Egypt. November 8-12.2014 When I booked this cruise 5 months ago Egypt was not on the itinerary but for some reason here I am again. It wasn't my favorite place the first time and has not moved up the list this time either. Since we had spent more than 2 weeks here just a few years ago we opted not to take the long drives from the different ports inland to the ancient tombs and temples and pyramids. In port said at the mouth of the Suez Canal I found a crumbling semi squalid city with hyper aggressive men hawkers who were extremely difficult to ignore. Much of this was leveled in 1967 and 1956 wars . Nevertheless we went off the ship to take a short ferry ride across the Suez Canal for something to do. the women were all covered head to toe in black robes and do not walk with men at all just with other women. I found them staring at my blond hair. I did dress in long sleeves and long pants so as not to offend.  The suez was built over 150 years ago to facilitate shipping between Europe and the Far East. There are no locks , just a 60 foot wide canal with sand on either side. Only one lane so it the ships must wait and go in convoy either north or south. One thing I liked about port said was the remaining older buildings with New Orleans style wrought iron balconies. they are in desperate shape but still beautiful in a faded glory way. I also love to listen to the Moslem call to prayers. This occurs 5 times a day starting at dawn . the various chanters all sound different, some more melodic than others, but still exotic and enchanting. While most of the passengers went by convoy to Cairo, a 3 hour drive, I spent the afternoon roaming on my own through the streets of port said. I was just itching to hand out trash bags and help clean the litter off the streets. also a plethora of cats . Funny how in South America the are so many stray dogs but the cats predominate in the Middle East. They are much scrawniness in Egypt than in Israel and Turkey. It did seem a little scary and the men were somewhat threatening but I just ignored and just raised my voice when they tried to touch me on the arm.  Our second stop was to be Sharm al sheikh which was aborted at the last moment. The reason given was for security. It is located on the southern tip of the Sinai which is under a state of emergency due to a recent bomb attack. Too bad because it was the one port in Egypt I wanted, due to its famous reefs and snorkeling. Our final stop is the dusty small town of Safaga for 2 days which is the closest stop to Luxor and the valley of the kings, again a 3 hour drive inland via a police convoy. We instead took a shuttle bus to the local hotel district where entrepreneurs tried to shake us down to use their rather sad beaches for a few hours for 10 euros each. No thanks. So back we came to the cement plant dominated port. tomorrow we will attempt to find a cab to take us to another area to snorkel. this evening I am sitting on our veranda, the Luxor busses are not back yet. It is dark from 5 pm and I can hear the dolphins leaping from the water around us and the last call to prayers from the mosque minaret loud speakers. Best part of the day except for when I saw the guy racing his camel across the desert . Definitely looked fun. The weather has been warm now , 80 or 85, so that's good as well.  OK so today is our last day n Egypt and we rented a taxi and went in a south direction out along the desert coast to an isolated hotel coral garden and snorkeled. I saw fish I have never ever seen. It was awesome and the best day in Egypt.