Dahab, PADI paradise!

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We've spent the last 11 days in the so-called "backpacker nirvana" of Dahab on Egypt's Sinai peninsula. We have mixed feelings about this place. At first, we were a little disappointed - zero beach, coldish ocean, incessant touts ("why not?!"), buzzing flies, and worst of all, the constant gale force wind. However, as time went on, we warmed to it. We found some good snorkel spots, including one with an eel garden (hundreds of eels in the sand that slowly sink into the sand as you dive down to them). This site also had several big eels and we even saw two octopus. The touts began to get the message as they got to know us, and gave up touting. Best of all, the weather changed and the wind dropped almost completely, making the sea calmer and much more inviting.

We got talked into finally doing our advanced diver course, which took us to some of the best dive sites in Dahab. The best was Bells/Blue Hole. You start by descending head first down a narrow canyon (named "Bells" due to the clanging of the scuba tanks) and emerge along a vertical wall covered in all types of coral.

Undoubtedly our best dives, however, were on the Thistlegorm wreck and Ras Mohammad marine park. We met up with the other divers at 11pm and were piled into a mini bus for the 100km trip to Sharm El Sheik, where we would board a boat for the night, ready to dive first thing in the morning. About 10km from Sharm El Sheik, there is a police security check for all vehicles. Tourists must show their passports. It was only at this point that our driver realized he had forgotten to bring all of the passports from the dive shop. Big problem! Our driver got on the phone and arranged for someone to drive out and bring the passports so that we could proceed. Being 90km away, it was going to be a long wait, and people were eager to get to the boat and get to sleep. After about 25 minutes, some people started heavily complaining. Without a word, our driver got back into the van and started the engine and drove towards the policeman guarding the road. He honked as we approached, and the police gestured that he couldn't pass. Our driver yelled something, and then the police just shrugged and let us pass. Very strange! We have no idea what happened, but were glad to be on our way again.

The diving was excellent. The first two dives were on the Thistlegorm wreck, a ship from WWII which had been travelling to North Africa with supplies for the British troops. It got a direct hit by the Germans and instantly sank, killing 8 men. The others managed to get rescued. Nowadays, it is one of the most popular dive sites in Egypt. On the first dive, you can see the guns and propellers on the outside of the ship. The best part, however, was entering the wreck on the second dive. Everything has been left as it was when it sank in 1941. Amongst other things, you can see 1940s tanks, trucks, cars, and motorbikes. There were even some wellington boots there. Quite eerie! A fun gimmick was that you got to enter an air pocket in the galley, take out your regulator (mouthpiece) and speak your air amount to the dive master! Our third dive for the day was in the Ras Mohammad national park. The dive started out on a sheer wall of coral plummeting to over 2000 metres (don't worry, mum, we only went to 18 metres!) By the way, I stole the underwater photos from a website I found, so they are not ours (that's my disclaimer, hopefully no copyright infringements have occurred!)...

Despite the relaxing time in Dahab, our trip to it wasn't quite so. I forgot to mention before what happened at the airport in Nairobi. Our direct flight to Cairo didn't exist (thanks, STA Travel!) but, as it wasn't our fault, the airline said they'd get us onto another flight. They were leaving in either 40 minutes time, or 14 hours time! Luckily, they managed to get us through and get us on the early flight. The catch was that it went via Khatoum, Sudan. We were a little nervous flying through Sudan, given all the news footage in Darfur, but thankfully we were just transferring, so didn't have to leave the airport. We had high hopes for a first or business class seat, especially when we were given row 10, but alas it was the very front of chicken-class - sigh, one of these days we'll get upgraded to business class....

Leaving Cairo to get our overnight bus to Dahab was quite an event. We'd been in an internet cafe and when we left, we found the stairway filled with people. The internet cafe owner helped to part the sea of people so that we could leave and return to our hotel next door. We spent the next several hours on our third floor hotel balcony watching the events unfold. The crowds moved to the doorway of the hotel building. We found out that, as it was the end of Ramadan, the bookseller in our building was doing the charitable thing and giving out free clothes to the poor. As the crowd got impatient, they began to surge forward. As they did so, the police would push them back by wielding big sticks, hitting and pushing over those that didn't cooperate. It looked like the scenes of Burma we've been seeing on TV recently. When the crowd was finally allowed in, they surged up the stairway right past the barred doors to our hotel. The hotel owner sat at the entrance the whole time holding a big stick, just in case anyone got inside. A couple of tourists had wanted to leave but were told to stay inside the hotel as they could be beaten if they went outside into the chaos. The alarming part of it all for us was that we had a bus to catch in a couple of hours time and there was no way we could leave the hotel. We were fully prepared for the possibility of having to forego our bus tickets and instead check back into the hotel for the night.

It turned out that the men were quite quickly sent back outside after receiving their packages, and then it was the women's turn. Of course, being women, this was much more orderly and civilized. The only problems occurred when the occasional man tried to sneak back in with the woman, only to be hit and thrown back onto the street by the police. It was really quite sombering to see people so desperate for free clothes that they are prepared to be beaten to get through.

Luckily for us and our night bus, the alms-giving stopped by about 11pm and the crowds soon dispersed. This left us plenty of time to get a taxi to our midnight-departure bus to Dahab.

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Photos

Dahab's, erm, beautiful beach!
But the mountains add a scenic backdrop!

Taking it easy
One of Dahab's sunbed cafes

Seven Heaven Restaurant
One of Dahab's colourful restaurants

Look my Shop!
Stuffed camels and sheesha pipes make up part of the tourist tack (can you imagine taking a water pipe through customs?!!)

Dahab street
(We still haven't figured out what the statue is...any ideas?!)

Diving the Bells and Blue Hole
Oli, our dive master, gets the equipment ready while battling gale force winds!

Dahab Sunset
Complete with trainee PADI divers!

Comments

[Andi and Paul]

Finally Advanced!
The diving sounded great. Especially the Thistledorm. You never know maybe on our third visit to sharm we might get to do some diving (if I can keep paul out of hospital!) Looks like you're still having a great time. Let me know how you really think Egypt compares to diving in the rest of the world.