Posts Tagged ‘barter’

Dahab, Egypt

February 22nd, 2009

I spent a LONG time writing this while we were in Cairo, but then the retarded Windows computer screwed up on me. I then hated Cairo even more… But here I go again trying to tell you about beautiful Dahab, on the Red sea!

We caught a ferry across from Aqaba, Jordan, to Egypt, which was an experience and a half. Jordan was the pits, and to top it off, at their international port, no one speaks any English. There are no tourist signs, or anything really to help you out. It is a hard journey up and down stairs at the offices there, with huge backpacks, and no idea what’s happening, or if we were even in the right place, or going to the right place…

Eventually we got onto the boat, two hours after they told us it would be leaving, and after a fluke getting onto the bus to take us there, which was full of Arab men with their googly eyes (read: dirty, lusty eyes).

We hoped on, and (we assume) because we had white skin, were told to put our bags in a special (more ordered) area, and then ascorted to the front of the line, and had our boarding passess checked straight away. We come up onto the big bar area, and someone comes to sit with us and give us the papers we need, and as us if we’d like to buy lunch for 5JD each. We fill out the forms, and someone takes us to the front of the VISA/passport line, and our passports get processed straight away, except they keep our passports for the trip. It’s a rocky journey, but we can see Egypt on one side of the ferry, and Jordan, then Saudi Arabia on the other. Quite sureal.

When we get to Egypt we are amazed at how hot it is after our freezing cold time in Jordan. We are hot, and struggle to follow dodgy directions on where the immigration office is so that we can get our passports back, and get our visas, but we make it and search for our driver, who then takes on a drive to Dahab. Ahhh… Dahab.

Dahab is amazing. If you have not been, GO. It is on the red sea, and has some of the best snorkling in the world. We spent our days hiring snorkle gear for £10, which is about $2.50- $3 AUD. Amongst the snorkling was walks on the beach/ pebbles, shopping, Luke getting compliments about looking like he’s from Egypt, and me being a legend at bartering. We also smoked Shishha (photo below) (sp?), and I got a henna tatoo…