another beautiful day in egypt

woke up this morning, again, to a perfectly blue sky and the sound of the sea. then walked a mere few feet out my door to a little table on the beach and ordered my usual pot of green tea and fruit salad with yogurt and honey.

i don't know if i could ever grow tired of this.

i arrived in dahab two weeks ago today, the day mubarak finally stepped down.

i am starting to think that maybe ... maybe i should continue on.

alone on mount sinai

after climbing mount nemrut in turkey last year to see the sunrise i swore to myself that i would never again climb another bloody mountain with hundreds of people in the freezing cold and blasting icy winds just to see a sunrise that may likely be covered in cloud.

but a couple of days ago i found myself giving a quick yes when mandy asked if i was interested in joining a small group to the top of mount sinai to do yoga.

then i started to dread what i had done. mount sinai is described as one of the most popular hiking destinations on the planet! i had heard others talk about their overnight experience - a two hour drive out to st. katherine's monastery in the dark, a climb in the cold, dark night, jostling with all the others up to the top, and a smelly camel blanket to sleep to await the sunrise on the very cold, windy, rocky summit. i have heard people say that there can be up to 1,000 people waiting for the sunrise... how they all fit up there i can't imagine, but anyway those numbers would be less now given that there still aren't many tourists around.

six of us gathered at the german bakery here in dahab where they have yummy chocolate croissants and other treats. then mady, our guide, who happens to be canadian, arrived with the vehicle and we were off. it was about 4pm so we enjoyed the late afternoon light of the desert on the drive to st. katherine's village. we had a delicious dinner at the bedouin camp/hotel and were all in bed in our warm rooms by 9... so we could be up and walking by 4am. i bundled myself up as best i could with the clothes that i had in anticipation of the cold and wind, but soon i started to loosen things up and removed my head scarf. at a tea stand two thirds of the way up we stopped to enjoy the sunrise... really, does it matter if you are on the summit? it was a beautiful sunrise. we continued a little further up to have our breakfast at the next tea stand. and from there we watched all those who had spent the night on the summit coming down - one guy said to me as he passed "you missed it, the sun is already up". then the final 750 stairs .. et voila, we were on the summit, alone.

very special.

a short way down from the summit is elija's basin, where elija spent 40 days and nights communing with god in a cave. this is where we did yoga together, in a garden - not the cave. to go back down to the monastery i choose the path that allowed me to be completely alone, with nadar, our bedouin guide. we shared a few occasional words, but we were silent for most of the 1.5hr walk down.

very special.

something i heard today

a young butterfly is difficult to catch... but an old horse teaches you to ride

well, that explains some things

the horror and pleasure

After too many years of pulling my hair back in a bun I am now wearing a new style. I trusted a woman in Nairobi to cut my hair and I love it. All I have to do is wash, comb and let it dry.

No more.

My hair was getting too long. I found a barbershop here and the sign advertised cuts for men and women. The very young 'barber' offered me a good price and said in his limited English that he could cut my hair. What could be so hard about cutting a straight line around my head?

However, I think he just wanted the novelty of cutting my hair. He combed and combed and combed. Then he combed it all over to the right and chopped. Garden shears? Then he combed it all over to the left and chopped. Ok, it won't be perfect, but I'll manage. Then he combed it all forward and I opened my eyes with the next chop. I yelped as I saw a big chunk of hair fall... The hair that was chin length was now mid-cheek. Then he blew it dry with a burning heat and I smiled into the mirror and thot how I looked like a scarecrow.

Before letting me escape he gave me a face-threading. My last one was in Turkey with Pepsi's sister, so I guess I was due. Then he dotted gobs of cream on my face and gave me a very long and oddly pleasurable face massage.

Now... how to make this look funky.

The only thing worse than hoards of tourists ...

is no tourists.

I am in Luxor and my heart is breaking.  Tourism is dead.

When I travel I want to find places where there are only locals, but one accepts and expects that it will not be possible in Egypt. Yet there is absolutely nobody on the street here, nobody. Hundreds of cruise ships, feluccas, taxis, caleshes, etc. sit idle. The shop owners still open up, but only to gather, play games and chat.  They all still welcome me... and they apologize for what is happening. Goodness, please don't apologize.

I just hope tourists recognize that this is an issue between the people and their gov't and that the tourists don't delay their return too long. I have had waiters insist on walking me to my hotel to make sure I feel safe. Yesterday an old man picking rubbish off the promenade came back with a little bunch of flowers for me. And today... I needed some passport sized photos to get my visa extended (I am not ready to leave Egypt yet).  For $2.50 I got 8 photos and I burst out laughing as she gave me a "present"... a 3x5 of me!  I have no idea what I will do with this framed photo of myself, but we shared a wonderful laugh and I thanked her very much.

They treat their tourists like gold. The industry has suffered enough in the past already.