Dahab Dreams, Habibi

I have a vision.
I want to start an artsy furniture, interior design, clothing, art store in Dahab. Ok, so it's not a new idea. I'm sure tons of people have the exact same thought when visiting a little town like Dahab... but the difference is, I'm going to do it. ;p

Jasmine is a self-admitted Dahab junky and I invited myself along last weekend, during our four day holiday. She teaches PE at the school where I pretend to be an art teacher, and she leads evening yoga classes two times a week...

Anyway, we could really do this store thing. There's room for everybody. Jasmine wants to sell a clothing line there. So with her clothes, my mom's furniture, some art... Come on! Come open a little sea side store with me. I sent my mom an email telling her to get out here. She could move here, manage the place and retire in luxury. :)

Who else wants to be in on this? To be able to live and travel as you like, plus have a little vacation home off the red sea! ahhhh

So let me start at the beginning, before my Dahab shop obsession. My friend Jasmine, her baby girl, Annica and I drove there. It's off the Sinai peninsula, a 7 hr drive from Cairo. Most of the drive is pretty monotonous: desert, desert, desert. But once you get about an hour from the coast, the landscape changes pretty dramatically.

There are amazing mountains.

Let me try to adequately explain this neat little town I recently spent four days exploring. The cost of living is extremely inexpensive and the atmosphere is so relaxed: people riding bikes and walking around these cute little shops and cafes. The coast line is pretty rocky along one stretch. There's a meandering pedestrian sidewalk where shops sell touristy trinkets as well as high-end collectibles. On the other side of this walkway, one after the other, about 15 or 20 bars and restaurants hug the shore of this low, rocky coast with the sea breeze rolling in! Many of the restaurants have low tables with huge throw pillows. So you lounge around, sipping beverages and lazily eating, right off the water. It's lovely! That's the touristy side of town.

About a mile away, relocated foreigners live among the local Bedouins. The Bedouins are the equivalent of America's Native Americans. They've been there "since the beginning", before the Egyptians or the Israelis, living off the land, herding, fishing, and farming. Traditionally they are a nomadic, desert people. Anyway, there's this expat community living among these native peeps in Dahab. Foreigners rent stucco-like, mud brick homes from them, living around the free-roaming goats and camels (and garbage)...

A photo of the little hotel where we stayed.

It's owned and run by the famous Jimmy. What a character! He also owns the restaurant above, The Funny Mummy.

The restaurants were festively lit at night.

These two photos are from a little shop in the less touristy part of town, a German bakery/cafe. mmmmmm

We were in this (non-touristy) area of Dahab several times. Jasmine and I did a two hour yoga session each morning we were there, from a German woman who has been living in Dahab 9 yrs. She rents one of the places I was talking about and uses one of her rooms for yoga classes. It's such a cute house with a small front yard and all the dogs and cats she's rescued. From the outside street these places look miserable, but like New Orleans, the unimpressive, street-side gate opens into a lovely courtyard area. A huge flowering plant grows in an arch, shading one corner of the yard, where she's arranged a couple chairs and a table.

These shots are from the side of town where the locals live.

Inside the house is simply, but warmly decorated. A hammock in one corner, brightly painted walls, and traditional woven rugs fill her cozy home with color. She visited Dahab once, nine yrs ago, and then decided she was going to move there. She makes a living giving yoga classes to people like me who visit, and other foreigners (expats) that have moved to that area.

Dahab has amazing coral reefs, so foreigners vacation from all over - but it's not over-crowded or over-developed like some of the larger cities along the coast.

There's this great "community" feeling there, although it might have been mostly from this performance we went to on Friday night. It felt like everyone in the community had some role in the production. It was a children's' circus! The brain child of a few adult volunteers who now live in Dahab and wanted to do something with the local kids. One woman used to be a gymnast, there's the yoga woman I already mentioned, and another woman who was an ex-ballerina. They taught the kids all kinds of acrobatics and dancing and singing. It was really amazing and fun, with costumes and changing sets, like Cirque de Soeile (sp?) for kids.

Jasmine is posing under the shaded area of the yard I mentioned above.

Cool kitty taken in by the nice yoga lady.
He has such beautiful markings and long, gorgeous legs.

and another adopted kitten. ahhhh

Chillin' out by the water having some juice, bright and early. That stray cat was quite determined.

The main room at our little yoga get away.

Another photo of the long boring ride there.

Annica was getting all kinds of play

Hippity Hoppity

Happy Easter, Ya'll

Arthur and I walk by this display at least twice a day, but I never see anyone buying anything. Back home, he'd be hit pretty hard this time of year. The baskets stay out, uncovered, 24/7. Gives you an idea of how often it rains.






There are some really beautiful flowers blooming around town right now. I think I notice them here more, because everthing else is the same muted color: concrete, desert sand, limestone.

temple of Ramses III, Dendara & countryside

These first ones are of the temple of Ramses the III. This temple is not as much of a tourist "hot spot" so it was nice and quiet. We were 4 of the 7 people viewing this a-maz-ing compound.

Anytime there's a bit of color left on the temple walls it reminds me that at one time, nearly every inch of these buildings were brightly painted. Our tour guide told us that it was a type of fresco process, so the color was actually fused into the wall. They used ground up semi-precious and precious stones for their pigments. How gorgeous it must have been!











Our tour guide was excellent. He took us to several specific carvings and explained their meaning.

This one documents the spoils of war. From what I could gather, and from what I remember, sometimes slaves were taken from conquered lands. Other times, when soldiers were killed in battle the egyptians "gathered" a hand from the slain men and took them back to the pharoe to be counted and recorded. I guesss that's one way of documenting a battle.























These second set of photos are from the temple complex of Dendara. We got up early our second morning in Luxor and drove for about an hour to see this one. It was well worth the drive, and getting there was great because we were able to see the countryside which is made up of small farming communities. I'll include some of those at the end of this entry.





















The quality of this photo isn't so great, but I've included it just to give you an idea of scale.

It's one of the "newer" temples, influenced by greco-roman temples in that it was an enclosed structure, so the lighting made picture taking difficult.
















































































And finally, photos of the small towns and farms in Upper Egypt (which is actually south of Luxor). They have rotating crops. This year sugar cane seems to be the main crop. It was everywhere!

Touring the temples of Luxor

I thought I'd go back to the photos of my Spring Break holiday with my mom and auntie.
These first four are from Luxor Temple.
























































The rest of the photos are from the temple of Karnak. I love the ones of the women dancing. If you click on the image to get a closer look, you can see that from the right to the left they're slowly arching backwards into a backbend.



It's impossible to capture how huge these columns are, but thousands of tourists keep trying! :)
























Ancient pornography?