Dahab Maktub

Here it is 11/11/2011. If the whole 11/11 wish thing works then I have sent much love and good wishes for health and fulfillment to everyone at home. I have been completely distracted today with thoughts of home. It must be cold, windy, grey, getting dark earlier and earlier there – I can only remember the cozy feeling of walking from the chill to the warm house. I know that my mind is playing tricks and putting the annoyance with the cold and the quiet in the far recesses. I did read that everyone was happy with a warm spell – true Indian Summer, such a gift. It makes me happy knowing that they are getting to enjoy some fine weather like I do every day. It gets dark early here too. It is so strange though since the day is bright and sunny with beautiful warm weather. I cannot get used to the idea that summer is over! The early dark makes me look for decorations and Christmas lights on the way home.

To make it feel even more like summer some teacher friends and I went to Dahab. Dahab is Arabic for gold –Dahabaya for golden Americaneya for female American Americaniki for male American. What a fantastic adventure! It cured me of homesickness for almost 5 whole days. We had the guidance of L. our science and math teacher who loves to go scuba diving at any opportunity. She also happens to be a “crazy Russian” which makes it all the more fun! Her diving buddies Ahmed and D. joined us. (I feel like the name Ahmed still offers enough anonymity here!).

To get to Dahab you must drive in traffic due east from Cairo for two hours. Travel under the Suez Canal in the ONLY tunnel to connect all of Africa to the Middle East (which is exactly the amount of planning that this country is capable of and wasn’t nearly as trafficky as you would think!) and then take a right and head due south for four hours on the Sinai Peninsula. Then curve around the peninsula and head due north 2 more hours. You really have to like your carmates!! In Cairo you really feel like you are in Africa but on the Sinai Peninsula you feel like you are inside a history book. It is amazing! From the Bible to the Camp David Accords my mind traveled back and forth from event to event on the time line of humanity.

The landscape is harsh, craggy, dessert mountains. It is really bleak for the most part. To me the expanse of sky above this moonscape was what offered the beauty. Most of the time we were at sea level or only slightly above but every so often I realized my ears were popping from the altitude. The climbs were always gradual so we never had a “lookout point” view.

There were PLENTY of check points and I was so glad for our native Egyptian male companion who was driving. Our friend L. was driving in the car in back of us and I think she would only take the trip with at least one Egyptian male with us. It really makes a difference. You get better service, better prices and more honest attention when you have an Egyptian male with you anywhere you go – Don’t leave home without it!! Recently when I went to fix my computer I had another Egyptian male friend speak to the computer repair person at the shop via cell phone. He pretended the computer was his and that I was working for him and it seemed to work! The computer was repaired for about 15 US dollars in one hour!

Anyway, after many check points where our passports were sometimes asked for (where I learned Americaneya) and a loooooong winding drive we arrived at Dahab. The first thing I saw in the sleepy little town (think Maine in winter only warm and with palm trees) was a street light illuminating a garbage-picking animal. Pretty typical sight in Cairo except this animal was a camel of course! Welcome to Dahab.

We checked into our little two-bed rooms. No creaking beds here as the mattresses were not on springs! They were on boards – mmmmm nice and firm! Tiny little bathroom but clean! The doors were wooden and had curved tops and frosted glass lights – even the hinged window to the patio was tiny and curved. The most dramatic feature was our domed, brick ceiling! I said I felt like I was in some sort of Hobbit House. Where was Gandolf?? So cool. And only 100 pounds for two nights – which is less than 20 US dollars! I’ll take it thank you. We even each got one towel and there was a lovely outdoor area with umbrella tables and a fun mulit-colored tiled patio. The rooms of the motel lined both sides of this narrow patio and at the end it opened onto a wide gray brick sidewalk, then the beach, then the ocean only 20 feet away! Then . . . . the mountains of Saudi Arabia of course!! I didn’t realize they were there and close enough to be completely visible until the next morning when I woke up at 7 am and came out to see them on the horizon as far as the eye could see. To the north, or our left as we looked at the ocean, were the closer-appearing mountains of Jordan. Awesome!!

We ate breakfast in a really cool water side restaurant with basically all pillows for furniture and drove to a dive shop to rent equipment and then drove for 10 minutes to a cove at the base of the small mountains that surround the town. There were some little wall-less huts with thatched roofs along the beach and equally rustic “ restaurants” in back of each of those. We settled all our gear on the colorful rug floors in one of the beach huts began to enjoy all the day offered.

We all took 30 minute dives – most of us for the first time! I surprised myself by not being too afraid to go down 15 meters. I did make a closed fist sign frequently which is the sign for “I am afraid.” But with patience we kept going down slowly and boy did I see some awesome fish! I mean Dr. Seuss could not invent more colorful fish. If you can imagine a color combination and a shape combination it was there!! So amazing. My diving guide was N. and he took my hand on the way down and I thought “That’s sweet, he’s taking my hand and showing me the way.” I had no idea that that was the rule and that letting go was unusual! He did let me go for about 5-10 minutes at the end which is supposedly a very big deal!! Yay me! When he let go he folded his arms across his chest and showed me that he was doing that. At the time I just thought he was tired of dragging me around but I was supposed to notice that I was being set free! A graduation of sorts. I was also supposed to notice that divers cross their arms this way and do not swim with their arms but this got away from me too. So, I looked like a spazz I am sure! But hey! I was distracted by all the pretty colors!!!

