A Trip to Dahab

Our last day of school last week was Monday. Having Tuesday off was a welcome surprise--has to do with the moon and when the end of Ramadan is--so we enjoyed a relaxing day before we flew out to Dahab. We left Tuesday night and flew from Cairo to Sharm-el-Sheikh (a popular tourist destination--very developed compared to Dahab), and then rode in a hotel van from Sharm to Dahab. Dahab is a town on the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Still part of Egypt, but not far at all from Saudi Arabia. Jason went there last spring with teachers from school, and a bunch of teachers went there this week for our end of Ramadan vacation.

It was 1 AM when we arrived, so we checked in to our room and went to the hotel restaurant, where we ordered some pizzas to go. We gobbled them up, and then headed off to bed.

The next morning we could really see everything. The outside of our hotel was so cool. There's a restaurant between the hotel and the sea, where they serve breakfast (part of the deal) and all other meals, too. There are no chairs, just cushions and rugs and low tables. Very relaxed, mostly comfortable, and good food. Tough to get Luke to sit still during a meal, though...but that's even tough at a table and chairs.

Playing possum at the restaurant:

The hotels in Dahab are all in a strip several miles long. We were pretty much at one end, and most of the AIS teachers were at the other, so we really didn't interact too much with other teachers, except for our Cairo "family," the Simons. We had breakfast with them in the mornings, did our own things during the days, and met back up at night.

Our goal during this trip was to teach Luke to snorkel. Since Jason is a much better teacher at this type of thing than I am, I left him to it. I took the pictures and read a (bad) book on the beach while Jason and Luke swam and learned to use the mask and snorkel. Luke did okay, and was super excited when he saw a few fish. Later in the vacation, the three of us went together to a place called the Blue Hole, which is a deep hole (couldn't see the bottom) in the sea, surprisingly near the shore, surrounded by reef. It looks a lot like the dropoff in Nemo, and the whole thing is maybe about half the size of a football field. All three of us snorkeled together there. One of the sweetest moments ever was when Jason told Luke to make sure to point out the fish he saw to me. I loved watching his excited little finger pointing to all different kinds of fish and hearing him try to talk through his snorkel! Overall, the snorkeling effort was mildly successful. Luke could go for about 10 minutes before he got frustrated with the mask and was ready to get out. After a short rest, he was ready to go again. I wouldn't trade those 10-15 minutes for anything, though. He was so precious!

(The reflection on his goggles makes him look possessed...I assure you, he's not.)

Another thing we wanted to do was climb Mt. Sinai. After investigating the logistics, we discovered that it was a 12-hour trip: leave at 11 PM, drive 2 1/2 hours, climb for 3 hours, wait an hour for the sun to rise, climb down for two more hours, then drive back, arriving back to the hotel at 11 AM. Jason was pretty sure we could do this with Luke...I was more skeptical. My skepticism won out, and Luke and I stayed behind while Jason went on the trip. I didn't mind--climbing Mt. Sinai was more important to Jason than to me, anyway. Plus I took the opportunity to allow Luke to veg out in the morning and watch Sesame Street podcasts on my computer (Don't know about those? They're free from iTunes! Download 'em! They're 5 minutes each. LOVE them.) while I slept in till 9! Yay!

Jason was glad he did the trek up Mt. Sinai. He said he walked up "Camel Dung Trail" to the top, and that it was pretty cold at the top waiting for sunrise. After sunrise, however, the desert sun got the back of his neck. Here are some of his pictures:


All in all, it was a very relaxed five days in Dahab. We basically ate, slept, swam, ate, and slept. I didn't get many pictures most of the week because there are only so many pictures of people sitting around eating one can take! However, once the camera is in Jason's hands, magic happens! Here are some of the great shots he got the last day. I don't know which one I like better, this one:


or this one:

Both are pure Luke.

Then there's this one, which is NOT so magical.

(I include this one ONLY because of the sheer number of FRECKLES on my face. I knew there were a lot, but WOW.)

And last, a good family shot Noel took for us. Thanks, Noel!