3/11/09
1934 (local time)
Ahh, what an epic week and a bit! I've been flat out... partying and swimming that I haven’t been bothered to type up a blog! So instead I’ll let you know what has happened over the past week.
I'm writing this on the plane from Sharm El Sheik to London Luton which is meant to be quite special occasion as this is the first time Easyjet has flown from Sharm to Luton! I'm excited! Anyway, here’s the story!
It started off on my arrival to Nuwebia, Egypt. On the 26th of October it was only a last minute decision to go to. So I hopped off the ferry from Aqaba, Jordan. Caught a taxi for 15 Egyptian Pound (LE) ($3AUD) to Soft Beach Nuwebia.
I had no idea where or what I was going to be confronted with on arrival. But I was impressed! I got the cheapest room/hut for 30LE ($6AUD) INCLUDING BREKKY! STOKED! When I was shown the hut, I just laughed. It’s basically a door leading into a tiny space where there is a bit of foam on the ground as a bed, and a shredded mozzie net over the bed hanging from the roof. It was sick!
When I arrived it was about 4pm. So I pumped out a massive internet session that ended with a swim in the dark in the refreshing Gulf of Aqaba. Super happy.
I was only planning to stay here for maybe 2 nights. But I got an email from an American bloke that I met in Huma, Syria, saying that he was going to be coming to Dahab, I informed him that he should make his way to Nuwebia to relax.
The next day (the 27th) I was just planning on... Guess what! RELAXING! So I spent about 2.5 hours sunbaking and listening to music, whilst every now and again going for a cheeky swim.
Marc eventually arrived late that afternoon, where we had some dinner and together watched the greatest movie alive “POINT BREAK” featuring a young Keane Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Epic night! We went to bed at midnight because tomorrow was going to be a full day of relaxing, can’t wait!
So I woke at about 9ish the next morning (28th), and was set for another day of lying in the sun listening to music again! Fantastic!
The next day we had a bit of travelling on our hands, we were headed to the almighty place known as Dahab!
We caught the early bus to Dahab on the 29th which was good, we had planned it well. We were going to arrive to Dahab on a Thursday, have several swims, relax and prepare ourselves for a big night on Friday (30th) and especially the 31st which was Halloween.
So we found a hostel/hotel called Red Sea Relax aka Dahab Dorms that is super cheap (30LE) including a buffet breakfast, swimming pool, relativity cheap beers and being very close to the beach and a reef! Not only was this hostel just amazing, I honestly believe that the hostel was only filled with pretty fit females! I dunno about Marc but I was pretty impressed!
So Friday came along and we met up with my bearded friend Preston from America we got some half litre Sakara beers and we were sorted for the night. We were drinking on the balcony of our sick hotel with Preston, Marc and of course a few birdies!
We headed off to Funny Mummy’s for a cheap feed, everyone was impressed mostly because of the water spray bottles supplied by the crew of Funny Mummy’s that you used to spray all the rogue cats that try to steal your food. Always good fun to have some target practice on rogue cats, but unfortunately our fun was ruined by a European woman that had a go at me for squirting a cat. This was the same woman that put her plate on the floor so that 8 or 9 cats could have a feast! Stupid Woman! Never mind, we then paid the bill and made our way onto the bar of choice... RUSH BAR!
I may have written about Rush Bar before, amazing place with a swimming pool inside the bar! Can’t go wrong apart for the absolute wanker from Finland (I believe) that was the door man for that night.
Last time I was there, we all got in for free, but this time he was going to make us pay... now not only is this absolutely ridiculous because we are in Egypt and no one should pay a cover charge but also there was hardly anyone in the bar anyway. So got into an argument with the bloke on the door, I’d had a few beers but I was quite composed and tried to talk our way in there... unfortunately it didn’t happen in our favour so we headed home that night and continued to drink on our balcony whilst listening to music!
