Dahab Part 3: The Goods

Aside from the transpo issues (excitement?), Dahab was actually a very chill place. I don't know what it is about beach cities, but it seems like no matter where you go, people always morph into beach bums. The Cairo hustle simply did not exist. There were definitely an overabundance of shops and restaurants, but any attempt at getting passersby to come in were easily combated with a "maybe later." Or the people were refreshingly honest. When walking by a massage parlor, one guy walked up to our group, and with huge smile half-yelled, "Who wants to spend some money!?" Great one-liner.

Competition was also intense due to so many places to eat. One night, we finally settled on one restaurant after an offer of nine free appetizers, 20% off our final bill, free dessert, and two free shishas. Even the standard 15 pound breakfasts could be bargained down to 10-12 if you waited a while. Unlike so many other places in Egypt, the invisible hand was moving.

My favorite spot in Dahab was the Blue Hole dive site. Apparently it's one of the best places in the world for diving and snorkeling. As soon as you get into the water, it's like being inside an issue of National Geographic. The reef lines the entire shore and fish are everywhere. I don't know if the fish are naturally inquisitive or just accustomed to people, but you could have easily grabbed one (or so I think you could). It was so awesome seeing clownfish in their natural habitat weaving in between sea anemones. The water was clear enough to see huge schools of fish below. I can only imagine how cool it was at any sort of depth, but I guess that would be an adventure for another time.

My other favorite aspect of Egypt so far has been ridiculous spelling mistakes. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera for the funniest ones, but they're worth mentioning.  A beachside restaurant was offering "Soft Dinkies" as one of the cold drink options for only 10 pounds. I wanted to ask what sizes the dinkies came in. The other hilarious one came from a Chinese restaurant (naturally). Right next to a picture of dumplings was the caption "Chinese Dumping." If people were in the mood for that option, they might not be after looking over the menu.

Other than that, it was a lot of sun-tanning and swimming. The usual suspects for any vacation.