Butterfly in the oasis in the desert: Boating on the Red Sea

This past Friday, my friend's husband had organized a birthday outing for her birthday. They invited a bunch of friends and we were included. On the way to the dock, her husband picked up Roti bread and foul or ful for breakfast. According to Wikipedia, "ful is an Egyptian/Sudanese dish of cooked and mashed fava beans served with vegetable oil, cumin and optionally with chopped parsley, onion, garlic and lemon juice."
You tear off pieces of the bread and dip it into the foul. It was delicious! The boat hands also provided hot tea, apples, and bananas. We ate on the boat before taking off.
What a great way to start the trip!

At 8am, the dock at the resort was already busy. Young men were zipping around the area on jet skiis. After breakfast was over, we left. Here are some pictures on the boat:

As you can probably see, the women had to wear their abayas on the way out to the island. It was weird, but best not to upset anyone. In fact, all the passing boats were very friendly, waving and saying hello to us.
It was about an hour trip to the island. The Red Sea is very pretty. The water is aqua. :) It is VERY clear.

Here is a picture of the birthday girl and her "habibi" (loved one).

The boat docked near the island and we waded in. It was a very small island, but very pretty, white sand, shells, hermit crabs skittering away. It would have been easy to power walk around the "island" in about 5 minutes.

Here we are checking out the island:

After we were there about 10 minutes, another boat pulled up. It was a boat full of Saudi's. The women got out in their abayas and did not take them off. Here they are sitting at the edge of the water:

We were a little concerned that they might hassle us about wearing bathing suits, but they didn't. They left after less than an hour.

Then we went snorkeling. There are coral reefs quite close to the island. We saw brain coral and other kinds. We saw zebra fish. It was quite lovely. Then around 11 am, the boat hands began barbecuing chicken and meat.

They had set up a tent (with sides) and covered the floor with Arabian carpet. So, it was very plush. Along with the chicken and meat, they also provided more Roti bread, fruit, olive loaf, drinks. It was very nice.

My friend's husband had ordered a birthday cake for the birthday girl:

And he cut the cake with something of a sword:

So, then we went snorkeling a little more and then at 3 pm, we had to pack up to go home. The boat hands broke down the tent, rolled up the carpets and put them on their shoulders and waded through the water to put them back on the boat.