Dahab, Egypt: The Red Sea is Gorgeous!

I vaguely remember swearing after a 16-hour bus ride in Vietnam that I would never do it again. Apparently I lied. I really wanted to head up to one of the beach cities in Egypt that sit on the Red Sea - did y'all know that the Egypt has insanely awesome/gorgeous/desert beaches?? The city I'd heard the most about was called Dahab - and that is how I found myself on another 16-hour overnight bus journey from Luxor to Dahab.

What It's All About:

Dahab is a city on the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt - it borders the Red Sea, and is right across the water (West) from Saudi Arabia. There's tons of beach towns on the Red Sea, but Dahab is one of the most popular ones for backpackers - it's got an incredibly chilled, laid-back vibe, some of the best diving in the world (there's a spot called the Blue Hole that is unparalleled), affordability, and hundreds of cozy cafes, restaurants, and lounges right on the waterfront. I've heard tons of stories already from travelers who came to Dahab for a little bit, and ended up extending their stay far, far beyond what they'd initially planned to. 

The lagoon at Dahab

You can easily while away your days here getting up, having breakfast lounging on comfy cushion seating overlooking the water, diving, having a shisha and socializing with other travelers, and falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing. Can this be my life.

Sadly enough, Dahab was very, very empty when I arrived. Egypt's coastal cities have been especially hurt by the drop in tourism, especially since you know that Russian plane that had a bomb aboard last month? That plane departed from Sharm El Sheikh, the main airport feeding the coastal cities (and an hour away from Dahab) - it was a deliberate attempt by terrorists to hurt tourism in Egypt.  Because of this, Dahab is like a ghost town - you see half-finished resort construction literally everywhere, and all the hotels and restaurants are completely empty. Business owners stand on the promenade and ask you to come in. And most restaurants/hotels are more than willing to negotiate prices and give you a % off.  It makes me so sad.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Ok, the night bus to Dahab was slightly sketchy - not only was I the only foreigner aboard, but I was also the only female aboard. The rows were super minuscule (I could barely squeeze my legs into the row, and I'm short - so not sure how everyone else was faring).  Also, as a sort of constructive criticism, I'm fairly certain the journey doesn't need to take 16 hours - because we seriously stopped every hour or so for a cafe/shisha/tea break!!  So Egyptian. Seriously, it would be midnight, the bus would pull into some incredibly random dark town, and stop - then everyone on board would scramble off to the one cafe was open, drink a bunch of tea, puff away on a bunch of shisha, then the bus driver would honk the horn 10 minute later and everyone would scramble back on board the bus. Given that I am a huge proponent of efficiency, I was slowly dying inside.

I was in the front row of the bus, so I took this incredibly creepy photo of a dark city, the one cafe open, and all the men from the bus scrambling back to get on after a tea/shisha stop.

• Upon arrival in Dahab, I checked into my hostel, took an incredibly long, leisurely seaside breakfast.

One of the greatest parts about Dahab? There's stray cats everywhere!! They stalk all the cafe and lounge-y areas by the water for food.  Seriously, these cats have it down to an art - they come up to you, act all adorable and purr-y, make themselves comfy on your lap and rub all over you, and then when the food comes - you feel obligated to give them some. This was my first cat. He was the CUTEST and made himself at home on my lap immediately.

• After my extended breakfast, I went about inquiring at some dive shops - and met Zully. Zully is originally from California, had backpacked through Dahab awhile ago, fell in love with it, and moved out here. She's been living out here for a couple months, just taking a hiatus from life. Zully and I hit it off immediately, and she was super nice to take me on a walk down to the lagoon (where she was headed anyhow), introduce me to her friends, show me her house, and take me to an amazing dinner spot.

This is Zully, and she is great.

This is the Red Sea! And see that strip of land across the water? That's Saudi Arabia! I CAN SEE SAUDI ARABIA FROM MY HOUSE

The lagoon was gorgeous, and the winds make it popular with kitesurfers. Kitesurfing, by the way, looks like the most intense sport ever.

This area is the lagoon, and the color of the water is so very pretty

• Before dinner, I'd met a couple guys in my hostel (Jonathan, Seb, Dan, and Jesse) - who I invited along to dinner with Zully. After a delicious dinner, we ran into two guys I'd met in my hostel in Cairo walking down the street - so they joined up as well, and our entourage went to a seaside cafe to have some beers and smoke some shisha.

L to R: Kristian (New Zealand), Jonathan (Brazil), Zully, me, Seb (Australia), Dan (Canada), Jesse (Australia), and Jesse #2 (Australia). 

