3 day weekend in October -Sharm El Sheik

Egypt is a great place to plan a beach vacation- very little chance to be rained out! 

Cheers to a great vacation in a great location.  

Lazy River, a two story water slide, gorgeous landscaping and at least 5 different pools.  The reef starts within 6 inches of shore - perfect snorkeling.  We did one day of scuba diving - then decided to spend the other two days enjoying this luxurious location.  

A bowl of fruit, fresh flower arrangement, and bowls of candies greeted us in our suite.

The living room area of our suite.  A teacher-friend hooked us up with a wonderful upgrade with his Diamond member perks.  Thanks, Jeff!  We were in heaven!

 We were given access to this private pool for elite members only. 

Our day of diving (8am-5pm) on the Red Sea with Ocean College

The tourist industry is really hurting in Egypt.  This beautiful hotel and the two beautiful beaches were all ours - very few other guests.

This private club for elite members a short walk from our suite served us free drinks and appetizers every day from 4-7pm.

A super deluxe dive boat - not a bad way to spend a whole day!  There were some fun people on this boat. One Asian man wore a Sumo wrestler bathing suit - it was a g-string with just a little flap in the front.  He kept posing for his group to take pictures and they were all laughing and having a great time.  I wish I had been brave enough to take a picture of him for you all!

A dive boat very similar to the one we were on.

I decided to get a facial while I was there.  This was the most painful facial I have ever experienced.  The guy used a string to take off every hair on my face - even those in my nose!  OUCH!

The flowers were extraordinary!  I wish I could add the smells to this blog!

These two newlyweds have become our travel buddies!  The guy between them is a Sufi whirling dancer who was our entertainment for the night.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi_whirling

The snorkeling right from shore was equal to the scuba diving in the area.  Amazing.  This was the entrance to the private beach that we were given access to because of the elite status of our friend.

This guy whirled around for almost 10 minutes.  This is a type of spiritual meditation where they believe the whirling allows their soul to float free.  Afterwards, he had all of us come up on stage and try on his skirt - which was weighted and very heavy - and try spinning. None of us could spin for even a minute before becoming very dizzy.  The poor guy had to perform for only about 10 of us since the resort was so empty.  Come visit Egypt!  If you like Cancun - you will LOVE Sharm!

Another view of our resort.  We ran into about 10 US Servicemen who are stationed in the Sinai as part of the UN Peacekeeprs who are making sure that the Camp David Treaty is followed.  They said this is the only resort in Egypt approved by the USA for them to stay.  They are not allowed to go to Cairo due to security concerns - yet they patrol the Gaza strip about every other day.

They were so excited to talk to other Americans - and we were so excited to be able to thank them for their service and wish them a wonderful weekend furlough.  They said that Sharm and the road to Dahab are safe and that they patrol the road between the two every day.

This was a very relaxing three day weekend!