The Food

In response to a comment/question from Chris, Joe writes:

Aah--the food. Here are Joe's thoughts...

Egypt is a very poor country without particularly good sanitation (also lots of trash, bad smog, etc.). Kim & Joe have been very careful (read "paranoid") about our eating: only bottled water to drink, brush teeth, etc. They have avoided all fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, because of contamination risk on the skin (and some people say inside from water used in irrigation as well, but we're skeptical of that.). There are a lot of flies, so it's difficult (actually, impossible) to avoid eating food that flies have been on (Yuch!). In Dahab, they have also given up meat, after seeing how it is stored & transported (and how it smells).

Brie & Mark have "3rd world stomachs" that are acclimated to all the Egyptian bugs, so they are eating everything, but using bottled water.

Kim ate 1/2 teaspoon of some fresh watermelon juice that Brie ordered, and has had mild stomach problems for several days since... Everyone else is ok. Perhaps it wasn't the watermelon juice, but that's the only difference between what Kim ate and what Joe ate in the 24 hrs. immediately preceding the onset of her difficulties.

So, back to your real question about the food. It resembles other food from the general area: hummus, tahini, felafel, baba ganoush, kabobs, etc. The felafel are made with fava beans or white beans, not chick peas, and are generally very good. We've eaten lots of vegetarian pizza. In general, it has been good, but not great. There have been some very good soft cheeses like feta. The foul (smashed beans) that they eat at breakfast are sometimes good, especially if you dump in the accoutrements such as yogurt and various spices. It seems that the more smashed the beans, the better it tastes.

Kim & Joe have resorted to eating some "grocery store meals" of factory-packed food to minimize contact with flies & storage/handling problems.

The beer has generally been like generic American beer (we've only been drinking Egyptian & Jordanian beer), but we found a couple that stand out. Petra beer was excellent--very flavorful. At 10%, we knew that we had had a beer :-). We just drank Luxor beer last night, which was also good--unfiltered, with a very nice flavor.

Perhaps we're being overly cautious, but I don't think so. If you have a strong digestive system with acquired immunity to 3rd world bugs, you can probably follow in Brie's & Mark's footsteps and enjoy the local food.

Dahab--day three

We went to the dive shop, Desert Divers, right after breakfast and signed up for our dives. Because we have not been diving for a few years, we needed to do a scuba tune-up starting with a several-page quiz to ensure that we remembered what we needed to know. We did a great job remembering almost everything except our dive tables. After a quick review, we remembered and were able to do our multiple-dive calculations. We met our instructor, Ineka, a young Australian woman who has stopped in Dahab for two months on a solo one-year around-the-world trip after graduation from her university. She has been an instructor for 2 1/2 years and was very competent.

The first dive was mostly practicing skills: removing, replacing and clearing regulator and mask, etc. We did explore the reef called Lighthouse, which was fantastic. It is so great to be able to hover right in front of fish or other critters without worrying about having to surface to breathe in case of a problem.

We had a light lunch, then headed back for our afternoon dive, which was at a place called Islands. It is a series of coral islands and pools all interconnected. We had to swim through a short cave to get started. We saw great coral and life here also, including a crocodile fish, a large octopus, several dozen medium-size barracuda, and lots of assorted colorful reef fish. Joe had equipment difficulties (a leaking buoyancy control device), so he had trouble with buoyancy control and his air ran out early and he finished the dive sharing the air with the dive leader, Nimby, an Egyptian. Fortunately, it didn't interfere with the enjoyment of the dive for Joe or anyone else. We actually had 3 dive masters with us, Nimby who knew the area well, Ineka who hadn't been diving there before and Tor, a British girl who dove with Ineka in Australia and was visiting her for 2 weeks--we were well covered and they were a fun group

We really like the Desert Divers shop and recommend it to anyone else who comes here. It is one of the several shops recommended in our guide book: Lonely Planet.

