Keepin it real with the Bedoins

We just came back from the most beautiful place I have ever been. We left crazy Cairo by bus on Tuesday. Pretty standard as far as busses go, but it took 2 hours just to leave the city (part of the fun is getting there right?) and then another 4 hours through the endless deserts to the Bedoin oasis town, Bahayira.
We were picked up from the bus stop by our guide Mohammad and after a quick lunch at the Sahara Camp we headed into the desert (where I thought we already were since we're in Egypt, but they make a pretty big distinction between town and desert). Our driver was a maniac. Well, all drivers in Egypt are crazy, but I think this guy was trying to intentionally freak us out - accelerating around corners, sliding on the sand, we even went air borne over a hill like in the movies! No joke! I don't know what his name was -either Ahmed or Mohammad since that's what every one's name is. He didn't speak English, but he would burst out with these really weird noises like a cat screaming or Donald Duck yelling. He was weird.
Anyway, we drove through the Black Desert into the White Desert (each named appropriately), making a stop at Crystal Mountain. This used to be a big mountain made of crystal, but I guess after years of visitors taking home bits of the crystal as souvenirs it's been reduced to a small mound of rock. Kind of sad, but still pretty.
We arrived in the New White Desert just in time for sunset and watched the sun sink into the desert. The White Desert is filled with pure white limestone. It's pretty flat with these crazy rock formations jutting out of the ground all over the place. When the sun was setting these rocks were illuminated opalescent. It was so beautiful.
We camped in the Old White Desert that night, under the stars. (From what we could decipher from Mohammad's broken English is that the New White Desert is new because people just recently started visiting it and the Old White Desert is old because it's pretty saturated with tourists).
I should say here that we were with another couple who were from India, Sathya and Uma. They were wonderful! Uma is a professional traditional South Indian dancer and vocalist, so after dinner she serenaded us with a traditional song. It was beautiful. Then Mohammad and the driver sang us an Arabic song while the driver drummed along on an empty water jug. Then Michael pulled out his harmonica and played everyone some blues. Then the driver joined in with some Arabic beats on his water jug and Uma sang along. It was an interesting mix.
Next day we packed up camp and drove to the Magic Spring (stopping on the way to take pictures of a rock that looked like a chicken, and a very old acacia tree). This is where we parted ways with Sathya and Uma. The driver left to take them back to Bahayira and Mohammad and we stayed to hang out at the Magic Spring all day. Do you remember in the Disney movie Aladdin, when Genie and Aladdin stop at that oasis in the middle of the desert after the Genie gets Aladdin out of the cave? Well, I think that was filmed at the Magic Spring (except that the pond was cement). Seriously. Desert for miles with not a tree or shrub anywhere. Except this little palm tree clustered oasis. There was a little shade shelter made out of palm fronds where we lay all day. And just a few meters away was a cave built into a hill that was an ancient tomb. We spent the day just reading, writing postcards,catching up in our journals, sleeping, and watching the camel caravans stop to take respite at the spring. And it wasn't even that hot. It was actually really quite comfortable in the shade (if you ignored the flies which were everywhere!)
A new driver, Ahmed, came for us around 4 and we continued on through the White Desert. This guy drove just as crazy as the last - up insanely steep inclines, stopping on perilous cliffs. He took us to Flower Rock where we collected ancient volcanic rocks shaped like flowers (imagine that), and then into Acabat which literally took my breath away. I was seriously almost moved to tears by the beauty of this place. (Don't laugh). The cliffs were pure white and the sand was orange and red and purple. And when you looked at the rocks on the ground, you realized that they were fossilized coral and seashells. We camped here that night. Mohammad and Ahmed cooked us dinner and then we all just stared at the stars until we fell asleep. It wasn't a very good sleep though. It was crazy windy and we were getting covered by sand. I actually woke up the next morning with a little cold.
We drove through the Black Desert yesterday and stopped in a Bedoin village. I wasn't feeling too great, so we didn't stay for long. They took us back to the Sahara Camp in Bahayira where we had rented a little hut and we slept for most of the afternoon. Mohammad invited us to his house for dinner, so we went. It was really pretty awkward and uncomfortable. He's a Bedoin and he lives with his parents and his younger, unmarried sister. Mohammad was very nice, but it was a very strange experience. Pretty much, Michael and I just sat in his room for most of the evening, just staring at each other.
Anyway, we caught the bus back to Cairo today... which actually didn't take us back to Cairo but stopped in Giza, so we shared a cab with a Finnish couple back over the Nile. And we're here in Cairo for the next 3 days. We're really looking forward to moving on to Nepal!