Day 159-161: Ras Abu Galum & the Rest of Dahab

Heba and her friends had been trying to coordinate at least one excursion for us while we were in Dahab. The one they decided on was to a place called Ras Abu Galum. This place is a government protectorate, inhabited only by Beduins, and accessible only by either camel or boat. We had given the hotel, who had arranged the tour, a 11 a.m. departure time. We leisurely strolled out at 12 a.m. to some very disgruntled Beduins.

We piled into the two cars, and we swore that our car decided he was going to go as slow as possible until he hit the roughest patch of desert, where he decided to gun it. "We'll never be late again!" we shouted, in between bumps that caused our butts to rise off our jeep seats. The cars went past a caravan of camels loaded with tourists all going towards a different excursion location called 'The Blue Hole.' The Blue Hole is notorious for divers for being just that... only there is a tunnel you can go through at the bottom of the hole that is meant to be beautiful, but a bit deadly. We saw the shrine for the various divers who didn't make it.

Eid is peak time for this area, and the Blue Hole was no different. There is a lot of coral surrounding the Blue Hole. As a result, the only entry to the Blue Hole is via a narrow pedestrian bridge that one must walk and then jump off of. There were so many people that this bridge looked like a gangplank filled with an endless queue of prisoners being forced to walk the plank.

We weren't going there. Instead, we boarded a small speed boat to get to Ras Abu Galum. The captain gunned the engine and we went flying over the waves. Literally. We caught air not for the first time that day as we hit each wave. We all started sitting horizontally, but, like an amusement park ride, by the end of it, all of us were sitting tilted, as the gravity of the boat and the force of the waves forced us to squish together in a heap towards the back of the boat.

When we finally got to Ras Abu Galum, we were welcomed into the Bediun's beach shacks to sit, pour ourselves a drink, and get into the water. The Red Sea and its underwater treasures are breathtakingly beautiful here. You start to see brilliant fish as soon as you step into the water. Unlike other places we've snorkeled, here, you have about 10 feet to walk before the coral disappears beneath you, leaving you at least 30 feet above the seabed. The coral, however, serves as a border on either side of you, as it is just 1-2 feet below the surface. I can't speak enough about how blue the water is in the Red Sea. Other places we've snorkeled have all had some sort of blue-ish green tint, no matter their clarity. Here is it crystal blue.

We stepped out and went to eat lunch. Heba severely undersold the lunch! She had told us that it was just going to be some sort of frozen kofta on the boat. She didn't say that it was going to be homemade Egyptian rice (white rice browned using onion and eaten with fish), fried fresh fish, an Egyptian style salad, fresh Egyptian bread, a beautiful potato dish, and tahini. The whole day was so amazing that we didn't want to end it.

That is how a group of people, when the town shutdown at 2 a.m., ended up having their own private beach party which only ended after they danced in the sunrise.

The next day was spent just relaxing, finding a local German bakery for our token German, and swimming next to the main strip in town. That night the locals were having a beach party on the Lagoon, where we had gone the previous day. We decided to attend and have just one last hurrah before we head home. One last hurrah we had! It was all good fun until the protectorate agreement with the Beduins ended earlier than expected. The Beduins just came and people left. I'm not sure why exactly. There isn't anything menacing about them, but for some reason, their presence makes people nervous. Again, the party didn't stop there. It continued at the same beach as the previous night. One of our friends even did a fire dance for us.

The next morning, as we all loaded into the uncomfortable bus for our 9 hour drive home, one of the group said, "Good morning. Don't we all feel horrible? Isn't it amazing!" It was. 

Day 158: Dahab & The Lagoon

I never knew that there could be so many different kinds of beaches within walking distance of a place. Dahab has a mix of sandy beaches, coral, and rocky. Today we decided that we would go about 3 kms away from town to a sandy beach known as 'The Lagoon.' The same friends who we had met at the North Shore, Aly and Vanessa, also had arrived in Dahab. The two of them, Pallavi, and I decided that we would walk to The Lagoon. It was absolutely amazing. We walked along a desert, with kite and wind surfers in our view as they did their practice runs on the salty lagoons, with a line of desert mountains bordering us on our right, and the Red Sea bordering our left. It's hard for me to imagine that this is a place of Moses and Mt. Sinai. It just seems so beautiful, so bountiful, and yet so desolate.

We got the Lagoon, the rest of the 11 joined us, we set up our blankets, they ordered the beer, and we all just jumped in the water. The water was perfect. The beach was so sandy and the water so still that you could just chill for hours. The water was so blue that we had an entire underwater photo session using Pallavi's underwater camera. The pictures are phenomenal (in my opinion). You'd think it was just a backdrop or that we were in some sort of swimming pool. You certainly wouldn't think that we were in the Red Sea.

