Travel items

The Western Desert Oasis of Farafra
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6465

It is very nice to see a travel review of one of the wonderful Western Desert oases, this the remote and untouched of all the oases: "The White Desert beckons, with its vast landscape of gorgeous statues, all carved naturally from pure white chalk. The assortment of rock formations is beyond comprehension, each formation carries its own posture and its own aura — a giant eagle, a weeping lady, a proud man and the White Desert’s most famous, The Mushroom. At the end of the day, it is an indescribable feeling to go back to Farafra and immerse yourself in the bubbling hot water of Bir Sitta (well number six), a spring that serves as a natural Jacuzzi.
If you’re staying more than a day or two, check out Ain Dalla with its sweet tasting spring water and lovely landscape, the gigantic whale-size dunes of the Great Sand Sea, and the tantalizing stalactites and stalagmites of Djarra Cave."

A Nile Tour

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/living/14010059.htm

One person's account of a holiday that takes in Luxor, the Giza pyramids, Saqqara and the Cairo Museum. This may well be a repeat, published elsewhere previously, because there's something vaguely familiar about it, but to be honest there are so many of these travel pieces that I've stopped reading them fully. This one does offer more insight than most: "The three main pyramids are surrounded by smaller tombs of queens and other royalty. At the base of the hill is the Sphinx, equally impressive, who today stares across a short field at Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Cairo, a jumbled and still-expanding metropolitan area of nearly 20 million, has begun to crowd inside the monuments' shadows. But just a few miles upriver, near the ancient capital of Memphis, the very first pyramid of Djoser stands out above small villages and crop fields. Djoser's Step Pyramid is surrounded by the remnants of a wall, and other monuments, and is an engrossing afternoon jaunt without the jostling crowds at Giza."