I woke up early on Sunday, went to a diving school and signed up for a course to get my PADI Deep Diver certification! ˆ dahab ˆ street ˆ

This is the view down the main street in Dahab on my walk back from the dive center to my room. ˆ dahab ˆ street ˆ

And this is the view of what my hair looks like after doing 3 dives in the ultra-salty Red Sea. My first day of diving was EXHAUSTING! I'd only dived off of boats before, but in Dahab, all the dives start from the shore. That means that you have to put on your 5mm-thick wetsuit (because the Red Sea is REALLY cold) and your tanks and your weight belt, and then walk like 500 yards through the crowded streets of the town, down to the beach and then into the water! I had to sit there and float and catch my breath for like 5 minutes before I could begin my dive! ˆ me ˆ beach hair ˆ

After dropping off my stuff and relaxing in my room, I headed out for a delicious veggie kofta dinner! Mmmmmmm! ˆ food ˆ

The restaurant I was eating in had a balcony that overlooked the street and while I was sitting there eating my kofta, a bunch of dudes rode by on camels! ˆ camel ˆ dahab ˆ street ˆ

After dinner I sat and read and made friends with this lounge-y cat. Then I went home and promptly fell asleep at 8pm. ˆ cat ˆ

Thirteen hours of sleep later (a real rarity for me!) I was back up and headed to the dive center! ˆ dahab ˆ

Here's the center I dived out of! Here's everyone loading up their gear to head out to dive Dahab's two world-famous sites: The Blue Canyon and the Blue Hole! ˆ dahab ˆ

Check it out! Here's what the Blue Hole looks like shot from space! It's also considered to be one of most fatal diving spots on the planet (so I figured what better place to get my deep diving certification!).

"The Blue Hole is notorious for the number of diving fatalities which have occurred there earning it the sobriquet, "World's Most Dangerous Dive Site" and the nickname "Diver's Cemetery". The site is signposted by a sign that says "Blue hole: Easy entry". Accidents are frequently caused when divers attempt to find the tunnel through the reef (known as "The Arch") connecting the Blue Hole and open water at about 52 m depth. This is beyond the PADI recreational diving limit (40 m) and nitrogen narcosis begins to have an influence. Divers who miss the tunnel sometimes continue descending hoping to find the tunnel farther down and become increasingly narced."

Gear loaded up - time to start the long, sweaty walk to the water! ˆ scuba ˆ

After my two deep dives, I went back to Auski Camp... ˆ dahab ˆ hotel ˆ

...and took a nap and rested up for my night dive later that evening! ˆ bed ˆ dahab ˆ hotel ˆ

Here's Hosam and Mohamed, two of the diving instructors in-training, showering off after we'd finished our night dive. ˆ hosam ˆ mohamed ˆ scuba ˆ travel buddies ˆ

And here's me, laughing about how during the night dive one of my instructors was banging on their tank underwater to get my attention (you can't talk underwater so when you want to get someone's attention, you tap on your tank with a dive knife) and when I turned around, I almost freaked out because out of the blackness of the water, my torch-beam illuminated a HUGE NAPOLEON fish that was within arms-length of face! ˆ me ˆ scuba ˆ

Imagine diving underwater at night and shining your flashlight right into THIS face! Hahaha. (Not my photo, obvs.)

After we'd showered and stowed our gear, Mohamed and Hosam decided to take me out on the town to celebrate my new certification. Right before we were about to head out, we ran into one of the Japanese diving instructors who was experiencing some intense shoulder pain. Turns out he had been a little careless with his surface interval times after a couple deep dives and was experiencing the early symptoms of decompression sickness (The Bends!). We ended up having to drive him to the hospital to the nearest decompression tank! Scary! (A couple hours in the tank, and he was fine though). ˆ dahab ˆ street ˆ tree ˆ

Afterwards, Mohomed and Hosam took me to to a local restaurant that they liked. ˆ crowd ˆ dahab ˆ restaurant ˆ

Mmmmmm. Local food. ˆ food ˆ

Mohamed and Hosam! After we finished eating, we went to a local coffee house and met up with some of their... ˆ hosam ˆ mohamed ˆ travel buddies ˆ

