26 August 2009

Diggin' Dahab

Dahab is often billed as the Koh Samui of the Middle East, in reality they're not like each other at all. The only thing that they have in common is that they are on the sea and the sea is full of fish. The same logic would make Blackpool the Koh Samui of England!

It is very nice here though and incredibly laid back, the exact opposite of Sharm el-Sheikh. We've gone from a five star luxury hotel with swimming pools, private beach and big buffet breakfast to a backpacker guesthouse with . . . not much. To be fair Alaska Camp is really nice and probably one of the better backpacker places that we've stayed at since we started this trip. The room is really smart (and clean!) and we're located just off the beachfront right in the middle of the bay. It just felt like a bit of a come down having stepped straight out of the Hilton.

Dahab town has a really nice atmosphere. The whole of the bay front is lined with Bedouin style bars and restaurants. The bay also has a fairly good reef for snorkeling which is right off the end of the beach.

After a couple of days of soaking up the atmosphere in the bay, yesterday we had a day out at a dive site called the Blue Hole.

The Blue Hole is massive corral fringed sinkhole that drops over 100m deep and is Egypt's most famous dive site. It would have been a nice spot if it wasn't for the fact that half of the tourists in Egypt turned up whilst we were there. At one point there must have been about 80 people circling the reef top, splashing, shouting and scaring the fish away. Not the most relaxing snorkeling trip we've ever done.

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