Chillaxin' in Dahab

Dahab is a much different feeling than Nuweba. First of all it is full of life and nearly all the accommodations are more than half full. The main touristy area is the boardwalk alone the beach. There really isn’t any beach as it is a rocky shore and all the seaside real estate has been taken up by restaurants. I am staying at the Seventh Heavan Hotel which is apparently on the Japanese and Korean backpacker’s trail as there a loads of them staying here.



I’m not exactly sure how I got on this subject, but while I was traveling with the three Japanese girls through Jordan and Israel, I learned that in Japan in the mornings everyone lines up and does a morning exercise. Yoko’s ex company had it and Yasuko seems to know it as well. And it is always done to the same music too. I know this for a fact because at the Faisel Hotel in Jerusalem, I made all the Japanese people randomly to hum and do the exercise routine. And in Egypt its no different.



I managed to a meet a fellow diver from Vancouver, Gabriel, and end up staying in their triple room instead of the dorms. Gabe is currently some specialty courses working towards is divemaster. In addition to being a hotel Seventh Heaven also has a dive center called Diver’s Down Under. Gabe is able to recommend his South African instructor, Awie, which is pronounced like “owy” like when a kid scrapes his knee. I decide to take some time to check out the rates of the other Advance Open Water courses before committing and I also want to do some snorkeling, as I’ve heard that that is almost just as good.



On the boardwalk I meet up with Eric, Manuel, and Ron. Ron is staying up all night tonight to climb Mount Sinai. This trek takes place from 10:30 to sunrise. Basically a bus comes and picks up the group of tourists and then drives to Mount Sinai. In the wee hours of the morning everyone starts trekking towards the top. The idea is to reach the summit by sunrise. Tonight Ron, Eric, and Manual are walking around the boardwalk looking for a “good price” on seafood. Ron is able to negotiate in Lebanese Arabic. We were able to get a giant plate of fish, two king prawns each and veggies for less than 5 USD each. The restaurant owner said this was his special to make sure that we would come back.

The next day Nick and Paulina made into Dahab and ran into them much like the same manner I did back in Petra. They are staying off the boardwalk, but luckily Dahab is not that big. We agree to meet up with dinner and some drinks. That night while I was buying some water at the supermarket, I ran into another familiar face. Jennifer who I met a month and a half ago in Ephesus turkey was standing right in front of me giving me the do I know you look. Our party ended up being pretty big that night as I also ran into Eric and his friend and Nick and Paulina brought their Aussie friends they met in Petra.

Ghost town Nuweba

The beaches of Nuweba is littered with resorts and beachside huts. However most of these accommodations are empty. This use to be an Israeli vacation mecca, but recent terrorist threats has capsized this seaside destination.

I stay at a small stick hut along with the two Canucks. In the morning, we go and rent snorkel gear to check out some of the corrals that are just off shore. The diving is pretty amazing with a shallow reef system directly off the beach. I’ve never seen this much marine life before and it is amazing to watch. It looks like you living what you usually see on the travel/discovery channel. At one point a giant school of small silverfish with a bright reflective lateral stripe circles us and all you can see for a couple of minutes are fish, fish, and more fish. It almost gave me vertigo.



The reefs are really shallow and since its low tide we can only swim along the edges of the coral reef system. The colors are amazingly saturated and the waters crystal clear. Near the edges I could see clown fish and various smaller tangs. I saw my first pipe fish which at first I thought might have been a sea snake because of its shape, but upon closer inspection the snout was a dead give-away. It was bright yellow and swam away into the shelter of coral as soon as I saw it.



The waters were really cold and after just two hours I already to go back to land. We drink coffee along the deserted beach to warm up in the sun. In the distance you can see the countries of Israel, Jordan, and Saudi. There is not much to do here, but I’m glad I stopped by for a nice relaxing time before heading towards the touristy town of Dahab.

Across the Red Sea

Today I journey from Wadi Rum down to Acaba. The taxi driver tries to rip us off by dropping us off at the outskirts of town, what a surprise. I think there is a special place in hell for taxi drivers.

After yelling back and forth for a good 30min and me whipping out the “What would Mohammad do” line, he drops us off at the port.

This will be the third Ferry I’ve taken on this trip; Once in Croatia, twice from Morocco to Gib and now from Acaba, Jordan to Nuweba, Egypt. I’ve already heard a handful of stories of how late the ferry was and how a simple 3hr journey turns into an entire day.

