I just got back today from an overnight trip the Fayoum, a town and area about two and a half hours outside Cairo. It was such a great trip! There were 15 students that went on it from my dorm including my close friends here Sage, Mouhammad, and Ian. First we took a short trip in a row boat rowed by a thirteen year old kid. He wanted to overcharge us on the way back, but then we just paid his father 5 pounds each. Then we explored an ancient fortress and explored around it's different rooms and climbed on the roof. We had to pay extra to see it, but we haggled them down to 10 pounds a person.
After that we were started to get really hungry and we drove for a while until we got to a cafeteria next to a lake and the waterfalls. There were three waterfalls all about 20-25 feet high and about 15-20 feet across. They were pretty neat and they are the biggest and the ONLY waterfalls in Egypt.(or so I hear) Everyone was really hungry at that point and we started buying lots of chips and things until our food was ready. Our guides made tuna salad and a vegetable dip thing and a bean dip to put on flat bread and it was really good. Then we walked along the shore of the beach and made a human pyramid until it was time to go Sandboarding! Sandboarding was the best. It was really hard because you had to lean way back otherwise you would sink in and fall over. But when we waxed the boards with candles they worked super well! And I also rolled down the dune with my friend Will and got sand everywhere just like at the beach.
That evening we drove for about 45 minutes into the middle of the Sahara and our guides parked the Landcruisers in V formation. Then they set up three walls of tent against the trucks while we went for a hike to the top of a nearby mesa. The top of the mesa was covered in shells and shell pieces and really rounded rocks. That night (last night) we ate chicken grilled over the camp fire and rice and vegetables and had tea and plenty of libations to drink. It was really delicious and we played the card game "Mafia," which is sort of a detective-murder party game.
The stars were probably the brightest I have ever seen them, but there were a few differences in the sky. Everything was oriented differently like the big dipper was in a different place in the sky, and the moon was a crescent moon, but instead of to the side, it was a smiley face oriented crescent. It was beautiful.
Today we went to see per-historic whale bones that are found in the desert there. They were scattered across a few miles of desert and each set wasn't protected by anything, but rather just left exactly where they found it partially covered by dirt. These whales were about the size and filled the same niche as modern manatees, and their fossils show the evolution from land and shallow water dwelling creatures to larger whales that could inhabit the open ocean. And I got to wrap my Koffiya (Arab scarf) in a way that made me look like T.E. Lawrence. As in Lawrence of Arabia.
I didn't really enjoy coming back to the smog and the traffic of the city, but it was nice to wash the sand away. Then we ordered Mexican food, which was really yummy. All of us Americans have been craving it since leaving the US. It cost almost exactly the same as a burrito in the US, which is pretty expensive for here. Overall a great weekend.
[NEWS FLASH] a church in Fayoum got attacked by militant Islamists this morning. There was a fire fight and one guard was killed. Then they closed the roads the news said. But luckily, we were way out in the desert at the time. I also forgot to mention that when we got to Fayoum a police escort truck joined our two trucks for almost the entire trip. It was the standard police truck here, a blue Toyota Landcruiser and there were about five guards in it. Other people told us that happens a lot with tourist trips, and the guards are bored and want free food.
After that we were started to get really hungry and we drove for a while until we got to a cafeteria next to a lake and the waterfalls. There were three waterfalls all about 20-25 feet high and about 15-20 feet across. They were pretty neat and they are the biggest and the ONLY waterfalls in Egypt.(or so I hear) Everyone was really hungry at that point and we started buying lots of chips and things until our food was ready. Our guides made tuna salad and a vegetable dip thing and a bean dip to put on flat bread and it was really good. Then we walked along the shore of the beach and made a human pyramid until it was time to go Sandboarding! Sandboarding was the best. It was really hard because you had to lean way back otherwise you would sink in and fall over. But when we waxed the boards with candles they worked super well! And I also rolled down the dune with my friend Will and got sand everywhere just like at the beach.
That evening we drove for about 45 minutes into the middle of the Sahara and our guides parked the Landcruisers in V formation. Then they set up three walls of tent against the trucks while we went for a hike to the top of a nearby mesa. The top of the mesa was covered in shells and shell pieces and really rounded rocks. That night (last night) we ate chicken grilled over the camp fire and rice and vegetables and had tea and plenty of libations to drink. It was really delicious and we played the card game "Mafia," which is sort of a detective-murder party game.
The stars were probably the brightest I have ever seen them, but there were a few differences in the sky. Everything was oriented differently like the big dipper was in a different place in the sky, and the moon was a crescent moon, but instead of to the side, it was a smiley face oriented crescent. It was beautiful.
Today we went to see per-historic whale bones that are found in the desert there. They were scattered across a few miles of desert and each set wasn't protected by anything, but rather just left exactly where they found it partially covered by dirt. These whales were about the size and filled the same niche as modern manatees, and their fossils show the evolution from land and shallow water dwelling creatures to larger whales that could inhabit the open ocean. And I got to wrap my Koffiya (Arab scarf) in a way that made me look like T.E. Lawrence. As in Lawrence of Arabia.
I didn't really enjoy coming back to the smog and the traffic of the city, but it was nice to wash the sand away. Then we ordered Mexican food, which was really yummy. All of us Americans have been craving it since leaving the US. It cost almost exactly the same as a burrito in the US, which is pretty expensive for here. Overall a great weekend.
[NEWS FLASH] a church in Fayoum got attacked by militant Islamists this morning. There was a fire fight and one guard was killed. Then they closed the roads the news said. But luckily, we were way out in the desert at the time. I also forgot to mention that when we got to Fayoum a police escort truck joined our two trucks for almost the entire trip. It was the standard police truck here, a blue Toyota Landcruiser and there were about five guards in it. Other people told us that happens a lot with tourist trips, and the guards are bored and want free food.
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