Blame it on Croatia
Neither Dahab nor the country of Egypt were on our original itinerary for this trip, which anticipated spending the month of August (including our 35th wedding anniversary) relaxing on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, taking a break from the more active and engaged sort of traveling which has become our staple. That plan changed in February 2023 when we learned that Croatia had joined the Schengen Area and was therefore subject to the same 90 day total travel time restriction which we were already scheduled to use in Europe. And so, we began looking for an alternative location outside the Schengen Area to spend the month of August, someplace on the water (presumably the Mediterranean), preferably off the beaten path, where we could settle in and hopefully just live a simple beach life for a few weeks.
We looked at the few countries around the Mediterranean which were not part of the Schengen Agreement (Albania, Montenegro, Cypress), but didn’t find anything we really liked which was within our budget, and, while we did find some affordable places on the Turkish Aegean coast, we had spent 3 weeks there fairly recently (October 2021). We could have extended our stay in Tel Aviv-Yafo, but we were looking for something more laid back and much less expensive than that.
Which brought us to Egypt. We looked at the Mediterranean coast, but everything seemed to be either big resorts or very big vacation houses. We looked at the South Sinai peninsula on the Red Sea and ruled out Sharm el Sheikh, the major resort city on the peninsula, and had all but given up when we came across what looked to be a nice little affordable house near the beach in a small town called Dahab. Knowing that long-term rentals evaporate quickly, we did enough research to make us wonder how we had not heard of Dahab before and then booked it.
Getting There
Our trip to Dahab began with a ferry which departed Aqaba, Jordan on Monday July 31st at around 10:00 PM scheduled to arrive in Nuweibaa, Egypt around 2:00 AM. We knew that we would need to clear customs and immigration between Jordan and Egypt, but were unable to find much information as to how this process would work. It turned out to be a bit more complicated and intimidating than we might have imagined, but we were fortunate to have the kind assistance of strangers to help us through.
We went through security screening at the ferry terminal and proceeded to a waiting area where who should we see, but the six Chinese travelers we had shared a bus with from Wadi Musa to Wadi Rum, still lugging their overly large luggage along. When we passed through another security checkpoint, we were advised that we would need to check in with customs and immigration on board the ferry once it had departed. When boarding for the ferry opened, we and the other foreign travelers (anyone non-Egyptian and non-Jordanian) were more or less shuffled to the front of the line with the women and children and allowed to board first. Once seated, we were called to check-in with customs and required to turn in our passports, which we were advised would be returned to us upon arrival (always a bit scary when this happens). We returned to our seats and, after exploring the ferry a bit, tried to get a little shut eye.
As we neared Nuweibaa, we, along with the other foreign travelers, perhaps 25 in all, were called and then reseated in a corner of the indoor seating area and told to wait as the other passengers disembarked. After a a few minutes of waiting, the chief customs officer appeared, shuffled through some paperwork, and escorted us all to a holding area in the ferry terminal where each of us was provided with a pre-packaged meal which included a sandwich, juice, and water. After a bit more waiting, the chief customs officer returned and redistributed everyone’s passports, then lead us through customs screening before releasing us into the Egyptian night at around 2:30 AM (actually not too bad!).
We found the driver we had arranged (or, rather, he found us) and we more or less collapsed into the back seat of his car. The ride to Dahab was a bit of a blur winding through canyons in the moonlight, with an occasional security checkpoint, as we dozed off and on. I have some vague recollection of our driver dropping us at the end of our alley on Eel Garden Road, dragging our luggage down the unpaved alley, finding the keys to the garden gate and our place, shuffling in and collapsing after a long night of travel to get a few hours of sleep before our first day in Dahab.
Dahab
Dahab, Egypt is a small shore town with about 15,000 residents located in a fairly remote part of the South Sinai peninsula on a coastal plain which projects from the adjoining Sinai Mountains into the Gulf of Aqaba off the Red Sea, with the mountains of Saudi Arabia rising from the far shore about 20 miles away. Dahab had existed as a fishing village for centuries before being discovered by world-wandering hippies in the 60’s. Dahab’s development went a bit on hold during Israeli occupation of the South Sinai, but resurged during the 1980’s and 90’s as it became a world-renowned diving, snorkeling, windsurfing and (more recently) kite surfing destination. While Dahab has grown and developed as a tourist destination, it still has a very bohemian feel and is considered by some to be the hippest place to be on the Red Sea.
