Jess and Craig:

Hello Everyone!  Jess and I are in the very relaxed town of Dahab, Egypt.  We decided to come to Egypt a couple of weeks ago, being as how it was right on the way from Turkey to Tanzania, and is reputed to have some good falafel.  And world class diving.  And some pyramids.  So we hunted around the web and found an outfit that ran a pretty affordable program that started in Cairo, took us out to the Red Sea, and got us back to Cairo again with diving, hotels, pyramids, camel rides and transport included.  Not knowing our way around this neck of the woods,we decided that the package might be the way to fly.  So now we find ourselves dragging out of bed every day to go diving in the Red Sea and hang out around the pool, which is not getting old very fast.  The last few days have been pretty fun and interesting, so here is a rundown:

Sunday, May 24th:

We killed the morning knocking around Istanbul and made it to the airport for our flight to Egypt.  It only took two hours to get there, and the contrast from green Mediterranean Turkey and the desert of Egypt was immediately apparent.  Cairo is a city of thousands of brown mud brick buildings in the middle of the biggest desert I have ever seen, and the outskirts blend in seamlessly with their surroundings.  When we arrived at the airport, there was a dude from our tour company standing there with a sign.  He helped us through the visa line and put us in a cab straight to the hotel.  We were on our way into town about 10 minutes after we left the plane, and already getting used to having someone go through all the hassle for you!  Our hotel room in Cairo was deluxe, and we spent that evening meeting with the guy who was going to show us around the next day and taking it easy. 

Monday May 25th:

We started the day by heading straight to the National Museum, which houses all the Egyptian artifacts that were left after the Brits made their grab.  We were awe struck in Troy to think what people had achieved there so long ago, but Egypt blows that right out of the water.  There were all the sarcophagi and statues you would ever need to see, as well as mind blowing stuff like 2 story tallred granite columns that were carved in one piece 400 miles from Cairo and somehow brought up for some dudes tomb.  The most impressive thing was the contents of the smallish (by ancient Egypt standards) tomb of the young Pharoah Tutankhamun (King Tut), whose tomb was the only one discovered intact and unlooted.  The contents fill the entire top floor of the museum, and seem to go on forever.  It was a pretty great museum, but it was still a museum and we were psyched to get out ofthere and head to the Pyramids.  On the way, we stopped for lunch at an Egyptian perfume store, where they were making perfumes from flower essences in the same way Egyptians have done for 5000 years.  The proprietor was a tall, skinny, old Muslim dude with a smattering of about every language you could think of and a really entertaining sense of humor.  They had the modern world figured out, and were selling mixtures that provide the base for (or at least successfully knock off)just about any big name fragrance out there in undiluted form for what Jess told me (as she, like the 6 other people who were touring with usthat day, was getting sucked in to buying a bottle of her favorite) was really great price. 

Then came the pyramids, and they were truly amazing.  After seeing a million pictures, I sort of thought that they were going to be cool but nothing too surprising.  But I was wrong.  They were even more unbelievable than I expected.  They look like mountains on the horizon as you approach through the streets of Cairo, and it is really hard to wrap your head around the scale even when you are standing right amongst them.  The biggest is 450 ft tall and the base covers 40acres.  And though you aren't allowed to climb up to the top, access tote structures themselves is pretty unfettered and you can climb around on them.  Walking around the desert surrounded by these huge structures and older than anything you have ever seen is really a trip.  We also got to go inside the 2nd pyramid (you can go in the 1st too, but it costs 5x as much so we thought #2 was pretty good).  That was  a highlight.  You start at ground level and walk down a hot, stuffy,tunnel that is only 1 meter tall until you are 18 meters underground. Then you walk through a chamber that leads to another tunnel that goes back up and ends in the center of the pyramid at the tomb of the king. It was a crazy feeling to be in that room, under millions of tons of rock, that was in perfect condition and exactly as it was 4500 years ago (minus all the treasure and the dead king).  After a while, we reluctantly headed back out of the tunnels and into the desert air.  We drove a short way up to a high point with a view of all three pyramids in Giza, and then, in another highlight moment, we hopped on the backs of a 8 grumpy camels for a ride back to the pyramids.  It was an amazing day.