We went to sleep around 4am, and Preston and I planned to go for a Run in the morning at 7am! This didn’t happen!
The next day for October the 31st aka Halloween! That day we had booked a trip to the Blue Hole in Dahab which is a famous dive site where many divers have died trying to explore the 100+ hole! Obviously I don't have my Open Water Diving Certificate so instead Marc and I went snorkelling instead. We had Marc’s underwater camera so we were taking some amazing shots! We were both doing some free diving and seeing how far we could go! We were getting quite deep! I wanted to go deeper but my head felt as if it was going to explode... I'm not all that good at equalising!
We stayed at the Blue Hole for hours before we packed our stuff up and drove back to Dahab to prepare ourselves for a massive night of drinking and dancing! DAHAB BE WARNED!
We started on the beers early say around 5pm. me and Preston were both in our costumes by 6. Preston was going to go as ‘The Dude’ from The Big Lebowski. But unfortunately he was unable to find a bath robe, so instead he went as Forrest Gump, complete in little red shorts, white t-shirt, hat and sunnies. I went as an AFL Footy Player dressed up in full Hawthorn kit from Hawks Socks to Hawks Jumper, I was completely kitted out! To make myself look even better, I even got my AFL footy pumped up for the occasion! Marc was the only one that wasn’t dressed up, so in a desperate attempt he left us at 7.00 and came back at 7.20, completely naked apart from a box that he had cut up and was now wearing it around his waist. WE WERE THE WOLF PACK! Dahab had never seen anything like this before. After several beers and a bottle of cheap Egyptian Vodka we were set to rock and roll!
Preston and I ran through the main street of Dahab kicking, bouncing and passing the football to restaurant owners and random passerbies! We were in very good form!
Ok, so from here on in, the rest of the night is a bit of a blur, I can only put together the rest of the night using photos off my camera and other peoples so here goes!
So before we had even left the hostel, we already had causality at 11.07pm, Sarah from the U.K had passed out on one of the sun beds! POOR FORM!
Ok so we left our hotel at 11.16pm and headed to Mojitos bar where there was a Halloween party kicking off there.
By 11.32pm the party was really kicking off, and by looking at the photos we were already getting our photo taken by a random... I might was well just add, that apart from 2 other people that didn’t even last too long, we were the only 3 dressed up for Halloween!
By 11.48pm I had traded my football for a crazy hat... that apparently according to local sources is from October Fest!
By 12.43am, there were local’s break dancing! Which I do remember trying to join in on!
By 1.01am Preston was feeling the burn!
By 1.05am, I had my football back, and I met a girl who I gave the hat too, I think she was from Australia also!
By 1.06am, Preston had fallen in love!
By 1.19am, the hat got passed onto Michelle from Byron, Australia!
By 1.27am, The Aussie girl had left Preston and instead wanted to feel what was under the box!
By 1.29am, Preston and Marc had a moment!
By 2.24am, Preston had lost his hat and sunglasses, in what we believe were caused by a break dancing incident! Preston then had a moment with some of the local Egyptians!
By 3.08am, the box had been ripped off Marc... no one really knows what happened between 2.24 and 3.08am...
1.20pm the next day November the 1st, Marc and I indulged in a kilo of spaghetti bolognaise...
As we all sat around the table we tried to put together what happened that night! Preston lost his Hat and Sunglasses and Marc woke up with a XL Lime Green Men’s Buttoned shirt tied around his waist...
It was an awesome night!
When we walked down the street, severely hung over we were getting smile and nods from random’s who we must have partied with that night... We Rocked Dahab!
That day we had a plan, we were going to book ourselves into a trek up Mount Sinai!
Mount Sinai is a 2285m mountain that rises up out of the desert, the reason why Mount Sinai is of so much importance is that it is to be believed that Moses received the 10 Commandments from God at the summit!
