Christmas in Egypt

Many of my friends were wondering, before I left to Egypt, why the hell I'm going to Egypt for Christmas?! Well... why not? :-) Worst thing could happen (in Islamic country) I'll get rid of Christmas for one season. Was a low probability though. And why? First of all... Originally planned plane to Sharm was full, so apparently there are many people going to Egypt for Christmas holiday, second, Egyptians would do everything for tourist market. And that is what happened in the end.

Christmas: A celebration of humanity dating back thousands of years. It originated as a pagan celebration of the birth of the Sun, as it was celebrated on the winter equinox, and after that point, days got longer. When the Catholics/ Christians took over these pagan peoples, they replaced their holiday with their own Birth of the Son, (as in of God) to make the transition to Christianity's traditions easier. We Czech are not celebrating with Santa (yet) so I won't go any further on that. It's just celebration of the birth of Jesus.

Jesus was born between years 10 and 5 BC and no one is much of to be certain if it was in Bethlehem or Nazareth or in vicinity. And he was born in summer! :-) The idea of giving then comes from The Story of Three Kings, magi from the East, who foretold the birth of King of Kings and came sometime between true birth of Jesus and moment when he was like 2 years old already. Much later the Christmas tree came and the other stuff all we know. Those two related stories made the way ready for all the funny stuff about Christmas celebration – means IF Christmas are about comercionalism or religion.

For more precise information on that, please refer to one of the articles about “Christmas topic” at urbandictionary.com:

1. n. The holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Falling conveniently on the 25th of December, supposedly declared by the Catholic Church to eclipse a Pagan holiday (winter solstice) on the same day.
2. n. A heart touching season where gift giving is promoted, and Santa Claus is every youth's hero. Other Christmas icons include: reindeer, snowmen, elves, presents, pine trees, ornaments, tinsel, holy, yule logs, sleighs, mistletoe, carols, noel, angels, golden rings, calling birds, french hens, turtledoves, birds in fruit-bearing trees. 

In my family for many generations the most important day of Christmas is the 24^th. And from that (of course) the evening – Christmas Eve dinner and the giving ritual which strictly follows. Since very morning though everyone's trying to get busy to shorten the waiting. So I have been spending 100 % of those days watching fairytales nonstop and that done it for me. How to spend my (means 24^th ) Christmas Day in Egypt? And in Dahab? By snorkeling of course!

Original plan was to go to St. Katherine by morning bus on that day. Plans break often in Egypt, so very soon after my arrival I realized public bus going every morning at 9:30 from Dahab to St. Katherine was canceled for good. No wonder considering the fact that last time (2006) I was alone on that bus with its driver. Three other alternatives left are:

Hitch-hiking: unpractical from Dahab just for the reason one has to go pretty far from the town itself and it is uncertain IF someone would pick me. No “normal” people are going that way. Mostly mini-buses with tourists or just everything pre-payed-by-tourists related.

Taking a taxi: totally lame, while it costs 250 EL. That's it.

Booking a spot with a group going to St. Katherine for a Mt. Sinai climb and monastery visit, which was 60 EL for that one-way trip and no bargaining possible (that I knew from last time).

Obviously I took the last choice. No trips to St. Katherine are organized on Friday morning because monastery is closed. Man! There are Christian monks inside and they're closed on Muslim holiday (Friday instead of Sunday)? I was left with another day down in Dahab with a perspective to leave sometime before midnight. And what better to do than visit the reef just one more time? Unfortunately wind was still blowing hard. Man! I never experienced such a throw on the reef before :-) It's a nice way to spend the time before evening, like instead of TV watching the RL fish.

Evening came and eventually the time of Christmas Eve diner. Funny Mummy! First thing that was certain at that moment was, I was right with Christmas in Egypt! Well it actually was certain already at my first day there because of all those Christmas decorations at many beach clubs and shops on the main street. But this no one expected. All personal was zooming through Funny Mummy with Christmas hats like little dark Santa's Elves, well... all except the two bosses, they apparently could afford that :-) . And it was full! Almost.

How is it actually with Christmas celebration in Egypt? There are Christians in Egypt for sure. There is Coptic Church, which is the oldest one of them all. I'm not sure of that but I guess they're celebrating Christmas according to Julian calendar, then that would be only at the start of January next year. Wast majority though are Muslims. And they don't believe in Jesus. Well they do, but only as in one of many prophets, an awesome one, still one of many. They believe in Mohammed. There's no reason for them then to celebrate Christmas at all as we (people from Christian culture) do in the first place.

