An Ajer in Alex: The Land of Lazy, i.e. Dahab

When the flat has been in need of 7 repairs in 9 days and there has been a stressful week of exams, it is great being able to get on the night bus to Asia, more specifically Sinai. The inexperienced traveller might think one is supposed to sleep on a night bus, but the loud Egyptian movies played throughout the night and the constant stops at check-points suggest otherwise. It is lovely being woken up at 2 in the morning for a random policeman in the middle of the desert to inspect your ticket, even though it has been no opportunity for getting on or off the bus since last inspection. Having to take your bags out of the bus for sniffer dogs to search them is another favourite of mine. Even so, I stubbornly slept through most of the night on the way there, and was very proud of myself for having become such a hardened traveller that I could actually sleep on a bus I would earlier have become sick just by looking at. On the way back I threw up in an intense bout of travel sickness. I guess I jinxed it.

Our destination was Dahab, a chilled out beach town close to Sharm el-Sheikh. I travelled with Flynne and Ant and their flatmates Rosie and Aisha who go to the ACL with us. We had an extremely lazy weekend: we went snorkelling once, went for a long walk along the beach to a tiny village once, and had bedouin dinner in the desert once. The rest of the time was spent lounging in cafés, consuming an impressive amount of pancakes and enjoying the sun while it lasted. When the sun was out, it was extremely hot - I might have felt a little bit gleeful when a Swedish guy living in Oslo said it had been -30 ºC there when he left. But alas! Extreme weather hit Dahab: a night of rain and thunder. Nothing in these parts is built to withstand rain, so the roads were flooded, internet and cash machines were down and there was no phone signal. Luckily my phone picked up signal from Saudi-Arabia - how very generous of them to share it with me. As the roads were flooded, we couldn't get back when planned, and had to stay an extra day in Dahab. There are worse places to be stuck. Even so, I guess it was good we escaped when we did: the town made me too lazy to even be a proper paparazzi.