Siwa, Egypt - Cleopatra walked like an Egyptian and rode a rickety old bike (or dang this place is hot...)

Downtown Siwa from a top the Yousef Hotel...

What's left of the Temple of Amun.

Cleopatra's Spring...a lovely spot. Water was cool and crystal clear...

Kids will be kids...

One by one...

...till one was left...

This is my friend Robbie from America...

takin' the plunge... We spent about an hour trying to capture him diving into the spring with an obligatory donkey cart driving by in the background...

Sunset on the way back from the Spring...a few of Siwa's date palms are in the foreground...

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Marker points to the Yousef Hotel in Downtown Siwa...

We went bike riding yesterday. We really couldn't do too much between 11 and 4 because of the heat. We did as the locals did and just took it easy. In fact, I had a siesta in the afternoon.

[Ed. note: Siwa was a pretty conservative town. So, ice cold beers were not to be found. There was an excellent juice bar in the town square that served delicious, freshly squeezed, cold sugar cane juice. For something like pennies a glass, we kept the cane press busy.]

As the oppressive heat waned in the late afternoon, Jason, Robbie (a new American friend), and I rented some old clunky bikes and headed out to the Cleopatra Spring. It was so nice being back on a bike. Pure freedom... We road first through the dusty streets of town and then deep into the forest of date palms.

Set smack dab in middle of the road was the Spring. They had built a stone wall around the perimeter. Only Robbie went for a dip. Jason didn't know how to swim. It looked very refreshing. I should have took the plunge myself.

**********

Today's been off to a slow start. Jason managed to miss his wake up call. That's ok. If we get our act together, we should take in Fatna Spring.

Siwa has been OK. After being here for almost 24 hrs. now, the hassle has died down. In fact, it's has been really quiet (To be expected, coming from nutty places like Alex and Cairo, I guess.). In fact, once it's prayer time at the local mosque, Siwa becomes pretty much a ghost town. So far, not much to do other than relax and ride bikes.

We're trying to arrange transport to Bahariya, another oasis town located about 400 km east of here. The route is supposed to travel through some of the most isolated, rugged, and spectacular desert landscapes of Egypt's Western Desert. Unfortunately, we'll need to rent a 4X4 for the trip. The cost of the rental plus driver is extortionate. However, together with Robbie, Jason, a couple of Korean guys and I, we might be able to split the costs.

We'll see later on tonight.

Out of Canuckistan: A travel blog, June 1/07
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