In the Middle of the White: the 5 Billion Star Hotel

During my trip around the desert, our berber guides decided to call me 'Ali' because 'Justin' was too hard for them to remember.  As we arrived in the White Desert of Egypt early one evening, I felt like I had landed on an alien planet.  It was a surreal feeling to step out of the jeep into a completely white landscape of large bizarre chalk-like structures, many of which resembled animals.  I felt like a kid again as I unsuccessfully attempted to climb up and conquer these monoliths.  Along the ground, I collected a number of lustrous crystal-like rocks that were scattered around the plains.

We decided to set up shop next to this monolith

Here, we set up a rudimentary camp site.  By rudimentary, I mean that it only comprised of a few intricately patterned rugs laid against our two jeeps and along the ground!  Our guides prepared a delicious dinner consisting of grilled chicken and lemon juice.  During the night we huddled up by the campfire and played some very inventive games in the sand using rocks and twigs.  Our berbers entertained us all night with their singing, dancing, and music, playing on til the early ours of the morning.

Campfire Fun

Sand Games

As I lay in my sleeping bag with my hands dug into the sand, I stared up to the sky and noticed nothing but a perfect view of the stars.  We joked that we weren't staying in the luxury of a 5 star hotel, but rather, a much better place; The 5 Billion Star Hotel.  My receptivity to the scene was intense.  Like many people who have visited the desert, questions and thoughts regarding philosophy and religion whirled through my head.  I had just read Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel where he devoted a chapter to the human attraction to sublime landscapes, and I couldn't help but think of his writings:

'Sublime landscapes, through their grandeur and power, retain a symbolic role in bringing us to accept without bitterness or lamentation the obstacles we cannot overcome and events we cannot make sense of.'

Rise and shine!

We rose early next morning to one of the most visually stunning views of my life; an iridescent sunrise over a horizon obstructed by silhouettes of odd rock formations.  T and I snapped away with our cameras to create some photo magic, however, I still don't believe it's possible for any photo to do justice to the immense beauty of the sunrise we witnessed.

White Desert Sunrise

Pack up n Go

After packing up our campsite we left the White Desert to head back to Bawiti.  We sped through the highway, occasionally departing from it to take detours through the desert in order to avoid certain checkpoints collecting road tolls.  However, this took its toll on our jeep; as we glided through a desert terrain at 100kph, one of our front tires fell off and our jeep violently halted.  We were stranded in the desert, with no sign of life in sight...we managed to replace the tire, however, 4 of the 6 bolts were missing!  Our guide insisted that we had to make it to Bawiti in time for our bus back to Cairo.  This could only be done if we drove on the highway at 100kph.  I was reluctantly stuck in the front seat...the only seat in the car without a seatbelt!  The ride back to Bawiti was tense and awkward.  J and I kept ordering our guide to drive slower, at 70kph.  We didn't care if we missed our bus, we just didn't want to be in a fatal collision on the highway...at any moment, the 2 bolts of our tire could've given way and resulted in our jeep rolling on the highway.  Better late than never we thought.

Stranded

We eventually made it to Bawiti, an hour after our bus left.  Our guide, furious that we didn't let him drive faster to make the bus, left us by ourselves in Bawiti.  With no-one speaking English in this town, we sat at the bus stop hoping for a bus to arrive.  We were told to wait an hour for the next bus.  It didn't come for about 3 hours.  We were exhausted and irate at the way our desert trip ended.

But it was still an adventure I'd do all over again.

Ali

______ is the new Black [Desert]

On a cool Cairo morning before the rest of the city woke up, I hailed a cab outside my hostel. I was in a hurry to the bus station to make my way to the Western Desert of Egypt (just one part of the huge Sahara Desert). There was an amusing calmness about the young cab driver who collected me. With one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a cigarette, he pushed the pedal to the metal and honked his horn as frequently as he could, disrupting the rarely tranquil streets of Cairo. Whenever we stopped at the lights, he’d turn to me and shout “smoking!” before offering me a cigarette. Then he’d offer it to other cab drivers next to us.

