upon my arrival in eilat (5am) i found a taxi to the border, and made my way through the crossing, i paid my exit tax and exchanged some travelers cheques for egyptian pound (yet another mistake) once i got to the israeli border control the gal there wanted to have a superior look over my passport (long back-story: grandma washed it while i was in hawaii, the dry cycle is what really did the number on it, those covers . . . they shrink!)
made my way through the eqyptian side without incident. i had failed to review my email from the people at the dive company they told me what i should expect to pay for a cab to sharm el sheik, the cab driver got the better of me, and then proceeded to rip me off further, at which point i discovered that the exchange office on the israeli side of the border, that handles the exit taxes ripped me off by about $20. i was a bit tired but managed to stay awake to see the sinai desert and some of the formerly held locations that the children of israel were supposed to have wandered through. once we made it to sharm el sheik i was told that the driver couldn't drive into the community so i would have to transfer to another taxi for the 5 minute drive to the hotel where the dive shop was. this driver tried to rip me off but i held my ground with him and came to find out he still got more than the locals would pay. ahhhhhhh!
it was now 9am and i was really beat and just wanted to go to the bathroom and then sleep somewhere. the dive shop allowed me to leave my bags then they gave me a pass to get onto the hotels private beach. i went over and the towel guy wouldn't let me in. so i wandered around and then stopped at a beach bar for a beverage, the drink was $11, this is when i discovered how they took me at the border exchange. things aren't getting off on the right foot here. i finally get into the beach area: take a nap, swim and a shower. from there i go off to find some food, this place is like an open air vegas mall, because it's daytime and it's hot most things are closed. but this one guy asks me to come into his shop and sign their guest book (big mistake) it's this fragrance place and these guys offer me tea and sit me down then proceed to try and sell me this fragrance. i'm really not interested and just want to leave. the guy keeps putting different scents on me, saying "which one do you like?" he's showing me these huge bottles and quoting prices, i'd have had much easier time walking out were i not starved for some interaction with people. i kept telling him that i was traveling and didn't want something cumbersome adding weight to my back, and somehow the smallest bottle he had became smaller, this happened about three times, finally had a size that didn't seem to outrageous and even though i had no need for it, (other than to disguise some multi day clothing use) i left with $18 few dollars in my pocket. it was nice to get onto the boat away from the pressure of the vendors.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34792093@N00/
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