San Francisco bay area Norma Supe, a 63-year-old nurse from Union City, and 66-year old Patti Ganal, of Los Gatos, recounted their brief but intense experience as hostages in Egypt, after being snatched Friday from a minivan on a tour of Sinai.

The two women, Ganal’s husband and two other Americans had finished a tour of the sixth-century St. Catherine’s Monastery, located at the foot of Mount Sinai where the Old Testament says Moses received the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments.

Supe and Ganal were abducted for several hours by armed Bedouin tribesmen. Their Egyptian tour guide, Hisham Zaki, was allowed to go with the women and serve as translator.

“I was not afraid at all because I know God has sent us here,” Ganal, a devout Christian and tour leader to Egypt, Jordan and Israel said in Cairo.

The kidnappers said several times they would not harm the women. Zaki said they were seeking leverage to pressure the government to release two relatives, including one of the kidnappers’ sons. The Bedouins drove for a few hours through the mountains, and suggested to the women that they were doubling as new tour guides. At one time they stopped, made a fire for the women to stay warm and prepared coffee and tea. The women were also served pita bread, dates and other dried fruit.

The abducted women hesitated to call the men “captors,” saying that the kidnappers were kind, polite and hospitable. They talked about religion and tribal rights. One even put out his cigarette in the car when one hostage said the smoke was bothering her.

The Bedouins released Zaki and the women after negotiations with tribal leaders in the peninsula.

Ganal and Supe were invited by the South Sinai Governor for dinner in a hotel in St. Catherine and for a night at a hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh. The official paid for flights from Sharm el-Sheikh for the tour group.

The five Americans visited the pyramids this weekend and were planning a visit to the coastal city of Alexandria. The group planned to return to the U.S. on Tuesday.

“All of this is an unforgettable memory,” said Norma Supe. “Maybe God had a purpose for this. It was probably to encourage more faith in me.”

CBS San Francisco

Two hotels from the Pickalbatros chain in Hurghada have been serving up buffets of endangered fish and sharks. With the corpses of the sharks, rays and parrot fish hanging from the ceiling, chefs stand by to cut and grill them to order, horrifying some tourists who sounded the alarm to the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) on the blatant violation of animal protection regulations.

Pickalbatros management alleged that the fish and sharks on display were crude foam imitations covered by a layer of polyester. He added that the hotel does not have the ability to catch such fish, and that the only real ones are the smaller fish.

In 2004, the Red Sea province governor approved a law endorsed by HEPCA banning shark fishing in the sea, and the Agriculture Ministry followed suit the next year. This was a big victory for conservationists, and led to Egypt being honored as Shark Guardian of the Year in 2006.

According to the law, fishermen caught with sharks on board are subject to a large fine and the revocation of their fishing licenses for three years. But despite regulations, shark fishing is still rampant in the Red Sea.

Shark finning, which consists of capturing a shark and cutting off its fins at sea before throwing the animal back in the water to die, is a common practice. The fins, which are the most lucrative part of the shark, with the rest of the meat fetching only LE20 per kilo, are, for the most part, exported to southeast Asia, where shark fin soup is considered a delicacy.

Egypt Independent

The Egypt Tourism Authority has announced that 1,034,413 British holiday makers visited Egypt in 2011. This makes the UK the second most popular tourist nationality to the home of the ancient Pharaohs, topped only by Russia with Germany coming third.

It has also been announced that the average UK holiday maker spends 11.45 nights per annum in Egypt; which is well known for its warm and timeless hospitality and its great value for money. With an excellent climate throughout the seasons, year-round sunshine, two stunning coastlines and desert beauty, its broad cultural spectrum with relics of history that date back thousands of years never cease to attract travelers.

Travel Daily News

More and more travelers are looking for both relaxation and ways of improving their health whilst being on vacation.  Holiday makers can now combine these two aspects by visiting the ancient world of Egypt and its Fifth International Yoga Festival which takes place at the Domina Coral Bay Elisir Hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh from 26 April to 1 May 2012.

The First International Yoga Festival was held five years ago in 2008 and was the first of its kind in Egypt and the Middle East. Its success has grown annually since then and now attracts hundreds of visitors from throughout the globe every year.

The festival’s theme in 2012 is “Egypt Back to Freedom”. It stands for the freedom of the people of Egypt and expresses the highest goal of yoga, Kaivalya – freedom.

Visitors can experience gentle introduction classes, challenging dynamic yoga classes as well as partner yoga and relaxing Thai yoga massages. Interesting workshops teach new techniques and help to open up and relax the mind.

For further information and to register, visit egyptinternationalyogafestival.com.