The rest of the evening was spent chilling, then going to a bad local dive bar for dancing, and then meeting up with some local who opened up his friend's beachside restaurant for us to chill at afterwards. The night ended under a clear sky filled with stars and people swimming in their underwear (not the four of us!) under Orion's Belt. 

Day 156-157: Dahab & Pallavi's 30th Birthday

One of the primary reasons why we came to Egypt when we did was the Muslim Eid holiday. This is the 'big Eid,' which celebrates when God spared Isaac after requesting his sacrifice by Abraham. In Egypt, the people get 4 days off for Eid. This year, the Eid holiday also aligned with Pallavi's 30th birthday.

Pallavi knew that we would be going on a trip for her 30th. That is as much as she knew. We asked her if she wanted it to be a surprise or wanted to be involved. She said that she didn't care. Bwah hahahahahaha. The 3 of us, especially Heba and Nayeli, LOVE throwing surprise parties.

After planning for over a month, we had decided to go to a small town called Dahab, on the Red Sea, in the Sinai region. Heba had arranged the hotel and the minivan, that would carry a group of 11, including the four of us, her friends, and some of their friends, the nine hour drive to Sinai. Nayeli and Heba had helped me to arranged a chocolate cake dripping with icing for us to eat on the mini-van, as we would ring in Pallavi's birthday on the overnight bus and then we'd spend Pallavi's birthday celebrating in Dahab.

We arrived back from the North Shore at 6 p.m. and we needed to leave by 11 p.m., all while coordinating the surprise cake and sign in the van, and not allowing Heba's friends to tip Pallavi off on where we were going. Pallavi knew the following:

• We were going to a beach and needed to pack a swimsuit, flip flops, and a sarong
• We were traveling with a group but we were staying in a room with just the four of us
• She needed to pack a pair of jeans and hiking stuff, just in case

That's it. When Pallavi and I went to the bank and to get groceries (at the store that isn't close to the house), Heba and Nayeli got the cake. When Pallavi went to use the bathroom before we left, Heba and Nayeli took the cake to the car. I made up some reason for Pallavi to be the last person to the van so that Heba & Nayeli could hang the 'Happy 30th Birthday Pallavi' sign in the van. 

Finally, it was time to get into the van. Heba & Nayeli asked Pallavi to pick her seat. Pallavi looked at the van, oblivious to the Happy Birthday sign, and said any seat would do. I then told her to look harder, that picking a seat was very, very important..... ohhhhhhh, she said! She finally had seen the sign. We all got on the bus at 11:00 p.m. and, around 11:45, my co-conspirators and I decided we'd get the cake ready to sing and eat at midnight. At 11:55, Pallavi says, don't sing for my birthday! Quickly, I whisper to H&N that the plan is off! Pallavi then turned to me and asked, what? Is something planned? I said, there was, but not any more. Pallavi then told H&N they could go ahead. So go ahead, we did! We lit the candles, we sang 'Happy Birthday,' and then we looked at the icing on the cake which said, 'Happy 30th Rallavi.' That's right. This wasn't Pallavi's birthday. This was Rallavi's birthday! Thus 'Rallavi' became Pallavi's name for the entire day. 

This cake was one of the best cakes we have ever eaten. It was thin, biscuit crust, carmel crunch, dripping with the most perfect chocolate mousse-like icing. It was amazing. The sugar high lasted for about 5 minutes before everybody on the van passed out into an acrobatic, uncomfortable, semi-sleep. 

We arrived at a beautiful hotel and immediately changed and jumped into the pool. After a dip and a nap, we went to explore the town. It reminded both of us a lot of Aswan in the south. The town had a single strip that walked along the Red Sea. You can see Saudi Arabia on the opposite side (and even catch their mobile signal). We had a lunch at a horrible Egyptian place. Who would have thought that this tourist town would have great European cuisine but horrible Egyptian? We chased it with a dip in the Red Sea by another restaurant. The water is so clear and filled with wildlife that we saw an octopus just on a rock right by the restaurant!

We then started Rallavi's birthday pool party. It was a ball filled with cocktails, beers, cannonballs in the pool, and Egyptian meses. We'll never know all of the birthday wishes that Pallavi received because, in a tragic moment, she dropped her cell phone, and then I dropped it! By midnight we all gave Rallavi a football tackle style hug and said goodnight, broken phone and all. Happy 30th birthday Rallavi! 

Day 152-155: Rowad & Alamein

Our friend Heba's family has a beach house in a town called Rowad on the Mediterranean just about 60 kms west of Alexandria. She's been telling us about this beach house for years. She calls it "the happiest place on Earth." The day we arrived in Cairo, she told us to spend the next day, while she and Nayeli were at work suffering from their 2 hours of sleep, packing a backpack for the weekend. She didn't tell us where we were going. She didn't need to. When somebody has a house in the happiest place on Earth, you pack your bag and hope that they are going to take you there!

