We were originally supposed to leave Jerusalem Thursday evening and stay in Eilat for a night, however since I had the stomach flu for a week we decided that it would be best if we stayed in Jerusalem one more night and headed to Nuweiba bright and early at 7:00 am Friday morning.
We slept most of the way down South. We arrived before 11:00 am and quickly hopped into a cab at the Eilat central bus station and only 15 minutes later found ourselves at the border to Egypt.
Exiting Israel was quick and simple. I got my temporary Israeli passport stamped for the first time, it was very exciting, but otherwise it was uneventful. However, passing through into Egypt was not such a pleasurable experience. There was no strip search BUT we were seriously "violated" by a large group of very angry Greeks that were crossing the border at the same time had major anger management issues.
Once we were done with the Greeks we hopped into another cab and headed to our hotel in Nuweba and began to meet some seriously awesome people. We shard the cab with three girls traveling to Dahab who are missionaries living in Jerusalem. They hailed from Indiana, California and Hong Kong and were in love with Israel and told us how they wished they were able to make Aliyah as non-Jews. It was definitely an interesting half an hour ride to our hotel.
We drove down a very long dirt and rock road to reach The Bawaki Inn, our hotel. The cab dropped us off and we were greeted by several of the employees who took our bags and showed us the way to restaurant/bar/front desk/lounge
where we "checked-in". The manager was so happy to see us and showed us to the "best" room he had. It was awesome. We spent the weekend in an adorable bungalow, with AC and indoor plumbing, situated about 30 steps to sea in one direction and 20 steps to the restaurant/bar/front desk/lounge in the other direction. The manager set up a running tab for us for the weekend and we were off…
It was about 107 degrees when we arrived so quickly put the AC on full bla
st, got in our bathing suits and ran for the water. It was like stepping into a bath. The water was so clear you could see the bottom of the sea no matter how far out you went. We chilled in the water for a bit and our vacation officially began!We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach playing cards, jumping in and out of the water and taking in all the beauty around us. It was striking, to the left was the most crystal clear blue water as far as the eye could see and to the right the most enormous mountains, and everything in between was desert.
After a fair amount of beach time we made the lot so long trek back to our room to clean up and get ready for a delicious dinner that included very freshly made pita and delightful, flat falafel.
Later that night we started talking to another guest at the hotel, Ashem, a very large, very tanned half naked German – Egyptian man from Turkey. He had come to the Bawaki for a weekend vacation and still had not left a month later. Ashem was ridiculously knowledgeable about world current events, had a lot to say about Arab – Israeli relations, spoke 7 languages and was a the founder of a business that is located all over the middle east and parts of Asia. We had a great time chatting with him, and his Nephew from Cairo and learning about their culture and hearing what they had to say about life in Egypt as well as discussing our lives in Israel.
It made me San Diego like crazy waking up to the sea Saturday morning. We lounged around, played Tawlibe (Shesh Besh or Backgammon), went swimming, sipped on some beers (it is legal to drink alcohol in Egypt ONLY if you are a tourist), and played with the 8 year-old daughter of the manager of the Bawaki. She told us we were best friends and didn’t leave us alone for the next two hours… so we went for a walk.
All along the beach are little “hotels” with literal straw shacks set up for guests. After walking by about 5 that appeared deserted we came across one with a group of Kite Boarders both on the sand and in the sea right in front of this really cool bungalow area they had set up AND we heard them speaking Hebrew. We decided to sit down watch when this Israeli guy started chatting with us. They were all super cool, we chilled for an hour or so, they offered to teach us how to Kite Board but neither of us were mentally prepared for that adventure at the time (but there will definitely be kite boarding involved in the next trip to Nuweiba).
Saturday night we had another delicious meal on the beach and just chilled out some more.
Sunday was our last day there and it was also great. We met some more really cool people, this time three girls from Cairo that just came down for the weekend to relax at the beach. They were super curious about what life and the people are like in Jerusalem. Hopefully we made a good impression.
All in all it was a much needed and truly spectacular vacation. I returned to Jerusalem happy to be home and well rested and ready for a short and what is turning out to be historic week at work (if your curious visit Haaretz.com and search for Nefesh B’nefesh).
Enjoy the photos. Much love from the Holy Land!
