I finally got behind the wheel - a milestone, yeah! Actually, it was easy; J and I practiced driving last fri. am while everyone was in Mosque so the roads were empty. He helped me find the salon, the spa and the Dr. so now I'm all set for daily survival :) oh yah, the grocer and DVD store too! We bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee, old but in good condition, the best thing about it is the tinted windows- I love them because it is v. annoying at stop lights here when people frequently come up to your windows and start knocking on them to sell you stuff like gum, flowers, newspapers etc. They don't leave you alone when you tell them no either- thankfully, now they won't be able to see K very well- that was the freaky part, having a bunch of people gather around your car staring at your child! It's a little hard figuring my way around here because no one would ever use street signs; it’s all done by markers. So when someone says "behind the Abdoun mall" that could mean anything within a four block, 360-degree radius of the mall. As much fun as it is to move and discover new areas, to me there is just nothing more stressful than not knowing my way around! (and even worse, not knowing who to ask!) We'll see how I do when I start venturing out on my own this week... I'm sure I'll have at least one breakdown somewhere. But I didn't have to worry about passing a driver’s test here like in GE, I think they could care less about road rules!
I had lunch at the Ambassador's home last week! Okay, truth be told, he wasn't actually home but it was still fun to visit the cool house and pretend to be a VIP for a moment. I attended an Arabic cooking demonstration in his kitchen by his chef who was absolutely amazing. I swear I've never had such good food in my life! It was really fun to watch her prepare things using ingredients I've never heard of- they use dried yogurt and dried limes a lot here. I think I have seriously fallen in love with Middle Eastern food. We have a bakery a couple of blocks from our house that makes the most delicious hot and fresh pita and the hummus store is just down from there where you can get a large container for less than a buck. I'm not sure I'll be able to buy the Costco version of hummus anymore after eating the real deal.
So we are contemplating not getting a decoder for our TV after all and going the year without channels. I go back and forth on this... I miss my GMA a lot and I'm convinced that I'm really missing out on a lot of useful (and not so useful but juicy) info. but then again, we have so much more time during the evenings! J says if we can't have DVR then he doesn't care. I've been trying to read the local (english) paper to keep up on the world and it's been so interesting. The stories are very different of course. The ones from Gulf entertain me the most. How they outlawed the purchase of roses on Valentines day because it's an "evil" holiday, or all the mannequins in the shop must now be headless, I'm sure to prevent temptation. They are always hanging someone ... today I read on MSN about the guys who were arrested for flirting. Saudi Arabia is one place I want to know more about. I have an old friend (Canadian) who lives there so I'm making my list of q's to ask him when we get together next. The best book I read last year was The Princess by Jean Sasson. Eye opening! Recommend this for your book clubs! The lady I met in Egypt thinks it's all crap and that the women in Saudi are lucky and happy. I'm not so sure.. that place really scares the heck out of me. J will visit soon (I can't get a visa) and I want a photo of the Muttawas- the religious police. I can't wait to hear all about his trip!! And, back to the newspaper, that darn Danish cartoon thing has really got people fired up again! Every other article is about some demonstration against the Danes. This is the best scenario to describe the perfect culture clash. Freedom of speech vs. Protection of values- it really takes an effort to think beyond your culture to understand this conflict and even when I try my hardest, I still lack the empathy because of how engrained the American ideals are in my way of thinking. I will continue to try to make local friends so that I can ask them to explain this and other things to me. I'm sure I'll never agree but it is powerful to understand.
We finally met some American neighbors with a child K's age. They are missionaries building a Seminary in Amman. So interesting, both left very lucrative jobs (Engineer and Architect) to work non-profit building churches, orphanages etc. around the world. They're only here until the end of the summer but I keep telling them that I hope their construction project is delayed like every other construction project and they stay longer. Their seminary is starting to receive some attacks from both the Govt. and the orthodox churches here. It's going to be interesting to watch how it all plays out.. students are having a harder time getting Visa's and Evangelical groups are being attacked in the press. Although, there is a lot more religious freedom here than elsewhere so that is a blessing!
