Stacey’s Mini-Extravaganza to the Middle East

A view of Dahab

Examples of seating in restaurants by the water

Sunbeds and pillows

After a very busy and hectic first week in Egypt, I was ready for a break.  And when one wants to just chill out and relax in Egypt, they had to Dahab on the Sinai coast of the Red Sea.  Dahab (meaning “gold” in Arabic) is an old Bedouin village that was originally known for its  laxness with regards to marijuana and super-cheap accommodations and food.  The rules have tightened on the weed and much of the old laid-back nature has been replaced with progress.  The dusty path along the water has been paved and many of the old Bedouin style pillow-seating on the ground has been replaced with proper tables.  The prices have gone up and things are much more developed.  Still, it’s a great place to come and do nothing and is a very active SCUBA diving area with pretty well maintained reefs.

More sunbeds

And at night…

My favorite: Friends Cafe

Restaurants along the water

It’s been a bit of a mixed bag for me here in Dahab.  The plan for me was to hang out in Dahab for a week and do some diving before heading to Jordan at the end of this week.  You know what they say about the best-laid plans?  As it turns out I am currently afflicted with a raging sinus infection that unfortunately precludes me from doing any diving.  I am blaming this directly on the pollution of Cairo.  Further, the weather here has been a little challenging in that there have been hurricane force winds which make the conditions for both diving and snorkeling rather difficult.  I have been able to get out on the reef and do some snorkeling but not as much as I would’ve liked.

Some local kids trying to catch some fish

Another famed thing to do in Dahab is to climb Mt. Sinai (where Moses allegedly received the Ten Commandments) near St. Katherine’s monastery and watch either the sunrise or the sunset.  Most people who do this do the sunrise as it’s more spectactular…they are picked up from their hotel at 11 pm, bused to the mountain where they climb for 3 hours and then wait at the top of a very cold mountain (about 8000 feet) for the sunrise…and come down afterwards to visit the monastery.  Those who know me well know that I am not a night person and the thought of hiking up a mountain in the middle of the night appeals to me not at all so I signed up for the day hike even if the views weren’t going to be so spectacular.  Unfortunately it is pretty quiet in Dahab at the moment and most tours need at least two people to go…since I am but one person I have to wait for two other people to sign up before it’s determined I can go.  Annoyingly, the two other people who signed up for the hike canceled at the last minute so I didn’t get to do it and only got to see the monastery.  I considered switching to the night hike but they weren’t going that night since the monastery is closed on Fridays and suddenly I was rapidly running out of days.

So, no diving, no hiking, minimal snorkeling.  Things have not been going as well as they could here in Dahab.  And to add insult to injury I ripped a really lovely quarter-size hole in the butt of my swimsuit bottom at the Blue Hole snorkeling site.  Fortunately it was just through the first layer of fabric but still.  And then my underwater camera quit working.  I took all of these things as signs that I needed to get the hell out of Dahab so am leaving a day earlier than planned and am headed to Jordan on Sunday morning.  Despite the mishaps, I did enjoy myself and have had plenty of time to just sit around drinking karkade (cold hibiscus tea) and fresh lemonade, eat some sea-critters, catch up on my reading and blog posts and chat with the locals but it is now time for me to move on.

I’ve got a couple of posts coming up from Dahab:  some underwater shots taken before the camera hit the skids and some shots of the St. Katherine’s monastery so stay tuned for those.  This post has a few pictures of the restaurants lining the coast in Dahab so you can get a feel for what they look like and it’s about time for some food pics so I have included those here as well.  Two more posts from Egypt and then we’re in Jordan.  Wish me luck on my border crossing on Sunday.

If you don’t like cats I would advise you to stay out of Egypt as they are everywhere.  This little minx stepped on my keyboard and managed to shut off my mouse touchpad which took me a full 10 minutes to figure out how to fix.

Chicken shawarma and grilled vegetables

The two best drinks in Egypt: karkade (cold hibiscus tea) and fresh lemonade

Shrimps portuguese

The “salad” course varies by day and by restaurant.  Usually there’s hummus, some vegetable (this is shredded carrot) and another dip of some variety

Egyptian breakfast: on the left is fuul (fava beans boiled with onions, spices, etc.), on the right is scrambled eggs with red and green peppers, the bottom is feta mixed with tomato

The fish I selected for dinner…

…what it looked like once it was cooked.

Bedouin chicken

Tags: Dahab, Egypt, Sinai

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 11:32 am and is filed under Egypt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.