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 7: Gili Air

Gili Air is not the island we were meant for. The Lonely Planet all said that of the three Gili islands, this is the one that is the mix of being happening and being chill. I think we were in the mood for more chill. Thus we spent at least the first half of our tropical paradise beach moping! I blame it on lack of caffeine.

The Gili Islands really do have beautiful water. They don’t allow

vehicles on the island, so all you hear are the bells of the horse carts and the dings of rented bicycles passing you on the sand roads around the entire island. The water here is that true aquamarine colour of blue and is rich with sealife. The Gilis is also one of the world’s best and cheapest places to learn how to dive. Our hostel is clean –but for the most part, the people are a bit stuck up. We have hypothesized that most of its inhabitants are scuba divers doing their 2 month instructor training course. What we have witnessed across the island is that scuba folk all seem like cool folk, but birds of a feather who stick together. They also seem to speak this weird scuba tongue. You hear it all over the island.

However, the entire island is filled with restaurant upon restaurant, but there isn’t exactly beach. Each restaurant has its own beach, so it appears that to pick the beach, you pick the restaurant you want to patronage first. We walked a fair piece away from the crowd to find traditional Gili Air food and a great place to just get into the beach. The restaurants all have these raised ‘huts’, filled with a small raised table in the middle and cushions for you to sit on while you wait on the food.
And locals who love Bollywood! Pallavi is like an Indian superstar. Every place we’ve gone, when the local asks where Pallavi says, and she says India, they respond, “India, Atcha, Atchaaaaaa. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai?” Atcha = ‘okay/good’ and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is a popular 1990s movie. Then they start discussing some Bollywood thing or another, and instantly they are friends. I had no idea that Indonesians loved Bollywood like this! Now that woman’s music on the boat yesterday completely made sense!