Daniela Village St. Katherine Dahab

... over to chat with him through his window. In Arabic he asks me where I am from, where I am going, and learns I am taking the long road home to South Africa.<br><br>After smiles, heart touching and general good-affection communication, he stretches his hand out to the dashboard, and picks up his string of Muslim prayer beads. A long string has 99 beads, corresponding to the 99 names of Allah. The shortened version has 33 beads, and one moves them along the string one at a time, for ...

... two dives managing to spot an octopus in one of them which was pretty cool. Diving in the red sea (tick). Bought my own mask, have no idea where in bag it will fit, may have to wear on head for the rest of trip instead of sunglasses. <br><br>Go for haircut in Dahab, good cut, very pleased. Barber then asks if I would like my face "made tidy". I am positively intrigued as to why I have a messy face, therefore agree. He then proceeds to rip off any hairs he can ...

... There, we learned about a supposed party at the Hilton in Dahab. The guy who invited us told us he&#8217;d get us a bus there. Romani said he seemed legitimate. We went for it. The transportation there was a truck bed. The party, though, was pretty good. It was on a sandy beach and there was even a floating bar in the water (which was way too expensive for me to patronize). I felt like I was in a beach party on a movie set.<br><br>The next day, we ...

... in time for sunset at the top of the mountain before descending the mountain (on a safer trail) via dark. We were assisted in our task by a local bedouin guide, a really fun character named Moses.<br><br>Climbing Mount Sinai was an awesome experience, the amazing views and natural beauty reminded me that whilst I enjoy the history and culture of the region I will always appreciate the untouched world so much more.

... freezing first class compartment dying for the heat of Egypt. <br> With our bus gone we were directed off the ferry to the service taxi station. We new the touts would be onto us like a rash and waited behind to let the other travelers get swarmed by the flies first. When we had made it through security the touts jumped on us but we said we were with the other travelers. <br> &#8220;Oh good price, they have agreed to 40 each.&#8221; Dino instantly said ...

... to the top! Looking out what a view, what a sense of achievement! We had all made it! Yes! I don't even think our guide had broken a sweat but we were still happy with what we had done. The view was amazing and we stayed up here for the sunset over the mountains and the desert.<br><br>Now we had made it up we had to make it down....in the dark! We had a wee head torches which were all right, small and compact but that also meant we didn't have heaps and ...

... They had potential to be beautiful, next to the beautiful blue/turquoise waters of the Red Sea, but again, nobody was there. When we asked Meesa and Maha about them, they didn't have any good answers. Maha was saying, "Oh, they'll get finished some day." But I don't think so. (As a postscript, I found out after I did some research at home that Sinai resorts have experienced a lot of violence since they ...

... moved on and came to the steps. Unfit , overweight and out of breath, I made it mainly because of Mahmud , who encouraged me every step of the way. Asking me to rest whenever I was out of breathe and pushing me to just go on whenever I rested too long - he was like my personal trainer.<br><br>Hurry , hurry , the sun's coming up - my daughter, Clarissa is pushing me. OMG - will I ever reach the top, yes I did and we had plenty of time to spare and look for ...

... just so apt in the monastery. Dinner was a hot meal - roast chicken with a lovely hot gravy. We ate quickly and took a stroll around . Wow the monastery is actually run by Greek priests so lots of heavy bearded man in black robe walking around. Naturally, we had to shop and the little souvenir shop had books, posters and souvenirs. Happy with the purchases, we retired early as we needed to wake up at 2 am for our midnight hike.