Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Sinai Peninsula!!!!!!!!

So we are almost caught up to speed, and I am taking more photos with the crappy camera that I can upload to my laptop, so hopefully you all will be a bit more intereted now.

Dahab is situated on the Red Sea Coast on the great Sinai Peninsula, about 1 hour north of Sharm El Sheik (where Hosni currently is)and 2.5 hours south of the Israel border. Its known as a haven for diving and windsurfing and LOTS of backpackers. Just my speed.

My hostel is actually within the Red Sea hotel so we enjoy all the same amenities, pool, free bkfst,free beach towels, free shotty wireless and direct access to beach - for 7 USD per day. I'm booked in one of the 6 female dorm rooms but there are only two of us, so its perfect! My roomie is a pregant Swiss chick studying Arabic at the University in Cairo. Please note that my bus buddies, Brendan and Andrea, continued onto Taba to cross into Isreal, then to Haifa where they had a car they needed to ferry across to Greece and continue driving until Romania. How fun!

The town is a bit more touristy then I expected, but not nearly as bas Sharm which is known for their package tours and nightlife. Still Dahab is exactly what I was looking for. The prices are a bit steeper then Luxor and Cairo, which are both severely suffering from the drop in tourism over the last few months, Dahab seems to be doing much better. Besides, who can beat 7 USD per night on the beach???

After spending a few much needed hours lounging on the beach, I started to explore the town and look for tours for both snorkeling and trips to Mt Sinai. Apparently since its Holy Week St. Catherine's Monastery, which lies at the base of Mt Sinai is closed starting with Holy Thursday (today) thru Sunday, so tours up there are extremely limited. In fact my hotel said there were no tours going up at all, but I didn't take their word for it and found one going that night(Wed Night).

Ok - will post about that experience shortly.

Hope you all are enjoying my posts - please comment!!! I will also post more pics as promised.

Mel

1 comment:

  1. Your posts are fantastic, Melissa! I love the descriptions. I can see everything. Keep it up!

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