Click Here for Best Pick Up Line Ever . . .

Hello! After lots of requests and many weeks my latest travel blog is now up! I’ve decided to jump around and go ahead and publish the Middle East ones prior to the Christmas break one (the photos are done but not the writing, I’m working on it, things have been busy!).

To give a brief summary, for winter break (in France winter break takes place during the last weeks of February) I traveled with the five other assistants to Egypt, Jordan and Israel for two weeks - a really amazing trip. As I took so many photos and it was such an adventure, the Middle East travel blog will be released in three installments, first one (this one) Dahab, Egypt, the second one, Luxor and Cairo, and the third Jordan and Israel. I hate to say it, but in this first installment there won’t be as many photos as usual because I transferred my 500 some photos to another assistant’s memory stick which was then lost/stolen, so some photos are mine, but most I got from the other assistants (thanks guys!). . . still makes me upset to think about it though...

Our trip started out by flying from London to Sharm-El-Sheik (city in the south of the Sinai Peninsula) on Sunday from where we took a shuttle to Dahab, a city famous for its diving hot spots located two hours to the northeast. (I recommend checking out the map I’ve included, it helps piece together the trip). By the time we arrived in Dahab, we were pretty low on energy as we’d been traveling over almost a day and a half and weren’t quite sure what we’d gotten ourselves into with the hostel booked over the internet from the comfort of our own French McDo. This lull in energy did not last very long once Emad the Penguin Hostel manager opened up the van doors to let us know the Penguin party had begun! Staff quickly unloaded our luggage and showed us the way to the Bedouin-style outdoor dining area where other staff members appeared with freshly brewed mint tea. For those of you who have not been fortunate enough to have a Bedouin-style outdoor dining experience in Dahab I’ll give a brief description . . . 75 degree weather, ten feet from the edge of the Red Sea, big, brightly-colored pillows spread out on the floor surrounding low wooden tables covered in candles under a covered pavilion with catchy Arabic music playing in the background. Emad welcomed us to his hostel- more like an ocean resort, gave us an overview of possible activities for our stay - snorkeling, diving, climbing Mt. Sinai, etc., and then gave us a tour of the place. This tour included viewing the rooms we had originally booked and the rooms with private bathrooms that we could have at a “special discount price just for us”. One of the many great things about Egypt is the prices - 1 euro = 7.5 Egyptian pounds or 1 dollar = 5 Egyptian pounds - therefore this “special upgrade” was the equivalent of 50 centimes more a night for a double room with bath instead of a dorm room - not a difficult decision to make. With business over with for the evening once we selected the room upgrade and signed up for a diving package, we were escorted back to the “restaurant” and handed dinner menus. Fresh mango smoothies for everyone followed by the selection of exactly which fish we wanted grilled from the iced seafood display accompanied by seasoned potatoes and sautéed vegetables made for a very enjoyable dinner (well enjoyable until one of the many cats that seem to be omnipresent in Egypt jumped onto the table and dragged the remnants of my fish dinner onto my lap and then off into a corner . . .). Bellies full, we retired to our rooms to rest up for the following day’s diving excursion.

The next morning we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast at the Penguin outdoor restaurant, which by daylight revealed an amazing view of the clear waters of the Red Sea and Saudi Arabian coastline just across the sea. As I wanted to embrace the Egyptian lifestyle as much as possible I chose the Egyptian breakfast platter - falafel, hummus, tzatziki sauce, black olives and fava beans - sounds like strange breakfast food, but it was actually very good. Donned our bathing suits and did our best to squeeze into the “a size too small diving wetsuits” as crowd of local Egyptian men quickly gathered to watch all the giggling and jumping around. The staff decided these wetsuits were not too small, but just right and sent us on our way to the “Blue Hole” each of us with a box of diving equipment. As I mentioned earlier, diving enthusiasts label Dahab as one of the best diving sites in the world and are not wrong in doing so. We were assigned two diving instructors and I was paired up with the French woman, so upon learning we were all working in France, I got my diving instructions in French. She held onto a handle on the back of my air tank and we went about 12 meters down (~36 feet down). Lots of tropical fish and coral; the highlight for me was seeing a lionfish. Some of my friends found breathing underwater scary, but I had a great time and was just sorry I couldn’t swim where I wanted to for longer. Forty-five minutes later, Sofie the dive-instructor and I resurfaced and the others got to take their turn. I enjoyed some fresh guava juice in the sun while I waited for the others. The rest of Monday was spent strolling along the boardwalk in the sun, checking out stores where all the storeowners just happened to be willing to make “special, first customer of the morning” deals just for us. I purchased the Egyptian dress that my father had informed me I should have when touring the Middle East along with some jewelry, Bedouin tea and postcards. At first 50 Egyptian pounds for a dress seems like such a great deal ($10) but once you figure out how all the bargaining works, you realize you can at least get them down to 50% of the quoted price and then some, if you play your cards rights. By the end of the trip I couldn’t bring myself to pay more than $5 dollars for anything. Meals prices were not up for negotiation though, but negotiation is hardly necessary when you get a delicious three-course meal for two euros.

