Christmas Break Part 10: Farafra and the White Desert

Once we arrived in Farafra and waved goodbye to our dishonest mini-bus driver it was nearly dark. We'd decided in advance that we wanted to do a trip into the desert after a night in Farafra, but once we realized how utterly small it was we decided to see if we could get out on a night safari into the White Desert.

We started out with trying to go through the Sunrise Hotel aka "Sunrise Dump". The guy told us it would be 1500 LE for all of us and we said, "No, 100 LE each". He laughed at us and said, "There is no way you will be able to go to the desert for less than 900, but he would give us a special price of 850" I took it as a challenge and suggested we leave and then come back. We eventually found a guy that would do it for 700, but take us out the following morning. We didn't want a day tour, but we used it as leverage with the other guy.

After a series of bargainings and telling him that we would go to the other guy, but "we really liked him" (that's the way they talk here, "well because you seem like a really nice guy I'll give you an outrageous price for something cheap!") and wanted him to make money. This is really great after a series of "phone calls" where he was holding down the receiver!!! We had a tour out to the desert for 600 LE- I'm once again quite proud of the negotiations we pulled off as a team. Daniel and I have learned to work really well to pressure sellers in a bargain as a team and it has saved us a lot of money! I still think he got a good deal out of us, but we got the trip we wanted and for 250 LE cheaper.

We headed out into the desert with the two best Egyptians we met the whole trip (besides Zowek). They weren't obnoxious about trying to sell us stupid stuff and they were just laid back. They weren't dying to entertain us and they were both just "down-to-earth" guys.

The White Desert was the best way to end the trip! The stars were ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. You hardly ever see more than two or three stars in the sky at the school, but in the desert you could see SO MANY! I haven't seen the sky that lit up in a long time and it was a really good experience. It's funny how you don't realize how cool somthing is until you don't have it anymore. Oh life lessons.......

I had a good talk that night with one of our guides about the character of God. He was a Muslim and had a practical view on God. He said he really loved everything about the Koran, but somethings confused him. He said that a loving God is the only God that made sense to him and I talked with him about my views on God. We were both from VERY DIFFERENT backgrounds, but we somehow had a similar view on God. It was good to talk with him.

The following morning we went to a place called "mushroom" rock. A huge rock that looks like a, guess... Mushroom! Who would have guessed. After that we went to a hot spring in the desert and then boarded a bus headed to Cairo. The trip could not have ended any better! I saw a lot of cool things during my break, but the White Desert stands out as my favorite experience.