...other friends! Hahaha. I forget this guy's name, but he was hilarious. He was like one of the few guys in the town who was super into bodybuilding and was excited to have someone puny like me to flex-down next to. This photo makes me laugh every time I look at it. ˆ me ˆ best ˆ gun show ˆ travel buddies ˆ

Around 1am, we walked down the waterfront and ended up having coffee on some really cool rooftop coffee shop that had great views of the city. Party beacon in the distance got us in the mood from some... ˆ roof ˆ

...NIGHTCLUUUUUUBBIN'! We met back up with Mohamed and Hosam's friends and we all went to a place called CLUB TOTA and got our dance on. ˆ hosam ˆ mohamed ˆ dance ˆ

There were hardly ANY women at the club and so any time a good song would come on, half the men would act like "girly girls" and pretend they were women and the other half of men would be "men" and dance up all in the "ladeez" business. But the fact that other cultures could perceive this as "gay" is totally lost on them. They're just trying to have fun without women around! ˆ dance ˆ

Me busting moves with my baby arm. ˆ me ˆ dance ˆ

The place closed a little after 3am and we went back outside to have some more coffee and hang out. ˆ dahab ˆ travel buddies ˆ

Mohamed and shisha. ˆ mohamed ˆ

One more flexdown for the road! I love how he's basically putting his muscle-bound elbow right into his friend's earhole. (PS - how much does Mohamed's friend in the middle look like a young Gregory Hines? Crazytown!). ˆ dahab ˆ gun show ˆ travel buddies ˆ

After diving on Tuesday, I met up with Mohamed around noon and we got some lunch. ˆ dahab ˆ restaurant ˆ

After eating, we went to meet up with some of Mohamed's friends to catch a ride over to the beach by the Blue Hole dive site. Waiting for a ride.

Mountains in the background = so awesome. ˆ dahab ˆ

We all piled into a pickup truck taxi driven by a man everyone was (sort of?) friends with who claimed he was famous all over Egypt for his spectacular driving. (And by "spectacular" he meant "so fast and recklessly that you almost poop in your pants). ˆ dahab ˆ driving ˆ travel buddies ˆ

Camel caravan on the way to the beach! ˆ camel ˆ driving ˆ

The beach was lovely but hot! We hid out in the shade, drank tea, ordered light food... ˆ beach ˆ dahab ˆ

...and watched more camels go by. ˆ beach ˆ camel ˆ dahab ˆ

Camel bath. ˆ beach ˆ camel ˆ dahab ˆ ocean ˆ

Mohamed kept laughing at my fascination with the camels! But I had never really spent time around them and was really interested in how alien they were to me! ˆ beach ˆ camel ˆ dahab ˆ ocean ˆ

Hahah. After eating and relaxing, and after the intensity of the afternoon soon died down a bit, we went swimming and snorkeling for a few hous. ˆ beach ˆ camel ˆ dahab ˆ

Then around 5pm, our taxi driver, who had hung out with us the whole time, announced he was ready to take us back into town. Get a load of this fucking guy! Egypt's most famous "land pilot." ˆ get a load of this guy ˆ travel buddies ˆ

I went back to my room and read and napped. Woke up around 10pm, and loaded up on carbs with this delicious pasta dinner! ˆ food ˆ

What was I loading up on carbs for? To climb Mount Sinai at night so that I could be at the summit of the mountain in time for sunrise! We boarded a minibus at 11:30pm... ˆ van ˆ

...and arrived at the foot of the mountain a little past 2am. Here's the full moon over the mountain where "G-D" supposedly handed Moses tablets with laws written on them. (Which I totally believe happened, btw). ˆ moon ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Here's a couple hundred people at the base getting ready to begin the ascent! ˆ mount sinai ˆ

3:15am - starting the ascent! ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Full moon peeking out over a mountain top. ˆ moon ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Two hours of slow and steady climbing (around 5am) it was beginning to get light out and we were nearing the top. I stopped and took a moment to rest and catch my breath next to this handsome camel. ˆ camel ˆ mount sinai ˆ

