Advertisement
Published: June 14th 2007
so i'm back in Cairo and i seemed like i'm back at home, i've become familiar with the city and act like a local which means not watching the road while crossing, taking local buses and so on. it's not too hot which makes it supportable to walk all day around the city.
since my friend left in Sharm on saturday night i enjoyed the heat and the beach, i hung out with 2 danish guys it was their 4th time in Egypt, they love diving so we went snorkelling, the reef is actually very close to the beach and they had all the gear. it was really beautiful, i made them swear first that i wouldn't see any sea snake or shark!! but after 5 mins i relaxed and stayed for more than 1h. i saw lots of pretty fish, a big one called Napoleon fish and a stingray.
i was supposed to go to Dahab that night, it's always when u meet people that u have to leave.
u know u're used to travel when something happens and you stay c ool. i arrived at the bus station in sharm el-sheikh to find my bus was late (45mins) and when it finally arrived it was broken (another 30mins). we were only 2 women at the station and i got to talk to her because she was not covered so i thought she was maybe a tourist. she's palestinian but leaves in London 1 station from me.
i didn't have any hotel, it was completely dark by now and didn't even know how to get to the centre and then i lost all my songs on my ipod. when i turned it on everything was gone, 2 years ago i would have gone mental, especially as my camera broke down on my first day in Egypt so fuck it, i'm not even gonna cry over it. i was so tired that i just tried to sleep, something very hard in local buses, full of locals. they either put the Koran very loud or put an arabic movie that doesn't even work.
but all that was worth it because Dahab is my favourite place, looks like i'm back in Asia with lots of street dogs and cats; not so excited about that though!!!
it's so different compared to Sharm, it used to be the backpackers mecca and in a way still is, but the tourism is killing the atmosphere, like everywhere i guess. still, travellers outnumber tourists and it's great. my guesthouse is really cool, i sleep for GPB 3 and there's a little garden with a bedouin style seating area with lots of cushions.
they organise tours for mount Sinai, this is something i really wanted to do but i'm not sure i'm fit enough especially as the hike is at night. but when they tell me that it costs only 6 pounds i just book a place. this country is beautiful and cheap as well, this is perfect.
dahab doesn't have great beaches, it's very rocky and not great for swimming but every restaurant or bar lined up on the beach let you use the sunbeds if u buy something so i just spend the whole day there. i just want to relax and be ok for the night as it's gonna be another sleepness night.
we're supposed to leave at 11 but in Egypt they're also the Egyptian time and if u don't know this u're fucked. patience must be your strongest point, which is not mine!! so we're meant to leave at 11 but don't make a move until 1, all of us stuck in a minivan, less seats than we are and with our bags. (15 people for 11 seats). the best way to get to know people!!!
the police is really annoying, they're so scared for something to happen to tourists (or maybe the opposite?). they check our passports, visas, a million times. they then ordered all the english and americans to have a police convoy for security. (they said because of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair!!! a bit late on the current affairs!) we were getting angry by now, we were on the way to arrive after the sunrise. the american girl was so pissed off she w
after negotiations, even the driver was pissed off, we drove for 2hours and started walking at 3. it's not a bad idea to do it at night so u don't see the huge mountains surrounding u. the walk is actually quite easy, the only annoying thing is all the bedouins asking us if we want to rent a camel so for the next 3h it's "camel, camel, do u want a camel?" sometimes u don't even see them and u bump into a camel.
mount Sinai is where God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses. the summit is about 2300m and even in summer it gets cold but as soon as the sun is up u feel the heat. we arrived less in than 3h, the last part with the 750steps was really hard but the sunrise was amazing. i would recommend anyone to do it.
on the way back we took the Steps of the Repentance - 3750 steps, but i didn't find it too hard. i'm just really glad i did it.
back at the hotel around midday i was litterally dead, i couldn't even move my legs but instead of sleeping i went snorkelling all afternoon with a japanese guy and koreen girl; they styudy arabic at the cairo university. dahab is famous for its nice coral reef, we went to a place called the blue hole and it was very nice; the reef was very large and you could see the big wall of the ocean, something i had seen for the first time in bali.
i fell very strange to have to leave Dahab, the locals were really nice and welcoming, all thouht i was australian? maybe because of my burnt hair!! they were împressed when i said i come from Zidane's city, he's a hero now and not because of his football skills!!!
i wasn't looking forward to the night bus to Cairo, the bus was full so i couldn't sleep it was a 9h journey nightmare. i drove the egyptian guy mad, kept moving and turning. and every checkpoint they ask for our passport that was really annoying.
back in Cairo now, saw the Pyramids yesterday, it's not until u are next to them that u realise the scale of them. it's awesome and make u wonder how they could achieve such work. we went inside Cheops, the big one, there's nothing to see inside but just the fact to realise u are inside is enough. i did a small ride on a camel and we finished with the Sphinx. it was quick as they always close the site early in the afternoon because of the heat. pictures are coming, i promise, just need to download them.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.046s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0267s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1mb
Stéphanie
non-member comment
How to survive without an I-pod and camera by Marjorie
Sounds like you are having an awesome time!!! and I can see you are learning patience...am really impressed..and jealous!!