Hello everybody, this is Doug coming to you from beautiful, sunny, warm Dahab,
South Sinai, Egypt. I'm so happy to be back in Egypt. I've already eaten an insane amount of
ful and falafel. I love it so much. Yeah, I'm so excited to be back. I've spent the past couple
days here in Dahab. I'm gonna be exploring a whole lot more of Egypt over the coming weeks,
and I'm gonna take you all along with me. The reason why I haven't posted in a while is because
um, I've been a little bit sick the past few days. I think I got-- ate something bad during my layover
in Istanbul.... So I had an eight-hour layover there, which actually turned into a 10-hour layover....
And I ate some of the lounge food, and I think that got me pretty good, because I've been having
stomach issues basically since then. I'll spare you guys the details of that. But um, it's uh
limited me a little bit. I've been recovering, I spent two days in Sharm el Sheikh. I was only supposed
to spend one night there. Because of the delay, I ended up getting in there at like 6 a.m, slept
basically all day, spent one more night there, and then made the drive to Dahab, about an hour and a
half drive. And actually the drive was so amazing. I'll show you some clips of that right now.
Just driving through beautiful mountains, and and the landscape was pretty breathtaking.
But anyway, now I've made it. I'm here, I'm loving it so far. I've been diving the past two days.
Dahab is basically like a diving town, like I think almost everyone here is here to dive. You
see divers everywhere, there's so many dive sites. There's some really famous ones, like the Blue Hole,
which I'm hopefully going to be doing tomorrow or the next day. It's really cool, it's like a really
laid-back vibe here. Let's take a walk. I'll show you what Dahab is like. Yalla! By the way, it is
super windy here right now, which is why I'm tucked behind this wall.
So I'm going to keep hiding out when I talk so you guys can hear me. There's been a storm
kind of rolling through Egypt for the past few days, so I think we're seeing kind of the
tail end of that weather here. But the landscape here is insane. You can actually see Saudi Arabia
right across the water, which blew my mind. I didn't think you'd actually be able to see it.
I mean I knew it was just across the way, but I didn't think you'd be able to see it so clearly.
I mean, you can see the mountains. So I'll show you that now, and sorry if the wind noise is unbearable.
So all that, all that land behind me, all that land is Saudi Arabia.
Hi Saudi people! My Saudi friends, I wish I could come visit you, but I'm not allowed
into the country yet. I'll definitely be back when it reopens for tourism, though.
And by the way, I'm gonna make a separate video I think, about my diving experience here, and
hopefully include some underwater footage. There's some amazing coral here. But one of
the cool things about diving here in Dahab is a lot of the dive sites are right off the shore, so
you don't have to take a boat. You can literally come to a place like this, where I'm standing now,
and walk into the water, and like 30 yards out
is just, like, an insane, world-class coral reef. So I went diving here twice yesterday....
See, here's a group coming out now. And all out there
are amazing coral reefs. It drops off and gets pretty deep like, really quickly.
There's also a ton of Russian speakers, a lot of Russian tourists, or you
know, Ukrainian, or Belarusian, they come here. And I think I could kind of compare it to like, Americans
going to Mexico. I think it's really common for people from the, you know, that Russian-speaking
part of the world to come here for their tropical resort vacations. So almost all the signs and menus
here will have Arabic, English, and Russian. So you can see one right here. And even though it's a
resort town, you've still got Egypt's main guy here, watching. There he is. Yalla Bar, I like that name.
Future social media influencer right here.
Dahab kind of reminds me of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, if you've ever heard of it
or been there... In the sense that it's like, definitely a touristy place, and it's like
totally geared towards having fun. But at the same time, a lot of the tourists here are Egyptian,
especially, you know, during these times. A lot of people selling stuff for tourists, a lot of
restaurants, you know, geared towards that kind of thing. It's a little bit less developed than Playa
del Carmen, and I mean that in a good way. It's not as kitschy, it's not as built up with big brands and
corporate establishments, like Señor Frog's and like Hard Rock Cafe, things like that... So it still
feels a bit more local and like, organic. And the other nice thing is there's not someone
trying to sell you drugs every five minutes. So that's nice. Alright, let's keep walking.
