Jasmin Desert Spa Bawiti

... taste buds, on a simple lunch of tinned tuna salads, cheeses, dips, chips and drinks. <br>With our bellies full we made our way further south into the Great Sahra al-Beida (White Desert), for a bit more off road driving. Our first stop was crystal mountain, a hill made entirely of quartz, nothing special. <br>On first entering the white desert, we were slightly disappointed. The sand wasn't really all that white, in our opinions. With ...

... relax away from the heat. It even had its own chef, as well as a palm grove across the way, which we were free to explore in our leisure and eat anything we found. <br>On our afternoon stroll while trying to avoid the spiders and mud, we ran into a local farmer feeding his donkey. He told us to sit and picked handfuls of fresh dates for us to try, as well as some wild rocket. He just seemed happy to be talking to us and show us his area. <br>That night we ...

... white formations pink and orange. The light was perfect. As soon as the sun set, the temperature dropped about 30 degrees and it was COLD. Especially after we had bunked down and the campfire died out. I had to use the restroom in the middle of the night and I thought I would have rather died than get up and walk in my bare feet to the other side of a rock in the pitch black night. But the bonus of that was that ...

... sky was amazing and the sunset was awesome. We got into Bawiti where we were to spend the night before heading into the desert. We pulled into this little inn - it was adorable. Very simple whitewashed building with bouganvilla threatenting to take over every branch or piece of wicker. The beds were a stack of bricks with a thin mattress on top. I slept like a baby.

... vigilance. But for me, it is also important to remind myself of all the good and great things I love about Egypt. So for the rest of this post, I'll write about a happier memory. I'm not attempting to minimize the importance of the terrorist attack. But rather, I want to balance the fear of a single event within the context of a greater whole that the media does not have the time to address. After all, nothing in this world is purely black or white, but always ...

... have trouble climbing to the top as the sand keeps trying to suck us down- I need help the last few feet. Then we run down the other side. Later, we walk through a narrow pass in the mountains to check out the black lava rock that gives the Black Desert its name. It looks like a massive dump of coal. More desert driving to check out spectacular crème and golden carved mounds, but our driver is a bit of a cowboy and gets us stuck in some deep sand. It takes a bit of work to push us out.

... female because the wives are always in a different part of the home. Women are rarely seen in rural parts of Egypt and much throughout the Muslim world. Simply, men work outside the home and women stay in the home. Men run all the shops, even the dry cleaning, ironing, and alteration/sewing businesses. As a female in Egypt and in the other Muslim countries we've been to, it was very different not to speak to women for such a long time. Most of the ...

... desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to the Arabian Desert. The women are extroadinarily beautiful although the married ladies are fully veiled, including covering the eyes. The ladies of Bawiti Oasis walk the streets, shop at the markets and collect their children from school whilst looking like black ghosts floating around town. They even had their hands and arms covered in black, rayon gloves, a little ...

... White Desert which is one of the few protected areas in Egypt. We didn't get much of an explanation of how the area came to look the way it does, but we are guessing that it was once under the ocean and what is left was once coral reefs as the rock formations look a lot like the coral we saw in the Red Sea. The desert is filled with the strangest white rock formations that are scattered everywhere amongst perfect sand and white rock that ...

... and driver has certainly provided us with the ability to go over-road to more local monuments not covered in your typical travel guide (by this time it was no longer Imun, but Mohamed, and family friend of Wael's.) We visited a remote part of Crystal mountain, we got a great view of Pyramid mountain, and Cresent Rock. We will come back with some great pictures and interesting specimens. Our extra suitcase is going to be filled with rocks- sorry Ben. We ...