Backpacking I: The Sinai Circus (Aug 3-4, 2007)

So I'm finally getting around to publishing my stories from my recent venture up through the Levant, and I figure I might as well tell them chronologically, even though some of the later stories are better. So I'll start with Part I, which was the journey across the Sinai desert.

I was quite excited for the journey; it was to be a sacred experience. I was going with a group of friends from church. We had a lesson on reverence that morning before we left. It was appropriate, so I thought. After all, I was going to be treading the same ground (possibly) that Moses trod. The Exodus. The 10 Commandments. I felt like the Israelites, fleeing from the Egyptians for the promised land. If only there were some way to arrange a redux of the parting of the Red Sea.

The actual experience was far from spiritual. It was closer to a Circus. The Sinai Circus.

It started with our driver(s). I thought we had just hired a van and driver to take us, but when it pulled up there wasn't just a driver but 5 Egyptians. The main driver, an assistant driver, an "English speaking assistant," and 2 baggage boys. Where the hell were we all going to sit? Fortunately the baggage boys weren't coming with, but apparently the law required us to have the other 3. They were there for our safety and their hotel rooms were included in our bill. Good thing too... During the 3 days the English speaking assistant gave us all of about 45 minutes worth of information on what we were seeing, and the two drivers were apparently not intended to spell each other off as we took a break every 30 minutes on the way out to the hotel so the drivers could "rest." The 5 hour drive ended up taking 8 hours. I secretly hoped they we would get to drown them in the Red Sea like the Egyptians of old.

Finally we arrived at St. Catherine, the little monastery/hotel center near the base of Mt. Sinai. We pulled in around 8, had dinner, and then promptly went to bed so we would be rested for our 1:30 AM wakeup call. The idea was that we'd hike the mountain in time for sunrise. It sounded so romantic; I got especially excited when I found out we would get to exchange our English speaking guide for a Bedouin who didn't speak anything but his own rural dialect of Arabic. However, when we got to the base of Mt. Sinai, that was where the circus really got started. We weren't going to be hiking the mountain in peaceful solitude: there were THOUSANDS of tourists going with us. And also HUNDREDS of camels, each with their own tout who would beg us to try and ride them. "Want to ride camel? I give you good price!" "Want a camel ride? Very good price, just for you." I wanted to hike the mountain: Moses didn't ride no camel!

In retrospect I should have taken the camel, if just so I could avoid the harrassment of people trying to get me to ride. It continued the whole way up. Every 30 meters was another camel and its guide. "Want to ride camel?" "Want to ride camel?" "I give you good price. Why you no want to ride camel?" People were offering camel rides up until the last 100 meters. Meanwhile, because so many other people do ride camels, you have to share the pathway with them, which in some spots means patiently staring at the camel's rear for several minutes until the path widens out so that you can pass.

If you're not dodging camels you're weaving your way amongst the army of tourists on foot armed with flashlights. I felt like the entire 12 tribes of Israel had gathered to join me for my trek. From afar it looked kind of eerily cool: from higher up you could look back and see the winding trail lit up by the slowly moving flashlights of the thousands of people who were behind you. Up close the flashlights were obnoxious. They might have been good on a moonless night but with the moon nearly full you could actually discern shadows better without one. However, when you're blinded by someone else's flashlight you can't see a thing. At one point I nearly kissed a camel kneeling on the ground in front of me because I had been brighted by someone and didn't see the damn thing until I was nearly liplocked with it. It was all puckered up and ready to go too. I warily backed up and went around. I swore it smiled and winked at me.

I thought the top would be better, but it only got worse. The camel touts were replaced by people renting out pillows and blankets and selling all kinds of stuff from $3 Cokes to shells and rocks (Why would you hike a mountain and then buy a rock at the top????). The tourist mass, previously strung out over the several mile trail, was now all concentrated in one spot. The poor people who got there first to get a good spot were perturbed when other people promptly staked out a spot just EAST of them. (The sun had yet to rise at this point). There was literally no place to sit. The picture here gives you an idea of how crowded the place was.

The closest thing to a religious experience to be found was the bathroom ("WC" for water closet). I don't know why paying 5 LE ($1) to use the bathroom was so great, but it was amazing... it was neatly built just over a ledge so the waste just disappears into a long drop which is just shielded enough so you don't get vertigo. It was a miracle.

The trip down was slightly better, only because my Bedouin guide didn't feel like waiting (most of our group took the camel option anyway) so he and I basically took the short cut, which meant cutting straight down the mountain instead of sticking to the well worn and graded trail. I couldn't believe him. He was the acrobat of the Sinai Circus,

Needless to say, my Sinai experience wasn't quite as revelatory or spiritual as I had hoped. I did, however, gain a new appreciation for the Biblical text in Exodus that put it all in humanizing terms. THIS is where they wandered for 40 years, with nothing to eat but manna and quail? No wonder they were ready to go back into slavery. And poor Moses. I would have been smashing some stone tablets too, just for sheer cathartic release. I can't imagine spending 40 years in Sinai. After 40 hours I was done with the place.

Of course, when I see the pictures that we took I am reminded that there actually are some really beautiful views there. Even in the most forsaken corners of the planet God made some gorgeous scenery.