Christmas in Egypt

22^nd - 29^th December 2011

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This was my third Christmas holiday, spent in Egypt in the sun. I won't have a fourth in 2012 as I'll be heading off on the world cruise in early January 2013. This year, Phai came with me. We had a good time. Phai wanted to go to Cairo to see the pyramids, but with the political situation and timing of the holiday, that just wasn't possible. We did go scuba diving, his second and my first experience. We apparently dived to 8.3 metres. It was a phenomenal experience and one I'd like to repeat. We were no further than a few feet off shore and when we looked under the surface there were some large coloured fish swimming between us. This was while we were still standing in the shallows. We saw many fish, with amazing colours and even saw a baby ray. The other excursion we took, was to an aqua park. The same one I went to a few years back. It was really enjoyable, but the water was absolutely freezing. It took your breath away, every time you splashed down!

The hotel was OK, vast grounds. It took 10 minutes to walk from the reception to our block, which was close to the beach. I only went in one of the pools once as they were so cold. The food was fairly standard fare, not much to write home about, and the evening entertainment was really poor. The sun shone, but there was always quite a cool breeze, which I don't remember from the last two years. Once again Father Christmas arrived by camel and he was mobbed, not just by kids but by adults too! We got up early one morning and watched the sunrise, which was very pretty. It was a nice break and for once it didn't snow just before I left.