It was amazing. I'm not the kind of person who tends to have a vision of where I'll be in 5 or 10 years. I have had one constant vision for years: the vision of having dinner on a warm night, by the Mediterranean, drinking wine with friends. I was living that vision.

The beach is so smooth, sandy, and private! This time is the beginning of the post-summer madness. Apparently everybody and their mom in Cairo has a beach house in this area, which is commonly referred to as "The North Shore." Private beaches and housing compounds stretch for 100 kms (and are continuing to stretch further). However, this weekend, we had the beach to ourselves.

The water is gorgeous. Perfect temperature, clarity, and waves (though they tell us that sometimes the waves are so strong that they call it "the washing machine").

A few of Heba's friends, who also have houses on the North Shore, also were in the area and came by to hang out. Every day was spent just enjoying Egyptian bread, cheese, cucumber, and tomato sandwiches, followed by beers, books, and conversation on the beach, and a night under a crystal clear sky. It is an amazing place.

To break up our beach, one of Heba's friends, Aly, took us the The Battle of El Alamein memorials. I wish I'd paid more attention during our WWII courses to better understand the importance of the battle, which took place just 30 kms west of where we were staying in Rowad. What I do know is that it was a turning point for the Allies, who were able to maintain their control over the Suez Canal.

The memorials are broken into 3 groups: Allies, Germans, and Italians. The Allied Memorial is very similar to ones that we've now seen across Southeast Asia. Standard military cemetery. Of course, getting to it isn't like any other memorial we've gone to. Was it marked? Kind of, if you did a U-turn on the highway to get to the other side where you saw a small green road marker. Did the road marker actually point to memorial? It would have if the random military blockade hadn't been put on the road for no apparent reason. Did we have to take some random gravel road after doing a few U-turns to avoid the military blockade? Yup. Why? As Aly repeated, "because they are idiots."

The German Memorial was completely different. It was built with a beautiful combination of Egyptian meets German Gothic architecture. It had 8 naives inside an octagon built of sandstone, without a roof, with an obelisk in the middle. Each naive had a 'tomb' much like in old churches, bearing the coat of arms of a region, like Bavaria, on it. You could also venture out to the roof of the structure to get the view. It was my favorite of all of the memorials.

The Italian Memorial was very.... Italian. Huge marble-like church meets burial vault. The inside looked and smelled like a modern Italian church, with a vaulted ceiling, crucifix in the middle, and huge open windows which replaced the standard stain-glassed crucifixion scene with a view of the ocean. Then the 'cross' section of the memorial was filled, floor to ceiling, with the burial vaults of the Italian soldiers. It was equally moving and yet something completely different.

It's hard to mix something so beautiful as the Mediterranean seascape with something as ugly as the Battle of Alamein. Just chalk up one more WWII battle site to our growing map of the war.

We were sad to leave Rowad, but that sadness lasted maybe the 4 hour journey home through the Nile Delta until we got home, repacked, and got ready for Pallavi's birthday surprise journey. 

Day 151: Cairo, Egypt

Two of our best friends, Heba & Nayeli, live in Cairo. Heba is from Cairo and we have visited Egypt before, so we are in very safe hands.

The one thing they told us before we travelled to Cairo was to get lots of sleep because they were planning a big night for us upon arrival.

Did that happen?

I swear that we tried! We even went to bed at 10:00 p.m. the night before our 9 a.m. flight (with a 5:15 a.m. alarm). What time did we actually fall asleep? 12:30 a.m.

Did we sleep on our flight from Delhi to Doha or from Doha to Cairo?

We didn't even try! How could we with so many movies to watch! We had booked this leg of the flight using my American Airlines miles. What did that mean? We weren't on a low cost airline! What does that mean? Movies on the plane! It's the best part of the flight. Well, that and the free alcohol that goes with it.

Heba picked us up and we went to her & Nayeli's house, which they loving call "The Cuddle Shack." We had an amazing dinner of Egyptian mezes, which consists of Egyptian bread, tahini, baba ganoush, and headed out to a party on a boat on the Nile.

It was amazing. The Nile is amazing. It was so great to see so many of the people we had met the first time we came to Cairo. We might be in Egypt, but we certainly don't feel like backpackers. It feels different this time. Not just the party and the people, but rather, more like a familiar city. We remember how the city looks, the bridge the comes before Heba's house, and even some of the streets. It might not be home, but it certainly doesn't feel foreign.

