Dahab

We spent the one year anniversary of the Egyptian revolution in Dahab – a sleepy town of 3000 people on the Red Sea, actually on the Sea of Aqaba.  The Red Sea is pretty narrow here and you can see the mountains of Saudi Arabia in the distance – pretty cool. Restaurants line the seafront and people walk out from the store fronts just behind with their scuba gear and disappear under the water as we have our breckfast.

Okay, so the Red Sea is not called the Red Sea because it is red. I guess this seems obvious, but I was wondering… We all looked hard and saw a bit of a red tinge, must have been our imagination. Some say it’s a typo in translation from the “reed sea”, some say there are periodic blooms of cyanobacteria with a reddish pigment, others say its due to the fiery sunrises an sunsets and others say red means south, like black means north as in Black Sea.

The Red Sea is the beginning of the Great Rift Valley that lies between Africa and Asia and runs the length of Africa. Ruby- The red sea it is very deep, it is 8200 hundred feet in one location!!!

It is a very relaxing place we have to say. Cairo is all about the destination, in Dahab, its all about the journey.

Whataya think? Looks like our kind of place. 

We had breakfast every morning on the beach at the ‘Same Same But Different’ restaurant. We made friends with Amira and Jasmine who sold us bracelets on our first day and continued to try and sell us bracelets, several times a day, for the next 3 days. Needless to say we have lots of souvenirs.

Dahab is a Bedouin village. What that means to me is that you sit on pillows  and rugs on the floor  and eat from low tables and sip tea.  Cats are everywhere and you sometimes have to fight them for your dinner. They are very good and very sweet thieves. Paul looks like he belongs here...

Ruby, Katie and Paul having lunch at the Friends restaurant. The real star of the show is hibiscus tea, Ruby’s new favorite!  We bought some in the market in Aswan and Ruby has been making it for us every night! Well for me any way!!!!

Ruby: the cat stands proud and poses for us. Katie: the cats come close and close their eyes or nearly so. Submissive…polite, making friends. But when the food arrives you gotta watch out cause they are sneaky fast. I grabbed my omelet out of a kitties mouth one morning…I don’t’ think she expected me to take snatch it back. She seemed duly ashamed, but it was hard to be mad.

Katie - Egypt is one place that cares about its lights. Street lights, house lights, ceiling lights – I have been amazed by the variety in this place. I think the lights of Egypt deserve their own blog.  

Ruby - they make the best lemonade in Dahab!

 Looks like a rough night on the beach for some local dogs!

Ruby -  the cats hear a noise and look at the same time is it something dangerous? Oh, it’s just the waiter bringing us breckfast.

Ruby plays on the shore at sunset.

Ruby: How dare she give me bunny ears!! Maybe it’s just a peace sign. My last day in Dahab and getting my picture taken with my friend Ferial. I will miss her so much. Katie: We picked our hotel because it looked kid friendly in the photos. Little did I know that all the kids in the website photos were the owners’. Ruby had fun running around with them, playing pool and helping sweep up the bougainvillea flowers in the courtyard.