Sunrise over the Kingdom

Saudi Arabia from Dahab, Egypt.

     This one inspired by PopcornCandi’s post from yesterday: “Dahab – A place for the soul to rest“.

     Taken from the esplanade of Dahab, on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula, with the sun rising over Saudi Arabia across the Red Sea from early morning Egypt. Kind of surreal actually, standing in one country, looking at another, with so little separating the two. I not only have a huge list of countries that I’ve visited, but also a fairly big, and growing, amount of countries that I’ve seen and photographed yet not set foot on. Saudi Arabia is one of them, some others include Iraq, Chad, Israel, Central African Republic, Cote D’Ivoire, Gambia and Laos, to name a few.

     As for Dahab, Egypt, “A Place to Rest the Soul” is appropriate, with one of the best diving spots in the world in the “Blue Hole”, a myriad of shops and restaurants, the mountains of Saudi Arabia in the distance set above the sparkling water of the Red Sea, camels all around. It can be relaxing or it can be exhilarating. It can be exotic or it can remind you of home. You can snorkel, scuba dive, hike or sail. Drink a beer or fine wine, or drink a fruit smoothie. Take a camel ride in the desert, end it with a swim in clear blue water surrounded by rainbow-colored fish. It can be anything that you make it or want it to be really, with a totally different feel and atmosphere from the rest of Egypt.

November 21, 2007