How long did we make it? We both crashed at 1:00 a.m. Cairo time (the equivalent of 4:30 a.m. in Delhi). What time did we get home? Oh, 2:30 a.m. or so.

At least we didn't have to get up at 5:30 a.m. like Nayeli did to go to work! They only hated us a lot when they got home 2 hours after we woke up. 

Day 117-150: India

Never fear! We didn't disappear. We didn't become 'Bad Bloggers.' En route to the Mediterranean, we decided to take a nice long pit stop in India and relax with Pallavi's family. As such, we didn't do too much traveling, but we did do a lot of visiting with friends and family. There are a few sub adventures during our journey though:

1. Arriving in Delhi

We took off from Bangkok at 5 a.m. to Calcutta, where we had a 10+ hour layover, before completing our trip to Delhi. Did you know that Calcutta is only a 2.5 hour flight away from Bangkok? I never thought it was so close. We were so lucky that Pallavi's uncle, who manages a tea garden near(ish) Calcutta, was able to book us a room in his company's guesthouse and a driver for the day, so we could shower and sleep during our layover. I swear, no tea tastes nearly as good as tea straight from the tea plantation.

The plan was to sleep just a few hours, then meet up with one of Pallavi's best friends for lunch, and then head off to the airport. That was the plan anyway.

No sooner did we arrive, had breakfast, than we passed out. For hours! More than a few hours - well past the time when we could go and get lunch. Plus, when we woke up, we still hadn't heard back from Pallavi's friend. After some back and forth and almost quitting on her friend, Pallavi finally got a hold of her - her original text hadn't gone through! She raced over, we had tea, and then rushed to the airport. Only to have our flight delayed anyway! Go figure.

2. Chandigarh

One of Pallavi's best friends from Google had just had a baby 10 days before our arrival in Delhi. That friend lives in Chandigarh, which is just 6 hours of so away. Pallavi has felt like she's missed out on a lot of her friends' big life moments (marriages, babies, etc.) that she really wanted to see her. Her parents also had dear friends from the Army who live in Chandigarh, so we all loaded up the car and went on the road trip together.

This is my first trip through Punjab. Most of the Indian dishes that Westerners are familiar with come from Punjab. Have you ever actually seen the dab of butter melt into the top of Butter Chicken? So good!

Chandigarh is a planned "new" city. It was created to be the shared capital for the states of Haryana and Punjab when Pakistan & India split. It is a Capital Territory, much like Washington D.C. - it doesn't "belong" to either of these states. As a result, it's completely different from anywhere else I've ever traveled in India. It is clean and... quiet!

The visit with Pallavi's friend was nice and the baby is super cute. Pallavi's family friends also took us out to the local lake, which is a major attraction of this city. Everybody goes there to get some air, so it is a lovely place to just take a walk. Since our arrival in the city, I have seen 0 tourists in this town! However, go figure that when we go to the lake, I see the only other Caucasian in this town - this Midwest haggard, leathered, hippie woman came up to me, and asked me, in a heavy American accent, "are you alright?" I stared at her and replied, "Uhh... yeah. Are you alright?" She was surrounded by two sketchy looking Indian men, and her eyes said either crazy or high. She's said, "yeah, do you speak Indian?" Me: "No, I don't speak Hindi." That was it! She wandered off!

No sooner did she leave, than apparently some local villager started asking questions about me. His major question was what was wrong with my eyes that caused me to wear glasses. He seemed shocked that Westerners could have weak eyes too! Blast! Our weakness is exposed! Now nobody will believe I have x-ray vision.

3. Weight Gain

What else did we do: Gain 6 lbs! No, seriously. When we weighed in upon arrival, we discovered that I had lost 9 lbs! I was the skinniest I'd ever been. Don't worry! It's still the case - the skinniest I ever WAS! No sooner did we land than we started eating the yummiest of food all of the time. Pallavi's mom and sister are both amazing cooks, so there wasn't a single dish I could say no to. To top it off - every meal - was dessert. Every day, on average, for lunch and dinner, some delicious cake or homemade ice cream or custard or mango cheesecake would be presented. Pallavi's mom cooked like a magic elf - somehow every day it was done without our knowledge. It was so delicious that both of us just kept telling ourself, just one more dessert, and then we won't eat another one. I gained 6 lbs in spite of doing yoga every day! Towards the end, I just threw in the towel. I figured, what's done is done. If I'm going to gain weight, at least I'm going to have done it eating the yummiest food I've ever eaten.

Obviously there was a lot of business to do, as is always the case when you visit 'home.' I learned all about how driver's licenses are made; how the passport office functions, how to tie a Rakhi; how to behave properly at a Rajput family gathering; and more.

It was a great month, filled with tons of relaxation, but now we return on the road. Next stop: Egypt!