RAMBLINGS: Egyptian Holiday

Dahab

Shabby little hut - down by the sea

We arrived in a 33 degree heat @ 7.30pm at Sharm El Sheikh Airport. As we stepped off the plane the heat hit us. It was like stepping into an oven.

We had a 1 hour drive from the airport to Dahab. A long drive in the dark and all we could make out was the continuous hills and mountains on the side of the road. It was a bit confusing because they drive on the right hand side of the road, but of course like any taxi in Africa, they tend to drive on whichever side of the road they prefer. We stopped at one intersection and there was a rough shelter made of palm fronds, and in it were a couple of robe clad Egyptians sitting out in the cool of the evening drinking tea and chatting. It was a strange site to see in the middle of the desert. We also went through one road block, but were just waved on when the driver told them we were tourists.

On arriving at Dahab, the taxi took us along the beach front, driving on the beach sand to the Beach Retreat where we were welcomed by the houseman who showed us around.

Beachfront road

It is a real rustic beach house right on the water’s edge, however, it did have air-conditioning in the main bedroom which was most welcome.

Warm sea air and incense perfumed the air, it was so welcoming, like coming home. As the evening wore on it seemed to get even hotter and so we walked to the water’s edge and dipped our feet in to try and cool down.

View of the ocean

We decided to venture out and look for some dinner and bumped into a young Ukrainian guy walking along the shore, also in search of food. He showed us where the best value for money “restaurant” was. What an eye opener! It was like stepping into slum alley. The owner was very friendly and helpful but you could hardly call it a restaurant by any standards. It was more of a local tearoom on the pavement. The street was dirty and dusty and skinny cats prowled about under the tables looking for food. There were locals at one of the tables and they were throwing scraps of food to the scrappy cats, which of course only encouraged them. I think the cats also ate there every night; they seemed to be welcomed by all. The food, however, was okay and we were hungry and it was good value for money. For 25 EP each, we were each served a bowl of chicken soup, Bedouin bread, a bowl of rice, salad, bean and veggie Dahl and half a roast/barbecued chicken. It was very filling and left us plenty to take home in a kitty bag.

Goats trying to find some shade - in the middle of town

It was so hot and humid so we took a slow walk back to the house down the dark back alleys, cats following. We stopped to chat to the caretaker who had a carpentry shop around the corner. He makes some good stuff, chairs and tables etc, unfortunately nothing you could take home on the plane. Everyone seems to go to bed so late in Egypt, maybe its just the heat, I don’t know.

We sat out in the breeze for a while then went to bed in the room with the air-conditioner which kept us cool enough to fall asleep. It has been a very long day, and we just fell asleep on top of the bed wearing only panties and sarongs.

In the early hours of the morning we were awoken by the call to pray coming from a couple of mosques nearby. It sounded so mystical in the still dark morning, and Ash went off to pray.

It wasn't possible to sleep for much longer due to the heat, so we got up and had coffee and then plunged ourselves into the cool, blue Gulf of Aqaba. We were soon spotted by a little Egyptian boy, swimming in his undies. He laughed at us a lot, he must have thought these white ladies wallowing about on the reef were quite hilarious.

We shared an apple for breakfast as it was just too hot to eat anything more substantial. We then set off to look for some slip slops to swim in. We were met on the way by three little girls who “not so gently” tried to persuade us to buy their bangles, the same kind you can buy from any beach vendor in the world, but we did buy some anyway, they were excellent salesmen! They took us on a little tour of the town to show us the shops and of course the ATM so that we could pay them. They were so funny, they all held up their arms to compare our skin colouring and asked us which shade we preferred, and then told me that I was almost the same colour as them.

We explored some of the shops along the beach front and stopped off for cappuccinos before continuing to browse. All the locals are extremely persuasive when it comes to selling their wares, however, we managed to escape without spending too much.

We strolled back towards home, it was terribly hot, the sea shimmered like a mirage and you could just barely make out the mountains of Saudi Arabia on the distant shore. I had another swim to cool down, with my slip slops on my feet, it was a lot easier this time stepping over the rocks and over the reef onto the sandy bits.

We found Ralph’s German Bakery on the way and bought some rye bread, cheese and tomato for lunch. We followed this with a siesta outside on the day beds in the shade. Ash snuggled up with one of the stray cats that adopted us and I sat and wrote stories and did some sketching.

We awoke on Saturday morning with a welcome, howling wind blowing off the sea, however, it did little to cool us down.

Sunday morning arrived and along with it, a stomach bug which had Ash flat on her back, in-between running to the loo. The Egyptian bugs had got her, along with a raging temperature and aching bones. I left her to sleep and roamed along the beach front and did some shopping. All the shop keepers try to get you to buy from them by dragging you into their shops and inviting you for Bedouin tea. Once you have your tea, the bargaining starts until they have made a sale and you both walk away happy. The perfume dealer also offered me tea and then proceeded to pour perfumes all over my arms in an effort to get me to buy. They will even escort you to the ATM if you tell them you don’t have any cash on you. They will even walk you to the grocery shop to buy bread if you don’t know the way. And of course they all make you promise to come back and if you happen to walk past their shop a few days later, they come out to meet you and drag you in and remind you that you promised to come back.