Easier Travel

After three years of construction, the Crocodiles Museum in Aswan will share the significance of crocodiles and the ancient Egyptian crocodile god Sobek with visitors by the end of January.

Overlooking the Nile and across from the historic temple of Kom Ombo in the upper Egyptian City, the museum aims to become the next big tourist attraction. The official inauguration of the museum will coincide with Aswan National Day in January.

The museum boasts a display of forty mummified crocodiles, ranging from two to five meters long, along a crocodile fetus and eggs. Also on show is a collection of wooden and granite crocodile statues and replicas of crocodile holes in rocks.

Ahram Online

Image via Wikipedia

At the premises of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking Giza Plateau dozens of journalists and top antiquities officials will witness the signing of a contract between the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) and Belgium construction companies in Egypt, who have been selected according to technical requirements agreed in a bid held early last month.

The third phase of the GEM rehabilitation scheme includes the construction of the museum’s main exhibition halls, which will display 120,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts. Featured in this wing of the museum will be the Ramses II colossus statue, transferred in 2005 from Ramses square Downtown Cairo, and his daughter’s colossus statue Merit-Amun, now on display in the Sohag open-air museum.

Construction work will start next week and will continue until the museum’s official opening in March 2015.

The first and second phases of the renovation of the GEM have been completed and included construction of the labs, storehouses, power station and firefighting unit.

So far,10,000 objects have been transferred to the GEM from archaeological museums and sites all over Egypt . A further 20,000 objects will be moved to the museum before its official opening.

Ahram Online

The Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) has decided to exempt bazaar, cafeteria and gift shop owners in museums and archaeological sites from paying rent for June and August. As part of the ministry’s move, any legal action that has been initiated against the owners of affected businesses will be stopped.

The council also decided to impose a new entrance fee for some monuments located in Islamic Cairo’s Al-Muez Street. Income accrued from the new charge will be put towards the restoration and maintenance of Islamic monuments. These monuments include Al-Fotouk Gate, Cairo’s northern wall, Al-Nasser Mohamed Quranic School, and both complexes of Barqouq and Qalawun as well as Inal Bath, Al-Kameliya School, Khesru’s Sabil (water fountain), the Salehiya Dome and Bashtak Palace.

The fee for entrance into the street is LE100 for tourists and LE1 per monument for Egyptians.

During the meeting the council also approved Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim’s suggestion that LE2.5 million from the grant offered by the organizers of Tutankhamun’s exhibition in Japan be allocated to provide medical care to the ministry’s staff. The money had been initially intended for archaeological excavations in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

Ahram Online

Image by zolakoma via Flickr

Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim announced that the Avenue of Sphinxes will be partly opened to public by mid March.

He explained that a 150 meter long section out of the 2,700 meters of the avenue will be ready for the public after restoration, promising to solve all technical and financial problems in order to resume restoration work in the rest of the avenue.

The Avenue of Sphinxes was built during the reign of Pharaoh Nectanebo I of the 30th Dynasty. It replaced another built in the 18th Dynasty by Hatshepsut (1502-1482 BC), as she recorded on the walls of her red chapel in Karnak Temple.

According to this record, Hatshepsut built six chapels dedicated to the god Amun-Re on the route of the avenue during her reign, indicating that  it had long been a place of religious significance.

However, over the span of history the avenue was lost, with some of its sphinxes destroyed and whole stretches buried in sand and build on.

Ahram Online

Image via Wikipedia

Minister of Tourism Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour announced Egypt’s plan for a spectacular celebration to mark the first anniversary of the January 25 revolution.

He said the Ministry will organize the celebration to bolster tourism and mark a major political event that has won the world’s full admiration and respect.

The Tourism Minister added that thousands of tourists are expected in Egypt during next month’s celebrations, which will be covered by foreign reporters and media people.

The celebration is part of the Ministry’s plan to diversify tourist attractions, use the country’s resources and lure tourists from various countries during January.

The Egyptian Gazette

Egypt’s major Islamist parties have emphasized that tourism will remain a key priority for the country should they win the elections.

The announcements aim to allay fears that religious conservatism could harm travel and tourism, which remains one of Egypt’s biggest industries, accounting for over a tenth of GDP and employing an estimated one in eight of the workforce.

The Freedom and Justice Party as well as Al-Nur are both launching conferences to explore opportunities to improve tourism.

Egypt’s Red Sea resorts and historic monuments attracted 15 million visitors last year, but its tourism industry is concerned that the imposition of strict Islamic law could put off future holiday makers.

Some candidates and scholars have spoken about segregating beaches and banning bikinis and alcohol.

Last Friday, around 1,000 Egyptians rallied near the Pyramids of Giza to protest against what they said were threats to harm tourism.

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