Thanksgiving in the black and white desert!

Yes, this non-outdoorsy girl camped out in the desert, after traveling about 5 hours west of Cairo to the middle of no-freaking where, where a prematurely aged hotel owner insisted we lie about our nationality in order to avoid having to take police guards--they do indeed put a damper on things.

We visited the black desert, some crystal mountain thing (the above picture[we were told it was at this point that our driver started toking up...im really not surprised]) and then spent the night in the white desert.  Pardon the bad pic, it was hard to take a decent one with such limited light. 

with three Bedouins who prepared a bomb meal out of nothing. It was FREEZING!! I played footsy with multiple people to keep warm.  As an aside, anyone who knows me knows I dont do feet.

Sunrise... yes, that is sheesha. There was lots of sheesha involved.  Oh yes, and lots of tea and fuul...

and beautiful Bedouins who speak italian....

yup.  It was awesome!