Well, I’ve got a sink full of dishes waiting for me. Darn that dishwasher! :)
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Date night
J and I finally got out for a night out alone- feels like its been a really long time since we haven't gone out here yet. K was not happy of course, she had LOTS of one on one time with us in Egypt so she cried when the sitter arrived. Speaking of sitters, it is so wonderful to come home to a spotless house, three loads of laundry put away and ironed and all for $4 an hour - the last time we had a sitter in MN we came home to a trashed house and she called us in the middle of my brother's wedding toast to ask if she could invite a friend over. For $8 an hour she can sit on the couch and watch TV alone! sorry, couldn't help myself. We arrived at our chosen restaurant at 7 only to find that it didn't even open until 8- we really need to get used to the late dinners around here. We walked across the street, feeling adventurous and landed ourselves in I suppose what you could consider a bar- Mid east style. We laughed when the waiter brought us ketchup to go with our salads- I'm sure they think Americans eat ketchup with everything since we were the only table to get it. We also tried the sheesha. A rather disappointing smoke despite being mixed fruit flavored. Everyone was doing it so we figured when in Rome... def no buzz so we're not sure why the big draw. The good thing was that although the restaurant was filled with smoke- it didn't smell bad at all. The ride home was funny, the Taxi driver insisted on playing The Gambler for us. Since our move, I've heard Kenny Rogers on the radio more than I have in a lifetime. He really should tour here.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Egypt: Commentary
Let me start by saying that unless you're our parents, you'll probably- make that definitely- want to skip thru most of this :) I always regretted not keeping a journal when we've traveled in the past so here is my attempt to do better. As you may recall, before we left for Egypt I was growing quite miserable- along with the weather here. I had been stuck in a bare house for several days and was dying for some social interaction. Everything fun had been cancelled so what was I to do? Too bad (or a good thing?) we didn't have any Ben and Jerry's! Although I was nervous about the trip (mostly traveling with a toddler!) I was v. anxious to leave. Ironically, when the trip was over, I couldn't wait to return! Funny how that happens. Egypt was a fascinating time though and the good Lord kept us safe and well throughout the trip (many, many thanks for your prayers- I know of several instances where we must have been surrounded by angels!) I'll break it down day by day...
Day one…Thankful that the airport was open due to all of the snow. Interesting to fly over the Suez Canal and get a great view of it. When we flew over Cairo J and I decided that we had never seen a city so massive! It seemed to go on and on from the air. The coolest part at the airport was the Embassy had sent what they call an "expediter" - someone to get you thru customs in a hurry. It was awesome and I will miss that in the future. We've waited some pretty long lines before so to have someone whisk you right out of the airport was unbelievable. A perk I could get used to. The weather was SO much nicer in Cairo- warm and sunny, I loved it!
BUT- As soon as we got in the car to head to the hotel in the center of Cairo I knew I was in for it...the traffic. I could naturally go on and on about this because it is truly indescribable. I was prepared for bad (I've been in Beijing after all) but this was much worse than I could ever imagine. Thankfully, this car at least had a seatbelt (never did get our travel car seat due to the bad weather so we were taking K with hope and a prayer). Let’s just say every time we got in a car - most of the times without a seatbelt - I prepared for death and made peace with my maker. As J says, in our lifetime of driving we've never had so many close calls as we had there in a week. Basically, 20 million people, terrible roads and no rules means A LOT of fatalities. My ulcer worsened when my friend told me how bad the hospitals were- gross and unsterile. Her daughter spent the night in one a few months back and she said it was best to avoid them at all costs. So- not only was I afraid for K's life in the car but also terrified that if something did happen the hospital would be worse. Talk about guilt! This fear didn't leave until we made it back to home where I wanted to kiss the ground! I will never fear Amman traffic again- it is high school compared to Cairo! J says he felt like the taxi drivers were just NASCAR drivers on a city terrain. They didn't even bother to avoid the people (they don't have the right of way anyhow) so often I saw people literally JUMP out of the way as we sped past, dodging donkeys, debris and whatever else happened to be in the road.
