guest blogger - michael berkman

Hello, hello, and thanks to the eternally hospitable virgin and recidivist for inviting me onto their blog. This is only one half of 'berkman' reporting, but, as Ash has already mentioned, you can feel free to treat us as a single entity for all purposes on this trip.

Dahab. What can I say? We've been looking forward to this stop for quite a while now. Having missed the entire summer back home, a little sun, sand and pseudo-surf is a welcome treat. I have finally been able to bust out the shorts and flip-flops I've been carrying around for two months. As far as I can tell, Dahab is all about snorkelling, drinking, doing nothing, scuba diving, drinking and doing nothing. We're pretty good at all of the above after a weeks practice.

The scuba diving was a raging success. After a few days of umming and ahhing about where we would do it, who would be doing it and what size wetsuit I would need after the last couple of months of cullinary debauchery, Dave and I began in a group of four with anoither aussie, Steve, and an American, Brad (affectionately nicknamed Matt Damon - imagine the docile voice from team america). You'll all be pleased to know that neither facet of 'berkman' drowned and we are both officially qualified to don a sexy scuba outfit and blub... blub... blub... the hours away. It was all fairly routine stuff, until this morning when our instructor got us all to take off our fins underwater. This is when we got our training in moon leaping, back flipping, handstanding and some underwater break dancing. I'm convinced this is how Stanley Kubrick pulled off the moon landing video - underwater with a blue screen.

Insert 24 hour pause...
Anyway, now that I have harnessed the technology to put photos in cyberworld, here's the rest of the last day's story.

Climbing Mt Sinai seemed to me like a pretty standard activity when staying in Sinai (hey, if it's good enough for Moses, it's good enough for me), but we could never have expected the turnout that was there for the sunrise this morning. Sure, the sunrise was pretty and all, but it's hard to look past (quite literally) the hundreds of people there, many of whom were right into their chanting and halleluyahs, the faarken freezing wind blowing over the mountain, the fact tht we had to climb for two hours in the middle of the night to get there, and the intimidating number of camels and touts to fight past in the dark. All the same, when you're playing the game of tick-the-box-tourism, it's important to do these things just because. It must be said that the sunrise and the surrounding mountains in daylight were spectacular.

And just like that, Dahab has drawn to a close. 'Berkman' is about to head to the south of the country for more whirlwind touring, while the V & R are back off to yehudi land to fly out of our lives for while. Dougie, however, is staying right here and doing what you do in Dahab until it's time to head back to oz. All that's left to say is that I hope the virgin has been broken in nice and easy, and that the recidivist will continue to expunge whatever it is that keeps dragging her away from us. Now for a big night of farewell seafood and drinking...

See yez in a coupla weeks!!