I went on a very spur of the moment trip to Dadab (8 hours away) about a week ago with my ex-roomate and good friend Ashley. Dahab is a smaller town on the coast of the Red Sea that attracts the hippie and back packer tourists.. not like Sharm El Sheikh. If you read my post about the Desert Trip you'll remember that it was her that actually wrote it. Again I will be posting her view on the trip since she wrote such an extensive summary for her own blog, and honestly I don't have the time or the patience to do that.
So Remember Ashley is writing this. My comments will be in italics!
Wednesday
By this point Joseph, Thomas and I decided that we wanted to go to Dahab, bue weren’t sure it was going to happen. Ideally we wanted another girl to come along for driving purposes, housing, etc. We had decided to leave Wednesday at midnight and arrive in Dahab early on Thursday morning. They told me that they would decide by Wednesday morning if we were definitely going to go. So I asked Jessy that day if she would come with us to Dahab. She had a few engagements already, but she had been wanting to go for over a month now. So she told me she would see if she could rearrange her schedule. Jessy got back to me and said she was in.
Anyways, I ordered a cappuccino because I knew it was going to be a long night. Jessy texted me around 11:30pm to tell me she was back at her place and I walked over to meet her. On my way I had some unpleasant attention from passing cars. That’s probably my least favorite thing about Egypt. Anyways, I got to Jessy’s flat and we began catching up. Since I don’t live with her anymore, we don’t get to see each other that much. I called the guys to see where they were and ask about snacks when all the sudden my phone cut out. It appeared I had run out of credit. Here in Egypt it isn’t common to have a running phone bill. It’s a pay as you go system, meaning when you run out of credit your phone is worthless. I used Jessy’s phone to get in touch with them and they told us they’d be there at 12:30pm.
They gave us a missed call and we made our way down to the car. We had planned for Joseph to start driving and we wanted to ensure that we could alternate drivers and have the passenger keep them awake. What we hadn’t really taken into account were all the security checkpoints. We weren’t sure what would happen if Thomas was driving when we went through the check point, so Joseph ended up driving the whole way. Jessy ended up falling asleep for some of the way, but having three cups of coffee kept me up the entire night. Which was good because at about 5am we needed to help keep Joseph up.
We took the road from Suez to Sharm el Sheik, so we arrived at Sharm at about sunrise. I was hoping for a nice one, but it turned out to be pretty overcast. The town was dead quiet with only a few elderly tourists awake at that hour. I know I didn’t see much of Sharm, but what I did see didn’t entice me to return. I agree, I liked Dahab so much more! We saw a Starbucks and got pretty excited about the prospect of coffee…only to realize it wasn’t open, so we went to McDonald’s.
Thursday
Then it was back on the road. We got a bit turned around trying to find the road to Dahab but eventually we found it. The problem on roads in the Sinai is that they don’t have signs…at all. A few more kilometers and we doubted that we were on the right track because there weren’t any mile markers…then we realized that we were pretty low on petrol. But luckily we caught sight of the Dahab checkpoint ahead and a petrol station. We filled up, waited for them to clear us and then finally pulled into Beloved Dahab.
We pulled up to the Pearl of South Sinai and were greeted by Mussa. He gave us our keys and we put our stuff down. Then we wandered over to the Corniche for a delicious breakfast at Jasmine’s. Originally we wanted to try a pancake place that Tara and Nurul had told me about but it was closed. I wasn’t too disappointed though because I love breakfast at Jasmine’s which is right on the Red Sea. After breakfast we went down to talk to John about a try dive for Joseph, Thomas and Jessy. I had emailed him earlier in the week to ask about the price of a try dive, but I didn’t tell him I was coming with my friends…but he wasn’t surprised to see me!
I was debating whether or not to dive with them. I mean I should have known I can’t resist diving in the Red sea, but I was thinking about setting a dive for the Blue Hole. In the end though I really wanted to be there for their first dive. We set the time for the try dive for 1:00pm at the Lighthouse and then walked to some hammocks by the sea and fell asleep for a good two hours. The only bad thing about Dahab (ok two things) are the amount of flies and the amount of random cats/dogs. As I was trying to sleep I kept being attacked by flies. I think Thomas and Joseph had similar problems and Joseph even decided to go back to the room at one point.
