Mohamad Ali Basha, Cairo Market and St Catherine's and Nuweiba

Dec 2-  We started off our day just like every other day here is Egypt.  We arrived by train from Luxor at 4:30 in the morning after what I would call a very unrestful sleep.  The train slammed to a halt more than a dozen times during the night making us wonder if it was actually falling apart.  But alas, no, it was just the way the conductor decided to drive that night.  In any case, when we arrived in Cairo at 4:30 a.m. to start our next new adventure.  We couldn't check into the hotel at that time so we sat in the lobby until it was time to go touring the largest Islamic Mosque in Cairo.  The Ali Basha Mosque is beautiful inside and out.  It is designed in such a way, with 5 domes in it (one full dome and 4 half domes) that when a service is in process, there are no microphones used.

 The acoustics are perfect.  We were told that at no time men and women are allowed to pray together.  This mosque was used by men.  Sometimes they put a curtain up to separate the sexes...it had something to do with forbidden fruit and it would be very difficult to be praying while you are looking at the backside of some woman praying in front of you.  They pray 5 times a day and the prayers are said or sung through loud speakers at the appropriate times.  The first one is at just before dawn, which coincided with our wake up call this morning! 

After seeing the mosque we were set loose on Cairo market.  This place is crazy with capital letters.  7000 stalls and each and every one of the owners is vying for your money so to say they are aggressive is an understatement.  Only one way to show you and that is through pictures...

 

Our last night in Cairo was spent going to bed early.  I understand why we had to get up at 4:00 a.m. again but it didn't make it any easier to get up.  We had a 6 hour drive to St Catherine's where we were to visit Mt Sinai.  There is a monestary there that claims to have the Burning Bush that Moses saw before he climbed the mountain to get the Ten Commandments.  The monks that run the monestary only open it for 1 hour per day from 11-12 then it is closed for prayer.  This is a hugely holy place where people from all over the world go to pray.  We arrived at the Monestary around 10:30 along with the other thousand people wishing to see the temple.  It was complete and utter chaos and confusion from the second we got to the parking lot.

 The temple is also the base where you can climb Mt Sinai.  The climb takes 3 hours up and 1.5 hours down.  According to the bible Moses took 40 days and 40 nights to reach the summit.  Monks have built a set of stairs to get to the summit but you have to climb for 2 hours before you reach them and there are 750 very irratic steps up from that point. 

Supposedly, this is the Moses' burning bush, I am happy to see it is no longer burning.  Notice what is sitting at the base of the tree...we thought this was very ironic!

Our group had the option to climb the mountain but because of Joe's foot we opted out and hung around the pool at the hotel.  From the description of the walk, we made the right choice.  The 20 year olds were complaining bitterly about the burn of the lactic acid in their quads and how they thought they would pass out from exertion on the stairs.  The pool was grand!  It was a very strange place though, this big resort in the middle of the desert with absolutely nothing around it but rocks, sand and mountains.  Their only business is from the Temple pilgrimages, but I suppose with the amount of people that come here to see just that, they need a place to stay after the 6 hour drive.

In the morning we loaded the bus and headed for Nuweiba. It is only 1.5 hours away which is great.  We are staying at a resort called Nakhil Inn on the Red Sea. You must look this place up, it is paradise!  http://www.nakhil-inn.com/  Our tour guide told us that this would be the most wonderful place we stayed at our whole trip and he was right.  We got our rooms at 11 and were on the beach by 11:15 and we stayed there until the sun went down.  They served us lunch and cold beverages on the beach.  There is a coral reef  50 meters from the beach which is so shallow you can walk to it.  Joe and I went snorkelling and saw so many beautiful fish and coral it was unbelievable.  Never mind the beach in Mexico, this is a little piece of
heaven.

Saudi Arabian Mountains in the background

this was our dinner table on the beach

So that is us finished with Egypt.  Tomorrow we take the ferry to Jordan.  I can't wait to see what's on the other side!