Getting out of Jordan via the ferry is quite a process. The ferry ticket office is on the ground floor, but first you have to go upstairs. There you will be given an exit stamp, it actually looks like a postage stamp with a picture of the Petra Treasury on it. After queuing for the stamp, you must leave your passport there and you are handed a sheet of paper which has the exit tax amount on it. Next you take that sheet of paper across the hall with in talking if not yelling distance of the first counter. There another guy will take the sheet of paper, as if he didn’t know what it could possibly me. There you can pay him, but you must pay in USD. So then you have to across the hallway yet again to an exchange stand where you exchange the Jordanian Dinar into US dollars. Then you backtrack to the last counter, pay in dollars. After paying he stamps that sheet of paper which I take back to the counter that has my passport. There he looks at the stamp and puts a proper exit stamp on my passport. Finally I am allowed to buy a ferry ticket.

I meet several other backpackers in the waiting area. Manuel and Eric, from my Wadi Rum tour, as well as Ron, an Arabic speaking Lebanese Australian join our group. The bottom of the ferry is for cars and all foreigner bags/luggage has a designated area. Only one small backpack is allowed for carry on. The cabin area smells of BO and dirty, must dirtier than the Tangier -> Gib ferry. The boat arrives in Nuweba 3 hours late as expected.

Ron negotiates with the taxi drivers to take everyone to Dahab. I decide to stay in Nuweba to check it out. I head over to soft beach with a couple of Chinese Canadians from Vancouver while everyone else piles in a minivan heading south to Dahab.

So who brought the coke?

I booked a tour of Wadi Rum through the Valentine Hotel. I wasn’t sure if this was a rip off or not, but after arriving in Petra it seems that people were paying twice as much as I paid for the same tour. We have six people crammed in our Land Rover Discovery SUV. There is no AC just windows-down driving.



There are many other SUVs along our same tour and we end up seeing a lot of the same people over and over again. I meet up another American, Eric, who was on the same route toward Egypt. We ended up seeing each other at most of the various stone formations. At the rock bridge we both end up meeting a third American, Thu, a Seattleite who was visiting Jordan while she was working in Alexandria, Egypt.





When I was talking to Thu she talked about how she had just met another American from Kansas City. I described Brian and it turns out that they had met each other previously. I ended up having to leave hatefully from the last attraction because our group was late for another appointment. But Brian and Thu ended up see each other again and Brian was able to give me her contacts.



Our next stop is a Bedouin camp. Here we will spend the night in the tents and see both the sunset and sunrise. The Wadi Rum sunset and sunrise was amazing. The visibility was far and the landscape was bare and peaceful. The red rock color slowly changed various shades of red and orange. I took a barefoot walk around our Bedouin camp exploring all the wildlife that lived around us. There were countless lizards, 4x4 wheel tracks, snake tracks and lizard tracks throughout the area.



The night at Bedouin Camp is cold. When the sun sets the dry hot environment changed to darkness and cold. The atmosphere became completely quiet and there were no lights to be seen. The landscape felt calm and peaceful. This is the reason this place is called the Bedouin meditation camp. The moon lit the surroundings and we all decided to take a talk by moonlight. It was surprising how well lit the moon light was and desert was clearly visible.



That night we all sleep under double blankets. They were so heavy that it felt like you were trapped under the covers. I had the best sleep ever that night and nearly missed the sunrise. Dawn approaches by laying a layer of fogginess across the desert. The colors are grayed and slowly increase in saturation as the sun appears. One of the most beautiful sights so far. I would probably rate this higher than Petra.

Petra: Its A Small World Afterall!

That morning I was talking to Yoko in the lobby when a familiar voice says my name. It turns out that Brian, a friend of a friend, that I had met in Dubai is also at Petra. We decide to check out Petra together and all jump in the truck for the morning ride down to the entrance. During the ride down, Yoko realizes that she has forgotten her ticket.



It is best to view the Treasury, which is usually the picture most people associate with Petra, in the morning. The light doesn’t reach the canyon crevice until 8-9am. Luckily it is best to view the Monastery in the afternoon.



Petra was absolutely amazing. The sheer size of both the Treasury and Monastery are incredible. You really have to see people next to both the carvings to see their true size. I ended walking up to the Monastery with Brian. Then around early afternoon we had explored most places in Petra. Brian headed back and I stayed to wait for the sunset at the “World’s End” which is near the Monastery.



Around sunset I meet up with a group of students that were on a trip to visit Petra. After taking some pictures for them at the “World’s End” we all trek down towards the entrance. It is about a 45 minute walk from the end to the entrance and they end up being late and running towards the entrance. It was kind of interesting to see. I say good bye to that group of acquaintances, I head towards my hotel.



