Thanksgiving on the Red Sea - Dahab

So it's Thursday afternoon and a truly happy Thanksgiving. We've finished our various pursuits at St. Catherine's and head for the sea. Dahab by dinnertime is the goal.

As we drive into town I'm delighted to see a real town, not the corporate resort area that Sharm el Sheikh, the elite Red Sea destination, has turned into. There is a walled Hilton resort area south of town, but the main tourist area is locally owned shops, hotels and restaurants owned and operated by people who greet you when you walk by or come into their establishment.

Our hotel, the New Sphinx is in the middle of town right on the water. My room was on the second floor with a balcony overlooking the pool area and the sea, with the mountains of Saudi Arabia in the distance. I awoke early each day and sat on that balcony with coffee, watching the sun rise over those distant mountains.

Dahab is a diving and wind surfing destination, and the first morning of our stay we discovered why the wind surfing. Winds were significant! Not liking the gusty blasts, I spent the day resting and reading. No snorkling with the winds as high as they were.

I promised to write more about cats. In Egypt, animals are as welcome in stores and restaurants as people, and in Dahab, cats are regular fixtures in each restaurant. They establish their territories and keep other cats out. The restaurants allow for real bonding experiences with the local felines, because most have low tables with cushions and pillows on carpets covering the ground. They're outdoors with windscreens, and in some places wood slat roof coverings for shade. So you settle into your little dining nest, reclining with a cool drink and the local cats arrive to help you order. They all recommend the fish, of course. You receive a spray bottle to keep them from getting overly interested in your food - the table is only 8" off the ground, remember. Many are beautiful variations on the Egyptian goddess Bastet with faces that are mostly huge eyes and ears, sleek, lean bodies and long tails. They know how to make you feel like you're the most important person in the world, curling up on your lap and gazing up at you with huge hungry, adoring eyes. Your food arrives and you fall all over yourself willingly sharing with this ravenous, helpless creature, and when your plate is picked up by the waiter, the cat is off to the next table to take those residents through the same scam. These are lean cats! It's hard to figure out where they store all the food! If you're hopelessly in love with your little beast, your only hope is to order something nice for dessert... ice cream would be fine.

I love eating lying down! I spent a pleasant afternoon reclining in one of these restaurants with a good book, excellent Egyptian music, a cat who stayed around because of the creamy apple concoction I was nursing along to entice her and hold my table, and a unparalleled view of the Red Sea. Met up with Kathy, Forrest and Bart for a nice relaxed dinner... again reclining, and with yet another precious, thoroughly self contained cat. I'm thinking about cutting off the legs of my dining room table!

Trip home from Dahab was a little unnerving. Our three guys showed up at the hotel at the agreed upon hour with a fourth guy, and this one had a gun!! Now, we don't speak Arabic and they don't speak English, so it turned into a bit of a confusing shouting match between my plucky sister asserting "NO, NO, NO!" and they demanding, "Security, security, security!" Our nice hotel manager came out and translated that because we were American, they were bringing along extra security. We finally relented because it was in the middle of the street, and we were drawing a crowd, but both Kathy and I were wondering the whole way back if this guy was legit, if he just needed a ride back to Cairo or if we were going to be kidnapped and held for ransom in the desert. We arrived home having taken a different route along the Red Sea north to Taba and then over to the Suez Canal tunnel and on to Cairo. When we arrived home, Kathy had an email from the embassy that the Bedouins in northern Sinai were restless and Americans needed to be alert while traveling in that area. That was probably why our guys added another guy with a gun, but with the language barrier, we were clueless.

Anyway, three days of breathing clean air and enjoying crystal clear skies was wonderful. Dahab is my sister's new favorite place.