Dahab, Egypt

A brief post to bring you up to date with my travels:

On February 16th I took an overnight train from Cairo to Luxor, where I spent two days and two nights visiting the Temple of Karnak, the Temple of Luxor, the Temple of Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens.

I then spent three days and two nights on a Nile River boat cruise, visiting the Temple of Horus in Edfu and the Temple of Sobek and Haroeris in Kom Ombo along the way. The passengers on the cruise were divided into three tour groups: Polish, French, and Palestinian. Oddly, I fit into none of these groups. Fortunately, there were two other English-speaking misfits aboard: an Australian woman and her ten year old son.

After the cruise I spent two nights in Aswan, making the bizarre tourist pilgrimage out to Abu Simbel to see the sun rise on the temple altar (it only happens twice a year, and I happened to be there on one of the two days -- February 22nd).

On Februrary 23rd I took a public bus from Aswan to Hurghada on the Red Sea coast. I spent two nights in Hurghada before taking a ferry across the Red Sea to Sharm El-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula (I would have parted the Red Sea and walked, but I didn't want to rain on the religious parade). I spent two nights in Sharm El-Sheikh, taking a boat out to the Straits of Tiran where I experienced the best snorkeling I've ever done in my life! The coral reefs were enormous, pristine, bright, colorful, and teeming with life. Our boat was accompanied by large grey dolphins on the way out and smaller bottlenose dolphins on the way back. On the reefs I swam with a hawksbill turtle and several barracuda. There were bright blue clams, scorpion fish, and spectacular live coral like I've never seen before (far better than Koh Tao, Thailand, and infinitely better than anything I've seen in Hawaiian waters).

Yesterday I left Sharm El-Sheikh and came up the East coast of Sinai to the small town of Dahab, where I am hoping to do more snorkeling today (although it is cold and windy right now). Dahab is a strange little community of Western travelers and divers surrounded by traditional bedouin camps, where black-shrouded women with tattoed faces stroll past bikini-clad hoochie-mamas. The fish is fresh, delicious, cheap, and cooked to perfection in all of the restaurants -- I've had red snapper, white snapper, and sea bass, and I'm looking forward to working my way down the menus.

Today marks two months of travel. I did a bed-count this morning and found that I have slept in 21 different beds since I left Honolulu in December. I'm still feeling fresh and excited, but I am also planning to knock a month off the end of my trip (Italy and France had been awkward additions to my Islamic itinerary).

Happy bowels and happy armpits, I am a very a happy boy.

(Photo of Eric: Rockin' Kom Ombo, Egypt)