Dahab’s most noteworthy feature is a Promenade which runs along the coast starting in the suburbs north of Eel Garden, takes a loop around the old harbor and beach at the center of town, and then continues down the coast to Laguna, a large sand spit and lagoon at the southern end of town. For most of its length, this Promenade is closed to vehicular traffic and is lined with hotels, restaurants, and shops. North and south of the center, the most typical arrangement is for the hotel to be located on the west (land) side of the Promenade with a main entrance from the adjoining street front and a separate shaded dining area on the east (ocean) side of the Promenade, many with a beach area equipped with loungers and umbrellas. While the water-front dining and sunbathing areas are intended for use by hotel guests, they are also available to restaurant customers, sometimes with a minimum charge per person.
The Promenade around the old harbor has a higher concentration of shops and stand-alone restaurants which spread into the adjoining streets and alleyways and it’s a little reminiscent of Vegas in that just about anything goes architecturally. There are decorative canopies, paving, and lighting in this section of the Promenade and things are generally much more active than in the north and south with much more proactive/aggressive shop owners and restaurant hawkers. The waterside restaurants here have sea walls rather than beaches in front, but there is a public beach at the center of the harbor in front of a bridge which spans the spillway for a dry wadi coming down from the mountains.
Dahab is a true shore town in that life there revolves around the place where the ocean meets the land and it is this particular intersection of ocean and land that makes Dahab such a unique place. The town sits on a coastal plain which was once the delta of a river with a shallow shelf between its shore and the offshore plunge of the land into deeper water of the Gulf of Aqaba with beautiful coral reefs along its edge, making it an ideal place for snorkeling and diving with the reefs so easily reached from the shore. Even the shallow shelf immediately off the beach teems with colorful tropical fish, though not in the numbers you see when snorkeling along the large coral reefs at the shelf’s edge. One of the best dive spots in Dahab is a place called the Lighthouse which was located about 50 meters from the public beach at the center of town where there was a steady stream of snorkelers and lots of divers entering and exiting the water throughout the day and even a few doing night dives.
While there are also some good diving and snorkeling north and south of the town center, sail boarding and kite surfing dominated the waterfront in those areas. The kite surfers in particular provided endless entertainment to sunbathers performing aerial maneuvers and apparently trying to see how close they can come to shore before doing a flip turn and heading back out into the Gulf.
While activity was more subdued during the heat of the day, the Promenade and the streets which serve it were generally the center of activity in town both day and night. We were in Dahab during the hottest time of the year (see Hot as Hell below) which is their “low” season, but we were happy to find that, low season or not, everything seemed to be open and operating, and things were still pretty lively in the evenings. It’s difficult to know how crowded things might get during cooler months, but the town appears to have a lot of capacity with what seemed to be hundreds of hotels and restaurants. While Dahab is definitely a tourist destination, it was interesting to note that the majority of tourists were Egyptian (most whom seemed to be from Cairo) with the rest being Europeans and a few Asians, but nary an American to be found except us.
Hot as Hell? (Oh, but it’s a dry heat!)
We came to Dahab knowing full well that it was going to be very hot, but this was one of those things (like Hell?) where you can’t imagine what it is really going to be like until you are there and it’s too late to do anything but roll with it. While we expected that daytime highs in Dahab might hit 100 degrees, we were a little surprised to find daily highs in the 105 to 110 degrees range and (actually worse) overnight lows often did not dip below 90 degrees. (We had expected low 80’s overnight!) We saw temperatures this high in Jordan, but it seemed much more tolerable there with cooler mornings. We were fortunate for the first couple of weeks to have humidity in the 20% range (there’s that dry heat!) but learned that this was a bit extraordinary when it returned to its more normal 40 to 50 percent range later in our stay.
Beyond what we could do ourselves to temper the heat, the one blessing weather-wise was the wind, which, along with the amazing dive spots and warm water temperatures, turns out to be one of the things which draws people to this place. Although we had a couple of still calm days (deadly in the sun), the winds were pretty constant, often 20 mph or more during the day, and there were nice steady breezes most nights which actually made things tolerable if not nice. There were even a couple of mornings when the temperature dipped far enough below 90 degrees that, with a nice breeze, it was almost pleasant.