I was wondering if they do something for Mohammed at least. And they do! It is called Mawlid an-Nabi and it is a celebration of the birth of Mohammed. The earliest accounts for the observance of Mawlid can be found in 8th century Mecca, when the house in which Mohammed was born was transformed into a place of prayer by Al-Khayzuran (mother of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth and most famous Abbasid caliph). The start of the tradition is then actually pretty much closer to the actual event compare with Christmas and the birth of Jesus. First thing about Mawlid is, they are still uncertain IF to celebrate it or not. Part of scholars believe it's against the law (Qu'an) and Mohammed's will. But as for any other people, same for Muslims, any excuse for a party is good enough. So they party. And traditional Christmas are nothing compare to Mawlid. Crowds in the streets, all chearing, celebrating, praying... Mawlid falls in the month of Rabi' al-awwal in the Islamic calendar, for Shias on 17^th of that month, for Sunnis on 12^th. For 2010 in our (Gregorian) calendar it is on Feb 26 or Mar 3 (respectively) and for 2011 Feb 15 and Feb 20. We are two months off then and no chance to do any joined celebration yet. Because Islamic year is a bit shorter than Gregorian year, there is a chance to do it in few years though :-)

Back to Christmas in Egypt again. It is pure touristic thing after all how it seems and from my perspective they do it too much American-style. Fortunately I didn't cross any building or beach restaurant equipped with Rudy pulling Santa's sleigh, that would totally done it for me! Christmas trees (even palms) with lights were abundant, glass balls (even with lights inside) too, shiny letters at all possible spots wishing “Merry Christmas” and so on. And in the end – the hat thing at Funny Mummy's.

My favourite waiter in Mummy (the guy you see on the photo with a shisha for me) unfortunately wasn't equipped with his hat. The first thing we were all asking him for the reason and it didn't seem to make him much happy. I guess he was one of bosses in staff so he could actually afford not to wear it. Anyway, after many tries we talked him into it just for the fun of it and to take some pictures.

Christmas Eve's menu was no different from the normal one so Christmas chicken kebab on my plate. We heard though that at some restaurants they're planning special Christmas dinners for guests for insanely high prices (dealing even with turkey and such stuff – totally American again). A good Sakara beer to that and of course a shisha or two to finish the feeling of evening Egypt.

I was told to wait in BishBishi for the departure with my group to St. Katherine so I did it. Other guys went to The Bridge and to old part of Dahab Village for some time and came back later. In meantime Lizzie and Becca came storming in at BishBishi in a good-party-mood with airballoons, the appearance was one of a really great party. Bad thing for me I had to stay on the spot. The thing is, if Egyptians tell you “departure at 11 pm” it could pretty much be at 10 or 12 or vice versa. I'm screwed :-( No wild Christmas party in Dahab for me this year. The cure was few bottles of Rumo Masry after guys came back to camp. Actually I'm not sure how many, the true is, I can't remember much of the first half of Mt. Sinai climb much later.

Bus went on few minutes before midnight and (again) plans are changing. I WAS really ready to go right to the Farag's Camp after we'd arrive to St. Katherine, in those 90 minutes I changed my mind. I payed 60 EL for the trip after all and none from those local guys going with us seemed to have any idea about that, no need to mention the Bedouin guide waiting for us at the monastery. I took my chance then to take the climb and get more stuff from the money I payed. I was ready to go to Mt. Sinai anyway, but alone and during next day. This new choice meant no sleep for me at all and huge crowds at the top. That's coming next though.

What's good on celebrating Christmas in Egypt then? Or in Dahab to be more exact? Because Dahab is not really classical Egypt. I could imagine the way Christmas (even for tourists) go in Cairo or Alex or even Sharm could be quite different. But temperatures about 25 degrees all day, not under 15 degrees during night, a chance to decorate your own Christmas palm tree, to spend all day before Christmas Eve in the sea, some wild parties during the evening and night. It's a win-win situation. The Christmas palm tree is the most awesome thing for me! FTW!

Next time: Speaking with Moses (on Christmas)

Cats in Egypt

This was an obvious topic, because if you’ve ever visited Egypt, you know they are just everywhere. Cat is a classic here since the ancient Egypt, although I doubt the main reason for Egyptians these days actually is a show-off for the tourists.

I mean… all those people here seem so proud of ancient Egypt heritage, they are selling fake statues and papyrus and charging you insane money for anything connected with that period… and those how left it here for them are not even their ancestors! We can presume at least they have few common genes because everywhen anyone conquers some land it’s inevitably followed by mixing gene information inbetween conquerors and those conquered. Does this help?

Second possible explanation is those guys here’re just turning everything into money. Anything what can produce money is good enough. And they’re getting better and better in it! I bet they’re even making money with stuff, which by rules of economics can’t do that. Why not to turn cats to a profitable item, much better even, not by selling them but only by showing them off :-). And just all those cats here really look like ancient Egypt cats you see on papyrus or drawings inside pyramids or temples. Thin, longlegged, with almond-shaped eyes and long pointy noses.

As good as it sounds my best guess is a reason quite different. And (of course in Arabic country) more practical: cats hunt. I never saw a cat in Egypt to hunt anything different from some tourist’s dinner or trash, but because of a fact Egypt’s large cities are not drowning with rats and mice (and count bugs in too), I think they hunt them too.