At about quarter till one we decided to head over to the dive center. When Joseph didn’t show up at one, Thomas tried calling him to see where he was. He didn’t answer so Thomas went back to the room to see if he was there. Meanwhile, John began getting Jessy’s and my gear together. Thomas finally came back and told us that when he got there Joseph didn’t answer the door. Then he called him and he could hear the phone going off inside, yet still no Joseph. Then Mostafa and Thomas had to practically beat the door down to get Joseph up. (The key was inside the room so they couldn’t open it). In the end they forced the door open with a knife to find a fast asleep Joseph. Thomas got him up finally and then asked him if he still wanted to dive.
So Thomas showed up back at the dive center and told us the story as well as that Joseph was on the way. In the end Joseph decided not to dive as he was really tired. Thomas got fitted for his gear and we headed off to the Lighthouse. So we got to the Lighthouse and unloaded the gear. Before the dive though John and Helen had a short briefing for the new divers. I didn’t realize until the briefing that they were going to be literally held by the tank the whole time, but I realized that it made sense. I had had weeks of training before my first real dive back at USC. After that Helen, John and I got the BC’s and tanks ready to go and then everyone suited up.
We got into the water which was about 24 C and put on our fins and masks. Then descended into the water. John worked with Jessy on a few basic skills and Helen worked with Thomas to make sure they could clear their mask and their regulators. After that we were off exploring the reef. John had told me that I would be able to go a few feet deeper than what they were going to but I had freedom to just follow them around. It’s nice being certified. I was so excited for Thomas and Jessy though. I don’t think much can compare to diving in the Red Sea. On that dive we saw a pufferfish, trumpet fish, lionfish, a crocodile fish, giant clams, and so many more kinds that I don’t even know their names. I alternated back and forth between them, but Jessy had some problems with her ears at the beginning. At one point Thomas, Helen and I found some broken and in tact pottery on the ocean floor. It was pretty cool.
After the dive, we dissembled the equipment and loaded the gear back up. Before the dive, Thomas had been nervous about being able to equilibrate his ears underwater, but fortunately he didn’t have any problems with it. It had taken Jessy awhile, but eventually she too was able to move down to deeper depths. I was really glad both of them had great first time experiences. As I looked at my watch at the end of our dive and I couldn’t help by laugh thinking I would just be catching a taxi from Mohandeseen to Masr Gedida at that time.
We decided to head back to the hotel and hop in the car. We had brought a volleyball and Thomas knew an area that had sand volleyball courts. The southern part of Dahab is a bit more resorty and has a lot of kite surfing and wind surfing. We were able to park and find a nice sand court. Thomas went to go inflate the ball…which turned out to be a bit hard. We decided to play to 21 and it was Thomas and I versus Jessy and Joseph. Luckily the guys were gracious to Jessy and I. During the first game the sky began clouding over and we began feeling a few raindrops. Not typical for Dahab.
Then it became darker and darker. At one point a lady came over to us, and we were pretty sure she was going to ask us to leave. But she kindly offered to turn the lights on for us, to which we accepted. We played a second game and then decided to call it quits. I didn’t realize quite how hard the ball had been until my forearms started turning colors a few hours later, but it was a nice change of pace to be active in Egypt. In Cairo it is NOT possible to go running in the streets here for a couple reasons. The sidewalks are not consistent, and the street isn’t safe, I only have running shorts, and the air quality here isn’t good on the lungs. That’s why I love being able to swim, run, and play sports in Dahab.
After volleyball we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We wandered down the Corinche and passed by a place Thomas had eaten at earlier that year. He told us about the guy that he had befriended, and surely enough the same guy was there, and he remembered Thomas. I think Egyptians have the best memory throughout the world. It’s amazing. He told us the dinner special for the evening, and we said we’d think about it and maybe come back. We got about…10 feet past the restaurant and decided why look elsewhere. We went in and sat at a table on the roof overlooking the water.
Dinner was pretty good, but the view and the atmosphere was amazing as usual. You can’t complain when the Red Sea is gently breaking on the rocks down below you at dinner. We were all pretty tired so we decided to call it an early night and go back to the Pearl. While Joseph went for a walk and Jessy went to bed, Thomas and I decided to visit with Mostafa for a bit. They served us hot karkaday tea and we chatted with them about business, life, and Dahab.
At about 10:30pm the three of us followed Jessy to bed. We had planned on getting up for the sunrise at about six the next morning…sleep wasn’t really on the agenda this trip.
Friday
I had set my alarm for 5:50am hoping that I wouldn’t sleep too deeply. I woke up on time and got Jessy up as well. We walked outside to the hotel courtyard and met up with Thomas. The Pearl of South Sinai isn’t right on the water so we just had to cross the street, but the minute we stepped outside the sky was already a brilliant canvas of color.
