Ask many non Egyptian travelers in Dahab how long they have been here and inevitably the answer is "much longer than planned." Dahab is a growing tourist town on the edge of the Red Sea. It retains a laid back atmosphere (minus the obnoxious restaurant touts), cheap hotel rates ($4 USD for a hut/night), and great diving/snorkeling (also great prices, to rent snorkel gear cost $2 / day!). The reef is literally feet from the hotels, where some of the world's most beautiful coral and fish are display. So no wonder many travelers (us included) end up setting up residence for a short while.

Our time in Dahab is pretty typical of other travelers. Our days were spent taking advantage of numerous dive and snorkel spots within short hiking distances from our camp. I, Andrea, also jumped on the opportunity to upgrade my scuba certification to "Advance Open Water" at a bargain price. This upgrade allowed me to participate in diving conditions that aren't recommended for the beginning diver. These included:

• Night dive (a disorienting experience, a night dive forces your vision to see the small things in the reef i.e. crabs, eels and worms that are illuminated by a flashlight. Also, the Red Sea has luminescent organisms that glow and create a small galaxy of star like lights when waving your hand through the water. My personal favorite part of a night dive was seeing the fish sleep!)
• Deep dive (to 100 ft), other than leaving me exhausted, deep dives are not that much different than more shallow dives. The great thing about getting certified to go deeper was the opportunity to dive a ship wreck called the Thistlegorm. One dive consisted of swimming around the perimeter of this massive ship and a second dive was spent going INSIDE. My highlights during the 2 dives was seeing HUGE batfish (the size of a car tire), a large cod (at least 4-5ft) and a mounted gun on the outside, trucks, motorcycles, and rubber boots on the inside of the ship. A really neat experience that reinforced my love for diving.
• Drift dives: The idea is to jump into a current and enjoy the show as the current takes you past the reef. Both of my experiences worked in reverse and meant that a lot of energy was spent fighting the current. On one dive the current was so bad that despite kicking as hard as possible, our entire group was not gaining ground- needless to say the dive master had to change the intended route.

Other skills learned by taking the Advance Open water course were navigation skills and plant/animal identification. Sadly due to Mike having problems with his sinuses he couldn't dive, but that did not stop him from enjoying the reef. Playing tour guide to other travelers at the camp/hotel, Mike took many people out on the reef with him and infected them with our passion for the underwater life.

Taking some time off from the Sea we ventured inland to hike Mt. Sinai (location where Moses received the 10 Commandments). We found ourselves joined by hundreds of other fellow tourists starting the trek up the mountain at the very cold hour of 1am. Already disoriented by starting a trek at this time of night and the crowds of people, the mix became almost dangerous when camels and their Bedouin owners are added to the mix of those trudging up the same gravel path, hauling up those who succumbed to physical or mental fatigue. In reality the hike only takes ~2 hours, but we delayed the cold wait at the top by sipping Nescafe for a couple hours at a Bedouin camp within a short hike from our final destination. Finally motivated at 4:30am to finish, we arrive at the top at about 5am and pick an east facing rock ledge that thankfully was still available. After a brief doze, we sleepily enjoyed the sunrise over the surrounding mountain peeks at 6:00am.

The hike down was via the 3750 Steps of Repentance, which was created by a monk as his form of penance. At the base of Mt. Sinai and at the end of the steps lays St. Katherine's Monastery. Still in use today, its origins date back to 330 AD, but for us its standout feature was its claim to housing the "burning bush."

October 27th - 31st
Cairo

November 1st - 4th
Siwa Oasis

November 5th - 7th
Aswan, Abu Simbel and Luxor

November 8th - 15th
Sinai Peninsula (city of Dahab)

Egypt country summary