There's not a bird to be seen in Dahab thanks to the legions of cats. They wake you up in the morning with their yammering, smoke sheesha with you sitting in your lap, and see you off to bed as you trip over them. Not a one of them is an 'egyptian' sphinx cat though... just a bunch of mongrels like all the rest of the denzians of the beach. The first day in Dahab I took it easy blogging, eating, and drinking. There was hasheesh too, but I've sworn off of it... it makes me queezy since you must take it with cigarettes. Oh, also when I woke up that morning it was to the sound of a girl in my dorm puking. Lovely. When I came back that afternoon she was still there so I inquired into her doings and found that she had not in fact been drinking but had instead contracted some kind of illness so I went out and got some food and medicine for her.
I also started working on a new song, Island in the Sun, and it's coming along pretty well. I finished up the evening at a Chinese restaurant with several S. Korean backpackers who told me all about their mandatory military service, the possibly impending war with the north, china's plant to annex the north, and many more benign subjects. After that it was sheesha, cards, and bedtime.
The second day out I decided that I'd be more productive so in the morning I practiced my song some more and then went out to lay in the sun. There's a bar down the street from the hostel that will let you lay on their beach chairs for free (they offered a menu but I declined). I guess that there's got to be a free beach hangout because the competition at this so called 'backpacker's paradice' is feirce. The main strip along the water is about half a mile long and the beach side is lined with restaurants featuring bedouin style seating. That's where you lay against pillows and the tables are low to the ground... within cat reach. The other side of the street features shops selling shirts, masks, aroatic herbs, diving lessons, ATMs, bars, and the kitchens for the
aformentioned restaurants. Nowhere is there open sand, but it's possible to step into the water from many of the restaurants. The town is crawling with lazy backpackers, guided tour groups, independant divers waddling down the street in full gear, older holliday makers from the UK, and of course cats. I thought there were just too many gringos. The touts in the town thought there were not enough however and they came from all angles to steer yu into their shops. They'd grab you by the wrist and tell you about their fresh fish, block your way to show you a shirt, and generally were pests.
Anyways, so I layed on the beach and along came Jowen to nap in the shade at the same spot, and Brandy showed up to work on her tan too. After some time, and some beers, we thought it was time to do some snorkeling so we went back to her hostel and worked out a trip to the nearby 'blue hole' dive location, a few miles up the coast. For $6 each we got a taxi that waited for us to finish, the snorkel gear, and off we went. It was a really dusty and windy ride up. We found the spot to be a very deep patch of waterright off the beach that was roughly hole shaped and certainly very blue. I only snorkeled for 20 minutes because the water was a little cold and the feirce wind upon getting out had me shaking for the next 3 hours before we left even though I was dry in minutes. The time was east to pass in one of the many restaurants loated at the otherwise very baren patch of coast and there were more camels than cars patrolng the road. I think that some of the tour groups use them to get back to town.
On the ride home we shared our cab with 3 egyptians serving in the military and we agreed to meet them later on for dinner. I talked the sick room mate for a while and then headed out to neet up. Jowen, Brandy, and I enjoyed their company very much and we swapped stories, took pictures, and laughed more than normal. They were a lively bunch and were headed out that night to return to Cairo. Their plan was to drive to Sharm al-Sheik 2 hours away, dance until 6 am (no drinking of course) and then to drive 7 hours back to Cairo. Tough guys. I declined their offer to take me with them and instead went to bed.
The next day (Friday the 19th) was a long travel day. I decided that I was done with the beach (the sunburn helped) and that it was time to head to Jordan and to meet a new crowd. I met some people on the ride out to the ferry... a few independent backpackers, a mother/son traveling pair, and after a LONG day of waiting around finally made it to Jordan around 6pm. I went to a hotel in Aquaba and shared the cab ride with the mother, her young son, and a man named David that I'd swear I've met somewhere. Some cabbies had a fist fight as they argued over who would take us to town and we went with a 3rd man. The city was nice... small but very clean, well built, and more expensive than Egypt. I shared a room with David and the next morning he and I set out to reach Wadi Musa near Petra.
The drive out was scenic, but otherwise an uneventful one. I played a few songs for the people at the bus stop and David and I got some free tea and a lot of interested looks out of it. I had played for people the day before too and I find that I rather enjoy it. I just need to learn some more songs now, but I've got Island in the Sun down cold. There's a hostel with a dorm here for just $7 per night
which is the cheapest I've heard of in Jordan but stings after I got used to $4 in Egypt. At the hostel I ran into another American, Patrick, that I rode to the ferry with yesterday and we walked around Wadi Musa, played a game of pool, and we're going to meet up later for some drinks. Speaking of which, I'd better get going to that.
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