I took a short trip to the Bahareya Oasis with the intent to go see the White desert.

I left on Monday morning with the 8AM bus from the Turgoman station in Cairo with the intent to find a safari to join once in Bahareya (Winging it!). Unlike the other times I had taken buses, the proportion of foreigners in this bus was quite high, maybe 25 or 30%. As I cannot read the ticket, I sat where I could thinking it was my seat and ended up talking with a French man on a 2 weeks visit.

We talked for a bit before I got asked to move to my real seat and I ended up close to a young white man. I had seen him enter the bus with his 2 friends and he was sporting some purple colors mired on his face in a tribal way and one of his friend had an eruption of pimples all over the face and body. As he asked me later what I thought when I saw them, I replied I thought someone had a crazy night and the girl had quite a case of Acne!

As it is usually the case, and got reminded once more, things are usually not like they appear. Crystal (the woman) had contracted chicken pox while setting foot in Egypt. She had been taken to the hospital where they had prescribed her a purple cream she had to cover most of her body with. And as a sign of support, Alex (my neighbor) had put some of this cream on his face. The third person in their party being Andy. We had a nice conversation with Alex and we decided I would try to join their tour once in Bahareya (Translation: I kind of sneaked in on these poor American fellows that would learn to regret to have accepted me joining them.. ah ah ah!). For the little story, Alex and Andy are actually volunteers with the Peace Corp in Bulgaria helping with different projects. Is that not cool or what?

Anyway, I negotiated the price for the tour with the guys at Ahmed Safari Camp once in Bahareya. I ended up paying less than the guys since I jumped the middle man…

We got served lunch (Tuna with some soft cheese with tomatoes and cucumbers as every lunch we had at the Camp from that point forward!) and then checked into our rooms.

We then got a car and a driver for the rest of the afternoon that took us to an oasis garden (some palm trees and fruit trees fighting their way through the sand) then we went to one of the oasis hot springs. It was actually a sort of pool with water at 30C flowing from a pump. Most, if not all, of the oasis springs are hot with temperatures ranging from 20C to 90C. Dipping in the spring was very nice. You just have to not mind the locals checking you out. Women should wear full bathing suit with a dark tee-shirt so as not to offend them (or not attract their attention if you want to see it like this).

After the hot spring, we got invited to a Bedouin tent that, accompanied of his kids, served us Bedouin tea. It was quite good (laziza) but still not as good as Raphaele’s! (Note for later: Get Raphaele to make some tea for me when I am back)

We then went to some sand dunes close by to play with some kids before finishing by catching the sunset from the top of the local highest pic called the English Mountain. It also gave us an opportunity of really seeing how the oasis is surrounded by the desert.

The evening was nice with a good dinner and some dancing with the Bedouins. I spent some time playing ping pong with the locals and Ahmed, an Egyptian teenager in vacation at the camp, whose younger sister Nehmet had shown being a great dancer.

We ended the day by going star seeing away from the lights of the camp since Alex had brought his star map. It reminded me of some trips to Yosemite I did in the past years. I learnt some cool stuff and am more than ever into learning more about Astronomy.

The next morning, we got the car and the driver again to go see the local monuments. We first went to see some of the golden mummies of the 26th dynasty that were recovered lately in the oasis. Then we visited two nice tombs with some great murals including a part similar to the famous weighting of the heart. The driver took us to another place that was not worth it and we ended up back at the camp to see the ruins of Alexander the Great’s temple that is situated 5 minutes away walking. Nothing very interesting for the non-expert I am though. The tombs and the mummies are more than worth the EGP30 ticket after all.

I then spent some time around the fountain located in the entrance hall of the hotel. I just dig the whole thing made from stones recovered from the desert. I want the same one for my home.

The main reason you come to Bahareya after all is to go in the desert so it is what we did in the afternoon. We got joined by an Indian man that had met the 3 guys in Cairo and the 5 of us packed in the Toyota 4×4 (For the story, Bahareya is nicknamed Toyota land due to the high number of Toyota 4x4s. The only other ways of transportation being donkey carts and bicycles.). Our goal was to reached the White desert and camp there.

On the way to the White desert, you go through many different landscapes.

The first one is the black desert that is quite a sight. We climbed to the top of one of the black mountain to check the surroundings and appreciate the warm wind blowing in your face.

The next stop was at the Crystal mountain where you can see quite impressive formation of crystals. I searched the sand for some cool samples and had some good finds. Some people not understanding preservation of sites were knocking directly on the crystal formations in order to get their own first grade pieces. No comment!

We also had some cool off road driving in the sand but no jumping of dunes as I was hoping for ;). Maybe you need to go to the Sahara to get limitless stretches of sand dunes.

We had some additional stops before reaching the white desert. It is actually a landscape of white rocks surrounded by sand. The white rocks have been eroded by the wind and sand over many centuries creating a landscape of funny shaped white sculptures. Quite impressive!

We finally settled a bit further in the white desert after some haggling with Mohamed (the driver) that had intended to join us with another group from the same safari camp while we wanted to be alone to enjoy our own piece of desert! Mohamed setup a camp and prepared some yummy food while we were roaming around. I set up to search for fossils that are plentiful around here since the whole place was once underwater. The sunset was hidden by clouds so no luck on that one. Dinner was great. Definitely the best Egyptian dinner I had since I am here. Mohamed cooked some great rice Middle Eastern style as well as great chicken and yummy vegetable stew. We were not the only one to think it smelt good since we got joined by a little fox after a while. Sadly, this little fellow was not afraid of us at all showing the effect of mass tourism on the ecosystem. Well, I was part of it!

