Now in Sharm Al Sheik

Safaga, Egypt


Ed got up around 8 and later went to the gym. Over 300 passengers went on tour to the Valley of the Kings, Luxor and Karnak. A few others went snorkeling and swimming nearby. Ed and I have been to the Nile area twice before and decided against going this time. It is a long drive, 3.5 hours each way, and the expense is not minor though certainly worth it if you’ve not been there before. So we decided to just stay in Safaga.
During the morning we asked around concerning what there was to do in Safaga. The concensus was: nothing. Further, the ship/port/pier is not close to the town itself so it requires a taxi ride both ways. There is a mall apparently, but why would we care?
So we stayed on the ship. We had lunch in the Panorama Buffet and sat on the back of the ship and enjoyed the brisk breezes and temperate (at least for this part of the world) weather. It was glorious. The contrast between the dark blue of the water and the creamy color of the sands is almost amusing. There is a large ship berthed next to us but instead of being alongside the pier, it has it’s backside straight up to the pier. It is apparent that you can drive onto it this way.
The port clearly transships grains as there is a huge grain elevator in view and these long conveyers to bring it to a transport. Other than the construction going on everywhere, there is nothing else in this port area. The ship has several Egyptian police near the side. I met some Egyptian officials on the ship as I was going down the stairs at one point today. In many if not most of these ports, the “officials” come onboard to eat here as the meals are very good. In India it was a huge joke as we estimated there were over 20 here mostly to eat.
Games
I love to play board games so I talked Ed into going to the game room with me. We played a round of Scrabble and he beat me sooooo bad that I didn’t even smell his smoke I was so far behind. Then we tried Junior Trivial Pursuit as we had played it once before with lots of howls. This version on the ship was waaayyy too simple. I started first and I got all of the answers right very quickly, so we abandoned the game room. As we left, there were two old guys in there playing chess. I would have been a great painting.
We read and watched TV until it was time to go to dinner. It was open seating since there are so few people on the ship (comparatively) so we sat at a window on the port side and watched dolphins of all sizes cavorting in the harbor area. It was fun to watch. The surface of the water was very flat and then the wind came up and rippled it in places where it turned very dark in contrast to the very light blue of the surface.
I finished reading the interviews with Gerald Ford and I really enjoyed reading his candor about the various people and events before and after his unexpected Presidency. He always struck me as a decent fellow and the interviews seemed to bear this out even considering that it was bound to be a puff piece.
Ed had me try his Kindle today and it has it’s plusses but the minuses are still considerable for me at this point. It wasn’t converted frankly.
We spent some time on the patio and the weather really wasn’t bad. The sun however, is blasting and will burn you very quickly. As dusk came, we could hear the iman singing the call to prayers from a minaret nearby. Earlier in the day, the Egyptian taxi drivers had their radios blasting Arabic music. I hope they didn’t think that was a draw for customers because the impact reminded me of the Manuel Noreiga school of harassment where you blast an area with hated music to get folks to surrender.
Pireaus, Greece
There’s some question about whether we’ll make this port, which is the one for Athens, because of all the unrest there. It’s a week yet before we’re there. It wouldn’t break my heart to miss it. I was disappointed in Athens as was Ed. I’m glad we got to see the Acropolis, Olympic stadium and the archeological museum, but other than picking up another Greek fisherman’s cap for Ed, there’s not much there that interests us.
Egyptian folklorico show
This was something Princess arranged for those of us who remained on the ship. Thus the audience wasn’t as robust as it otherwise would have been. But the ethnic dances were terrific, the belly dancer was outstanding, and the whirling dervish was a special treat for us. We’ve seen whirling dervishes before but this guy had lights on his costume toward the end and they turned off the lights. Now that was spectacular. And I still can’t get over the endurance of these guys who seem to twirl non stop for interminable periods of time.
As the dancers were leaving the ship, the overland busses were returning. We stopped counting at 11 since some were peeling off as others arrived. But what struck me was the length of the line of passengers waiting to board the ship. It seemed to fill the whole pier. We left a little late because of the tardiness of the busses but given the distances and the number of people, they weren’t that late and the ship can make up 30 min. or so easily.