Swiss Inn Resort Dahab

... Lots of sad farewells to my tour friends and later on that night I head to the bus station to take a V.I.P. overnight bus to Dahab for a few days diving. My thoughts were that by taking a V.I.P. bus I can arrive at Dahab at nine am ready to dive after a reasonable nights sleep. Wrong. V.I.P. bus in Egypt stands for Very Insane People bus. It was full of many men with big mustaches, a distinct lack of deodorant and a bizarre tendency to scream in Arabic, at ...

... je serai de l’autre cote du Jourdain.

Encore un changement de programme de derniere minute, encore une confiance accordee a un inconnu alors que je suis seule en territoire occupe. Je reste zen. Me voila donc traversant le mur de la honte, les checkpoints inquietants, les graffitis a la gloire des martyrs palestiniens pour rejoindre Ramallah, charmante bourgade au demeurant aux avenues bordees de palmiers.

Le visa en ...

... get too techinical but you start with 200BHT in your tank of air. The girl used all of her oxygen and was using the instructors tank after 30 mins when I still had 130BHT left in my tank - it meant she sucked more than 3 times the amount of oxygen as me!! BUT the dive instructor was good to us so she shared his tank ad this prolonged the dive a little.

But the dive its self was wonderful. The wreck is stunning but the current was strong so it was hard work getting about. We surveyed ...

... wearing western clothes, the girls with a head scarf. While there aren't many touts in Dahab, there are a collection young girls that have discovered they can sell their little beaded bracelets and necklaces to the tourists. Some of them are already very skilled at the hard sell and will be shrewd business women when they get older (if they are allowed). The Dahab version of the tout is the fellow that stands outside every seaside restaurant trying to get you to come in. They are ...

... until we made it to the first stop. Here the other kiwi girl in our group decided she was struggling. Unsurprising really as she was asthmatic, not the fittest person and was finding the heat and thin air hard to deal with. Miraculously our guide pulled a cell phone out of his robe and called up his mate at the bottom to bring a camel up for her to complete the journey (yes, cell reception on Mt Sinai). Our group was now a very exclusive 4, including the guide. Chatting to the ...

... background. The sun was setting and there were kite surfers in the distance. We almost stepped on a lionfish, which is poisonous. We are about to go on our night dive to see flourescent plankton, blinking shrimp, octopi, etc. There were camels walking along the boardwalk today. We had cats and dogs hanging out with us on the beach eating dinner. Dahab is really pretty.

... into a place that was obviously this cats territory and she chased the dog around the restaurant clawing and biting him LOL. It was a little unnerving at the time but quite funny afterwards as the dog was yelping and trying to escape her. Our leisure time was finally up and it was time to leave dahab. its definately like another country compared to the rest of Egypt my kind of place though by the sea with a more relaxed attitude.

... it all got too loose. We are big girls now and need our sleep. Nadine runs in the morning, i am smoking again.

I have a mysterious gum infection that is being treated with some of Don's Panadeine Forte.

I am back on the olives and guava fruit is in fashion too.

Mono Loco has taken is jellaba off and has been doing nudie runs all over the beaches. Naughty monkey.


And now for kid's corner:

Lame Fish Jokes Of The Day:

Dahab, Red Sea and Sinai, Egypt inoursuitcase

... is a really funky looking town. We went to a place called Al Capone's for tea and the food was really nice. But I do feel a bit off today and was sick last night. I woke up this morning and wasn't feeling too bad so I put my bathers on with all intentions of snorkelling. Breakfast was at a spot at the back of the hotel, right on the beach and it was a really pretty setting - we even got something other than tomato and cucumber. After breakfast we got into our ...