Long weekend trip to the Sinai

This long weekend (Sinai Liberation Day) we went on a trip organized by the university to the Sinai. We stayed in Dahab for two nights, and visited St, Catherine’s monastery, climbed Mount Sinai, and snorkeled in the Red Sea.

The bus ride was close to unbearable. It took us nearly ten hours to get to Dahab our first day of the trip, and about nine hours to get back home on the third day. In addition, we spend a total of about four hours on the bus the second day to get to St. Catherine’s monastery and back. Still, it was a great trip.

We left our house at six on Friday morning, and got on the bus with our friends and neighbors, the Davis family, among other, starting our long journey to Dahab. I don’t mind the tunnel under the Suez so much, but the ride through the mountains was pretty rough. August threw up, and Abraham was really not enjoying a full day in a car seat. When we got to Dahab in the early evening, we were all tired. It was very windy and cloudy, so after checking in and getting our rooms settled, we decided to go out to dinner instead of swimming. I had never been to Dahab, but it’s a really nice town! Lots of restaurants, little shops, cafés, and a beautiful boardwalk, and although some of the shop and restaurant holder were a bit aggressive, they seemed less so than anywhere else touristy that we’ve been. We had Indian food, which was all right, and a couple of drinks, all without feeling robbed or ripped off. The kids all bought ‘Indiana Jones hats,’ as William called them, to wear on our climb the next day.

We left for St. Catherine’s monastery and Mount Sinai early the next morning. The bus ride took around two hours, and we went on winding road, up and down, back and forth. Our neighbors had brought medicine against motion sickness however, which we administered to all the kids, and it seemed to help. We spent the first couple of hours of the day visiting the monastery. It was absolutely amazing. There are icons on display there from the 6^th and 7^th century, old manuscripts, bibles, and St. Catherine’s relics (which August was very fascinated by – he made me go back with him a second time to have a look), among other treasures. We also stood under ‘the burning bush’ and ate our lunch in the shade after the monastery closed at noon. After this we commenced our ascent to the top of Mount Moses. I had heard that it was a hard climb, but never had I imagined it would be as difficult as it was with a baby on my back. Courtney tried to take over about half-way up the top and had to give Abraham back almost immediately. It was like walking up stairs for three hours. Our neighbor and friend Ken took over for a little while, which really helped, but when we finally made it to the stairs, 700 steps cut out in stone – the last and most difficult part of the climb – Abraham, who was starting to get a pretty bad cold, was hungry, tired, and upset that I was not carrying him, so I had to stop. This was the moment I thought “I can’t believe I made it this far, and now I’m not going to get to the top.” The climb looked so steep, and I was so, so tired, my whole body was shaking. I sat down and nursed him for a while, and when he fell asleep, I quickly put him back in the backpack and started walking so that the movement would help him settle in. My legs were so tired I could only take a few steps at a time, and then I had to stop and rest. Not only was it hard to take the high steps with the weight on my back, but it was also a bit slippery so to make sure I didn’t fall backwards, I needed to keep my entire body on alert every step of the way. Eventually I saw August coming down, yelling, “Mama! You’re here! It’s up here, mama!” Even then, with only thirty or so feet to go, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get all the way up. Somehow though, I did. When I got to the top I was shaking all over, overwhelmed and physically exhausted. I couldn’t even take proper pictures, but relied on our neighbors, who have a very nice camera. We got a few shots of the family (with Abraham sound asleep in the backpack), and I got to rest a bit. The view was absolutely amazing, and I kept looking down thinking, “I can’t believe I walked all that way up here!” I knew I would not be able to walk down the steps with Abraham on my back. Walking up is hard, but down is even more difficult, and scary. Again, Ken came to the rescue, and managed to descend safely with Abraham on his back. After the steps, I put him back on, and although the walk down was physically hard, it was nowhere near as exhausting as the climb up. The kids had trouble staying away from running of course, because it was steep, and William took at least one dive, which ended up in a deep cut on his shin. By sheer willpower, I didn’t slip or trip. I’m still not sure how the kids managed to climb all the way up and down, although I know part of it, again, is courtesy of Ken, an experienced mountain climber and caver, who invented the ‘high-five station’ to keep the kids motivated. When we got to certain landmarks on the trail, everyone got to do high-fives. We also sang when we could, and in all, our making it to the top was as much a psychological success as a physical victory.

After getting back to the hotel for a quick shower, we went back to Dahab and had a seafood dinner: grilled shrimp, calamari, octopus, and fresh fish! Again, we did not get ripped off, and the food, as well as the atmosphere, was nice.

A note on the Miami Beach Hotel: Our hotel was one of the worst I have ever stayed in. The beds were awful, rock-hard, the food uneatable (which is why we ate dinner out both nights), all the china was chipped or dirty, there was no shampoo or soap in the room, no sheets on the beds, the toilet made a terrible noise, the shower let but a trickle of scolding hot-cold-scolding hot-cold-scolding hot-cold water through, and our second night they fertilized the hotel grounds plants with human waste. Yes, you read that right. They poured sewage all over the grounds of the hotel. The stench was indescribable, and although it went away within a few hours, knowing that the grounds were covered in human waste, which can be very dangerous, really put us off.

Nonetheless, we slept in a little our last day, and then spent the morning on the beach, or rather, August and Abraham spent the morning on the beach with our neighbor Jennifer and her kids, finding all kinds of interesting animals and things, while William, Courtney, I, and Ken went snorkeling. It was amazing! To get to the coral we had to walk across rocky coral in about a foot deep water, for about 40 feet, with sea urchins sticking out everywhere. Once we got to the edge though, it was like jumping into a large swimming pool, with coral reef all around. We saw everything from tiger fish and clown fish, to stingrays and a moray eel. The coral was so beautiful! The sun shone from a blue sky, the water was warm and seemed more salty than anywhere else, and it was easy to just float around with schools of fish surrounding us. It was like being in a gigantic exotic aquarium. We all wished we could have spent a couple of days exploring, but at eleven we were already back on the bus, heading back to Cairo. I spent most of the ride nursing and holding Abraham, whose cold was at its peak, with a slight fever and snot rash all over his face. Again, it was an exhausting ride, and we didn’t get home until about 9:30 pm, hungry and tired. I don’t remember falling asleep. I put Abraham down next to me in bed, and next thing I know, he wanted me give him his morning drink.

Today we are dealing with sore bodies, aching muscles, a lot of laundry, cleaning up, catching up on e-mails, work, and other such things, and the boys are starting their report essays about our trip: a slow school day. Abraham is doing a little better, but is still keeping close to me, wanting to nurse a lot, with a constant no. 11, as my mom calls it (snotty nose).