Monday, April 28, 2008

Pictures from Mount Sinai

On the top of the mountain










The long walk back down



















More to come soon!

Out of Africa, or The Nile is a River in Egypt

Our time in Dahab came to a close the day after we returned from Mount Sinai. We got into a fight with management over money while checking out, then we planted ourselves in Johannes and Adrienne's room for most of the day while Snow recuperated from some stomach ailment (with the help of a German stomach remedy called Kohl, which is made basically of coal. It worked, which goes to show that that German engineering we hear so much about isn't limited to their cars).

Snow was feeling better in time for dinner, so we met up with Peter, Johannes, Adrienne, and Ben at a restaurant on the beach before we got on the midnight bus back to Cairo with German Tour Guide Peter. It was here that Peter generously extended the offer to stay at his flat for our last night in Egypt, figuring that if Snow was still sick, she might be better off at a night apartment than in a hostel. Not ones to turn down free accommodations for a night, we accepted. The dinner was great, and we all exchanged email address before saying our goodbyes. We travelling hillbilly style back to the bus station, then boarded the bus with Peter. Nine hours later, we were back in Cairo, and all the chaos thereof. Once we were back in a crazy cab, it almost felt like we were back home.

Speaking of home, Peter's flat was absolutley beautiful. It was a huge living space, even for three people, with a great kitching and chandeliers for a far as the eye can see. Definitely much better than a hostel. Peter, generous German that he is, cooked us breakfast, which he didn't even partake in, before dozing off to recover from the overnight bus ride. Snow napped for a bit too, while Sumon got to meet one of Peter's flatmates, Christian, who is also German, and also very accommodating.

Once Snow was up and about, we decided to see more of Cairo. Christian and Peter helped us figure out the Cairo metro (subway), and we went out to Coptic Cairo, the district that houses much of Cairo's Christian and Jewish community. We visited the Coptic Museum and the Hanging Church. What was truly remarkable about Coptic Cairo is how quiet and peaceful it is. There really isn't any psychotic traffic, and we can actually hear birds chirping! From there, we took another subway ride back to the middle of Cairo so we can take a felucca ride on The Nile. A felucca is a small Egyptian sailboat that provides a very relaxing ride. It was a great way to see more of the city.

After an hour on the felucca, we walked around Cairo to do some souvenir shopping. While we were out, we decided to pick up some desserts for Peter and Christian so as to thank them for their generosity. We found a bakery that was recommended by Lonely Planet. The bakery was...you guessed it, utter chaos (it wouldn't be Cairo if it wasn't)! We had no idea how to order anything, and nobody who worked there was helping us at all. We ran into a Canadian couple who was having the same problem. There was no line, it seemed like a complete free-for-all. We eventually figured it out, though. We're supposed to pay first, and then we can pick out as many items as we wanted up to the value of what we paid. If that confused you, be glad you weren't actually in the place.

We came back to the apartment and simply hung out with Peter while we shared our future plans with each other. Peter's studying infectious diseases in various parts of the world. We're pretty sure that one day, we're going to see him on CNN as the guy who cured TB and AIDS in the same week.

The following afternoon, we were off. Our time in Egypt had ended, and it was time to move on to new adventures. We said goodbye to Peter and Christian, and boarded our flight to India, by way of Bahrain.

Coming up: India, plus the rest of our pictures from Egypt (strap in, we've still got a ton of them left).

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY B-DAY

Pleasse join me in wishing my sister, Holly, (and myself for that matter) a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!


HAPPY B-DAY

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A View From the Top of The Mount

In our earlier post, we mentioned that the climb up Mout Sinai deserved its own post. Well, here it is.

Dahab is only about a two hour bus ride away from Mount Sinai. Yes, it is the same Mount Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments for us to obey! Though we didn't experience anything quite so divine on our trek, it was still an interesting experience.

In climbing Sinai, we had two options, climb and get to the top in time for sunrise, or in time for sunset. We chose the former, which meant that our bus was going to pick us up in front of BishBishi at 11:00 PM. We got to Mt. Sinai a little after 1:00 AM, and got to climbing around 1:30. That's right, we spent all night climbing a mountain. And what a mountain it was...especially in pitch darkness. Sure, we had purchased a flashlight before we left for the trip, but it was purchased at the dollar store and worth less than we paid for it. It broke while Sumon was putting in the batteries. In any case, no flashlight for a treacherous overnight climb.

We were put in a group with about 14 other climbers, and paired up with a Bedouin guide named Mohammed, who dubbed us the "Habibi" group ("habibi" apparently means friend). If our group got separated, we would all call out "Habibi!" until we were all back together again. This didn't work out too well, since there were countless other groups who were all called Habibi! Needless to say, we did get separated from our group, but we decided to just keep trekking up the mountain without them (after all, the top of a mountain really isn't that hard to find). The entire hike up was comprised entirely of rocky terrain. The many camels running up and down the mountain didn't help matters much. We had the option of buying a camel for the hike either up or down (or both), but we knew it was much too expensive, and the camels didn't look too happy. Besides, if anything were to happen, it's a long way to fall down. So we hoofed it ourselves, both ways. Granted, Snow walked into a sitting camel, and a mobile camel walked into Sumon, but after four or five hours of hiking, we had reached the top (it was particularly trying for Snow, who is traveling with a broken toe on her left foot).

