Day 4: Today is "Operation DesertStorm" :(

  Cairo, Egypt
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Chapter 28: The awakening

Woke up in the morning at about 5am. The sun had not come out yet but the sky was already quite bright. The sky was hazy and the weather was a bit chilling in the early morning. Didn't really have a good sleep at all. (Who could sleep well under a blanket that was as stiff as steel?) The scarab beetle was nowhere to be seen. (yep, checked that it wasn't inside my body too! ^_^) Youn-Jun was up already, and she was busy writing her own diary(?), as for the others... they were still sleeping like a few logs... Their peaceful facial expressions told me that I shouldn't wake them up regardless of anything, even if there was a king cobra hissing nearby.

Ah! I haven't talked much about Youn-Jun, have I? Well, that's because I haven't really talked much to her. She was a Korean, but went to Germany to study. Like the rest of us, she came alone to Cairo, but her uncle here booked for her a tour of the B & W desert. Because of the money she paid (or her uncle paid), she got the privilege of having her own jeep and also an English-speaking guide, all by herself! What we had in contrast, was to share an "oracle" among 4 people. Like all fortune tellers - he spoke, we couldn't understand; we guessed, and got them all wrong!

With no water to brush my teeth with I had to resort to chewing a few chewing gums. (yep, those were brought from HK) Then I started to scout around the area as I didn't really have time to wander far last evening. There were other camps nearby and the nearest one was about 500 metres apart. Since there was nothing much to do, I started to walk further to look for scenic spots for the sunrise.

The sunrise was better than the sunset last night. The horizon was clear and there was nothing in the path that was blocking the view. After a long wait, the show finally started: first the golden rays, then the orangey egg yolk appeared from the horizon and it gradually rose up to the sky. That was a truly magnificent and enlightening moment, and made me feel so satisfying and fulfilling afterwards. I hadn't watched a proper sunrise for years and it was certainly worth every bit of hardship in getting up so early! When I returned to the camp they were still sleeping. Jamie said she would be very eager to watch the sunrise... Well, obviously the mind was willing but the flesh was a lot weaker...




Top Left: Taken from the top of the horse head. You could see one driver was sleeping behind the jeeps. I think the other one slept inside the jeep. Youn-Jun was writing her diary.
Top Right: The sky god Horus is watching you!
Bottom Left: The SWAT team is now ready! SIR!
Bottom Right: When I came back, they were still sleeping. Zzzz... I was sleeping next to those trashes on the left last night. (where the driver is right now)


Soon afterwards the drivers woke up and started to prepare breakfast. The others woke up one by one and were just sitting there, staring aimlessly like zombies waiting to be fed. (Ed: zombies hunt, prey and feed; they never wait to be fed!)

Soon after, the small table was set and breakfast was ready.

Just like last night's supper, the breakfast was equally "impressive", bread, butter, fig jam and cheese (not sure because I didn't try it out, but those triangular things with silver wrappings looked vaguely familiar to those I had eaten ages before) Wait! There were something extra that weren't included in last night's meal -- Swarms of flies... didn't know where they came from, (did we get caught on their path of seasonal migration? or was it one of the Ten Plagues?) but it was just virtually impossible to leave anything in the open without getting raided by some of them! It was a fierce battle between the humans and the nature... at the end the mere humans had accepted utterly defeat and had to share their food with their victors!




Top Left: This is the English-speaking guide. Nah, he is not the point of the photo. The stiff, filthy and dirty blankets are!
Top Right: The kettle and the blue barrel... yep! our water source for the tea!
Bottom Left: Tables are set, breakfast is almost ready, so are the flies... let the "feast" begin!
Bottom Right: After a hard battle, everyone sort of looked defeated... and Alex went down already!


The "shay" (mint tea) after breakfast was good as it warmed up the stomach a bit. The weather had turned a bit windy now and it was cooler. Soon after the breakfast, the drivers began to pack and dismantle the camp site. We also packed and were ready to leave. But then, Alex was MIA (missing in action) ...

We waited for a long time and before we decided to dispatch the alpha team for the "search and rescue" operation, a figure appeared on the horizon.. it was him! Finally we found him!

After a session of "serious interrogation", he finally confessed that he went to look for the loo. Yes, the sky was well lit now so it wasn't easy to find a shelter for the loo. (where it could just be anywhere last night!) The visibility was so good now that you could hide from one camp but you couldn't hide from the other. Don't get me wrong, the camps were not close to each other at all, but the visibility was so good that you could be easily seen in all directions doing the "business", even from afar. Alex had to walk for about 10 minutes before he could find a spot. (or before he could hold no more? That we never found out!)

Chapter 29: The flower mountain (or what I believe to be!)