The view across the valley. If you look halfway down the mountain, you'll see dots of light - those are a pack of people making their way up one of the paths with flashlights. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

The view in front of me. A caravan of people heading towards the summit. Trying to make it to the top before sunrise! ˆ ˆ mount sinai ˆ

I made it to the very summit with about 20 minutes to spare before sunrise. It was amazing to watch the bruised, purple sky slowly light up with pinks and yellows. ˆ best ˆ mount sinai ˆ sunrise ˆ

Then right on schedule at 5:40am, the sun broke over the horizon in the distance! ˆ best ˆ mount sinai ˆ sunrise ˆ

I took this picture of myself looking goofily proud of my accomplishment... ˆ me ˆ best ˆ mount sinai ˆ sunrise ˆ

...and then started the long walk back down to the base! ˆ mount sinai ˆ

I stopped at little camp near the summit with some people I was walking with and we paid a small donation to a local Bedouin man and he made us some tea. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

One of the many spectacular views on the walk down. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

On the way up it was pretty much pitch black! So it was crazy in the light to see just how treacherous some of the paths were! ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Walking down. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Amazing. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

People would bottleneck up at some of the particularly steep parts and it gave me time to snap some pics that I think give a better perspective of the climb down. ˆ best ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Baby-stepping their way down. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Ninety minutes into the descent I was about halfway down. ˆ me ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Still lots of a gorgeous views. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

And narrow, people-scrunching canyons. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Mooooo. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Resting camel. ˆ camel ˆ

About 2/3 of the way down we passed a mule-train going up the mountain with sacks of supplies roped to their backs! ˆ donkey ˆ mount sinai ˆ

A local Bedouin kid helped me tie a shirt around my face during a particularly windy (and therefore dusty!) part of the walk down. ˆ me ˆ dust ˆ mount sinai ˆ sunglasses ˆ

In return I let him borrow my shades. Hahaha. Slick! ˆ mount sinai ˆ sunglasses ˆ travel buddies ˆ

The view of the less-steep, bottom-half of the mountain. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Home stretch! ˆ mount sinai ˆ

The view back up the backside of the mountain. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

Camel! ˆ camel ˆ

I made it back down to the base a little before 8am. I had a while to wait for the rest of my group, so I walked around the base and explored... ˆ mount sinai ˆ

...the Greek Orthodox monastery that's still there. ˆ mount sinai ˆ

I arrived back at Auski Camp around 1pm, packed up my stuff, checked out... ˆ dahab ˆ hotel ˆ

...and got a ride to the bus station. ˆ driving ˆ

En route to catch the bus. ˆ driving ˆ

Triangle-patterned rotunda at the bus station. ˆ rotunda ˆ

The nine hour bus ride from Dahab to Cairo was loud, bumpy and uneventful. It would've been a tough enough bus ride to endure if I was well rested, but it was particularly gruesome after not sleeping for over 24 hours and climbing up and down a mountain. ˆ bus ˆ

Lucky for me I had plenty of water and weird Egyptian treats to keep me going. ˆ bus ˆ treats ˆ

I arrived back in Cairo around 11:30pm and hired a taxi to take me back to the neighborhood I'd stayed in when I arrived in Cairo! ˆ driving ˆ taxi ˆ

I checked back into the Carlton Hotel, dropped my bags off, and headed back out around 1:30am to try to find a place to eat! ˆ cairo ˆ restaurant ˆ

The proprietor at this restaurant hooked me up with a nice meal, but totally fucked me by giving me tap water. He brought out a big bottle of Aquafina water, and made a big show of opening the cap and pouring it into my glass - but as soon as I started drinking it, I could tell that it was just tap water that he'd put into an Aquafina bottle. Had terrible stomach cramps and crazy fever dreams all night, but didn't get this shits. (My stomach is basically made of iron). ˆ cairo ˆ food ˆ

After dinner, I walked around for a bit hoping my crampy belly would settle down. ˆ cairo ˆ

A little after 2am I arrived back at my hotel room and I was so tired I could barely walk! I hit the bed and hoped I wouldn't be too sick the next day to enjoy my last day in Egypt! ˆ bed ˆ cairo ˆ hotel ˆ