under da sea

I'm currently sitting in the beachside lounge of the Red Sea Relax Resort, looking out over the muted nightlife of Dahab cove. Dahab sits a few checkpoint-elongated hours north of Sharm-el Shiek, the famous resort town of Sinai, now turned into a Las Vegas-esque morass of concrete and western culture. In contrast to its southern neighbor, Dahab has enjoyed a long tradition of being a tranqil backpacker haven, and while it has become more developed in the last decade, it still retains the relaxed environment and low-key vibe that made it famous. Of particular interest to SCUBA divers and windsurfers for its world-class reefs and consistent wind respectively, Dahab appeals to anyone wanting to take a break form the grind of Egypt without fully wrapping themselves in a cocoon of Western culture.

You've been warned.

The highlight of my day, and in fact one of the best experiences of my trip, was following the SCUBA divers underwater in a hour and a half long introductory session. After dawning a wetsuit and getting a brief lesson on the gear and technique, Devin and I strapped on SCUBA tanks and weights, and plodded our way out to sea. Slipping into some flippers and strapping on our masks, our first experience of diving underwater was simply submerging our heads and breathing through the regulator. While above water this makes you sound rather like Darth Vader, underwater the only thing you hear is the rush of bubbles with every exhale. Having thus mastered the technique of breathing underwater, we were guided down by our instructor into the deep. While I did not have much control over where I was going, as our instructor controlled our accent and decent, as well as steered us from above, the experience of breathing underwater was enough to make me want to get SCUBA certified. Of course, the added bonus was that we were diving in the Red Sea, which is renowned as one of the best places for underwater exploration in the world.

Those hills in the distance... Saudi Arabia.

I have been to the aquarium countless times, and have even joined my family in a sightseeing submarine trip, but the experience of SCUBA diving so vastly surpasses these interactions with marine life as to make them incomparable. We entered the reef through a school of shimmering silver spats, an aquatic confetti greeting us into a world I have only seen through the illustrations of books and five inches of fiberglass. The coral formed a wall of colorfully accented crevices, both amorphous and yet as rigid and immovable as the mountains. We swam with fish of such color as to redefine my impression of the palate of nature's paintbrush. Seeing such creatures through the vernier of illustration allows the mind to conceive of them with the disengaged appreciation befitting mythical creatures, but here these impossibly brilliant specimens casually float along with the current as they doubtless have for centuries.

Wearing a wetsuit and tank kind of makes you feel like a superhero.

When we finally resurfaced, both Devin and I were both bedazzled and anxious to pursue our SCUBA certification, though I think that's something I'll have to put off until I return home. We spent the rest of our day checking out some of the local restaurants - much less expensive than the seaside tourist joints - and planning our Mt. Sinai climb. Having secured ourselves an 18E£ bottle of the worst gin in the world from the first liquor store I've seen in Egypt, we enjoyed gin and tonics with a few rounds of pool, and relaxed at the seaside lounge once the sun had set.

If you look closely, you'll see that all the brands you think you know are actually just Egyptian knock-offs... "Fineland", "Johny Wader Black", etc.

I'm not usually one for the beach resort-esque vacation, but I have to say that it has been nice (and incredibly inexpensive for what we're getting) and I expect that it will get me back into form for some more rugged adventuring in the weeks ahead. For now, I'm off to bed, I've got a big day of snorkeling and postcard writing ahead of me.