Trip to Sinai Peninsula

So I have not written a blog for almost two weeks now and I am kind of dissappointed because I have probably forgotten a lot of things. From what I can recall, these last two weeks have been the best here and I am A LOT more confident with using the language. I really enjoy being able to hold conversations with people now about important subjects as politics or life in Egypt.

This past week I was really not able to get on the internet too much because I took a trip to Sinai for 5 days which was absolutley magnificent. As we were traveling it was really cool to look on the map and realize that I was crossing under the Suez Canal or so close to Gaza, all these places that you here of in history or in the newspaper everyday. The trip from Alexandria through Sinai was very long totaling about 13 hours driving across the desert.

Although the Sinai is a homeland to many historic tribes and sites including the Bedouins and St. Catherine(first monestary in the world), present day Sinai is no different than Cancun during college spring break. About thirty years ago, the Sinai peninsula was basically all desert inhabited by the locals until the Egyptians started investing heavily especially in the coastal area and visitors from Europe and Israel began flocking the area for summer vacations.Today the summers in Sharm el Sheikh consist of late nights drinking,dancing in nightclubs, snorkeling, and

just feeling like you are in paradise

On the first two days of the trip to Sinai we stopped in a small town called Dahab which felt a little more Egyptian than the second city we visited called Sharm El Sheikh

. The first night before reaching Dahab the group of us climbed to the top of Mount Sinai which is believed to be the same mountain where Prophet Musa /Moses first spoke with God and received a message that is popularly known as the Ten Commandments. Although it was a really amazing experience, it was also one of the most frightening because we had to climb up the mountain all night without much light except for our cell phones in order to avoid the blazing heat of the dessert during the day. This challenge with the combination of my fear of heights practically caused me to have a few breakdowns while we were going up (and down) . But, once we reached the top and watched the sun rise and prayed at the same spot where Prophet Musa once stood it was definitely worth it. On the way down I also wanted to go inside St. Catherine's Monastery but unfortunately it was closed which was a really big loss because Prophet Mohammad's (pbuh) hand prints are actually signed on a document inside the Monastery which protected the church from being destroyed under Muslim rule

Once we reached Dahab we rested for a while and than went snorkeling in the Red Sea. The Red Sea is extremely beautiful; the water is crystal clear and the sand is white which makes it a great vacation spot. Snorkeling was awesome, I got to see coral , a sting ray, and all sorts of fish. Our hotel was also gorgeous, reminded me some what of Greece because all the buildings were white against the background of the bright blue sea. The second day in Dahab we went on what Egyptians called a "Safari", which in reality was just a ride to canyon that we climbed into. It was similar to the Grand Canyon and was really fun because we had to climb through a lot of tiny little caves and over some big rocks. At one point I fell and really thought I twisted my ankle but thankfully I was okay

Later that same day we left for Sharm El Sheik which is a city at the southern most tip of the Sinai. It was really cool because across the Red Sea from Sharm you could see Saudi Arabia and some parts of Jordan. Sharm was the most relaxing (definitely after climbing a mountain and canyon) portion of the trip. Most of the time in Sharm was spent just walking along the boardwalk and swimming where I probably saw the most ethnicities in one place at a time in my entire life. Sharm was just filled with Israelis, Europeans, Egyptians, and Russians which was pretty interesting. A group of us also went out in the city one night and just ended up at Fridays because a lot of the places were very expensive but we still had a good time

On the last day, we spent the entire day on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea where we snorkeled ,at lunch, and swam

Although I definitely enjoyed my trip a lot , I definitely felt like I was far away from Egypt and the culture. One of the most disappointing things that I witnessed in Sinai was that the hotel staff and tourist business seemed to treat foreigners better than their own people. There was definitely some corruption in Sinai, I mean if it is a city like Las Vegas or Cancun during spring break I guess it is expected to see really trashy people. Some of what I saw in Sharm was really disrespectful to Egyptian or Islamic culture, especially those tourists who say they have been to Egypt when they really have only traveled to Sinai which is so different from the real Egypt. I especially didn't like how the Egyptians seem to be so tolerant of this and so willing to treat fellow Egyptians as second class citizens all for the money

Similar to issues with Native Americans in the US, when the Egyptian government gained back the occupied lands of the Sinai from Israel and started investing in the Sinai they pushed the local Bedouins off their land without any sort of compensation. Today there still remains about 600,000 Bedouins from 12 tribes in the Sinai but there is barely any jobs or running water for these groups. The relationship between the Bedouins and Egypt is not very good and as a result many of the tribes are turning towards smuggling weapons and goods between Israel and Sinai to make a living. Also, some are making statements against the Egyptian government by immersing their anger in Islamic militancy which has resulted in a few deaths and terrorist attacks at sites in the Sinai. I read in the newspaper that the Egyptian government doesn't really view Sinai as part of Egypt. I guess since tourism makes up around 12% of the GDP desperate times call for desperate measures

I guess I just think this whole conflict is really interesting because I related it back to the independent research on Western occupation in the Middle East I did this past semester with Professor Nadine Naber. I read a lot of books and articles of how the current war in Iraq felt like an occupation by groups of Iraqis and other Arabs who had been occupied by Western powers before. This group included Egyptians because they only recently gained their independence from the British. The entire semester I read a lot about how the history of occupation in the Middle East by the West causes Arabs today to feel like this war is actually an occupation by the West again and how Americans are ignorant to consider this history. In other words, whether or not it is a war against terrorism or to spread democracy, because the East has been occupied before the Arabs view it solely as an occupation of their lands

In the Sinai, it was intriguing to see the other side of this view, where it is almost as if Egypt has given permission to Europeans and other groups who vacation in the Sinai to have a good time drinking and dancing at the cost of their indigenous tribes- the Bedouins. After all my work during the school year, it seems like some Arabs might be quick to defend their lands against Western imperialism and occupation but open the door for an industry that brings in the money at the cost of their own people. Whats the difference between a direct and aggressive occupation or one where the host country allows a form of occupation to occur? Essentially nothing; and that is really want is happening. Egyptian bureaucracy has extended a warm welcome for travelers to take advantage of the indigenous tribes. Maybe for once Americans are not the only peoples that are a little hypocritical

Anyways, despite those thoughts I admittedly can't complain about my own experience to Sinai because it was amazing. Just that I wouldn't like to spend my entire two months of Egypt there. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think