Dahab 2
18th Dec
Day one of the advance open water course and so I was looking forward to star it as the plan is to get to the stage of rescue diver before I will depart Dahab for Jordan and since the days are going fast I would like to get this done. Today the dive was with Taiwanese girl, Korean couple as they all want to get advance open water course and so we bundled together and drove to the diving site Islands. We had nice time and chat when not diving as obviously you cannot talk when under water ,unless you are mermaid or aqua man š The dive was great, saw so many fishes and corals that it is hard to explain and Iām really sorry that I had not bought the go pro camera as the underwater is so beautiful. Well there should be some photos from Samir and Menna who were diving with me previous day. We suppose to meet up after dive but unfortunately we missed each other as for some reason I could not call Samir from my Egyptian sim card and when texted him the messages were not delivered. Anyway since I had not received any reply from Samir after dive I went for a walk and used Vodafone RED roaming to get in touch with bank and insurance as the VHI send me letter that they are going to charge me some penalty fee for breach of contract since my health insurance cover in Ireland expired and I had not paid it in full. Thankfully Iām relaxed and in good mood after dive and by the sea and sun so I could call them with easy tone. Still my blood pressure spiked as soon as they answered since this is the fourth time Iām dealing with the same issue, three times in Ireland before may departure was called that I owe them money and three times apologies for this mistake and promised that this will be recorded on the system. Wellā¦not really as they send letter, saying that they will repatriate the cost by court order if I will not pay within 30 days. As usual the call starting with automated message and then press this number and that number, eventually got through human whom I was telling that Iām calling from Egypt which cost me money and that Iām not happy to do so because of their fault. He was so kind to listen to my angry rant until it took breath and used this pause of my speech to tell me that he is going to transfer me to relevant department quickly, which he did in fairness. Lady in accounts department was briefed already on some angry customer and within few minutes located my file or whatever it is on their system and agreed that this should not happen. She was so calm, that I was wondering how often she listens to customers angry voices and possibly some irrelevant accusation in this calm manner and I felt that my meditation and compassion skills still have place for improvement. She was so nice that I felt ashamed for tone of my voice but on the other hand I was angry that I had to deal with this crap on. I did thank her and wished her nice Christmas ānow I think I should apologies to her for my tone of voiceā but I think that afterwards she could hear that I was happy and sorry for the tone as I said that this is nothing personal just that Iām a bit annoyed by the VHI and the mess they have within their system. Overall she resolved my issue and Iām thankful for that and hopefully she does not have too many angry customers as poor hubby or partner at home later, listening to her ventilating the frustration from the assholes on the phone. One done one more to go ā¦ now KBC as I had closed my credit card account before my trip to avoid unnecessary charges and also I decided that Iām done with credit cards. Account was closed and later after about nearly month I saw on my online banking that I have credit of ā¬150 on credit card as final balance and as normal person would expect, this credit should be automatically transferred to my current account but NO, this has to be requested by me. So the lady on the phone told me to send email with the request to do so, which I gladly did. Unpleasant calls now completed I now can use those unlimited calls within Vodafone Red Roaming to call my friends instead of messaging on whatās up as call me old fashioned but voice conversation is still better for me than messages, especially with friends. I love first answer form my first phone call to friend āwhat is wrongā š which is on one side nice to know that they do carte about me and also showed that we are living in age when the phone call from abroad is nearly equaling to bad news since messaging took over the communication these days. Well had called few friends, catch up on the news and developments of live in Ireland, few gossips, some news, over all it was nice to have talk with them and thank God for friends. This went on for nearly whole afternoon to early evening hours of Egyptian time since Egypt is 2 hours ahead of Ireland, which I really din not cop on until one asked me what time is hereā¦. šā true holiday mood Iām inā not aware about date, time zones just chilling. It was so good to chat and then I suppose to have meet Samir and Menna for dinner but due the unresponsiveness from Samir I just stayed in and did some research on diving computer what I want to buy. Found few types Mares Pro, Suunto ZOOP Novo and Suunto D4i Novo form the cheapest ā¬180 to dearest ā¬ 400 ānot dearest on the marketā for my purpose. Honestly I was kind of glad that we did not meet as about 21:00 my eye lids decided that they changed the form into led weight from diving belt and shut down, what would made eating dinner difficult without visual.
19th Dec
Ahh what a sleep I had ā¦ up at 6:40 and fresh as a daisy š Usual routine of some light exercise to wake up, breakfast of muesli with yogurt followed to get some energy for dive but no more falafel. Tap the companion to wake up as it is time to start another day and after few seconds it responded by beeps signaling that here Iām awake and messages are awaiting you to read. Samir messaged me that he felt asleep last night and that if I will send him my email he will send me the photos from our dive ā I hope you do that Samirā as Iām waiting form them since it was so beautiful under the sea. Well few others friends messaged me so took the communication break after breakfast and dealt with all he correspondence, what makes my day as it is nice to know that there are people who are do care to message me now and then, even if Iām out of their lives i.e. eyes. Quick stop at the throne room to do some hygiene check and possibly to try to create something nice, resembling good looking human before exit the door so there is no panic on the streets āmonsters incā. Shops are closed early in the morning but I found one open as I needed to get water, since diving is thirsty hobby as for money, as well for water. Probably the water attracts water as I have 12 liters bottle gone in three days.
