Egypt Part V: The Red Sea

Part I: Getting There
Part II: Cairo and Pyramids

Part III: Temples
Part IV: Sailing Down the Nile

Part VI: Jeff Climbs a Mountain

Ahhhh!  Vacation.  We ended our Egyptian adventure with several days in Dahab, a Red Sea resort.  Our hotel was on the beach and we could see Saudi Arabia on the other side of the Gulf of Aqaba.  The water was crystal blue and as we found out in our several days there, was the home to so many different species of fish and coral.  

We arrived in Dahab on January 1st after a painfully long van ride from Cairo.  A ride over the Suez Canal and across the Sinai Peninsula.  Desert.  And more desert.  It was hot and dry and blinding.  Did I mention desert?  Sand as far as the eye can see.  With an occasional palm tree or sturdy desert plant.  We stopped a few times and once even in what could be called a true oasis.  But we didn't really stop for any food or for any movement, so the group of us (Jeff, Hanna, Pei Pei, and I, along with 4 other fellow travellers, Jaime and Maurizio from Columbia, and Catherine and George from Scotland) was pretty cranky by the time we got dropped off at our hotel.  But we had to meet up with Ahmed (II- a different Ahmed than the one who took us to all the temples along the Nile) who wanted to take us on a tour of the 2 streets of Dahab and to some place to have tea before we actually tried to find dinner.  We were all cranky enough that we grudgingly agreed to the tour, but broke off from the group to have dinner on our own.  Jeff and I ended up finding a great Thai restaurant and enjoyed most of our meal (Jeff had to order a second meal because the first was simply too hot (spicy) for him to be able to finish - he was literally sweating).  

Sad Jeff - Can't finish this very spicy meal.

Jeff has a New Year's Day tradition of trying to jump into the nearest natural body of water wherever he is.  For several years he was in Chicago, so Lake Michigan was the body of water of choice - often excruciatingly cold.  In fact, one year, I managed to convince him that jumping in would literally threaten his life - there was ice along the edge and large chunks of ice floating in the water - so we did snow angels next to Lake Michigan instead.  In our bathing suits.  That was cold enough!  Luckily it was not that cold in Dahab.  So we put on our Chacos and started wading out into the Red Sea.  The tide was out, so the water was only a few inches deep.  We weren't sure how far out the coral shelf was, so we decided not to go out that far (it was dark at this point and we were using our headlamps to be able to see what we were stepping on - as I said before, amazing amounts of life!).  Jeff was considering just sitting down in the water when we spotted some movement by his feet.  It was an eel!!!!!  It must have been a baby eel - it was about a foot to a foot and a half long, white body with a black fringe on it's back, and a bright yellow head.  I think it must have been a baby yellow-headed eel (http://www.grizzlyrun.com/Files/Images/Image_Gallery/yellow_headed_morey_eel_pic.jpg).  With it's jaw wide open as eels do.  It was pretty creepy to see in the water only inches from us and only lit up by our headlamps.  Unfortunately, neither one of us had a camera, so no picture.  That's when Jeff decided that a wade in the Red Sea was enough for his New Year's Day tradition.


The next several days were spent snorkeling, reading, relaxing, and enjoying the sun at the beach.  The snorkeling was amazing.  So many fish and the water was incredibly clear - we watched a lot of scuba divers and their bubbles while we enjoyed all the different fish and coral under the water.  Life everywhere!  It was beautiful!  We even saw a lionfish - we were warned not to approach these guys, so it was cool to see it (from a distance!).  After snorkeling the first day we discovered the joy of Bedouin tea.  Yum!  And warm!  Especially after being in the water for some time.  Jeff was so cold he stood in the sun shivering for at least half an hour before he even started warming up.  The tea helped a bit.  

Enjoying Bedouin tea after snorkeling.  That's Ahmed II on the left.

While there we tried all sorts of different international dinners: Thai, Mexican, Indian, Italian (pizza).  The restaurants often offered "American" breakfasts, which were varied and not usually something we Americans would have for breakfast (except for the fried eggs).  Good, but not like home.  

One day, Jeff decided to try windsurfing, while me and the girls got massages.  Hanna and Pei Pei also braved the world of a hair cut and a facial.  I have to admit that I was glad I didn't partake, especially when we saw the facial steamer they were using for Pei Pei and how it was plugged in to the outlet with _bare_ wires.  She said she felt a shock or two.  


Part of our tour package was a camel ride!  We got on the camels and were led along the beach path to an area where we saw what seemed like hundreds of kite and wind surfers.  We enjoyed a beach sunset again with Bedouin tea and Ahmed II did some card tricks for us.  The camels made interesting noises behind us - they're hard to explain, maybe Jeff can add to this.  All of us had sore thighs, stomachs, and backs after the ride.  The camel movement is really exaggerated.  You have to move your spine a lot to keep balanced.  I wasn't going to pay for a camel ride, but I was glad this came with the package so I could experience it.

On our last full day there, Jeff and Pei Pei did a hike up Mt. Sinai while Hanna and I enjoyed a very lazy day at the beach.  Jeff will hopefully write about his adventures in the mountains in the last of our Egypt travel series.  