We finally made it to the hotel and you would have thought we were staying at the White House not the Inter-Continental with all of the security. I have NEVER seen so much before and figured that it must just be like that in Egypt. Later we learned that the real reason for all the security was they were holding the Hamas / Egypt negotiations concerning the Gaza border at our hotel. We laughed feeling safe that if Hamas were going to blow something up, at least they would not choose their own hotel!
That night we had dinner at our friend’s house. They live in the nicest part of Cairo called Maadi. It was beautiful, lush and green everywhere. We also met up with some USMA cadets who were studying there so it was fun to hear about their experiences- reminded me of how I would have been back in college- so excited and enthused about everything! Boy have I changed, instead I was a nervous mother so protective of my little cub! I envied their ability to relax without a care! It was great to see our friends though and esp after having missed my girlfriends so much- talking to Tiffany was as much fun as seeing the pyramids.
Day two... J spent the morning getting briefings at the Embassy so K and I just chilled. We walked around the hotel and watched them make homemade pitas in a kiln. When J came back, we walked over to the famed Egyptian Museum where as J likes to say, "they have a lot of old crap!" Only the two of us could have been in and out of there so fast (don't ask what our record at the Louvre was, I know, we have no appreciation at all!) We did however spend more time in the Mummy room where after paying a fee you get to see several of the pharaoh mummies up close and personal. That was interesting and yes, they looked pretty gross. Too bad no photos! After dinner (I insisted that we eat all meals at the hotel because I was terrified of getting sick!) we headed by taxi to the train station. Again, grateful to be alive, we spent the next 2 1/2 hours heading up to Alexandria. We arrived late and crashed at the hotel. I believe the Super bowl was on that night but we missed it- a great game I’m sure.
Day three... We had a tour scheduled for early that morning which took us around Alex (a nice city on the Mediterranean) and up to El Alamein. The really only interesting thing about this day was our tour guide, Kholoud. Now I've had many tour guides in my life but she was the very best. We talked and talked and I hated to say goodbye because I learned so much from her. Not about the sights (to be honest, I really don't care about ancient Egyptian history) but I am fascinated with their modern history and current state. It was such a history lesson hearing her feelings on Ali, the King, and Presidents. She really sparked my interest and for the rest of the trip I was so curious to learn more. Since J's whole purpose as a “student” is to study the culture and current political environment, I had fun playing my role as "interviewer" (secret Oprah wannabe) since it would not have been appropriate for J to ask personal feeling questions because he was a man and Kholoud a female. We also talked candidly about Islam and women. She wears a hajab herself and we laughed together when I joked that some of them women I see covered from head to toe needn’t worry about tempting another man (yes, I know that’s not very nice to say but it's true!) Overall, she feels the future is pretty grim in Egypt and unfortunately, that seemed to be the consensus with most of the people we talked to. We did stop at the famous Bibliotheca in the afternoon but I skipped the library tour- figured it wasn't worth making K suffer thru another tour. She had more fun interacting with the people in the lobby. That night we stayed in and watched Egypt play in the African cup. I was just excited to watch TV again after a month.
Day four... We decided to get our own driver and see a few more sites alone that morning so we went to some Roman ruins and catacombs. The catacombs were actually awesome; they were way underground and well preserved. Discovered them several years ago when a donkey fell thru the ground. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant -which I did not have a very good feeling about but we were in a hurry- and headed back to the train station for our 2 1/2 hour ride back to Cairo. We thought for sure K would sleep on the train but leave it to a toddler- they never sleep when you want them to! She was awake the whole trip but I have to hand it to her; she was content on our laps the entire time with only two books to entertain her. Thank goodness she didn't want to walk around- that train was filthy! We checked back into our Cairo hotel again and noticed the extra security presence was gone.
