Last days in the Middle East

The little platoon of stray cats that accompanied me at each meal after figuring out that I would usually give in and start feeding them fries.

Moon coming up over Saudi Arabia (the far shore, although not very visible here) and the Red Sea.

Diving the Red Sea.

Alexandria, from my new home in the lovely Union Hotel.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In an attempt to regain some of their former prestige, the city built this library, one of the largest in the world. The outside is covered with characters from every known alphabet on earth.

Diving in the Red Sea is definitely all it's hyped up to be (for those who don't know...it's hyped up a lot). I managed to squeeze in 3 dives and was planning another 3, but had to cancel due to an unplanned exit, more on that later. The first dive I did was a total waste of money due to a wee bit of a hangover, most of my time was spent trying not to vomit into my regulator. The next two dives (the day after) were the best I've done. It's all shore diving here, and access to the dive sites involves either camel trekking or a 4x4, as they're all out in the desert somewhere, I chose 4x4 due to cost restraints. The first dive was mainly spent going through underwater caverns and caves. The water down here is amazing and visibility is a whopping 40-45 metres, plus the abundance of sea life is unparalleled. At one point my dive master told me to take my regulator out and open my mouth (while 35 metres down), and I was soon startled to feel 3 or 4 of those 2 inch cleaner fish diving right into my mouth and cleaning whatever they could off my back molars. Very cool, but they would soon become irritating after they wouldn't leave either of our ears alone. The second dive started with a 30 metre headfirst drop down a thin little chimney of rock, scary, but well worth it. At the end of this dive, while hanging out at about 35 metres (with the ocean floor 200 metres beneath us), I was surprised to see a woman emerge from the black depths below without any scuba gear or breathing apparatus, just holding her nose. Turns out this is where many of the world's top skin divers compete/train and that she had just broken some kind of female European record (she went down to 90 or 100 metres).

Dahab itself is an awesome little place and if I ever go back to this region, it will be where I would spend some time. Due to 3 suicide bombers a couple months ago (who's craters I eerily walked over each time I left my hostel), the place is absolutely deserted. Lots of the restaurants and hotels that should be packed during the summer season are completely empty and a decent amount of them were in the process of shutting down while I was there. Unfortunately I wouldn't have as much time as I thought to enjoy it. That evening while having dinner with some English people, the subject moved towards my next destination, India. The guy explained to me that an Indian visa was necessary before entering the country (as well as an onward ticket from India...thanks pops!), something that the woman who sold me the plane ticket forgot to mention. So, after looking around on the internet for an Indian embassy in Cairo, looking at its hours and seeing how long it takes to process a visa, it became clear that I needed to return to Cairo this very night or else my plans for India would take a turn for the worse. I asked the guy at my hostel about any buses or taxis leaving for Cairo (I already missed the last scheduled one), and after talking to a few of his friends, he found me a strange 1am minibus that just happened to be leaving this very night. It seemed a little odd to me, but I figured as long as it gets me to Cairo in time, I'll be happy. Things became stranger when we stopped at the back of the police station to load on 5 black duffel bags, but no passengers. They became even stranger when upon reaching the first check point out of the Sinai Peninsula, the driver handed each of the 3 guards a pack of cigarettes. No biggie I thought, little bribes like that are common, except when I looked back as we drove away, the nearest guard opens his up to reveal thick wads of cash stuffed into the packet. The only thing I could think about is that because I'm obviously on some kind of smuggling mission, it was totally unnecessary for me to get a full Egyptian visa when crossing in from Israel, cause the guys who were supposed to check it, are the ones who were just bribed to not check my van, oh well.

After completing the Indian visa stuff at their consulate (with a full 10 minutes to spare before they closed for the weekend...), I headed north to Alexandria where I am now. Alexandria's a bit more European in looks and attitude, but unfortunately I can't explore much due to the stifling heat. So instead I've resigned to sitting in my slightly cooler room, figuring out ways to time the constant mosque calls from the tower next door with different Doors songs. If all goes according to plan (which is actually unlikely) than I should be flying to India in two days time. Really looking forward to my 21 hour layover in Ethiopia as well as the wave of humanity and suffering I expect to hit once touching down in Mumbai.