The last leg of my Egyptian trip – the Sinai Peninsula and Sharm El Sheik – heading for the Saint Catherine Monastery in the mountains. I’m sure that Sharm El Sheik is a haven for those who just loves resorts, especially in combination with diving but in my - strictly personal opinion – its nothing but a sad place with one concrete hotel next to the other and garbage littered desert. If you want to go here I strongly recommend the small towns of Dahab and Nuweiba further up the east coast of Sinai.

At the time of my visit to Saint Catherine’s, the entire tourist population of Sharm El Sheik must have decided to go here. Given the crowds, I still got quite a nice view and understanding of a monastery that with its desolate location has been virtually uninfluenced by the surrounding world over many centuries, preserving a religious ambience that you only find in Jerusalem or in religious centres in Russia.

The reason for Saint Catherine’s location, in the midst of the Sinai Mountains, is of course Moses and the mountain where he received the Ten Commandments from God. Besides Moses, they say that the desert and the Sinai Mountains have given birth to many prophets and philosophers thanks to its desolate, beautiful and majestic landscape - once there’s nothing around you, you have to look inside to find truth and meaning to life. Believe me….it works…!