From Cairo we flew to Sharm-El-Sheikh, seeing "New Cairo" on the way (a new city that has been built) and the entrance to the Suez Canal; but otherwise mostly it was desert, with some signs of life alongside the coast in patches (mostly resorts, but occasionally some hidden coves populated by the odd luxury ship). We took a taxi to Dahab, a backpacker town an hour or so north. Due to security reasons you have to go through a military checkpoint to get there.
Dahab is an interesting town, with at least 50, maybe almost 100 bars, restaurants, dive operators and shops lining the main bay in the town. It has a decent beach alongside the bay, but mostly exists for scuba-diving. We stayed in a place a half-hour walk outside of town (and well placed for morning jobs along the coast), and during our few days there we did some scuba-diving and snorkeling off the main bay, as well as at the Blue Hole, a famous diving site nearby with a sheer drop off the coast. In fact, as my dad pointed out, you don't even need to dive, and snorkeling is quite enough since the marine life is everywhere, including the corbels and the fish, and right at the surface so you can see everything with just a snorkel and mask. In fact often you can see everything from outside the water too! I had a special case for my phone and took some great videos and photos under the water whilst diving and snorkelling.
Our one negative experience during our whole trip (well maybe the second if you count the disappointing sound and light show at the pyramids) was an evening trip to a bedouin experience that was supposed to be traditional entertainment and food, but was really just a night club manufactured for locals to sing and dance in the desert whilst those who didn't know the music or who didn't want to sing or dance, just sort of watched, shivering, for hours, under the stars. Definitely one to avoid!
Before moving back to Sharm-El-Sheikh we moved to a 5-star hotel even further out of town... the kind of place with 3 or 4 swimming pools, a brushed beach every morning, beach bars, saunas, and golf carts to take you to your rooms. Most of the Sinai peninsular has so much coral, and so close to the beach that often you are not allowed to just walk into the sea from the shore as you would damage the coral (and you'd also end up hurting yourself), so you walk off a small wooden pier to where the water is deeper and then you can swim above the corals.
My last couple of days were then back in Sharm-El-Sheikh at another nice 5-star hotel, though one that was a bit faded compared to the Dahab one. All these hotels were really cheap, even though it was peak season, mostly due to excess supply and a lack of demand since the security issues and revolution. It was very nice relaxing end to the holiday, apart from the failed attempt to Waterski. Sharm-El-Sheikh is strange place, completely man-made and fairly recently, as a tourism center with a few hundred hotels strung out along the coast, with large highways, and endless land meaning it is impractical to walk anywhere. There isn't much to do apart from each at all-inclusive resort hotels, and relax at the beach or go under the water. And it is the perfect place to do all of that. Definitely a place to come back to again!
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