Sinai

After IPM was over, some of the delegates and organizing committee members decided to go to Sinai, while the others went to Luxor and Valley of the Kings. Since I am more of the "action" guy, and less of a "museums and monuments" fan, I decided to take the Sinai trip.
I really don't know how we all got mixed in this weird composition, but at the end, I was the only guy travelling with six girls from Egypt, Ukraine, Poland, Switzerland and Taiwan speeding with 150 km/h on a tight bumpy road, towards Dahab, Sinai.

After crossing about seven security checkpoints (barrels blocking the middle of the street) guarded by armed policeman, we finally reached Dahab. Dahab is a small resort with one main street, 100 km away from Sharm El Sheik (the most popular resort in Sinai). As far as I understood, the security checks are because of the recent bombings in Dahab and Sharm El Sheik.
The prices there were really good. We checked in at Octopus Hotel, paying only 4 euros per night, all upcoming tours or activities going to also be around 10 euros each.

In the first evening, around 11 we went on to Sinai Mountain, to the place where Moses came down with the 10 commandments. Around 1 in the night, we all arrived at the base of the mountain, in the St. Catherine Protectorate. Initially, I believed that we were the only crazy people climbing mountains during the night, but when we got there, the place was already full of tourists and salesmen. We barely got out of our mini-bus, and the bedouins "attacked" us: "Hello my friend! Do you want scherf? Buy scherf, cheap! What's your name? Wher are you from?". "Scherf" meant "scarf", and the method of barganing is typically Egyptian :-).

After passing by the metal detector here too :|, we started to climb the mountain, followed by camels, and our bedouin guide. We climbed the whole night, and towards the morning, after a short snow, we've seen the sunrise, and that was simply gorgeous. Our bedouin guide was really pleasant, talking to us the whole way, and he also found me a nickname, "habibi".

In the second evening in Sinai, we rent a jeep from the hotel, and went somewhere in the middle if the desert, in a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains. There, the bedouins were expecting us, in a hut discretely lightened by candles, and covered with palm-tree leaves. They have prepared us their traditional dinner, a mixture of chicken and vegetables, and then showed us how to build water-pipe out of 0.5L pet bottles. We had a very warm night, with clear skies, and lots of fun.

We spent the last day in Blue Hole, snorkeling in the coral reef, through fishes of all colours, that I had only seen in Windows' screensaver or in Finding Nemo before. The fishes were swimming curious around you, as close to a couple of centimeters, some in groups, some separately, then back, hiding between the corals. At the end, we went to a cool restaurant by the beach, and ate some very good food. The restaurant is called Friends, and it's really worthed: good food, and nice waiters. We all ordered very fancy dishes, and cool mixtures of cold natural juices. I found shark steak in menu, and tried it. It was juicy :D

This was the best day of all three we have spent in Sinai. We still owe lots of thanks to Mai and Maggie, our best egyptian friends who showed us around.