Egypt - Day 5

Sinai - the land of Moses. No, not this Moses. Or this one. Or even this one. But this one.

This part was probably the low point of the trip but it was still interesting. After the seven-hour bus ride across the Sinai Peninsula, we arrived at our hotel well after dark. The hotel was a complex of two-story buildings built up the side of a hill. The setting was pretty nice but the place was a dump. It gets pretty cold at 4,000 feet above sea level in February and our room had no heat. It was freezing but at least the cold temperatures slowed down the spiders making them easier to kill. Also, our room was right beside the diesel generator that runs 24/7 to supply power to the hotel.

In the morning, we headed to St. Katherine's Monastery. The monastery's origins go back to the 4th century AD when the Romans built a chapel near what was believed to have been the burning bush where God spoke to Moses. Over the following centuries, the chapel evolved into a fortified monastery that served as a refuge for Christians in Sinai. The place is still a working monastery that houses several churches and chapels, as well as a museum. It also has what is said to be a descendant of the Burning Bush that was transplanted here in the 10th century. There is also the Well of Moses where Moses defended the daughters of Jethro, one of which would later become his wife.

After the monastery, we got back on our bus for the seven-hour ride back to Cairo. The Sinai Peninsula has some incredibly rough and barren terrain. If this is what Afghanistan and Pakistan are like, I can understand why bin Laden has never been found. Kristi kept having flashbacks to the movie Babel, seeing a kid with a rifle behind every rock.

Pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/baamick/EgyptDay5.