about Dahab, Egypt…

trip: Nuweiba to Dahab
how: Shared Taxi
miles total:  5620
days: 2

Dahab, as you may know, suffered a terrorist attack in 2006 and has since then bounced back, but has been recently overshadowed a bit by its neighbor, Sharm El-Sheikh. This is partly due to the fact that Easy Jet now flies to Sharm from most major UK airports and the hotels and restaurants have become bigger, cheaper, and more accessible (but not better!).

That being said we had heard that Sharm was not that great and were recommended instead, to go to Dahab, if not for the snorkeling, for the atmosphere. It didn’t let us down. We enjoyed a short, but sweet time in Dahab. That night we met up with some other people we met on the ferry over and enjoyed a fresh fish dinner… fantastic. We then took a stroll along the shore, admiring all the quaint little shops. It was cute here and before heading off to bed for an early night we stopped at the supermarket for some water. I was very thirsty and grabbed a bottle of Evian water, opened, drank, and continued to for some other groceries I wanted to buy. When I went to check out the cashier said the water would cost me 15 Egyptian Pounds. Just to put things in perspective, our dinner cost 3 Egyptian pounds and the night at the hostel cost 20 Pounds. Hm. I looked at him with a face that probably looked like it just saw death. “What?!” I exclaimed. He said, “Yes, this water is from France. And you drank from it.”  I walked out with him yelling behind me…. “You must pay!”

We were warned about the scams in Egypt, they were supposedly much worse than the rest of the Middle East. Boy, did we feel it! Everything was an effort! This was the start of a very long battle between paying what was right and paying what we were told.

Fortunately, We got away with not paying and the next day we were more prepared for the battle of prices. We woke up the next morning and rented our snorkel gear… off to the Blue Hole! This was my first time snorkeling and it was unbelievable. I can’t even explain… the Red Sea was simply fantastic.  The water was crystal clear, blue, warm, and full of life! Dahab impressed us and before heading off for our 16-hour bus ride to Luxor we stopped at an Indian restaurant and had a delicious samosa wrap with fresh strawberry juice!

I’ll be back here soon… and for longer…

L

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