9 – Cleaner wrasse in your mouth? Check.

5th Dec, 2250hrs, 7Heaven, Dahab.

This morning went out really early for 2 dives. One to the Canyon and the second to the infamous dive site the Blue Hole. The journey there, 6 km north out of Dahab, passes by exciting terrain. The landscape is desolate yet beautiful. Our pickup cuts through the road. On the right side, is the great expanse of the Red Sea. On the left jagged mountains flank the desert road. Every few minutes, we will pass a train of camels, with their Bedouin owners, going down the coast. I regret not bringing my camera along for the dive...missed a lot of great landscape shots during the ride. Let's see if I can any pics from the guys on my dive, will upload if so.

Dive prep. All shore dives, and there no beach, you jump in, it's the reef!

The first dive was around 30m deep, into the Canyon. Lionfish, a scorpionfish and the highlight was cleaner wrasse cleaning out my mouth after i took out my regulator. Ticklish. The second dive was into the Blue Hole. I only did 14m, though this spot is Dahab's most famouse dive spot, because it is an 80m deep hole, with an opening at 65m deep into the ocean. There have been casualties with deep divers who try to exit the 65m opening and either got lost, disoriented or get extreme narcossis.

Donkeys in Siwa, now camels in Dahab

Finished the dive just in time for lunch. Amazingly, after factoring in 160 SGD for my dives over the past couple days, i am still within budget overall. Also, the price for Open Water is 200 USD here, based on what the dormmates tell me.

I am meeting all sorts of characters here. People working in UN in Congo, students on gap year, farmers. Today I'm hanging out with Simon from Hong Kong, who joined my dorm today. Had dinner together (25 EGP) and walked down from Masbat to Mashraba area. Basically it has been very much a traveler's meeting point, so many nationalities in one location.

One more night here, then I leave tomorrow night. Cannot get too comfortable with the laid-backness of Dahab. I fear I may just cancel the rest of the itinerary and just stay here. In the meantime, I'm going to sleep in tomorrow morning. Hahaha.