Day 9, June 8

(Matt) We woke around 7:30, did some shopping for lunch and caught the bus to the ferry around 8:30. On the ferry, we were all in a flutter that our pretty friend Micky was to be on our ferry to Sharm-El-Shek. We waited around a bit, ate some bread and cheese and drank a bit of Apple Fanta (round robin, of course). Finally, barely able to contain our excitement, we were allowed to board our vessel.

We quickly learned that we are destined to be stuck in slow vehicles of transportation. Oh well, what's the rush anyway? Well, the ferry was really neat. There were plenty of interesting people to talk to, beautiful clear blue water, and, sun, sun, sun to bake in. Unfortunately, humans can only take so much sun. (By the end of the trip, literally everyone was on the shady side of the boat, squeezing into every possible spot hidden from the sun's evil rays.)

(Sam) There were so many people crowded onto the shadey side of the ferry, that it was noticeably tilted to one side in the water. One interesting fact is that this ferry on the Red Sea in between two deserts there were four doods from Kentucky. One guy actually had a juice harp so we wiped out our banjoes and played a little tune. "OH I have tears in my beer from crying over you..." It was a real Hodown. We then talked basketball of course and told Indiana jokes like: "How do you compliment and Indiana girl? NICE TOOTH!" The dood named Derrick was going to U of L law school. Maybe I will see him on campus. Although the ferry ride it was enjoyable because there was so much down home cooking. There were many interesting people to talk to also. Dave would like to relate a singularly transcendent experience. Take it away Dave!

(Matt) Sorry, Dave is meditating right now but he is sending his thoughts to me in hyrogliphic form and I will translate them for you, "I was standing at the railing looking out over the H2O talking with Matt (the great) when our boat scared up 5 fish which flew by flapping their flippers. 3 didn't fly over 10 feet but the last 2 went about 50 yards. I thought they might have been birds but as they dove into the water again I knew for sure they were fish.

Whew, that was tough. That's the end of Dave's message - back to you Sam.

(Sam) Thank you Matt, I mean Dave.

(Dave) Okay, at this point, our ferry landed in Sharm-el-Sheik. We all debarked and was immediately approached by cab drivers willing to take us to Na'ama Bay. All of our sunburnt bodies hopped into a cab, drove 50 feet and got out to go through a checkpoint. We watched all our bags go through the X-ray machine and Greg discovered he had a key in his wallet which he had long forgotten. After going through the check point, we drove on to Na'ama Bay and checked in for the night at Pigeon's House, probably our nicest hotel up until this point, anticipating the next day of some fascinating snorkeling.