Still at Sharm
So the day around the pool was a good one on Thursday and I ended up going to some German restaurant that my companions for the evening selected. After eating garbage that is not local enough for me I’ve decided that it won’t be anti-social just to go out by myself to enjoy something appropriate to the region rather than Italian or American chain restaurants. By the way, the German food really wasn’t so good considering what I’ve grown accustomed to having available.
So the utter dread started to set in when it was time to lad up on the bus for Mt. Sinai. Being that I’m not all that interested in religion, the three hour one way bus ride in lieu of sleeping in a comfortable bed for the night didn’t really appeal to me. We arrived in Sinai sometime after 0230 and unloaded the bus. We bet our Bedouin guide who took us on the start of a hike. The choice was a 7km walk (about 5 miles) or ride a camel up the mountain to a point where there were about 1,000 steps to get to the summit.
So I get to the camel station and you know that if I have the option of walking or riding there’s not much discussion for 5 miles uphill on loose gravel type surfaces. Well I finally get on the beast and had several delays. We were supposed to be in groups of five on the camels but that didn’t seem to happen and I was in a group of three. Shortly after mounting my camel and we had been waiting too long, I guess something got my camel agitated and while tied up to another camel with a colleague saddled up, my camel started bucking,,,,,, yes I’m sure you can picture my state of excitement with this happening. I have what feels like a sprained wrist and thumb now from that incident.
Well it only gets better after the bucking camel incident. It was cold and breezy out in the middle of nowhere Egypt and of course I dressed for the climate one would expect so I was in shorts and short sleeves. You know how I love being cold so you can see the happiness building. We had to stop three times up the mountain. One time we had to stop because an older British gentleman who was self-described as “too old with a belly” kept sliding out of the saddle to one side of the camel since his gut kept him from being centered. Having to wait behind him trying to get centered again didn’t make me too happy since our camels didn’t appear to enjoy having to stop and they were getting impatient. Finally we moved on and I have no idea what happed to that man but he had no business trying to make the trip.
About half of our group decided to walk rather than take the camels. When Mark and I arrived at the camel stop everyone cheered and said “they’re finally here”….. yes people on foot made it there much faster than riding animals up. So I finally get off of the animal with my busted wrist and realize that I’m about ready to freeze. Several times on the way up I was tempted to turn around and go back but I pressed on to the camel station. The air quality was kind of crappy and there was still sand in the air from the day before so visibility wasn’t that great. I didn’t relish the idea of hiking up 1,000 steps to watch the sunrise so three of us decided to stay back at the camel station and once the sun was up back down the mountain we headed.
It was probably silly to not go up there after the effort but truthfully I would discourage the trip. It wasn’t a good use of my vacation time and I found it rather unenjoyable. We passed St Catherine’s Monestary on the way back and that was supposed to be a toru as well but was not opening for several hours so all but two of the group decided to forego that and head back to salvage the day and relax and enjoy our time here.
After getting back I brushed my teeth and met a buddy for lunch. Considering the day’s events, I decided that a massage was in order so I scheduled one after lunch and then a sauna and steam. The natural progression from there was out ot the beach where I managed to pass out in the sun for the rest of the afternoon and woke up dehydrated. It was multi-tasking at its best since I got a nap and some sun and beach time.
I stuck to my guns and decided to head out for dinner without a group and met up with our tour guide from Camp Lemonnier. We ended up going to a middle eastern/Egyptian restaurant and enjoyed a long leisurely dinner and then I headed out to the main area with all the shops and open air bars. It was a busy place and I managed to do a little more shopping. The Egyptians love to talk with Americans since there don’t appear to be many who travel here. Some of the questions I got tonight were about our Presidents and if American people thought Egyptians were terrorists because they were Muslim. I know the guy was trying to make a sale but he actually made good conversation and asked insightful questions and I purchased something from him. The mistake with that is trying to get out of the area after other stores see you have made a purchase….. I may not have been a terrorist target but I was a retail target.
So now it’s after 0100 and tomorrow is the last day here before heading back to Djibouti on Sunday. Luckily Monday will be a holiday where I can regroup and get it back together before another work week. I’ve decided not to do Turkey and Istanbul in July but looking seriously about Thailand in August.
