Dahab

Summer 2009

This web album is updated with some summer pictures and with the few pics of Dahab that I have. My friend took most of the pictures...so once she sends them to me, I will post them.


My trip to Dahab (resort on the Red Sea) was amazing even though it had a little rough start thanks to my lack of knowledge of the Sinai area. Originally we (Mae, Soo, and I) had planned to hike up the mountain where the “burning bush” was (although I have heard that the particular bush is actually the descendant of the original bush that Moses saw) and sleep near the St. Katherine Monastery…and then the next day hang out at the beach at Dahab. This is a very common trip and most of the study abroad students completed that trip…except me. That being said I thought that Dahab and St. Katherine were right next to each other and so I bought the bus tickets to Dahab. I didn’t know that there was a separate bus station and they are about 1 hour- 1.5 hours drive apart, until we were at the bus station and Mae said we shouldn’t be going to Dahab. Oops! Guess I shouldn’t be in charge of helping to plan trips anymore! But luckily everything worked out ok. Mae’s friend was able to get us a room for one night at a hostel in Dahab. We were then going to take a one day trip to St. Katherine (and just re-arrange the order of our trip) but then Mae and Soo got sick. I don’t know what they had but a lot of traveling, random sleep cycles, and not a regular diet doesn’t do anyone any good. Instead we slept a lot, read, went tanning, and snorkeling! (My idea of a good vacation). The snorkeling was amazing and the nice thing was that all you had to do was walk through the water and jump into the deep end. This was much easier than renting a boat to take you somewhere near a coral reef, although that is still a lot of fun.
Dahab is mainly known for its peacefulness. It is very calm and there is nothing to do at night unlike other resorts such as Sharm el Sheikh where there are a lot of clubs. Instead people shop for tourist gifts and lounge in the restaurants. The seats were large pillows on the ground…so it was very relaxing and comfortable! Oh and another cool thing is that you can see Saudi Arabia from across the water. I didn’t realize how close I was! And then Soo had to make the smart remark… “I have experience in foreign relations because I can see Saudi Arabia from my hotel!” haha oh dear.

Dahab is a beautiful place because of its surroundings. Dahab means “gold” in Arabic and its name is fitting because of its golden beaches. The mountains also have a sandy-golden color during the day. The main attraction for diving is the Blue Hole (I didn’t have a chance to go) because it is surrounded by coral reefs and drops to a depth of 260 ft just a few meters off shore. The Egyptians who live in Dahab are mostly nomads who have lived in the mountains for many decades. There are also a lot of people from Southern Egypt (we call it upper Egypt because of the direction of the Nile River) who travel all the way to Dahab for work. It is important to note who they are because they speak with a slightly different dialect and accent. Luckily my friends and I were able to understand most of them! A great self esteem booster 

Anyway, snorkeling was my favorite part about the trip, mostly because of all the beautiful fish. I also don’t have certification in diving…and to be honest I’m a little too scared to try lol. The first time we went snorkeling we met a random Egyptian guy who went swimming with us. At first I was a little hesitant (Its now a habit to not trust random people) but luckily he ended up being really nice. He even caught a blow fish!! I know this is probably inhumane and bad for the environment but it was really cool. I liked watching it slowly deflate and swim away when it was let go. Other than that, the Dahab trip was really relaxing because I mostly slept and worked on my tan. Some areas got burned pretty bad but thanks to Aloe I am ok and am now tanner