Dahab...

thanks for the emails from my loyal readers with regards to my health and lack of postings.

i'm alive and well in dahab. i've been here for a long while now.

it's beautiful here. the scenary's pretty stark. the nearby desert mountains are jagged. they're butt up against the brilliant turquoise waters of the red sea. to the east are the seaside cliffs of saudi arabia.


dahab for the most part is a street and a half town. very touristy. the "strip", as i call it, rims the shoreline. there is a wall of chillout restaurants (and their annoying touts) on the seaward side of the walkway, while hotels, gawdy souvenir shops, internet cafes and ubiqutous scuba shops line the otherside. add to this, a caravan of gypsy-like beduoin girls, selling homemade bracelets.


not many tourists are here. the tourist trade is pretty much dead. those that are here are an ecclectic bunch. a plethora of vacationing russians, japanese/korean hippies, and a surprising number of canadians.


there's not much to do here unless you like to SCUBA dive or snorkel. otherwise, you work on your suntannin' and chillin' skills.

you'd think chillin' would be easy in a place like dahab but not really. the touts are relentless. actually, if you've been around awhile, the touts' remarks get quite personal. for example, on the way to dinner tonite, there is a bridge i cross. there's a troll, sorry that's tout, flogging a trip to a local attraction. i'm not interested and say "no thanx, i love dahab". the troll answers, "dahab doesn't love you." what's with that?

here, and in most of egypt, the traveler is nothing unless they fork out the cash. it's ironic that the very people who benefit from tourist spending actually talk trash to them as well. very strange sales techniqes...

i spend most of my time now avoiding "the strip". there isn't a local public beach in town. so, i've got to walk a half hour either north or south of town to get some peace and quiet.

i've got a few more days here. i've got to spend some of my hard earned cash to go scuba diving.

after that, i'm getting the hell out of here.

ed. notes:

1. not all egyptians are nasty sob's.

2. i still do not know where i'm going. i'll return to cairo and make some kind of decision quickly.

3. i went snorkeling yesterday. the biodiversity of the surrounding reefs is incredible. the show just starts about 25 metres off shore. it's shallow at first then all of a sudden the ocean floor just drops off. breathtakingly deep blue sea. beautiful corals. billions of colourful fishes. i haven't seen a Nemo fish yet...