My Awesome Gap Year

I lost my debit card.

I forgot it in the only ATM in St. Katherine’s  and rushed back 1.5 hours later to find it was gone. The taxi driver that took me to the ATM and back again felt so sorry for me that he didn’t charge me anything. It was the only card that I had, so now I’m left card-less. I had enough money to get back to Cairo by bus (thankfully) and yesterday my dad was able to wire me money through Western Union.

Anyways, I had a great time in St. Katherine’s. The monastery was  incredible. I woke up rather late though so I only had a short while to explore it before it closed at noon. I did end up finding a *supposed* secret passageway though! Didn’t get a chance to see the bush that is supposed to be a “descendant” of Moses’ burning bush.

Climbing Mt. Sinai was one of the highlights of my trip. The view from the summit was unbelievable- I arrived as the sun was setting and the mountains all around us were golden from the slanting rays. It was an amazing experience.

My time in Egypt has come to a close. Tonight I leave on a midnight flight to Casablanca, Morocco! For those of you who are wondering about Tunisia, the reason I’m not going there is because  my round-the-world ticket could not for some reason include a stopover in Tunisia, which is highly disappointing (same reason I had to skip Malaysia). I know I’ll make it there someday though!

The Red Sea! (You can see Saudi Arabia in the distance.)

Dahab is an incredibly relaxing place. There’s little to do besides diving, snorkeling, sitting on the beach and walking in town. It’s exactly the kind of place people go for a peaceful beach vacation (although it was a victim of terrorist attacks 2 1/2 years ago, you can’t even tell they ocurred.) It gives off a very Thai vibe and almost makes me feel like I’m back in Koh Tao. The restaurant attached to my hotel even serves banana pancakes for breakfast (a very common backpacker’s meal in Thailand.)

Yesterday I went diving. It wasn’t my best dive because my mask was extremely foggy and blurry the entire time, and I ended my dive with less than 10 bars of air left in my tank. At the very end I was alerting my dive master of this issue and close to freaking out because it was very difficult to breathe. He just pointed up and I realized we were in water shallow enough to stand in and I hadn’t even realized it. Problem solved.

Today I went snorkelling with my friend Alex (from Cairo) over an incredibly huge reef located just meters from the shore. I saw 5 lion fish!

While it’s nice to be back in a beach paradise for a few days, it feels a little like I’m repeating southern Thailand. I feel like doing something more original, adventurous, and culture-filled in my few remaining days in Egypt. So instead of being a beach-potato I’ve decided to bus over to the nearby St. Katherine Protectorate, where there’s a very old, famous monastary and Mt. Sinai, sacred to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I plan to hike to the top!

I have now arrived in the seaside town of Dahab after a very, very long bus ride.

 In Dahab there aren’t any ancient historical sites open to the public, but there’s a whole coast to be dove and snorkelled! I’m in for a relaxing 5 days.

I have realized that on this trip I have become a much better sleeper. At home, even the faintest sound of a tv in the next room would prevent me from falling asleep (my family members can attest to that.) On this trip, I’ve been through countless dorms that sound like all-night circuses, a hospital waiting room all-nighter, dozens of chronic snorers, mysterious late-night ringing phones, 15-hour bus rides, sleeper trains, and the perptually noisy streets of Egypt.

Now on to food. I love Middle Eastern food, and Egypt is my second favorite place to eat after China (where Beibei would just order dozens of delectable mystery dishes for us.) I could live off of koshari (macaroni, chickpeas, and rice with tomato sauce), fatta (rice and bread soaked in garlic and vinegar), shawrmas (similar to gyros), kofta (meatballs), kebabs, and falafel. For desert, I love muhalabiya (milk/sugar/ground rice) and baklavas (drenched in syrup), and my favorite drink here is hibiscus juice.

Right now I’m in the city of Luxor, further south down on the Nile.

The dorm bed I’m staying in costs a whopping $2.40 a night. It’s officially the cheapest accomodation I’ve stayed in. And it’s surprisingly clean and Hassan is the friendliest hotel owner I’ve met so far- for any one going to Luxor in the future, stay at Hotel Oasis.

On the train over here, I met a 12 year old girl and her little brother who kept feeding me mystery seeds. Nothing bad has happened to me yet, and they were quite delicious.