Someone sometimes in past decided that cat is good to keep around your house to limit that ill stuff. It might be even those ancient Egyptians with who Arab Egyptians have nothing in common (except few genes). I mean… there’s to be something behind the fact they worshiped them (almost) like a deity. Cats were always difficult to keep around. They just ain’t dogs. I bet they didn’t change through the ages and they listened to food during ancient times as well as these days. The worshiping thing is just another level. Much later it changed and nowadays those cats are difficult to keep off. It is much easier for men to get any food after all. Egyptians seem not to care about the fact that much and they’re drowning in cats rather than rats. We (cat-lovers) don’t mind at all.

So there’re cats in streets, there are cats in restaurants, cats in shops, sometimes there’s a random cat in your bed… when you sit somewhere there are cats jumping on you almost instantly… Just use your imagination and anything pops on your mind there’s a cat in it, at it, on top of it or at least around it in Egypt. If you happen not to be a cat-lover, well, don’t go to Egypt. Or just stay in a 5-star hotel in Cairo and pray (whatever religion you are) :-)

There are like 15 cats in Bishbishi somewhere close around you all the time (for any reason good enough for any and each of them). Some only for feeding reasons, some even just to get a hug. Starting with cute little male-cat we call John, who is the biggest hugger of them all, at the end with an obviously pregnant black female-cat that we named just “a hole in space” which is insanely fast with stealing food from people’s dishes and right now she just decided to sit on / next to me as I’m writing this.

I think I did not see anyone (during those few days) who would really mind any cats here in BishBishi. People are just trying to protect their food from time to time and avoiding at least those cats that look really ill and bad. Actually it is not hard to keep cats off you in case you don’t have any food at the moment (and vice versa).

In Funny Mummy, which through those 3 years of its existence became one of the most famous restaurants in Dahab, there are like 5 major cats (I guess). I don’t know if they’re not getting mixed with neighbour cats from neighbouring restaurants, but considering cats as very territorial animals, I bet it is working that way in this case too and they’re not. Mummy is a lay-down restaurant (as any other on the beach here in Dahab) so your food (if it’s not on your knees or something) is on a table approx. 30 cm high. It is a convenient height for you to eat - I’d say - “Roman style”, means like half sitting / half lying down, as we know from ancient Rome. And it is also a convenient height for cats both hide under it and easily reach on it. Hard to say if there are some really annoying cats in other restaurants around, but in Mummy I never had a problem with too much pushy cat. More to that everyone gets “a gun” on the table, which is a plain sprinkler filled with water. Yesterday I saw one cat who did not mind that at all, giving a hard time to a diligent waiter.

What is the funniest thing about cats in Funny Mummy (and they could easily rename so) is the environment itself. Some of the tables are on lower ground some on higher one, there are few spots with growing date palm trees and few other bushes around. Laid down palm tree logs and pillows have to be taken into account. That, all together, makes literally a jungle for the cats to hunt in. All the time you can observe some cat hiding under the table or inside a bush around growing date palm trees or speeding around tables jumping through gaps between pillows and guests trying to avoid restaurant’s personal with an awesome skill. I think National Geographic should definitely do a documentary about that! “A Life of a Restaurant-Jungle Cat”.

A word of caution: you cannot experience this kind of fun with cats anywhere in Egypt, try to visit some smaller place, not a mil-pop-city.

A note about dogs:

Dogs are unlucky critters in Islamic countries, because Mr. Mohammed once (very long time ago) decided they are dirty and not good to touch if you wanna preserve your good health and they’re just screwed from that moment. There are many dogs to see around, everyone’s just handling them as trash. They’re handling street-cats as trash as well, but like kinda more precious trash :-) Simply to say, as a Muslim, you just don’t wanna keep a dog around. That’s a bad idea.

It is much the same as with pigs. In their case though, Muslims are those unlucky just for not to be able to enjoy the taste of pork. Decided is decided, screw the modern era!

Sleeping with the Fish

There are many lessons to learn for your life. Especially when spending the holiday with random people. Note to self then: “Never, I repeat, never party with Germans again!” At least for this very day :-).

Monday evening started as usual in Funny Mummy with dinner, beer and shisha (in that order). And just because one bottle of Egyptian Rumo (the 30 % one) costs the same as a bottle of beer with same amount of liquid but definitely lower on alcohol, it’s still the best choice (for a budget drinking). This time I decided the level of Bacardi inside bottle of my own is awfully high and shared my wealth. English girls came during early evening with two German-speaking guys (well one is from Switzerland and one of the girls is definitely Scottish and they are extremely easy to get offended if you mess it) and soon parts of the night got blurred. Local liqueur shop (# 1) is close, Rumo Masr easy to obtain and we call those refilling trips a “Rum Run” (it sounds really cool). During one rum run we were coming back with the refill and suddenly… Just hard to believe your own eyes… a huge camel in middle of the street getting his/hers dinner from a big trash-can. Now that clearly is not an every day experience! Especially when drunk :-) The camel was really pissed off and scared same time. And you just don’t wanna mess with 4-legged animal which standing on all four is still much higher then you (not speaking with its weight) and the drunk part does not helping at all. BUT… we had lot of fun chasing a camel through Dahab’s main street and taking some pictures.

