Dahab, Egypt

Dahab.

Caught midnight bus as planned. The journey was 8½ hours from Cairo to Dahab and, going through the desert, pretty damn cold! The coach was advertised as being air-conditioned, but some heat would have been more useful!

Dahab is a very weird sort of place. It consists of a number of "camps" along the beach, along with various restaurants and shops. The camps consist of terraced chalets, some with barely a proper roof. The first one we lived in was extremely basic: our beds consisted of a large concrete slab. Between us and the roof were a few bamboo canes, with daylight more than peeping through.

Back streets of Dahab.

The restaurants are all pretty interesting, totally unconventional. Inside and out there are thick fabric sheets laid down on the desert sand. The areas are partitioned by cloth-covered palm-tree logs and there are a few cushions. In the middle of these partitions there is a table to eat food off whilst one just lies there comfortably.

The weather is much better than Cairo's, both day and night (i.e., not absolutely freezing in bed).

The scenery is very impressive. Looking away from the sea, the Sinai mountain range towers: huge, lifeless rock formations. God knows how far away they are, but from here they seem massive.

Looking over the sea you can see Saudia Arabia on the other side of the Gulf of Aqaba, or at least the mountain range near the Saudi coast. I suspect that these mountains actually peek over the natural sea horizon, and that there's a lot of land out of view.

We have met two English people here: Rich and Sarah from Weston-Super-Mare. We met them again in the Ali Baba Cafe and had quite a good laugh.

Turned in at 10.00 and was relieved at how mild it was compared to Cairo.