My friend Nader called me on Sunday night and asked if I was interested in going to the White Desert. He had a Bedouin all lined up and was going to shoot some video for a new art project. I agreed, not knowing or caring what the White Desert is, I just like adventure and I have developed an affinity with the idea of camping out with Bedouins and staring at the stars.
We left the next morning at 630am and had a very uncomfortable 6 hour bus ride. When we arrived our guide took us to his house and fed us an amazing breakfast. After a quick rest, we picked up two of his friends that are musicians and drove off into the desert. We made a quick stop at a 'pool' to cool off and pick up a hookah from a nearby cafe. The water looked amazing, but it smelled of sulfur. At first I thought, 'I'm not swimmin' in no turd bath.' In thinking, I allow myself many grammatical errors, a poetic license if you will. It was too hot to say no to water, smell or not, although I regretted it later when I was sticky and realized the guide had filled up the water bottles in the same water I bathed.
We then drove almost 2 hours into the desert. At some points during the drive you are in awe at just how hot it really is, and then sometimes it was like someone would open an oven door and you would be blasted with even hotter air. We arrived at the camp site at around 530pm, just in time for the sun to start setting behind the rock formations. The rocks are basically giant pieces of chalk, which make them difficult and dangerous to climb, but not impossible. I sat on top of the largest one I could get up and watched the sunset and listened to the musicians play below.
The Bedouins made us an amazing dinner, but trying to explain that chicken does not fit into the vegetarian diet is difficult at best. We smoked sheesha and listened to the musicians play for hours. One of them had a double barreled flute and was able to use circular breathing to hold one note continuously while playing a melody at the same time. I was able to get pretty decent audion with my camera and will try to exract it and put it up on H(H) soon. Also, if you know how to do that, email me.
Later that night I was lying there looking at every single star, listening to the new Mogwai, and trying to convince Nader that he shouldn't fall asleep because the foxes would come and rip his throat out in his sleep. I then told him that his toes were as good as chicken nuggets to a fox and he should wear shoes to sleep. That combined with the crazy sounds of the desert actually scared him quite a bit.
After a nice breakfast of breads, jams and eggs we started another long, grueling bus ride. I hope one of you faithful readers invent teleportation very soon.
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