Downtime

The fall semester is over, my grades are out (which were not exactly what I hoped for but still fine), and I have a short vacation. So I went to the Red Sea for a few days of R&R. I spent 3 days loafing around Naama Bay, snorkeling, reading and drinking overpriced coffee.

There are so many Russian tourists in Sharm El Sheik you’d think Moscow had annexed it. Not that I have a problem with Russian tourists, it’s just those who dive or snorkel among them who really piss me off. I mean, exactly what part of “Do not touch the friggin reef” do they not understand. Of course they do understand it, since the signs and handouts are in 4-5 differnt languages, they just want a little souvenir to take back home. The divemasters often turn a blind eye to that kind of behavior since they fear for their livelihood, intentionally oblivious to the fact that if they keep on not doing something about it, these beautiful coral reefs on which their jobs depend aren’t going to be there for too long. And I don’t mean to say that its only the Russians who do that, they might have been just the ones that I have most frequently personally caught red handed while on a diving trip. The perils of mass tourism.

Morocco again

My usual hotel was booked full, so I booked a room in what turned out to be the filthiest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. The building itself was falling apart, the lobby is a mess, the elevator stank of a stench suggesting that it was also used as a crapper…and I still haven’t gotten to the worse of it. In the room the furniture was dirty and moth-eaten, the phone didn’t work, the TV didn’t work (which was fine by be), no hot water, no towels, no anything. To top things off, the staff were extremely dense. And this was advertised – and priced – as a four star hotel. I changed the room twice after finally settling on one that I could bear spending a couple of nights in. I am not easily put off by this kind of stuff but I have stayed in 5-bunk hostel dorm rooms that were much cleaner.

Moroccan tea rocks though.