Saturday, August 21, 2010
Hurghada, Al Baḩr al Aḩmar, Egypt
Well.. today was dive day.. but nothing starts out easy of course.. you wouldn’t expect any less. Of course the dive company I CALLED to arrange was Blue Divers. This morning at 8am as I wander with Michelle out to the front of the hotel there is a gentleman waiting from Prince Divers who has our room number and knows we are Americans who booked a dive. Well.. my scam alert goes straight off the scale. It would provide no surprise at all to find some dive operator trying to steal someone elses clients. But after a phone call and a nice chat I find that these folks are filling in for the people I called as they both work together to share clients as needed. So into the minivan and off to the dive shop we go.
The boat of course is not really at a marina per-se… its more .. drive down the coast road and when you feel like it turn left.. drive over some rocks and a bunch of sand and you will come to an anchored dive boat with a wooden plank to stroll across to get out diving.
Well it turns out the boat is lovely, Ashyaf our dive master is one HELL of a guy and Johnny the third in our dive group is a hell of a swede who speaks flawless English and is a patent attorney in Europe (Got that Paul.. need anyone for help there?).
Well on the first dive Johnny and I spent some time wandering around while Michelle got a little refresher on the bottom on diving safety and such.. she passed with highest honors of course! .. and then we were off down the reef. Since we were not going past 10M I was able to take my new and improved underwater camera with me and take some of the photos attached. Seeing Lion Fish, Octopus, MASSIVE Moray Eels, clown fish, sea snakes and lots and lots of other fish.. I have to say.. dive number one rocked.. one of the best dives in my memory banks.. well that may not be saying much with MY memory, but this dive ROCKED!
The second dive was an hour and 45 minutes later after a great lunch of Egyptian food of rice, lamb meatballs, potatoes, mixed veggies and mini-cokes. With much of the same sea life, but more of them including a spotted Ray, another fantastic dive was had. I have ZERO complaints on this dive and I didn’t leave anything on the boat 🙂
Dinner tonight was fantastic at the new Marina which is kinda of like Santa Monica.. very much upscale from what we’ve seen with mega yachts and all sorts of nightlife. Suffice it to say for once in my life the scene was not what I was looking for with the prospect of a 6 hour bus ride and a three hour flight ahead tomorrow.
So things continue to go well.. I’m very tired of arguing about price for taxi’s .. but hell… thats life right! Tomorrow might bring a lack of a blog so please don’t worry. As a matter of fact, as I move into Tanzania and Kenya, I’m told the internet really is SLOW SLOW SLOW so it may not be possible to keep the blog up to date going forward for a couple of weeks. But will do my best of course!
Miss all of you!
Bill
http://Mike
I'm soooooo jealous! Great pics man, as you know my wife and I are huge dive nuts, so I really dug the pics. I can't believe you also saw the ever elusive octopus. Glad you're having a great time!
http://A.J.
Hey Bill thanks for sharing this with me … I should have done something like this for our honeymoon in Greece in July (we facebooked instead, which wasn't quite so good). Very cool stuff! Your pictures are beautiful and I love hearing the adventures! When you go someplace new, regardless of the planning, there's always room for surprises! All the best, buddy!
http://Oh%20Brother!
Looks like you are having a great time! Can't wait to see and hear more of your adventures – the kids are enjoying the tale. You know, you could always not haggle on the taxi, just as a kind of change of pace. Feel like the rich and famous – pay full rate, get ripped off, enjoy life!!
http://Mombossbe
Diddo the "M" hat. No more missing a picture. NOI MORE!!!!
http://Mombossbe
Awesome fish pics. Nice to see Michelle SMILING! Dinner looks scrumptious!!
http://Just%20Jess!!!
Love the fishies!!! And the anemone! Looks LOVELY! Your scam-dar seems to be firing on all cylinders, and it's sometimes the out-of-the-way, not-what-you-expect risks that reap the best rewards! It sure paid off for you this time! But glad to see you're being careful! That camera shot from the water? You should sell that to Marriot! Nice! Where's the Michigan hat?!? Couldn't you have made Nemo wear it or something? HAHAHA. I know salt water probably would've ruined it! You'll need a spare next time! HAHAHA! More pics even if it's mundane stuff! And phonics for the crazy names please (ex. Hurghada [her-gad-dah]) so when I read the post to my David I maintain my omnipotent status. Thanks!