Day 1
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2009
1
2
Trip End
Sep 28, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Friday, September 11, 2009
The check in area becomes a little dismaying, they can't find our reservations for the short ride to Sinai. I point again to the print out of our reservations...names, numbers, it's all there. The women smile but still look annoyed at me, like I'm trying to pull something over on them. Finally after 10 minutes, yes, yes it's all there. This way to the gate, please.
Shew. We land in the small airport, run outside with our backpacks and breathe in our first lungfuls of salty air. A short taxi ride later we arrive at Umbi Diving Village in Sharks Bay, we are staying in the primitive cabins, way, way on top of the mountain.
It's already pretty late, so we descend from the cabin as soon as we get sorted and head back to check in. We have a reservation to take a van to the bottom of Mt. Sinai, where at 3 AM we will be dropped off and will begin climbing to reach the summit of the mountain in time for sunrise. Then spend the rest of the morning exploring St. Catherine's monastery.
This does not happen, our 10 PM ride took another couple, and the following taxi informed us the mountain was now closed to visitors. They had somehow reached their max for foreign capacity. In other words, police had stopped the driver, asked for some money which he probably refused, and as you can imagine the mountain had not been shut down. I hear it happens frequently from the hotel manager, but it's no less disappointing.
There is no alcohol in Umbi, we sit at the little restaurant and eat cucumber and something fried, then walk down to the tea house on the beach. It has been a long day, and there's a whole world underwater awaiting us in the morning!