This was my dinner cat that came and cozied up on my lap - I named him Sir Mix-a-Lot and he was the CUTEST.

• The next day, I went diving with three of the guys from my hostel - Jonathan, Dan, and Jesse. Dahab has a dive site called the Blue Hole, which is one of only three in the entire world. It's the coolest thing ever - it's basically a hole that drops straight down into the sea, and it goes super deep and there's millions of fish. There was seriously an entire wall we dove along that had hundreds and hundreds of fish swimming all around us. The most fun one was a fish that cleans your teeth if you open your mouth.  We also brought down juice boxes and attempted to drink them underwater for fun. Also, when you swim to the middle of the Blue Hole, it's the trippiest thing ever - you have zero idea which was is up or down, and everything is just blue. 

Our first dive site - I forgot the name but it was pretty standard. The views, however - AMAZE.

The diving crew

John-o and I riding in the back of the truck to our second dive site, THE BLUE HOLE

AND HERE IS THE BLUE HOLE

• Post-diving, Jonathan and I went to go watch the sunset over Dahab at a strip called the Lighthouse.  It was amazing - we chilled in loungers on the water overlooking the cove, drank tea, and watched the sun sink below the mountains.

Sunset over Dahab <3

More sunset coast goodies

• We met up again with the crew from the hostel for a delicious seafood dinner. They gave us all this free stuff and 30% off the entire menu to lure us in.

Dinner crew

• That night, my sister had booked me a room at the super-fancy Le Meridien in Dahab, as a way to use some of her Starwood points and as a small post-birthday treat. The guys came over to Le Meridien with some beer and cards to hang out - first off, you should have seen the hotel people eyeing us as we walked in. There were a million security checks, metal detectors, the lobby man demanded ID's from everyone. Then they refused to let us go to my room (not sure if this is a security issue or a Muslim issue) so we ended up hanging in the lobby like homeless people. 

Probably the most out-of-place people that have ever rolled into Le Meridien hotel

Le Meridien

My little Le Meridien bungalow

I guess you're gorgeous

MVP of the Day:

Again, where do I start?  There was a kind man on my 16-hour bus who kept feeding me fruit, like I was a monkey. He produced a banana, and when I thanked him and ate it, he handed me an apple. And then an orange.  Or as I was walking along the waterfront in Luxor, a gardener ran up to me yelling, and I thought he was yelling at me until he produced a flower that he just cut as a gift for me. This entire country makes my heart melt.

I guess the best and most representative moment happened as I was leaving the airport (and Egypt forever, wahhhhhhhhhhh) - I was at the gate waiting for my flight to board, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see two local Egyptian girls giggling and staring at me - they couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 years old.  

When my flight started boarding, I went up and waited in line, and then felt a tapping on my arm. Looking down, I see the two girls have followed me across the terminal, and both smiled at me and shyly went, "Nice to meet you" and shook my hand in that way only 9-year old girls can. Melt. I responded "Nice to meet you!" and smiled. They were ELATED. They ran across the terminal to their parents and pointed a lot at me while grinning ear to ear. As I turned back to board my flight, I felt another tapping on my arm. Looking around again, the girls were back - one of them clasped my hand tightly, and the other one pulled me down for a hug and kissed me on the cheek. MELT. 

As I walked out onto the tarmac, I could see their faces pressed against the window, grinning and waving maniacally to me.  You guys. Could this departure from Egypt could be any more representative of my time spent here???  

Egypt Wrap-Up:

No one is more surprised than I am about how much I loved traveling Egypt.  From initially being wary about staying at all, I was shocked at how wrong I was about it.  Not only do the people have the biggest hearts and have been the absolute best, but the depth of history and culture and sites is mind-blowing.  I have truly grown to love this country and its people, and I am now going to sing its praises to everyone I know. 

Two weeks truly flew by, and I could have easily spent another two weeks here.  Egypt has easily become one of my favorite adventures and memories of all time thus far - I was beyond crushed to leave. GO TO EGYPT. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.  I might dedicate a whole other post to Egypt and how great it is - but for now, onto sub-Saharan Africa!

Abu Simbel, Egypt: The Pharaoh Who Loved Himself

After saying good-bye to Luxor, I headed further south to the city of Aswan.

What It's All About:
Aswan is a city in the super-south of Egypt, also along the Nile River. It's a pretty city, but is most-often visited by tourists as a jumping-off point to visit the temples of Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is a series of temples built by Rameses II (obvs) that are carved into stone and are amazing.

As a side note, another popular option with tourists is to sail on the Nile from Luxor to Aswan, or vice versa - it's apparently gorgeous and relaxing and life-changing. I didn't have enough time, so I took the train, but it's going on my list of to-dos when I return to Egypt. As if I don't have that list for every country I've visited. Can I just travel forever?

