Moses was here

Monday, Nov. 16 -- Keven from Canada is the only one of our pathetic group who got up at 1 a.m. to climb Mt. Sinai. He made it! The rest of us chose to go to the base of the mountain later, paying a visit to St. Catherine's Monastery, where the supposed burning bush is growing like wildfire, no pun intended. It looks mighty healthy. There's apparently some controversy over whether Moses really received the Ten Commandments at Sinai; there's archeological evidence the deed was actually done in Saudi Arabia. Who knows?

Anyway, the monastery is in Bedouin territory. They're unpopular with the Egyptians, who consider them gangsters and drug dealers. For awhile, they apparently were bringing drugs into the country by cutting into their camels' humps, carving out the fat and filling the empty space with heroin. Nice, huh? Mostly we just noticed that they have incredibly bad teeth. No clue what a toothbrush is.

We drove to Nuweiba, where we parted ways with Ussama, our fabulous guide, and waited in a truly disgusting ferry terminal for about three hours for the boat to take us to Jordan. The 3 p.m. ferry finally left at 5, but we're told that's a timely departure here.

The difference between Egypt and Jordan is like night and day. Egypt has 80 million people, Jordan has 6 million. Cairo is home to 25 million, Aqaba has a population of 80,000. Jordan is clean, Egypt is dirty. They have road rules here that they actually follow. The cars are new and shiny. There's no apparent chaos. Liquor stores are open for business. Across the Gulf of Aqaba, we can see Israel and Saudi Arabia, neither very far away.

Now we have to get used to dinar -- 1 dinar is worth about $1.40. We're at the Golden Tulip for the night and then to Wadi Rum, made famous by Lawrence of Arabia. We'll be camping in the desert, so I'm doubtful about internet access...

The photos above are Mt. Sinai and the burning bush. In the background of the boat picture is Saudi Arabia.