TRAVELLIVE 9-2017 WEB

In the middle of that road, the sun
rose like an enormous fire ball
seeming so close THAT we could
almost touch it. All of a sudden, it
was as if the whole area of hills and
mountains took off its black coat
and put on a new pink shirt that
surprises every visitor.
Touching the land of
Old Testament
"Today God loves his people and
calls them to Sion mount" (Sion is
Sinai today. This name was written
in the Old Testament. Sinai is also
called Moses mountain by Egyptians).
That's a script written in a famous
hymn of 1950s that any Catholic
person might have heard before.
Written in the hymn for Exodus
THANH CAO
Travel Blogger and
Photographer
Used to be a successful manager in
various companies and multi national
corporatioins; however,his passion of
traveling and writing pulled him out of
the safe zone to indulge in international
destinations. With his motto of "traveling
to touch destinations and coming back
with positive changes", his articles and
photos manifest the real beauty of paths,
cultural marks, local architecture, people
and life of locations that he passed by.
Thanh Cao is a popular contributor of
many travel newspapers and magazines.
He is also the co-founder of OffTrack
Travel Company.
about Moses, a foreteller of the Old
Testament who took 70 people to
this sacred mountain to receive Sinai
Obligation, which included the Ten
Commandments
To see the sunrise on Sinai
mountain, visitors will have to depart
from 11:00p.m from Sharm El Sheikh
or Dahab, where it takes about three
hours to travel to the gathering
place at the foot of the mountain.
I joined a group of tourists and we
were introduced to a local tour guide
named Mohamed, who would take us
to climb up the mountain. After some
greetings and introduction about
himself, Mohamed shared with us
some information about the trekking
path, which was a rugged but safe
and easy trail.
There was only the light
from flashlights of
pilgrims in the dark
sky as we started.
Mohamed leads the
team and sometimes
doubled-back to check
on us. We stopped every
15-20 minutes to take a rest and
then continued our journey up the
mountain. After an hour, we reached
the first leg, where there was a
wooden house with chairs leaning
on the walls for visitors. The host
also served tea, coffee and cake. An
Italian couple in our group decided to
stop here because they are not able to
climb up and do not want to delay the
team. For them, setting their feet to
the mountain was enough.
At the second leg, when Mohamed
and I become closer, he asked me
whether I wanted to ride a camel
lying in front of us. It was an animal
of the host here. Mohamed would
negotiate to rent it at a cheap price.
Of course, we could only ride the
camel to the third leg and then go
on foot up the more than 600 stone
stairs to the peak. I agree was him
because I was so tired and also
wanted to experience riding a camel
to the peak.
It was really a memorable experience
to ride a camel up the mountain.
At first, I feel scared because the
path was very dark with a mountain
cliff on one side and an abyss
on the other side. As well it was
sometimes slippery. I can't predict
the consequences if the camel walks
on any slippery rock. "Don't worry.
Camels have a very good memory.
It remembers the way up clearly.
Its eyes can see in the darkness.
122
TRAVELLIVE
EXPECTED BUDGET The budget for three days two nights on the Sinai peninsula is about $240ë, including a trekking tour to Sinai mount,
Catherine monastery, snorkeling for a day, local transportation, food and beverage.