Cairo showed Sophia and I a wonderful time! I had fairly low expectations for Egypt & was only really coming here to see the Pyramids. Like so many people, ever since I was a child I have wanted to see the Pyramids. After a late night flight in we woke up early for our one day in Cairo. We hired a car with a driver to take us around for the day and to show us all of the Pyramids. We rode camels in and around the Great Pyramid and Sphinx. It felt so unreal to be actually seeing the Pyramids & Sphinx in real life. We were able to climb into a couple of the pyramids. That was an experience, you climb into a small tunnel that you can not stand up in and climb down this sloped tunnel for what seemed like forever. When you get to the bottom it opens up into 3 large chambers where it is smelly, hot and very humid!

After spending time looking at the pyramids we went to a few other historical sites and made our way down to the main Bazaar in Cairo. Sophia and I had so much fun at the Bazaar! The haggle you a little, but once you say no they stopped. I was not used to this process, men usually never stop haggleing you and every other Bazaar I had been too previous to this trip. Apparently most men in the middle east would like to marry and American or western girl. I suppose it is a status symbol. So as walked through the Bazaar the men not only were trying to get us to look at the things in their shop, but also to get us to date them. They were quite polite about it, so there was no need to worry, but they are a forward people. After Kenya & Egypt I am probably up to 100 marriage proposals. We started actually writing down some of their lines they gave us, as some were quite good. Some of the best we got were...

How can I take your money?

Where you from? The moon?

Small shop, small price!

Come spend all of your money here!

You looking for Egyptian husband?

My future wife!

Hey! I know what you want, your looking for something special! (Me: oh yeah, what's that?) Um... something special...special... special scarf, special man, special earrings, special necklace...

How can I hustle you?

Buy one, get boyfriend free!

After a great night walking through the bazaar we ate dinner & loaded an overnight bus from Cairo to Dahab. We did not plan to, but had to stay in Dahab the entire day. We ended up rest, catching up on emails, and walking around the small town on the Red Sea. We went snorkeling in the afternoon, which was stunning. Dahab has some amazing snorkeling and scuba diving. At 11pm we loaded another bus and went to Mount Sinai. We started climbing up Mt Sinai at 1:30am. Many tourists like to climb Mt Sinai at night to see the sunrise in the morning. As there is nothing really around the area, the only way we could get to Mt Sinai was to join one of the tour groups heading up at the wee hours of the morning. It was an interesting enough experience if not only for the fact we hiked up the mountain with 600 other people. There was a long line from the top to the bottom. Once at the top we slept on the dirt and rocks for a couple hours, watched the sunrise than came down the mount.

Once we finished climbing Mt Sinai we took the full day to travel from Dahab to Petra, Jordan. Not really due to the long distance between them, but rather waiting for public transport. We took some small naps during the day when we could, but never really got much. When we reached Petra we met up with my friend Antoine from Australia. The goal was to get to bed early that night, everyone was on board with the concept and it almost happened, but Antoine and I started catching up and Sophia started joining in. So next thing I know we only get about 6 hours sleep before getting up the next morning to explore Petra. Petra was amazing. It was so interesting to see all of the large buildings carved into the side of the hills. We spent a couple days there and ended up hiking to the top of a couple of the hills surrounding Petra and explore everything inside.

Leaving Petra we headed to the Dead Sea to float in the salty water. It was a surreal experience. When I was able to stay vertical in the water, I naturally floated to where the water only went up to about mid-torso on me. The cuts I had got from hiking the hills near Petra stung like crazy, but the rest of my skin felt like it had an oil layer on it. It was amazing to discover how to swim where you just floated. The mud in the dead sea is supposed to be very good for your skin, so what else were we to do than get a little dirty?

After getting cleaned up and washing the salt water off we traveled to Amman where we enjoyed an amazing dinner at my friends place. My friends, Amber and Darren are here helping teach at a special needs school. They are volunteering with two other girls, Stella & Amanda. We had a great night chatting away catching up with the ones we knew and meeting the people we did not. Early the next morning Antoine flew off the head back to Australia.

After this week and the previous week, I am tired! I keep trying to get more sleep, but it just never seems to come. Probably too many overnight buses & late night catch ups with friends. I have been able to just rest a bit today in Amman, which has been nice. Hopefully we will be able to rest in Jerusalem as well as it will just be Sophia & I. I think I want to come back to the middle east and explore the rest of it, including Syria, Lebanon, and the bits I have missed on this trip at some point in the future.

Well we are off to a dinner party on the roof hosted by one of the guys in my friends apartment, so until next time...

~Laugh & Love Life~