I really can’t tell what we decided to do after midnight but because we left downtown, I think the general idea was to visit some of many clubs in Dahab. Nevertheless ended up in a house rented by those German guys.

There’s both, a bright and a not so bright (or even dark) side of the fact there’s a time-stamp attached to every picture taken by a digital camera. So it helped me next day with a time I came back to BishBishi. And, hell, it was 5 am!

Anyways… way before that I woke up. Half past 11 :-) With a really bad hangover and after much less sleep than I usually need. The feeling actually helped me with the idea that I want to get into water finally today.

Tuesday then:

Tuesday started long before that with the camel chasing experience. But the original plan was some snorkeling so let’s do it.

Snorkeling is only way I know to actually experience the feeling of flying without taking a free fall at the same time :-) Except the awesome view on a very different kind of landscape if you know some nice and good reefs, the flying itself already is worth doing it. And on my Why-to-Visit-Dahab-Over-and-Over Chart snorkeling has second position.

There are quite a few diving/snorkeling spots worth visiting both north and south from Dahab City and some of them even right at it. You can borrow a snorkeling set almost anywhere throughout Dahab if you happen not to have one of your own, in BishBishi now there’s a serf-yourself rack with a sign saying “10LE” so I spared me the trouble of bargaining with someone about that.

Personally my favourite side is The Islands. Only 1,5 km walk along the shore from BishBishi and reef itself is really multicolored with lot of life around. I visited it all my 3 times in Egypt (that is 2006 at the very start of April, 2008 like mid-may and now just before the Xmas) and it was different each time.

First time I was just stunned by the view. I mean… everything looks awesome on TV so your general expectation is it’s not so awesome in reality. This was. Looking back on it with a perspective now, there wasn’t that many fish on the reef that time but we managed to see almost all the “must-to-see” ones. It is like if you’re on a safari trip in Africa and you wanna see all the Africa’s Big Seven. There are all those famous species all people know from “Finding Nemo” movie, of course a Lion Fish, Eel, Parrot Fish, Blowfish etc. (try to avoid sharks if possible).

Second time I visited both The Islands and The Lighthouse sides. Lighthouse was really overcrowded because of season already kicking off (and many local children were playing there) so I stack to Islands again. Not such a blow anymore and all the experience was spiced by huge number of plastic bags flowing all around me. First of all when touched by those it’s hart to make a difference between a plastic bag and a jellyfish which might freak you out a bit over and over again… and last but not least… it’s nothing pleasant about swimming covered by plastic bags, not to mentioning them getting into your view.

I think considering the number of fish I saw (not taking their biodiversity in account) this time is way the best visit. On a second thought, it might be even the highest number of species seen for me, I’m just keep missing those famous ones. After a long search I saw a Lionfish (at the very same spot as in 2006) but no hope for Nemo (Clownfish) or Blowfish (which is a pity).

Anyway… it is not the last day here for me and I still might get myself cheered up with another Rum Run this evening.

Then there is the weird tide-thing. I mean… I know the theory, right? I’m an astronomer too.

Here you go: Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth. Most coastal areas experience two high and two low tides per day. The gravitational effect of the Moon on the surface of the Earth is the same when it is directly overhead as when it is directly underfoot. There’s more to find in any pedia but this enough for theory. The thing in Dahab is high tide just does not listen to Moon at all! The was a total Moon’s eclipse on 21^st early morning (unfortunately too late to be seen from here), which means full moon and which also means for Moon to be on his highest point sometime around midnight. One would thing the high tide would just listen to Moon and to happen both around midnight and next noon. Totally NOT!

Why would I even bother myself with all those tides? The thing is I think it’s much better to go snorkel during high tide rather than the low one. Much of the reefs here are pretty much shallow and you can barely swim upon them during low tide. First thing I’m trying to find out is when the hell the high tide is happening just by checking out the shore few times during my first day here. Apparently the tide is working quite the opposite way around here. My best guess these days for the high one is like at 6 give or take. Totally wrong! Well considering the Moon’s position in the sky. More theory: we are quite deep inside the thin Gulf of Aqaba between Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia so it just might take a while for all the water to flow in and out each time from the Red See. You can completely forget the Moon in that case and you’re stuck with pure observation again :-) No tide will just listen your needs!

Next part: Finding Nemo

You can refer to more pictures we took around Dahab in 2006 here

Blowing With the Wind

It’s a great feeling to wake up in the morning on Monday and to be able not to care about that. With a bit hangover from last night the fresh air is only two meters away through the door so why not to spend few hours just by sitting down under date palm trees on some pillows and enjoy the fact I have nothing to do.