We sat down near the sea to watch the rising of the sun which is typically around 6:05 or 6:10am here. The interesting thing about this sunrise was that it started off with a lot of color and then it slowly faded away. It was one of the most peculiar sunrises that I’ve witnessed. Finally the sun came up and more color returned. The day before had been really hazy and that day looked like it would be the same. The day we got there you couldn’t even see the Saudi mountains across the Red Sea, but they were at least recognizable that morning.
Thomas, Jessy and I then walked back to the hotel for a few more hours of sleep. We ended up waking up around 10ish and then gathering to go to breakfast by around 10:30am. We decided to stroll down the Corniche until something delicious caught our eyes. We finally decided to breakfast at Aladdin and we ended up staying there till about one. Then we headed back to the Pearl to go snorkeling at the Blue Hole. I have to say that diving and snorkeling at the Blue Hole is officially one of my favorite things to do…in life. Mostafa hooked us up with gear and a ride to the site at 2pm. It was a late start, but we didn’t mind.
We got our gear and then headed to the water. By that time in the afternoon the reef isn’t very crowded which is great. The only thing is you begin to lose the sun behind the mountain around 3:30pm. The air temperature wasn’t that cold but it was one of those things where when you got out of the water the wind was blowing just a bit, that it made for a freezing environment. It took all of us a few minutes to get in, but eventually we all adjusted to the water temperature. The reef was amazing, as usual. I can’t clearly remember all the different fish we saw (and of course I don’t know the names of all of them) but I do remember seeing a lot of angelfish, a lionfish at the end, trumpet fish, etc. We swam all the way down to the dive site called the Bells (which is where there is that chimney 30m drop).
At the Bells lagoon area, Thomas caught sight of a huge fish that ended up going to the bottom and sleeping! I know a bit weird, but there were actually multiple fish that we saw that appeared dead, only they were just sleeping. After about an hour we were feeling a bit cold, so we decided to swim back. As I said before it was quite a task to make my body get out of the water due to the slight breeze. We all dried off and sat down by the ocean. Then the guys at the restaurant really wanted us to buy drinks so we finally decided to order some hot chocolate and karkaday (not together). Our driver guy came back a bit before four and we loaded up in the back of his Jeep Wrangler. I don’t think many types of vehicles can handle the off roading that is required to get to the Blue Hole.
We met up for dinner and then again decided to just stroll down the Corniche.
Then we passed by a spice shop. After looking at the barrels of spices outside we decided to venture in. We continued to rack our brains until finally an idea occurred. Jessy had been perusing the Bedouin tea and was contemplating buying some. When we went to the Western Desert back in September we had tried it and it was amazing. We asked the guy how much the tea would cost, about 14 bags of it. As is the case in Egypt, the first price given isn’t usually the final price. After some sly bargaining, Thomas had his gifts. We decided to go onto dinner and pick up the bags of tea afterward since it would take time to weigh them.
We decided to eat dinner at Aladdin (where we had breakfast). As usual I couldn’t really decide what I felt like eating. We were all a bit sad that it was our last meal in Dahab and we ended up lingering a bit longer than we had intended to. In fact at the restaurant they give you free dessert (watermelon) but we decided none of us wanted it and we really needed to get going. Thomas had to run to an ATM so while we waited, Jessy and I decided to pick up some dessert anyways (ice cream!) The thing was when I went into the store I asked him how much the ice cream was in Arabic…to which he replied in Arabic but way too fast. The thing is, I get a bit flustered with numbers to be honest. I don’t hear them the first time or I get a bit confused and then I had to ask them again. So this guy ended up saying to me, “If you’re going to ask in Arabic, you should be able to understand the answer in Arabic”…ok so I was trying!
We met back up and grabbed the tea and headed back to the Pearl. At this point it was around 8pm I believe. We figured it would take about 7 hours to get back, meaning we should arrive in Cairo around 3am.
Everything started out ok. We got to the Dahab checkpoint and passed through, but Joseph then asked the guy which way we should go back to Cairo, Sharm or Taba. Every other time I had been to Dahab we had always taken the Taba road. This guy seemed to go with the majority and advised us to go through Taba. This shouldn’t have been a problem I thought, especially since I had been that way twice before. The road to Taba is really nice because you are driving along the sea most of the time. The bad thing is though, that it winds around the mountains a lot. We made it to Taba just fine and we contemplated switching drivers, but we were still nervous about the checkpoints.
