Egypt Day 9

Wow... what a day! We got up early in the morning and got in this small 15 passenger van. There were 13 of us so it was a pretty tight fit. We drove for about 5 hours to the border of Egypt. On the way we stopped at this dairy and got lunch and ice cream. It was really good! When we got to the border we had to go through tons of secrurity and it was at that moment that i realized how safe I was in Israel. There are tons of check points all over the place and guns pointing right at you all the time. We went to the base of Mount Sinai and visited the monsetary there. It was prety cool to see and to hear the story of the monestary. We talked about Moses and stayed at a hotel after driving 3 hours into Egypt. It was really nice, in the middle of nowhere. We were surrounded by mountans and there was a huge pool, but it was too cold to swim. Apparantly the water in Egypt has some different kinds of bacteria that we aren't used to and it will make you really sick, so we can't eat fruit or vegetables and we have to use bottled water to brush our teeth. I have to try hard to remember all of that.

After dinner, I went to this Bedouin tent that was near the hotel, because they were selling stuff and there was cool music playing so I wanted to check it out. I talked to one of the guys there for a while and I saw Monty our must driver. He knew these guys and introduced me. They invited me to stay and sit by the fire so I did. We started talking about music and they showed me their tabla drums. We sat by the fire and they taught me how to play on the drums and we played and listened to music for a long time. They offered me some of their tea and at first I was afraid to drink it, but then I remebered that it was ok to drink hot tea and coffee becuase the hot water killed the bacteria, so I drank tea with them. People were dancing and laughing and not everyone spoke english, but playing drums, music and laughter transended any language barriers. We smoked some sheeha tobacco out of their hookah too, and I had to partake as it was all part of the experience. They didn't have the clear plastic gaurds that they have at the hookah lounges in the States so I just went with the flow :-) Monty had some coffee that his friend had given him from Greece so I tried it and it was awesome. One of the guys that lived in the tent told me come to the back with him and he had a computer hooked up to a generator in the back. He burned me a cd with like 60 mp3s of the Bedouin songs on it that we had been listening to and playing along with. I got to keep the cd and one of the tabla drums, but the experience that they will remind me of is the most precious thing. I finally walked over to the hotel and went to sleep. It was a truly amazing experience!