The standard tour is leave at 11pm that night, drive for 2 hours to the bottom of the mountain and trek for 3 hours up the mountain where you can watch a beautiful sunrise, and have a nice walk down the mountain looking at all the beautiful rock formations and feel blessed by God? That you have walked n the footsteps of Moses!
OK! Now this is what really happened!
We left our hotel at around 11.20pm, but it wasn’t until much later that we were on the way to Mount Sinai. We arrived and were greeted by gusty ice cold winds. I was expecting temperatures similar to what it was like in Dahab so I was wearing my Halloween Costume again, the Hawks get up. As soon as I got off the bus, I was putting extra pants and t-shirts and jumpers on... it was bloody cold!
We waited and farted around for a while, whilst we waited for our un-needed tour guide to show up! Once he did, we didn’t start walking until 2am.
So the sun doesn’t rise until 5.30 – 6.00 does it? And the walk is supposed to take 3 hours... right! Which means that we should be getting up at the top by around about 5am.
Well for us athletes, the trek only took us 1 hour and 45 minutes, it would have taken us less, but we were dodging elderly tourists and camels that couldn’t walk straight. So we were up the top by 3.45 – 4.00... meaning that we had to wait almost 2 hours until the sun rises.
We made it up the top of the Mountain and I can’t remember the last time I was that cold. The air temperature would have been around 10 degrees but the wind chill made it feel as low as negative 5 degrees.
Marc and I had brought our sleeping bags, unfortunately Preston didn’t have one, and he also walked up in shorts and I had to convince him to bring a jacket. He was frozen, his wild beard wasn’t keeping him warm.
What made it even colder was that the trek up the mountain had made us all sweaty, so you had to ditch some warm (but sweaty) clothes and instead only sleep in a singlet and a jumper... we were freezing.
As soon as I hit the top, I was wrapped up in my sleeping bag trying to stop myself from shivering so violently, all the boys were the same. Luckily there were local Egyptians up there selling warm camel blankets, we bargained 3 for 10LE (Usually 1 for 20LE) which we laid across ourselves, we were all still freezing, so we proceeded to... spoon one another to keep warm.
During the night, I was sat on by a Spanish woman... and it wasn’t a usual ‘ill just have a rest’ sit down. She pretty much took all her weight off and placed it on my head, neck and shoulders, I was so tired and cold I let out a groan, to which she replied over a dozen times “Sorry Senyior” in an Spanish accent. She must have actually been convinced that we were a pack of rocks or even a bench.
We woke 5.30am, 30minutes too early an almost sunrise, which I was too cold that I physically couldn’t reach into my pocket to get my camera out. I stood for less than a minute with the thick camel blanket wrapped around me until I could no longer withstand the ice cold wind, so I went back to where we were sleeping, where I took on the upright foetal position, where the rest of the boys joined me to form somewhat of a barrier against the cold.
30 so minutes later (5.50am) we saw a beautiful but painful sunrise. Normally in that type of moment I would really enjoy getting a nice photo, but in this circumstance I was just pointing and shooting and just hoping some photos came out alright.
After the sun had completely risen, we went back to the wall again to regain the foetal position to try our best to warm up.
Once the sun had completely risen, and the crowd had moved on, we packed our bag and continued on our trek back down the mountain. It was starting to warm up ever so slightly but I still couldn’t feel my toes or feet and my legs were having spasms on every step. We made it into a coffee hut, where the shear body heat of everyone being in there warmed up the room. We sat here for a while and ate some cold stale cheese and bread sandwiches that we had made.
When we walked back outside, it was starting to warm up again by the time we were starting to trek down the mountain I were starting to regain blood to my feet and toes.
Instead of walking back down the ‘camel path’ we thought we should take the more direct path. Called the Steps of Repentance which is 3750 steps of pure knee jolting hell. The steps were laid by a monk as a form of penance.
