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!