Adventures in the Middle East – Part 5

The plan was to take off for this part of the country as soon as I landed in Alexandria. Either I would be volunteering or Couchsurfing, but unfortunately I could not find either. After I had completely given up on Siwa and convinced myself that it was too complicated, too difficult and too expensive for me (and I was told that it was almost impossible to visit Siwa without a travel agency ), I met a Belgian guy at an organic farm who had recently visited the oasis. By an overnight bus from Cairo for only 15 euros!

I am going! There will not be a hundred excuses again. I have to go now! I bought a bus ticket to Siwa while trying to reach more hosts through the Couchsurfing app. And two of them answered me! In the end, it was quite easy, and I did not even need a travel agent or spend too much money. Only when buying a ring in the old part of Siwa, I was overcharged. Apparently, the ring was silver, with a real crystal, vintage, 70 years old, from India, Iran or Kurdistan. But that's OK.

In the oasis of Siwa near Berbers

I was hosted by a local, a Berber, and the owner of a travel agency. The majority of Berbers reside in Siwa. Berbers are a national group in North Africa, mainly in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, and to a lesser extent in Mauritania, northern Mali, and northern Niger.

This is the reason that Siwa has its own culture, its own language, different clothing and traditions than the rest of Egypt. Compared to the rest of Egypt, they get married differently, get names and celebrate birthdays differently. Their language is not Arabic, but Berber. They have their own court and their own representatives of various districts and tribes that resolve disputes. They do not need the police, and have done so for centuries. The host's father is the leader of a clan, so everyone in Siwa knows him and he has many privileges.

Siwa is the host's oasis in every sense. He is very attached to the land and despite his many travels around the world, he loves to return to his homeland and to what he considers the most beautiful place in the world. “Siwa is very rich. It is surrounded by mountains, green lush olive trees and many palm trees, salt lakes where you can float like in the Dead Sea and endless deserts. I have everything in Siwa.”

During conversations with locals, I learned about many interesting things, such as how children are taught to swim in Siwa. Empty water bottles are tied around their stomachs and then thrown into a mineral spring. There are many sources of warm groundwater in the oasis. In these places, there are small round pools.

Food poisoning

February 17, 2022. A good morning after an eventful night. I got food poisoning last night. So far, I have not had any problems with food or water, and I have already built up an ego that I have a steel stomach. Not anymore. Because I eat street food, I have a slightly higher chance of something happening to me.

Entry from my diary:
I'm sitting on the terrace. I breathe in Egyptian morning rays and sip lemongrass tea. I eat homemade fresh dates my host gave to me. Today is going to be a busy day, with lots of sightseeing around Siwa Oasis, and an upset stomach would make my life miserable. And it did! I kept looking all over town for a toilet. It's not that simple! Restaurants with toilets as we know them in Europe do not exist here. I asked for the toilet in the Bedouin tea room and they didn't understand English. I remembered that they had to have a toilet at the gas station. Success! After the second visit, I was too embarrassed to come back for the third time. Then I discovered a toilet in a mosque. Until the evening when they closed it together with the mosque, I was a regular visitor.