Day five...Woke up with Egyptian Stomach as they call it. Figured I’d get it eventually and unfortunately, we had a busy day ahead of us with v. questionable bathrooms. Somehow, I made it thru the day and after a strong drug, finally felt better by day six. Rick picked us up early for a tour of the pyramids in Giza (a Cairo suburb) the ride there really takes you thru the gutters of Cairo and Giza. Egypt is such a poor country- much poorer than I expected. Once you get to the pyramids, you are constantly hounded to buy things, ride a camel etc. The weather quality was bad that day so that was a little disappointing but they were still incredible to see up close. We loved going inside and just walking around. Rick had been there a bunch so we didn’t spend as much time there as we probably would have on our own- we decided we’ll just have to get there again one day. After that, we met Tiffany for lunch at the American Club (a little slice of heaven in a crazy city!) and then took the Metro (yuck!) to Coptic Cairo- the Christian part of town where there are several beautiful Orthodox churches and also a Synagogue that we visited. We saw where the ‘holy family’ hid out when they traveled to Egypt and where baby Moses was found, (behind the Synagogue of course) it was a nice visit but with my stomach issues, I wasn’t much in the mood for more sightseeing. That evening we walked to the Hard Rock (again, we figured a safe choice) which would have been a nice night except K rolled down two stairs and hit her head on a cement floor resulting in a goose egg. Boy did we make quite the seen- hopefully the waiters didn’t understand all of the four letter words they heard that night, yah right!
Day six… J spent the morning touring the Suez with Rick and I got to hang with Tiffany and have girl talk. We went for coffee and commiserated together, it was good therapy. Later we met the guys for lunch and then left them with the kids while we shopped. I ordered a kartush for myself. Then we had a driver pick us up and take us back to the Cairo airport so we could fly down to Aswan. By the time we got there, we were tired and I forgot to mention earlier that this was the busiest travel season for Egypt and since we only planned our trip a couple weeks in advance there were not any good hotels available in Aswan. This left us staying at a place I wasn’t too fond of… granted if it was my dollar I would have been more understanding but when someone else is paying for 5 stars I want 5 star (can you really blame me?) There was a hole in the wall of our bathroom where a fan was so I could see directly into the bathroom of the people next to us. I was anxious for checkout the moment we checked in! We survived though (a test of character I’m sure, ha!) and enjoyed a lovely Egyptian breakfast of beans the next day!
Day seven… Couldn’t wait to leave the crummy hotel and get on the ship but when we left the hotel we found our only “taxi” to be a carriage so we took a horse to the boat, luggage and all. The ship was lovely and I couldn’t wait to just sit in our room and relax for the rest of the day. I think K took a long nap and I got into a good novel. As usual, J left us to veg while he roamed the streets looking for interaction and bottles of water. There were only a few kids on the boat besides K, so I was nervous for lots of long meals in a fancy dining room like the one you find on cruise ships. We were lucky- she was a doll at every meal and spoiled rotten by every person in the room (how can you be naughty when everywhere you look someone is blowing you a kiss or making a silly face?) The waiter said he wanted to marry K in 10 years but we told him we still thought that would be a little young. Strangely that was not the only time we heard that and I’m not absolutely sure that the Egyptians would consider 11 too young! Later we toured some ruins and the high dam, then I left the tour to go back to the boat so K could nap and J toured a temple.
