Day 18: Dahab

When I woke up this morning, I headed down to the main area of the hostel, 7 Heaven, which has its own scuba department, to get ready for my first scuba dive in a very long time. Right before I got ready, I found out that the bus I was supposed to take to Luxor this afternoon was full, so it is another night in Dahab for me. I'm not complaining, the city is amazing and cheap. This may sound weird, but this is a place where time stands still and you can watch the world turn beneath your feet. All cares in the world are thrown out the window and you just live for the moment. This allows me to not be rushed, for now, and relax in this slice of what I consider paradise. To put it in perspective of how cheap it is, a 2 hour ATV ride to several sights outside of the city costs $25 and you would have to be beyond hungry to spend over $8 on a meal. Not sure if it's the ocean across the boardwalk, the mountains in the background, the people, the culture, or a combination of all the above that gives this place the ability to trap you here. I have not even been here for 24 hours and I can't speak highly enough about it.

So, back to the day, I was paired with one guy, who was my guide for the introductory dive where he basically held me to make sure I stay at the right level in the ocean. Oddly enough, equalizing was the most difficult thing. For some reason my right ear just didn't want to cooperate. The right side of my jaw started to pop out of place and it took three times as long for the right ear to equalize than it did for the left. However, we made it down to 40ft, which was twice as deep as I had been before and was really cool. There are much better diving spots and reefs in this area, but from what I experienced, I was impressed. I took my GoPro down with me to catch a couple videos and snap a few pictures. I was rather disappointed with the quality of the images that came out; not quite like the 1080p footage I can get out of the water, that's for sure.

After my dive was over, I spent the afternoon exploring the town and trying to reorganize the rest of my time in Egypt. After I get done with this trip, I should be a pro at dealing with last minute disasters and completely reorganizing an event at a moment notice. So here's how the next three days are going to play out (as of now): tomorrow (Monday) morning I will fly to Luxor, spend the day exploring the city and spend the night there; Tuesday at 7am I will fly from Luxor to Cairo and meet a friend there, spend the day seeing exactly why everyone comes to Egypt, the pyramids; Wednesday afternoon I will fly to Dubai to meet up with a family friend who currently lives and works there. Four cities in three days.. Can it be done? Only time will tell and anything is possible.