The bus ride towards the Sahara Desert was a long but scenic one. After five hours of seeing nothing but dry, dirt landscapes, we arrived in Bawiti, a town in the middle of nowhere. Here, I saw a general market, some motels and a bus stop. Two berbers with a 4WD picked me up, along with a Canadian girl I met on the bus journey. From here we drove a couple hours into the desert, before arriving at the Black Desert.

Somewhere between Cairo and Bawiti

Welcome to the Black Desert

The Black Desert is home to what looks like a large number of orange mountains with black speckled tops. Each mountain looked like it had recently erupted with volcanic ash. At a closer glance, I noticed that the tops of the mountains were actually comprised of large quantities of small black stones. The black stones lay across the orange-brown ground but for some reason, were concentrated towards the tops of these mountains.

 Piling up/Jenga'ing/Tumble'ing some of the Black Desert Rocks

From here, we moved on to another town, which actually was in the middle of nowhere. We ate lunch and made some German friends at what seemed like one of the only buildings in town. Above the entrance, there was a hand-painted sign with the words “Welcome with you in Bedween”. The place was run by one person: a plump, cheerful widow. She had two young daughters and had recently met an Australian man who proposed to her. She had only met the man once, while he stopped over on a tour to the desert, just like me. I asked her whether she would accept his proposal. She was torn. She wanted to move to Sydney, to be away from her poverty-stricken lifestyle and to provide her daughters with a better education. On the other hand, her young daughters were reluctant to move away from home to live with a man they did not know.

Restaurant in Bedween

Ruff n Tuff Landscapes

As we left Bedween, we drove further into the desert through a variety of terrains.  We experienced some extremely bumpy rides through rugged rocky landscapes as well as slippery rides where we violently swerved left and right through fine sand.  All this without a seatbelt made it even more exhilarating!  One thing we could notice was that the further we drove, the lighter the landscapes became - we were well on our way to the amazing White Desert, but the sun had started setting quickly.

Sahara Sunset

White Desert = Next Post!

Giza's Need Excitement

A trip to Egypt isn’t complete without a visit to one of the seven wonders of the world, the pyramids of Giza. For 100 Egyptian pounds ($16) each, C and I managed to get a driver to drive us around for a day.

Our driver picked us up from central Cairo and dropped us off in a quiet street in Giza. He walked us into a small room and together, with his dear friend, a camel-tour operator, tried to rip us off. They told us that after travelling all the way to Giza, we could only access the pyramids by camel, or the more expensive option, limousine. We were agitated and knew this was part of a well-rehearsed profit-making scheme. The driver had strategically driven us to an extremely tourist-unfriendly area – there were no signs of the pyramids, other tourists, or anything in English. In other words, we didn’t want to be stranded here.

Our driver dropped us off in this street.  This was where our camel tour begun.

After bartering and paying about a quarter of the original obscene camel-riding fee, we found ourselves at the back of the building surrounded by unhealthy-looking camels. It was at this point that I deeply regretted my decision to ride these camels. I had ridden camels in Morocco just weeks before this adventure, and knew that the ones in Giza were horribly neglected – they seemed weak, malnourished and heavily scarred. Nevertheless, as we reached the desert plateau overlooking the Giza pyramids, it was a breathtaking sight. As our camel guide dropped us off at the site, he unsurprisingly tried to scam us again, asking us for an extra payment.

One of the three large pyramids of Giza

One of the things to be careful about in Egypt are scams. Every time you sign up for something and agree on a price, there will undoubtedly be a reason why more money needs to be paid over at a later time. In our instance, this applied to taxi rides, tours, driver’s fees and the like. The extra payments will be for reasons such as fictional road tolls, road taxes and additional service fees.

The Sphinx

A large pack of tourist buses were crowded together between the pyramids. As we walked around the pyramids, security officers warned us not to get too close. At this site, there are nine pyramids altogether. Each one is worth marvelling at. How they were constructed, I still don’t know. Unfortunately, there was no information regarding the history of the pyramids at the site. The famous Sphinx was only a few hundred metres away. It was tiny compared to the Great Pyramid of Giza and was somewhat disappointing considering how well publicised it is.

