We’ve just returned to Cairo after a three night, four day stint in API Call ErrorBahariya Oasis. The trip out to the oasis was a API Call Errorbus ride about 5 hours long. It’s only 350km, but the amount of time it took to get from downtown Cairo to the open road was extraordinarily long.

As soon as we got there, we were served a quick lunch, and then told to quickly repack our small bags, as the desert excursion we were expecting to do the next day had been moved up. There were six of us – API Call ErrorKathy and API Call Errormyself, Heather and Marcus from the UK and Georges and his daughter API Call ErrorApaulina from France – who then quickly rearranged our daypacks for a night in the desert and set out in a beaten up Toyota Landcruiser that appeared to be on its last legs. Once we were actually out in the desert, we were happy to be there, as it was API Call Errorincredibly beautiful. Unfortunately not quite as isolated as we would have liked though, as the area between Bahariya and Farafra is a really popular area for tourist excursions, so there were a number of other 4x4s around. On the way to our camp area, our driver stopped to help an older couple (possibly German) who had rented a 4×4 camper, and had gotten stuck in the sand. We all pitched in to push them free, much like pushing someone out of a snow drift, except that it’s everywhere, there’s no road, and you just have to get onto less soft sand. Still, spending the night in the white desert – a part of the western desert where there are a number of API Call Errorwhite coloured rock formations that appear to be made of chalk – was an unforgettable experience and well worth the effort.

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Today was certainly a packed day. We got up earlyish (okay, so around 8 am) to head out and see the pyramids. Our first stop was API Call ErrorSaqqara, where some of the earlier step pyramids are (instead of the smooth walls of the “newer” pyramids, they have several levels to them, kind of like giant steps…I guess a little closer to Mayan designs, than what most people view as Egyptian. A couple of them had not stood well to the tests of time, and from the outside look more like piles of rubble than anything else, but one, Zosa’s pyramid, is still quite intact.

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We’ve now finished our first day in Cairo. It is definitely different from anywhere I’ve been before. Somewhat intimidating, and yet also very interesting. We’re staying in the downtown area, just a couple of blocks from Midan Tahrir, where the Egyptian Museum is, and there is a huge variety of people around. We didn’t wander too far from the hostel today, and in the same blocks you could see people living in extreme poverty, and people who would qualify as middle class doing their shopping. On one corner, one side of the street was a restaurant which was as sterile and modern as any western fast food chain, and on the other side of the street, the building was crumbling, the sidewalk was covered in rubble.

There are three kinds of Egyptians when it comes to tourism. The majority, who are friendly to you if you ask for directions or look lost, but generally don’t much care about you; those who make an honest living in the tourism industry and want to make sure you have a good time; and the third, who seem to think you came here so that they could try to get your money without any service of value in return. Unfortunately, the last group is large enough to make walking around the streets a tiring game. On our first trip out, we were talked into a perfume shop, but after getting the hard sell, we were left alone when it became apparent that we were not going to buy anything. Having been caught once, you catch onto the pitch quickly, and become better at ignoring it. The downside is that sometimes you end up shrugging off people who are honestly trying to be helpful, which creates kind of a guilty feeling.

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