And what is a great tool to make this feeling even better? Shisha!

Water pipe is and ancient device of Orient making which ancientnessness could be shadowed only by it’s awesomenessness!

You just can’t avoid them in Egypt. They’re everywhere. On the streets in shops for you to buy, in coffee shop for both you and locals to smoke them together in traditional way, in every restaurant. And in Bishbishi. I know only about two Islamic countries in which it is hard to find any water pipes.

First of those is Morocco. I actually don’t know why is that but my personal opinion is that the King is somehow against this non-healthy bad habit and his citizens, by which he’s so loved, are making it happened, obviously without any resistance (or much of it). Altogether I spent in Morocco almost 50 days and through all that time I saw one local person smoking a water pipe. And he was squeezed into the deepest corner of one of many coffee shops like he was doing something illegal (and maybe he did). In 2007, when we decided to buy some tobacco in Meknes and we couldn’t find any, we just asked a guy in one shop. He said something in Arabic, went off and after like 5 minutes he came back with a black plastic bag with 4x 50g packages and he even didn’t allow us to take them out. Like it was some kind of contraband (and maybe it was). Two years later in Marrakech those little boxes were sold openly in some shops selling cigarettes. Apparently business for tourists is little bit more powerful than the will to please your king. Still you can’t experience in Morocco the same thing as in other Arabic countries, to visit a coffee shop or restaurant and get yourself a water pipe traditional way.

The second country is Turkey, where only recently Parliament came (for no apparent reason) with a strict law forbidding smoking in restaurants and coffee shop. In contrast with Morocco, citizens of Turkey obviously don’t love their authorities so much and they are actually protesting. Let’s say the reason was to get closer to EU somehow, unknown is if the outcome was not much more drastic for locals than for relations with EU.

As time passes I’m learning many names different cultures use for a water pipe. Strange thing is, sometimes they can’t understand each other by using those different names :-)

In Czech Republic most commonly we just call it “a water pipe”. In Egypt you can come across term “Shisha” or “Sheesha” or any other version of that same pronounciation. Americans call it “Hookah” which, by the way, is the original name for the one type of water pipe most common in Orient, the standing-on-a-table one. And they know why they’re doing it because it’s the best way to distinguish it from “a Bong”, which is different type of water pipe (the holding-in-your-hands-while-used one) most commonly used to inhalate different stuff than tobacco. And only two days ago I met two guys from South Africa here and apparently they’re calling it “Hubbly Bubbly”. That would make Edvin Hubble so happy!

Anyway, if you want to get a shisha for your own home pleasure (or just to fill a spot at your place with a nice traveler’s trophy), there’s not better place than Egypt to get it. And to get it cheap there’s no better place in Egypt than Khan Khalili marketplace in Cairo. That fits also for the fuel you might want for your new toy – tobacco. For normal-sized Egyptian shisha (which in Czech Republic we call XXL for some strange reason), means about a meter high in total, 30 cm of which is the vase itself, you are asked about 400 to 500 EGP and if you make it down to 150 or even less be sure the shop owner still ripped you off your skin. Considering the fact same shisha bought in Central Europe would cost you approx 1400 EGP with no chance to bargain about it, that’s still totally awesome for you. See? You’re both happy! Greatness of Egyptian shopping.

So if you chose your new shisha to actually be you new toy and not only a traveler’s trophy you wanna get some fuel too. In 2006, my first time in Egypt and first time at Khan Khalili most of us were shopping n00bs. But we got to know the huge advantage of actually learning Egyptian numbers prior to the trip (which, I guess, is the thing many Egyptian businessmen won’t even consider). The price offer on 250g package was 10 EGP and we like knew we could take it down like to 5. Then at one moment we saw numbers on the package saying 3.50. Well you have no idea what that mean but you can always try. We just said to the shop owner there’s a price attached on the package and we want it for that price, it actually worked and I came back from Egypt with 5 kgs of shisha tobacco for awesome price. Next time I came upon the same shop again and without letting any chance for the owner to start bargain with me I told him “last time here 3.50 EGP, now I’ll give you 5 EGP. The guy was so stunned he just nodded and I came back from Egypt with another 3 kgs of shisha tobacco (actually with variations in exchange rates between EGP and CZK for same price as before in CZK). Well now something to compare… If you come upon a shop at the Egyptian airport, which is most common for better part of tourists, you pay 1 USD for anything between one 50g package and all set 12x of those (differs with you luck). In US you would pay 20 USD in internet shop for one 250g package. In Czech Republic the rate is about 7,50 USD for a 50g and 34 USD for 250g. One doesn’t have to be an Einstein to see how much you’d have to stock on tobacco during your Egypt trip (actually Einstein sucked at math if you didn’t know that). In Morocco we paid like 3,30 USD for one 50g package with no chance to bargain (was Nakhla, the most common Egyptian tobacco).