Nonetheless, for most of our waking hours, we found ourselves in a hell of sorts, at least in regard to temperature and, as I said earlier, we really had no choice but to roll with it as best we could. While we employed a number of devices to do so, we relied primarily on the time proven Jimmy Buffet (RIP) approach of laying on the beach in the shade, enjoying the breeze, taking an occasional dip in the sea (have to work up a thirst somehow), and sipping cold drinks with exotic names and tropical ingredients. We found it was also helpful to gain access to a pool which we were able to manage by signing up for aqua fitness classes which allowed us to lounge at the Coral Coast Hotel pool for the rest of the day. As I mention below, we also bought a nice inexpensive fan and did what we could to keep temperatures inside our house lower than those outside.
Oddly, the thing that seemed to help the most was just accepting the fact that it was hot as hell and it wasn’t going to change. As they (the Borg, for those nerdy Trekkies out there) say, resistance is futile (and just makes you hotter), so you gravitate to shade and breeze, drink a lot of water and, slow down your pace. The last bit is probably the most important and brings with it the added benefit of allowing you to better savor each hot moment.
Regarding hydration, we were surprised at how much water we were drinking. Aside from what we drank while dining out, we went through a 16-liter bottle of water every two days, including what we froze in refillable water bottles which we took out with us during the day (we’re on our second fold-flat travel cooler, which has become an indispensable item in these hotter climes) and what water I used to make ice for cocktails in the evening. Acknowledging that the whole ice in your drink thing is an American sickness (and perhaps even proud of it), ice making on the road has become a bit of a thing for me and, as the temperatures have risen, has become an important component of remaining cool both literally and figuratively.
As I’ve written about before, it’s difficult to even find ice for sale in many countries (we discovered you buy it at gas stations in Buenos Aires). While we love it when we have a full-size fridge with freezer as we did in Dahab, the capacity of the more typical mini-fridge mini-freezer is a challenge for both storing and making ice and, even when they provide ice trays, these tend to be very cheap ones which make inferior sized cubes not suitable for a proper cocktail. So, after some frustrating moments early in the trip, I picked up a nice compressible silicone ice cube tray along with a collapsible ice bucket at Flying Tiger in Amsterdam, and have since, I think, raised ice making on the road to a science if not an art.
So long as there is at least a small freezer, my setup, when properly utilized can produce 30 perfect 1 inch cubes per day (you have to remember to make ice in the morning) which is usually more than sufficient to meet our cocktail needs (even in hell, apparently). If I sound a little obsessed, it’s probably because I am (a little) but will add that making perfect ice is a better hobby to have than many others (such as baking) when it’s this bloody hot. In the obscure but nonetheless memorable lyrics of Peter Case (the voice of Wall of Voodoo and their hit Mexican Radio) “People in Hell want ice water”.
So, long story short, it was hot as Hell, now back to the blog…
Our Place in Eel Garden
The house we rented in Dahab was located in the Eel Garden neighborhood, on the north side of town, on a small quiet alley just a block from the beach. We booked it without knowing much about Dahab or its neighborhoods (there are almost no online resources on Dahab which aren’t hotel booking sites) so we were perhaps a bit lucky and quite pleasantly surprised to find that the Eel Garden neighborhood was a pretty good fit for us, peaceful and quiet but with most of what we needed in reasonable walking distance (most especially, easy beach access). Along the Promenade, Eel Garden Beach has a nice string of small older hotels each with its own small beachfront area and, as you continue north, these transition to vacation homes and rentals and the Promenade opens up on the ocean side providing spectacular views of Saudi Arabia across the Bay and of the Sinai Mountains to the north.
Eel Garden adjoins Assala, the older Bedouin part of town, which gave us access to quite a few local shops and restaurants within only a few blocks. Our place was near the end of a small alley off Eel Garden Road, an unpaved road with very little vehicular traffic which runs through the center of a residential area. Most of our immediate neighborhood was walled courtyard houses with little to be seen from the street, but there was a large elementary school around the corner and a kind of park and social club down the street both of which were the center of some evening activities. While there were some vacation rentals in the neighborhood, there were also many permanent residences and, while the neighborhood was generally very quiet and still during the day, neighborhood children appeared in the afternoon and played in Eel Garden Road into the evening (marbles appeared to be popular among the boys).
