-Up at 6:30 and in the van at 7, we were on our way to an overnight camping trip in the Sahara Desert! Me, Anné, Jim, and Anné's coworker Andrianna, plus Ibrahim and our driver, and all our gear. First pit stop was a small building with the rankest bathroom ever, lots of tables and chairs, a place for prayer, and a counter to get soda/tea/coffee/whatever from. We sat for some tea (I opted for orange soda), then hurried back out through the sandstorm to the van.
At the "rest stop"
Sandstorm
-Second stop was the Oasis - Bedwin, where we had lunch and switched over to the Land Cruiser. Ahmed, our Land Cruiser driver - his wife made our delicious lunch, and then we high-tailed it into the middle of the Saharan desert.
Changing vehicles
Sitting down to lunch
Our crazy amazingly delicious lunch
Ahmed and his adorable daughter Zara
-Before going to our "campsite" we made first a stop in the black desert, then a stop when - !POP! - we snagged a gnarly rock and blew a tire, again in the "garden" where you can find rocks shaped by decades of wind and sand to look like little flowers, saw some crystals, and picked up some firewood from the muscle-woman's house/shop. Our final stop, our camp for the night, was in the incredible White Desert. The White Desert used to be under the Mediterranean Sea, and has left some of the most fascinating white rock formations - kind of feels like camping on the moon.
Black Desert
The muscle - woman's house/shop
Entering the White Desert
In the "Garden" looking for rock flowers
haha I was keeping the sand out of my face
This was PERFECT - the camels were wandering along just as the sun was setting. GORGEOUS.
White Desert
-Ahmed and Ibrahim had our light and "living room" set up in no time, and while we donned our jackets and scarves and warmed ourselves by the fire they got dinner going - potato and vegetable stew with rice and s..l..o..w..l..y smoked the chicken over the coals. Agh...so good. :)
Our "living room
Dinner! with fox in background lol
Our little visitor
-We slept inside tents just in case of a sandstorm in the morning, and although the days are warm - man, those desert nights can be quite frigid once the sun goes down.
-Anné and Jim were both working on Thursday, but they had arranged a tour for me with their friend Ibrahim. Ibrahim and his family own a shop downstairs in Anné and Jim's building called "Lovely Bazaar: Cheaper than Wal-mart" and they are also tour guides for Cairo and the surrounding areas. Ibrahim was my guide for the day, and we set out at 9am for the pyramids. As we're driving up to the parking area, men were standing in the road trying to stop cars to trick tourists into paying extra money; Ibrahim just honked and swerved around them. He dropped me off in front of the ticket booth and said he'd meet me on the other side, but told me not to give my ticket to anybody who asked for it. There were other tourists around, but sure enough right outside the ticket booth there was a man who came and asked for my ticket (but not anyone else's) and I happily ignored him.
Arriving at the Pyramids :D
-The pyramids were amazing (understatement of the year). There are 9 total, 3 large and 6 small. We walked around the first 5 pyramids, went inside one, explored a few of the tombs, took some "sneaky photos," and Ibrahim was a wellspring of information about all of it.
The "Obama" tomb...doesn't it look like him? lol
My wonderful guide, Ibrahim
Coming out of the pyramid
-We went back to the car and drove out to the side, out to where the best photo opps were, and also to where the camel rides were! I was very excited to ride a camel, but Ibrahim laughed and said he would help me bargain for a good price. The camel owner we approached looked like an Eygptian Stevie Wonder, and started his price at 600 pounds. Even I knew that was ludicrous, and while I got him down to 200, Ibrahim wasn't satisfied with that and got him down to 150. Having picked the perfect day to wear a skirt, lol, I cautiously climbed onto the camel, and we were led over the dunes to a spot where I could see all 9 pyramids. Breathtaking.
Camels!
-The Sphinx sits just beyond the pyramids, and had served as a "guard" to the pyramids. In fact, Ibrahim says they've x-rayed the ground across the road from the Sphinx, and think there may be another (smaller) one on that side, yet to be unearthed.
-Not far from the pyramids is a small Papyrus factory where I was offered an ice cold coke and shown step-by-step how to make real papyrus paper, and then browsed their beautiful selection of paintings, finally settling on a textured, brown shades rendering of Cleopatra. I had Ibrahim help me hassle the price down to 300 (from 700). Very happy with my purchase, we thanked them and were on our way.
-After a quick shawerma on-the-go (we pulled over, I jumped out, ordered, paid, and jumped back in the car with my shawerma in under 4 minutes), we went to the Egyptian Museum. No pictures allowed inside, not even sneaky ones, but I saw everything from inside King Tut's tomb (except his mummy - it's back in its original resting place), war statues, the royal mummies room, and so many other things. The museum is HUGE, and you would need at least an entire day to see everything in it.
-After the museum, Ibrahim had to be somewhere, so his brother Hussein came and switched with him to take me to Khan el Khalili - Egyptian Market. Ibrahim wrote out the address of our building in Arabic for me "just in case" I got lost and couldn't find my way back to the car. Hussein parked at the mosque across the street, pointed me in the direction of the market "entrance," and said he would be praying for my safety. Now, I have yet to meet a market that I can't handle, but this was definitely the most intense and in-your-face one I've been to. Nearly all the vendors are men, and as a lone female, not to mention a long-haired, tall, attractive lone female, I was like a piece of seasoned tenderloin being dangled through the center aisle of a dog pound full of starving pooches. Nobody touched me, but their eyes never left me as I made my way through the crowded marketplace, and they tried every line in the book, including ones I've never heard and won't repeat, to get me into their shops. I kept my sunglasses on, avoided all eye contact with them, tightened my left hand's death grip on my shoulder bag, and made it through unscathed.
The address in Arabic :D
Traffic Jam
-That evening we had koshery for dinner, which is very Egyptian, but very common Egyptian. Dirt cheap, not great but not terrible, and quite filling. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but ate as much as I could and then indulged in the sweet rice pudding they had for dessert. Had a quick drink with Ed, one of Anné's colleagues, at the Flamenco Hotel across the street, then turned in early. We had an early start ahead of us. :)
