Still in Alex, writing about Siwa, and more

Siwa Oasis is a place that seemed so awesome in theory, there was no way it was going to live up to my imagination. But it was still awesome.
The image of Siwa that made me decide that I had to go there is the image of a gigantic mud-brick fortress sticking up out of a forest of palm trees which, in turn, are in the middle of a vast desert.
This is truly how it looks. And, in Siwa, there are plenty of opportunities to explore this beautiful area by bicycle. But the town of Siwa itself reminded me of a hastily underdeveloped Sinai beach resort.
I'll backtrack a bit here. On the road from Eilat in Israel down through the Sinai peninsula, you will find some of the prettiest water and mountains you'll ever see along with some of the most depressing half-developed resorts and beach camps you'll ever see. You will see some nice-looking camps, but you will also see the shells of never-finished camps and kilometers of indistinguishable fences with huts behind them with names such as "Happy Beach Camp," "Soft Beach Camp" (where I stayed) and "Paradise Camp." It's not the development of the natural habitat that's depressing as much as the haphazardness of it. You really get a sense that no planning went into this tourism development- that everyone and their brother decided to open some sort of tourist facility and nobody stopped them.
What's depressing about the Sinai is that the supply of accomodations way exceeds the demand, especially since the bombings there in the last five years. The camps lie there, unfinished and useless, like the hundreds of camels and guides that offer to take people up Mount Sinai or to the pyramids.
Anyway, Siwa is not depressing in that way, but the town center is full of anonymous restaurants, juice stands, handicraft stores, and tour operators. Nearly all of the signs look the same (most are brown with white writing, and have the same font), and all of the buildings are part of the same massive block of buildings. Restaurants often do not have menus displayed near their entrances. You usually have to gamble or take someone's advice. If you explore the town looking for a place to eat, you'll be confronted by a sea of anonymity. Well, maybe not a sea. A pond, anyway.
So the town center of Siwa is anything but idyllic. The area surrounding the town, however, is full of lakes, hot springs, and barely-standing ruins. It was fun in the day time, but more fun at night. The owner of my hotel charged me 10 bucks to drive me to a hot spring on his motorcycle. The motorcycle was fun. I loved feeling the air and seeing the mud-brick houses fly by me so quickly. The next day, when I rode there by bike with a Canadian and a German, I realized how short the ride actually was, and that, even in America, the ride wouldn't cost so much. But I forgave the dude. (To give you an idea, the bus from Marsa Matruh to Siwa cost about 3 bucks.) I didn't tip him.
And I'm timed out at the internet cafe.