dahab, earning a silver medal

One of the hard realities about living abroad, is that your expat friends are here for a limited time only, (so you better act fast!). Their contracts expire and their posts come to an end. Eventually, they return home, and you are left behind, missing them, and having to constantly replenish the bank of friends you earn.

My closest expat friend is counting down her last few days in Egypt, and she's hitting her Egypt bucket list with full force before packing up and out of here. One of the last things left to do, that I absolutely promised we'd do together, was to go to Dahab, over in Sinai.

Just about an hour north of Sharm al Sheikh, Dahab is the polar opposite of the European and Russian tourist-infested beach destination. Dahab is a chilled-out stretch of boardwalk along the Red Sea coast. It's known for its low-key atmosphere, cheap beach camps, diving and snorkeling, and recreational activities.

When we arrived, like any time we arrive in a tourist destination in Egypt, we are creeped out by how eerily quiet and empty the place is. The airports were so quiet you could hear echos. The boardwalk was empty, which meant we received even more attention from the restaurant and shop vendors, begging us to please come in and spend some of our much desired money.

I prided myself in finding a great hotel deal on the beach, only to learn that there aren't actually any hotels on the beach in Dahab. In fact, there isn't even a beach. Instead, there is a boardwalk that divides the stretch of hotels and shops, from the restaurants and bars. I assume that there was once a beach under this boardwalk, but now the cafes are cantilevered over the sea. So basically what you do is, choose one of the cafes with the most sun beds, soaked up the sun, order food and drinks, and then descend into the water by cafe-made steps. But it's not bad at all.

The water is gorgeous, the weather is great. The food is actually delicious, all fresh and made with care. We noticed the sharp contrast of how there is a little more effort put into making food in Sinai. Produce is fresh and it all tastes so much better.

It did get a little sketchy at some point though. We wanted to go on a bedouin dinner in the desert, and our hotel was offering to send the two of us girls, alone, in the desert about 2 hours away, with bedouins. I don't like to be that scared tourist who is afraid of adventure, but with the weekly kidnappings we've been hearing about in Sinai, we very seriously refused the offer. We were hoping they'd do a group trip of whatever few tourists were in Dahab, but unfortunately, not the case.

So all in all, we had a perfect girls weekend. We got some sun, soaked in the sea, ate great food, talked shit about the crazy Russian tourists who were dunking their newborn baby into the water head first, shopped, and had one of the best massages I've had in a while.