Well guys, I've been invited into a shop by my friend
Dr. Mohammed, right? Yeah. You sell incense, or what is this? Oils? Perfume! Perfume. Perfume essence.
Okay. I don't really wear perfume, I just smell good naturally. So many things are happening....
This is called Ramesses? Okay. For aftershave. It smells good. He says I look like Yasser Arafat in this.
I like them all, but I don't think I want any of the oil right now.
(Angry stare)
Something for your mother? No, I won't be home for a long time. Yeah, but maybe this.... Okay.
Maybe I'll take the shawl. How much is it though? In Egyptian money or in dollars? What do you have?
In Egyptian. 150. 150? Hm.... Okay so I finally made it out of that shop. That was like a typical kind of
tourist trap, which I knew but I still kind of go along with it sometimes, because it's
just kind of fun, I don't know. I did not buy any of the oils, as I told him. But I did buy
like, an Egyptian shawl kind of thing, because it's kind of chilly here with the wind actually,
and I've kind of been meaning to buy one anyway. So the price he quoted for that was
150 pounds, which is like $10, which is absolutely absurd. They probably cost like 20 cents to make
or something. So I got it down to like 80 pounds, which is still way too much, but like $4....
I feel guilty even saying it. I know you guys are gonna tear me apart in the comments for that.
But I wanted it, so whatever. And then he was trying to sell me the oils, putting them all over my hands
and stuff... And they smell great, but like, I don't need that, and I'm traveling long term, and I just
don't need to carry around like a glass filled with essential oil. And I told him that, I'm like,
"I'm not buying any oil." I told him that before I even sat down in there. And he gives you tea and
everything, but he's still-- he's like, "Okay, just a small glass of it." So he fills up like a
little glass jar, a little vial, and I'm like, "Don't fill it, don't pour it in, I'm not buying it." And he
fills it up anyway, wraps it up with paper and tape, and drops it right in my bag. And so he tells me
it's 80 pounds. And I was like, "I don't, I don't care, it's okay, I just don't want it. I just don't
want the oils." And he says okay, and keeps dropping the price, dropping the price.... And then he started
changing his tactic to saying, "But okay, but I already filled the bottle up." I'm like, "Come on
man, I didn't ask you to fill it...." So I'm telling him that, I'm like, "I didn't ask you to fill it, I told
you not to, specifically." He dropped the price all the way down, 40, 30, to 25, which is like a dollar
and change. Just goes to show how low the prices do go if you're actually willing to walk away, which
I then did. Basically these don't really end until you stand up and walk out the door. But that's just
kind of the name of the game, that's all part of traveling. But thought it was interesting
to share with you guys. Okay, while we're on the topic of prices, I felt like I should mention,
prices more generally here are a little expensive-- a little more expensive than
Cairo or Alexandria, or kind of the rest of Egypt, just because it is a touristy place.
So like, I got a falafel sandwich here, I was saying on my Instagram, I was trying to find cheap food
and like, actually get a good deal, just as, you know, like a personal challenge to myself. And I paid
10 pounds for the falafel sandwich, which i thought was a great price. That's like 60 cents U.S. And
then everyone was responding to my Instagram story saying, "Oh my God, you got ripped off! Like
it should only be five pounds, maximum. But I realized after that like no, I was not ripped
off, it was actually set price, like same as what the Egyptians are paying. It's just that it's a
little more than like a Cairo or an Alexandria, because it is a tourist place. And that's okay.
Okay guys. It's so windy here, it's insane when you walk near the water. So I came into a cafe.
It's really cool. I was just gonna have a coffee, but the the waiter offered me
shisha, and I don't know. My rule with that is basically, I don't go out of my way for it,
but when I get offered, I don't turn it down. So I don't know. I'm in Egypt! I'm gonna have
shisha and a coffee and sit right here by the ocean and enjoy. And look at the view from here.