Not to say that the neighborhood was without excitement or interest. One morning I came upon a group of three pretty young boys merrily joyriding through the neighborhood on someone’s ATV who had stopped at the corner to recover the fourth who had apparently fallen off before shooting off again in a cloud of dust.
The neighborhood also had a commune of beach dogs (who you would see out and about during the day) who mostly slept in a large empty lot off our alley providing overnight security services for the neighborhood. And, believe it or not, we also had a small herd of goats in the neighborhood (one of several in town as it turned out) that wandered the streets during the day occasionally jamming up traffic as they provided free lawn care and trash disposal services.
Our place in Eel Garden (Number 4) was a small one-bedroom detached house clustered with six other small houses around a nice walled and gated courtyard garden with date palms right outside our door, a shared outdoor seating area with thatched roof, and a shared roof deck. As we would be there for a month, we were happy to find that the courtyard also included a washer and clothes lines on the roof deck. The courtyard was a nice feature, unfortunately, it was too hot to enjoy it as much as we would have liked, but we did watch a movie and have a cocktail or two there on some of the cooler evenings.
The house itself was fairly new, plain and simple construction, but with some exposed wood framing and trim which contrasted nicely against the white plaster walls as did the plain wood furnishings, decorative light fixtures, and woven carpets. The kitchen was decently equipped including a stove which we couldn’t conceive of ever using in the heat. The wood windows were equipped with separately operable glazing and screening and were (thankfully) equipped with both sheers and heavy curtains to black out the sun when necessary (although our unit was shaded from the sun by palms and adjoining structures for much of the day).
While we always prefer natural ventilation, outside air temperatures were just too high, so we were happy to have AC in the bedroom, which our host, Eslam, emphasized was only capable of cooling the bedroom, so we were to keep the bedroom door closed if the AC was running (which it was whenever we were home). We were a bit surprised to find that there were no ceiling fans in the living-dining area of the house (don’t understand why this isn’t a standard feature in many hot places like this) and so we actually went to the market on our first day and dropped $30 for a very nice variable speed and direction plug-in floor fan with no expectation that we would be taking it with us when we left Dahab. (Hey, it amounted to one dollar per day to make the rest of the house livable!)
Based on some of our research we anticipated that there might be occasional power outages and were not disappointed. The power went out two or three times, but it was usually in the morning, which didn’t impact us too much so long as it was back on when we returned in the afternoon (the domestic water system had an electric pump which needed to be running for showers). On one occasion, the power went out while we were out having coffee and pastries at Ralph’s German Bakery (see Food and Drink) and so our coffee service was interrupted, but the power came back on about 30 minutes later. Ironically, on the one day we were told that the power would be off it stayed on! All in all, not a big deal.
What did end up being a bit of an annoyance was internet connectivity, which we also expected to be bad, but which was, in reality, much worse. Aside from periodic connection problems with the local area network, internet connectivity was intermittent at best and, when it was there, upload and download speeds were very slow (it reminded me of the old Comcast commercials with the turtles), making work on the blog incredibly tedious. We discovered that the router (which was shared by all of the small houses) was located in the courtyard and so we would move out there for video calls and even a movie or two on the occasional cooler evenings, but internet speeds were clearly tied to how many of our neighbors were sharing the router, so the best time for work was the early morning when others were still in bed.
Getting Around Dahab
Dahab is one of those places where taxis seem to be congregated on every street corner and you have to work pretty hard to not get run over by or dragged into one of them if you are travelling the streets on foot. For clarification, in Dehab, while the term “taxi” can refer to any number of vehicles, the most common one is a vehicle called the “Luv” manufactured by Isuzu which a mid-sized four-passenger pick-up truck. We had a few laughs when we convinced one our brothers-in-law that it was a new model from Range Rover which had yet to be offered in the U.S. (it was a decal!) But, despite the proliferation of taxis, Dahab is less than 3 kilometers from north to south along the Promenade and so everything is pretty easily in walking distance with no need for taxis (except when schlepping luggage) or public transport (never even looked into it).
