We were looking for a SCUBA vacation, and Sarah and our friend Seon, got to scheming...the end result: 2 weeks in Egypt, one week of SCUBA diving and one week exploring pyramids, temples, the Nile and Cairo. Between Sarah and I, Ki and Seon, we were a troop of four. But Seon had seven other Seattle-ites who were also interested, so we ended up with a group of 11. Totally fun! And now we have new friends!
The first half of our trip was on a live aboard boat on the Red Sea, which was chartered by
Emperor. This was my (Brian's) first live aboard so I wasn't sure what to expect, exactly, other than a plethora of diving. Long story short, I was pleasantly surprised. The food was fabulous! Simple, but definitely tasty. The accommodations were good. We've been married now for over a year and a half, so Bert & Ernie beds for a few days was okay. We would wake up early to make use of the sunlight. The cycle of activities went like this: Sit through a dive briefing, gear up, dive, take off the gear, relax, eat, repeat. A great way to spend a week!
We did have a few crazy crossings of the Red Sea. However, the bumpy crossings (moments when the crew tells you to just go to sleep...doesn't matter that you slept all night, just go to bed again otherwise one might get seasick) would have happened no matter who we decided to dive with. Red Sea in September, apparently the chance of waves is high. It didn't dampen our fun!
The boat
Before arriving in Egypt we were expecting to see large life while we were diving. A good example would be schooling hammerhead sharks and manta rays. When we got there the conditions had changed, bumpy instead of nice and calm, so most of the big life was at depth or had moved to different areas of the Red Sea. Bummer, but we were excited to see how beautiful the coral reefs were.
Despite the wild conditions, this is how we would start the day.
We spent our time with some large life, gray reef sharks, and a bunch of fun and interesting smaller life like anemone fish (below), octopus, lion fish, cuddle fish, and more. Some of the coral reefs that we encountered were amazing! 20-30 feet of cascading tabletop corals, fan corals, and hundreds of types of soft corals. Having been there, now, and diving for a week, I can understand why the Red Sea is some people's favorite spot to dive in the world.
Anemone Fish
Anemone Fish
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We disembarked the live aboard to our next adventure of a floating hotel. We flew to Aswan and our new lodging was a boat on the Nile. Well, it's called a cruise, but it feels like a hotel from the 70's that floats down the Nile.
For three days we cruised down the Nile. We would stop periodically (one to two times a day) to explore temples of the ancient Egyptians. It was very cool to hear the stories of the hieroglyphics, how and why the temples were created, and how they changed over the years.
This was the first temple that we visited. It was in Aswan, and was one built after the Romans invaded Egypt. In general, temples were built by the Pharaohs to show the people that they were favored by the gods. Mohammad (our guide) was an Egyptologist - and he traveled with us, so we learned as we went and he was able to build on the things that he taught us.