The crazy-huge main temple of Abu Simbel - see miniscule people for reference

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• One 3-hour train ride later, I was picked up in Aswan by a new guide, who immediately whisked me away on a quick tour of Aswan. On the way, he picked up another traveler, and off we went. I swear, I randomly booked a tour of just Luxor/Aswan through my hostel in Cairo, and there was no information at all. I had no idea what was happening half the time; random people would just show up and randomly take me places and tell me what time to be where.
• We visited the Aswan Dam and a temple on the water called the Philae Temple.

This is a very exciting picture of the Aswan Dam. And windy hair. Back in the day, the Nile River used to flood Egypt all the time, and this dam now prevents it from doing so. And it provides electricity. Wooooo 

And then we took a tiny boat out to see Philae Temple

That tiny rock jutting out of the ocean used to be Philae Island, where the temple was originally built. However, due to the flooding and the water from the dam, the entire island was flooded and Philae Temple was moved by UNESCO (brick by brick) onto a new island in 1960

And here is Philae Temple on its new island! Built around 380 B.C., the temple was thought to be the resting place for the god Osiris.

Philae Temple at sunset.

Fancy entrance rooms

And of course, at some point the Coptic people came in and tried to turn it into a Christian church. So there are Coptic crosses carved everywhere over the hieroglyphs.

Fancy outside hieroglyphs. The temple has Greek influences because the bodies are more shapely than typical Egyptian temples. I think that's what the guide said, anyway.

Sunset looking out from the island. SO PRETTY

• The next morning, a 2:45AM wakeup call meant I was herded into a van with a bunch of people; we headed further south to the temples of Abu Simbel (the journey from Aswan to Abu Simbel takes another 3 hours).  Fun fact, Abu Simbel is so south, that it is only about 75km from the border of Sudan.

AND HERE IS THE MAIN TEMPLE OF ABU SIMBEL! ARE WE AMAZED. IT WAS HUGE. 

This is the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, which was built by Rameses II and basically a structure he erected to show off how great he was and impress Egypt's neighbors to the south. You couldn't take photos inside so can't show you those, but can tell you there's basically HUGE scenes carved on the interior walls of him winning battles and being blessed by gods and basically just being super-great and amazing at everything.

Outside the main temple, he erected four giant seated figures of himself. This man seriously, seriously loved himself more than anyone I've ever heard of.  The temple's back wall features three seated statues of the gods sitting next to Rameses himself - it's perfectly positioned so that the statues in the back of the temple are perfectly illuminated on dates of special significance (with the light lingering longer on the Rameses statue, and not illuminating the statue of the God of the Underworld at all). It's crazy. Ancient Egyptian architects are the most baller people ever.

And next to the Great temple of Abu Simbel (on the left), Ramses II built a smaller temple (the Small Temple) for his favorite wife Nefertari (out of his 60 something wives)

Outside the temple dedicated to his wife, Rameses II still managed to erect huge statues of himself as well. There's a statue of her as well, but this man is relentless. And my new hero.

The temples were both moved by UNESCO in 1960 due to the flooding from construction of the Aswan Dam. It took only 4 years and $36 million dollars. THAT IS CRAZY. How did they move these entire temples?!?! So impressed, UNESCO. Points for you. 

• The temples of Abu Simbel were incredible - I can see why people make the (really 6-7 hour) journey south from Luxor just to catch a glimpse of these. One of the best parts was that I shared a van with the loveliest people - there was a father-son duo, Chad and Gilbert, from the States, as well as another solo traveler from the States, Roxanne, who's currently a student. The four of us stuck together at the temples of Abu Simbel, and they were hilarious and warm and great. And it was my first set of Americans I'd met!  After leaving the temples and making the 3-hour journey back to Aswan, Chad and Gilbert were dropped off at their hotel first - amidst our goodbyes, on the way off the van, Gilbert turns to Roxanne and I and goes "Today I gained two new daughters." Melt. I love everyone. Which brings me to my MVP of the Day.....

MVP of the Day:

To be totally honest, not a day has passed in Egypt that I haven't been truly heart-touched by a local here. I feel like a lot of them go out of their way to look out for me and make sure that I feel safe and have a great time, and I cannot count the number of locals that have been truly, truly amazing to me. That, and Egyptian men just seem to kind of be suckers for women in general. I would give everyone an MVP if I could; for serious.

