I made it to Dahab without any trouble. I took the 12:15AM bus from Cairo and arrived yesterday morning around 10AM. The bus ride was event less except for the numerous ID controls.

I found a cool hotel by the sea with a nice room with a view for a very decent price and decided to make the Penguin Hotel my home for my stay. The staff is quite nice, they have a restaurant on the sea-front and a scuba diving center on premise.

I spent yesterday roaming around the village. Most of the damages have already been fixed and it is difficult to see where the bombs exploded. Military and police presence is very high with dogs and metal detectors everywhere. The Coralia hotels located a bit further south was more a bunker than a vacation village with security all around and ID check at the entrance.

The town is almost empty though. Some of the hotels are totally empty. In the evening, the restaurants have very few clients. Business is very difficult right now.

Around town, you can see placards written in English calling for peace, for support or some claiming Dahab will rebuild and be stronger. It is nice to see that.

It is quite difficult to get an idea of how busy it can be. When all the cushions in all the restaurants on the sea-front are used, it must be quite amazing and maybe frustrating.

In the meantime, the other tourists and I are enjoying a great spot as it must be rare to get it.

The town has a great feel to it. They built a promenade on the sea front with restaurants between the path and the sea and the hotels on the other side. No building is higher than 2 floors and concrete has been kept to a minimum. The rest of the town is dusty and a bit dirty but almost nobody goes there anyway.

At night, the restaurants setup candles all around and it becomes very nice, almost magical.

In the evening, it was so quiet. Seated on cushions, drinking a nice freshly squeezed orange juice, in the dim light of the candles, a warm breeze in the face, looking at the limitless sea extending in front of my eyes, I felt so much at peace I thought I could stay here for a very long time.

In case you did not get it:

Come to Dahab, it is a great place to be!

[Edited on 5/19/2006 to add link to related pictures]