Mt. Sinai and Sharm El Sheikh

Hi all! I am fresh off the bus from Sinai and thoroughly sunburnt, but missing the beach already.
This weekend, our group had a long break from classes and took the trek from Africa to Asia and hit the Sinai Peninsula.
Thursday, we left after classes and drove for 11 hours to San Katrine, also known as Mt. Sinai, Gabl Mosa (Moses' mountain).

And at 2 am, the whole group gathered at the base of the mountain and made the trek up to the top. It was very very cold outside and there were a lot of camels (and camel poo) which made for a lot of traffic, but the moon was so bright that we could still see where we were walking. So after about 2 hours, we made it to the top of the mountain, snuggled all together underneath blankets on a cliff and watched the sunrise.
We got to watch the sky go from this

to this

to this

to this


It was absolutely beautiful. And the way the hike is set up is that there is a path going around the mountain until you reach a certain peak where it just turns completely into stairs. So after hiking up for and hour and a half, we trekked up hundreds of steps. It was exhausting but totally worth it. Plus God gave me a new set of commandments, so really it was worth it for all of humanity (haha, oh, Monica...)

These are some views from the top




Anyway, after we ran down the mountain, we got to nap for about a minute on the bus, have a quick bite, and then shower, we (and by we i mean the small group of courageous troopers who opted to go to the monastery instead of being lame and napping) went to the monastery of San Katrine located at the bottom of Mt. Sinai. The monastery's pretty cool because the have a huge garden with olive trees, grape vineyards, sunflowers, almond trees, tons of agriculture that sustains the monastery.

So we learned all about the monastery and then got to see the burning bush! Yes, THE burning bush. Unfortunately, it is no longer burning. So it pretty much looks just like a bush.

So after the monastery, we bussed to Sharm El-Sheikh. Sharm is pretty much a foreigners haven inside of Egypt. There are naked Europeans running around everywhere while Egyptians rip them off and try to sell them water for 8 times the actual price. Everybody wins! So we got to Sharm and immediately got on a glass boat and went out on the water. We got to see the coral reefs from the glass on the bottom of the boat and then got to swim and snorkel a little bit! Then we treated ourselves to a little Mexican food and passed out.

Saturday:
Boat trip all day. We went to Ras Mohammed (translation: Mohammed's head) which is a huge national park that is trying to preserve the rapidly dying coral reefs. We got to sunbathe on the boat (or sunburn) and we stopped at 3 different diving and snorkeling stops. We saw all kinds of awesome fish. There were big bright yellow ones, nemo fish, black ones with blue polka dots, bright purple with yellow tails and fins (my personal fav), bright purple with lots of neon stripes, and we even saw the blendy-into-the environment fish, octopi, funny red spiky fish, and a string ray with periwinkle dots and stripes! And the people who ran the boat were really chill and let us jump and dive off the boat from all different spots. It was awesome.


Sadly, we had to come back home and go to class, but after the program, I'm definitely going back to Sinai!


جبل موسى وشرم الشيخ
١٣/٧/٢٠٠٩

انا نزلت من الاوتوبيس من سينا و اتحرقت من الشمس، ولكن وحشني الشاطىء! الاجازة دي، كان عندنا فاصل طويل من الفصول وروحنا من افريقيا الى اسيا وروحنا سينا.

الخميس، مشينا على طول بعد الصف وسوقنا ١١ ساعة الى سان كاترين او جبل موسى.
الساعة ٢ الصبح، جمعنا تحت الجبل ومشينا فوق. الجو كان بارد جدا وكان في جمال كتيرة وعشان كدة كان في زحمة، ولكن القمر كان لامع وكانا قادرين نشوف كل حاجة لما مشينا. وبعد ساعتين، وصلنا فوق، قربنا كلنا الي بعض تحت بطانيات واتفرجنا على الفجر. كان جميل جدا جدا. وفي سبيل على الجبل مشينا عليه ولكن السبيل تحول للسلم، وبعد ما طلعنا الجبل نفسه لمدة ساعة ونص، طلعنا مئات سلم! كننا مرهقين بعدين لكن كننا مبسوطين.
بعدين، نزلنا، ونمنا في الاوتوبيس نص ساعة، اكلنا شوية، استحمنا، وانا ومجموعة صغيرة روحنا دير سان كاترين اللي تحت الجبل. الدير رائع العشان في جنينة كبيرة فيها اشجار زيتون، العنب، عباد الشمس، واشجار لوز، وزراعة كتيرة تحافظ على دير.
اتعلمنا كتير عن الدير وشوفنا العليقة المحترقة وهو مش لسة محترقة وشكله زاي شجرة عادية. بعد الدير، روحنا شارم الشيخ. في اجانب كتيرة في شارم واوروبيين عارين في كل مكان ومصريين اللى بيحاولوا يحدوا فلوسهم وبيبعوا مياة لثمن عالي جدا! كل حد بيكسب! وصلنا في شارم وعلى طول ركبنا مركب قزاز وقدرنا نشوف الشعاب المرجانية من المركب وعومنا شوية وعملنا سنوركلينج! وبعدين اكلنا اكل مكسيكي ونمنا كتير!

السبت:
ركبنا مركب طول اليوم. روحنا راس محمد اللى حديقة وطنية كبيرة بتحاول تحفظ على الطبيعة الموت. سمرنا علي المركب (او اتحرقنا!) ووقفنا في تلات اماكن مختلفة للعوم وغطس. شوفنا انواع السمك كتيرة في الوان مختلفة وجميلة كننا قادرين تقفز من المركب الى الماية. كان جامد جدا!
لكن كننا لازم نرجع الى فصولنا، ولكن بعد نهاية البرنامج انا اكيد هارجع!