We changed our plans at the last minute so we could fly back to Cairo rather than suffer through another road trip across the Sinai.  The fellow who picked us up to take us to the Airport was also named Ahmed (III).  Apparently Ahmed is one of the most common names in Egypt.  The crazy thing about flying out of Sharm el Sheikh was seeing the Russians in ski suits and furry boots getting ready to fly back to the cold north.  It was blazing hot outside.  Crazy juxtaposition.


Here are some pics from Dahab to end the post...

The view outside our hotel door.

Dahab at night.

Relaxing on the beach.

Bulgarian Gems

Shortly after the rest of the new international teachers arrived here (was that really only a week and a half ago?!), we were taken on a 3-day tour of several lovely places in southwestern Bulgaria: Rila Monastery in the Rila Mountains, Melnik - a wine producing town just north of the border with Greece, and Kovachevitsa - a traditional village in the Rodopi Mountains. Follow me on a short trip to these Bulgarian gems. Click here for a MAP showing the location of these stories.

This building along the "ring road" around Sofia is I think some sort of interior design store. I think working here would give you a headache.

We had lunch at a "traditional Bulgarian" restaurant, located next to a stream in a steep mountain gorge. People have asked what Bulgarian food is like, so here is a picture. Jeff was too hungry to wait for me to get a picture, but his meal was a sausage on a bed of mixed vegetables, served on a still-sizzling skillet.


RILA MONASTARY
After a twisty-curvy drive up into the Rila Mountains we arrived at Rila Monastary. Set in a small valley with gorgeous mountains as the backdrop, Rila is a beautiful and peaceful place for meditation and reflection. Apparently you can spend the night here - it's a good place to stop along a mountain trek - and they lock you in at night. Rila Monastery is generally considered the spiritual heart of the Bulgarian Orthodox church. Over the 500 years that Bulgaria was ruled by the Muslim Ottoman Turks, Christian religious centers were often in hard-to-reach refuges like Rila.



We also got to enjoy fresh/hot/greasy donuts as we left.


MELNIK
We spent the rest of that afternoon in Melnik. This is the "smallest town" in Bulgaria. In the early 1900's there were 20,000 people there, but now there are only a few hundred people left, mostly retirees and foreign second-home owners. There are several wineries, two of which we visited and sampled. Although the Melnik reds are supposed to be wonderful, the majority of us didn't like the reds much and preferred the whites.

We met a spry 87-year-old man, who took us to his nephew's winery. He told us that he would take us to a winery located higher up in the hills, but he was concerned about his blood pressure. I hope I'm as active as he is when I'm 87!
In a Melnik wine cellar & tasting room -- how much for the whole cask?

We had a wonderful dinner with the whole group (I think there were 15 of us). We all tried the Rakiya. After seeing Jeff and Garth's faces after they tried Rakiya (in an earlier post) I was not excited to try it this night. But this bottle was much better. Not that I liked it too much, but I think Jeff found it good enough to try a couple times more.


The rakiya glass here is an example of traditional Bulgarian pottery.

ROZHEN MONESTARY
The next morning we headed up yet another twisty-curvy road to the top of the mountain above Melnik and the Rozhen Monestary. A beautiful setting with flowers and grapes everywhere. Rozhen was founded in 1217, destroyed by fire and Turks a few times, but the current buildings are about 300 years old (those grape vines in the bottom shot are about that old too!).




LESHTIN
From Rozhen we headed east across the Pirin Mountains on our way to Kovachevitsa, in the Rodopi mountains. We passed through a "Pomak" village (ethnic Bulgarians that were converted by the Ottomans to Islam, and then generally despised by other Bulgarians), a Roma (Gypsy) village (more social outcasts from "regular" Bulgarian society), then had lunch in Leshtin, where ping-pong (err, I mean table tennis) is taken very seriously...
Note the carefully crafted stone platform for the, ahem, ping-pong table.

KOVACHEVITSA
Our final destination on the second day was Kovachevitsa. The architecture there is wonderful - a mix of thick wooden beams and artfully stacked flat rocks. The homes are a seamless mix of indoor and outdoor space. The upper floors extend out above the lower floors in a Macedonian building style. [This region of Bulgaria is known as "Pirin Macedonia." The borders and even the outright existence of Macedonia is still a hotly disputed topic in Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia, not to mention in the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" itself.]

We enjoyed yet another wonderful meal at a local pub. We even got to dance some traditional line dances. Our group was separated into two different houses, one at the top of the hill. We played cards and partied late into the night. I'm afraid the locals probably didn't like us much as our party was on an outside porch and audible throughout town. Breakfast the next morning was the best meal of the trip: a form of French toast with cheese and jam. Yum! Along with fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, select meats and other cheeses, and espresso!

There are not many "sights" to see in Kovachavitsa. It is just a beautiful and relaxing mountain village, carefully restored old homes (our guesthouse was built in the 1700s), a single restaurant/pub, and more swallows than I've ever seen. A lovely place.

BACK TO SOFIA
We headed back to Sofia by late morning and had a quick stop in Bansko - the best ski resort in Bulgaria (so they say - we'll find out more after it snows!).

We were all exhausted, but I think also pumped about this new place we're living. Sofia itself is a fast-growing city in a fairly poor country. There are nice places and nasty places, often right next to each other. As we're not really city people, we were thankful to have the chance to get out and see the truly beautiful Bulgarian countryside. The new international teachers group is a lot of fun. I think we'll get along famously and have a great experience here.