The Red Pyramid of Dahshur

Later that afternoon we drove to Dahshur to see the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. As you would expect from its name, the Bent Pyramid has bent sides. It looks funny, as if it were made by some bored kids who were no good at Jenga. I managed to delve into the centre of the Red Pyramid through a small tunnel. It was dark, hot and tiny inside…and the smells were putrid. I had never felt so claustrophobic in my life. It was an anti-climax once I made it to the end of the tunnel; there was a small room with boulders scattered around.

This is the entrance to the tunnel leading into the Red Pyramid...it's tiny!

We finished off the day with a quick visit to the Step Pyramid of Djoser.  That's a pyramid with six giant steps on each of its walls.

Hangin' Lo in Cairo - Part 1

The first thing to notice about Cairo is that the city is alive. There are people, cars and bikes everywhere, anytime. Without lanes marked on many of the city’s roads, cars and bikes vie for their share of the roads. As a result of this, the city is engulfed with the sounds of incessant honking and some of the worst traffic congestion in the world.

The air of Cairo has an enveloping profound warmth in it. This warmth is certainly visible; it's orange and its tinge permeates through every inch of the city. It’s comprised of smog and dirt. I struggle to fathom the adverse health impacts of this toxic concoction on Cairo’s people. I was once told while living in Hong Kong that the air pollution is so bad that spending one day there is equivalent to smoking 7 cigarettes a day. In Cairo, I believe the air is as bad as smoking 7 packs of cigarettes a day.

Another thing to note about Cairo is that there are incomplete buildings everywhere. It’s a common sight to see a building lacking a roof. I was told that the reason for this is because of a loophole in the tax system: an Egyptian can avoid paying taxes of up to 6,000 Egyptian pounds on their building if they don't complete the building. This doesn’t stop locals from occupying/running businesses on every floor below the top floor of the building!

As mentioned in my last post, the food in Egypt is brilliant. In Cairo we followed some of the recommendations in Cindy’s Lonely Planet guide. Before I continue, I should mention that, to my surprise, there were hardly any tourists in Cairo. For example, we were the only occupants in our hostel which was highly rated on Hostelworld. Being tourists, it was quite nerve-racking to walk into a restaurant full of locals. There were generally no English menus nor English-speaking staff. For our first meal, in a restaurant hidden upstairs to a bakery, everybody stared at us (in particular, they stared at Cindy). She felt uncomfortable but I teased her about it. We ordered enough food to feed a family. We tried a few different types of foul and salads, as well as a giant pizza-like dish. It was delicious.

 We followed another recommendation one night and went to a fast food joint in a shopping centre. We got lost several times before finding the shopping centre. It’s tricky finding places with Arabic names when you aren’t Arabic-literate. As we approached this particular shopping centre, we lined up to get our bags screened and walked through metal detectors just like you would at an airport – this is apparently normal in Cairo’s shopping centres. We then discovered the best fast food joint in the world. They offered a large variety of foul, salads, grilled meat and all sorts of other things I can’t even describe. There were no English menus so we just ordered some grilled chicken and anything that had a cool name. Whilst this fast food joint was not so fast, it was well worth the wait.

Following Cairo, we went on a trip to the pyramids and to the Sahara Desert. But that’s for next time.

Hurghada

After a brief stay in a small town on the French/Swiss border, I was so happy to leave behind the frosty weather of Europe to arrive in Egypt. Upon landing at Hurghada airport, we were forced into a large bustling hall where bank and customs officials vied for our business. After purchasing a cheap shiny sticker (ie. an Egyptian visa) for my passport, we experienced an awkward taxi ride to our hotel where our taxi driver continuously argued with us over the agreed price of our lift.