Back to ORCA DIVE DAHAB and ready for another day in the water and mainly under the water. Morning exercise front of the school as they put some cement down to repair the foot path and no one should step on it, so jump and hop until it gets hard. Korean and Taiwanese are here and later came new buddy Lio from France on the bike with tray of baklava , which got Adawy and Ashraf laughing as they call him another falafel guy ā heavy food is not good for divingā . Well I had refused the offer as I had my share of heavy belly and chest pain on first day and do not want to have it again.
Today we went to dive in famous blue hole about 20 min by car on the remote beach, which is the center point of free divers and one of my favorite movies from Luc Besson ā The Big Blueā came to my mind as we approached the site I could see in my mind Jena Reno and Jean-Marc Barr walking casually towards the sea with fins in their hands. Apparently this blue hole is 110 meters deep and claimed lives of many divers as marked by the plaques on the wall of the near cliff with names and dates of unfortunate divers who lost life there, which is sad thing to see. Names of many nationalities ae there and as we were approached the wall Adawy got attention of other focused on the blue hole itself as it could be seen better from the walk which is above the surface and the color of water is clearly marking the hole. Diving is stating through ābellsā what is arch and narrow passage down and apparently got it name from the sound of air tanks clanking against this narrow passage. Then the dive is around cliff on right hand side and deep blue on the left what is dropping down to the sea, what is some sight and this made me realized how deep and dangerous the sea could be since the dark deep color got me thinking of vastness of underwater world what we know so little about and also made me realized that diving is beautiful past time but need to be taken seriously. I could not imagine to be lost in such big blue space where is nothing around you just various shades of blue and nothing else in sight. Lots of Nemoās are there in their homes of anemone āIām not so smart to know all the names, google isā but is some sight as they emerge from their home to look or defend their home and offspringās in case you are get too close. Also neighbor Dory āblue with yellow finsā was there as well as Lion fish and swarms of little fishes, what are swimming around you and if you flick fingers they disperse in one swift movement, swimming together as oneā¦ amazing experience so be part of it and if you are swimming really slowly as well as breathing gently ānot to create many bubblesā you could swim through them. Their little bodies full of color, luminescent in the light reflecting on their bodies with small eyes, what you can see as they are moving from looking at you in one second and then quickly on something else is amazing sight. You can leave the m to clean your teeth if you open mouth as living dentist. There were some much bigger one nibbling on the corals =, what looked like rainbow. The dive is finishing at the blue hole itself where we went around the walls and we can see the free divers going down by the rope to the dark cold sea.
Out of water to get back to restaurant to change the tanks and back in the water to the Canyon what is 30 meters deep and here we played game of numbers as when you are down below 30 meters the gas narcosis the consciousness is alerted as if you are tipsy or drunk depending on your tolerance. Adawy hold fingers up and we need to respond to it to show correct answer of calculation, if he showed three fingers we need to show seven so the result is always ten. Funny thing and I missed one as he showed three fingers and I knew that answer is seven but I could not get it right with my fingers. Also he showed us that red and orange color disappear and you see them as some sort of grey, only yellow, greed and blue were visible colors on his plastic board. Then we went to see the top of canyon passage where again some middle sized fishes ware swimming in swarm formation. See the sunshine coming down to the canyon is some sight as you can see the rays of sunshine coming down as reversed sunrise / sunset what you see before the sun appear / disappear from horizon. When we get out of the canyon entrance and got on the top of it, there was this amazing curtains of tiny bubbles coming from sand at the bottom what we were breathing out in the canyon. As the air find the way to get out you have this curtain of tiny bubbles front of you and the sun reflecting in the water makes amazing scene ādamn I donāt have go pro cameraā.
Out and ready for lunch, this time only salad with tahini and bread as Iām keeping it light in this nice warm weather and donāt have taste for any meat. Lovely seating on the sea side with waves crushing on the stony beach and sun shining high, warming our bodies from outside as the food is doing from inside since I got a lot of hot sauce on my salad what was not that hot btw.
Few minutes ride back to Dahab, signed the training papers and we agreed to meet alter to get photo from Lioās go pro. I have chat with Adawy and selected Suunto ZOOP Novo as my starting diving computer since it is below ā¬200 and no need to spend too much on it until Iām not professional and money making diver since this is huge not like D4i nice watch size but have to start somewhere. I order it online with delivery to Ireland and later transfer to Mauritius by friend but then thought came to me to look at shop around corner and it was there the same model ā¬10 more that online and I have it immediately so I asked to cancel my order before shipment, which was done and I was so pleased with this web shop that I will definitely order something from them later. Came back to school where Lio should be with the memory card and photos but he forgot the camera so no photos today ā¹ we agreed to go together to Islands again tomorrow and then he will give us all the photos from both days. Since we were there me and I-ping āTaiwaneseā got a book to study on NITROX course as with NITROX we could dive for longer which I would love to try since one dive is about 30 minutes on full tank. Also we asked about day trip to ship wreck Thistlegorm what is near the Sharm El-Sheik and also Res Mohammed dive site what suppose to be beautiful spot for diving from the boat for ā¬120 day trip with start at 4amā¦ so I need to think of it. Well that is all for today as my strawberry shisha is getting third refill of the coal and I feel it is effect on my head š
