Dahab, Day Wahid: Everything Tastes Better with Pita

This marks the beginning of a short series of posts regarding my visit to the aforementioned glorious town of Dahab. To begin with.. Where is Dahab? Glad you asked, see the map below (click to make it bigger). A: Cairo B: Dahab

How long does it take to get from Cairo to Dahab? Well, for me it took 9 hours via bus. That may seem a long time, but it really wasn't a bad trip at all. We left at 730 on Wednesday evening and arrived at about 430am Thursday morning. I traveled on the bus with a few other friends (the Georgetown crew from the felucca mostly) and then split off to my own hotel once I arrived since the girls didn't have any more room in the place they'd reserved. I was hesitant at first about getting a place by myself but it has turned out to have been an absolutely fantastic idea. Not necessarily because I'm by myself, but because the place I chose is awesome (for me).

The Dahab Plaza Hotel is owned by a very kind and humorous Cairo native named Emad. I'll try to snag a picture with him but he's a pretty busy guy so I'm not sure if that will happen. I knew I stayed at the right place when I called the hotel at 430am (when I arrived), said "I'm at the bus station", and Emad replied that he was on his way and picked me up in his car about 15 minutes later. Albeit he thought I was someone else at the time, but from what I can tell he gives VIP service to just about everyone who comes through here. Since it was so early and my room wasn't ready yet he offered me what he terms 'the emergency room' to sleep in till it was time to move into the room I'd originally booked. The emergency room is basically a large closet in the corner of the building. But a very nice and clean closet! As he was leaving he told me that if I preferred I could just stay in the closet the whole time and he would knock Le100 off my bill. This is about 20 dollars, and being the broke college student that I am I readily accepted and thereby secured for myself three nights of lodgings for $40. Good deal. (Note that he wasn't even that concerned about the whole payment thing anyway and I had to find him later that evening and ask him when he wanted me to pay) Here's a quick tour of the place before I move on:

The pool and view from the hallway outside my room

Hallway (room to the right)

My door and tiny window

True Budget Accommodations..

(left) My room from the bathroom (right) My room from the doorway

The bathroom (thats the shower to the left)

Nice rusty antique shower head

I woke up around 945 that morning, showered and went to find Emad since he'd promised me a quick tour of the place. Did I mention that the hotel offers all its guests free breakfast at either of Emad's two restaurants? After walking me through some of the shops and the place he partners with for diving, Emad dropped me off at his restaurant, Same Same, so I could have some breakfast. This restaurant was adorable and had an amazing view since its built right on the beach. I sat bedouin style on cushions on the floor and had the Egyptian breakfast with a glass of tea..

Same Same Restaurant

View from my seat looking right

View from my seat looking left

My Egyptian breakfast. Foul (beans), eggs, falafel, cucumber and hummus, cheese, and pita. You can put ANYTHING on a pita, and it will automatically taste better. Remember, this was free!

I dressed more or less conservatively for breakfast just to get a feel for how the women dress around here. I confirmed pretty quickly that they just where whatever they want and most of the locals are used to seeing large numbers of scantily clad westerns bumbling around. At that I headed back to my room to put on my swimsuit, but remembered that since I only brought pretty conservative-wear for cairo streets I had nothing loose to wear comfortably over a swimsuit. I then made the decision to brave the persistence of a few store owners and sought out a dress/swimsuit cover type thing. Important lesson learned post-purchase: Talking people down doesn't automatically give you a good deal. I paid less than 50% of the original asking price for the item, but I bought two, so in the end I spent way too much money anyway. The cover ups are cute though. After this minor debacle (oxymoron!) I changed into my swimsuit and new cover up and headed to the beach. At this point I made one of the better investments of my trip and purchased a beach towel and snorkel set for $16. I've been using both more or less non-stop since I purchased them and its been fantastic. I spent most of yesterday snorkeling in a variety of spots along the strip and saw some of the most beautiful and amazing reefs I've ever snorkeled/dived. (If you're actually interested in what I saw I'd just google image 'red sea fish' and I can guarantee you that I saw 75% of what comes up). This took up most of my day, but unfortunately I don't have the capacity for underwater photography so I can't really share with you the main pursuits of the day. I did grab a few above water shots of spots along the strip and other things in the area though:

One of the more deserted areas along the strip (it's low season). Beautiful mountains in background!

Sunset over the strip and mountains

Cute dogs walking around everywhere, most are mangy but all are sweet. This was my second snorkeling site, Eel Gardens

While I was walking out to the reef one of those sand things jumped out and bit my foot. Ow.

After a pretty awesome day I met up with everyone for dinner, happy hour, and shisha (they took a shuttle from their hotel to get to the strip, its right near me though). By a happy twist of fate they severely undercharged us. We all threw what we thought we owed into a pot then divided the extra amongst ourselves which means that I somehow made Le10 off dinner last night. Considering my very tight budget I was overjoyed and spent the money on an excursion the next day, stay tuned to find out more.

Thats all for today (yesterday), Eid Mubarak!