The Desert Home Hotel...lucky I wasn't staying there that night; the moment we talked in, we were immediately greeted by swarms of flies. Everywhere there were flies! The reception area, the dining area, the open area... my god! We couldn't wait of the tour to start... or so we thought.
Supposedly the hotel has been opened for 4 years, and this guy had ran tours to the Black and White Desert for 22 years. Obviously, the hotel isn't finished yet - since there is still exposed wires everywhere. Not many people seem to come to it either; I figured out from looking at the many keys on the counter that only 2 rooms had been rented out.
Now on to the tour. 600 EGP between 2 people... and in a nut shell, I wouldn't pay 100 EGP for it! At least not for the tour we got...
Key Points:
1) Our tour guide, Ramadan, was an immature kid who was the nephew of the owner. He had an infection because of his wisdom teeth, couldn't speak english too well, got excited at pics of fully clothed girls (as well as getting all giddy when he sees girl's clothing), smoked liked a chimney... now add to the fact that during the tour, he said absolutely nothing to us AND he fell asleep half way through in the car... if I didn't tell you he was the tour guide, you'd probably think he was a hitchhiker we picked up off the road...
Oh I guess he did talk... in Arabic to the driver, when he was awake that is...
2) Our driver: much more professional, but didn't speak any english. He seemed older and was clearly annoyed by the lack of professionalism from immature Ramadan; but he did nothing but drive... so can't say much else.
Oh, he also slept, when we were at our campsite, but that was ok since he did have to drive 3 hours. He smoked like a chimney as well...
3) Black Desert: Just black sand... nothing much to be wowed about. Actually saw some black sand en route to Abu Simbel
4) Break at some house: Rested 2+ hours after seeing the black desert. Lady there kept trying to make us buy a drink from them. Tour guide was off on his own talking to his fellow Egyptians... Biggest waste of time ever!
5) Crystal Mountain: Bits of crystals in the middle of the desert... Doesn't really sparkle all that much. Had these flies chasing after me after I took some rocks from there (I wonder if they are guard flies); these flies make a loud buzz sound, and have red eyes!
6) White Desert: White/chalk and weird rock formations. Slightly nice but I had expected alot more I guess. The famous 'mushroom and chicken' is just 2 rocks shaped like it because of the times... tons of other weird rock formations were there for the imagination.
The biggest turn-off were the horde of flies... they're even more persistent than the ones at the hotel! Who'd have thought, flies in the desert??? Just what do they live on? Lucky they go to sleep at night though.
Once the flies left, it was an amazing sight! Since it was the desert, there were no trees or obstacles blocking my view, so I had a panoramic view of the sky! It was also the first time I wore my glasses when looking at the stars, and it was marvellous! The sky was glimmering with them... without my glasses, I realized I'd only see half the amount of stars. But with my glasses on, it was like I was looking at the sky from a whole new perspective.
Some pics taken at the white desert:
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