I'm now coining a new term "traingels", which is basically short for "train angels," because IT IS A THING. Keep in mind that the trains here are crazy, usually packed, full of men shouting and locals hauling on giant boxes and men selling things, and it's kind of pure chaos. Top it off with the fact that it is not that common of an occurrence to see a tourist on a train, and I feel like people see me at the train station and just want to help.

On the train from Luxor to Aswan, I was seated next to a slick-looking businessman in his 40s. This man asked me where I was from, and not only did he look at my ticket and keep an eye out for my station for me, but he also made sure my stuff was secure, always shut the train door for me when men were smoking outside, and went to the tea cart and bought me a tea.  At one point, I was sitting there and he was on the phone, and he handed the phone to me and goes "my wife wants to talk to you." Sure. Over the phone this man's wife used her (incredibly sweet and broken) English to excitedly ask me questions about myself. After I handed the phone back to the man, he chatted for awhile, hung up, then turned to me and goes, "My wife loves you." He then spent the rest of the time showing me photos on his phone of his entire family - especially his three kids, whom he seemed to be especially proud of. As I disembarked from the train after a 3-hour ride, the man wrote down his info, told me to call him if I ever needed anything, and made me promise to friend him on Facebook.  MELT.

Crazily enough, the next day on the train from Aswan back to Luxor, the same thing happened. I'm 99% sure my guide didn't purchase me a seat on the train until it was too late (Star he was NOT), so there were no seats left. He didn't explain this to me, but shoved cash into my hand, asked a local man on the train to look after me, and then bolted.  This local man took it seriously. He seated me next to him (which turned out to be SOMEONE ELSE'S seat because I apparently didn't have a seat!), and he calmly negotiated with the other man until the other man left so that I could stay there (I swear I offered to get up and the man wouldn't let me).  He switched seats with me and gave me his window seat so that I wouldn't be bumped by all the passing vendors. Halfway through, he reached into a plastic bag and produced a roll of cookies to give to me. He had his own roll of cookies and we munched them together on the noisy train, and it was the CUTEST. He didn't speak much English, but he also pulled out his phone to show me a family album of all his kids and his wife. And then he also bought me a tea from the tea cart and refused to let me pay. MELT. 

To my two wonderful traingels, you both get MVP status. They both seriously made my day - small gestures like these touch me more than anything, and the unexpectedness of it was what I loved most. This is also part of why I am loving Egypt - it is gritty, chaotic, pushy, and overwhelming on the surface - but just beneath are the most beautiful people ever. I am now gushing. End gush.

Luxor, Egypt, Part 2: Sunrise, Sunset (Sunrise, Sunset)

I'm 90% sure nobody got my title reference from "Fiddler on the Roof," only because I'm sure nobody else's father had them watch the movie a million times when they were young without realizing it was weird for an Asian family to be so into a traditional Jewish movie.

On a side note, just have to take a moment to say that I am loving Egypt at the moment.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Second day in Luxor involved a tour to the West Bank.  We first stopped at the Valley of the Kings, or the ancient necropolis where pharaohs and kings were buried for over 500 years, between 1500 and 1000 B.C.  Here, the ancient Egyptians carved tombs underground into the natural limestone mountains - archaeologists have discovered 63 tombs, though only 12 are open for the public to visit. They don't allow any photos inside the Valley of the Kings, but trust me when I say that the tombs were AMAZING. Many of them involved passageways that tunneled into the ground, all decorated to the max with incredible paintings and bling and pictures that opened up into several rooms. It was like being totally overloaded by senses - you had no idea where to look, because there were gorgeous scenes and stories and symbols everywhere.  I absolutely loved it. 

This was the only photo we were allowed to take at the Valley of the Kings, right at the entrance. The tombs are all buried in the mountains behind me!

Maybe stolen off the internet (I have to show you SOMEthing!) Interior of one of the tombs

It was crazy how much the color some of the tombs still had. Every one (with the exception of King Tut's tomb) were pillaged by ancient grave robbers, so a lot of the statues, jewels, figures, mummies, etc. are missing.  So you can barely imagine how much more impressive it used to be back in the day.

I don't know where to put this photo. Randomly, these men are making alabaster pots

• Next, we hit up the Hatshepsut Temple - built by the Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled around 1500 B.C. and was kind of a big deal because she was a woman and a pharaoh, and came into power because she was smart and shared the throne with her stepson.

Here is her temple, built under a cliff on the other side of the Valley of the Kings. Most of it is a reconstruction because the original temple was destroyed a couple times.

Some of the reliefs inside Hatshepsut's Temple

I like these because they're big. I don't know what they're of. I was having trouble paying attention.

And on the drive back, look how huge these Rameses II statues are! I think they're 20 meters high. Still under reconstruction.

