Thursday, March 17, 2011

Western Egyptian Desert

A place called the Siwa Oasis. A few friends and I took a trip there (about an 8 hour drive west of Cairo) and had a splendid time.

Here are some pictures :)



Meet Yousuf, greatest tour guide ever. A law student/tour guide who is very passionate about his city. He also taught us how to tie a professional looking Bedouin head piece like his!

A friend chilling at one of the oases we visited. This one was sort of like a mud bath, people just scooped up the mud at the bottom and gave themselves all sorts of facial masks with it. Very cool.

Music session! There was also lots of dancing involved. And pot smoking. No joke.

Another oasis we visited. This one was literally in the middle of the desert and about 15km from the Libyan border. And very very salty - a massive water fight shrunk my jeans about 3 inches unfortunately.

Sandboarding? At sunset? In the middle of the western desert? Check.

A friend displaying the traditional female face covering.

Tea + another oasis + sunset = peacefulness.

There was also one night where we camped out in the desert and I stayed up all night and watched the stars come out (there was only about a million), the moon rise, then witnessed a very lazy sun climb over the western horizon. It was an absolutely breathtaking night and I didn't even try taking any pictures because nothing would ever do it justice. It will remain just a most beautiful image in my mind's eye.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Music session! There was also lots of dancing involved. And pot smoking. No joke.

Hahahaha! what!!

Steve said...

That oasis looks comfortable. It reminds me of a hot spring I went to in Costa Rica except that place didn't have mud there.

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh! This trip looks fabulous. I've always fantasized about sleeping under the stars and that mud bath looks pretty great too.

What are the details about this trip? We'll be moving to the east coast this summer, and I'm all about planning my forays across the Atlantic in the fall!

bintbattuta said...

It was definitely an unforgettable experience, all aspects of it!

Mary, the Siwa Oasis is a relatively popular spot with tourists, but since it's far out of the way, it's not crawling with them. Perfect spot for some relaxation and desert exploration. It's very easy to arrange a trip from Cairo and our tour guide spoke English, if you would like his number just let me know :)