Dahab

Travel Journal 9/16/2007

Dahab is touristy. It's a hippie/traveller resort city on the Gulf of Aqaba not far from Israel, Jordan and within site of Saudi. It comes complete with shops hawking the same hippie clothes and accessories as India- and I assume elsewhere- and restaurants on the beach serving up backpacking ad "Egyptian" food in a chillaxed setting.

Hala and I spent five days here and eventually found our routine. Waking up late we have breakfast at a beachside restaurant around 11am. After this we do our best to waste time during the midday extreme sun and heat by cruising the AC shops, utilizing the numerous internet cafes, or louning in our room- also AC.

At night we eat dinner early, around 6pm, waste some more time breezing through the kitchy shops, and return to the row of cloned restaurants for some ice cream and a sheesha- mint being our favorite flavor. This is capped by an early night as well, usually in bed before 10pm.

However, around 2:30pm, after time wasting and before dinner, we put on our bathing suits- I have my cargo pants minus the zipped-off legs- lather ourselves in sunblock, grab our snorkel gear- rented for under $2 a day- and head to one of myriad snorkeling areas in or around the city.

This is my favorite part. I'd only been snorkeling once before I came to Egypt, in Hawaii over spring break in my junior year of high schoolo. I remember my masking leaking salt water into my eyes, and swallowing enough through my crappy tube to get sick and not want to do it ever again. However with the better quality equopment available to us in what is basically a Red Sea diving Mecca, I realized I really enjoy floating face down witnessing an alien world within reach of the normal one.

The reefs run up and down the coast of the REd Sea and, where they haven't been degraded by overuse or irresponsible visitors, overflow with a spectrum of marine life I'd never tried to imagine.

Schools of shiny fish dart past the large individuals out for a carefree jaunt among brightly colored outcrops os coral inches below my floating torso. Millions of fish as far as I can see. Blue, maroon, yellow and white. Striped, spotted, half one color and half another. Deflated puffer fish, fish resembling a steel blade, and fish with finger-tipped fins. Layers of color, one on top of the other, fading slowly to a blue-grey dozens of yards below through the clear, clean water. These scenes, made for post cards and IMAX movies, are those of true natural beauty I hadn't before admired.

Dahab has its downsides: touts, hassle, high prices, the lack of fresh tap water- yes, the entire tourist part of the city, hotels, restaurants and all have only salt water running through their pipes. But despite those shortcomings, and that my skin is still covered in a salty residue (I really SHOULD shower more) the relaxed atmosphere, late evening beach-side sheeshas, and of course the new-to-me wild frontier of underwater exploration led to a relaxing but adventurous time in Hippie-ville.

But I still prefer mountains to the sea.