The bus ride to Dahab was long and uncomfortable. For some reason we had been issued four separate tickets for each leg of the trip - though it was a single bus that went all the way through. Every two or three hours during the night therefore the inspector would put on the lights , wake everyone up and say "tickets please" and look at one or other of the tickets. In addition to that three times we came to police checkpoints and had to show our passports and entry visas into Egypt. The driver was playing quite loud egyptian music. A canadian guy next to us asked him to turn it down a few times which he did when asked, but it seemed to get louder after each stop for ticket inspection etc.
The bus was full and all the foreigners had the seats at the front. The locals were going to various stops along the way - mostly to Sharm el Sheikh the large resort town- the backpackers to Dahab. My back was still quite stiff after that first night in the "plank" bed in Luxor and every time I dropped off to sleep I was awoken shortly afterwards by one of the things I have described above. Julian's long legs made it most uncomfortable for him - but he is a better sleeper than I under noisy conditions.
The bus was running late anyway - but 20 km out of Dahab (near a sign that told us so) they had to pull over to investigate a burning smell coming from the engine. They didn't seem to have a solution, but they limped home the last half hour or so and got us there approximately 18 hours after we left.
The band of hotel touts was waiting for us at the bus station and we decided to definitely NOT go to any of the hotels they were representing. So we piled into the back of a jeep with a group of Korean girls into town. The price per jeep was supposed to be 5 pound (we agreed therefore to 1 pound each) but when we arrived in town out front the octopuss inn - the driver claimed the "cheap" price was only if we stayed at that particular hotel otherwise he wanted 5 pound each. Of course we have been here too long to let him get away with that, handed over our 1 pound each and walked away with his abuse ringing in our ears.
We stopped for brunch at a nice looking place on the main street. Attracted by the promise of "Full English breakfast" and Pancake Deluxe. Unfortunately the cappuccino on the menu was not available today, there was no toast and the meals we finally received not terrible but dissappointing to our expectations. Around midday the owner asked us to leave because he had to lock up to answer the call to prayer and shuffled us back out onto the street.
We checked out a few places and decided finally on a place called Sunsplash - which reminded me of the name of a Reggae club I went to a few times in Munich. It is run by a German woman who convinced us to stay with promises of good mattresses, quiet rooms, good coffee, overall cleanliness and a breakfast buffet. The place had a private beach and is at the very end of the hotel strip so a bit quieter. There is a coral reef out the front - we were warned not to go in the water barefeet both to protect our feet and to protect the reef. Apparently it is also dangerous with the strong currents - about 10m out from shore is a sudden 20m increase in the depth. Across the gulf we got a view of the coast of Saudi Arabia.
We spend the afternoon checking out the Dahab strip along the beach front and investigating options to spend the next few days. Everything was quite expensive - as you would expect - but the quality was generally better than we had had for the last few weeks. We had cappucino and cheesecake in a very nice Italian place, spoiled by a group next to us who started smoking half way and a beer in the "Furry Cup" bar with memories of the Little Britian sketch.
Dinner at Sunsplash was ok , but overpriced and not offering much to Timmy's taste so we went out afterwards and got him a very nice Pizza. Though Hawiian Pizza here is Chicken and Pineapple because they don't eat pork for religious reasons. Tim and I had an early night after the lack of sleep on the bus - but Julian had been hanging out for some company his own age and did a bar crawl and hung out with a group of other travellers from all over the world for a while coming home a bit later. The beds were comfortable and we slept reasonably well - it was a little cold and there weren't enough rugs but I am sure we can rectify that if we stay again tonight.
