Blogs from Sinai, Egypt, Africa

Decido di prendermi una breve pausa dal viaggiare, una vacanza oserei dire, e di allontanarmi momentaneamente da Israele e dal suo costo della vita a dir poco esagerato. Attraverso il confine nel profondo Sud tra le citta' di Eilat e Taba e mi ritrovo cosi' nel Sinai, quel triangolo di terra che forma un ponte naturale tra l'Asia e l'Africa, una terra di aride montagne e mari stupendi, popolata dai nobili beduini, antichi padroni di queste lande desolate. E vacanza sia! Mi fermo nel nulla a meta' strada tra Taba e Nuweiba, dove su un lungo tratto di spiaggia dorata, praticamente disabitata, sorgono decine di "camps" beduini presso cui poter soggiornare nel piu' completo isolamento dalla civilta' e da quasi tutte le comodita' del mondo moderno. Accampamenti? Campeggi? Baraccamenti? Non saprei proprio come definirli: sono spartani ... read more

Today, was a long travel day. We woke up early in the morning to travel from Cairo to Dahab. Dahab is a relaxing small town on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. It is known to be one of Sinai's most treasured diving destination. The drive was very long with a lot of tolls and security checkpoints. We reached Dahab in the late afternoon, where we relaxed by the pool. Tomorrow will be more exciting, as Renata and I are snorkeling and then heading to a Beduoin Dinner in the evening. Until then!... read more

We are at the Sharm el Sheikh airport waiting for our flight to Cairo. We have about 4 hrs layover in Cairo, then we fly to London. No wifi here at the airport departures (there was in arrivals so don't know why no wifi now), and there are flies buzzing around. That's one thing I won't miss about the Middle East, all the flies! My legs are covered with bites of some kind but thank god they are not itchy. Last night we had an excellent grilled fish dinner at the hotel. It was grilled fresh sea bass in a really tasty sauce, accompanied by rice, grilled vegetables and arabic bread. The cats hanging around the hotel got the leftovers. We then went for a walk and found ourselves at the shop where we had bought ... read more

The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands. - Sir Richard Burton We were met this morning at 7:30 by our guide Ebad and driver Hassem, for our "Egyptian Desert Experience" day tour. We munched on our breakfast boxes as we drove out of Dahab. We had to bring our passports with us as we pass into UN controlled territory and they check visas. There are numerous checkpoints we had to go through, the one leaving Dahab which we passed through coming from the airport on our way here, and a couple of other checkpoints in the South Sinai. They keep very good track of tourists going into the Katherine protected area. The scenery as we drove into the Sinai desert changed from rugged granite mountains to softer sandstone hills. ... read more

We departed Sharm El Sheik at 0900 and took the East Delta bus to the Egyptian border crossing at Taba ($6) via Dahab and Nuweiba. I had initially planned to buy plane tickets to fly directly to Jordan, but the cost was so high and I heard to do the trip overland was scenic, 1/5 the cost, fairly easy and relatively safe. We traveled through the Sinai peninsula north up through the mountains along the coast, past Mt. Sinai and other biblical locales. Our bus had several other tourists on it, including two Icelanders and a very loud and obnoxious native Greek NY'er Greg who we befriended along the way. Greg talked non stop about how great Israel was and how he couldn't wait to return after his horrific trip to Egypt where it seemed like ... read more