• That afternoon, my guide, Star (Real name. Or maybe a nickname. Useless parenthesis) and I took a felucca (traditional sailboat) down the Nile River. Just need to check off all those tourist activities, you know?

Felucca time!

Peacefully sailing. We sailed to an island called Banana Island (you cannot make these names up), where bananas grow aplenty. Though there are numerous kinds of fruit growing on the island, so why they don't call it "Mixed Fruit Island" makes no sense to me.

This is what a banana plant looks like

But there really were bananas everywhere!

And then my guide and I sat by the water and ate trays of bananas. I seriously can't imagine a more ideal activity. I nicknamed Star "Wheelin' and Dealin'" because he was always on the phone trying to negotiate things and sell me more activities to do. I explained his nickname to him, and he was very pleased.

Sailing back to catch the sunset

WHICH WAS SO PRETTY

I had a serious problem choosing which out of the 13098324 sunset photos to post

These were the felucca rowers (because there wasn't enough wind to sail) - I helped row partway for the tiny one, who was really sweet.

Last one, last one I promise!  Cotton candy skies.

• Another popular tourist activity in Luxor is to go hot-air ballooning during sunrise. I passed initially on this activity, just because I didn't think anything could compare to Cappadocia (and I also don't want people to think that all I do is go hot-air ballooning and paragliding every weekend, which is MAYBE TRUE). But Star convinced me, because 1.) It's only $25 ($25!!!! For the price of a fancy glass of NYC wine, you can go ballooning!! In comparison, I think Cappadocia was like $150 or something), and 2.) I'm helping Egypt tourism! I am!  Star swore I would regret it if I didn't, and he ended up giving me the lowest price I'd heard of anyone paying. Because Star is a boss.

3AM wakeup

Here comes the sun (doo doo do doooo) (Beatles)

Balloons rising over Valley of the Kings

Sunrise over the Nile!

Another rosy shot of the Valley of the Kings

And you could see all the ruins from the sky!

I shared a balloon basket with the cutest 60-year old man from Belgium. He had come initially with his best friend from home, but his best friend's wife had forbade his friend to get in the hot air balloon, so the man had to do it alone. He was seriously the nicest. Anytime I offered to take a photo for him, he would pull out these pensive side profile poses and such.

Our pilot was training a couple trainees, so we fake-landed about 6 times, and ended up floating way out of the way to land in the Valley of the Kings!  Not to mention we were in the air about 30 minutes longer than anyone else.

• Overall, Star was right. It was amazing, and you can't ever hate on floating magically in the air during sunrise. It's always magical, no matter what's below you. Also, $25. 

Fun Facts of the Day:

• Two big things Egyptian men seem obsessed with: tea and smoking (shisha, cigarettes, whatever really). I think I've been offered a cigarette more times in the past week than in my entire life combined. The tea thing, I'm more than ok with because...tea.  And the shisha comes in very exotic flavors like strawberries & cream.  But seriously, you give an Egyptian man anything more than 10 minutes......and he will be beelining to the nearest cafe to gulp down a tea and puff away at a shisha, before heading to the next locale.
• For some reason, it is downright impossible to get change here. Even for a small bill, vendors/restaurants/shops will hassle you to give exact change because they usually don't have change. Not sure where all the exact money I've been paying goes to.

MVP of the Day:

I've mentioned him several times above, but MVP goes to my guide Star for the day.  I guess he wasn't exactly my guide - he was the in-between guy who picked me up from the train station, would shuttle me to my tours (where there was a separate, actual tour guide), give me logistics information, etc. Star was the one who would try to sell me more tours, and who would always show up in a cab to take me from one place to the next. Really, he was more like my keeper for the time I was in Luxor.

Anyhow, Star and I became buddies. He began to take me with him to the cafes in between his stops and would always buy me tea while he puffed away on a shisha. He taught me Arabic words to pick up girls (so if any of you Arabic ladies are interested....). He noticed that I use the word "fancy" a lot, and when I taught him what it means, he began to use it just as frequently as I do (I was marveling over the seat cushions in one of our taxis, and he was like, "it's fancy, right??").

When I first arrived, Star commented on how many bracelets I have. He asked me where my Egypt one was, and I said I hadn't found one yet. The last day when I left Luxor, he showed up at my hotel to take me to the train station, and he gifted me a bracelet!  He said his mom had made it. Keep in mind this is like a 40-year old man.  It was the nicest thing ever, and I could not have had a better keeper than Star.

First things first, I realize this situation is completely out of control. But the black one is the one gifted from Star and Egypt. (Also, I kind of refuse to show you the other wrist....)