On the Egypt side of the border, we attempted to find a decently priced mini-bus to take us the two hours to Dahab. However, since - apparently - it was tourist season and we were the only people going to Dahab (Nuwebah being the stop of choice - why would anyone want to go there??), the price was ridiculous. We told them that we had taken this trip too many times to be ripped off quite that much and offered a slightly smaller extreme price. When no one would accept it, we plopped down on the side of the road to wait for ... well, I have no idea. It worked though! Finally one of the guys came over, whispered to us that he had found a guy who would take us to Dahab for our price but we'd have to keep it on the DL. Weird... yes, I agree. However, it was cheap and I recognized the guy from last time I was down there and he checked in with the tourist police and everything, so meh! Why not? An hour and half later (and a 20 minute stop for our driver to eat the evening Ramadan meal), we were searching Dahab for our hotel (it is totally tucked back off the road, way hard to find!). After an amazing fish dinner, we headed to the room to watch a movie and sleep! (We had downloaded some movies, then brought our computers so we could be lazy on the beach and entertained! Yay for technology!) We were worn out. Sleeping on buses takes a lot out of you. (Oh, and I had stayed up all night the night before trying to write a paper.)

The next morning, I got up at the crack of dawn - well, 9am - for my first dive! Mohammad, the dive instructor who remembered me from last time, wanted to take me to a place called The Island (singular yet there are three coral formations that look like islands, don't ask). It was beautiful! (Remember that word... I'll probably use it a lot!) Then I joined Chelsea for some serious tanning, shopping, and eating. And, of course, a henna tattoo! After dinner, we joined Mohammad and Alessio for drinks at the local club. Alessio is a 32 year old Italian guy living in England. He is currently taking a year off, traveling around the world (Dahab, Thailand, then to Central America) and dive instructing. Definitely the life. Maybe I'll do that after graduating. It beats getting a 9-5!

The next morning, we grabbed breakfast, then *drumroll* Chelsea did her introduction dive! Since everyone is absolutely chill, I was able to convince them to let me go with her. My dive instructor, Joel, even worked it out so I could do one of the dives for the advanced diving course - the naturalist. So I swam around trying to identify fish, while Chelsea enjoyed the scenery for the first time! I am trying to remember what we did after that... I think it was back to the laying out! Oh! And then we went to THE perfume shop. The owner was great. Totally chill. And the perfumes... wow. The smells are basically the "essence" of the flowers or something. They do not mix them with alcohol or oil and they are really strong. Just a few drops is enough. All of the shopkeepers always serve you tea or coffee... but we were there long enough to have two teas, coffee, and a shisha (= hookah = nargila)! ...and spend a lot of money! After that, we raced through dinner and back to the hotel in time to meet the mini-bus at 11:00pm that was taking us to St. Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai! Woohoo!

We began hiking around 1:30am, reaching the top three hours later. At the top, however, was 750 steps. Doing the Old Testament version of the StairMaster at 4 am just not quite as much fun as you would think! It was finally over though and we made it! It was freezing and windy, the Bedouins were renting out blankets and mattresses but I was too tired to deal with it. Next time though - definitely getting a blanket. The sunrise was amazing. There were sooo many people up there - I mean, like Broadway on opening night! Some of them started singing. (I think they were singing How Great Thou Art in Korean. Though there was a group of Germans singing also but I didn't recognize any of their songs.) It was surreal. And at this time of year, the moon rises late at night, so it was still above us while the sun was rising in front of us. Beautiful! Since both Chelsea and I have issues with knees, for the trek down we opted for the camel option. Sit back (well, not too far back, they have this stupid saddle horn type thing that will jab into your back if you aren't careful!), and let the camel do the work! My guide taught me how to sit on the camel like the Bedouins do and it is much more comfortable. Now I look authentic! As authentic as you can look wearing jeans, CSU t-shirt, and - oh, being a girl! When we reached the bottom, we hung out for a while until the monastery opened at 9am. I went into this museum type thing and met this crazy priest. Really, he was crazy. I set my camera down to get money out to pay the entrance fee and he grabbed my camera, "How does this work?" I showed him how to turn it on but no, he wanted to see the pictures. I was thinking, "This is weird...." So I showed him how to view the previous pictures I had taken... not joking, he scrolled through them all. That is over 500 pictures of the last couple months of my life! I didn't know if I should take the camera away or not. I was just fascinated by this weird priest guy who was totally help himself to my life! After scrolling through all the pictures, he waited until there was no one else in the room, then told me - told me - to take pictures of the icons, which is strictly forbidden! Then as I was leaving, he grabbed my camera again, took me outside to poise for a picture. Another woman saw him taking the picture and hustled over asking him to take her picture as well. The priest, I'm not kidding, ran back into the museum area, shaking his head, saying, "No no no, I can't. I am not allowed." I left. That was too weird.

When we got back to the hotel, Chelsea and I staggered toward our beds in completely exhaustion. We slept until 4:30 when we got up for a lovely sunset horse ride along the beach! That was so beautiful. There was no one else out on the area of the beach where we went to. Just the three of us (we had a guide), with our horses clomping along. It was so magical. Now I just gotta find Prince Charming and dang! It would be perfect. When we got back, Chelsea and I got more henna tattoos. :) Those are so addicting! I love having my skin decorated! I don't know why... it's totally awesome. (Don't worry... not planning on getting anything permanent! Though the urge is definitely there.) After that, Chelsea went to bed and I went out with the guys from the dive center, had a chocolate shake, and smoked some shisha.

The next day, Friday, was intense! I got up at 8:30 for my first two dives. The first one was a deep dive (30 meters/100 ft) then we hung out - you have to wait between dives to let your body recover, played with the cutest kittens ever, then did a drift dive (float along in the current). It was amazing. Imagine looking down and not seeing the bottom, just blue stretching down until it turns to black, 100 feet above you, you can kind of see the surface; to your right, the coral cliff face, beautiful colors, amazing fish, and other fascinating life and off to your left, nothing. Just blue stretching as far as you can see. It felt like flying in slowing motion. Wow. I am still speechless. Could God be any more amazing??