Western Oases - Minibus to Dhakla

20th January
Leaving, Kharga, we had some interesting times on the straight desert road trying to keep our driver awake. Guy and I took turns to ask him complicated questions that made him think. As soon as we stopped, he would start nodding off again. Obviously, he had been driving all night. Check out the photo on the right ... this guy is driving the car!

After two hours, we arrived in Dhakla which, whilst smaller than Kharga, is still a town - still nothing "oasis" about it that we could see.
The minibus driver took us straight to the Anwar Paradise Hotel. This pleased us at first because it had been recommended by the Lonely Planet (more on this later).
The reception was manned by a surly young man with appalling manners. He told us they only had one "suite" available - a curious combination of one double bedroom and one single bedroom with a bathroom and a small sitting room. This cost EP60 between 3 of us - EP40 for the double and EP20 for the single room for Jay.
He got an "underling" to take us up to see the rooms. They seemed OK, if dirty, so we decided to stay for one night. I then went downstairs to ask the surly young man to replace the sheets, which were filthy and to supply towels. There were no light bulbs either. He was very bad mannered about the whole thing and I was surprised to find out he was the younger son of the owner. The Lonely Planet had said the owners were "friendly" but this certainly didn't seem to be the case. But they had also said it was "spotlessly clean" - better tell them standards have slipped!

KIDNAPPED BY THE ANWARS

At this point we decided we would go out "into town" to have some lunch and it was then we discovered we had been "kidnapped" by the Anwars. There seemed to be nothing in sight in the way of shops so I asked SYM (surly young man) where the town centre was.
"Our restaurant is the only one in town" he told us "You will have to eat here."
Not wanting to cause too much trouble, we decided to do just that and sat down to a standard Egyptian meal of chicken, rice and a salad of tomatoes and cucumber. This came to the astounding amount of EP50 (A$11.10). No way were we going to pay that so it was back to SYM to complain again. He claimed costs were high in the desert (probably true) but we still felt we were being exploited and eventually managed to get a reduction in the cost.
He was very anxious to organise tours for us. Apparently his older brother did tours of the White Desert and was actually on a tour at the moment but would be back later.

In the meantime, he offered to arrange a tour to the local hot springs for us. I had read in my faithful LP about the Government run hot springs which were just out of town and free. It sounded like all we needed was to catch a taxi but again, he would not let us do "our own thing". We had no idea where the bus or taxi station was, as we had been dropped off at the hotel, and so he insisted he arrange for a taxi to come to the hotel and pick us up - at a cost of EP5 each. The next thing we knew he was harrassing us to hurry up because "the car was waiting". Feeling very cranky, we hurried downstairs, looking forward to our trip to a genuine hot spring. Dare we expect a couple of date palms beside it?
Disappointingly, this taxi (driven by a friend of SYM) took us to a fancy hotel out of town which had a swimming pool filled with hot spring water. This cost us another EP5 (A$1.10) each but the warm ferrous orange water did calm us down. It looked pretty gross but it was delightful.
Feeling more relaxed, we returned to the Anwars and met the owner - SYM's father - who was much more gracious. The other son also turned up and he too was pleasant. He told us that he arranges desert safaris from here at a cost of EP200 (A$44.30) per person per night. We said we would think about it.
But we were still kidnapped!
In the evening, we decided there had to be more to Dhakla than one hotel - we hadn't even seen a shop apart from a small fruit stall and a Coke stand across the road. So we asked Mr Anwar Snr for directions into town.
"Straight down the road to your left ... only 150 metres" was the reply.
Well we went there and found the Old Town. Dhakla has been permanently settled since prehistoric times. Old mud brick houses piled on top of each other in crumbling ruins, some inhabited, some abandoned. Picturesque, with some delightful occupants, but still no shops and nothing for us to eat.
After exploring a little further and taking some photographs, we returned to the Anwar Hotel and asked for directions again.
"Straight down the road to your left ..." came the reply.
"But that's the old town" we replied "We want to go out to eat."
"We are the only restaurant in town" was the response. "There is nothing else. What would you like to eat?"

So we asked where the bus station was and they wouldn't tell us that either.
"If you need a taxi, we will arrange it." SYM said "But you will not need one, for you can go on a tour to the White Desert with my brother."
We were getting more than somewhat annoyed by now. We refused his offer of a meal in the restaurant and had coffee and played dominoes at the chai house which was next door to the Hotel and filled with local men watching TV and smoking sheesha pipes. Jay eventually got enough information out of one of them to suggest we walk down the road directly opposite the hotel to find the bus station. Even here, the locals seemed worried about the Anwars finding out who had told us and asked that we say nothing.
We set off down the road, all three of us, and walked about a kilometre until we found a friendly shopkeeper who pointed us further down a side street. Here we came across a collection of minivans and Peugeots clustered around another Chai shop. We had found the bus station at last. The large bus to Cairo was there, filling up with passengers. A lively discussion ensued between us and two of the minibus drivers, Nasser and Hussein. Hussein seemed to be the "ticket master". They claimed EP20 (A$4.40) was the price for the trip - not EP10 (A$2.20) as the LP said and although we bargained hard for over an hour, we were left with little option. It was either their price or stay with the Anwars forever.
All these drivers knew about the Anwars. It appeared that it was an "arrangement" that any minibus bringing customers to the Anwars would receive a substantial tip for his trouble.
They also knew that the Anwars "kidnapped" their visitors and thought it hilarious that we had escaped the spiders' lair. They were all very open about it but obviously it was part of their livelihood and they were not about to upset the Anwars by changing this routine.
It was arranged that Nasser would fill his Peugeot car (less our three reserved spots) the following morning and then drive to the hotel to collect us. When they added that (unlike the Cairo bus) this price included all our luggage, Guy joked that he had six suitcases, which brought a laugh. This turned to roars of amusement when I quietly added "And a donkey." Egyptians have a great sense of humour and seem to enjoy it as part of their "business dealings".
Thus winning their friendship, we were invited to stay for tea. We sat and discussed where we were from and our work before Nasser took us for a "free" drive around Dhakla, which was much larger than the Anwars had suggested. It's a strange town - little centres with a shop or two and then nothing but blocks of flats for several streets, then another Midan with a couple of tiny shops. In the middle of one block of flats, a huge market was in progress. Nasser offered to take us there but we declined in favour of a meal - felafel at a roadside stall.
Back at the hotel, we discovered that the toilet cistern had broken and Guy had to turn plumber before we clambered into our sleeping bags for the night.

NOTE: A lovely German lady named Amei whom we met later in Farafra told us that she stayed at the Bedouin Camp out of town and that she too had been badly treated by the Anwars.

Again, in Alexandria, I met a young English guy who had also been "kidnapped" by the Anwars but had escaped and stayed at the Bedouin Camp for several days.

The address of this camp, which was recommended highly by both is:

KHAMIS TOURIST CAMP
Ph: 092 821577
Mobile 0101249683