Aliza in Cairo: sandboarding is my new favorite sport

Well this is definitely a week late, but last weekend I was in Siwa, an oasis in the Western Desert. Siwa is almost completely isolated, and is the farthest away from everything of all the oases -- it is almost at the border with Libya -- and is about a 10-hour drive from Cairo. Because of its isolation, Siwa is known for having a culture different from the rest of Egypt. The people speak Siwi (a Berber language) in addition to Arabic, the women wear these really ornate outfits (though they are also exceptionally covered up), and Siwan crafts (like woven baskets) are very well-known. So yes, I was very excited to be going after hearing about it for so long.

We left Thursday night late and arrived on Friday morning, ready to explore the town. On Friday we did the tourist-y things in Siwa town, including some springs (Cleopatra's Baths, where apparently Cleopatra used to go bathe), the Temple of the Oracle of Amun, which used to be very sought after, and the fortress of Shali in the old part of Siwa, which has a great view of the whole oasis. (It's a huge oasis, with something like 30,000 people.) Friday night we slept in a hotel in Siwa, and then on Saturday we woke up and headed into the desert after lunch.

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday we were out in the desert. We went to more springs (hot, cold, salty), went dune riding in jeep 4X4s, which was awesome: the drivers speed around the desert up and down the dunes so it feels kind of like a roller coaster. So much fun! We also went sandboarding, which is like on a modified snowboard but used on a sand dune. Photos below! The camping was nice: two big tents, one for food and one for sleeping, and then a fire with a table for chilling at night. The food was really good -- Siwan food is more North African than Middle Eastern I think, i.e. cous cous and tagines instead of shwarma and falafel -- although one night definitely included a whole baby goat that had been cooked in this pit under the sand, and which I definitely did not eat. Seemed to be a popular local delicacy though.

I think my favorite part is that the desert around Siwa is very much like the kind of desert you expect to see in movies: just dune after dune stretching out as far as the eye can see. It's really beautiful, and really desolate. In the Black and White Deserts, there were rocks and formations and all kinds of things that sort of broke up the monotony, but out there was just...nothing. And it was amazing. We also took lots of evening walks and did some stargazing -- one of the best skies I've ever seen.