Advertisement
Published: October 30th 2008
Dahab
(This photo courtesy of Henrik) All calamities happen in threes..
Day 17 - I think I may be in Egypt!! Our itinerary said that today would be dedicated to solely getting across the Border from Jordan to Egypt - And it wasn't an exaggeration....
We were originally given an 11am departure time to catch the ferry across the red sea to Egypt. This soon changed to 1pm as we sat at the Jordanian Border waiting to cross. We stood waiting at Border control as our Jordanian agent handled the necessary paperwork to process our visas. Standing around watching the scene unfolding before me was like watching scenes from a commodities trading floor just before closing time - all awash with yelling men, standing with arms raised holding various bits of papers, passports and forms whilst huddled in front of a booth - waiting to be processed.
At some time after 2pm we eventually boarded our ferry to take our 2+ hour journey across to Egypt. It has to be said - this journey was noteworthy for one thing only - that is "the toilet incidents". It would seem that almost everyone of us had at least one different type of toilet incident on
Dahab
(This photo courtesy of Cameron) this short journey - some worse than others. That being said - I will only tell you my story (which I was told was not so bad...). So here goes....I stood by the toilet carefully trying to avoid the old woman who was not only having a bath in the basin but was also washing her clothes at the same time....Aaarrgghhh!!!! Here she was wearing what looked like a dressing gown with a towel over her head splashing water over her face & body while her clothes were soaking in the basin - All this just 30 minutes into our journey. The floor was saturated in muddy water, not only from her but also from the other women who had obviously finished what she was still in the middle of doing. It was as if they had waited specifically for this journey to be able to complete their daily washing regime....Hmmm!!!
Our arrival into Egypt couldn't have been more of a welcome to all of us. But this was short lived when we found out that this was going to be where we would have the longest wait - 'What! Longer than the 2 hour wait at the Jordanian
My introductory dive
I was already starting to get scared - if that wasn't already obvious from the expression on my face. one?'. We sat there for 4 hours as they processed the required Egyptian plates for the truck. As we sat in and around the truck waiting for the time to pass - we saw groups of Egyptian locals sitting around their sacks of produce, luggage and other bits and pieces doing the same thing, obviously used to the delays of the Egyptian Immigration Office.
Day 18 - Calamity 1 "The death of my camera" I decided to do the introductory dive over the coral reefs today. I was both excited and scared at the same time, having never done anything like this before. I went to the dive centre with all of the group who were either scuba diving themselves or doing the intro dive like me (basically, diving with a diving master who regulates for you instead). We quickly went through the medical and training before being kitted out in our scuba gear and walking to beach front.
I couldn't believe how heavy the oxygen tanks & weight belts were as they put them on to me almost fell over backwards in my attempt to stand upright. My dive master helped me into the shallow water
Toto's bar with the girls
Stephanie, Me, Jac, Blair to do a quick run through of the basics that I would need to follow as we went for our dive (Our dive was going to take me down to a maximum of 12 metres). It was at this point while I was practicing my breathing & regulating techniques that my camera eventually died - OMG!! I was so excited to finally be the one to be able to take my own underwater photos and couldn't believe that I wouldn't be able to take it down with me.
I didn't have enough time to dwell on the whole camera incident because it was soon replaced by my ever increasing panic at having to actually go underwater. We had a few false alarms as I struggled to breath through my breathing apparatus. In even very shallow water as I tried to breath I couldn't get away from the feeling that I was drowning and struggled that I was unable to breathe through my mouth. I was close to tears and almost pulled out of the whole thing before we even started but my dive master pulled me through and we eventually made our way out to deeper water.
This
has to be one of my greatest achievements - I conquered my fear of diving in deep water. I had a few panic attacks whilst I was there, especially when I realised how deep I actually was - There were times when I wanted to pull off my tanks and remove my breathing apparatus so that I could swim back up to the surface quickly and inhale a deep breath through my own nose and mouth. Each time I felt like I was hyperventilating, my dive master would squeeze my hand and point to some fish or reef to distract me.
When I was focused enough to not think about my breathing what I did was breath taking (Excuse the pun!!). The reefs were so vivid and colourfull. The fish were swimming around in their hundreds and I spent half my time trying to reach out and catch them while my dive master directed me in and around the reefs.
I did it...OMG!! I really did it, I eventually surfaced and was practically dancing at the fact that I had actually completed the whole dive. It was only the realisation that I wasn't able to capture it on
film that dulled my exuberance somewhat.
Day 19 - Calamity 2 "The illness bug has finally caught up with me" It has taken over 20 days - but it has finally caught up with me. I did not feel 100%!t(MISSING)oday, in actual fact I was feeling more like 10%! (MISSING)Three days in the one location has been a welcome change from being constantly on the go. It allowed us to lie in and literally do nothing all day, if we so wanted, so being sick whilst I was here was not the worst thing that could have happened during my time in Dahab.
I cautiously made my way down the road to our usual breakfast location in a place called 'Al Capone's restaurant and ordered the lightest meal possible together with copious amounts of mint tea. I sat there for the next few hours overlooking the sea eating my breakfast and feeling rather sorry for myself, unable to do anything but mumble a few words and hold my stomach.
After little or no improvement in my state of illness (and after multiple different drinks of tea, fresh lemon and fresh peppermint being thrown at me
Fancy dress dinner
Blair, Me, Michael & Jac by the staff at the restaurant) I decided to go back to the room to have a snooze in the hope that it would wear off in plenty of time for our evening fancy dress dinner.
Hours later, I decided to stumble my way across to the nearest pharmacy in some hope of relief. I must have looked like death or at the very least very irritable because my journey to the pharmacy did not involve the usual catcalls from locals asking me to come into their store and spend my money. Drugged up, I made my way back to my room for another snooze before dinner.
Later that afternoon, I felt sufficiently well enough to venture outside for a spot of shopping along the market stalls near our rest house before heading back to our room to prepare for our fancy dress night.
...and our fancy dress night As this was almost the end of the trip for those who did not choose to do the full 5 week tour - this fancy dress night was to have a sort of last hurrah for the whole group before we went our separate ways. We were each
The belly dancing girls
Mel, Alice, Stephanie, Kate asked to dress in a Middle Eastern outfit so most of the girls opted to wear a belly dancing outfit while the rest of us chose to wear the traditional galibaya (which I believe is traditionally worn by men only but is now also being sold to women as a tourist souvenir).
Walking to the restaurant from our rest house proved to be a rather entertaining experience for the locals as much as for ourselves. To them the sight of guys & girls dressed in galibayas together with a group of girls scantily clad in belly dancing outfits was a highly amusing thing to see and deserved a photo on multiple mobile phones. Dinner was held in the same restaurant we had eaten in everyday (Al Capone's) and was both festive and somber as some of the group slowly started to get into the frame of mind that their holidays were coming to an end....
Sadly for me - the party ended straight after dinner as I bade my farewell's to the group in the hope that an early night in bed would cure my bug by the morning.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.222s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 11; qc: 66; dbt: 0.091s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Milly
non-member comment
Al capone not a good spot
To make it short, our driver stopped for lunch @ Al Capone rest. going to the border. We were offered 2 fresh fish,calamari, a few shrimp, and seafood soup, 2 sodas and one coffe. To our surprise the bill was $250 TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS :O No wonder there were more customers complaining! Which ruined our day and instead of booking a hotel and diving the blue hole...we run for salvation to Israel!!!! Which we love and people is not dishonest or trying to squeeze the money out of your wallet.