1999 - my second Astronomical Holiday
The journey consisted of:
1) Fly to Sharm El-Sheikh, on the Sinai Peninsular, Egypt in the company of Explorers Tours (again!)
2) Stayed at a modest tourist class Hotel just on the outskirts of the town (next door to the one I would be staying at in 2004)
3) Took the opportunity of FIVE entire nights spent in the Desert to see the Leonids Meteor Shower and to take some astronomical pictures - very little light pollution unlike 5 years later!
At 3am on the 18th of November we saw upto 5000 meteors per hour!
Sharm-El-Sheikh was only slightly developed so the views of the Night Sky, from a location 20 Km out in the Desert were fantastic. Also, even in November it was 'shorts and T-shirt' even at 3am in the morning.

What are the Leonids?
The LEONID METEOR SHOWER, is an annual shower of meteors (small pieces of dust from outer space) that fall to Earth between early and late November. The best period of activitiy is between the 15th and 20th of November with, commonly, a very brief but very active peak in the early hours of the 18th November, when up to 80 shooting stars per hour may be seen.
The meterors are associated with a periodic comet which as a 33 year orbit. This gives rise to enhanced activity in some years, the most recent being 1899, 1933, 1966 and of course 1999.
In 1999 it was predicted that the main part of the shower would fall on the Egyptian province of Sinai