Diving Dahab

Ah, my bad.  Again, I have neglected my readers but at no fault of my own.  You see I have acquired quite the nasty little infection in my finger, making typing near to impossible.  That aside, I am finally back in Egypt, Cairo in particular, my home away from home.  Before I start on that adventure let me fill you in on our not so brief stop over in the Red Sea town of Dahab.
At first it was a difficult transition from Jordan to Egypt.  Not only mentally, but literally, it was kind of a long trip for such a short distance.  We arrived at the slow-ferry docks, in Aqaba Jordan at 11:45 pm.  After we had gotten our exit stamps, paid our departure tax and grabbed some tea, we sat and watched WWE for over two hours while we waited for the remaining trucks to load onto the ferry.  No biggie, we knew that the ferry wasn’t set to leave ‘til 2 am.  It didn’t take me long to notice that not only were we the only foreigners but I was one of only 4 women set to depart on the ferry- awkward.  We boarded the ferry at 3:30am (women and their escorts first - woo hoo!!)  but our boat didn’t depart until 6am and we didn’t reach Nuweiba until 9:30.  The trip was fairly comfortable, except when I opened my eyes from a nap only to see 20 random Egyptian men staring at me or when I had to make the long walk to the women’s toilet, my every move watched by the entire ferry.  Ah, the Egypt I remembered.

Some Egyptian men watching WWE while we patiently wait for the ferry to board.  I hope they don’t think North America is like that.

Once we arrived, we found ourselves having a difficult time coming to grips that we were in fact in Egypt.  It could have been the Thailand vibe of the place but for me, all it took was some world class diving, some great friends and some of the best sheesha of my life.  Unfortunately, I don’t have an underwater camera, so I can’t show you pics but please bare with me while I brag just a touch- I can’t help it, I LOVE diving!  The diving is still cheap enough that we were able to stretch our budget to do 4 dives, including one night dive.  Now we didn’t know what to expect being our first night dive and all but not only did it live up to my expectations, it far exceeded them.  Possibly I like night diving more than diving in the day??  Dunno.  It seems more intimate, and if you can even imagine, more peaceful.  On top of that we were lucky enough to do the famed ‘Blue Hole’ and ‘The Canyon’.  We saw sleeping puffers, phosphorescents, lion fish, pipe fish, stone fish, crocodile fish and Dan finally saw a box fish.  OK.  I will stop there, but really I could go on forever :)

 

Dan and I enjoying some Bedouin tea and yummy eats at a restaurant on the boardwalk.  It’s kinda silly, they build the restaurants so close to the water that every year the ocean destroys them, so they have to build all over again.  Didn’t anyone mention that trees take a while to grow??

Oh so cute :)  Not our dive shop but I liked their logo ;)

Since the revolution, tourism hasn’t recovered, so much of the beach and many of the resorts are closed down.  Past a certain point on the boardwalk, it’s like a ghost town.

Our friend Aaron introduced us to The Sheesha Man.  Not only did we enjoy some of the best sheesha we have ever tasted but he also showed us some amazing tricks…like blowing smoke filled bubbles.

I had to post this shot because this was Sheesha Man's favourite :)

Our hotel and dive shop.  Thanks Down Under Divers for some wicked memories;)