan, but I am trying.

Boats for the dive center, a southward view towards some hills and dessert.

A stop to get some Pizza, there was no pizza, but we did see remnants of wedding.

Where we stopped to get pizza. They also had an amazing amount of baked goods.
French pastries abound in Egypt.

Several facts leading up to a vacation

1) Only two out of the supposed eight interns have arrived, making training sort of pointless.
2) The apartments for the interns are not ready.
3) Nour is originally from a tourist/diving town and has lots of friends who are well connected and excellent divers.
4) Cairo is smoggy and summer is still on!

All facts considered Tom, Nour and I head off to Marsa Alam on the 13th of August with a quick overnight stop in Hurgadah to pick up Nour's best friend and dive instructor Ahmed Tomuom. The four of us travel to Marsa Alam and arrived on the 14th for a four night/five day stay filled with two dives a day, excellent food, a super chill environment, and a wonderful ecologically minded break from Cairo.

The road to Marsa Alam

The North Coast

The North Coast of Egypt shares the Mediterranean Sea with Europe and the rest of North Africa, but many of you know that. A few days into my trip and I pack into a car with Ezz, Nour, Emily (another Canadian who met all these guys somehow) and Moussad (a fellow AIESEC guy and super nice). We actually leave the house before ten am, first time for me, pick up Emily and then Moussad and hit the road north.

We head to PORTO MARINA.
(About three hours north and then 40 or so miles west of Alexandria)


PORTO MARINA

All along the coast line large private condo/villa units have sprung up. Egypt's rich go there to be rich and put gates around the shoreline. Inside the gated areas known as Marina 1, 2, 3 etc there are houses, condos, flowers, not very many Europeans, and a shocking number of fast food restaurants. So much KFC! The largest of all of them is PORTO MARINA, shopping, strolling, shishsha'ing and yachting. A tad bit ostentatious if you ask me.

The Beach
We sat somewhere off to the right

Emily, Mousaad and Faye

Not really my scene. People drive everywhere, kids out to show other kids how hip they are, but the water was gorgeous. We stayed for most of the day and night and then drove back to Cairo, salty, tired and sort of tan.

All in all a more than worthy day trip.

Wedding! Egypt Style

Crazy amounts of food. There was one of these tables going the other way too, double to food!

Faye at the wedding.

The reception hall, note the video crane.

I really have no clue why I was able to go to this wedding other than Egyptians, especially the ones I have met, are incredibly generous, giving and into large groups.

The wedding took place at a huge hotel in Giza, where the pyramids are and no I have not seen them yet. Sad Face. Anyways, the wedding was amazingly huge. Two or three huge buffet tables, more like rows of tables. A cake which came down from the ceiling to be cut on stage with a saber by the bride and groom, three separate tables of different desserts, video cameras hovering over the crowd via a crane, a videographer, photographer, live music, a team of dancing boys/men, and two screens in the banquet room showing live crowd shots. Nuts.

Apparently there are three stages to an wedding. The gift giving, where the groom gives the bride something. The wedding, where they sign papers and are officially married. Finally the reception, where they are presented and can live together. That is what the guide books say at least. I know that there was a signing stage and I attended the reception, so partially true. What was also crazy-no alcohol. Yup!

Also men tended to dance in groups and women tended to surround the bride dancing, with the occasionally appearance by the groom or another male friend/family member.

Dancing at the wedding.

View from Nour's House and Nour

View from the deck off the room I sleep in at Nour's house.

My Bed.

Nour and his younger brother Ezz.


Nour and his family live in Heliopolis, a not quite suburb outside of downtown Cairo. Most buildings are high rise concrete monoliths, but inside the nicer apartments you will find tiled floors, air conditioning, tasteful furniture, patios and large rooms. Nour lives in a nice place.

Streets are rarely well paved and are usually filled with sandy dust, men standing on the corners and various stalls. A really nice shop will be next to a shady cigarette stand and across from a fruit vendor and a snack kiosk. Pepsi and Coke reign supreme and I have seen more 7up here than in anywhere else. I am extremely glad Diet Coke is a universal happening, sometimes multinationals are a good thing, sometimes.

First Night

Liz (from Ohio) and Sunny (from Canada), two fellow AIESECers I met my first night.
Faye, Hous, Egyptian street meat dude, Anne, Liz, and Sunny all go to "Abdoul Pollution," a highly regarded street meat stop. This was about 3am, I was very tired and a little worried that the various meats in the skinny hoggie buns would make me sick. They did not and I slept soundly, about two hours later!

Leaving for Cairo

Some ladies in New York.

Billy got a whole fish at the Pink Door, where we also saw a very entertaining burlesque show.

Billy and I for dinner at the Pink Door.

Leaving Seattle was tempered by a visit to New York with Ana, family and friends. New York was hot and sweaty, good prep for Cairo. Left NY on the 6th to arrive, via Zurich, in Cairo in the 7th The flight was easy, with just one hitch getting a visa. You have to have American dollars, I did not. Luckily a very nice Australian woman spotted me some cash and I paid her back. Nour arrived to pick me up and off we went to his house!

Safe and sound to start the trip.