First Couple of Days in Dahab

I'm not sure if it's because we're at the beach, which is my favorite place on earth (doesn't matter where, just "the beach" somewhere....except maybe Galveston) or if Dahab really is that cool. As I mentioned in my previous post, our room is nice and really close to the beach. It's also only $25/night. Outside of Cairo, Egypt has been incredibly inexpensive....I kind of feel like we shouldn't leave.

Anyway, our location here is fantastic and Dahab is just a nice little beach town. We haven't quite figured out where everyone's from. It seems like maybe about a quarter Egyptian with the rest made up of Brits, Germans, French, Australians, and Americans. It also seems like a bunch came to visit and never left.


Even though the water is amazing, the beach itself isn't that great. It's rocky and littered with quite a bit of garbage. Diving and windsurfing are the main draws here. However, we went snorkeling right of the beach yesterday and the reef was absolutely beautiful. I've only been snorkeling in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, but those are supposed to be prime spots, of course. This definitely tops that. Yann is currently on his second dive of the day. He said the first one was pretty cool, but it wasn't that far from where we snorkeled yesterday. Right now, he's somewhere south of here.

The diving is also extremely reasonable. For that reason, Yann considered getting his rescue diver certification here, but in the end decided he wanted to just enjoy the pretty scenery. Also, since he just finished his advanced open water, he figured he didn't need all of his certifications to be back to back.

And, no, I am not planning to dive here. I'm not sure if more diving would make me more comfortable, but right now just the thought of going under with all of that gear makes me panicked. Luckily, Yann has made me feel better by saying that the snorkeling is so great that there's really no need to dive.


This morning, I wandered down to one of the resorts to see about kite surfing lessons. Unfortunately, the wind forecast doesn't look good until Tuesday. If I started then, I wouldn't get up on a board until Thursday and then we leave early on Saturday. For the cost and not being sure if I'd have the opportunity to try it again anytime soon, I think I'm going to skip it. However, I think I may take a windsurfing lesson or two. It's been almost twenty years since I've been on a windsurfer, but I figure it's less of a commitment than kite surfing!

They also have a bunch of yoga here. I've found a class for every day except Friday. I actually managed to drag Yann last night and it was beautiful. It was in the courtyard of one of the hotels. The teacher was from California and had been living in London when she visited Dahab and decided not to leave. I can definitely see the draw. The class started at dusk and by the end, we were under the stars. Gorgeous!