July 26 - Egypt: Na'ama Bay - the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt
Special guest appearance by Jon: So Heidi is sick again today and here I am with all of this responsibility again!
It has been a pretty quiet day. First was a trip to the post office over in Sharm El Sheikh where I was going to send yet another shipment of curios and extra clothes in an effort to lighten our packs a bit. As much as we try to keep the excess weight to a minimum, we never really seem to notice the difference! But I digress...the cab ride over to the post office was fine and the driver even offered to stay and wait while I was inside so he could take me back to Na'ama Bay - the price was right and the meter wasn't running so I figured what the heck; he was happy to have two fares back-to-back.
Blah blah blah, I finally get the package approved by the guy behind the counter and he tells me he needs a copy of my passport. I was lucky to have even brought my passport to the post office (who knew it was necessary to show a passport so your curios and stuff could leave the country?), but did not have a copy. I went next door to the bank and they happily make a copy for me, with everyone seeming to know that you do, in fact, need a passport in order to send a parcel overseas. Eventually all is in order, and after about an hour I finally get the package along its way. Did I mention that it ended up costing $50?
I report the morning's events to Heidi in the hotel room, where she is in bed resting. She enjoys the story but probably the company most of all since she's not feeling well. Since she needs her rest, I head off in search of the beach. It's not far, really, it's just on the other side of the hotel and one would think that the first entrance outside the hotel would be for guests of our hotel. Well, 20 minutes later I end up at the front desk of the hotel asking where their *#@$ beach is! They seem to get this question a lot it turns out and he kindly points me in the right direction. After 2 1/2 hours I decide it's time for lunch and bring lunch back to the hotel. Heidi is of course starving by now because it is 2:45 and the poor girl hasn't eaten much since I brought her some bread from breakfast. She has had at least 3 liters of water though, since I continually remind her to keep drinking - this is the role of the healthy person while we travel, they take care of the sick one by reminding them to drink more fluids!
After a bit of rest, it's off to the internet cafe to check email and post updates to the website. We've added a section for listing all of the books that we read while on the trip. It's a pretty good list right now, and you'd be surprised at what you'll read when faced with the limited selection of some of the bookstores we've been in! Check out the list so far. So far no Homer or Dickens, but there's no telling what we'll find in the next bookstore and I'm going to need one soon!
It's not New York, so this will have to do
After the internet cafe it was siesta time. It turns out that during today's siesta Heidi was busy mentally preparing herself for colouring her hair by herself! Let's take a step back for a second...Heidi went from being a beautiful redhead to a beautiful blonde three days before we left on our trip, and that was two months ago. So her hair got longer and her natural colour was starting to show, which is apparently a no-no. The longer-than-usual hair was remedied in Luxor by a visit to a very clean hair salon (see July 20) and when we got to Na'ama Bay we managed to find some hair colour that seemed to be the right shade of blonde (the search was made that much easier since this is a tourist town and apparently this is a product that is in fairly high demand). We bought the dye four days ago and it has taken Heidi this long to finally work up the courage to try doing this herself. Being particularly eager to play the role of mad scientist, I offered my services while making some evil, cackling, laughs. Ok, they weren't so evil but they certainly served their purpose of nearly scaring Heidi out of trusting my help in this process.
After being briefed on the process that her hair stylist in New York uses, we mix the dyes as per the instructions and Heidi contemplates the situation one last time. Apparently if this is not done correctly there is the likelihood that she will come out looking like a calico cat, which I think could be the next big craze but she disagrees. Watch, in 3 months EVERYONE in New York will have a calico-coloured hairstyle! Anyway, Heidi bites her lip and steels herself for the long-run; I don my very nice looking surgical gloves (thanks to the drug store guy, who threw these in at no cost) and get some last minute instructions from the victim, I mean customer, and go to work.
First of all, being a guy, I've never even witnessed the hair colouring process since this usually takes place within the confines of a strictly non-male environment - the hair salon. I get my hair cut in New York at this little place with one of those real candy cane poles outside the shop. It probably used to spin but it's so old that its rotating days are long since passed. I also get my haircuts from whichever of the three barbers is ready first. There is very little talk with the barber because he wields the electric razor and/or scissors, followed by a straight-razor to the neck. Very much the opposite of some high-falutin' hair salon, there is always hair on the floor and when there is too much one of the barbers sweeps it outside. My kind of place. And the haircut costs $12.
Sorry, where was I? So the first thing I notice is that the hair dye is sort of a kelpy, greenish-brown sort of colour. Heidi says that this is normal as the dye is never the same as the intended shade. OK, I can handle this. I can't show any weakness or Heidi will cave and back out, so we both bite the bullet and get started. After spending about 45 minutes applying the colouring, I can really only assure Heidi that whatever colour her hair turns out it will at least be uniform in that colour. Although I still think she has something with the calico thing...
When I was finished and it was time for Heidi to let the colouring set (or whatever it does for 45 minutes) we both look at her head in the mirror and decide that there is no way this will actually turn out to be blonde. It looks like it will probably be red again or maybe even chestnut, but certainly not blonde. I decide that I can't be around for the unveiling and take a quick shower to see if I can still catch our British friends Ian & Shelly for happy hour.
Ian and Shelly are nowhere to be found and happy hour has ended so I grab some dinner and head back to the hotel to survey the damage.
I walk in the door, and there to my surprise is my wife with her hair the exact same shade as it was when she last had it done at her salon in New York! Now I have to question why those stylists demand hundreds of dollars for a haircut and colouring, and I still don't think in the nearly three years that we've been married that I get a straight answer about how much a woman's haircut costs! In my mind though it's money well spent, just so I don't have to be subjected to that sort of pressure again - let's leave that to the professionals :)
Stay tuned for the unveiling of the new hairstyle. Heidi is still a bit under the weather so the pic will likely be tomorrow or the day after.