Anyone know a place where we can get some dive gear?

We were up early again this morning to catch the 8:00 ferry from Hurgada to Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula. After turning down at least 8 buses that wanted to charge us taxi rates, we finally sqeezed ourselves into a nearly full minibus down to the ferry pier. While Nigel squeezed his way through a line to a tiny window in an old wooden building to get our boarding passes, I stood there and watched as many passengers for the ferry bound for Saudi Arabia filled out their immigration forms. If we thought Egyptian women have it bad, then I feel really sorry for the Saudi women. They were covered head to toe in black bhurkas, with just a slit for their eyes. Even their hands were covered with black gloves. Suddenly a gust of wind flipped up the hood of one girl's bhurka. I had a very quick glimpse of a cute red and white striped t-shirt and her hair combed into a braid. It was ineresting to see that underneath, she could be a 'normal' girl but that her society doesn't let her show any of this. Quickly she pulled the bhurka down and tucked it in so that this wouldn't happen again.

Getting on the ferry, we were pleased to see that the US$40 our tickets cost was actually reflective of the quality of service we got. The ferry is pretty new, clean and nice. We sat at a table, got coffee and a little something for breakfast from the onboard cafe and settled in for a few games of shithead. After about 30 minutes, the boat started up and we were off. On the TVs, advertisements for less than C-grade Hollywood movies were shown, all of which had plenty of shooting, bombing and the destruction of property. We had never heard of any of them. The feature movie came on, no less captivating than the previews, was so bad that it didn't even feature Steven Baldwin. It held my interest for about 3 minutes.

The trip was supposed to take 90 minutes, but rough seas extended it out to over 2 hours. Arriving at the Sharm el-Sheikh port, we got off the boat and waited while our luggage was unloaded. We caught a taxi to the bus station, hoping to get a bus soon after to Dahab. After arguing with the taxi driver for a few minutes (he wanted to charge 60E pounds to take us about 2km, and he picked up another passenger), we paid him the 10E pounds we thought the trip was worth and arrived at the bus station in time to have missed the 10:00 bus by less than an hour. The next bus was not due to depart until 2:30. As we got ready to have a long, hot, boring wait on the hard benches of the outdoor bus station, a Kiwi guy approached us and said that he had a minibus taking him to Dahab for 50E pounds per person, do we want to join them? Well, the bus only costs 11, but it was very tempting as we didn't feel like sitting there all day. Especially with a bunch perverted boys hanging around., whistling at me and making comments in Arabic. Nige was able to talk the driver down to 30 each, and we quickly grabbed our bags and hopped on. But, that wasn't before was whistled at again, so I approached the boys and asked "Do you speak to married Egyptian women that way? Probably not, because you'd go to jail or get your asses kicked. Don't talk to westerners that way either."

It was a short ride north to Dahab through the stunning mountainside scenery of the Sinai Peninsula. Just over an hour later we arrived at the small beach town. Made up of small shops, lots of restaurants and bars, and about 400 dive shops, Dahab is a chilled out 'hippy' town. We didn't think it was too hippy, but that's what people say. There is a paved path all along the waterfront, lined with shops and restaurants and hotels. And no cars! We found a hotel on the beach here (our room resembled an igloo), El-Salam Camp, then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering along the beachfront. The water is absolutely gorgeous here, and it would seem, a popular place to dive too. We had a few beers at one of the many places on the beach, then a home-cooked meal at Jay's. It's a fantastic restaurant where the chef changes the menu daily. A few mains and side dishes are always on offer. We had chicken, a pasty, veggies and rice. All delicious. It felt like we were at mom's house for dinner. We wandered around some more before heading back to our hotel and to bed.