Beau Site Hotel Marsa Matrouh Siwa

... on her iphone which most of you know is pretty beat up already. The phone stopped working, and lindsey returned to the super market to get a bag of rice to put it in. She withdrew 20 pounds (yes, $4) and was determined to spend every cent. She brought different things to the register to scan until the total was 20 pounds. This plan did not go over well, because the people behind her became very angry when she was asking the price. So she gave up and bought what she could. She sat ...

... to a spring that served the best fruit juice in all of Egypt, we were sold. Val and Eric (the two Canadians) had been traveling overland around Africa by themselves for the past 8 months and had even better stories than us (we know, hard to believe). So we rented bikes as well and followed them to Tanta Waa where we were introduced to our savior Waleed and the best mint lemonaides and melango juices on earth. We spent the day relaxing, swimming, and playing Jenga, until ...

... everyone's ID cards. They seem very respectful and show greater leverage to tourists. Maybe something to do with the recent bombings - scared to inconvenience tourists in any way shape or form. Was physically shaking as it was so cold outside the bus, could not stop for a good 5 minutes. <br><br>Anyway, Siwa is fantastic. Totally different to the rest of Egypt. Different language, culture, customs, attitudes, clothing etc.. These people are Berbers as opposed ...

... as much as I would have liked and I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Feeling much better, the following day we made the long journey to Siwa Oasis. The roads between Bahariya Oasis and Siwa were terrible. The drivers were driving on and off the road constantly to avoid the poor road surface or because road works to improve the awful roads. We hit Siwa to see the sunset from the Fortress of Shali, an old mud village ...

... of the man who organised his death. I think I was actually angry while walking through looking at Rommel's things as well as interested, it was confusing. After the cave we drove back into Mersa Matrouh where we stopped to buy fruits and vegetables and snacks for our picnic lunch. Before setting off again we stopped for a drink and waited for Mohamed to pray before starting our drive to Siwa. We stopped by the side of the road ...

... Nescafe coffee powder applied liberally to help soak up the blood and coagulate it. Something none of us has seen before. It was then time to head off again. This time it was to Rommel's cave which was almost pointless seeing. It was just a tunnel and a cave from where Rommel could safely coordinate the German war effort. Without any further ado, we left Mersa Matruh for the last time and started out on our 305km journey to Siwa. It was more or less an uneventful trip, at ...

... appears to be a few package tours coming through, I was unable to get a Jeep into the Sand Sea. I managed to negotiate a price for just myself and a driver, which was around 25% of what most people pay, but decided it wouldn't be quite as good by myself. I'm taking the overnight bus again back to Alex, then on to Cairo and over to Taba. From there, up to Tel Aviv where I'll meet back up with Cisco and Amir.

... springs are getting larger each year. The lake was enormous and they have natural hot and cold springs all over the place which is great because it was extremely hot! After finding a hotel and calming our growling stomachs with local cuisine, we set off to find a great place to see the sunset. In Siwa there are ruins called Shali which is a large structure containing people's living space, granaries, and a mosque. The structure is made of mud and salt and in 1938 ...

... t thought about, though, was that the water comes from below, not above, so since there is no rain, everything just gets dustier and dirtier. In fact, most of the "green" palm trees actually end up being more of dull greenish grey. It's strange going down a charred, dry street with dust swirling all around while the soccer field nearby sits vacant under 2 inches of water. The next day us, Kamin (Aus) and Alexis and Christine (Calif) all took a "little bit of everything ...

... animals working like crazy while the men or sometimes young boys ride casually with one leg hanging off smacking the donkeys behind incessantly. Stunning sunset over the ruins of the original settlement fort/citadel. Rode bikes in the am the day after we arrived and visited local sites like the Tombs of the Dead: climbed up a hill, had a view and ducked into some really stuffy tombs then ...