Our tour guide Hassim took us out to Egyptian dinner at a restaurant with a great pyramid view, and then the group split up. Jess and I, the only two divers, headed back to the hotel to await our midnight bus to the sea, while the others hopped on a train to begin their 2 week Egypt tour.  At midnight, a rep from the company took us to the bus station and literally put us in our seats on the bus before saying goodbye.  And we were off for the beach.

May 26th-

The night bus sucked, just like a night bus ought to, so when we arrived in Dahab (and got a ride right to our hotel by the guy who was waiting for us), we sacked out for a couple of hours before getting up and exploring town.  Dahab is a pretty small, low-key town perched on a bay of the Red Sea from where the hills of Saudi Arabia are easily visible across the water.  This was an old Bedouin village, and it is surrounded by a completely dry mountainous desert,making for a really striking contrast with the deep blue water.  We also hooked up with our dive guides and planned the next couple ofdays.  We are actually doing our Advanced diving certification while we are here, so we had to do a little homework while enjoying a beer (not easy to procure in this very Muslim land) on our patio by the pool. Then we ate a delicious Egyptian food dinner, walked along the rocky beach back to our hotel, and settled in to watch bad movies on TV before bed.

May 27th-

We went on 2 pretty cool dives this day.  The dives were pretty easy, but the sites were very beautiful.  We aren't seeing rays and sharks all over like we did in Thailand, but the water here is very clear and deep deep blue.  The coral are very brightly colored and beautiful, so the less frequent big fish sightings are made up for by the surroundings. 

May 28th-

3 more dives today, and two of them were absolutely amazing.  The first one is called the canyon.  You swim out of a coral bay and along sandy-bottom see with big coral boulders laying around and lots of fish (and a huge octopus changing colors under some coral was pretty cool) and then you arrive at the canyon. It is a hole in the ocean floor that drops down a narrow gorge full offish to a sandy bottom 100 ft deep.  If you are a serious technical diver with 4 tanks, you can follow the canyon out to see to an exit 250ft down.  If you are us, you then swim through a cave and up a narrower passage to pop out at the top again.  The second dive is called the Blue Hole, which is just that, a hole in the coral reef 300ft deep. The crazy thing is that it is right next to shore; a 6 year old could throw a rock into it from the road.  We started this dive a couple hundred feet up the coast by dropping head first down through a narrow chimney in the reef and popping out in the middle of a densely populated reef wall, looking up at 90 ft of crazy coral shapes above our heads.  We ended by swimming around the edge of the Blue Hole and got out right in front of the restaurant which served good food and watched our bags for us while we were down.  I think it was my favorite dive ever (out of all 20 that I have done).  The third dive of the day was a night dive, always a favorite of Jess and I.  Afterwards, we went out and ate Koshary, and Egyptian dish worth mentioning because it is so unique:  It is macaroni noodles, 2 different kinds of spaghetti noodles, 2 types of rice, chick peas, lentils, and tomato sauce all mixed together in a bowl.  We decided that "Koshary" must mean "leftovers" in Arabic.  It is definitely high on the fill-you-upscale, and with tea our dinner came to $1.80!

May 29th-

Today we pretended like we were on beach vacation (I guess we weren't really pretending).  We laid around on beach chairs and went snorkeling at acouple different spots.  It was a great lazy day.  But, we are makingup for it tonight.  At 11:00, we are catching a ride a couple of hoursnorth to climb Mt. Sinai.  It is reputed to be the spot where Moses gotthe Ten Commandments, and also the location of the burning bush (a 600year old monastery is built at that site, and we are going to get tocheck that out as well).  The idea is to start the climb in the middleof the night and be at the top for the sun rise.  Sounds good to us...we will let you know how it goes!

Take care, and keep in touch!