Dahab

Late that night, leaving Cairo and going to Dahab, another 10 hours journey on bus, passing through the Suez Canal, before moving on a long and endless sand desert road straight to Dahab, getting thru some military checkpoints continuously asking for your passport, since Dahab is situated in Sinai peninsular, a region just next to the Israel border, the immigration procedures were a bit strict and made me felt like an illegal Indonesian immigrant (even though they always confusedly thought me as a Chinese, seriously I’m not lying)

Our arrival in Dahab warmly welcomed by Arabians taxi drivers competing against each others to offer their services, met a Russian traveler calling himself a Londoners which really can’t find the connection, offered to help us in getting a cheap taxi and end up squeezing 7 peoples (including the driver plus the Russian) in a taxi, went straightly to the Seven Heaven Hotel, much more a motel to me, surrounded by brick house huts in an area looks like gulf war refugee’s camp, but nothing much to complaint, the cheapest available motel in Dahab, what else to expect?

Dahab, at a glance, was just a tiny and dull town on the coast of the red sea, the streets were lined with seafood restaurants and souvenirs shops. There wasn’t much to do in Dahab except for sea diving and snorkeling, and as for us, at this period of time in winter, with this Malaysian pampered skin on our body, seeing other tourists with their scuba accessories; goggles, swim suits and what-not, were just enough. It’s not that we’re afraid of the cold water, but we’re just taking a precaution action preventing from unnecessary melting nose afterward

The whole evening we went on a camel trip, walking trough the desert, climbing up the canyon, before enjoying the sunset with a cup of tea, prepared on an open fire, the Bedouin style. Then, had our seafood dinner by the seaside, and it was really nice to be treated like some kind of millionaire in a restaurant similar to a café in a five star hotel by the red sea, even though it was dark and nothing much to see except for the food and some hungry Malaysian in front of you. Later, went back to the hotel and had some rest...Still had a mountain to climb

Dahab dari atas bukit

pak arab tekun memanaskan air teh

At 1 o’clock early in the morning, arrived at St Catherine National Park, going to climb the Mount Moses (Jabal Musa), a place where Moses meet the God. With the guide from a bidouin, we did the 3 hour hike up to the summit. Among the earliest to reach the summit, no one to welcome us except some bidouins selling blankets and mattress. The condition up there was dark and cold, cold until my hands were freezing and begun to numb. What really amazed me is that there were a small mosque, a church and a 5 pounds toilet up there on the summit. How on earth they’re able to build such structures on top of a 2300m mountain? I’m totally amazed. At 5.30 in the morning, no matter how bad a night we had spent up there, the sunrise just about made up for it, a pure natural beauty.

Saat matahari terbit di puncak Jabal Musa


tandas 5 pounds per entry

Hiking the Mount Moses was really exhausting and sleeping for the whole day was a good revenge I guess…

To be continued

KL to Cairo

Flying with Egypt Air through Mumbai, nothing much to do, nothing much to observe, I’m expecting to see beautiful Egyptian stewardess (jeles la tuh, no offence ok), but lucky I am not, there were only old steward and stewardess deserved to be called uncle and aunty on board, pity me, in the cramped seat I decided to sleep

After a long and sleepy 12 hours flight, finally arrived at Cairo International Airport, still dark and early in the morning, cold and frosty, it was winter in Egypt, the temperature was 12 degrees celcius, I had never thought a country like Egypt will be colder than what we have in Cameron Highlands or UTP’s Chancellor Hall, misinterpretation

At the immigration counter, being asked questions in Arabic which I am speechless to answer, at last the officer said to me in English with a grin on his face, “You’re Muslim and you should be able to speak in Arabic”, yeah I agreed, shame on me, but to be truth the officer was actually speaking to me in ammi Arabic, (bahasa arab pasar), which differ from what being recite in Quran or prayer..So nothing to be shame aite (saja bagi sedap hati, padahal arab baku pun bukannya phm sgt pun, nk ckp lagi laa kantoi)

The sun starting to rise, the location to go was Malaysian Hall in Abbasiyah, decided to take a taxi, witnessed the ‘deal or no deal’ situation with the taxi driver which is very common in Egypt, negotiation for the taxi fare beforehand is a must or else you will end up paying ridiculous amount of money, finally at 50 gernih (kira rm50 duit arab la tu) we proceed to Abassiyah (tambang asal 70 gernih, last2 turun jd 50 gernih, senang2 je arab ni kencing nk ambik kesempatan, cet)

Arrived at the Malaysian Hall or commonly known as ARMA (Asrama Malaysia), ARMA is a place where some of Malaysian students studying in Cairo live, actually outsiders like us are not allowed to stay there but there’ll always a way beb, hahaha, initial plan was to pass the guard by walking ‘slumberly’, pretend to be just like other students walking in and out of the hostel, but damn ‘kantoi’ (sorg2 beg besaq gerabak sapa suruh, for sure tak nmpk cam student yg bwk buku seketul dua je kepit celah ketiak), at first, we’re still saying that we’re students there and just went back from a vacation at somewhere far away, “Show me your student card”, the Arabian guy said to us like a school teacher scolding his students, still not satisfied eh, my brother confidently replied speaking in Arabic which the translation sounded something like this, “the truth is we’re not students here in Cairo but we’re all students from Alexandria and we’re really sorry for lying in the first place, unfortunately we had left our student cards back in Alexandria since we’re coming here just to visit our friends here in ARMA, something like ziarah-ziarah qudwah fiisabilillah kind of thing", huh, this is what I called ‘tipu dalam tipu’, (tipu menipu nih mmg menjadi amalan arab pun)

At last mission accomplished, I’m relieved to be eventually able to lay my back and take a proper nap at this so-called Asrama Malaysia

To be continued...

tengah negotiate ngan pak arab teksi

kelibat wira emas dari dalam teksi