Хотите сказки? Вам в Дахаб... Do you want fairy tales? You in Dahab...

Dahab... We returned 10 days ago with our eldest daughter and niece and already some stolgic memories and plans for the next year...
Chose a place to stay for reasons of active recreation. Since my other half refused to go to Sinai and preferred to stay with her youngest daughter, and I have been missing alternative rest for so long, I decided that if I am the master of the situation, then I will rest as I want.
I heard a lot about Dahab, I looked through a bunch of sites before my vacation. Departure was with a dual feeling, on the one hand, the sea, the sun and the exotic of the East, what else do you need? On the other hand, a lot has been written that the service in Dahab is significantly different from the famous resort cities of Egypt, and it bothered me a little, because after all, I had 2 children of six and sixteen years old with me.

Now, having cooled down from emotions, I look at my vacation in a sober way and confidently say that this is exactly what I was looking for - not silk sheets and a full food system, not a kids club and animation for the lazy at the hotel, not alcohol for free and therefore drinking up to blue moths in the eyes, but some originality, in some places the service is in its infancy, there is no gluttony, tourists who are drunk and dissatisfied with the stardom of the hotel... In other words, those who are to the core of a five-star vacation, according to the ALL INCLUSIVE system, with excursions to standard places, and with according to the schedule - you are not in Dahab... This is a small town (I would call it a village), with a more or less clean embankment, a step to the side and it is inapplicable for you to meet mountains of garbage, heaps deposited by camels and rarely walking barefoot Bedouin children. BUT! But from the local population, there is a quite civilized public here (most of them speak English and therefore work here, leaving relatives in Cairo, say, and visiting them once every few weeks), and from tourists, you still need to look for such an audience! - young, active, non-standard, who came for outdoor activities - in pairs or even with the same alternative parents. It is not boring here - numerous dive clubs teach courses for divers, who, in between dives, visit the Blue Hole, the famous White and Colored Canyons, explore the Safari on quad bikes, or go to the Reserved mangroves with local tour companies. Or just... they sit in a restaurant (with which the entire embankment is strewn) and sip narghila, drinking hibiscus. And the atmosphere itself. . . Getting there, a civilized person first receives a culture shock, for subsequent adaptation he is forced to simply abstract, and then all this time it seems to you that this is all either in a dream or not with you. Sitting in the evening in a restaurant on the embankment, listening to oriental tunes to the sound of the surf, sometimes the splashes of the waves irrigate the edge of a simple sarafan (which by today's standards is considered an evening dress, because the rest of the time you go in a bathing suit and shorts, which are washed in exactly the same way as a swimsuit every day and therefore, to some extent, they are already hardening from the accumulated salt), along the coast the edge of the embankment is illuminated by various colors of lanterns, and at this time you are looking at a plate with barracuda steak, crab soup or grilled sea platter (squid, shrimp and lobster). Nearby, local boys are trying (quite successfully in some places) to catch squids on a device resembling a snack, some local cat is rubbing against your leg (there are no stray cats in Dahab - there are plenty of them and they are all public property of the city), and you sip a hookah or just brought fresh from any fruit of your choice... It is at these moments that you sit and understand - here it is a fairy tale and you want to ask your neighbor to pinch you to make sure that you are not sleeping.
During the day, life is different - the town wakes up at ten or eleven o'clock (for all night it allows tourists to enjoy the nightlife of Dahab). If you can’t sleep or you have an early excursion, then stomping at eight o’clock in the morning along the embankment to your chosen restaurant, all of whom you can meet are either local garbage collectors who collect garbage by putting it on ordinary carts and taking it away in an unknown direction, or restaurant workers doing a general cleaning (pulling out covers and shaking them right on the street), or divers dressed almost in full equipment, rolling metal carts together (looking like Soviet beds on wheels, only shorter and without a spring net) with all their equipment.
I dare say that we rented a hotel in the old part of the city. That is why I am describing her life. The Blue Lagoon breathes differently. We visited it only twice - one with a horseback riding excursion, the other time we personally came by taxi, already on the last day of our stay.
Now leaving the lyrics, let's move on to the description of the hotel.

To be honest, when our taxi driver dropped us off at the hotel, we were in shock for several minutes. Not that they were disappointed, they just apparently expected to see a more civilized place (I already wrote about culture shock, without any connection with the hotel). The hotel draws on a solid two, because we were still embarrassed by the presence of sand on the floors, falling directly from the threshold of the street, plumbing of the 60s. On the first day they had some kind of accident at the center. power station, so there was neither light nor water (at first we did not understand the connection, then they explained to us that the water in Dahab was from a water station. The decoration of the rooms, and the hotel itself, leaves much to be desired. But! The family of the hotel soon bribed us and all this for we began to imagine little things. The owner Emad is a wonderful person. He has a daughter, wife and three sons who lived right there in the hotel. Everyone speaks excellent English, the children are wonderfully brought up - not intrusive and without bad habits. Emad himself was very helpful and really caring - when we asked if there was an extra mask with a snorkel - he got us the same day and brought it. He took us to the Blue Lagoon beach for free. Through him we ordered most of our excursions and entertainment - he always offered prices below Dahab tourist, although we went with the same tour operators (hmm, it’s loudly said). When a taxi was needed, they ordered through him - it was clear that the taxi drivers knew and respected him well, and somehow it was not scary to drive. My teenage daughter is a good swimmer and enjoyed teaching my daughter how to swim. He ordered one of the staff to escort us to the bus station - he helped to catch a taxi, negotiate the price, find out about the cost of tickets, timetables, and having seated us, modestly retired. I want to note that in Dahab good people are friendly and involved. Living in Dahab, you constantly encounter and contact them. Therefore, those who, in principle, are ambivalent about people of Arab origin, are not able to even pretend to be disposable in communication. It will be difficult for you, then you will go to the Hilton or somewhere else, where your life will be on schedule and predictable for the entire vacation period.
In the hotel, in addition to the family, there are several other young people (related to some line) who clean the rooms and clean the pool. Yes, the pool is quite decent and is cleaned almost several times a day. My six-year-old son preferred it to the sea, and only when he realized how beautiful it is under water, overcame his fear of a mask and snorkel and learned to breathe through his mouth, he could not get out of the sea, so he would have been there all the time around the clock...
There are two restaurants at the hotel (with which he has an agreement). We rejected the one closest to the hotel due to the scarcity of portions and lethargic service, and therefore we always went to the distant Fresh Fish, where they brought decent breakfasts and always with fresh vegetables. They also had the most delicious Sudanese hibiscus (cold brewed). By the way, in this restaurant, since we were guests of the hotel, we received a 20% discount. Bargaining is normal in other restaurants. There is a discount from Russian dive clubs in most restaurants, so although we didn’t take a test dive (we planned but failed), we said that we were their clients. At least someone would ask us for their business card, they would give a discount and so on.
You can write a lot, because this place is unusual, with some kind of unusual aura. I really want to come back here, next time I know more exactly what and where to visit. The hotels in the old town are all plus or minus the same level (I'm not talking about huts without air conditioning, they are also enough on the principle of a bed), the difference is only in proximity to the beach (we walked 3 minutes from ours). We were looking for the most inexpensive hotel, but with good recommendations. We were not disappointed - all that the hotel did not add in terms of comfort was added by its sevis and its nepotism.

People, go to Dahab, I am for those who want a non-standard, active rest, full of emotions from what they saw and felt. If you are not obsessed with the priorities of a purely beach holiday, are open to new experiences and (yes, yes! ) And are able to overestimate the meaning of life, you are here.
Have a great holiday! Hello Dahab!