This morning I bought an International Student Identification Card in order to get half off museum/temple/etc admissions, because I’ve heard using my plain old high school ID won’t cut it here. Since I’m not enrolled in any college and the ID office didn’t seem to care, I am now a student at Harvard University. Dad, aren’t you proud?

Halloween is coming up and I have a feeling that I would get strange looks if I were to walk around Luxor dressed up as a witch. It’s my first major holiday away from home! I’ll have to buy a lot of Egyptian candy to make up for it.

The ultra-modern library at Alexandria

Hello! My last few days in Cairo were a jumble of seeing the sights, getting used to the culture, meeting people, and enjoying the delicious food. What I saw included the Giza pyramids, the step pyramid (said to be the oldest stone monument in the world), tombs engraved in ancient heiroglyphs, and Islamic Cairo’s winding alleys and mosques.  Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry for the long post! I arrived here alive and in one piece, and 2 days later I’m still alive and in one piece! My senses are overloaded. After a month in Australia’s lonely west, the grittiness, crowds, noises and overwhelming reality of Cairo is mind-blowing. The culture shock has me reeling and I love it. Australia was tame, laid back, and everybody spoke English. Cairo is in your face crazy. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello! I’m here at Uluru (Ayers Rock). It’s hot, dusty, and dry, but the amazing view of Uluru from the nearby sand dune more than makes up for it all. This afternoon I’m going on a tour to see Kata Juta (giant rock formations) and Uluru at sunset.

The other day, I picked up an Australian fashion magazine, Cleo, mostly for the random article on backpacking (who’d have thought a fashion magazine would have that?) Surprisingly, a lot of the items and statements they listed rang true in my mind. Here are some examples: Read the rest of this entry »

Baby wallaby!

The bus ride really was as terrible as I thought it would be. This was all I had to look at for 18 hours:

But the good thing is that I ended up meeting 2 fellow travelers, Ben and Nari, when we all got off at Broome and stood in the dark, looking around for some sort of clue as to where we were, dazed and tired. We were all looking for the hostel Broome’s Last Resort, and spent half an hour trying to do so, managing to get lost in the tiny town. Turns out the bus had dropped us off 3 blocks from the place.

Broome’s Last Resort is aptly named. We hated the place. We ended up moving the next day to the much better Kimberly Klub. Good thing we did- this morning we heard that there was a giant brawl at the Last Resort last night over goodness knows what, with several people getting injured.

Over the last 3 days we’ve gone to the beach, played pool, gone on a bird-watching tour, explored town, and saw local-made films at the outdoor movie theater. Broome’s main beach, Cable beach, is amazing; the waves were big enough to go over your head! I also tried kangaroo meat- I wasn’t expecting much, but I loved it!

A view of the many mangroves covering Broome’s coast.

Cable Beach, the best place in WA to lay under an umbrella all day long!

This past week has been crammed full of beautiful nature and exciting adventures! In Kalbarri, I met a rambunctious group of French people. We had a great time eating squid n’ chips and teaching each other card games (apparently, French people do not appreciate a good game of BS.) Kalbarri is located in a gorgeous national park, and my friend Fred and I went out on bikes to explore the coast, seeing giant gorges and natural stone bridges. The coast consisted of red seaside cliffs- standing on the edge of one literally put you on the sheer edge of the continent. You could gaze out on the ocean below and see the dark shapes of coral reefs and humpback whales throw themselves out of the water.

From Kalbarri, we went to Denham, a typical small Western Australian town without much to offer besides its prime location next to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. Monkey Mia has a population of dolphins that has grown so accustomed to humans that you can feed them fish right out of your hand! There was a baby dolphin, too, and it was adorable. I’ll post pictures when I find a computer with a usb drive. Now we’re at Coral Bay, a miniscule seaside “town”. Unfortunately, I have to leave here sooner than I thought (tonight) because the next bus north arrives in Broome on the 10th, and that doesn’t leave me enough time to catch my breath before my plane(s) to Ayer’s Rock. Today I went snorkelling, which made me sorely miss the clear, warm waters of Thailand. The water here was cold, choppy, and had poor visibility, so I didn’t see a lot of fish. Oh well!

Tonight I get to go on an grueling 18-hour bus ride to Broome. I am not looking forward to that!