We pretty quickly decided that it would be good to have bicycles both to get around town and to explore some of the outlying areas and so we rented two for the month on our first day in town. But, while the bikes certainly shortened the time it took to get places, riding in the heat of the day was not particularly enjoyable and (in open areas at least) while the strong winds (typically 20 mph or more) made it easier to ride in one direction, you paid dearly for it in the opposite direction. After a couple of early rides north and south of town early in the week, we limited our use of the bikes to shorter trips around town. We would usually park the bikes at a strategic location and walk to wherever we were going along the Promenade which is really better experienced as a pedestrian.
Due to spotty streetlighting and some very tight and crowded areas, we didn’t use the bikes after dark and again found things were better experienced as a pedestrian. Strolling the Promenade in the cooler evenings with a good sea breeze ended up being one of the most enjoyable things to do in Dahab.
Life in Dahab
We came to Dahab looking for some deep relaxation, but it took us just a little while to find our stride feeling a bit like the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Over the course of our first week in Dahab, we sampled a good number of the hang-out spots up and down the promenade, which varied quite a bit from one another both in terms of food and ambience. South of town, the beach-side lounges were nice but tended to be very Arab (meaning few or no women and no women in western bathing suits). The ones in the center of town had access to some great snorkeling but no beaches, with their sun loungers packed together side by side. They also had a tendency to play louder more obnoxious music as the day progressed.
So, for us, Eel Garden Beach in the north turned out to be the best spot for hanging out at a place called Dive Urge. Dive Urge had a nice small beach with sun loungers and umbrellas as well as a shaded sitting and dining area. (Once we settled in there as regulars, we had our own corner with both sun loungers on the beach and an adjoining shaded seating/dining area.) But beyond doubt the best thing at Dive Urge was Atwa, the manager, who was incredibly kind and attentive and with whom we became friends of sorts. It was great that Colleen was very comfortable hanging out at Dive Urge by herself on days and at times when we were doing different things.
Our other go-to hangout in Eel Garden was the Coral Coast Hotel which was located just around the corner from our place. We actually had our first dinner in Dahab there and didn’t particularly care for the food, but they had a regular yoga program which Colleen utilized and also a three-day-a-week aqua fitness program which both of us became regular participants in. As I mentioned earlier, the aqua fitness program not only provided exercise but also allowed us to hang out a Coral Coast’s pool (an important part of our keeping cool program) 3 mornings a week and we became friends with the instructor Jessi, a British expat who came to Dahab seven years ago and never went back.
And so we settled into a nice routine. While we had already been in the habit of waking up at the crack of dawn (literally), on many mornings I found myself getting up before dawn and wandering down to the beach with the neighborhood dogs to watch the sun rise over Saudi Arabia across the Gulf. So, up early enjoying whatever cool the morning might offer to do a little blog or other “work”. We usually had breakfast at home, but we did find a couple of amazing breakfast places and so did sometimes eat breakfast out, usually after Colleen had an early yoga session. Following breakfast and yoga or aqua fitness, we would get down to the real business of the day which was to hang out by the beach or pool for most of the day with the biggest decision of the day usually being where to eat lunch or dinner.
As we usually ate dinner at home, it was tempting to hole up there with the AC after a long day in the heat. But evening was definitely the best time to wander the Promenade and adjoining streets so even if we weren’t eating out, we tried to find reasons to go back out in the evening. There was of course always some shopping to be done and, after a bit of searching, we located a place called Ice Bubble that had a decent selection of pretty good gelato and was located next to a couple of our favorite restaurants which kind of ended up being our favorite people-watching spot in the evening.
Streaming a movie in the evening with popcorn (and maybe a little chocolate) has become a pretty frequent entertainment activity for us and I am happy to report that, despite the internet connectivity issues we experienced, we were able to complete both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies during our stay in Dahab. Colleen had never seen either and I was very proud of her hanging in there enthusiastically until the end (I know that at a certain point she just wanted to get it over with), particularly as we were watching the extended versions. I’m still trying to get her on board for Star Wars, but in the meantime, at least she now gets all the Lord of the Rings memes which our somewhat nerdy daughter regularly sends.
