January 2, 2008

Happy New Year. And we started this one out crazier than ever before. So, I will try and catch you up to now. Things remained fairly calm after Christmas until the 28th. At that point, Dale's schedule went out of control, so I went back to Cyprus and figured I would see him in a week or so. However, as his schedule is wont to to, things changed again, and I found myself flying from Cyprus to Cairo to Hurghada and landing at 11:45pm on the 31st. Dale met me at the airport and on our ride to El Gouna he popped the champagne in the back of the van (much to the surprise of our Muslim drivers). So that is how our New Year started - driving through the desert drinking champagne. As soon as we arrived in El Gouna, we were off to a very wild party. There had to be a thousand people crammed into a very large tent with the loudest live music and people dancing everywhere. Everything was provided - drinks, fabulous food, cigarettes. The decor was amazing - crystal chandeliers, disco orbs, glittering gold stars and moons also hanging from the ceiling (can you call the top of a tent a ceiling?). And even bathrooms - did I mention it was a tent? There were sitting areas of couches and tables and chairs, and lots of tall tables people stood around &/or danced. Most people were under 30, but we did see a few nice Grand folks, so anything went. We got back to our room around 3am, exhausted but exhilarated. Is this a sign of things to come for the New Year? Yikes!
So now we are at the Sheraton Miramar. The weather is lovely - around 25C, the food and entertainment top notch. The resort has so many unique villas and the walking trails are well decorated with numerous cacti and flowers etc... Last night we went to dinner with live belly dancing and a whirling dervish demo and tonight we head out into the desert by camel for a Bedouin dinner with entertainment again. All part of the hotel activities. We keep saying when it is good it is really, really good! More again later. For now Happy New Year. Love Laurel
Cut and paste link below to see nice shots of the resort..

http://www.thomson.co.uk/destinations/africa/egypt/egypt
-red-sea/el-gouna/hotels/sheraton-miramar-resort-el-gouna.html