It didn’t take long for us to notice the ghost town feel of this beach resort town on the Red Sea. A small number of run down, abandoned shops and loitering locals filled the streets of Hurghada, giving the place a bleak feel during this off-season. We visited some amazing beachside resorts whereby dozens of neatly placed deck chairs were left deserted. The desolate resorts, normally home to massive parties of beach-goers, were instead met by strong, eerie gusts of wind.  This didn't stop us from dipping our feet in the Red Sea and running around on one of the town's many beaches.

Notwithstanding the lack of tourists in this city, there was still an abundance of colourful and tacky tourist shops in the surrounding streets. Every time a cab drove past us it would endlessly (and hopelessly) beep at us in the hope we would hail it.

The food in this place (or Egypt in general) is amazing. In was in Hurghada where I discovered one of my new favourite meals, foul, a rich cuisine made from beans. During our night in Hurghada we ate at a strange family-owned restaurant that was decked out in Spongebob Squarepants décor.

Paris, not Hilton

In January I flew with Ryanair to 'Paris' from Rome. While Ryanair is extremely cheap, I wish they'd had the courtesy to inform me that my flight was not actually landing in Paris, but rather, over 150km away in the middle of nowhere. From the airport, we were forced to catch an expensive 2 hour bus late in the freezing evening to central Paris.

I only had a few days to spend in Paris, and, as it seemed, a few euro too.

Under the Arc de Triomphe

I irk at the thought of Paris being considered one of the world's most romantic cities. I don't see how anyone can consider this place romantic unless they enjoy cold, gloomy, wet weather. Then again, three factors probably adversely affected my time in Paris: it was winter, I don't speak French, and I was physically exhausted.

We sought solace from the assertive Parisian chill in overpriced and crowded cafes that lacked the cosiness and kind hospitality that I'd become accustomed to in Copenhagen.

C and I had a bit of an art adventure in Paris. The first art museum we visited was the Musee d'Orsay. Located along the left bank of the Seine, it's an old train station that was converted into a museum in the mid 1980s. We spent a whole day inside this historic building, admiring the works of some of the most prolific artists in history, from the likes of Van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin to Renoit, Monet and Signac.

Inside the Louvre's Pyramid

We of course couldn't avoid the attraction of the labyrinth that is the Louvre. Standing in front of its glass pyramid entrance designed by Chinese artist I.M. Pei, I vividly remember experiencing one of those "Wow, I'm actually here" moments. Housing over 35,000 pieces of artwork, I could have easily spent a week here exploring all the exhibitions and/or playing hide and seek. Despite closely following the directions of my audio-guide, I managed to get lost amongst several exhibitions in my quest to find the Louvre's three most famous masterpieces; the Mona Lisa, Venus del Mar and the Victory of Samothrace.

Inside the Louvre 

I find it interesting and perplexing as to why and how these three 'masterpieces' have reached such great heights in fame, whilst none of the other 34,997 pieces in the museum are nearly as recognisable. Curiously, my audio-guide suggested that one of the reasons the Mona Lisa has reached its current state of fame is because it was stolen and returned not long ago. Then this led to the debate with my friends as to whether the Mona Lisa on display is the 'real' Mona Lisa...

I was lucky enough to have my local Parisian friends Yannis and Aurelie take me out for dinner one night. We went to a dimly lit cosy little restaurant on the corner of a small street near the Cluney La Sorbonne station. I remember the entree was amazing; spring rolls filled with some sort of gourmet French cheese. Another night, C and I ventured out of our comfort zones and ordered some foie gras (duck liver) and escargot. I gotta say, I never thought snails would taste so good!

And, just for the record, yes, I visited the Eiffel Tower, and yes, it was beautiful!
Oh, and I also visited Notre Dame, Champs Elysees (could never pronounce/remember this name) and the Arc de Triomphe.

Over and Out! 

brb

Wow, I've been SO busy since moving to Melbourne and starting my job. While at work, I'm regularly thinking about going home to write about some of my adventures (both here and abroad), but then I end up getting caught up in the excitement of this city and arrive home late and exhausted.

For anyone who still reads this (apparently there are):

brb.

ps. missing Copenhagen so much
pps. Melbourne > Copenhagen