The following day we opted to participate in the daytime hike to the top of Mount Sinai for sunset, where Moses received the Ten Commandments, instead of the midnight climb up to the summit for sunrise. I think Moses deserves a lot more credit for hiking up to the top of the mountain than the Bible gives him, members of our group really struggled and we even had a guide, a cleared path and are probably a few years younger than Moses was. We choose the camel path over the stairs on the way up and silly us thought the peak was marked by a little house at the top of the first mountain we saw . . . oh no, it wasn’t until three hours later (two hours after passing the little house on the first mountain) that we finally arrived at the top, our group split in two. Our guide was not the most charming either; the Egyptian government apparently hires locals to guide tourists to the top so that the poor in the community can benefit from the tourism (a nice thing to do); therefore all the guides take a turn and people skills have nothing to do with their selection. Our guide not only did not speak a word of English, but he didn’t really want to have anything to do with us and was certainly a firm believer in the “who falls behind stays behind” rule. I was in the first group to arrive at the top, probably due to the years of hikes through the woods while hunting with Dad.

Along the hike up the mountain there are several rest stops selling coffee, snacks, etc and just before the summit of Mt. Sinai at the final rest stop, one finds little shacks whose owners rent out camping mattresses and blankets for those daring enough to make the climb at night, but not wise enough to bring warm clothes. We camped out at this last rest stop to catch our breaths (one starts to feel the effects of the altitude at 7,498 ft) while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive. Opposed to the path we had taken up for the majority of the hike, the last part of the journey was up a couple hundred stairs created by haphazardly placed boulders. The view from the top definitely made it worth all the climbing and sweating. Never have I felt so “on top of the world” - mountains as far as the eye can see, no vegetation just sand-colored mountains everyone. We spread out the bread, cheese and fruit we had purchased earlier that morning and invited some other mountain-climbers who stumbled up the mountain to wait for the sunset to join us - I think something about sharing a strenuous experience makes you feel a certain connection with people you wouldn’t have anything to do with under ordinary circumstances. Our snack companions were a couple and two of their friends; the wife spoke to us first in Spanish so Jesús and I responded accordingly and it turned out her husband was from the German speaking part of Switzerland, so Nicole who had studied German began speaking to him which brought the German friends they were, who also spoke fluent French, into the conversation which enabled all of my friends to participate. Even though there wasn’t one common language through this crazy mix we all managed to communicate just fine. They asked us where we had already been and where we were going, to which we replied, Luxor and Cairo, then onto Jordan and Israel. As luck would have it, the German guy, Bastian, was studying Hebrew for a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and not only did he offer to show us around the city, he explained that he was living in the dorms at the University and three of the five rooms in his suite were empty so we were welcome to stay with him during our Jerusalem tour.

We exchanged contact information, wished everyone the best and made our way back down to the camel path before all the sunlight disappeared. On the way down we decided we better take a bathroom break . . surprisingly there was a “Western-style toilet,” but the “special thing” about this toilet was that it was on the edge of the cliff on top of a hole in the cliff. Not being one that’s a big fan of heights, I got my business taken care of and got out of there - what an awful way to go “American girl falls to her death off Mt. Sinai bathroom.” Going down was much easier than up and in less than an hour we were back at St. Katherine’s Monastery at the base. We had passed through the monastery before climbing Mt. Sinai and gotten to see the real Burning Bush where Moses was informed by God of his divine calling. People believe that if they break off a leaf or a twig and take it with them, it will bring them good luck, so at just about arm’s reach from the ground all the branches of the bush have been stripped of leaves and broken off. I thought that from the looks of it, the Bush needed as much help as it could get and I left its leaves and branches alone, although I did touch it just so I could say I had.

Two hours later we were exhausted but back at Penguin relaxing by the edge of the Red Sea when Emad the manager came to say he had some “bad news” to break to us. Due to a “storm or large group who had booked the ferry or something” the ferry he had arranged for us to take us down the Nile to Luxor had been canceled, but conveniently our rooms hadn’t been booked by anyone else for tomorrow night so we were welcome to stay and pay for another night. You read in the guidebooks that everyone tries to scam you in Egypt and think “I’m smart enough they won’t fool me” but then you realize it isn’t even an issue of fooling you or not, you’re at their mercy - you can’t speak or even read the language and they’re all in on the scams together, so even if you ask another hostel down the street to book you a ferry they won’t because they’re buddies with your hostel. So maybe I’m just too skeptical and the ferry really did get canceled . . . anyone it was nice to have another relaxing day in Dahab before we braved the real Egypt on the mainland.