After a long walk back up towards the hilltop hotel of Valentine, I see two familiar figures walking towards me. It was Nick and Paulina, the two Aussies I had traveled with in Morocco. I knew they were going to try to meet up with me either here or in Egypt. We hit a hookah stand after dinner and get some tea. That night we said our goodbyes as I am leaving tomorrow and they are staying to check out Petra.



The funny thing is that the entire time I’m meeting people at Valentine they always bring up how much of a bitch the female owner is. She’s even notoriously mentioned in the Lonely Planet as being less than polite or friendly. One of the first things that Paulina and Nick mention is that very fact. In my experience, the owner was really nice, but then again I was checked in by the husband and not the wife.

Like Kris Kross I also Missed the Bus

Yesterday I grabbed a minibus back from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Back at the Faisal hostel I hear news that the Japanese Journalist has returned to grab his things and is now being deported back to Japan and blacklisted from returning to Israel. I don’t have too much time to talk and ask questions as I am taking the fast track back to Jordan. I miss the bus back to the Allenby Bridge Crossing and end up staying the night there.

The next morning I travel back to the border and move through much quicker this time. I take another minibus ride to the capital city of Amman and then finally a minibus ride down to Petra. After getting into Amman a taxi driver tries to rip me off by taking me the wrong station which is closer but doesn’t offer services to Petra. Luckily I shared the taxi with a Jordanian that lived in San Francisco and she caught on to it. Half way during the ride another Muslim woman and the former San Franciscan started yelling back and forth in Arabic. Finally they she turned to me and disclosed the fact that this guy was going to drop me off at the wrong station and they were arguing in my favor to get to the correct bus station.



I arrived in Petra in the evening. It was already dark, I was hungry, and I had heard that Valentine Hotel was at the top of a decently steep hill. At the drop off point a man in a truck was sitting there waiting for me. He said that he works for the Valentine Hotel and drops people off between the bus station and hotel. I suspiciously ask who much he charges and it turns out to be free. At the top of the hill I find Valentine Hotel and take a moment to breathe in enjoy the view. Tonight the hotel offers an all you can eat dinner and I can’t wait.



That night I realize that a two day Petra entrance pass is a better deal than the single day. Then you can always sell the second day. This is exactly what another group of Americans are doing. So I buy the second day off of them for a huge discount. That night I also discovered Petra beer, which looks amazingly similar to Coors Light.

Tel Aviv'in It Up

This morning, Wakako, a Japanese journalist, and I take a minibus to Tel Aviv to meet up with Yoko who is already there. After getting off the minibus we had to enter a mall to cut to the other side of the street where the bus station is.





Most public buildings in Israel have some sort of security. At the mall entrance sits a single security next to a metal detector. She goes through both of my backpacks only briefly enough to see the top items and lets us through the beeping metal detector. At the other side we find a bus that is heading towards old Tel Aviv.



The public bus in Tel Aviv looks like any other normal bus, however the clientel is quite different. There are Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Soldiers carrying firearms and large duffels bags. We arrived at the old part of Tel Aviv called Jaffa. Here we get off the local bus at an amazing looking clock tower and trek towards our hostel.



The beaches of Tel Aviv start next to Jaffa and stretch all the way to the high-rise buildings of new Tel Aviv. It is winter here and the waters are still warm to swim, however I am told that the beaches are the most empty. The overall feel of this city is completely different from that of Jerusalem. It feels soul-less compared to the ancient city of Jerusalem and the modern feel of the city makes it seem like I can be anywhere in the world right now.




I meet up with Anna, a Spaniard, who I met on the Jerusalem walking tour. She is out here doing geological research for school and we decide to check out the beach and walk around the city. There are still a lot of people on the beach, especially for winter and it makes me think how great it would be to live in a place where I can hit up the beaching during Christmas. I’d imagine that it would be must like Christmas in Australia where families each sea food and go to the beach for the holidays.



That night at the hostel I meet my first Chinese traveler. She is staying in the same room has Yoko and is only here for the night and I finally get another chance to practice my Mandarin. The nights are quite cool and without a kitchen I am forced to eat at the local street food stands near our hostel. For being in the middle of the Arabic quarter of Tel Aviv the food here doesn’t hold a flame compared to Jerusalem.



I’ve met and talked to several Israeli people while I was in the city. Four out of the five have told me how Israel is the greatest country in the world within five minutes of meeting them. Yet they don’t really ever justify their statement and the discussion of their country usually ends with that statement.



The walk back from the main city to old city of Tel Aviv takes about forty five minutes. Check out this license plate I found while walking home. It is actually from Sedgwick County which is where I’m fromI usually return after sunset everyday and walk along the beach. The sunsets here have been some of the most colorful I’ve yet to see. The temperature drops immediately after the sunsets and the entire city shuts down.