I am still alive!

I greatly apologize to all my loyal followers for having neglected my blog this last week. I have been ever so busy with traveling and studying that I haven’t been able to get to my computer. Needless to say, my adventures have been more crazy than relaxing. Since Thursday a week and a half ago I traveled the entire eastern Sinai peninsula and about died (from exhaustion) on several occasions. You will see in the pictures today that traveling is not easy in the desert. I would recommend packing ice in your suit cases if you can’t take the heat… like me.
First I took a 9 hour bus ride from Alexandria, past Cairo (where I saw the pyramids from a far). They were gorgeous and huge! I can’t wait to see them next Friday. We crossed under the Suez Canal and drove to the east coast of Egypt to a little tourist town called Dahab. It was enchanting to say the least. There is where I should have bought some traditional clothes for my squad back home. But I stayed in a nice hotel with a balcony view of the pool and the Red Sea as you can see below.
But the best part was that if you looked across the Sea you could see Saudi Arabia on the other side. That, my friends, is when I realized that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Saudi Arabia! I never even imagined I’d see it. But it was incredible to think about.
Later the next day we went snorkeling off to coast and saw the reef and fish of all kinds. That, honestly, was my favorite day of them all there. The sun roasted my beef, the heat was intense, the day was arid with a soft breeze, but all I did was float in the open sea in waters about 50-60 degrees. It was perfect.
The next day, for some horrible reason, we decided to hike the desert canyons. For those of you who don’t know me, I hate the heat. A LOT! But we hiked through some beautiful canyon trails, ate lunch and hiked some more. I felt like a burrito.
The best part about that day, I’d have to say was the swimming pool at that hotel. That Saturday (my worst day) we got up early, took a long drive to the south tip of the peninsula, got on a boat, and went to a desert island close to Saudi Arabia. I think I was dying from heat exhaustion already, but I definitely left my sea legs back in Idaho. Yup. I threw up. I felt horrible and the bobbing of the boat in the sea made me lose it. But I still snorkeled on two of the three occasions that day. It was neat. But the problem is that I am kind of like that person that once you’ve seen snorkeling all day one day, I don’t need to see it again the next day. But that is just me. Nonetheless the water was cool and crystal blue. The fish were amazing. The coral was beautiful. And my sunburn was awesome as well. I feel like a shedding snake kind of or maybe even like a strawberry Fruit Roll-up.
But the worst still had yet to come. Later that same evening we decided to go hike Mount Sinai AT 2:00 IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! Hmmm… Let’s think about this. Desert + tall mountain + Seasick, heat exhausted, crispy fried chicken Casey. Good combination? Yeah maybe not. We started out hike at 2:00 am and I was in the fast hiking group because I didn’t want to hike for hours on end. It took us 2 ½ hours to scale it which wasn’t bad at all. Until I got woozy, again. Yep, I can honestly say now that I left a part of me back at Sinai, Literally. It may still be there today.
The fast group consisted of me and two other guys in my group. For a second when I was scaling stairs in the dark, I felt like Frodo, Sam, and Gollum scaling mount Doom. (Mainly I felt like Sam, the fat one, particularly.) But we got to the top at 4:30am and I slept for about an hour before the sun began to rise. This was the whole point. We wanted to watch the sun rise from the top of Sinai. No I didn’t see Moses, nor a burning bush, but I did see the sun rise. And then I left.
But I was so shaky from the day before that it was hard for me to get any sugar back into my system. It was hard to eat and drink for me to feel well enough to go back down the mountain. But I made it al-humdu lillah! To make things worse, we just got straight on a hot uncomfortable bus and drove another 9 hours back to Alexandria in time for dinner. Sound fun? Well maybe. But it was worth it.
On a bright side, Arabic is getting easier. It didn’t take me long before I learned the words for if you need to throw up, let me know. The coral is sharp. Water is a lifesaver. Watch out for the cliff. And see you in the morning. That pretty much sums up my time last weekend. Until later.