We had a campfire and shared some campfire stories. Then Andy and I went for some star watching. It was really cool and I caught 4 shooting stars :).

The night went well. It was a bit windy at times but I was comfy in the sleeping bag with my clothes and fleece. We all woke up very early to catch the sunrise. Quite nice :).

We then made our way back to the oasis stopping in the garden desert where you can find flower shaped rocks. I think they are fossils of vegetation.

Some more ping-pong and pool playing before catching the bus back to Cairo.

This part of the trip was definitely very cool. Being the desert for one night was quite a feeling. If you come here, I definitely advise you to do the safari. It can be done in 2 days from and back to Cairo if you are in a hurry. The camp I ended up going with is recommended by the guide books and is good in my opinion. You just have to be careful with the price they want and make sure you are persistent with the different things you want to do and see.

[Edited on 5/17/2006 to add pictures]

After finally feeling way better yesterday afternoon, I decided to try again to go to see Sufi dance.

The first try was on Monday. My guide book and the hotel staff were telling me the show was on on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays so it seemed good. The show is free so the guide book says to be there early to be sure to have a spot. So, with a couple Australians and a French woman that joined last minute, we tried to get there for 6PM. Getting to the neighborhood is quite easy since it is close to the big market Khan Al Khalili but finding the place where the show was given wounded up being very difficult. I had instruction written in Egyptian by the hotel staff but every time I would ask someone, he would send me in another direction than the previous one. We must have walked around the market for 45 minutes asking to 15 people to help us all giving us different and conflicting information. Until we found one that knew exactly! It was actually not in the market but on the other side of the large street. Anyway, we finally made it to the place for 6:45 to find out there was no show on Mondays anymore!!! Ok, I did not take it too bad since I was feeling quite sick already and did not mind that after all ;).

Since I knew where it was, it was easier yesterday so I made it early and got a great seat. I actually arrived too early so if you are in Cairo and want to go. Arrive there for 6:30PM. The place is located in Khan Al Khalili, in the main street where the taxi dropped you off, find the green bridge that people use to cross over that street. Looking north, there is a small street going North-North-East. Take it and walk 100 meters. You have arrived!

Now, the show is quite surprising and different than what I ever saw before. The band is named Al Tannoura. There is a band playing traditional instruments (percussion, cords and wind instruments). And then one dancer comes on stage with very colorful clothes and start whirling and whirling and whirling for maybe 20 minutes while a singer joins the group.

The whole concept of Sufi dancing is to enter a meditation and get closer to god. I don’t know much more about it so I will just say it is quite skillful to whirl for 20 minutes straight while looking up or closing your eyes as some of these dancers do.

[04/29/2006: Added links to pictures]

I met with Karim, the friend of Jacques-Alexandre and Raphaele, last night. I called him at 6PM and he just cancelled his plans to meet me at 7PM. He took me around (shisha and fruit juice first and then dinner followed by shisha and tea) and helped me plan a bit my trip.

His first advice was to go to Upper-Egypt as soon as possible because the heat will be soon unbearable there. Seeing how hot it is in Cairo already, I think it is a very good idea and so, I am going south tonight taking a night train to Aswan. Karim took me to buy the train ticket and seeing how people where pushing him in the line, I was happy he was here. I don’t know how long it would have taken me to get this ticket by myself. If I ever did.

So, today, I checked out of the hotel and went to the Egyptian Museum. The museum is not that big actually. I had expected a bigger monument. The place is packed though. With tourists of course but also with antiquities. I got in for 20 LE (Egyptian pound) ($1 is around 6LE). Actually, I got to lurk around a bit to check-in my camera that was forbidden inside and finally got in.

The first floor is organized chronologically: Old Kingdom, Medium Kingdom, New Kingdom and Graeco-Roman period. There are some great pieces all over the place so it is difficult to make a selection. I really liked the Amarna room with pieces from al-Amarna, capital of Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh, dad of Tutankhamen and husband of the gracious Nefertiti. It is just the style of the statues and murals is so much different that you cannot forget it.

But this first floor is just an appetizer as the second floor is just outshining it. The second floor is organized by themes like animal mummies or models. But it is also home to the most visited collection: King Tut collection. It is just mind boggling to see all these awesome objects that were found in his tomb. There was not too many people around his gold mask and other jewels so I had plenty of time to study them. It is so fine and precise work. So much wealth left in a tomb. I cannot even imagine what we could have found in the tombs of more powerful, longer ruling pharaohs like Ramses II.

I also paid the extra 70 EL to see the royal mummies. I debated for a while to decide if i should pay or not and finally did. You can see 13 royal mummies for that price including Ramses II and Seti. If I remember well the story I learnt some time ago, they were all found together in a cache off the king valley that was created by order of a pharaoh of the New Kingdom that wanted to safeguard the mummies of his ancestors while plenty of tombs had already been plundered. It worked quite well since the cache was only discovered in the late 19th or early 20th century (I don’t recollect exactly). I am still undecided of the worth of paying that much to see them but well, it is amazing to see corpses that are more than 3000 years old and are so well conserved. Also, I can tell you Seti must have been an handsome man while I does not seem Ramses aged well ;).

Going to the Egyptian museum was also a milestone for me since it was the last one of the top 4 Egyptian museums in the world I had yet to see (the others being the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It tops them all easy. Just King Tut section could make one museum by itself. And other collections suffer so much from the comparison while being impressive in their own way that it is a bit sad.

I can tell you I had a great time if you did not guess yet.