A weekend in Dahab

I am back from a most relaxing weekend in Dahab. It was everything I hoped for and more. It's so wonderfully laid back there. You just forget that time exists altogether. You lounge around. You snorkel. You dive. You shop. You eat. You sunbathe. You sit by the beach and play guitar. You spend time with your friends. So here are some highlights from my trip.

I had some good girl time. I rode in the car with Sara, Esther, and two of my other girl friends. We enjoyed singing badly and loudly to our favorite CDs. We randomly stopped in the desert so that Esther could give in to her urge to chase camels. We all stayed in $4/night bungalows. Each bungalow could host two people, so Sara and I were roomies. Sara was also my dive buddy for one of the two dives I did. I love spending vacation time with Sara. She is one of those people who just makes fun happen wherever she goes. She gets people to let loose and just be as stupid and goofy as you possibly can be. For example, one morning we were getting coffee at a little shop there and she had me staring practically nose-to-glass at my eyes trying to make my pupils dialate and then go small again. It was fairly entertaining for the man working there.

The diving was of course great. For my first dive, Ed was my dive buddy. For my second, Sara was my buddy. We had a great time watching and chasing the fish. I flooded my mask more than once while laughing at Ed and Sara's underwater kung foo moves. And while gearing up and down, the most unusual stories can come up. Such as, I shared with the group how I used to worry when I was a kid that I might actually turn out to be the anti-Christ. My logic then being that the anti-Christ would be someone that no one was really suspecting. And I thought "Wow. I would never suspect that I am the anti-Christ. . . so maybe. . ."

Another classic moment happened the morning before we left. I was sitting at an outdoor restaurant with Ed and two other guys from our group at about 9:30am. Now 9:30 am is still fairly early in the relaxed, laid back atmosphere of Dahab. So the restaurants are still sort of getting things ready for the day. While we were sitting there, the boss or manager or owner or whatever he was stood around yelling at his employees to do this or do that in Arabic. One might not notice it too much or think the seen unusual at all except for one thing . . . bossman was wearing nothing but a speedo. Awesome. Just what everyone wants to see first thing in the morning. So Ed and I had fun trying to imagine what life at New Life would be like if Dan or John took some notes from this guy.

Dan (in speedo): Why haven't you watered to organic produce yet?!

We need another batch of Mocha Fudge Wow Cow. ASAP!

John (in speedo): Why is this register off? Son, don't you know we don't take out of state checks?!