Beneath The Underwater : Blue Hole

14:50

The cold February morning air woke me up from deep slumber. I scratched my bedside before got up and looked for my timepiece on the tiny brown table.

 "Damn it. It's only four in the morning."

 The sun hasn't even come out yet. I tried to get back to sleep but it was no use. I sat still on my soft bed and looked at my roommates, Fiq and Lil. They were sleeping soundly, relaxed even. The temperatures were ranging below ten degrees, it was quite cold.

 We had activities planned out for today, surprisingly after only got three hours of sleep last night. I guess we didn't want to waste any seconds here in Dahab.

 I woke them up three hours later. "Get up. We need to go."

 "Whatever. It's only seven in the morning."

 I chuckled. "Come on. It's a beautiful day."

The adventure started as soon as we drove through the desert, in the back of an old Jeep. We weaved in and out of the snake-like roads. 

After almost half an hour suffering from the Arab's driver driving (read : race) style, we finally reached our destination. 

Welcome to Blue Hole.

Blue Hole is a diving/snorkeling location on east Sinai, a few kilometres north of Dahab on the coast of Red Sea. The site is actually a submarine sinkhole with 130m deep.

The Blue Hole is notorious for the number of diving fatalities which have occurred in the past, earning it the nickname 'Diver's Cemetary'

I wandered through by foot, mesmerized by the surroundings that illuminated by the morning sun. The view was completely picturesque; the most striking detail would be the vast crystal-clear ocean with warnings of depths and danger. 


"The currents were so strong, and it was not very safe to dive." An instructor suddenly came at us and told us the bad news.

I was really disappointed, my hope to dive at the Blue Hole will be completed on my next visit. The rest of us just want to snorkel and we need to wait for almost twenty minutes before he put out both his thumbs, smirked and waved a green light.

The descent down to Blue Hole was truly magical. We were sequenced on floating boards and swam down near the corals. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery, I was quite pissed off with myself for not charging the battery last night. 

As clouds passes, we realized that we spent almost three hours at the site. I did catch several quick Bedouin chai, still in disappointment of not going for diving. Regardless, I was having fun with some of my friends as we spent the morning splashing each other with the sea salt water, some of it went down my esophagus. Yuck. 

Leaving the Blue Hole feeling invigorated, we decided to explore the town. We again enjoyed some Arab cuisine with complimentary chai while reflecting back on the morning excitements from the Blue Hole. Fiq, Lil and I took few hours to stroll through the town and were utterly mesmerized by its charm: it was filled with fascinating seaside restaurants, bold patterns on all of the windows and doors, and the locals that was very welcoming. Being there for such a short time was a complete tease.

I will be back.


Sayonara.





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