We said good-bye to Youn-Jun and the two jeeps left separately. So suddenly we returned to the feeling of being deaf and dumb again. This time the driver was more sane and drove in a normal speed. Soon we arrived in a plain where there were no hills, no rocks and we wondered where we were again! (Only 10 minutes have passed and we already missed Youn-Jun and her English speaking driver!)

So we all looked at the driver, waiting for him to "introduce" the place. Without a word he bent down and picked up one of the many tiny black-coloured stones scattered on the ground.

'Flower stones' he said. He stretched out his hand and showed us a small, black stone with symmetric spikes and randomized patterns all over it. Not really like flowers but the shape and the texture was definitely interesting enough. So we looked down on the ground and what happened to be ordinary, tiny black stones were actually each a flower stone. They all came in different shapes and sizes and like snow flakes, no two were completely the same. The stones were actually basalt rocks left over from previous volcanic eruptions.

Like small kiddies combing the beach for exotic shells, we all had a good time searching for different varieties. It was all very tempting to take them away and keep them. But then I remembered the famous quote: "Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints!" At the end I was proud to announce that none of us left with a single stone.



Left: The ground was full of those tiny flower stones.
Right: Some of the rare specimen.


Once we were done with the gemstone appraisals, we continued on our journey. This time it was a very long drive and by the time we came to a stop still, we were back into the teahouse we visited yesterday. So with nothing better to do we went inside for another relaxing cup of shay.



Our Teahouse, if only it serves marijuana as well...


After the jolly good tea time we finally returned to our starting point - Ahmed Safari Camp. Ahmed(?) came out and "greeted" us. He quickly led Dave and Alex to their rooms since they joined the 3 days 2 nights tour and were staying in the camp for another night. We peeped inside their rooms and they were primitive but looked ok. (however they were bound to be doomed when the sun set tonight - They had no chance against the oasis mosquitoes given with that room condition! In fact I didn't hear from Dave again but Alex seemed to have made it - I got an email from him once when I was back in HK)




Top Left: Finally we are back to the Ahmed Safari Camp.
Top Right: The oracle was well pleased when we said good-bye to him with the tips!
Bottom Left: The lobby "fountain" was made up of strange rocks and skulls and bones found in the desert.
Bottom Right: The interior of the dome was also well decorated.


Lunch wasn't ready yet. Jamie wanted to go for a shower but Ahmed quickly brought out the news that the water pump was broken and there was no hot water until 3 pm! (I always wondered why 3 pm? was he just shutting down the pipes to save water and electricity?) Dave and Alex returned from their rooms. Since their tours wouldn't start until in the afternoon, so we decided to go out of the "hotel campus" and explored a bit of the surrounding of this Bahariyya Oasis.

In the surrounding area of the camp there were a lot more "living creatures" in the oasis than I originally thought. (ok besides flies and mosquitoes) Besides the stray(?) cats and dogs wandering around the roads, there were donkeys (oops! they were mules actually, though the usages were just the same: work, eat & sleep - i.e. just like us?), cows, calves and chickens (they were waiting for us to feed them while we were also waiting for them to feed us) There were also plenty of crops grown in the area. Dave, being the expert in the area, immediately identified a few for us as we walked along. (and sadly speaking, no one else had any better knowledge to challenge him so I presumed he was correct, though he didn't sound too confident nor convincing at times.)



Top Left: The front view of the camp.
Top Right: Those openings on the right were actually guestrooms and their balconies!
Middle Left: Peas in a pod.
Middle Right: Wheat... lots of them...
Bottom Left: I'm a mule, not a donkey, get it right!
Bottom Right: This was the dining room where we had lunches, also where I met Mr. Black Cat!


Chapter 30: Be it a black cat or a white cat, a cat that made me go "OUCH" was a bad cat!

Lunch was back at the same table and the stuff looked extremely familiar (this included the food as well as the flies)... I thought I had a deja-vu for a while. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the green salad, which was also here in yesterday's lunch. Anyway it wasn't important as its look gave me a clear message that would read: "Eat me and thou shall need to find a toilet pretty soon!"

The only thing different today was a black cat came circling around our table to check on how we were doing. Being a "pitiful" person I decided to lure him (?) with a piece of bread. I held it out of his reach but he was one real cat with character! He immediately pounced on my leg as a stepping stone, and then leaped up and used his well-sharpened paw to snatch his prize away, scratching my hand in the process. "OUCH!" Everything happened just so fast! By the time I was able to react he already ran away with his prize! Well that was a bloody stupid thing to do in hindsight! I just hoped that he didn't have any rabies with him. I was kind of worried for a while as he definitely looked quite mad for that piece of bread.