By the time we gotten on solid ground I was so relieved, and so were my knees and legs. We were on the bottom by 8.15am. Where we wandered quickly around the monastery, before taking a seat in the cafe trying to warm up again... After finishing some biscuits we then did the proper walk around the monastery. Honestly there really isn’t all that much to look at. I did wander into a room where there were other rooms leading off this filled with human bones and skulls from all the previous monks! Pretty awesome, put a smile on my face.
We then walked into the actual St. Katherine’s Monastery, where there is the ‘Burning Bush’ where I think that was where Moses spoke to God... But really... lets be dead set down the line honest here... Apparently Moses lived to the age of 132. Where the general age of people dying at that time was around 30... so you be the judge... personally I don't take it too heart as much as others do.
After we finished up, we met everyone at the bus, and we were back on the road by 10.30am, I slept the whole way. I remember listening to 2 Sublime songs then I was out like a light. We arrived back in Dahab by 12.30pm. Where Marc passed out on a sun lounge, Preston went home for a bit and I stayed awake chatting to girls telling them how we had to trek through 6ft of snow to get to the top of the Mountain and to sleep we cut open a dying camel and slept inside. J
That night we had a nice seafood dinner, I said my goodbyes to Marc and Preston as they were heading over to Cairo on the overnight bus. My plan was to have a few beers that night and head over to the Hilton hotel where there was a party kicking. But after 2 beers I was wiped, and with no hostel to sleep in as they were all full, I had a bit of a problem on my hands.
So I went back to my old hostel, dragged a sun bed so I wouldn’t be seen by the workers, jumped in my sleeping bag and had a free night sleep.
I was woken at 7am by flies buzzing on my face and the heat of the Egyptian sun, so I waited around, and then had a free buffet breakfast by pretending that I was staying in the hostel. The rest of the day was spent shopping and swimming, until I had to jump on the bus to Sharm so I could catch a flight to London, where I will spend the night sleeping in the airport and then in the morning somehow find my way to Laura aka Lozza’s house where I will spend a few nights!
So until then!
A tired and worn out Fig! Signing out at 2234 (local time)
PS: 3 hours of typing and over 3,000 words, and still 3 hours left of flying... just noticed there are a lot of 3’s in that sentence! BYE!
What a life... Hows work?
My little shack!
The main street of Nuwebia... looks packed ey?
Another shot of the main street!
Funny Mummys
The gang eating at Funny Mummys!
The Blue Hole
How nice is that view, pity i cant take photos! Wonky horizon!
How amazing is that view!
Best dive spot in the world!
ROCK ON DUDE!
Best dive spot in the world!
7.27pm Looking good!
7.51pm Shirt is off, making final adjustments
11.03pm Sarah is our first Causality
11.04pm THE WOLF PACK
11.11pm Starting to get ready for the party!
11.16pm Had a few beers+vodka, the walk to the Club
11.32pm Effects of Alcohol have struck!
12.48am Lost the footy, but got a hat!
12.49am Found the footy!
12.53am Break dancing!
1.01am Preston looking like he's in top form!
1.05am Got the footy and the hat!
1.06am Preston falling in love!
1.19am Found the hat, girls going strong!
1.27am Aussie girl finding out what is under the box!
1.29am the boys having a 'moment'
2.25am Preston has lost his hat!
2.24am Preston having another 'moment'
3.08am this what was left of the box!
1.2opm (next day) Hang Over Cure!
Mad Dog!
The (proper) wolf pack!
Actually freezing to death!
It may look fun... but i couldn't feel any part of my body!
The Sunrise... too cold to enjoy.
Hanging out with one of my mates!
What are YOU doing on the screen!
All the dead monks!
The burning bush where Moses apparently spoke to God!
The End
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This is one of the best reads ever!!
ReplyDeleteGood one!!
Wow! Luv,that was so hilarious,amazing read.
ReplyDeleteHalloween party! what a hoot.
I'm proud of you, writing so many words, maybe journalism could be the way to go???
Keep Safe,Luv Mum x