The images below are intended to highlight the changes that can (and do) take place in the pace of a third of a century. In 1981 when I visited Dahab it was still a sleepy Bedouin encampment and near what was by then an abandoned Moshav that had been erected during the Israeli occupation of the Sinai peninsula.

If you want to check out what it has become after some thirty years then you need to look no further than http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahab

Essentially a sleepy little hollow with some of the nicest reefs imaginable where the only danger was fishing by the local Bedou using left over hand grenades.

These days  - if the tourist blurbs are to be believed, the place has really changed. No more trips over the hot desert to get some water, no more fighting the sunshine without a boutique form of solar protection, no more having to start a fire to boil water for your coffee.

Take a look at some of the pictures of the place in its heyday - BEFORE you had to pay through the nose to get the same adventure. 

 Admittedly it was a little rough and you had to carry your own scuba gear as well as your own compressor and you had to have a four wheel drive to get you anywhere.  On the flip side the beaches were empty, there were no crowds and the waters were - for the most part as yet undiscovered by the tourist scene.

Ahhhh! Those were the days!

Palm Trees and Leisure!