Lunch finished without any more "interesting" event. We sat in the hall waiting for Ahmed to take us back to the bus stop for the 3 o'clock bus. We also discovered that the statement "the water pump was not working" was no joke as the toilet flush water had also stopped and the condition inside was getting critical. With nothing to do we went to the courtyard to do some more chatting while Alex was MIA again. The chatting session would be better if the temperature was cooler and the flies could just leave us alone. (I thought I was good at tolerating them having lived in Perth for so long. I was wrong... they could be extremely annoying!)

Soon enough Ahmed came to round up Jamie and me and took us back to the main street of Bawiti where the bus stop was. Youn-Jun was already there. It turned out that Ahmed invited her to his house alone (hey that's not fair! Just her alone?) but then we had something that she missed: her English-speaking guide did not take her to the flower mountain. He took her straight back to the camp after breakfast this morning. @_@

Chapter 31: Getting there was already tormenting enough? Try going back!

We waited at the bus station and the wait was forever (remembered how long Forrest Gump had to wait for the bus? well, at least he had a box of chocolate!) Finally the bus came and again - I thought I had another deja-vu! Same Driver, same bus. That meant it had no air-conditioning and horrible seats. This time it was worse: the bus was packed with more local people than yesterday and a sandstorm was waiting for us outside the oasis!

So what did we have to go through? A journey of 4 hours inside a packed coach with no fans nor air-con. All the windows were kept shut or else the sand would be blown in. The bus was packed with local people. They were hot, sweated and stank. Seating was uncomfortable and all my water had run out already. Luckily Jamie was a very talkative person and if not for the conversation we had during the entire trip I would have fainted!

The two hour trip to the petrol station (the mid-way stop) was like a nightmare and by the time we got there, I dashed out (despite the fierce sandy wind) and got a pepsi (ok, they didn't have coke, never mind that in this life or death situation)... "Ahhhhhhhh" I finally felt rejuvenated. (rejuvenation was not exaggerating there!) With the help of that pepsi and the continuous conversation with Jamie (gosh! she just loved to talk so much!) the rest of the journey was a lot more bearable than the first half! (Of course the conversation was nowhere romantic under these circumstances!)

It was dark by the time we saw the city lights of Cairo and we stopped somewhere near Giza, which was not where we originally boarded the bus yesterday. Someone from Desert Safary Hostel came to pick me up. I thought I could give Jamie a lift as she also lived near my hostel. But that guy insisted that he only picked me up, and me alone only! Seeing that there was no point in arguing, we said goodbye to each other and I followed that guy, hoping I didn't have to walk as far as I had to walk on my first day. (I had to walk with my full gear on for 15 minutes from the airport to get to the guy's car on the first day!)

Well, my wish sort of came true, as he didn't head for his car after all! He just flagged a taxi nearby, said a few words, then left the taxi with a few more. (which I presume would be swear words) I couldn't believe that his transportation was a street taxi and I couldn't believe he too had to bargain for the fare! So I waited patiently and just let him do the work as he repeated the process again and again. Finally, we got on one and headed back to Desert Safary Hostel.



Left: Entrance of the Desert Safari Hostel, on the 7th floor of an old building. Yes... the white door on the right was the lift!
Right: The Lobby. It came with a TV and a computer for internet surfing! (100 LE/night)


The big guy Ahmed was there to greet me at the reception, with the "Welcome back, my friend!" He first led me to a spacious double room at the corner where a painting of Cleopatra(?) was hung. This room came with a balcony so you could enjoy the noisy traffic down below; but this room only had a shower with no toilet included. So naturally I raised my concern as I had paid for a room with ensuite facilities. His favorite phrase came again:

'Don't you worry my friend! I will show you another room!'

So he led me to another much smaller single room with a toilet included, and what's more, it even came with a forever trickling water supply!




Which one do you prefer? The single room with ensuite toilet or the double room without?


So at the end I gave up and took the Cleopatra room. The first thing I did after a shower was to empty my shoes of the desert sand I brought back with me unwillingly. The process alone took me 15 minutes; every time I shook, some more sand came out. At the end the amount of sand deposited inside the bin allowed me to make a mini sand dune!

Once I finished, I immediately went for the dinner as I was dying of hunger and thirst. It was too tired for me to venture out on interesting cuisines for the night so I chose the authentic Pizza Hut at the end! I needed a place that could guarantee their food was edible as my stomach already had too much adventurous food for the past two days!



Left: On my way back from the oasis, the wind (with the sand) was blowing fiercely.. just look at the slanting plants and the brown smog!
Right: My Pizza Hut dinner! mango juice, spaghetti bolognaise and some green salads... At last I got some fibres, now I just hope it was cleansed properly! (29 LE)