And there’s no better experience than to visit some local coffee shop full of local people and to get at least one shisha session with them. Be careful though with the tobacco, because sometimes you’ll come upon the plain black one which is a “brain-hammer”. That’s why for squishy tourists they have smoother flavored one, mostly fruity :-)

It Blows

Lonely Planet says: “Dahab is one of most relaxed destinations in Egypt” and it’s so true… That’s why I keep coming and that’s why they are doomed to my presence. They really don’t mind because the traditional Egyptian welcome-greeting “Hello Money!” still works, although they won’t say it aloud.

Jimmy (the owner of BishBishi Garden Village Camp and master of marketing approach) welcomed us and he seemed very happy we (moneyz) had come :-)

The camp got a bit bigger again since last time but Jimmy got rid of his mid-price-range hotel cross the street both with Funny Mummy restaurant for some reason. Better for us he came back to take care of BishBishi more. Well, second hand information is he still owns 20 % of Mummy restaurant and he’s working on the hotel, you can’t be sure about anything in Egypt.

First thing you wanna do here after you get the keys from your room is not unpack but to just sit down and enjoy the atmosphere.

The arrival (thanks to earlier bus at 7:15 am) was at 15:30, that makes more time to have fun. Never experienced winter time here so darkness at 5 pm is a bit of a surprise. More time for evening Dahab then. Streets are deserted (speaking about tourists) but we can be almost sure it’s the season.

And there’s some new stuff again of course: first of all Dahab had grown again a bit with new resorts and houses and other concrete buildings just to be pushed again a bit (wrong way) closer to look like Sharm or Hurgada. Downtown remains the same. Some shops closed permanently, some new grew on their place.

Speaking about empty streets… Normally they’re filled with Russians. Well Russians are just everywhere nowadays but Egypt or Sinai to be exact is some kind of special place for them. And they have money. And quite a lot of them. There’s a good side and there’s a bad side considering deserted streets during this season. Dahab is now even more relaxing place. Not for shop owners though. They’re just freaking out. Literally. If you ever thought you’ve got bothered by a pushing businessman in Islamic country you really have not! At least comparing with this situation :-). Just put your smile on and keep walking.

Sunday:

I’m here to chill, not to freak out. Most important thing then is not to rush. Instead to slowly adapt. I decided to walk along the shore prior to borrow any snorkeling gear, just to check the weather and water. And man! It really blows here! Constant north wind, must be at least 50 to 70 kph. There’s nothing better then to be thrown onto a coral reef again and again by up to 1 meter high waves, that’s for sure. Need to consider this again. But water is warm! It’s not like it would be cold outside during the day. But because the wind the real feel actually sucks a bit (for Egypt ofc), so it seems like water is waaaay warmer then to stay out of it. For the same reason you don’t wanna get out of water after you got enough of salt to your lungs J. I’ll give it a try tomorrow I guess but weather forecast is not promising (with the wind).

Time passes by fast in Dahab. Well… most of it. You just do a slow walk along the beach, slip through the streets (like it was possible) with a wish you had Harry’s invisibility cloak and then you realize half a day is gone. Just right time to get back to camp and get to know few other people.

This time I spent the evening (and better part of night) with group of windsurfers. Personally I think they must be crazy as hell considering the speed of the wind and waves it makes. Apparently, they’re crazy enough to appreciate exactly that fact. For me, as someone who used a board only once, on a calm lake, with no sail and even failed to learn any form of balance…

Funny Mummy is a typical Dahab beach restaurant where you sit on the ground or pillows and you could enjoy the view right at the seashore. Well you could. With that wind blowing all day and everywhere, you’re just happy with all sides covered by sheets or carpets instead. And of course locals are freezing more then we do. Anytime. All the time. Good food, good shisha and a chance to buy a beer on the spot are just few more reasons to go there and spend a nice evening.

Beer was not enough :-). Walking 50 meters south from Bishbishi there is a store called Liqueur Shop. And walking 150 meters north there is a store called Liqueur Shop 2. You just keep telling yourself you chose a really good spot. They have beer, they have wine and (of course) they have Egyptian vodka I already knew since my last visit 2 years ago. It’s called Fineland but don’t trust the name and try it at your own risk. Mixed with orange juice though is a good way to get hammered fast. What I didn’t know was the fact they started to make Egyptian Rum. I actually don’t know much about it because all those writings on the bottle are in Arabic (and the fact made me thing for whom the hell they’re doing that? They should not touch any alcohol!). At least I was able to find big red signs in the middle saying “ْ٣٠”, which clearly is a 30 and the little circle before that with highest probability a % sign. And man! They want 15 EGP for a bottle! Mix it with Egyptian Coke (which actually is an American Coke but with funny Arabic writings on it) and you got yourself a wild party. The games we played like “this is my rum-face” or “ring of fire” I don’t want to go into much details while those are only a better way how to empty your bottle faster and the fun from it is just a pretty bonus.

