The sunrise on the top of Mt. Sinai
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUKYqbCEgq4]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrUq6BXy1KQ]
From the monthly archives:
June 2008
Me riding a camel, who oddly enough is also named Moses, down Mt. Sinai. They are really bumpy because it is easy to slip. Bedouins constantly try to get you to ride the camel down because that is how they get their money to survive. I negotiated the price down to 5 [...]
I’ve almost died so many times either riding in a taxi or walking across the street. There are no crossovers or walkways across the road in Egypt. You try to get across like you are playing Fogger. Two steps forward, watch out for that car, two steps back but quick, here comes [...]
Sexuality is puzzling in the Middle East. There is an extreme dichotomy. Women are covered but there are lingerie shops everywhere that put the lacy bras with no nipple coverings up at the front in the window. Then you see the women shopping there. There is an extreme dichotomy between public [...]
I’m riding in a bus to Mt. Sinai. I realize that since I’ve been to Egypt I haven’t once seen a sixteen wheeler. Nothing is shipped. Everything is made and sold locally. The Bedouins wives bead and sow, the Bedouins sell what their wives make. Then they both get to eat for the day. I [...]
Wherever you go in Egypt you will be hounded with people trying to sell you things. It may be annoying but it serves and important purpose. Rather than robing you they are trying to take your money in a respectful manner. Cairo is one of the safest cities in the world despite its extreme poverty. [...]
I was watching T.V. in my room the other day. I noticed that every show is violent. They show 24, Prison Break, Alien Versus Predator, James Bond, Gladiator. All of them are violent movies. No funny movies or drama. I understand a little bit better about the Middle East’s perception of the West. Where as [...]
We went to Muhammad Ali Pasha’s mosque today. It made me sick to my stomach. Islam is supposed to be all about God. “There is no God but God” is their creed. Why then has a mosque become the same thing as a bazaar? I try to go inside a place dedicated to God and [...]
I was hissed at today. I was told I was evil. The man didn’t even know me so it wasn’t really me that he was talking about. It was the fact that I was American. But can I really blame him. I may actually agree. America is disrespectful to other cultures and has no problem [...]
Sacred pilgrimages have been used by numerous religions in order to increase the collective effervescence of the religion. By doing something that is seen as sacred that connects you with the group you feel taken away by the magic. It inspires feelings of awe, like you are something beyond yourself. Usually it is something that [...]
