Middle East - Anthony Ham [141]
Pioneers Hotel ( 792 9751-3; www.solymar.com; Sharia Gamal Abdel Nasser; s/d half board from €99/132; ) While the salmon-pink, low-rise construction is reminiscent of a hollowed-out sponge cake, the hotel does offer a level of comfort that was until recently unimaginable in the oases: a swimming pool, fitness area, Bedouin café, ATM, billiards and a children’s playground all connected by ridiculously lush grass. It is the only joint in Al-Kharga where you can count on getting alcohol.
Getting There & Away
The airport is 5km north of town, from where private flights run by Petroleum Surface Company are tentatively scheduled to Cairo. A 15-seater plane leaves Cairo on Sundays at 8am and returns from Al-Kharga at 4pm the same day (€50 each way, 1½ hours). Contact the Tourist Information Office for schedules and bookings.
Upper Egypt Bus Co ( 792 0838; Midan Sho’ala) operates buses from the station behind Midan Basateen to Cairo (E£35 to E£40, eight to 10 hours) at 7am, 9.30pm and 11pm. The 7am bus goes via Asyut. There are seven other buses to Asyut (E£9 to E£10, three to four hours) leaving between 6am and 9pm. At the time of writing, to get to Luxor by public transport you had to head to Asyut and change there for a bus or train to Luxor.
The service-taxi station (Midan Sho’ala) is next to the bus station, with destinations including Asyut (E£10, three to four hours) and Dakhla (E£10, three hours). Thanks to a new road, private taxis can get you to Luxor (via Jaja) in three hours, but it will set you back at least E£400. Cairo (six to seven hours) costs E£600 for the car (maximum seven people), but expect a long, hot, cramped ride.
Al-Kharga’s train station, on the road south to Baris, has one weekly departure to Luxor, supposedly leaving on Fridays at 7.30am (E£11/10.25 in 2nd/3rd class). Be warned that this phantom train rarely actually runs.
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DAKHLA OASIS
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Dakhla exemplifies the sort of lethargic pace, shaded by swaying oasis palms, that is life in the Western Desert. The oasis is centred around two small towns, Mut and Al-Qasr, though the former is the bigger of the two and has most of the hotels and facilities.
Information
The tourist office ( 782 1685/6; Sharia as-Sawra al-Khadra, Mut; 8am-3pm & some evenings) is on Mut’s main road. To get googling, albeit at carrier-pigeon speeds, try MidoNet (per hr E£1; 8am-late) on the way to the Anwar Hotel. The Bank Misr (Sharia Al-Wadi, Mut) in Mut will change cash and give advances on Visa and MasterCard, but it doesn’t have an ATM.
Sights & Activties
Eager explorers will find over 600 hot springs in the area – make sure you investigate a few. The biggest highlight remains the remarkable mud-brick citadel at Al-Qasr, also home to a small Ethnographic Museum (Al-Qasr; admission E£3; 9am-sunset). Local guides are happy to take you through the citadel’s narrow winding lanes and into its half-hidden buildings (tip of around E£10 expected).
Sleeping
Gardens Hotel ( 782 1577; Sharia al-Genaye, Mut; s/d E£19/24, with shower E£18/23) Low prices and a prime location help keep the rooms occupied at this ramshackle but popular budget hotel. There’s a bamboo café on the roof here, though the shared bathrooms can be pretty dire and single women may feel uncomfortable. Breakfast is extra and the hotel rents bicycles for E£10 per hour.
El-Negoom Hotel ( 782 0014; fax 782 3084; north of Sharia as-Sawra al-Khadra, Mut; s/d E£60/70, with air-con E£70/90; ) On a quiet street behind the tourist office and near a selection of restaurants, this extra-friendly hotel has a span of trim little abodes with bathrooms, some even with air-con and