Now we're trying to decide whether to climb Mt. Sinai tonight instead of sleeping (which probably means no more diving), or skipping it and doing a couple more dives tomorrow... We walked around town a bit and went to dinner at a really good Italian restaurant then browsed the shops, dodging the hassles from the guys in front of the restaurants wanting us to eat there. Weird job they have, but they seem in good humor and laugh a lot as they talk to the tourists.

Dahab--day two

Our hotel didn't serve coffee until 8:00am, and the manager said that no other place in town is open for coffee until later than that, so we slept in.

We then spent most of the morning with the logistics of switching hotels. We're now in a regular hotel that is cleaner, friendlier, and has a nice pool. It is called the Red Sea Relax. It feels much better :-)

We rented mask, fins & snorkels and went snorkeling in the early afternoon. The coral reef is home to a huge number of great fish! We saw lots of species we had never seen before, as well as some favorites. It's a very easy shore entry from our hotel's beach, then you're on the reef almost immediately. There are dozens of dive shops and the sea is swarming with divers.

We're now planning the rest of our stay here: when to go SCUBA diving, when to climb Mt. Sinai, etc.

We wandered about town & selected a dive shop, then wandered about town & selected a restaurant, then ate a light meal and got back to the hotel at 11:30pm. Late for us!

Dahab--day one

We took a taxi from Petra to the Amman airport (we called the same driver who took us to Petra), caught a plane to Sharm El Sheikh, which is on the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula: a site of world class diving, but very touristy. From the air, the reefs looked incredible! They are huge--we could have been flying over the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

We chose to stay in Dahab, which is an hour's drive northeast up the gulf, and is also a great diving spot, but is very low key. A driver from our "hotel" met us at the airport and took us to Dahab. The driver was jerking his head all around while driving: Kim thought he was falling asleep & Joe thought he was on speed. Kim asked Brie to engage him in conversation: turns out Joe was right (pure speculation)...

We made it safely to Dahab. Hooray.

Our "hotel" is a converted house of Sheikh Salem. It is right on the beach, with a great view. It is, however, very rustic, not very sanitary or secure, and the managers (owners?) haven't learned anything about treating customers well. We walked around town, exploring other options, and decided to switch in the morning.

There is a constant breeze and the temps range from the mid-80's at night to the upper 90's during the day. In the shade it is very comfortable with the breeze. It was 15 degrees warmer here last week.

Right across the gulf is Saudia Arabia, clearly visible in the attached photo.

Comments

Thanks to Carl and Elliot for your comments. Comments or questions from anyone else?

Thanks.

Preview--Dahab (out of order)

We're planning to end our trip in Dahab, relaxing on the beach, snorkeling & SCUBA diving. Check out these webcams.

http://www.dahab-info.com/webcams/

Prices of stuff

We found things in Egypt to be generally very inexpensive, and in Jordan to be generally a little less expensive than in the U.S. Examples include:

• 1.5 liter bottled water--from a low of $0.19 in downtown Cairo to $2.80 in downtown Petra and at the Petra Marriott. We drank lots and lots of water on the trip!


• Gasoline--from a low of $.53 /gallon for 80 octane in Cairo to $3.76/gallon for 90 octane in Jordan. The government of Egypt subsidizes the cost of gasoline and a few other commodities.


• Dining out--appetizers from a low of $.94 at a fabulous restaurant, Safora, in Luxor to $2.10 at the Red Cave in Petra.


• Internet--from a low of $1.50/hr in Luxor to a high of $11.20/hr at the Petra Marriott. Actually, one hotel had free internet.
  


• Taxi ride--from a low of $.94 for a 15-minute ride in Cairo in the black & white taxi (the system is "pay what you think is fair" and the taxi driver will object if it isn't) to a high of $9.80 for a 10-minute ride in Petra.
• 
  
• Universal USB memory card reader including Sony duo pro--$3.76 in downtown Cairo. Without the Sony duo pro capability. it was only $.94 in downtown Cairo.
  

• SCUBA diving--$78 for "tune up" written & practical skills practice for people who haven't been diving in several years, two dives, full equipment rental, transportation to a remote dive site (15-minutes away).