Hi!
This as you can see isn't the clearest picture, but anyways, you can obviously see the snow and that behind me is not a fire smoke, but it's actually a cloud!

I and Alice ( a friend ) went on the trip on the 26th of December, we barely made it to the bus on time.

However, it took us good 7 hours just to get to Sharm El-Shiekh. We thought there'd be a bus moving to Dahab each hour as i was told, but we got there around 10pm and the first bus was going to Dahab wouldn't move before 1am, it was so cold we just had to take a taxi, for a 180 pounds after long time bargaining with him. Anyways we made it in Dahab about two hours later, we stayed in a very primitive camp, called Sindbad, it's quite cheap, i paid like 20 pounds per night for my room without a toilet, and Alice's was about 60 with a toilet.

I was in Dahab in 1996 with my family, it was barely a day that we spent there, all i could remember of Dahab back then is that it was too primitive, there wasn't any buildings as far as i can recall, however when we got there i thought it'd be somewhat better, not as Sharm El-Shiekh, but anyways, it was below my expectations, generally I'd say Dahab is not more than a village by the sea, the front strip by the beach is somewhat nice and full of restaurants, bars and diving centers. The strip behind it, was pretty much the Bedouins' village or houses.

It took me and Alice a good hour to walk all around it the next day. it's very small and the Bedouin kids were everywhere playing around and they're very friendly and shy sometimes, but when they're trying to sell u something, they're not as shy! ... hehehe.

The first day at Dahab was a big disappointment, it was too cloudy and windy. The weather was just too cold and terrible, the very same day we traveled to Dahab, the temperature in Cairo dropped 6 degrees C.

Me and Alice decided to climb up Mount Sinai and to the Saint Catherine's monastery. We booked the tickets, the bus picked us up at 11pm from our camp, and approximately after 2 hours we were at the bottom of the mountain. When we got there i thought it was too cold, even tho i had two trousers on, 2 pullovers, a sweater, 2 t-shirts and a cotton jacket. We bought 2 gloves and i thought that'd be it.

The mountain is 2,285 m high, the Bedouin guide told me it was over 3000m which wasn't true, i guess he just wanted to make it sound harder than it is to take better tips, anyways he was a funny good one, at least he kept us all safe.

As Alice told me later, there are two roads to go up the mountain, there's the camels road which is a zigzag, made properly for the camels to go through, and there's the road made by the monks, which is basically a stair case. We took the camels road till the last bit of the mountain, we had to go up through the stairs, which was dangerous because there's snow and ice on the stairs which made it slippery most of the time. I slipped couple of times, it was dark and slippery!! This last bit was about 750 steps, and it took good 30 minutes to finish it, i think there were 2 rest huts on the way there.

Generally we faced 3 problems climbing up the mountain, first it's too cold, it was about -3C and with the wind chill, Alice said it must be somewhere around -20C. Second was the wind the wind was too strong, specially the higher you go. Thirdly the slippery steps near the top.

I'd say if you're not fit enough, don't go there unless it's spring. You don't need to be an athletic champion to climb up the mountain, but you can't be over forty with heart problems or didn't practice any sports since you were 20 and expect that you'll be able to do it "easily" at least.

The hardest bit of the whole story, was when the last rest hut got full and as we were the first group to arrive, we were the first to leave it, at 5:30 in the morning, it was about 30 minutes before the sunrise, we had to climb up to the very top of the mountain, even before the sun rises and we were freezing, i had to jump for a long time before i started to feel better.

The way down the mountain actually was a nice trip, we were tired, but we did enjoy it, it was sunny and we could at least see where we were stepping.
By the time we reached the monastery we were tired enough, we just couldn't really go around a lot, anyways, we saw the burning bush, and a bit of the inside of the church. it's interesting, but we were too tired to really feel anything toward it!

The following two days in Dahab actually were sort of boring, the weather was terrible, i couldn't do scuba diving as i was planning to, and of course no Safari. Me and Alice had couple of chats sometimes, but that was about it. I guess I'd have more fun if i was a clubbing person.

I did wake up everyday there around 6 in the morning +/- and stay up till 12am. I had little sleep but i was feeling quite energetic and alive, i guess for the most part of the trip, i think it was the clean air that i enjoyed.

A tip if you're ever going to Dahab, make sure you have enough cash with you, the ATM machines there were terrible i could barely use any of them!

I think I'll go once again to Dahab in March to do scuba diving. I'm not sure yet, but I wanna do it.

Well, that's all for Dahab's trip.

Cheers!
Salam.