Sharm El Sheikh Warnings and Dangers

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Both Mrs B and myselg gave up counting the bites at 50! not just ourselves though - must be a good year for them. Fortunately not malarial in this part of the world, yet!
Try any sort of protection against them, maybe something will work!

When you arrive at the airport in Sharm el Sheikh, most nationalities can apply for a free Sinai visa. This free visa is good for 14-days but you are restricted to travel to Sharm, Taba, and St. Catherine's Monastery.

If you will be traveling to Ras Mohammed or elsewhere in Egypt, you will need to purchase a regular Egyptian visa which costs approximately US$15.

For anyone transiting Cairo, you will have to go through passport control when you land and you will need to purchase stamps from one of the bank windows before you get to passport control. These stamps act as your visa.

When staying in Egypt we wanted to get hold of our family back in England. We didn't want to use our moblies so we wanted a phone card. Our hotel didn't have any phones so when we went to Naama Bay shopping we found a shop that did them. We couldn't find a phone though so we asked an police man who we see. We followed him for 2 minutes and he pointed down a lane of the main street saying the phone was down there. He was right the phone was down there but 4 or 5 lads came around us and took the phone card out of our hands and started putting any numbers in on the phone. This went on for around 5 minutes while i tried to get the card back. I got it back by snatching it of them and we walked back to the main road while they was shouting something at us. My misses was abit shuck up about it all but the lane was pretty dark with all small lights and very quite. Just where possible stick up to busy area's.

When shopping in Egypt the shop owners become very boring and very pushey. When shopping in the main area every shop owner wants you to come into their shop and buy some thing. Some of them can be rude, handle you and even stand in your way at the door till you buy something. It becomes very very boring after the first few, it puts you off shopping and i really couldn't be bothered doing any more. People had told us they had been locked into shops till they bought an item. Just some thing to watch out for when shopping.

Lion fish do have poisenous spines on their dorsal fin. However they do not attack or act aggressively at all the only possible danger is if you jumpon them. They will still do their bestto get out of your way. If they are in your way on steps etc simply waft them along and they will move.

Also they will NOT kill you the sting is equivalent to being hit really hard with a lump hammer. Horrible but not fatal. First step is hand in hot water then medical treatment. The only person I know to be stung/spiked worked in the aquarium trade and handled fish all day.

Please respect sealife not fear it!!!

There are a lot of warnings regarding not needing a visa, please be aware that if you intend to scuba dive you will need one. This is because all centres will go to Ras Mohamed national park at least one a week and you may end up intentionally or otherwise on one of these boats, they pass out of the 'free visa' zone and clients are expected to have their passport/visa with them as the boats are subject to frequent checks from the authorities.

*When we went Quad Biking a second time there was 6 of us, we was walking along the Public Beach and someone stopped us, and offered us a price (we was going to go back with Uncle Sam - see Quad Biking 1 tip) but he offered us it far cheaper, we took his number saying that we was going to be in a group of 6 (there was only 4 of us at there at the time) so we would have to speak tothe others and see what they say. When we arranged to go with them at the hotel, my Dad went to phone and he couldnt understand him due to the phone reception around the area, so he got the receptionist at the hotel to speak to him for him. The receptionist then turned round saying that he refuses to speak to him and passed the phone back to my Dad, my add managed to get through to him on the phone and booked to go the following day. When he got off the phone the receptionist told him that he should watch all what hes doing with him becuase the hotels know all the local tour operators and excursion operators, andt hey've never heard of this person before. We was ok as we hadnt payed yet becuase of the fact on the beach all 6 of us wasnt there. So when you get offered these cheaper deals by people who look like they could get your money and then just pack up and never be seen again then always ask for they're number, name and company name and take it back to your hotel and ask them if they have heard of them. If they refuse to give you any of them then carry on walking and find somewhere else to go to.

While we had our weeks stay in Sharm, we heard that a couple who had been and left before i'd arrived had been looking in the shop keeper managed to get them into his shop and he locked them in until they had bought something, to avoid this situation happening to you i suggest you go with a large group or stick to the busiest shops like in Na'ama Bay. That way you will have more people around to try and help you if you get stuck in this situation.