Hotel Rocketa Dahab

... We were at about 13 metres depth though and so she had to surface very slowly with Mohammed holding on to her and we then finished the dive after a total of about 20 minutes underwater. We’re not sure what caused the problem but it could have been either volataren tablets that Helen had taken during the night or paracetemol with codeine that she took just before the dive for the pain in her back. It was quite unfortunate as we’d both been progressing ...

... the Dead Sea is not in Israel, but rather equally shared by Israel and Palestine on the west bank, and Jordan on the east.

Or perhaps that reveals more of my own ignorance than anything else.

But that's not to distract from the absolute whackiness of a visit to the photo-op lake while drifting down south along the King's Highway between Syria and Egypt.

Not that there are too many buses cruising up and down a zone somewhat politically challenged. Tensions run high ...

... Australian infidel, let us cook him and eat him with felafel's then raid the tomb of the Fat Bag in the luggage below". I therefore decided on a very loud English "Tut" with lots of huffing and puffing.

Arrived in Dahab, shattered, slept entire day, ate, slept entire night. Woke up to beautiful Dahab, an Egyptian oasis of lounge cafes by the sea with a myriad of dive shops ready to take you into crystal blue water filled with coral and bright fish. I ...

... ones on the dance floor, but we didn't care too much so we started to dance anyway and soon lots of people joined us. This was all very fun until I went to go to the bathroom and was stopped by an Egyptian man (drunk, I would assume) who grabbed me in inappropriate places and proceeded to tell me how much my dancing was turning him on and requested a private dance. At first, I just shoved him away from me, but that didn't deter him as he just ...

... in this part of the country due to the bombings about 10 years ago. I think its a bit of overkill having that much security, but, I won't complain.

We stopped at a rest stop halfway and got ice cream for 5 pounds, a lot cheaper than we thought it would be considering it was a tourist stop, which are normally horribly overpriced. It really hit the spot and we were back on the bus, and back asleep again. One of the security stops near our ...

... course in Dahab is that usually the confined water dives are done in swimming pools,. but we got to do ours in the Red Sea.

Our instructor was Mohammed, a Jordanian man who had been living in Dahab for 5 years. Someone had a secret crush on Mohammed, we won't tell you who. The second day Mohammed sold us out, and we had Awie, a South African, as our teacher. Mohammed had been working at various scuba diving places around Dahab. He met a British girl named Vicky who was on a ...

... was laying on a bench close to the tree and their was a priest standing over him waving his hands over his body with hopes to relieve him of his sickness and pain. I wonder how many people make the long journey from far away with ailments hoping for a miracle. It was a magical place...so maybe miracles can take place again. After our long day and night, it was back to our hotel for a long rest. What a day! And yes,,,,I did it in Sandals...and I believe besides Moses, I was the only one .

... group of other people from Dahab, but as we were starting up the trail, led by a Bedouin guide (mandatory), I realized that we were heading up the camel track to the summit. There are 2 ways up, camel track - a gently winding trail up one side of the mountain, and a more direct route by rough rock stairs called the stairs of repentance - there are 3750 of them and they were laid by a monk in the 6th century.  Monks have always believed that the mountain should only be ascended ...

... then end you get an aerial view of St Katherine's Monastery. Once at the bottom I had the opportunity to go into the monastery but I didn't really make it much further than the entry courtyard. After being up all night and having little sleep from the bus from Cairo the night before I chose the option of having a much needed nap in the bus. I don't remember anything about the return journey to Dahab. I slept the whole way. Back in Dahab I ...

... I filled my belly, drank a tall guava juice (laced with a hefty pour of rum) and hit the sack for a four hour nap!

Today I headed out with others from my hostel to a local snorkeling / diving place called The Blue Hole. It was magnificent! MUCH better than the snorkeling I did in Thailand. Approximately 5 meters from the edge of the water the coral drops 100m to the ocean floor (it's way too deep to see the bottom from the surface). The ...