During their lethargic month of downtime waiting for swine flu paranoia to subside, the Simons took their second trip to the Red Sea. There was swimming and snorkeling, skin was irreparably burned by the sun, much Egyptian beer—most of it tasting like second rate Heineken—was consumed, etc.
On one of their last nights, they booked an overnight trip to climb Mt. Sinai and watch the sun rise. After a harrowing two-hour ride through the mountains in a passenger van with a small multinational group, they arrived near St. Catherine’s Monastery to meet their Bedouin guide, Sameh. Although the night was indescribably starlit and beautiful, their guided insisted on running the three-hour trip to the summit. It’s possible some sort of on-time Domino’s Pizza-like guarantee was at work. One group member, a woman from Denmark, complained about the rate of ascension but was rebuked by a young Russian, an extreme sports enthusiast perhaps, who felt the speed was fine. So, the tired Dane joined Jen and Jay in ditching the group and the guide and walking leisurely to the top in time to observe the same sunrise from the same mountaintop. Overall, a good trip despite the head-scratching illogicality of everything Egyptian.
Arriving back in Cairo, the Simons continued working hard and preparing for the approaching school. This is, of course, a euphemism for sitting around in their pajamas downloading movie torrents online and watching outdated American TV reruns on NileSat.
