Just a few days ago, I gave to a friend my definition of what the difference between a tourist and a traveller is. A traveller has a lot of time but only little money – while with the tourist it’s the other way around.
I pride myself on being a traveller. Moving at a slow pace, using local infrastructure and eating whatever it is they eat in the country I’m visiting.
Now it’s been a long time since I went anywhere for more than a few days, and I felt the itch to see something new. And get out of the Berlin winter.
Knowing that really only a short trip is an option at the moment, I felt that I would be breaking with my standards if I just hopped on a plane, flew somewhere sunny and came back a week or two later.
But that’s what I decided to do. It took a while to convince myself, but here I am now, 100% tourist. People on the plane applauded at touchdown, a driver picked me up outside the airport, I’m staying at a hotel in my own room and I intend to spend most of my time with distinctly non-local activities such as scuba diving. It doesn’t get any more touristy really. Won’t rename the blog to pattourist.com just yet though.
Enjoying my time in Egypt so far. Everybody has been friendly – more so than I expected – and even though Dahab is touristy, it has a somewhat laid-back vibe. Bit like Koh Tao (Thai island) a few years back.
Reaching Dahab took about an hour driving through the desert. It’s such a lifeless place (superficially) but still I find a lot of beauty in it, a serenity. Hope to see a bit more of it the next couple of days.
