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Published: June 30th 2011
With Friends in Dahab
Snorkelling the Blue Hole in DahabI am finally leaving Cairo for good. After using Cairo as my base for numerous excursions withing Egypt , I am setting sail and moving on. I stayed in Cairo for one night after returning from Khartoum and the next evening I caught the eleven oclock night bus to Dahab. This was a very interesting Bus trip because first of all it arrived about an hour and a half late. That is ok I didn't expect it to arrive on time. I was very tired by the time the bus arrived and was ready to crash on the bus and wake up in the morning fully refreshed.....this did not happen.
This bus had more stops and checks than any other bus I had taken thus far in my trip. At one point everyone had to get off the bus and all the bags had to be checked by a police sniff dog. The Sainai is getting closer to Israel and as a result the Egyptians step up their security....of half asleep Egyptian military checkpoints. They mainly check the arabs and most foreigners, myself included rarely had to show their passports. I arrived in Dahab groggy and sleep deprived, however Dahab
Blue Hole, Dahab
A view from above of the blue hole, to truly do it justice it needs to be photographed from right above to see how deep and clear the water really is. is an amazing and beautiful place and any ill feelings were soon forgotten by the amazing views of the red sea and the welcomed heat.
As soon as I got off the bus I met a few brits who were studying arabic in Cairo and had taken the weekend off to come to dahab. I ended up spending my entire stay in dahab with them. Dahab is really amazing and for the rest of the day we ended up just suntanning and chilling on the "beach". I had finally found that chill relaxing spot in the middle east where I could just relax. After the past month it was a greatly welcomed rest.
The next day I realized...my body was a tomato and I had really burned myself good, even tho I had put sunscreen on twice. This caused me to cover up and try to stay out of the sun as much as possible the next day. A few days later I peeled and this was an altogether rather unenjoyable experience. Over the next few days I hung out with my british friends and had some really great days. I went snorkelling in the blue hole, which
Me next to the reef
The reef was amazing but was hard to do it justice through photos. is on of the top dive and snorkelling sites in the world. Unfortunately I didn't feel like I had enough money to do a dive course, even though it only cost $250 for a 4 day certification course, which included free accommodation. If I have the chance I may try and do this on my way back because it really is worth the money.
One of the days while in Dahab I was unable to get any sleep because...I climbed Mt Sinai and we left at 11 at night and arrived at around 1 or 2ish in the morning and climbed up in order to get a good sunrise view. This was a very cool climb although maybe a little overhyped. I found St Catherines monastery even more enjoyable than the hike and the museum there housed some of the oldest bibles in the world and the second largest Christian library in the world trailing only the Vatican. I ended up paying 10 pounds for a bottle of water!!! biggest rippoff ever but had to be done due to the extreme thirst I was going through. Only cost about eqivalant to less than 2 dollars Canadian...but still expensive in
comparison to the usual 2 or 3 pounds per bottle. Once we got back to the hostel I feel asleep next to the pool, listening to my ipod, very nice.
The fish I saw while snorkelling were really amazing and the coral was stunningly beautiful. I really enjoyed Dahab and it had been my favourite place in the trip so far. Beer was cheap, basically two dollars a bottle and this was the first time I had drank on my trip, which means in well over a month and I could certainly tell. Sheesha here was very good and also very cheap, basically under two dollars for a sheesha and the food was also decently priced for the location, however, expensive in comparison to the rest of Egypt. After having an amazing trip in Dahab it was time to move on to Jordan and after having said farewell to my friends from Cairo and spending another day simply relaxing, I would have to make my way over to Jordan.
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