I stopped in town for some food today. Renting this house has been just what I needed, I am getting very grounded and getting ready to head out which be on Monday. I will be back tracking to Alex for a couple of nights and then to Cairo for about seven or eight days. I met an American who has been living in Alex for 5 years on his retirement and is living quite well. He gave me a contact in Luxor who can set me up in a flat for a month if I am interested, so I am going to give him a call and meet for dinner. I called the women I met on the plane and she wants to hang out before they fly back to Canada, so I am going to get the Cairo sights out of the way, hang out with her and friends then head to the Bahariyya Oasis.
Just a side point about Siwa. There are about 25,000 Siwaians that live in the Oasis. They are not Egyptian, they are the only people that are of a different group and have preserved their Berber language. There are about 1500 Egyptians that live in Siwa, which all the Egyptians that I have talked with think the culture of Siwa is backwards, although there are positives and negatives to all cultures. When I write about Siwa I am not referring to the Egyptian culture.
Once I get to Alex and on some DSL I will be posting a lot of pictures. Dial up is like crawling the walls. I will be writing more when I get to Alex and when in Cairo.