The checkpoints are for security purposes, and in Egypt they are always a bit leery about foreigners traveling with Egyptians. We were stopped at each checkpoint and Joseph had to constantly explain that we were friends going on a trip to Dahab (or returning). I think it’s to make sure that he wasn’t kidnapping us. But sometimes at the checkpoints, the officers will tell Egyptians that they can’t go. Joseph told us a story about a guy who drove to Sharm and at the last checkpoint was told he was not allowed in. He had to get a bus all the way back to Cairo. My friend Hady has also relayed a similar story to me. He had ridden on the bus from Cairo and at one of the checkpoints the officer checked everyone’s IDs. He saw that Hady was a student and wanted to know why on a school day he was going to Sharm. Hady tried to explain it was for work, yet the officer told him he couldn’t go. Then he waited at the checkpoint for a few hours, only to be let on the next bus that passed through on the way to Sharm. As I’ve written before, I don’t understand why Egyptians are treated so poorly by their miltary and government. Foreigners don’t have any problems getting through these checkpoints, yet Egyptians have a hard time moving around their own country…anyways, back to the story.
As we were driving along listening to music, Joseph passed this truck that didn’t have any tail lights. We almost run over them because we couldn’t see them and they were traveling really slow. As we passed them we realized that he only had one headlight as well…NOT safe. Thomas had been trying to get in touch with a friend in Cairo, but his cell phone reception kept going in and out. That’s another thing about traveling in Egypt, once you get away from the city the cell towers aren’t reliable. A little bit later on I wasn’t really paying attention to the road since I was in the back seat and looking at the stars. We eventually came to a place where the road became a bit gravely, then dirt like. It was really rough going. I had remembered a patch of “no road” on the Taba road from my other trips but I thought it had been closer to Suez. The road didn’t seem to be improving and I was a bit nervous about our direction. Then all the sudden we came back to pavement and my fears were alleviated. That is until we went back onto gravel…followed by mounds of sand that we had to dodge.
At that point I knew I didn’t remember that part. We hadn’t seen a mile marker since Taba which didn’t surprise us that much, but when we realized the road was becoming worse we began looking for signs…which there weren’t any. Then we noticed our petrol supply was running low. The road continued to get worse and there weren’t any signs of other cars. At this point it was about 1am in the morning. I began to get a bit nervous because there had been rumors of Bedouins having skirmishes in northern Sinai. Then we remembered seeing a Bedouin guy walking on the side of the road a few kilometers back. That’s about the time Jessy and Thomas began coming up with various scenarios. And the fact that our cell phones weren’t getting the best signal made me a bit uneasy. Although even if we could have called someone we had no idea where exactly we were.
I was mostly worried about the status of our tires. In fact I actually asked Jessy to pray over the tires at one point. As I mentioned before few vehicles are able to manage in the rough off road terrain of the Sinai. We finally decided to turn back around and head back to Taba.
As we were driving back we came to a part where the car couldn’t make it through the sand, so the three of us jumped out and Joseph drove across that part. We finally made it back to the part of the road that was paved. We saw a mobile trailer and decided to see if anyone was in there. Joseph pulled up and honked his horn. After a minute this guy looked out the window at us. Joseph got out of the car and had an exchange with him in Arabic. I was too far away to hear any of it, but when he got back in the car he told us that we were about 60 km off where we should be. We had to go back to a fork in the road and turn right. We also were hoping that we would find a petrol station soon. Apparently we had somehow taken a wrong turn and had ended up driving on a road that was under construction.
Road signs seem to be in short supply in Sinai. Multiple times on our journey there and back we missed turns or weren’t sure if we were headed in the right direction. Or they were not made from that shiny reflective material. You know that catch the headlights and make it easy to read at night. Yeah they don’t have that in Sinai. We reached the fork in the road and turned right, but we still weren’t sure we were on track. Anytime we saw a sign we slowed down and even tried to read the signs on the reverse side of the road. As we were driving back to the fork we saw this weird light coming in our direction. We couldn’t figure out if it was a motorcycle or what. As we got closer we realized it was that same creepy truck with one headlight and no tail lights!
Finally we got to a checkpoint. For the first time in Egypt I was glad to see a security checkpoint! Joseph asked them if we were on the right road to Cairo and at first I thought the officer answered “La” meaning no. I heard wrong however and found out that we were on the right road and that there was a petrol station just a few km away. We all felt relieved that we weren’t going to be stranded in Sinai.