Egyptians and alcohol? That’s a story for itself. Not all Egyptians are Islamic religion but, well, most of them. And most probably all of those you’d ever meet here. And Islamic religion is a law. So if you cannot drink alcohol according to Q’ran you just cannot. In theory. Let’s say for the start that Denial is not only that river in Egypt (actually that’s The Nile but sounds the same). During my trips through both Morocco and Egypt I met not only a handful of locals for which any excuse was good enough. The most handy among those are covering the bottle with a paper bag or to drink in darkness both of which should affect Allah the same way, simply to say, He can’t see you doing it. He’s an awesome deity, that’s for sure. One more reason to think that is the fact you actually have to take a prayer 5 times each day, BUT, if you got yourself busy with something important (like doing business with tourists) you can stock your prayers for later time and then you just pray five times at once (no clue if you can save your prayers for more days but it will make on of your future days really REALLY religious.

The last thing I want is to make the impression all Egyptians are such. I saw many people who take Q’ran and Islamic religion very seriously. Some of them I even know in person. You can consider them all to be like crazy little lawyers, trying to apply their laws in the way which suites them best at the moment. And they are good at it :-).

Diving Into Egypt (AGAIN)

So… I’m going to Egypt eh?

It started as usual on Thursday evening by me failing to limit packed stuff to half of my 80l backpack. What really a man needs in Egypt? OK airport drop-off said it had little more than 15 kgs.

Friday in Prague to arrange some things and ofc I drew JR to the put because I’ll be cursed to Sakara beer for next 10 days.

I must say I never really got into a long line on any airport. This time… 90 minutes and hell I even did my check-in in advance on the internet! NVM you need to drop-off your „cargo“ anyways. That’s a lesson. And 2 drop-off desks for 10+ flights is just not enough rly.

Lucky me… there’s snow all over better part of Europe, my plane got delayed by waiting for some others, means enough time for me to buy usual bottle of Bacardi as disinfection to battle any possible Pharaon’s Revenge. So instead of 21:40 plane took off at 22:50. IDC, I would have hours time to spend somehow in Cairo before Sinai bus leaves and there’d be still many of those left anyways… And they were!

So our captain was saying „we’re sorry for our delay, the reason is we’re waiting for another plane coming from Milan with a delay“… „we’re waiting for papers for our flight“… „I need to chill out a bit before we take off“… Just use your imagination.

I can’t sleep on a plane. No, never! Somehow… So those night flights are killing me. You actually can’t get anything better with Czech Airlines from Prague to Cairo than with arrival at 2:20 local time (well with delay this time at 3:35). Means infinite insomnia for me with consequences. It isn’t any kind of flight-sickness or –phobia, just the constant noise around and my constant curiosity about checking how far we got. Well… the fact about flying 11770m high by 880 kmph speed and surrounding temperature not crossing –70 degrees isn’t helping.

„Dear passengers, welcome on board of Czech Airlines flight to Cairo… … with captain Mivvy.“ „OMG! Are they serious? Do we really have captain named Mivvy or is the stewardess just joking?“ Well we did. It was a Czech version of that family name. Two cartoon characters just popped in my head! First one was Inspector Gadget, second Disney’s DuckTales’ character Gyro Gearloose, both of which in Czech version had the same name. After split of a second a completely other character from DuckTales was there inside my head – Launchpad McQuack, who else.

OK we arrived on new Terminal 3 in Cairo. Actually if I remember right we landed at Terminal 2 anyway but airport bus took us really far J. Not really very different from Terminal 2 but well… new one, fine with me. Time spent: 10 minutes (awesome).

Getting out of the airport in Cairo is a big deal. Hard to explain to anyone who wasn’t in any country with orient influence before (I guess it’s not limited to Islamic countries).

- „Taxi sir?“

- „No, thank you“

- „Which hotel?“

- „No thank you, I don’t need taxi“

- „Where you go? Taxi sir“

- „NO THANK YOU! I’m taking a bus“

- „No bus, taxi sir“

and it goes on for many minutes and this conversation actually repeats itself with every one and each of them for many times J After 6 tries and during my 7^th I convinced them I really wanna go by bus and some guy with some hotel minibus took me to Terminal 1.

So this time I really made up my mind that I’ll go downtown with public bus. There’s actually lot of information on the internet about public buses from / to Cairo airport and none of those every show useful at all. My reason was I managed to get to the airport last time with a public bus for 2 EGP which is a challenge. And I failed this time again. Even though according to official Cairo Intl Airport web page there should be a new service – Airport bus downtown (35 EGP which is still lower than any taxi after long bargain).