Excursions
While we were purposefully unambitious during our stay, we did take a couple of excursions. During our first week in Dahab, we took a bicycle trip to see what the beaches up the coast might be like compared to those in town. We bicycled a few kilometers north one day to a resort called the Golden Heights Resort, one of several resorts north of town along a stretch known as the Golden Beach. The resort had a daily fee of about 3 dollars with all the usual amenities, including a pool with a slide. The beach was kind of golden, and it was a bit wider than those in town, but it wasn’t that much better and the whole resort felt like a bit of a ghost town. Despite being both downhill and down wind, the ride back to town was torturous in the afternoon sun and by the time we reached home we had pretty much decided that the beaches in town were just fine and that we wouldn’t be returning to the Golden Heights Resort.
A bit later in our stay, we rode our bikes south to a place on the far south side of Dahab called the Laguna Beach, a picturesque spot with a sand spit and a large tidal pool behind, which is one of the more popular spots in the area for sail boarding and kite surfing. We rode to Laguna Beach early on a Sunday and finding it fairly deserted, we rented a makeshift shelter from a nice Bedouin lady and settled in but, as the day moved on and the tour buses began to arrive, we discovered that the Blue Lagoon is a very popular spot for Egyptians (we only saw one other non-Arab couple there).
While there were quite a few women there, they were all dressed very modestly so it wasn’t all that comfortable for Colleen to be in even a one-piece swimsuit. Nonetheless, people were extremely friendly and, while walking down the spit, I discovered the phenomena I had heard about where everyone wants you to take your picture with them. The beach itself was a bit rocky, but the setting was pretty amazing with the mountains as a backdrop for the spit and lagoon as well as an amazingly blue saltwater pond called the Magic Lake and, of course, the kite surfers provided endless entertainment.
The bike ride back to town was interesting (we had taken a different route there looking for grocery stores) as the Promenade wound through some of the larger Arab resorts south of town. Some of these appeared to still be in some state of construction and a few appeared to be deserted, but almost all of them featured unique architectural designs of unknown origins. While the scenery was interesting, the bike ride in the hot sun, this time against the wind, was not very pleasant and at that point we pretty much swore off any more bike rides out of town.
The Blue Hole
We also took one real excursion during our month in Dahab to a place called the Blue Hole, a 400 foot deep underwater sinkhole just off the coast about 5 miles north of Dahab. The Red Sea Blue Hole is probably the most famous (actually, infamous) dive spot in the world where over 100 free divers have lost their lives. If you haven’t heard about this place, we suggest you watch the Netflix movie “The Deepest Breath” about the sport of free diving. The goal of free diving is to swim as far down a vertical line as possible and then return to the surface without dying and, if possible, without losing consciousness (which seems to happen fairly frequently). We weren’t really aware of what the sport is all about until we came here (really, until we watched the movie), but we left really wondering why anyone would want to do it. Given the option, I’d take Calcio Storico (see Florence) instead.
In any case, we booked a package tour which provided transport to and from the Blue Hole as well as a place called the Blue Lagoon, and admission fees, snorkel gear, a diving guide, and lunch. We were picked up by a mini bus early at the Coral Coast Hotel near our house and found that the rest of our group consisted of 10 or 11 young Egyptian men (who had the feel of a bachelor party or boys on spring break about them) and a thirty-something German woman from Singapore named Melanie, who was in Dahab at the recommendation of a friend who is a free diver.
As we neared the Blue Hole and approached a security gate, everyone in the van began talking and gesturing and we eventually figured out that we should have brought our passports and, along with Melanie, were sent to the last seat in the back of the bus and told to keep our heads down. After a bit of scrutiny by someone in a security uniform and a bit of conversation we were sent on our way. As the Blue Hole and its shanty town came into view up the coast, you could feel a rise in energy in the mini bus (perhaps at least partly due to the Red Bulls which some of the bachelor boys were shooting).
Once at the Blue Hole, we were directed to a seating area in a multi-tiered open restaurant to await our guide. Melanie and I wandered over to look at a rock wall with plaques commemorating many of the divers who had died here including (spoiler alert!) Stephan Keenan, one of the subjects in The Deepest Breathe, which was a bit sad and morbid, but it was pretty hard to take your eyes off the star attraction here, a very dark blue patch of water just off the edge of the shore. Once our guide joined us, we collected our snorkel gear, left our belongings, and proceeded a bit up the coast to a drop-in point, awaiting our turn in the line of tour groups queuing up there. From there, we snorkeled along the reefs lining the shore, which were swarming with beautifully colored tropical fish, eventually making our way to the Blue Hole where, in sharp contract, there is nothing to see because it is basically an abyss.
