Egypt summer 2011, DAHAB part 1

The next morning it was time to leave from the hotel and get ready for Dahab. We left early to the airport which was so small! :D We were there around two hours before the departure of our flight. It would have been enough to be there only maybe 30 minutes before. There were only five desks to check in and only two of them were open. They opened up only one hour before the departure. When we finally were asked to come to the desk (there was basically no one else there), the desk said Alexandaria and we asked several times that they understood that we were going to Sharm El Sheikh. We didn't want our backs to go to Alexandria.. We sat and sat there waiting for our plane to leave which was late. Also at the board there was only a flight to Alexandria but the flight number was right. So we just hoped that we would get on to the right plane. Eventually it was time to board and the flight was ours. It said Alexandria because the same plane first flew to Sharm and dropped some people of and then straight continued to Alexandria.

At Sharm we got our backpacks and got ready to fight with the taxi drivers. I had heard that they could be really difficult there and ask ridiculous prices. We were supposed to take a taxi to a bus station to get a bus to Dahab. We were already a bit behind our schedule since the plane was late. Walking towards the taxi place I spotted this girl and a boy with backpacks also! I walked to them and asked them where they were headed: to Dahab! Immediatelly we decided to share a cab to there. They were this couple from Canada and they had taken time of from work to travel. They had saved money many months to do their trip for over 8 months! They had already travelled for six months. It was a bit surprising that the girl didn't speak that fluent English even though from Canada. Everything went really smoothly! We ended up taking a taxi towards Dahab for 100km and we were there already within about an hour or so. We paid 50 Egyptian pounds / head. If we would have taken a taxi to the bus station we would have only been at the bus station waiting for the bus to leave at the point when we were already in Dahab. They had some travel book with them so we got an opportunity to search some places to stay at in Dahab.

We got of from the taxi and we had no idea were to go. We split up with the Canadians and started walking to different directions. We had only walked about 50 metres when I spotted this swimming pool and hotel called Yasmina. We talked the price down and included breakfast to the price and finally agreed on staying there. We paid for 35 pounds / head for our own small room with a fridge. The swimming pool was the biggest condition for us since it was so hot! It was only maybe 4 metres from our hotel room door to the pool. ;) 

Dahab seashore

We left to walk around in Dahab to see it a bit and after walking over an hour we collided with the Canadians who still hadn't found any place to stay at.. We wondered it a bit since they seemed like really experienced travellers. Anyway, we only changed a couple of words with them and continued our walking. Dahab was really small or at least the tourist area was small. There weren't many tourists there at all. There also the men tried to get us buy stuff from their shops that we had to constantly walk pass. It was these quite narrow streets with shops on both sides we had to walk pass where ever in Dahab we went. After walking couple of times pass the shops most of the men gave up trying to get us to shop in their shops. We ended up booking a snorkling trip combined to some sightseeing oasis thing.

Yasmina hotel's pool

We also found an internert cafe really near our hotel. We went to eat at this cozy and cute restaurant at seashore. We came back to our hotel around 9 pm and decided to take a night swim at the pool! It was so relaxing and it was still warm both the water and the weather. Our hotel also had a billiard table so we played couple of games. 

Sunset in Dahab

Our first night at Yasmina hotel at 00.10 am..

The next morning we ate a good breakfast outdoors and got ready for the oasis and snorkling trip. We bought the trip from Agha Tours and our "tour" guy was Afifi. Afifi looked exactly like one man in Poros, Greece. Even Saija could see the similarity! We thought that Afifi was around 40-years-old, but he claimed to be born -87.. Well, it could be true since his talks weren't that adult.. While we waited for Afifi to come this young boy, selling glass bottles filled with different patterns made by sand, was shyly trying to talk with us. When Afifi came this boy said something to Afifi in arabic and the boy gave us each one glassbottle because he had thought that we were so beautiful. :D

We left to see the oasis or something like that with Afifi's jeep and he drove like crazy!! At some points it was really scary to sit in the front seat. Saija sat in the backseat or back"space" and I was worried that she might not hang on tight.. 

 

We finally got to the oasis and we were absolutely the only ones there! At first it was quite freaky just to be alone with Afifi there. The place was called Wadi Gunai and it is this oasis located south of Dahab with palm trees set againts the mountains. He told as that the word Gunai comes from the word "canal", refering to the canals and streams carved into the ground by the flood rains. Basically it was this valley surrounding by huge rock mountains. It was really hot in there! It was amazing how we could actually feel the sun burning! The valley was dead dry and there were still growing some palm trees. Afifi explained to us that sometimes (not every year) from mountains huge amounts of water stream to the valley and the water gets really high. On the ground we could see white lines of salt from the water. It was really difficult to walk on the little hills with flipflops, it was really slippery!

Driving away from the oasis. Scary ride. I was sure we were gonna hit some rock.

After surviving from the car ride you can see above we went to the Three Pools which is a famous snorkling place. There were maybe 4 people at the sight. "The name “Three Pools” was given because of the three small, shallow sandy pools that you dive through to reach the open sea. These three pools are maximum 3 meters deep and surrounded by spectacular coral walls." (seamore-travel)

We got the snorkling equipment from there. At first it was a bit difficult since there weren't small enough swimfins for my foot.. We enjoyed the sun and drank tea (like we did every where all the time). Afifi came with us to snorkle through the pools. Snorkling there was really cool, we could see lots of fishes and coral reef! We were back from the trip around 4 pm so the trip took four hours. 

 Saija can't get out of the water..

...

Then we hang around by the pool and I really tried to sunbathe myself! I didn't wanna go back to Finland being white after three weeks in Egypt were the weather was HOT! In the same hotel there was only one family besides us. But they weren't at the pool so we had it all ours. :)

By the pool there was also this mmm... dog house? Or something? It was too small for a dog to get in. And we didn't figure it out what was it. But we got a great laughs about it.

Yasmina hotel and our pool

Saija trying to figure out the dog house by getting inside..!?

In the evening we left to eat at the same place as yesterday since it was cosy and it was a cheap place. :) Before we stopped by the internet cafe and we had been in contact with the boys from WakeUp Cairo hostel and they happened to be in Dahab at the same time! They told us where most of them were staying at and we decided to go look for them after eating since Dahab was a small place.

The roof of the cozy restaurant

Full moon. On the same night there was a total lunar eclipse which was beautiful and it was really dark because there was no light from the moon

Dahab, taken from the restaurant's roof

The boys stayed at 7 heaven hotel which was popular among the backpackers. We found the boys from one restaurant and there were many other travellers with them. We saw the familiar faces from Cairo: Alain, Kurt, Greg and the Brazilian girl who left already the next day to continue her trip. There where some new faces: Norwegian guy Kjetil, Peter from the States, Egyptian guy Mo, one guy from Netherlands and one from Germany. We had such a great night! We hang at the seven heaven hotel's hangaround spot drinking beer. We told everyone about the cross Marc from Canada and how he had lied to everyone. Kurt and Greg also told us their youth stories how they both had done some stupid things.. We left to sleep around 1 am and ate healty evening snacks: soda, chips, nuts, bread and Nutella..

Saija: "Tomorrow I'm not gonna need a pre-breakfast before the actual breakfast since we eat stuff now.."
...the next morning I wake up when Saija is eating...