So happy, so content right now. By the way this is just an interesting thing that maybe not
everyone, you know, who's not from a Muslim country who's watching this video knows, the reason they
cut the music right now is because the call to prayer is happening. It's kind of faint,
it's kind of far away, so you probably can't hear it. But that's a rule, when the call to
prayer happens, you turn off music or anything like that. Just an interesting tidbit for you.
Alright, all done at the cafe. Now I'm going back to the dive shop I've been diving with
here, and I'm gonna meet up with my instructor and take a little walk. And he lives here obviously,
so it'll be good to be with a person who knows Dahab a little better than me. Here we go, yalla.
Okay, I made it to the dive shop. So I'm here with Bara'a, Adeeb, and Sherif. There we go, in order.
Bara'a, Adeeb, and Sherif. And these two guys are from Syria, right?
Yeah. And you grew up in Saudi! Yeah. That's cool. I have a lot of Saudi viewers.
Is that uh, something Saudi? Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, I was telling them, when I came to Egypt the first time,
I tried to say marhaban and kef halic, and they had to tell me that's not what you say in Egypt.
We're just hanging out here at the dive shop and talking about tomorrow's dives.
We're gonna go four dives in one day, and normally it's only two. And we're gonna try to do three
during the day and one at night. I've never done a night dive before, so I'm really excited.
Bara'a, we're gonna go for a walk now? Yeah, we'll go to walk here, see some uh.... maybe....
Something good. I don't know what. I never know what I'm gonna film. I just kind of go and see what happens.
We're going to film something. We don't know what, and we don't know why.... And he's got the gimbal too. Another
DJI. We have DJI 4 Osmo. Perfect! Alright, yalla? Yalla! Let's go. Let's go. One more bit of Turkish coffee. Alright, yalla.
Just a couple of uh, video makers out here, doing our thing. Yeah guys! Welcome to Dahab.
We have the gimbal, we have the phones, and the cameras too. And just we need girls!
It's always the thing that's missing! No, no, no, no, no worries. We have
instead of this, we have diving. Of course, perfect replacement!
So this is one of the most famous cafes, huh? Yeah. Nice aesthetic.
Wow, nice.
It's good to be short sometimes. Yeah, we can be stacked! Here we go buddy!
Maybe later! They've got all the seafood out here, wow.
Alright, we're gonna eat some ice cream and continue our little adventure.
Here we have uh.... half Italian, half Egyptian girl. Oh yeah? Yeah, in this
ice cream shop. Fantastic ice cream, really. She makes like Italian gelato? Yeah, yeah.
She's fantastic by the way, and her products are fantastic. Alright, sounds good to me!
Uh.... I want ice cream. I'm so hungry.
Okay. Uh.... what do you like? Oh, I don't know.... So many options.
So tasty and so delicious. I tried before.
Can i have Nutella please? Thank you.
So I just realized my memory card is running out, so this might be maybe the end of the video, or
I'll film more on my phone, but.... Okay, no worries! I have my phone. Full charge, so.... we'll do our
job tonight bro! Let's do it! We got our ice cream. I got Nutella, and you got watermelon and blueberry.
Sounds delicious. Yeah, I love blueberries all the time. Wow. So this is your girlfriend? Yeah. I love her! Oh my God.
You guys look adorable together, I'm gonna be honest. That's beautiful. I love her. I love you!
Maybe sometimes every night, I come here, okay? I talk to her for a long time... I don't know.
With a cup of coffee.... That sounds so romantic. Yeah! So romantic buddy. It's so romantic to love a wall.
Alright guys, we made it back to the dive shop here at Penguin Divers. Thanks for the tour, that
was a great walk. More than welcome buddy. So tomorrow we're going for four dives, inshallah. Inshallah. Yeah there's gonna be
a lot more from Dahab and the rest of Egypt coming soon, so don't forget to subscribe to
this channel if you haven't already! He's the best! Oh, habibi! Thank you.
Alright guys, so I'll see you in the next one. Bye-bye.