Sharm 2005, Part Two: �Sans Judas il n�y a pas les peeps!�
April 14, 2005
After our snorkeling trip, I think we were all ready for bed, but we were determined to hit a happy hour we had seen during a walk down the Naama Bay promenade (the heart of Sharm on which our hotel was located) earlier in the day that went from 6-7 and promised half-price drinks. An hour or so after the snorkeling trip, we met up outside our hotel rooms (which, uh, were right next to each other) showered, changed, and ready to go. We arrived at the happy hour a few minutes early, and the waiter was nice enough to let us take 5 or 10 minutes to "browse" the menu before taking our order so we could fully benefit from the happy hour. What followed was one hour of frenzied drinking wherein we had one rule�no repeats. Each one of us would order a different drink and rotate the drinks around. In that hour we consumed about 11 or 12 drinks of various potencies (Long Island Iced Tea, watery Pina Coladas and Daiquiris, B-52 bombers, the politely renamed "Teach" on the Beach�) and the final bill came out to 250 LE (about $45). E., who�s not much into drinking, was feeling a bit of a buzz, and Zenith seemed to be feeling the same. I, sadly, was left fairly unaffected, which I still can�t figure out since I matched the other two drink for drink, and had also not eaten since breakfast 8 hours earlier. 
The B-52: This drink is actually on fire
In any case, next we decided that it was time to find a place for dinner since we had at least 4 hours to kill before Sharm�s somewhat world-renowned clubs would really be in full swing. After a lot of indecision, we finally settled on a nice Italian place. While E. had had enough to drink, Zenith and I decided to split a bottle of Egyptian wine, and I finally found the buzz I was looking for. Towards the end of dinner (which we all agreed was just really good, and absolutely hit the spot) Zenith and I ended up getting into what I later realized was one of �our� discussions, where basically I make an idle comment and he challenges me to defend it, and we end up going into a lot of nonsense and boring the people around us (in this case, E., who was pretty gracious about it). Not that I didn�t enjoy the conversation, but I realize how it can be really boring/annoying/offensive for someone else to be a party to. In any case, the only reason I bring the discussion up in the first place is because of the very funny note it ended on. Somehow, Zenith and I had gotten into a discussion of the merits of evil, or the merits of having a little bad along with the good in the world. We pretty much followed the usual line of argument on these things�without the bad you probably wouldn�t appreciate the good. Zenith, being the �lapsed� Catholic that he is (I say �lapsed� because I realize I don�t know that he was very Catholic to begin with), brought up the example of Judas, and how if he hadn�t betrayed Jesus, then Jesus wouldn�t have become the icon of suffering and love that he is. (Discussion was much more complicated than this. Forgive my wine-addled memory.) Ultimately, Zenith reached the point that without Judas, the world would not have had the crucifixion, and therefore would not have the resurrection, and without the resurrection we would not have Easter, which, OF COURSE, leads to the following logical conclusion as uttered by Zenith, �Sans Judas il n�y a pas les peeps!� (�Without Judas, there would be no peeps.� Yes, those bits of marshmallow-y, Easter goodness). I suppose it doesn�t seem as funny now, but that line kept us laughing every time we remembered it throughout the trip.
So, after dinner we decided to go back to our hotel and change into some more clubbing-type clothing. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off at a travel agency to see if we could figure out a way to plan/book our climb up Mt. Sinai, which Zenith and E. really had their hearts set on. This should have been easier than it was, but our agent, �Max�, (�Would you remember my name if I told you it was Mohammed?�), explained to us that trips up the mountain weren�t done every night, and if we wanted to see St. Katherine�s Monastery, which is at the foot of Mt. Sinai, the morning after the climb, we would not be able to leave for the trip the next night (Saturday) because the monastery was, obviously, not open to the public on Sundays. Anyway, after much serious negotiation, during which I lost my buzz, and Zenith and E. almost lost their patience, we set up the trip for Sunday night/Monday morning, and headed back to the hotel.
The negotiation had been really intense and exhausting, and apparently I don�t handle stress well, because on the walk back to the hotel my stomach began to hurt like mad. E. said she was ready to call it a night when we got back to the hotel, but Zenith and I thought we might still be up for clubbing. After lying on my bed for 5 minutes, I realized I was too tired to go knock on their door which was about 15 meters from where I lay, let alone dance the night away, so I called Zenith up and told him I was out for the night, and promptly fell asleep as Fargo played on the TV.