2 Go Sinai Photos

The Sinai Peninsula is a very special place. It is on Mt. Sinai that Moses communicated with God and received the Ten Commandments, rules of human ethics that are incorporated in some way in many of the world's religions. This land made up of pristine desert, granite mountains, and beautiful coastlines also serves as a passage between Asia and Africa. It is no wonder then, that people of several religions, ancient empires and present day nations have fought over Sinai for centuries.

We set up our base for exploring Sinai in the beach town of Dahab on the Southeast coast of the peninsula. We planned on staying in Dahab for 3 or so days, but ended up staying for 10. It was just a wonderfully relaxing place with great water and things to do.

Our first outing was to the Blue Hole where we spent the day snorkeling and marveling at the colorful coral and fish. Our second outing was over to the desert canyons and for a swim with the Olin, the dolphin. Our third big outing was out to Mt. Sinai, where we climbed up all night to see the sun rise.

In between outings, we relaxed by the water of the Gulf of Aqaba, a body of water that is surrounded by Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and that connects with the Red Sea.

Relaxing in Dahab:

The quite spectacular view from the window of our $15 hotel room at the Penguin--a place we highly recommend-- looking out over the Gulf of Aqaba with the mountains of Saudi Arabia in the distance.

Several days we just hiked along the beach to an area known as the Lagoon, which is home to beautifully colored water and great coral reefs. We would just don our snorkeling gear, and enjoy the amazing underwater scenery.

Dahab is a close contender for some of the most beautiful water we've seen. Here, the bottom "layer" is a deep aquamarine. The second layer is a lighter, less intense green, given the shallow depth of the water, the brown sand of the bottom, and the coral reef speckled throughout. The top layer--the deep blue in the distance--is the deeper water of the gulf. Truly breathtaking.

Given the length of our stay, the people at the Penguin, and in the town generally, became friends that we will miss. Here are two of our buddies from the Penguin Dive Shop.

In addition to running the Penguin all day every day, Jimmy is also the official host at the Penguin. He runs (and rides his bike) around all day long making sure everyone is happy. Are they happy with their room? Do they want to go snorkeling or diving at the Blue Hole? Four wheeling in the desert? A night climb of Mt. Sinai? There is never any pressure. Jimmy just wants everyone to be happy. As far as we could see, everyone was.

This is Kelly's buddy "Yay" from Sudan, Africa. He makes and sells colorful necklaces along the main waterfront strip. We stopped to visit Yay every time that we were in town and told passersby that they needed to buy one of Yay's necklaces. We even purchased a few necklaces for ourselves.

We were not the only ones relaxing in Dahab. Here some of the locals in traditional garb just hang out, talk, drink tea, and smoke the occasional shisha. Rather similar to what we did for 10 days.

We spent a lot of time hanging out by the water in the comfortable, Arabic style seating of floor rugs and cushions. We played cards, read, ate, drank and, in the evening, would occasionally enjoy a shisha (shown in action to the right). Essentially a large water pipe, the smoke is drawn through the cooling water in the base of the pipe and then through a long, cloth covered tube complete with handle. Don't worry--no contraband here--just very mild, apple flavored, shisha tobacco. The smoke was very sweet and fragrant--rather pleasant in contrast to very disagreeable cigarette smoke.

Click here to visit the beautiful Sinai desert and canyons.

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