So the day around the pool was a good one on Thursday and I ended up going to some German restaurant that my companions for the evening selected. After eating garbage that is not local enough for me I’ve decided that it won’t be anti-social just to go out by myself to enjoy something appropriate to the region rather than Italian or American chain restaurants. By the way, the German food really wasn’t so good considering what I’ve grown accustomed to having available.
So the utter dread started to set in when it was time to lad up on the bus for Mt. Sinai. Being that I’m not all that interested in religion, the three hour one way bus ride in lieu of sleeping in a comfortable bed for the night didn’t really appeal to me. We arrived in Sinai sometime after 0230 and unloaded the bus. We bet our Bedouin guide who took us on the start of a hike. The choice was a 7km walk (about 5 miles) or ride a camel up the mountain to a point where there were about 1,000 steps to get to the summit.
So I get to the camel station and you know that if I have the option of walking or riding there’s not much discussion for 5 miles uphill on loose gravel type surfaces. Well I finally get on the beast and had several delays. We were supposed to be in groups of five on the camels but that didn’t seem to happen and I was in a group of three. Shortly after mounting my camel and we had been waiting too long, I guess something got my camel agitated and while tied up to another camel with a colleague saddled up, my camel started bucking,,,,,, yes I’m sure you can picture my state of excitement with this happening. I have what feels like a sprained wrist and thumb now from that incident.
Well it only gets better after the bucking camel incident. It was cold and breezy out in the middle of nowhere Egypt and of course I dressed for the climate one would expect so I was in shorts and short sleeves. You know how I love being cold so you can see the happiness building. We had to stop three times up the mountain. One time we had to stop because an older British gentleman who was self-described as “too old with a belly” kept sliding out of the saddle to one side of the camel since his gut kept him from being centered. Having to wait behind him trying to get centered again didn’t make me too happy since our camels didn’t appear to enjoy having to stop and they were getting impatient. Finally we moved on and I have no idea what happed to that man but he had no business trying to make the trip.
About half of our group decided to walk rather than take the camels. When Mark and I arrived at the camel stop everyone cheered and said “they’re finally here”….. yes people on foot made it there much faster than riding animals up. So I finally get off of the animal with my busted wrist and realize that I’m about ready to freeze. Several times on the way up I was tempted to turn around and go back but I pressed on to the camel station. The air quality was kind of crappy and there was still sand in the air from the day before so visibility wasn’t that great. I didn’t relish the idea of hiking up 1,000 steps to watch the sunrise so three of us decided to stay back at the camel station and once the sun was up back down the mountain we headed.
It was probably silly to not go up there after the effort but truthfully I would discourage the trip. It wasn’t a good use of my vacation time and I found it rather unenjoyable. We passed St Catherine’s Monestary on the way back and that was supposed to be a toru as well but was not opening for several hours so all but two of the group decided to forego that and head back to salvage the day and relax and enjoy our time here.
After getting back I brushed my teeth and met a buddy for lunch. Considering the day’s events, I decided that a massage was in order so I scheduled one after lunch and then a sauna and steam. The natural progression from there was out ot the beach where I managed to pass out in the sun for the rest of the afternoon and woke up dehydrated. It was multi-tasking at its best since I got a nap and some sun and beach time.
I stuck to my guns and decided to head out for dinner without a group and met up with our tour guide from Camp Lemonnier. We ended up going to a middle eastern/Egyptian restaurant and enjoyed a long leisurely dinner and then I headed out to the main area with all the shops and open air bars. It was a busy place and I managed to do a little more shopping. The Egyptians love to talk with Americans since there don’t appear to be many who travel here. Some of the questions I got tonight were about our Presidents and if American people thought Egyptians were terrorists because they were Muslim. I know the guy was trying to make a sale but he actually made good conversation and asked insightful questions and I purchased something from him. The mistake with that is trying to get out of the area after other stores see you have made a purchase….. I may not have been a terrorist target but I was a retail target.
So now it’s after 0100 and tomorrow is the last day here before heading back to Djibouti on Sunday. Luckily Monday will be a holiday where I can regroup and get it back together before another work week. I’ve decided not to do Turkey and Istanbul in July but looking seriously about Thailand in August.
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