I have a few days to catch up on. I apologize for that.

After my last post, I went back the next day to finish up at the Sharm HRC.

We only had a few things to do, all of which involved taking various things, 2 guitars and one jacket, off of the high walls which they were on. 2 guys did this for me with a large ladder. At the end of the shoot, they were back on the ladder about 15 feet up putting a large jacket in a frame back on the wall. I heard a large crash and looked over to see a pile of ladder, people, and memorabilia. I'm not sure what happened, but they came crashing down, breaking the memo, and some other parts of the restaurant in the process. One guy broke his foot somehow. All in all it made a very interesting morning there.

When I got back to the hotel, the same taxi driver from my first day was there waiting, the one who drove me around forever and had no idea where he was going. Apparently he is at the hotel often, but when he saw me he started asking where his money was that I didn't pay him yesterday. I had a nice little 15 minute "chat'' with him explaining that when you don't deliver on the service you promised, you don't get paid. The funny thing was that he wanted 2.5 KD, when the fare should have been 1.5 KD, for a 15 minute taxi ride. Amazing. Eventually though I felt sorry for him, so I paid him 1KD. FYI, 1.5 KD is about $5.20, and 2.5 KD is about $8.75

Later that day I went back to the HRC to get some night shots and eat dinner with Elias the GM. Low and behold, there was this same taxi driver again, who apparently had a friend at the hotel. But, since I'm a nice guy, I told him that I would let him take me there for 1.5, and especially since he should know where it was by this time. He took me there and there was no problem after that.

I did some night photos, and then had some dinner with the GM, which was nice of him. He is Lebanese, and we had an interesting discussion about Kuwait and it's strict Muslim law. Almost everything is illegal in that country.

The next day was pretty slow. I took my time leaving the hotel, and checked in with literally NO problems for my flight on Wataniya Airways to Cairo. Because of Ramadan, the terminal was very empty, and very quiet, which was fantastic. I also had free wifi, which was great as well.

The flight was about 2 hrs on a brand new A320. The seats on this plane were quite large, probably 18.5 in width, and the pitch had to be about 35". It was really a good coach product. As usual, most international flights, especially one of over 2 hrs, will serve lunch, which they did. I had some kind of chicken with rice, and it had a very indian taste to it, but it was good.

Cairo was absolutely nuts. A mad house. I changed some money, bought a visa, collected my bags, and then fended off the taxi drivers. Egypt is somewhat infamous for it's aggressive Taxi drivers, which is totally true from what i've experienced so far.

I had a few hrs to kill in Cairo airport, which I did by reading a book in the almost deserted domestic terminal for Egypt Air.

I got to Sharm El Sheikh easily and took a taxi to the hotel, etc. I stayed at the Marriott Resort, which is nice enough, especially for the outrageously low rate I got here. Sharm El Sheikh, which you can google on your own, is on the tip of the Sinai peninsula. It is somewhat odd to realize that I am about 20 minutes from Mt. Sinai, where the 10 commandments were delivered.

In the morning I got up and had a pretty good breakfast that was free. I then walked across the main road to the other Marriott Property, which was the "beach" side. I walked down this small path running the length of the beach. It was probably a mile walk to the HRC, but seeing as its about 100 degrees, I was drenched when I got to the HRC. The photo shoot went smoothly, and walked back to my hotel afterwards.

The scuba diving in Sharm is supposed to be some of the greatest in the world. Lots of good reefs and shipwrecks. I had hopes of doing some scuba diving here, but the more I looked into it, the options for someone without a license were limited. About the best I could find was $50 for about 30 minutes of "instruction" at about 20 feet maximum depth.

I will try my luck in Hurghada with the scuba diving instead.

The rest of my day was spent basically swimming in the pool and relaxing. The weather is really perfect here, and if it weren't so far away from America, this would be a pretty nice vacation spot.

Today, I went back to the HRC to finish up a few small items. This time I took a cab there for about $2, and wore shorts and flip flops because of the heat.

Soon I will be packed and will leave to go to the airport, where later this evening I will take the very short flight to Hurghada.

I will be there a few days before flying to Venice.

I am more or less halfway done with the trip at this point as well.