From the Blue Hole, we were loaded into an open boat and transported up the coast with a few bumps and lots of splashing (more on one side of the boat than the other) accompanied by some laughing and cheering by the spring break boys who were still dry at the expense of those who weren’t. We were dropped at another transfer point where we awaited our guide and the rest of our group who were on the next boat. At some point during the wait some of the boys in our group spontaneously broke into song with something that sounded a bit like the Back Street Boys.
Once the rest of our group arrived, we were loaded into four-wheel drive pick-up trucks to complete our journey to the Blue Lagoon. Colleen and I got to ride in the cab with our driver who appeared to be about 12 years old (our guide assured us that he was 14) which was a bit of a blessing as the ride to the Blue Lagoon, which took about 15 minutes, was both bumpy and dusty.
The Blue Lagoon turned out to be a pretty jaw-droppingly beautiful place – a shallow bay protected by a large sand spit with an amazing blue-green water color. The bay had thatched huts and shelters scattered around its perimeter along with lots people swimming, which seemed to include a lot of families and kids, and kite surfers everywhere. We found a seat in the shade of a hut and just soaked it all up for a while, took a walk and a swim, and relaxed a bit more.
The trip back was similar to that coming (though this time with no boat ride) and our driver, who looked no older than the last time we had seen him, proved his worth by beating out the other pick-ups and keeping us at the front of the column of dust. Back at the Blue Hole we had a quick lunch (we appeared to be the only ones in our group who had the meal plan which was a bit odd) then boarded our bus for the ride home with the Red Bull drinkers crashing and nodding off into the seats in front of them.
Food and Drink
I could write quite a bit about food in drink in Dahab, but my editor is breathing down my throat to wrap up this installment, so I’ll try to make this brief. There was an incredible variety of food and restaurants in Dahab (Egyptian, Bedouin, Middle Eastern, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Sushi, Seafood, Pasta, Pizza, Hamburgers, Sandwiches and Wraps of all sorts, Salads, Fish and Chips, etc.) and, over the course of a month we were able to try quite a few of them and even found some that we liked pretty well.
We found two great places for breakfast, each of which we hit about once a week. There was a place called Ralph’s German Bakery which had great coffee and a delicious line-up of pastries (the Lotus Donut – on the right in bottom right photo below was the best!) as well as some good breakfast platters and, best of all, they had a location in Eel Garden near our place as well as another near the center of town. The one in town had a gym above which led to some interesting juxtapositions of people and activities.
Our other go-to breakfast place, which we liked to visit after our morning aqua fitness sessions was a place called Schoenemann’s which had the best pancakes, both traditional with fruit compote and (my favorite) lemon poppy seed. Although it didn’t make the starting rotation, we also had some pretty good waffles at a place called the Bayside Eatery.
Lunches, which we usually ate at Dive Urge or one of the other waterfront restaurant/lounges, were kind of challenging. While most of the places offered similar lunch and snack items (sandwiches, pizza, calzones, etc.) none of them were particularly good and it was hard not to end up having a too-big-for-lunch entrée. I spent the entire time there unsuccessfully trying to satisfy an urge for a good burger and finally gave up after three or four attempts. I ended up eating a lot of grilled calamari in salads and other forms for lunch. Oh, and French fries (the ubiquitous “chips”) come with pretty much everything at lunch (if you order chips, they come with chips).
One place which became a favorite for us was called the Box Meal (which I always thought of and referred to as the Lunch Box). They had a nice variety of soups, salads, and appetizers along with a nice selection of hot and cold beverages which included some pretty exotic ingredients. We got hooked on their amazing knefa shrimp (large shrimp wrapped in knefa dough and deep fried) and ordered it along with whatever else we were having every time we went there (which were a few). The Box Meal also had what looked to be a great sushi menu, which they faithfully provided to us every time we visited, but whenever I asked, we were told that there was “no sushi today”. They had a roof top which was pretty nice in the evening and, because they were located on one of the busiest streets leading to the central Promenade, it was pretty interesting to sit in one of the two tables out front.