I actually got to the bus station at Terminal 1. You ask, they lie if it’s good for their business (always). OFC you can’t tell if it’s a lie. You ask about public bus, they say „no bus“. If you ask on public bus stop, no, they are not stupid, they say „bus gone“… „when next bus“… „many hours. Taxi sir?“ And there you go again. And do you think any closer knowledge helps? No way! „no sir, bus 356 starts at 7 am, sir… no sir bus 400 gone, 3 am… next one? Tomorrow, sir“ Well he was right with 356, about 400 I can’t tell but you’re just doomed to be at their mercy. „Taxi sir? Taxi cheap!“

I know airport taxi is everything but cheap in Cairo lol! Well, here we go:

- „how much for taxi?“

- „where you go?“

- „downtown“

- „which hotel, my friend“ (see? Now I turned into a friend now)

- “no hotel, I’m going by bus to Dahab”

- “OK 80 egypshn pounds” (they really pronounce that in a funny way)

- “forget it”

- “but my friend it’s cheap”

- “no it’s not cheap, last time a went for 35”

- “no possible sir” (w00t? Now I’m sir again?)

Well I don’t wanna get into too much details, I managed to get it to 40 in like 5 minutes and considering 2 years inflation… I said to myself WTH let’s go.

Taxi drivers in Cairo can’t speak English. It’s interesting they can if they need to. They know… . Eerrrr numbers. And few other words like you see above. So it’s difficult to keep up any conversation during the time you spend inside the taxi. This guy was complaining (in Arabic) all 20 minutes it took us to get there. I don’t need to understand to Arabic at all and I can tell exactly what he did J “Rich tourist coming to Cairo, giving me only 40 pounds, I have a family to feed, I’m poor…. Just use your imagination again.

Just few last minutes it changed and he started in English (well he tried his best). And he started with “well, friend” 40 egyptian pounds for the car plus 15 pounds for the ticked (entry payment for every car entering airport area, taxis included according to Lonely Planet guide) and gimmeh some tips, 2 dollars?” “W000000T?” OK, I gave him 50 EGP in the end.

In case it is not obvious from the text, everything above happens with a large smile. Yes on both sides J You can think anything about them inside your had but keep your good mood all the time, that’s the only way how to survive. And it’s only a game after all.

Dahab internet information speaks about bus from Cairo going from Abasseya station at 8:30. Used it two years ago, was a safe play. But according to some internet pages (and Lonely Planet is vague about this really) there could be a 7 am bus from Turguman bus station (for last few years completely renovated under shopping centre CairoGate). Was worth the risk and bus really was leaving at 7:15. One hour less to wait FTW! And even though it sounds weird a bit, there WAS a cold time in early-morning Cairo so the opportunity to wait inside – priceless.

It takes approx. 9 hours to get from Cairo to Dahab through Sharm, they did not devise any shorter way yet even though there is a direct road to Nuweiba and they should cut maybe even 3 hours from that instead of going around all Sinai. The time is still boring. I loaded my phone with whole Harry Potter: The Deadly Hallows audiobook and that should do the trick. You don’t know how lucky I was! On Egyptian buses (at least on longer trips) passengers are entertained by movies. You can take a bet your movie will be an Arabic (usually Egyptian) comedy in Arabic with Arabic subtitles J This time? NO. The minute we left Cairo and took of into the desert between Cairo and Sues, driver played a different audiobook for us.

You know muezzin singing during Islamic prayers? Big part of that is reading from Q-ran, well singing from it. Imagine that inside closed space of a bus at a volume 9 from 10. And we’ve got the pleasure to listen to Q-ran singed audiobook for more than 90 minutes J Turning my phone’s volume to the roof and fact my headphones were big and closed type really helped. The morning religion part was exchanged with usual Egyptian comedy in Arabic (no subtitles this time) which was followed by some action movie with lots of shooting and dead people (that was a new one!). But I didn’t really payed attention to either. THANK YOU Jim Dale and J.K.Rowling!

Egypt is in fact a socialistic regime and (ofc) a police state. After terrorist attacks in Dahab in 2006 the security especially on Sinai is very strict. I must say, since my last visit during May of 2008 it’s weakening. We were used to 10+ controls of our visas and passports at checkpoints starting with first right before tunnel under Sues Canal and ending with last right above Dahab. The first one included taking all passengers outta bus and forcing even foreign tourists to get most of their stuff out of their bags to check it. No happening anymore! Counting that, we got only 3 controls between Cairo and Sharm (2 of which included passport controls on foreign tourists) and 2 other between Sharm and Dahab (only 1 of them included passports check).

Second thing is… it’s really hard play or local people to get to Sinai. Every time I went to Dahab from Cairo by bus 3 or 4 (or even more) locals were throw out of bus for some (or any) reason. This time it happened at the very last checkpoint above Dahab but it did! Some 5 or 6 guys were checked really well at every control, taking them out for many minutes but they came back every time. Not at the last one, they kept 3 of them (to play with I bet, but dunno).

The important fact about Dahab is that it is a really long municipality. It’s outstretched along the shore between sea and mountains. So in the end, after you arrive by bus, you left with your bargain about transport. Else it is few kms walk. I like those pick ups in Dahab anyway and I took ride with two more tourists from South Africa for same camp for 20 EGP all so not bad after all.

Next part: in Dahab finally.