Journey to Dahab

Once we got back into Cairo from the Pyramids, we went back to our hostel to pick up our packs and prepared ourselves for the nine hour overnight bus trip to Dahab, which left just after midnight. The cab ride to Turgoman bus station resembled a roller coaster crossed with an elaborate death trap. It was wild, even by Cairo standards, particularly for Sumon who was riding in the front seat. At the bus station, we met Peter, a nice German med student living in Cairo and learning Arabic. It's a good thing we met him, as his language skills came in handy. Had we not met Peter, we would have missed our bus, or gotten on the wrong one! Peter had been to Dahab once before, and basically knew everything there was to know about the place, so he was basically the perfect tour guide. Thus, we creatively nicknamed him The German Tour Guide. Also on the bus was Ben from Albany, NY who had been living in Israel and traveling through Egypt before returning to Israel to live and work on a kibbutz. Another really nice guy, Ben rounded out our Fab Four.

We reached Dahab in the morning, and fell in love with the place very quickly. We decided to stay at the hostel that Peter recommended, called BishBishi, which turned out to be a nice, open-air resort. We took a cab ride from the Dahab bus station to BishBishi, and by "took a cab ride," we mean "hopped into the back of a pickup truck and traveled hillbilly style." Sumon had always wanted to do that, so he was happy. Our rooms weren't quite ready yet, so the friendly staff sat us down in the cafe and made us Egyptian tea. Egyptian tea is actually just a broken Lipton bag, but what makes it unique is the insanely sweet Egyptian sugar. It isn't nearly as fine as the sugar back home, and it's really concentrated. Our teeth are rotting just from thinking about it. We also met Peter's friends Johannes and Tania, who were already at the resort. Our four were now six. Seven when we met Adrienne, Johannes' girlfriend, later that night.

Once we got settled in our room, we met up with our new friends at a cafe on the beautiful beach on which all of Dahab sits. Much of our time in Dahab was spent this way. It's a wonderful resort town that hosts many foreign visitors to Egypt, without being too "touristy." It's beyond relaxing, which is a stark contrast to the chaotic hustle and bustle of Cairo (though we greatly enjoyed that as well). There's a lot to do in Dahab. We got to try snorkeling and diving which were great fun, though Sumon had some trouble with the breathing apparatus and couldn't really dive (Sumon says: hey, I'll give it another shot sometime). We also climbed Mout Sinai, which is deserving of its own post. Nights were spent with our new friends as well, out to dinner at nice restaurants near the beach.

Our stay in Dahab was marred at the end, however. On our last day, Snow fell ill due possibly to some bad dairy from the night before, which was bad enough, but then we had to fight with the management over forty Pounds. We had paid for the first night when we got there, but they said that we didn't. That's right folks, more scammers in Egypt, even in Dahab. Forty Pounds is only about US $8, but it's the principle of the thing, really. We didn't win this one, unfortunately, even with the help of The German Tour Guide, whom we recruited to help mediate. Still, we didn't let that ruin the great time we had up to that point. We just know that if (when?) we get to Dahab again, we won't stay at BishBishi, and neither should you!

And now: Pictures!
Chilling on the beach






Snow enjoying a can of Sprite in the nice courtyard at BishBishi







Smoking Shisha on the beach. Settle down you narcs, it's just tobacco in there, along with strawberry flavor, molasses, and some other innocent ingredients.










Getting ready for our diving lesson. We look awesome in our wetsuits!

















Some views of the beach. That body of water is the Red Sea, and that land mass in the distance is Saudi Arabia.











