Lagona (Village/ Dahab)

... in the hotel also tried to get them to defraud their insurance company, asking them to claim that he had serious diarrhoea and had spent a night in a hospital! Obviously he was just trying to scam more money. I told them not to do it and so they insisted on just paying for the stitches and antibiotics. Dodgy dodgy dodgy!

For dinner we all headed to a restaurant called Ali Baba on the waterfront in Dahab. It was a nice ...

... the man started diving in Australia with its incredible reefs and obviously this is hard to top!

One day HelMan took a trip to Mount Sinai, the mountain where Moses is thought to have received the 10 commandments. So we left at 11 at night in a minibus for 14 people, but suddenly there were too many Koreanders around and person number 15 had to sit on the floor (naturally, one of the small Asians). We arrived at the bottom of Mount Sinai at around 1 am and climbed ...

Finished off the tour in Cairo with glamour donkey ride to the valley of the kings, locals looked on with envy at our high powered animals with adjustable straw seating and turbo boost (engaged by screaming Yalla! Yalla!). We all arrived at the destination, some of us giggling, some of us needing a triple vodka or heavy medication. Valley of the Kings, the final piece of the tour, a final jewel to add to the crown of photographs and just before we were about to ...

... br>
After walking down the mountain (which took much less time, but a lot more work since gravity and loose rocks were working against me), we had a nice breakfast and walked over to St. Catherine's monastery, which was the site of the burning bush Moses saw. I wish we had taken a nap beforehand because I was so exhausted by this point that I don't even remember what I saw, though I know we didn't actually see the bush itself, but the "roots ...

... br> Along the way Dino explained to Shona what had happened, she just shook her head. “You are doing all the haggling from now on.”
The taxi driver dropped us off at our hostel, all the other guys paid the full amount. Dino went up to pay with another shake of the hand “Good man, you a very good man.” He only took a 50 for the two of us. Only if the taxi driver new he was only telling him a story. What the outcome would have been?

... only poeple really struggling were those sitting or lying down.

The sun eventually rose and it was a nice experiance, you truly get an idea of how high you have climbed and the scenary around is extremely beautiful. For me though the whole experiance could not have seemed less holy - I guess it is the same with religious places all over the world tourning into tourist attractions.

The walk down for me and Kerry was the best bit. we ran down and the sun illuminated thole 2 ...

... top we came upon the 750 steps to the top, and no camels past this trip, everyone had to walk it. They were also renting blankets and small mattresses to sit on once you reached the top, since you had to sit on the cold boulders waiting for the sun to rise and the temperature drops to the 30s. We got a mattress and blanket to share . How all of those people fit up on that small space on top is beyond me, but Mo and I found a great boulder to cuddle up together with a great view of ...

... wearing western clothes, the girls with a head scarf. While there aren't many touts in Dahab, there are a collection young girls that have discovered they can sell their little beaded bracelets and necklaces to the tourists. Some of them are already very skilled at the hard sell and will be shrewd business women when they get older (if they are allowed). The Dahab version of the tout is the fellow that stands outside every seaside restaurant trying to get you to come in. They are ...

... with the rest of the world. Dahab is a vastly different town from the rest of Egypt. You still hear the call to prayer occasionally and there are still very few females in plain view but there is a much more relaxed attitude towards life. Food is cheap, alcohol is much more available and there's not much else to do other than relax and take in the the beautiful surroundings. Not too hard to see how tourists that visit here get caught in the ...

... days.

One night I took a "day" trip to Mt. Sinai, which was good. I boarded the minibus at 11PM with a load of other travellers and arrived at St. Katherine's Monastery at the base of the mountain at about 1:30AM. Yes, this is the Mt. Sinai of biblical fame where Moses supposedly received the 10 commandments. There is no archaeological evidence that anything ever happened on Mt. Sinai, but I suppose that's what faith is all about, no?

Dahab, Egypt sabarod