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Published: November 30th 2010
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My plan for getting to Dahab was to take a bus to Hurghada, get a short 90 minute ferry to Sharm el Sheikh, and then a quick bus ride to Dahab, I figured I would be there in a day. Unfortunately after a long bus ride to Hurghada, a miserable night of sleep on an extremely uncomfortable cheap bed, an early morning so I could get to the ferry with plenty of time, “we no why ferry no work” in the words of the boat captain. Distraught, I got another bus ticket to Cairo, followed by another bus to Sharm el Sheikh. The “food” the bus company was supposed to provide turned to be an extremely sugary juice box and a twinkie. Needless to say twenty hours later I arrived in Sharm a starving exhausted broken shell of a man. Sharm el Sheikh has more in common with Miami than with Cairo. Tons of the beautiful people from Russia and Germany, a raging nightlife, overpriced drinks, clubs, cleanliness.... I felt out of place. Additionally because so many people were travelling for the Eid-al adha there were no empty rooms. Fortunately, and really only by the grace of god, I had managed
to chat up a local, Mena, on the bus. He was a somewhat eccentric person that I never quite felt comfortable around. Small, chain smoking, fast talking, I wasn’t surprised at all when he told me he sold tours. After listening to my dilemma he let me stay with him in a small studio room with two beds that he shared with 3 other young guys in their early twenties. I felt sort of bad about this because they gave me one bed, two of them shared the other bed, and then two more slept on the floor. They all chain smoked Marlboro Reds and after the second night there I thought that my lungs were going to collapse. Mena was very strange. The first Coptic Christian I have talked to, he claimed that it was extremely important for him to marry a much younger girl who was a virgin, a theme which kept coming up during our conversations. On the other hand he claimed that he was able to seduce many of the European women that he helped book tours for (a very common Egyptian delusion). He seemed totally bewildered when I tried to point out what a double
standard this was. What really made me feel strange about him though was when he asked me for help coming up with things to write to girls on facebook. Apparently he goes through all his friends, and then friends all their female friends, and so on and so forth. He had like three thousand facebook friends, all of them girls, the vast majority of whom he’d never met. Then he would try and facebook chat with them. It was very sad watching this and each time it would end with the girls being very creeped out, and rightfully so.
Finally on the 20th, three days after leaving Luxor, I arrived in Dahab. If Cairo is chaos, this place is paradise. The most beautiful blue ocean, a small town full of cafe’s nestled right up to the water, and in the backdrop the massive, beautiful red mountains of the Sinai. Across the gulf is the montains of Saudi Arabi, looming in the distance. I just cannot say enough nice things about my time here. I found a very quaint hotel, Hotel Neptune, right along the water, very young nice staff, clean rooms, good price.
I decided to climb Mt.
Sinai, where Moses allegedly received the ten commandments. The way this works is that you arrange through your hotel for a little van to come pick you up around 11pm, then you climb the mountain through the night and get to watch the sun rise. I had thought that there might be about twenty people doing this. I thought this because it is a 7km uphill hike, a 2 hour drive to the trail head from the closest town, very cold, non-peak tourist season, and you can do it any night of the week. I was very wrong, there were close to a thousand people making this hike, and that is not an exaggeration. Apparently this is one of the most hiked trails in the world. I was very shocked at how many older people were doing this as well, including many ancient nuns, earnestly putting one foot in front of the other in a quest to reach the summit. Each group was led by a local Bedouin that could help you navigate up the trail, and there was a constant stream of peddlers trying to get you to buy a camel ride up or rent blankets or sleeping pads
or trying to sell coffee or tea. Finally, several hours into the night I was among the first to arrive at the small chapel at the summit, and got a great spot right along the western wall. I rented a blanket, got out my sleeping bag, and took a nap. When I awoke an hour later the whole summit was crammed with people. A group out of sight was singing what I assume were religious songs in a language I didn’t understand. Off to one side was a man dressed in conservative Jewish attire reading from the Torah in a bellowing voice. Gradually the sun came over the mountains and mist evaporated from the hills and I have to admit it was a pretty spectacular sight.
I also decided that I wanted to get SCUBA certified, and signed up for the 4 day PADI open water course. This is something I have always wanted to do, and it would have been foolish for me to spend a week in one of the premier diving spots in the world without getting certified. I ended up going to Poseidon Dive Club near my hotel, a very hippie type dive club run
by some English people. My instructor, Alex, was a Brazilian with over 6000 dives. I think Paul Rudd’s character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall was based on him: “Do less....breathe slower.... do less....okay Chris why are you doing nothing, do more.” He was extremely nice and knowledgeable and all about having a good time. I took to diving pretty quickly since the basics of it are to empty your mind, relax, and move slowly, all things I thrive at. The course had three basic parts, classroom instruction, skills, and open water dives. The skills were things like taking off you mask, clearing your goggles, doing emergency ascents, buddy breathing, and similar type things. The open water dives were what really sold me on this as a potentially lifelong hobby. For starters, it is the closest thing to flying that i think exists, moving in all directions through a three dimensional world is unlike anything else I have ever done. Additionally, I saw more wildlife in a few hours underwater than I have in my entire life above ground. Eels, jelly fish, and an assortment of blue, yellow, purple, and red fish all swimming in and out of the coral. We saw
an octopus and several massive undulated morays. It was incredible. This should be on everyone’s To Do list before you die. Don’t worry about the pyramids--GO DIVING! You even leave the water with an incredible sense of well-being. I think it is sort of like yoga in that you have to be very conscious of your breathing, body position, and have your mind completely in the present. It wasn’t uncommon for me to leave the water and realize I hadn’t had a stray thought in the full hour I had been underwater. Definitely a hobby that I would like to pursue for the rest of my life. Unfortunately my camera is only good to 10m so I couldn’t take any photos, though some of the people I went with did and hopefully they will send me the photos which I will upload.
My plan from here is to make my way back to Cairo tomorrow, where I will need to renew my VISA which expired a few days ago. From there I will try to visit the Egyptian Museum and see the Citadel, but mostly just hang out until monday when I fly to Mumbai.
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Adam Thompson
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Mountains
Kopp, Looks like you enjoyed quite the scenic overlook up there. Did you meet any interesting people at the summit or just enjoy the adventure? It must have been impressive seeing the elderly nuns making the same trek. Imagine receive commandments from God up there! Looks like he picked a great place. Adam