After an uneventful flight and pick up by Viking Travels' sub-agent at Sharm, we checked into our hotel late in the night. Sharm is said to be the Mecca of diving and snorkeling, with dazzling coral display and the most amazing variety of fish. We momentarily juggled with the idea of a snorkeling trip next day, but decided against it due to the high exposure to sun and inconvenience of time (early morning until late evening), especially since we had to conserve all our energies for the Mt. Sinai climb, which began to appear much scarier than it was in faraway Hong Kong when we booked our trip!

After a late breakfast on Day 8 of our holiday, we decided to check out the township, which was about 20 minutes away from our hotel. A free ride on the hotel bus dropped us right in the middle of Naama Bay, with spanking new tourist resorts, diving rental equipment and training centers, restaurants cooking up all kinds of delicious aromas, and tourists of every color and hue lounging under huge beach umbrellas. Its impossible to believe its Egypt, coming as we did from a very different environment that was Luxor. Looks like any five star hotel worth its name has a resort on the small patch of coast adjoining the Red Sea.

After an excellent carbohydrate boost through koshary, hummus, pita bread and other Egyptian delicacies, we staggered back in the noonday sun to the bus stop and caught a bus back to the hotel for our afternoon siesta that went on for all of 5 hours!

And thus came night, and we got ready for the Mt. Sinai (Jebel Musa) climb. The entire process of climbing Mt. Sinai takes a minimum of three days, since the climb is done overnight, and you need the whole of next day to recuperate. More importantly, flight connections may not be available, which forced us to spend three nights there. We personally feel that for people with limited itineraries, Mt. Sinai could be left out, but it is a totally different kind of adventure, and we are not sorry we did it.

© Vixabs Vacations Unlimited

May 01 2003