Waking up at 1:45am, we began climbing up Mt. Sinai at 2am so we could catch the sunrise at 6:30am. This mountain is the mountain where Moses received the 10 commandments, and also where St Catherine was buried. The hike itself wasn't too bad in my opinion; guess I was more fit than I thought! We originally began as a pack, but as we cont'd on, a few of us started to go ahead since it gets pretty cold if we went at the group's pace. In hindsight, if I had known the hike was this short, I could have waken up an hour later! (We were up at the top of the mountain for a full hour waiting)... The thing I found most hilarious was that shops were set up all alogn the mountain trail; what a way to commercialize a holy mountain.
Right before the summit of the mountain, there were a couple shops. In particular I managed to p!ss off the owner of the tea shop #5! lol! Here are all these Egyptinas trying to get us to buy stuff, and I finally managed to get one of them to refuse to sell me sh*t! Good job Mson!... haha... What did I do? Well, I just told him he is charging too much for hot chocolate (10 EGP), then he goes how its the mountains so he need to account for the donkey ride up and that his hot chocolate is made with real cocoa (typical Eygptian seller BS). Then I tell him that he stole hot chocolate from Canada and he should be giving me baksheesh (tip) for stealing the Canadian's idea! And well, he didn't take it too well, haha.
In Egypt, the locals ask for baksheesh for everything (going in toilets, asking for directions, talking to you, etc. etc.), here I am asking for some money for something they blatantly took from the colder countries; I mean, Eygpt and HOT chocolate??? That defies logic! Since he refused to give me baksheesh and I continued to pester him about how overpriced his stuff his, as well as how he blatantly stole our idea and not paying for it, I successfully p!ssed off the mercahnt and he wouldn't sell me anything after.. haha! The downside was that I wasn't able to sit inside his warm tea lounge place, but no biggie since I had my Canadian gear in my bag... 2 layers of fleece and a windbreaker --> enough to withstand the Egyptian cold! :) Plus being able to lie flat on the padded seats outside was soooo nice!
After a short rest, we went up to the very top and got a spot for the sunrise. Man it was nice! The 3rd sunrise I've seen and its by far the best. The sun shining through the clouds at first, then shining brightly above the clear blue sky... while the moon is also in clear view! Very worth it indeed! I now think I need a nicer camera, so I can capture the sun and the stars. This trip I played around with the manual option alot and got a few nice pics; but am still not able to capture what I saw. Maybe I need a better camera, and more knowledge of photography. Learning how to take better pics, this has officially made it onto my to-do list.
After the sunset, we proceeded downhill and my alabaster camels were on sale! :) Camels/Souvenirs on top of Mt Sinai, how meaningful! We took a different path down (the 3000 step path) than the way we went up (the camel trail), and it was a spectacular view. Hiking is great!
Oh, the other thing, hiking in the dark wasn't that bad this time around at all. Since there were no trees around, the moon lit up the sky and the path; so I was able to see clearly where I was going even without a flashlight. What a great experience!
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