Once again, the crew headed out for a weekend in a new Egyptian city. But that is actually incorrect; we went to Siwa this past weekend, a little village very close to the Libyan border, but the people who live there are not Egyptian at all. They are Siwi, they speak Siwi and they have very Siwan traditions. The story goes that the Siwans were returning to Morocco after completing the Hajj to Mecca, but when they happened upon Siwa they decided to forgo the brutality of the desert for the sanctuary of the Siwa oasis. My thoughts: good call. Siwa Is spectacular.
The thing about Siwa that might trip the typical tourist up is that it truly is not this posh oasis resort (although Prince Charles took his new wife Camilla to Siwa)…it is an impoverished little town with not much economy besides dates, minimal tourism, natural springs, a salt lake, and the supposed cure for rheumatoid arthritis. For those who are curious, really rich and sick people come out to Siwa to be buried in the Saharan desert for 10 minutes every day for two weeks, it supposedly cures arthritis. Sounds painful to me because it is HOT…we are talking about the Sahara here.
But our group fell in love with Siwa for a few very charming reasons. First, Cairo is a polluted, large, busy, loud, and rather obnoxious city. Siwa is its antithesis. We rented bikes for $2 and rode around town the whole day. First we visited a traditional Siwan family’s home. We talked to a young Siwan man about the history of the oasis and cultural quirks. In Siwa the woman wear the burka, aren’t let out of the house without permission, engaged at a young age (7 for example) and married at 16. It is really strange, I must admit, but the girls got to hang out at the house after all the men left and chat with unveiled Siwan women about life. Every question we could through at them in the most “not wanting to be the pretentious westerners” that we are way, was answered with a very simple “that is normal for us.” The woman are not angry about being married so young, not leaving the house, having to wear the Burka, etc. They actually want all their children to carry on the same exact culture, because the Siwan culture is dying.
After Henna with the ladies, we set out on our bikes for a natural cold spring (Cleopatra). It was about a half hour bike ride through small neighborhoods and such, but the spring is literally a very large pool. It was amazing, to say the least. But it was topped by our next adventure. After the cold springs we biked out to the great Siwan salt lake. The lake is so salty you float; but danger (!) for any of you who are thinking, jeez I am going to go to Siwa next time I drop by Egypt. There were a great many of us (myself included) that took home some unwanted souveniers from the salt lake in the form of deep cuts, salt splinters, and rashes. The whole lake is very shallow (4 ft?) and therefore gave me a brutal cut on my hand and foot. Ouch! After watching a gorgeous sunset at the salty lake we naturally had to go to a natural spring to get all the salt off.
The next day we stuffed ourselves full of the most delicious dates on the planet and then set out in jeeps for a desert SAFARI. Sooooooo cool. Best part: the jeeps let some air out of their tires to conquer the desert, so we basically were driving like wild banchees through the Sahara. We went sand boarding, skinny dippying in the most stereotypical desert oasis that you can fathom, bathing in a hot spring, and then climbed a sand dune to watch not just another gorgeous sunset but THE MOST gorgeous sunset I have ever seen. The sun setting on the desrt horizon is not something that can be put into words. I am not even going to try.
After sunset we wound up in a Bedouin camp for the night. We ravenously ate dinner and then spent a long ole time lying underneath the millions of stars that are clearly visible from the desert. A Siwan band came to play for us, so we got to listen to traditional music in a new unfarmiliar language, and dance with strange, and incredibly drunk, Siwan men. Apparently if you let dates ferment you have yourself some date-wine. Sounds good, but we aren’t allowed to try it…but alas, I settled for sleeping outside underneath the stars. We left for Cairo the next morning, but I will never ever forget this one.
Life is good, and I continue to thank God for this incredible life I am living. I am a lucky girl.
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