Dahab was not a place I had heard of until I’d reached as far south as Luxor. The first mention was from Japanese couple that checked into my Luxor hostel for one night. I asked what and where it was. They said they had heard it to be the complete opposite of Luxor and Egypt in general, then informing me it was South Sinai (Sharm El Sheik region). They told me there were catching a 16 hour bus to reach it. Eyes and mouth wide open I asked them if it was worth it and they replied, ‘we know it will be”.
At this point Dahab was nothing but intriguing but then slowly, over the days that followed, I’d heard another couple of separate ore positive than the last. By now I had heard enough, my traveller instinct was telling me to go and so I did!
(Yes, the option of a direct bus would have saved me money but common folks, 16 hours on an Egyptian bus, gimme a plane, various stops and lot of stressful research any day of the week!).
Research into Dahab had shown me there were not many hostels; the majority accommodation being low budget hotel type places. Thankfully costs were averaging 15 euros with breakfast which was affordable and I’m happy to say that I picked a ‘peach’ of a place; a real beauty and Russian owned (and ran) to my surprise.
I think just from these first few shots you’re gonna get a good feel of the place, just like I did although I’m not sure if can properly capture the magic that I felt when I first arrived. The proximity to the beach, the calming colours and ambience of the hotel, the setting they had created on their small private area and the surrounding quietness. Everything was just so peaceful and quiet. As soon as I saw this place, I knew I was destined to stay for a number of days (which I did).
See what I mean folks? The last shot above encapsulates this place well – a little piece of paradise. There’s more shots of it which I’ll provide at the end of this post along with my ‘pic of the day’.
Dahab is one the most relaxed, amazingly chilled out place I’ve ever been to. It’s basically a super-long promenade filled with restaurants, places of accommodation and water sport outlets.
Tragically, the poor tourism is as noticeable here as it has been elsewhere. I saw many places closed down and many empty restaurants of evening. Hopefully business will pick up slightly in the months to come but the jury is out as to when it will get back to normal.
My time here will have been even more enjoyable if I had met some travel friends here but that didn’t happen sadly. To think then that I spent four nights here, almost by myself, and still had a good time. I have a feeling with a significant other here, my really good time would have become a really great time. Oh well.
There are many water sports to enjoy in Dahab, just as there is at all the popular spots along the Red Sea. Diving is without doubt the most popular, backed up by the many ‘dive’ outlets. Snorkelling is popular (and cheap) for those not yet ready to invest in the time, money and effort into diving.
Still, you can’t but slightly envy the skill and enjoyment of kite surfers ‘hitting the waves’.
As you can see for yourself, I can thoroughly recommend heading to Dahab. The drive will take a couple of hours from Sharm airport by bus and it’ll be even quicker by car (or taxi). This also means when you tell people you went on holiday to south Sinai, they’ll be wrong when they predict Sharm as your place of residence!
To conclude this post I’ll leave you with a few final shots from my hotel, El Primo.
Beautiful, huh.
Time to move on folks and earlier today, I did just that. However, significantly, I realised something shortly after I actually left Egypt – that I was leaving with very little sadness at all and that’s not something that happens very often at all, in fact, hardly ever. Normally I form such a strong bond with a country and its people but that has not been the case here, but I think you already know that.
Normally I’d write some more here to conclude Egypt but after today’s ordeal (no exaggeration), I’ve lost some enthusiasm as that is very much on my mind. Hopefully I’ll get this text post out to you before the end of the weeks. It was quite an experience and not one I’ll ever forget.
I’ll keep my current location discreet for the moment folks, will leave you guessing on that one…
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