Tom in Egypt // توم في مصر

Thursday afternoon saw the end of our first real set of exams, which passed without event. Seeing as we had a whopping 10 day break, a group of 8 (it's always 8, but never the same 8) decided the destination of our next jaunt would be the hippy backpacker town of Dahab on the eastern coast of Sinai, and 'tis from there that I write the latest update to the TomInEgypt saga.

10 hours overnight on the bus here wasn't the most fun you can have but I seem to have developed an excellent ability to fall asleep anywhere I'm sat for longer than about 20mins or so, so the journey was all too easy. This is actually the second time I've been to Dahab, I was here the summer before I started Uni for a day with Michael my godfather (MichaelInPakistan.blogspot.com) and my memory of Dahab is a little hazy but I'm fairly sure that it's quite a lot more developed than it was 2 years ago. It's fairly touristy here, but unlike Sharm, it still manages to retain some of it's small-town charm. The views over the sea to Saudi are amazing, and it's enormously relaxing to watch the sunset (or sunrise if you're still up from the night before ;) over Sinai sat by the Red Sea with a sheesha and a beer. It's also really nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Alex and to not really have anything to do apart from sit on a beach or go snorkeling, which is really unbelievable here. I'm fairly easily pleased when it comes to snorkeling - if I see a fish I'm happy. But here the colours and the movement and the shapes and the sizes....unreal, an absolute wonder of creation. I don't think I could ever get tired of swimming over the drop-off and seeing a new world open up underneath you.

Sadly, my living the high life on the Red Sea Riviera has once again cost me my place in the Alexandria rugby team for the game in Cairo on Friday, although I have my sights set on the return in Alex in a couple of weeks. We watched the big match last night in a bar shaped like a boat with a name that means something very rude in Mexican Spanish, and I have to say "we was robbed". Even the American girls we were watching with knew that it was a try. What a travesty. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday we're off to Mount Sinai and St.Catherine's monastery, which is something I'm very much looking forward to. For now though, I'm off for the aforementioned sheesha and a beer although it looks like I've missed sunset. Adios amigos I hope the weather back home isn't too depressingly wet and rainy, life the 30 degree heat here is tough, but someone has to be here.
txx