Another place we gravitated to for both lunch and dinner was a tiny place, honestly kind of a hole in the wall, called Lemongrass, a Thai restaurant pretty much directly across the street from the Lunch Box. I was attracted to the place by its name and also by the coconut lemongrass soup on their menu (I developed a love for lemongrass during our last trip to Thailand to such an extent that Colleen started growing it in her garden in New Jersey). Like Box Meal, they had a nice selection of appetizers (coconut shrimp was the best) as well as some really nice Thai shrimp and chicken dishes which had the kind of kick it was surprisingly hard to find at other places, and, oh yeah, the coconut lemongrass soup was awesome. I had it every time we went which was often enough that the proprietor, who was very kind and nice (although we never got his name) knew us on sight.
So far as dinners go, we actually ate most of our dinners at home which, because of the heat (and often large lunches) tended to be pretty light – often soup or noodles and maybe some popcorn with a movie. But, we did have a few meals out and, when we did eat out, it felt like a bit of a special occasion, which it sometimes was. One of the better meals we had in Dahab was not a special occasion, but rather a night where we just didn’t feel like cooking at home, when we had a great Indian meal (curried shrimp and vindaloo chicken) at a place called Namaste. We had a nice romantic dinner one evening at a place just up the beach from Eel Garden called Seaduction, which had a really nice roof-top with sea views and good food.
We did have two pretty memorable dinners at a beach-front Italian restaurant in Eel Garden call Dai Pescatori – once to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary on the 20th, and then again for the Super Blue Moon on the 30th. It was actually a very romantic setting for both occasions, with a table in the sand (almost in the surf) and the moon rising over Saudi Arabia across the Gulf of Aqaba. The menu featured some great appetizers (great bruschetta) a variety of home-made pasta dishes. On our first visit we discovered that the place has kind of an undercover BYOB policy and so brought a nice bottle of wine with us for our second visit. Great food, great atmosphere, both amazing meals.
As regards drink, we again found ourselves in a house with no proper coffee making set-up and continued the unfortunate but necessary habit of Nescafe instant coffee at home, which made it even better when we could grab a good coffee or cappuccino at Ralph’s or Schoenemann’s. While there were a couple of legitimate bars in town, none of the places we ate and drank in Dahab served alcohol of any sort, so we quenched our thirsts with mint lemonade, mango lassies, and fresh squeezed juices. We were able to purchase beer and wine, as well as very cheap vodka and rum which, once we discovered the availability of freshly squeezed lemon and other juices, led to a cocktail fiesta at home.
Collen’s Yoga Corner
Knowing that we were to spend a month in Dahab, finding yoga was high on my list of to do’s. Right off the bat I came across Nour Wellbeing, which was a yoga and fitness organization running out of a seafront hotel, the Coral Coast Hotel, a mere 2 minute walk from our place. Turns out Nour Wellbeing offered a whole range of yoga and fitness related classes, several different ones every day! I don’t think I missed many days during our 30 day hiatus. The range that was offered included Hatha yoga, Yin yoga with sound healing, and a vigorous Vinyasa class, in addition to a stretching class and a strong favorite, aqua fitness (it was in the 100’s for many days of our Dahab stay). The yoga studio on the top of the hotel, with magnificent views of the sea, and large windows opened to allow the at times very strong breeze to blow through was one of the best yoga shalas I have practiced in, and at this point, that is saying a lot!
Early on, I determined that one way to get into the hotel’s lovely pool would be to attend the aqua fitness class. After one class with Jessi, I was hooked, and it really wasn’t a hard sell to get Ritchard to join me. We ended up enjoying ourselves three times a week with Jessi, finding that there were a lot of benefits to exercising in the water. I would be remiss if I did not specifically highlight the caring group of young women at Nour, each and everyone of them appeared committed to their particular area of expertise and compassionate about sharing that experience with the wide range of participants dropping in for class. I very much enjoyed my time at Nour!
Next Stop Zanzibar
Our month in Dahab seemed to pass more quickly than we would have liked and, before we knew it, it was time to pack up for our next destination, one we had been looking forward to really since we started this trip, the mysterious island of Zanzibar in Tanzania, Africa. Stay tuned for the next installment when we’ll update you on our further adventures in the dark continent of Africa.
Burning the Inheritance 
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