Scuba divers

The way of life is so different here. The timing is so different. Shop keepers open their doors at 5.30am. The moon only starts rising up over the sea after 11pm, and men in white robes sit on the beach talking in the coolness of the evening until well after midnight, some sleeping on the beach over night. They also come down to the beach in the heat of the day to sit or lie in the shady places under thick blankets and rugs, which I found really strange.

By Monday, Ash was still sick and we had run out of drinking water and there was no water in the taps either. So off I went to visit the caretaker and got him to fix the house water and gave him 7 EP to deliver 5 litres of bottled drinking water. I went to the local pharmacy to buy some stomach medicine for Ash. Of course it was so beastly hot that I returned with my shopping and relaxed for the rest of the day, dipping into the sea every now and then to cool down. Ash spent most of the day lying on one of the day beds on the shady verandah.

We realised that we had to be very careful with what food we could eat as hygiene didn’t seem to be a priority here and even though the food looked nice and appetising, the kitchens that it was prepared in weren't necessarily clean. The most normal food I could find for breakfast was a loaf of seed bread from the German bakery, a tin of tuna and a bottle of mayonnaise. Also because of the incessant heat, I bought some Sprite which really went down well.

I found it funny that although this is Africa, there were very few locals who knew about South Africa. The perfume dealer of course told me that he knew all about “Bafana Bafana”(with a huge grin on his face) and proceeded to speak to me in Afrikaans! I was amazed, but then he told me he had made friends with some regular Dutch visitors and they had taught him some Dutch and Afrikaans. I thought that if that is all they know of South Africa, and with “Bafana Bafana” being one of the worst soccer teams in the world, they obviously don’t have a very high opinion of us. A few even remarked that they hadn’t realised that there were whites in South Africa.

By Tuesday, Ash was feeling a bit better and so we decided to do some shopping. Ash was much better at bargaining them me, even to the point where she was told by one shop keeper that she needn't be so rude to him. It seems that the more you are prepared to buy from them, the better price you get overall. When Ash sat down to begin haggling, out came a bottle of coke and an ashtray for me. They have no smoking restrictions here at all. We detected the aroma of dube in the air most places we went to. I don’t think it was the locals, probably the tourists.

By this stage, we had hardly eaten any proper solid food, so decided to chance it and found a cleanish looking restaurant and treated ourselves to cheese burgers. After all the long walks in the blistering sun, I treated myself to a Heineken, my first beer in a very long time. It went down so well and so quickly.

We only ate half our burgers because we couldn’t really identity the meat. It was a dark brown/grey colour and tasted slightly perfumed like boerewors. The only livestock I had seen roaming around had been chickens, goats, camels, cats and dogs. No cows! So we gave the rest of our burgers to the starving cats. They didn't even hesitate, they even ate the buns and lettuce and tomato, so hungry they were.

We haven’t seen a single cockroach, fly, gecko or rat since we've been here. I think the cats and dogs eat them if there are any. It seems strange not to find any in such a hot climate. The wind, however, is still blowing and keeping us cool.

In the afternoon I decided to walk to the water’s edge and dip my feet in the water to cool down. I had only been standing in the water, ankle deep, for a few minutes when I felt something tickling my foot. When I looked down there was a beautiful brown spotted octopus that had wrapped itself around my ankle. I got such a fright and so did he, and off he dashed into deeper waters. This little calamari nearly had me for dinner!

We decided to join the locals this evening and so took a rug down to the water’s edge and lay under the stars waiting for the moon to rise. The cool breeze coming off the ocean was absolute heaven. One of the fishermen pushed his little motor boat out and off he went further up the reef. A small light glowed in the dark and the engine putted quietly in the distance. Ash saw a shooting star and made a wish. There was no moon yet. It was only midnight, perhaps there was no moon tonight, or maybe it would rise later. The moon eventually appeared over the mountains at about 3am.

We awoke on Wednesday to a perfect day. Not a breath of wind and the sea cool and refreshing and as smooth as glass. We went for an early swim and walked along the shore to look for shells. There was no sign of Mr Calamari today, Hamdoullah!, but we did see a lot of brightly coloured little fish and a small eel which was very pretty. I found a chart of the Red Sea fish and what we saw were Pomacanthus imperator – Emperor Angelfish; Caphalopholis argus - Peacock rock cod; and also the banded brittle star fish of which there are hundreds lurking under the shallow rocks and in crevices. The star fish looked like five legged spiders creeping around the rock pools.

Star fish

We went to “Friendz” restaurant for supper tonight. It had a lovely atmosphere and décor, but so many cats! They even give the patrons a plastic water bottle for squiring water at the cats to keep them off the tables. We decided that fish would be our safest option and so had Sea Bass, stuffed with garlic and herbs. It was delicious, but as soon as we had reached home, Ash had to make a run for the toilet again. It was such a hot evening that we didn’t sleep much.

Youness arrived in the morning, looking very much the Arab; needless to say Ash was as happy as can be. She was still unwell, however, so I took him for a walk to the shops and showed him where the mosques were.

It was so good to have Youness join us for a few days. We had good food, professionally cooked and artistically presented and no more running to the toilet!