We found the petrol station and pulled up to the pump. As I looked out the window I was shocked to see tons of Bedouins lined up waiting for gas. They were all driving pick up trucks with multiple gas barrels on the back. I thought it was strange that they all decided to go together after midnight to get what seemed to be more than a week’s supply of gas. I thought it was pretty weird, so I decided to take a picture. I had completely forgotten to take my flash off, so unfortunately I only got the reflection off the glass. This young boy had been staring at me the whole time and he alerted the others to my actions. I felt a bit embarrassed and explained to the others that I found it really strange that they were all there at the station at this time. As I said this, the others informed me that they were smuggling the petrol into Palestine…so I missed the memo on not taking pictures of the petrol smuggling Bedouins.
Joseph finished getting gas and we drove out from the pump. Thomas decided to try and get another picture with my camera before we left. As he was trying to get the picture I noticed a Bedouin guy walking up to the car. I’m not really all about strange men approaching my car, so I immediately told Joseph to go. I didn’t think Thomas was able to get a picture, but in the end he got it before we sped off. We then began wondering if they were going to come after us since we had a picture of their illegal activities.
As we got going down the road, we actually saw another Bedouin truck pulled off on the side of the road. We immediately thought he had been signaled by his friends to catch us. But lucky for us, he actually turned down a side road. For the rest of the drive we were a little nervous about our direction, but it turned out to be fine. The night just kept getting crazier and crazier. After the Suez security check point we all switched so as to let Joseph take a break from driving. Jessy had planned to go to Alexandria the next day (literally now that day) at 7am so she was trying to get some sleep. So Thomas and I stayed up and drove for about 80 km. Unfortunately Joseph would have to drive after that due to another possible checkpoint.
Anyways, after about 80 km, Thomas pulled over and he switched with Joseph. Thomas and I kept up a conversation with Joseph to ensure that he didn’t fall asleep on the last part of the drive. Finally at about 4:30am they dropped Jessy and I off at her flat in Medan Triumph. Jessy literally had about two hours before she had to be up, so she went right to bed. As I was getting ready for bed, Joseph texted me to say that we had left our passports in his car. He wasn’t sure if Jessy was going to need it the next day so Thomas and him decided to walk over and give us the passports.
They missed called me when they were downstairs and I went out to meet them. As they were giving back the passports Thomas informed me of what Joseph had just revealed to him. Apparently, the guy in the trailer back in the middle of no where had told Joseph more than what he relayed to us. The man had said that we were lucky and that if we had kept going we were likely to have been shot by Bedouins. They had had a few incidents recently and that was apparently a bad area to be in, lost, at night. Joseph had decided not to tell us that at the time and I have to say I am really thankful!
As the story continued to unfold, the two days later Joseph texted me that they caught the Bedouins who had been smuggling petrol into Palestine…hopefully they don’t blame us. Then a few days after that I received an email from the American Embassy in Cairo. The subject of the email read “Northern Sinai Situation”. I think it would be beneficial to include an excerpt from the email:
Since November 10, 2008, there have been a series of violent confrontations between Egyptian security forces and Bedouin tribesmen in the northern Sinai. Government officials continue to attempt to defuse the situation, but tensions remain. In the past, such heightened tensions have resulted in sporadic attacks and other disruptions throughout the Sinai. Recent press reporting indicates that Egyptian government officials and Bedouin leaders have yet to resolve their differences.
Due to the potential for violence in the northern Sinai region, all American citizens are encouraged to follow news reporting in case of late-breaking developments that could impact travel plans. In addition, the Government of Egypt continues its restriction on travel north of the Cairo-Nekhl-Taba road to the Mediterranean coast from Al Arish to the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip.
Prior to travel in the Sinai area, all American citizens should take these simple precautionary measures:
- Inform someone (for example a family member, a friend, your supervisor) of your travel plans, to include contact information – where you are going and when you are expected to arrive and return;
- Travel in groups or as a multi-vehicle convoy;
- Travel only during daylight hours;
- Travel with a cell phone;
- Make sure your vehicle is in good working condition, with emergency tools and basic repair supplies;
- Have a small stock of emergency snacks, water, and blankets.
I’m thankful that we didn’t have anything worse happen to us other than being lost!
It was a short, but much needed relaxing trip (exept for the being lost part). It was absolutely gorgeous and suba diving and snorkling was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had. I definately want to go back before I leave.
Mom.. Dad.. dont kill me about the Bedouin Lost part!
