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 :-).