Dahab, Egypt

Right after writing my last post I realized that I actually had heard Western pop music in Cairo, seeing as I wrote about hearing "She Bangs." Turns out that the place across the street has a Chris Brown CD that they just play over and over again. I always use tap water to brush my teeth. I've never done the whole bottled water even for brushing teeth thing, except here where the water smells like it was poured straight from the pharaoh's ass. Otherwise, it's great. The entire boardwalk is just made up of restaurants that consist of mats out on the sand and big pillows where you sit on, I guess to make tourists feel like they're in a Bedouin camp or something. I ate at one last night that had a fire going, and I ordered the only remotely Arab sounding thing on the menu. Then I smoked shisha right there on the beach while listening to light Arabesque trance music. By far the most touristy thing I've ever done, but I loved it. I realized it was about 8 AM California time and that everyone I know would be going to school or work, but wished they were doing exactly what I was doing. Since I'm still not completely on Egyptian time, I wake up ridiculously early. Today I got to see the sunrise over the water. Before I went to Rio I never realized that people living on the east coast of something would watch the sunRISE over the ocean, since in California it's all about watching the sunSET. This morning it also occured to me that the mountains I was looking at from across the water were in Saudi Arabia. Then I went and climbed Mount Sinai. It took me about 2 hours to get to the top, but I'm very out of shape. Most people do this in big groups as part of a pilgrimage, but I did it completely alone. This is a little nerve wracking since for most of the trail I didn't see another soul in sight and could hear a pin a drop. But the trail was well defined in most parts. Towards the top, the local Bedouin (I THINK they're Bedouin) make a roaring trade in selling water and every possible brand of soda and candy bars conceivable all the way up there in the mountains. One asked me "from where?" "USA" "Yay Obama!" And I'm serious when I say these people are really cave men looking. At the top there were two Argentines resting who took my picture for me. Standing where Moses received the Ten Commandments, I tried to recall what the Ten Commandments actually are, but I could only come up with six. Thou shalt have no other gods but me, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt honor thy mother and father. Then I draw a blank. On the way down I saw a fat and lazy camel laying down and eating. I decided that this was an Annie camel and that I should get my picture with it, so I offered its owner 3 Egyptian pounds to take a picture of me with it. The animal itself seemed very perplexed as to why I was kneeling next to it. I should mention that at the base of Mount Sinai is the St. Katherine's Monastery, where inside they keep the actual burning bush that spoke to Moses, even though it doesn't burn much these days. I was really looking forward to seeing this, but when I got there the church was closed for some reason. I was really disappointed. Now I'm trying to get to Jordan. Although the two countries don't share a border, it's very easy to get to. You just take a bus to the Israeli border, walk into Israel, take a taxi to the Jordanian border and walk into Jordan. Very easy and people do it every day. Except for one huge problem for me. If you get an Israeli stamp in your passport, you will be denied entry to Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Sudan and probably others. So the alternative is a ferry that goes from Nuweiba to Aqaba, which I will try to get on tomorrow.