First things first but I never expected to be reminded of my old work, The National Bank, here in Dahab in Egypt by the Red sea. But as I sat down to this ancient PC the mouse arrow changed to the running horse, the same design as the National Bank uses, only it was Red not black.
Maybe it was red because of the Red Sea right next door. And maybe a horse was chosen because Arabian Horses are supposed to be the biggest/strongest/fastest in the world (or something like that).
Nevertheless I can report that the Red Sea is indeed a a Deep and beautiful shade of Blue, and Saudi Arabia stand on the far side, its sandy brown mountains reflecting lazily through the dusty air.
There are many fascinating stories arond this part of Egypt, chief amoung them the guy who windsurfed/paddled or otherwise accidentally made it from Dahab across the Red Sea and landed at Saudi Arabia. One version says it was a drunk Ausie who paddled one of those paddling boats across to the American Naval base on the other side. Another says a guy windsurfed across, was picked up by the Saudi Military who flew him and his windsurfer to Cairo airport. He then had to get a 10 hour bus back to Dahab in just his boardies and with his windsurfer. Based on a true story anyway.
Saudi is a harsh place too, I am very tempted to go and cisit just for the culture, but two girls on our tour had their flight diverted there, and got majorly hit up by the "authorities" because they had alcohol on them!! And they were even supposed to be going there!!
Most spectacular here is the Blue Hole, a circular coral reef about 50m by 50m, which you can snorkel in and around. I saw some fantastic fish there. Apparently the whole coast of the Red sea is 2nd only to the Great Barrier Reef in the world in terms of diving and snorkelling. I can definitel believe it!
I'm typing all this with some lovely stomach cramps and maybe, just hopefully they are passing. I hope so because there is a lot to write!
I could go back and list all the details of what I have seen, but the truth I really can't be bothered! There are so many temples and heiroglyphics and statues I wouldn't know where to begin. So I'll list a few highlights:
Abu SimbelA giant temple built into the side of a hill. Just 30 miles from Sudan. The temple is aligned so that on a particular day (just 3 days after we were there in fact), the rising sun shines right down the length of the main corridor onto 3 of 4 statues (3 Gods and one Pharoh trying to pass himself off as a God). Only catch was they had to move it to make way for the massive High Dam, which created lake Nasser and would have flooded the temple. So the temple was moved, mountain and all, to a higher location. But after moving this massive mountain and positioning the temple, they found they had messed up the aligning of the sunrise, and so the sunrise hits a day late. On top of that, the misalignment means that the sun shines on 2 whole statues and half of the two others. Ironically the statue who is not supposed to be recieving light is the God of Darkeness (or something similar), so I bet he's well peeved with all this sunlight on him now after thousands of years of darkness!!!
Aswan High DamThere are two dams here, but thge big one created Lake Nasser, the largest man made lake in the world. It controls the Nile floods, and allows for three planting seasons instead of the previous one. It is surrounded by something like 10% of Egypts army, because if it was ever destroyed, 97% of Egypts population/inhabitabed areas would be flooded within two weeks. Basically it would wipe out Egypt for good. So here's hoping that never happens!!
Philae TempleAnother temple saved from flooding, but this one after the fact - they had to move this one from underwater to above water!!
Felucca2 days on a sail boat going 60km up the Nile. Really relaxing and good fun. Really enjoyed and one day i want to try and go a lot further!
Valley of the KingsHere I went inside King Ramses 1, 3 and 9's tombs. Ramses 3rd was the best because he was trying to out do Ramses 2, Egypts greatest ever ruler. On the otherside of the hill was the Valley of the Queens (much less interesting tombs, most were holes in the ground similar to wells!). I also saw the temple for Hatshepsut - a mammoth 3 level construction built into the side of a hill.
KarnakThis is in Luxor, and is a massive complex which still has some paint remaining on the temples. (All the temples were painted back in thier glory days). This is probably similar to the Forum in Rome, though of course there is no connection!
Finally I'd like to comment on "Security". As a tourist, Egypt is not supposed to be the safest country - personal safety is ok, but for example there have been busses shot up. bombs going off, massacres and temples, and even here in the sunny resort of Dahab there were 3 bombs that went off not so long ago. So everywhere you go as a tourist, you see the tourist police. You also go through coppious amounts of metal detectors, that just beep and but you just go straight through. Excellent security - the job of being a tourist police officer must be one of the easiest in the world.
Indeed the strangest part of security is the "police convoy". To get to Dahab we had a 17 hour drive, the first 4 hours or so in a police convoy with six armed police cars and about 120 vehicles. We then did the rest on our own - one police car (which incidentally I never even saw), for our bus. Apparently this all stems from the nineties when a German Bus got shot up. I'm not sure how have 6 police cars to protect 120 vehicles works, but if I was a terrorist, I'd think all my Christmas's had come at once! What better opportunity for attack that 120 busses driving past you. And there is no option but for them to drive past, because you can't stop 120 busses and turn them around, that would leave them as sitting ducks. Its a tradgedy waiting to happen.
On that depressing note, it is also very sunny outside, but very windy. There is very little hassle here in Dahab, so I'm going out to do a bit of shopping. Until next time!