Since we weren’t exactly the happiest with our hostel, we decided not to dine there for dinner, but instead try one of the restaurants recommended in what became our Middle East Bible - The Lonely Planet Guide to the Middle East. “LP” led us to Jasmine, another hostel/restaurant up the beach from ours. To my friends’ amusement our host turned out to be a guy about our age that we’d seen earlier in the week because he kept walking by and smiling at me while Deborah and I were playing Backgammon (sidenote - everyone in the Middle East LOVES Backgammon, you can’t go anywhere without seeing a Backgammon board, so the staff at Penguin had taught us girls how to play). “Momo the host” showed us to our table (same pillows on the floor setup that I loved) and as hospitality is very important to the Egyptians, he remained at our table to entertain us while we waited for our food. Momo (short for Mohammed, but since almost everyone is named Mohammed, they have lots of nicknames), in his broken English, suggested we play a game, as we’re a fun-loving group we said sure, let’s play an Egyptian game, tell us the rules. “Simple game simple game, it’s called “Do you have a boyfriend and if no why not”” Great game Momo . . so Momo goes “Ok, let’s start with …..you” and points to me - my friends really like this of course. Trying to be funny, I chose to quote the pop singer Nelly Furtado and responded with “No, because I’m a maneater” (friends laughed) but poor Momo understood not “maneater,” but “because there are so many” (friends laughed even more). Conveniently after just one round - meaning me - Momo was tired of the game - smooth operator Momo, smooth operator.

This reminds me, I promised you the best pick up line ever and you’re probably reading this essay of a travel blog I’ve written wondering what is this amazing pick up line Lisa speaks of . . . This requires a little background information on Arabic men - they all know just enough English to bargain with you - money speaks - and then they all have one favorite line they like to call out to the tourist women walking by. Many resort to the old stand-by, “You have beautiful eyes,” doesn’t matter that you’re wearing dark sunglasses and they can’t see your eyes. This brings me to my little story, so, Nicole, Deborah, Rachel and I had been out checking out shops one night in Dahab (another great thing about Egypt especially coming from France where the entire town shuts down at 7 pm - all of the stores are open until midnight seven days a week) and after getting our names in Arabic tattooed in henna on our ankles (even though it looked really cool turned out not to be the best idea, as then all the guys on the street who saw our ankles could call us by name) we were walking back to our hostel chewing some gum when one of these well-spoken men on the street who obviously knows the right words to lure in all female speakers of the English language calls out “Can I chew the gum that is in your mouth?”

Definitely deserves creativity points . . . so for all the single guys out there, next time you see a girl you want to impress and she happens to be chewing gum, remember “Can I chew the gum that is in your mouth?” it’s a real winner.

To finish up Dahab, later that night we celebrated Rachel’s 23rd birthday which ended in free birthday cake, Happy Birthday in Arabic sung to Rachel by 10 or so Egyptian men and free shisha (as Wikipedia informs me, a glass pipe of Persian origin used for smoking tobacco). Since I figured I probably wouldn’t have any other opportunities to try a shisha in the Middle East, with the other assistants I took my turn smoking the apple flavored tobacco. As my sole goal was to blow smoke rings just like the caterpillar in the Alice and Wonderland cartoon movie did and I was only successful in creating one, I decided shisha wasn’t as great as everyone made it out to be and I’d much rather spend my money on mango smoothies in the future.

The next and last day in Dahab was spent relaxing in the sun before catching our 19 hour bus to Luxor - we weren’t going to leave any room for ferry cancellations this go round. We borrowed some snorkeling equipment from a couple guys we’d met from Hawaii and New Zealand and swam around with the fish - and jellyfish, little, harmless ones, but I just couldn’t relax for fear and I would look up while snorkeling and find a jellyfish glued to my face. The time to say goodbye came so we packed our bags up, said goodbye to the staff who I think really did enjoy our stay with them and to Momo who professed his love for me and his desire to “make fire with me all night long were I ever to return Dahab - where I would also of course receive a special discount” and opened up the next chapter of our Middle East tour by visiting Luxor.


Thus ends the first installment of my Middle East travel blog, stay tuned for the next one. To give a brief update of what I’ve been up to - as of yesterday, I’ve been here in France for six months, just three and a half more to go before I’m back again in the States and purchasing my ticket home is on the to-do list for this week. My friend Becky came to visit me last week from New York City for a week and we had a great time despite the French weather (rain, snow and cold). We rented a car with one of my teachers (I played translator) and visited the Normandy coastline as well as Versailles. I also just started a new tutoring job this morning at an Italian restaurant beside the Cathedral, teaching restaurant vocabulary to two high school waiters, which I’m excited about. Half of my assistant friends will finish up their contract in April, so we’re trying to put together some fun activities to do before they leave - I’m on the calendar to host a “savory crepe party” this Wednesday - wish me luck!

Like always I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all and would love to hear from you! Gros bisous ~ Lisa

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