Snow in the room at BishBishi
Our Pyramid tickets

Ok, So It's Been a While

Disappearing for almost two weeks is probably not the best way to start off a new blog, but we can assure you that it's only because we've been so busy lately. Though the blog lay dormant, there's been a flurry of activity around here. The trip is officially less than a month away, and we've still got a ton of work to get through. Here's what we've been up to since our last post:

Last Monday, we met up in the city to get our visa for India. Visas can be a pain to get, depending on where you're headed, and they usually comprise something else to pay for before you even leave. Still they are necessary, and we headed into New York City to hand in our application and passport at the processing center. India's consulate outsources its visa processing to a private company, so we had to find our way there. After Snow got her passport pictures taken (the visa application requires two copies), we submitted our apps, with the expectation that they would be ready to be picked up at the end of the business day. Thus, we had ourselves a day to spend in the city. Since Snow had plans to move back to her home near Boston at the end of February, she took it as her last New York City hurrah...for now. We decided to use this time to look at restaurants for Snow's graduation party in May. Snow and her mother had been hard at work for several weeks looking for nice places to hold the big party, andwe were going to look at a couple of candidates. One was in Long Island City, Queens, the other in Brooklyn. We took a subway into Queens to visit the former, and figured we could walk from the subway stop to the restaurant. After what felt like an eternity of walking, we decided to give the place a call to see if we were close. That's how we found out that we had the wrong address...let's put it this way: that whole avenue/street distinction is pretty important. Whoops. Let's not take the time to wonder how we're supposed to find out how to get around in strange foreign countries if we can't figure out Queens and just move on.

Realizing it would be another eternity before we get to the correct address, we decided to skip the restaurant and stop off for lunch before making our way to Brooklyn. We ate at a Mexican tortilla restaurant (owned and run by Asians...see, it is an interesting world), and took the two subway to get to the restaurant in Brooklyn. We made it to this place without much incident (ok, so we made a wrong turn while walking to this place, but we weren't thrown too far off course). We weren't all that enamored with this restaurant. It had a dynamite view of the city, and it was on the water, but they weren't worth the exorbitant per person price they were asking for. The restaurant was nice, but not that nice. Thus, it was a pass.

Back in Manhattan, we still had some time before we had to pick up the visas, so we decided to stop off at EMS in lower Manhattan to look at backpacks for Sumon. Snow didn't need to look for one as she just happened to find one laying around in her basement while moving out of a previous residence. Some people have all the luck. Sumon tried on a couple of packs, one of which he liked, but we decided not to buy just yet. Since we're leaving from Boston, we decided to wait for a week or so before the trip to buy, so that we can save money by going to New Hampshire, where there is no sales tax. Anyway, we've got a good idea of what kind of pack we're looking for now.

At this point, it was time to head back to the visa processing center to pick up our newly visa wielding passports. This kind of licks us into India. Every step we take just makes the trip that much more "real." The anticipation for the trip is probably equal parts trepidation and excitement. Sometimes we just can't believe that we're going to be doing this. It's so amazing.

Once we got our passports back, we went back to Snow's house on Long Island to try to figure out the visa for Vietnam. We found the application on the web, but we can't seem to find exactly what the visa fee is! It's pretty frustrating. Anybody out there have any idea? Please let us know if you do. Thanks!

Much of the rest of the week was taken up by Snow's big move. There was a lot of stuff that needed to be packed. She had to secure a storage space (she's planning to come back to Long Island after the trip), and then rent a U-Haul to transport her beloved queen size bed to Sumon's parents house, where it will be stored. Sure, she could have kept the bed in storage, but apparently, Snow didn't like the looks of the storage space, thinking the bed wouldn't be happy there (don't ask) so she decided to just keep a bunch of boxes there instead.

Snow moved off of Long Island on Friday night (having to drive through a Connecticut snowstorm in the process). That brings us to today. We're actually wondering about changing the trip. It's crazy to start thinking of that less than a month before departure, but we're backpacking around the world, which is synonymous with "budget travel," so we have to cut costs where we can. The other consideration is weather. It's going to be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in most of these destinations, and we're wondering if we can even survive such heat. Our thresholds for heat are pretty low (that's particularly true for Sumon, who may have been a block of ice in a previous life), so some changes may be in order. We're both definitely married to Egypt, so that's not coming out. India's pretty important too, especially since we've got the visas now. Southeast Asia, which clocked in at over three weeks, is probably going to be truncated. We may end up spending more time in Europe, which would be quite a bit more temperate. More on that as it develops.

Our travel agent is going to kill us...