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Published: June 11th 2017
Today was the first day of our entire trip that we did not have to set the alarm! It was so nice to sleep in after so many early mornings. We didn't get up till about 8:30 (I was woken briefly at 4:30 ish as usual for the really loud call to prayer. It's especially loud here).
We had a really nice breakfast here at the Acacia Hotel. They don't have the breakfast buffet any longer due to the lack of tourists, but they have several different breakfast options you can choose from. We both chose the Egyptian breakfast, and it was delicious. It consisted of foul (fava beans), falafel, egg, cheese, cucumber, tomato, and pita bread. We started with a Turkish coffee, and then had regular coffee with the meal (they don't have brewed coffee here, just Nescafe instant!). It was a great breakfast and we are both looking forward to enjoying it again tomorrow morning.
We decided not to do anything scheduled today. We had a really enjoyable day just hanging around Dahab. After breakfast we walked down to the bank to exchange our remaining Jordanian dinars into Egyptian pounds, and made a stop at the nearby
small supermarket to look for cat food to feed the many cats who hang around Dahab. They didn't have cat food so we got a few cans of tuna. We came back to the hotel to look for a cat who we wanted to make sure got some food, it is the only cat we've seen who really doesn't look in good condition. Susan spotted him under a table and we dished out some tuna for him. He ended up gobbling down the whole can.
We then went for a walk down the street to where there are more tourist shops, but we went via the beach road which is much more peaceful as the other road is full of shops with shopkeepers trying to drag you into their shop. We wanted to go back to a place we saw our first day here, called Dahab Healthy Corner, a place that had lots of spices, tea, and bath products. This was the shopkeeper who had shown us the entire contents of his shop the other day! His shop was closed, but nearby shopkeepers said they would call him. We said we were going for a walk and would check
Close up of new necklace
It's my name written in Arabic. You read Arabic from right to left.on the way back.
We continued down the road and a shopkeeper enticed us into his shop with promises of letting us browse without being hassled. Since we were open to some shopping, we took him up on his offer and checked out his shop (actually 3 shops all combined). We settled on a pretty copper bracelet, three lounging pants (tie dye for me, elephant pants and striped linen pants for Susan), and a t-shirt each (mine is tie dye with "I heart Egypt" on it). I've always liked tie dye and Dahab seems to have a lot of it (a leftover from the hippies who discovered Dahab years ago). We had a tea while shopping which is the norm here.
We continued back to Dahab Healthy Corner, which was open now (the shopkeeper knew we had dropped by earlier so maybe the other shopkeepers did call him). We bought several different teas, and various spices, soap, natural pumice stones, and camel milk lotion. I'm afraid our luggage is getting heavier and heavier! Actually we've put most of our purchases into an expandable REI bag which we carried on to the plane from Amman. We will do the
same for our flights to Cairo and onto London. We had two more teas while shopping at that shop.
We walked back to the hotel, and changed into our bathing suits for an afternoon at the pool. The owner of the hotel, Magda, brought us a slice of delicious honey cake, and tea (I've had more tea the last couple of days than I can count! Mint tea, Bedouin tea ...)
We spent several hours by the pool, with a few Stella beer, lying in the sun and swimming in the pool. Then we came back to the room, I had a shower, and we've been relaxing on our spacious balcony overlooking the pool. We had gin with mint and lemon drink, then had the last of the Egyptian beer we had bought (it was a Sakara Gold which we've decided we like better than Stella).
We're going to have dinner at the restaurant in the hotel where we had breakfast. It overlooks the water (the Gulf of Aqaba - which I should have called it, not the Red Sea). We will finish with a Turkish coffee and a sheesha pipe.
Tomorrow we will get picked
up for the drive to the airport at 9am. We fly from Sharm to Cairo, have close to 4 hrs layover in Cairo (I hope we can find wifi!) then on to London. We arrive in London just after 9 pm, and one of Susan's cousins will pick us up. I sure will miss this lovely hot sunny weather.
I'm sad to leave this corner of the world, it has been such a great experience and we both definitely want to come back to the Middle East, hopefully to see Israel/Palestinian Territories and Lebanon. We have really loved both Egypt and Jordan and we have so many amazing memories. Seeing Egypt has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me and I am so thrilled to have been able to come here. Thank you Egypt and Jordan, for your genuine friendliness and hospitality and your heartfelt welcome. We will miss you so much.
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Faye
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You will both have such great memories! I hope you have something warm to wear in London!