Diving with the General

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And the news from Dahab continues.

First off - The diving. It's been AMAZING. I finished up my open water cert, with a couple from Australia. We had so much fun, and saw sooo many cool things we decided to do the advance course which lets you go to 100 feet, and also gets you to some amazing sites in the Dahab area.

We had a different instructor for this part of the course. He was a very stocky man named Akmed, who resembled a general or someone from the army. He was kind of like the local dive hero, known by all, which was nice especially when you can slide through the various police check points littered along the highway.

For the final dive (and deepest) we to the most famous site in the Dahab area; The Blue Hole. Basically about 15 feet from the shore there is a cliff that drops down about 250 feet, with a really nice reef wall. The plan was to do our decent at another site, then drift into the hole and ascend.

We are suited up, and walking the 1000 feet or so around the bend to the entry location, and I notice on rocks at the bend ahead of us, is decorated with plaques. I say to myself, "oh that’s cool, probably some eco friendly site and a sign posted." It's only when I get closer to the plaques that I make out that they have dates, and names, and then I put two and two together, and yes, these are people that have died doing this. It really didn't freak me out, just made me more aware of what I was about to do. In all honesty, most of these divers that made the one way trip to the blue whole were tech divers trying to push the limits. I was in the hands of a good instructor, and felt confidant enough in the water. The descent was a bit dodgy cause you basically go down through a crevasse that’s only 4 feet wide at times. They call it the bells, because as you descend your tank rings out against the rocks.

The dive itself was absolutely amazing. The depth wasn't an issue. Drifting into the blue hole and looking up and seeing this giant blue hole, basically, was breathtaking. I saw tons of fish - big and small. What I was most impressed with was the coral and the microorganisms that living in them. By this point I had become a pretty good diver, with the exception of occasionally using my hands, which is a no no, cause it just makes your body use more air. Akmed, my General of the Dahab scuba scene warned me that if I did it he was going to bit me.

I am sitting there, watch some fish swim past the red coral, and I see him take his regulator out, reach for my hand, and yes, bit it. I am not talking about - put my had in mouth, touch teeth to hand, kind of bit. I am talking pit bull style bit, teeth marks and all. So I hit him in the forehead. I was shocked. He did it for my own good, and as a result have become a much better diver, especially with air consumption. Akmed and I got along great - he continues to give me shit for being a George Bush American….he knows it pisses me off, my Achilles heal if you will, and exploits it to its fullest. We have had some good talks, and like most (and I mean almost everyone) they're able to separate American people from American foreign (or lack of) policy. I constantly remind him that GW only has the support of about 23% at the moment, and Cheney, well he's at about 9% - but he did shoot an old man in the face, a friend too. We have had some good talks. I continue to ask many questions about Egypt and Muslim culture in general. In turn he is eager to answer anything I through at him, and we both agree that this is one of the main problems between the west and the Muslim world - lack of understanding on both ends.

As a whole, the muslim/egyptions I have meet have been fantastic. I continue to hang out with the dive shop guys and the locals at the hotel. The hospitality amazes me. For a group that is suppose to be nothing but jihadist evil do-ers, they seem ok in my book (or blogg that is).

I have also hung out with the manager of the hotel, Emad, a bit - a nice guy, very animated in his late twenties, and married to a polish woman. This seems somewhat popular with the Egyptian men and western women, but defiantly not the other direction.

I had been shooting time lapse videos around the hotel, and someone asked me what I was doing. I explained the concept and agreed to show them when it was done. They were all amazed by this feature (which is actually old school technology, just on a dig cam).

I showed Emad the video and then he shared with me his new website he was launching, wanting feedback. I gave him my feedback, which he found very helpful. I also told him that if he wanted to use the time lapse he was welcome to it. Then he introduces me to his web designer/marketing guy, who loved them (the videos). Right there, he was like "how much can we pay you?" I told him that I wasn't for hire, as it's my holiday but would be happy to shoot some for free, maybe get a free meal or dive out of it. At first he didn't get it, and asked again, "but how much money do you want?"

I told him not to worry. I shot another last night, and within an hour he had it up on a beta site. Even when I travel 8,000 miles from home I can't escape work, or at least the idea of it.

Speaking of, I have seen pirates 3 advertised in both Dutch and Arabic now, pirates 2 in Thai and Malay.

Speaking of time lapse - sunset is coming and I need to go earn a free dive.

Next post I will get into some of the strange things about the culture….or different as we'll say.

-Dylan

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Comments

[Annie]

Keep up the bloggs... I love reading about your adventures! xoxoxoxo

[Hammer]

micro-organisms
I don't think you can SEE micro-organisms.

[Uncle John]

Diving
You should plan to drop by some time so we can share scuba diving tales from the deep.