Later I went snorkeling on my own which was plenty cool enough for me and I saw a white tipped shark!! I totally did an underwater “Scooby-Doo” Rut Ro!! And turned away as fast as I could! But then turned back with my friend K. to see if we could see it again! I told her that I saw a big fish – let’s go find it – which is TECHnically true! She was not amused when she found out it was a shark. Luckily some other divers saw it too so my sighting was confirmed! It was about 6 feet long!! (I think maybe even longer but who knows?! In reality it could be the size of a cat!!)

There were divers all around and back on the beach we could hear many languages – Russian – Dutch – more that I could not identify. But it was by no means crowded! All-in-all my first adventure scuba diving was great! Now if only my ears would unplug!!  :  )

We spent the rest of the time reading and enjoying the sights of camels with tourists passing by!! I collected heart rocks and sent good wishes to all on ACK of course and my family. Wish you were here thoughts and love. And we were swarmed by a group of little girls (mostly veiled meaning they wore scarves on their heads) selling Bedouin beaded jewelry. It was fun for the most part but boy were they persistent! I thought of them as the Egyptian female version of the Artful Dodger and his clan – we all kept an eye on our things when they were around even though the little ones assured us “we no take”. They argued amonst themselves in the harsh guttural language about who could offer their wares to us and then would turn to us and sweetly ask “please Madame will you buy? Pretty!” It was very entertaining . . . and a little sad too but compared to Cairo these Egyptians have quite the life!

So, Dahab in the evening was fun. THE sidewalk along the beach turned into a strip of souvenir shops and lively, rustic (think Robinson Crusoe!!) restaurants all along the coast. I think we walked about a mile on it and got to a lovely little authentic Italian restaurant. Had a great meal and good conversation and then to bed.

The next morning I woke before the sun rose. At 5am. I had not set my alarm but had planned to get up if I woke up in time. It was soooo quiet. I walked to one of the lounge chairs on the beach right at the edge where the water was lapping. It was cool and I pulled up the hood of the jacket from K. and snuggled back to watch the moon and stars (which we cannot enjoy in Cairo). It was beautiful – that deep indigo right before sun rise and the stars seem so bright and white.

I had just had the thought – Am I stupid to be on this beach alone? In the dark? When I heard a deep voice say Sabb el Khair! Which is “good morning” and I jumped a mile and he jumped a mile!! It was the young man who had been sweeping the walkway (early riser!) when I exited the room. Yikes!! We laughed!! I was a little nervous talking to him (such an American!!) but we had a nice – English to Arabic pantomiming conversation! He lives in Ismailia and hasn’t been home since June and will go home for the Eid holiday. He has three teenage sisters. He loves Egypt and Mubarak and thinks Obama is a good man. He wanted to know if Amercia loves Egypt and I told him “yes”. I did not have the heart to tell him that Egypt in particular is not really on the radar of most Americans (like most of the other countries in the world). I think Americans should be reminded that Egypt is an Arab country that does LOVE America and that is a good thing. A small but strong thread of positive feelings here in the “Middle East”. So important to us all!!! I told him as much as I could about myself. He started to act incredulous at one point and I realized I had told him I had two HUSBANDS instead of two SONS!! When we got that straightened out with me rocking an imaginary baby – he made the sign for “Thank God!” and we LAUGHED! The sign for “thank God” is to kiss the front and back of two fingers and then wave them up to the sky – I think Big Pappi does it when he hits a homer. So, that was a nice way to start the day. Mohammed had to go back to work but not before introducing me to the hotel’s dog – Jack – who barked at every early morning jogger who went by. M. told me it was because jack was a “man”. And I said “It figures”. I had seen Jack the night before curled up on one of the chairs on the patio – pretty sweet life for a dog in Egypt let me tell you! Mohamed also told me the cat was named Bob. Good to know.

The sun rose shortly after our conversation and it was beautiful. I had just had the thought – I wish I had a cup of tea – when I felt a slight tap on my hood. There was M. with a tray and a cup of tea and a container of sugar – no milk – just how I like it. Did I mention I was reading the Alchemist? I know, I am late getting to it. A. gave it to me on the drive to the Sinai! So really my new word for the week is maktub!

We snorkeled that morning at another site in town. We found a restaurant about a 5 minute walk away. You sit at a lounge chair on the edge of the water. Order a drink. Then get up and dive in to snorkel right off your chair practically. It was hard to leave Dahab!! I was looking for Help Wanted signs in every window!

Our trip home brought us up the east coast of the Sinai – closer to Jordan and Israel. Then due west across the dessert mountains and plateaus. We went by an outpost manned by Columbia. Apparently the Camp David Accords state that all the countries of the UN have to take turns doing so. Man! What a LONELY gig! Standing at a little house surrounded by barbed wire in the dessert watching 100 mile and hour traffic go by!! Did I say I am getting used to going 100 mph??

The whole weekend was good stuff!

Geography

Topography

History

Mystery

Fish

Wish

Ahmed

Mohamed

Jack

Bob

Tea

Dahab

Maktub!