Siwa, Cairo

Egypt is many things in the imagination. Not least amongst the younger genreations a place with great nightlife and beaches.
For me though, more than the pyramids even, Egypt is tiny patches of life thriving out in the desert. The Oasis.
The most far out and exotic Oasis I visited, and I think I’ve visited most of them, is Siwa on the Lybian border.
I arrived here late at night after a long bus ride and was greated by boys driving taxi carts pulled by donkeys that drove us around a town lit with candle lanterns. I kid you not. It was during a power failure and their are normal cars and the donkey thing is mostly for tourists - but it set the magical mood.
The oasis is large and contains the usual date palms, pools of water and mud clad flat roofed houses. There were no banks though, no big hotels and no alcohol. The form of religion practiced ensured that women were completely covered - even their faces when in public.
Just walking around and experiencing the place is adventure enough, but the truely exciting thing to do is to head out into the local desert on an overnight safari.
I have never felt so “out there” as I did on the evening I did that. (because we got left “out there” but thats a different story)