Eid Mubarak! عيد مبارك

At dusk, as I looked out the cab window on the way to catch the bus to Sinai last Wednesday, I realized it was the last time I'd see Cairo during Ramadan. I'd almost gotten used to the deserted streets and strange lack of chaos during Iftar (between about 6 and 7:30 every day, when Muslims break their fast with family and friends). Most restaurants are closed for the day, but everything opens up at night. The stark difference between night and day is comparable to, say, Clock Town in Zelda or the bathhouse town in Spirited Away. Multicolored lights are on every street and people just seem like they're in a better mood. Everyone has somewhere to go, from the old man with a cane doing a remarkable job of crossing the street to groups of women in the full black cloaks called niqab. (They won't offer you gold, though, sorry.) I guess I'll miss the late nights and energy of Ramadan in Cairo, but at the same time it'll be nice to be able to find someplace to eat during the day and not feel guilty about it.

In the rush to get out of the Nile Delta to the Red Sea and Sinai, I'd forgotten not yeast, but my sandals. No matter. Surprisingly, we needed our passports to get to Dahab, a small town on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. One guy had forgotten his, and the Egyptian ticket-checkers didn't seem to have a problem with it until the third and last checkpoint, right near Dahab.

Here's what happened:



Not exactly. But they did haul him off the bus along with an Egyptian who was trying to help him out, and we drove away, never seeing him again.

(Now would be the perfect ending to my post, but we actually found him later while climbing Mt. Sinai. He was fine.)

We arrived in Dahab around 4:15 in the morning, providing the perfect opportunity for a morning swim on our hotel's beach.





Downtown Dahab:





Our friends had gotten a single bedroom that they were planning on sharing. Surprise! The front desk called them and said they owed an extra $16 per night. Why? Apparently a single room is for one person only, even if there happen to be two beds. Also, the space where you write the guest person's name on the online booking is apparently not for your guest, but for you to write your name again. And if that wasn't proof enough that you were purposely trying to lie to the establishment, it's perfectly fine for them to come into your locked room when you're away and check for evidence that two, not one, are staying there (and leave the door unlocked).
Too complicated? Here's a much simpler answer: In the words of the front desk guy, "Imagine you are in market. Item cost 50 pounds. You pay 80. Man give you 100. You take 100 and run away."
We're so ashamed of ourselves.

Hotel madness aside, it was actually a fairly nice place to stay, with a private beach, pool, and far too many ancient Nordic men in Speedos.

After exploring downtown Dahab, we needed to get a cab back to the hotel. We were quickly set upon by two cab drivers. One guy told us LE 30, fine. We started walking to his car. But another guy, who apparently was in line ahead of guy 1, said this wasn't fair and that we shouldn't go with this man. Guy 2 offered us LE 25 but we stuck with guy 1. Guy 2 started arguing with guy 1, so we just told both of them that they could sort out their problems themselves and that we'd just take the free hotel bus back. We walked a few yards to the shuttle stop. No doubt angry at having lost five potential customers, both men immediately got into a full-blown fistfight including headlocks and choking. Someone broke them up quickly but it was on the whole a laysa jayyid experience.

(We later unwittingly used guy 2 as our cab driver the next night. Longest, most awkward cab ride ever.)

Ramadan was over, which means...move those clocks forward! For the next 20 days, we'll be 7 hours ahead of the US East Coast. Then we'll switch back again for daylight savings. Not that it really matters, though...Egyptian time is Egyptian time.

Of course, there's nothing like a little clarification if you're confused about all this time-switching. Just read the hotel notice they gave to us.



The Blue Hole, they say, is one of the world's best snorkeling spots. Situated in a lagoon about 15 minutes from our hotel, it was convenient for us to take a jeep-cab there for the day. Unfortunately it broke down in the middle of the desert and another one had to come pick us up. Our first driver tried getting on this jeep as we left in a desperate attempt to abandon his own and get out of this wasteland, but our new driver accelerated, leaving the guy to wait for help.

That night we planned to go to Mt. Sinai. We hadn't brought blankets for the summit, and figured we'd just borrow some from our hotel room.
Always two steps ahead, of course, the hotel guys had come into our room and removed them.