Blogs from Dahab, Sinai, Egypt, Africa - page 4

I just finished my first day of boat diving, here in Hurghada. Here's a brief itinerary of my travels since my last entry: Cairo for 2 days (Pyramids, markets, museums) Overnight train to Aswan Aswan 5 hours (mostly on a sailboat on the nile) Train to Luxor (same day) Luxor for 1.5 days (temples, tombs, bike riding) Bus to Hurghada (8 hrs instead of 4) 2 days in Hurghada diving (here I am...) So, amidst all of these experiences, I will finish up what I can remember from Abu Galum and hopefully have time to expand on my recent travels - really too much to write, so you may be seeing some more poetry soon. A few egyptians finished eating and took off, another one continued to pile more rice onto the plate for aaron and ... read more

It's already two in the morning and I should be sleeping. The heaviness has begun to overcome my eyelids. I set out this evening with the intention to update you on everything that I have felt these last few days...and alas...I have managed to wait until now. My evening began with Aaron by dropping off our laundry, and then trying out a new restaurant. An uninviting narrow room with tables, chairs and dirty mirrors on either side called the curiosity from within both Aaron and I (One of the reasons we get along so well). We approached cautiously and noticed the very reasonable pricing with no single item costing more than 2.5 LE (0.45 USD). After our first order of 2 falafel sandwiches, the chef ran across the street to pick up some tomatoes! We each ... read more

"Good american, welcome to egypt!" was my greeting as I passed through the last payment point into egypt. The whole border process seemed like more of a scam than anything. 100 shekels to get out of israel ($30), $65 for an egypttian visa, 75 LE ($20) to get into egyt (didn't i already pay for this?) anda $40 ride to dahab (2 hrs)...and here I am. Eretz Mitzraim. One of the first questions I was asked, by a nice man at the bus station was, "Are you Jewish"? I thought for a few seconds, quickly running through the many different versions of advice I have been given, then very deliberately said, 'Yes, I am Jewish". I mean, why not...it couldn't hurt...could it? yes it could have, but thankfully my judgement was sound and here I am ... read more

Executive summary: Very dry, very hot, very dusty, and very windy and that is just the food - just kidding - that's the weather! There are enough check points, soldiers armed with automatic weapons, and armoured vehicles to make you think Egypt is at war or about to go to war. That, together with the dilapidated buildings, ruins, half finished new builds, and fairly trashy surrounds make this even more believable. But that's not why we came here, we came to see Egypt and all its great buildings - the pyramids of Giza were awesome, as were the many temples and tombs we've visited. The trip on a felucca up the Nile was just as special and the diving has been quite spectacular too. It's proved fairly difficult to find authentic Egyptian food as they unfortunately ... read more

Here's pictures on the progress of the AC Room (old kitchen)... read more