Once we had reached the top, we parked ourselves in an excellent spot for the sunrise view. We were exhausted, cold, and hungry, but watching the sun rise from the summit of Mount Sinai was worth it. The view was stunning. We couldn't say we've ever had a front row seat to watch the sun rise before, but we're definitely proud of the fact that we can say it now. What made the experience that much more lyrical was the group of elderly Asian climbers who spontaneously broke into a rendition of Amazing Grace in their native language just as the sun was peeking out beyond the clouds. Amazing indeed.

The way back down was a bit easier, though the terrain didn't get any less rocky, nor were the camels any less obtrusive. We passed by many hikers who hadn't made it the entire way up. It also was a lot hotter once the sun was up. Snow, who had donned almost ALL the clothing she had brought for the entire trip on the way up had to back most of them back into Sumon's day pack for the way back down. Also on the way down we had encountered many young children trying to sell us all kinds of Sinai-related souvenirs. What struck us as the most remarkable thing about them is that they could speak several different languages, and beyond that could identify what language to speak to someone just by looking at them!

We finally reached the bottom of Sinai, about eight hours after we had started from there. At the bottom in St. Katherine's Monastery, where so many people come to so as to be blessed. We walked around there for a while before we reunited with the rest of our Habibi group! We all sat outside a cafe and related stories of our trek up the mountain, as well as our travels in general. Amongst the other members of the group were a couple from Australia, as well as two young women from Oregon, who were also traveling around the world.

In all, Mount Sinai was one of the most humbling experiences of both of our lives. We really feel like we accomplished something fantastic here.



On the bus to Mount Sinai










HABIBI! Here's our guide, Mohammed. This may have been the last time we ever saw him.



Snow all bundled up in ALL her clothes.




10 seconds after this picture was taken, this camel was walked into by Snow




CAMELS! GET YER CAMELS HERE!




Snow triumphant. Hey, there's still plenty more mountain to go!


And now, the sunrise. It really is as beautiful as it looks.
































Sunday, April 20, 2008

Journey to Dahab

Once we got back into Cairo from the Pyramids, we went back to our hostel to pick up our packs and prepared ourselves for the nine hour overnight bus trip to Dahab, which left just after midnight. The cab ride to Turgoman bus station resembled a roller coaster crossed with an elaborate death trap. It was wild, even by Cairo standards, particularly for Sumon who was riding in the front seat. At the bus station, we met Peter, a nice German med student living in Cairo and learning Arabic. It's a good thing we met him, as his language skills came in handy. Had we not met Peter, we would have missed our bus, or gotten on the wrong one! Peter had been to Dahab once before, and basically knew everything there was to know about the place, so he was basically the perfect tour guide. Thus, we creatively nicknamed him The German Tour Guide. Also on the bus was Ben from Albany, NY who had been living in Israel and traveling through Egypt before returning to Israel to live and work on a kibbutz. Another really nice guy, Ben rounded out our Fab Four.

We reached Dahab in the morning, and fell in love with the place very quickly. We decided to stay at the hostel that Peter recommended, called BishBishi, which turned out to be a nice, open-air resort. We took a cab ride from the Dahab bus station to BishBishi, and by "took a cab ride," we mean "hopped into the back of a pickup truck and traveled hillbilly style." Sumon had always wanted to do that, so he was happy. Our rooms weren't quite ready yet, so the friendly staff sat us down in the cafe and made us Egyptian tea. Egyptian tea is actually just a broken Lipton bag, but what makes it unique is the insanely sweet Egyptian sugar. It isn't nearly as fine as the sugar back home, and it's really concentrated. Our teeth are rotting just from thinking about it. We also met Peter's friends Johannes and Tania, who were already at the resort. Our four were now six. Seven when we met Adrienne, Johannes' girlfriend, later that night.

Once we got settled in our room, we met up with our new friends at a cafe on the beautiful beach on which all of Dahab sits. Much of our time in Dahab was spent this way. It's a wonderful resort town that hosts many foreign visitors to Egypt, without being too "touristy." It's beyond relaxing, which is a stark contrast to the chaotic hustle and bustle of Cairo (though we greatly enjoyed that as well). There's a lot to do in Dahab. We got to try snorkeling and diving which were great fun, though Sumon had some trouble with the breathing apparatus and couldn't really dive (Sumon says: hey, I'll give it another shot sometime). We also climbed Mout Sinai, which is deserving of its own post. Nights were spent with our new friends as well, out to dinner at nice restaurants near the beach.

Our stay in Dahab was marred at the end, however. On our last day, Snow fell ill due possibly to some bad dairy from the night before, which was bad enough, but then we had to fight with the management over forty Pounds. We had paid for the first night when we got there, but they said that we didn't. That's right folks, more scammers in Egypt, even in Dahab. Forty Pounds is only about US $8, but it's the principle of the thing, really. We didn't win this one, unfortunately, even with the help of The German Tour Guide, whom we recruited to help mediate. Still, we didn't let that ruin the great time we had up to that point. We just know that if (when?) we get to Dahab again, we won't stay at BishBishi, and neither should you!

And now: Pictures!
Chilling on the beach







Snow enjoying a can of Sprite in the nice courtyard at BishBishi







Smoking Shisha on the beach. Settle down you narcs, it's just tobacco in there, along with strawberry flavor, molasses, and some other innocent ingredients.










Getting ready for our diving lesson. We look awesome in our wetsuits!


















Some views of the beach. That body of water is the Red Sea, and that land mass in the distance is Saudi Arabia.











Snow in the room at BishBishi
Our Pyramid tickets