Detailing Dahab
Sorry for the lack of detail of anything I’ve been doing. I’ve been lazy about keeping my notebook handy which means memories slip through my brain pretty easily. I’ll try to recount events that may (or may not) be of interest, but most of my time has been spent eating, vegetating, or snorkeling.
In case my other posts have been making you jealous, be comforted in the fact that yesterday I managed to sunburn myself possibly to a crisp (I could feel the heat radiating off my skin as I type) and the bottom of my feet my be covered in blisters. So there, paradise has its drawbacks, too. But, I get ahead of myself…
To try to add some substance to my description of “doing nothing”. Much of my time is spent hanging out in one of the various restaurants along the water. From there you chill out on pillows and throw-rugs, drinking fresh-squeezed juice (the strawberry juice is awesome!) or ice-cream milkshakes (I’m trying to limit myself to one combined chocolate-vanilla-coconut shake per day) listening to music and reading or talking with other people. The music ranges from American 70s (doors, eagles) to opera to reggae to Egyptian love songs to rap (though blessedly little of the last). Almost everything is good to hear when just hanging out as the hours just melt away.
I should mention I’ve now met two separate women who said they came here on vacation 3 years ago and haven’t left yet!
The restaurant associated with my hotel has LOTS of kittens around (maybe a dozen) ranging about 3-5 months old so those are always fun to play with. Most people feed them, so you need to be careful as I had one literally grab one of my breakfast rolls off my plate and take off with it before I could even reach for the water spray gun. Some of the kittens are shy, but some are very friendly. You need to be a little careful as they get no vet care nor are their claws ever clipped so you could get a cut or bite pretty easily.
When not in the restaurant, if I’m not bringing my body temperature down in the a/c of my room with a little nap, then you may find me snorkeling or eating. At night various elements of the large group we have created always go out somewhere to eat. On R and J’s last night before they left for Jordan we tried to find a fish place that was highly recommended, but unfortunately they only served fish (which left me out as I’m allergic) so we ended up eating what we thought was a cheesy touristy place in the shape of a boat with a dance club inside. The food was surprisingly good, but the real surprise is that the next day I learned that this was the location targeted by the bombings a year ago. There had been placed three bombs in various spots outside this restaurant/club because it is in the center of the strip and has a lot of foreigners. The place was not directly impacted by the bombs though, and overall 23 people died and more than 60 were injured. It’s definitely sobering to think about.
Other nights we have mostly eaten in places along the water, so you just listen to the waves, feel the breeze, and watch the moon. We have had a full (or nearly so) moon the whole time we’ve been here. My photos have some great pics of the moon — it’s hard to tell its not the sun.
Yesterday I decided to pay 20 pounds (~$4) to use a fancy hotel’s pool for the day. It was a mixed fresh-and-salt water pool so you had this really weird buoyancy. If you “stood” still in the water, you just stayed there. You could float in any position you wanted. It was a bit like swimming in jello, except it still felt like water. Unfortunately, I spent a wee bit too much time in the pool by around 3 was feeling sunburned already. And that was the time I was to meet P and M for our final snorkel while in Dahab — to be continued next post…
Tags: Africa, Dahab, Egypt, Travel
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