Fata Morgana Hotel Siwa

... keeping up.<br><br>There are patches of brand new road, they seem to have started in the middle of the desert and are building towards Bahariyya and Siwa.<br><br>We stopped at an oasis for lunch - was just like the movies, sand everywhere the a small lake with reeds around it.<br><br>We made good time and hit Siwa around 4pm, time to check into the hotel and head up to the top of the old town to watch the sunset. <br><br ...

... you are a threat to our national security<br>Us: (laughing) How are we threatening your security?<br>Man: (very angry) You cannot sit here<br>Us: (calmly) Sir, you do not need to yell at us. Where do you suggest we sit? We were sitting over there and were surrounded by 30 men hissing at us and it made us feel uncomfortable, we feel safe over here. If you can show us another place we can sit, we will move. We were also offered money for prostitution. We will not sit over there ...

... bus, which was also the last bus for 24 hours.<br><br>When she arrived everyone in town was already expecting her, and had her wait for Lindsey and Brittany. Then Fethi picked us up and drove us out to a Bedouin camp in the desert for the free "Sorry you got harrassed by the local crazy" dinner. The dinner was delicious, and the stars were amazing. We sat around a campfire and had tea and looked at the sun setting over the dunes. <br><br>The next day we returned to Abdu for ...

Woke up very late today around 11:30 so I was in a mad panic to pack all of my stuff which was strewn across the room in order to avoid paying some money for checking out late. Had a good nights sleep but then again I did have my ear plugs in. That said, I did wake up at the call to prayer and I didn't realise there was a mosque right behind my hostel building. God may be great and all that as they shout through the loudspeakers ...

... We firstly headed into town to pick up our hire bikes and for those not cycling, donkey khalesh. After a few minutes to get used to them (you know the old saying) we set off. The pace was gentle which was a good job because we were all a bit rusty! Our first stop was the Mountain Of The Dead. Used by the Greco-Romans as a burial site, huge numbers of graves have been found around the rocky outcrop. We were shown round a few but very ...

... us that wearing thongs would be fine for this day. I tried climbing up and kept slipping back down so a few of us hunted for a safer way up and we eventually made it and marveled at the amazing view of Siwa. There is a lot of greenery here which is a huge contrast to the absolute desert landscape that surrounds it. There are seriously palm trees as far as the eye can see though. After the tombs we took our calesh to the Oracle Temple of Amun. The Oracle ...

... was in front of me on the way back to the bus and some were behind me watching sunset and starting their walk back to the bus. I didn't care though, we still had a long drive to Siwa and I couldn't hold on. Not far from the bus it started to head towards us as they had finally fixed the tyre. We got back on and warmed up and snacked on our fruit and chips and continued on into Siwa. We finally got to our hotel around 7pm and it is really ...

... and dancing and goofing off for a few hours before we all headed down into the market to go see a man named Mr. Hussein who we had met the day before. Mr. Hussein owns a shop that sells the usual local wares. He retired to Siwa after seeing it in a book called "1000 things to do before you die". He lived in San Fransisco for 34 years before deciding to come back to Egypt for his health. He hosted our group with ...

... rent bikes again. The third night we were in Siwa, there was a cultural event at Cleopatra's Bath. There was a Siwan Music Group playing there who had just returned from Nepal. Everyone had a good laugh when one of the group members was asked where Nepal was and he didn't know. There was a feast that accompanied the music that was fantastic. The night was amazing and we couldn't bring ourselves to leave the next day, so we said goodbye to Ian and Nate who had to be ...

... black exhaust fumes that are conveniently sucked back up through the seating area, allowing you to sit back and calmly enjoy all the acrobatics with a serene and somewhat simple grin on your face. Along the way we even stopped for some sandboarding. I won't go into a lot of detail except to say that I honestly, but very mistakenly, believed sand was softer than my ass. It is also our opinion that if ski hills were always powder but you had to walk back up to the top ...