Cairo to Mount Sinai

I crawled off the sleeping train into a taxi that whisked me to the Cairo Gateway bus station. Like everywhere in Egypt, I could not walk more than a few feet without people offering to help and pointing me in the right direction.

My original plan was to buy an early-morning ticket to the port city of Nuweiba, where I would stay overnight and catch a Tuesday ferry to Aqaba, Jordan. But I missed the Nuweiba bus by a few minutes, which I took as a sign that I should head to my alternate destination: Mount Sinai. That bus was leaving in an hour. The journey was supposed to take 7 hours.

Nine agonizing hours later, I arrived in the tiny village of Al-Milga, about 3 km from St. Katherine's Monastery, at the base of Mount Sinai. The guidebook strongly recommends that tourists stick to one fancy and expensive tour company, but they didn't cover this route. There was no air conditioning. The entire bus reeked of gasoline, until the driver and half the people on board lit their cigarettes. And I hadn't taken the opportunity to hit an ATM before leaving the train station, and had no cash to buy food at the brief rest stop. Between the starvation, heat, nausea, and BLARING music, I was beyond miserable.

The highlight of the trip was the hour or so when a young Egyptian solider sat in the seat next to me. He opened his laptop and started a multiple choice quiz for an English language course. I watched him answer a few questions about past imperfect verbs, and I was very impressed.

Then he opened up Microsoft Word, and typed the following for me to see:

Him: Can u help me please because I have a test in my work
sorry I cant talk w you because people here and I am in the army and this dangerous

I smiled, and continued a conversation so amusing, I whipped out my flash drive to record it:

Me: Ok
(reading poorly-written question)
No answer is good
Him: Ok but I am weak in English and I must be good so I am studying every day
Him: WAIT I ll make tele if u want to leave me I ll not be sad
Me: (gestured "No problem")
Him: Tkank you
But would u mind if we ll friends
Ya or no
Its your opinion
And I ll pleasured
I am very weak
Right
In English
So forgive me
About my words
Ok I am going now to my work
I know its over
But can I take your tele
Ya or no
Its your opinion
Me: No tele
Him: Ok I am now like a baby who is punished

I pointed to the ring on my left ring finger and said, "Husband, sorry!" He became indignant, saying, "Hey! I have wife!" and left the seat in a huff.

When I finally arrived in Al-Milga, I changed money, checked into the spartan Fox Desert Camp, wolfed down dinner, and got the details about climbing Mount Sinai. The locals recommended that I set out a 2 a.m., in order to catch the 6:30 a.m. sunrise at the summit. I grimaced, but reminded myself that it would be worth it to make the climb when it was nice and cool.