Day eight…woke up and walked into Aswan to tour the market. Since I was waiting to do my real shopping back in Cairo, we made it thru pretty quickly. Later went on another temple visit and sailed that afternoon. The sailing was the best part of the trip for me, I loved just sitting in our room while K slept and looked out the window at the interesting scenery. Sometimes very lush, other times dry, or we would pass towns or other boats. It was the most peaceful time ever! That evening we had a night visit to yet another temple, which was beautiful to see it lit up at night. I found the hieroglyphics to be great to look at but really, how many temples does one need to see? Dinner didn’t start until after 8 that night but somehow our little dream traveler managed to wait. She really was the easiest baby, just went with the flow every day. We sailed again that night and took turns attending the ship’s evening festivities. It was a small ship but fun to people watch, groups from the UK, Japan and Chile were all on board so it was quite an international group. Everyone knew us because of K and many people commented on what an easygoing girl she was. Always happy and never fussing- thank God for small (or not so small) miracles given the limited amount of rest she was getting. She definitely takes after her father’s temperament!
Day nine…We woke up in Luxor and our small tour group left early to visit the Valley of the Kings, Queens, and the Temple of Hatshepsut. It was hot so after going in a few of the Pharaohs tombs I opted to stay in the bus with K and let J enjoy the sights without 30 extra pounds on his back. Our driver was such an interesting man and I loved talking with him while I waited. He was a Christian which makes him very unique considering only a small percentage of Egyptians are Christians and it is illegal to convert (you must be born to Christian parents to legally be a Christian). He talked a lot about what it was like living in an Islamic state as a Christian and how he studies the Koran along with the Bible in order to share Christianity with his Muslim friends. He told me how evil he believes Islam to be and I couldn’t get over how brave he was- for those words alone, plenty of people would have killed him. Really. You cannot say anything against Islam over here without risking your life. We had a long talk and I kept thinking what a real missionary he was. That evening we went to the Sound and Light show at Karnak temple. This is the tourist thing to do in Egypt. They light up the ancient temples and you listen to the history of the place. We were so bored but it was beautiful walking thru the temple at night. Poor K though, it was a good hour too long but somehow she managed. The ride back to the ship was more interesting though, Egypt won the African Cup in Soccer so everyone in Luxor poured onto the streets and went crazy. The horns didn’t stomp honking for an hour and the traffic was even madder. It reminded me of being in Athens when Greece won the Euro Cup and how crazy that was. I decided that I am good luck for countries, ha! That put everyone in a good mood though and the Egyptians on the ship smiled from ear to ear the next day. We were just glad they won so we didn’t have to deal with a bunch of grumpy people.
Day ten…Our tour guide took us to Luxor temple and back to Karnak temple where we opted for our own tour so we didn’t have to listen to all of the stuff you just forget about later anyway. Then we had to rent a hotel room in Luxor for the day because our plane didn’t leave until late that evening. We found a place with a beautiful view of the Nile and spent the day walking around Luxor and resting. It was one of the Kings old palaces with the most beautiful garden and K felt grass again for the first time in months. We got to the airport that night and probably waited for three hours to get on our flight after 11pm. Poor K, she just could not sleep- she was wired, again, not that I could blame her considering we were expecting her to sleep in a v. busy airport with people coming up and kissing her, touching her and taking her photograph constantly. Even if she did sleep, they would still come and touch her. This leads me to another observation on Egypt. They simply LOVE white babies. It was unreal to us- I’m not exaggerating when I say that at least 75 different people took her photo and another couple hundred gave her a kiss (the germaphobe in me had a hard time with this but there wasn’t much choice, they did it so quick you didn’t get a chance to do anything and they were all so nice), she was given a dozen little presents and absolutely everyone she looked at gave her a big smile or tried to entertain her. You would have thought she was Brad and Angelina’s baby the way people carried on. The baby thing is just crazy over there…but we really came away with a soft spot for Egyptians, how could we not warm toward a people that treat your baby with such unbelievable affection? As tough as it can be traveling with a baby at times this part kind of made it fun. In the States I think babies are seen as somewhat as a nuisance (or at least I felt that way prior to having kids since I was not a ‘baby person’) but in the mid east they are ADORED!! Again, just fascinating to watch grown men stop their work to come and say Hello to K and make a silly face at her. She def left this trip feeling like the world revolved around her. We FINALLY made it to our Cairo hotel at 1:30 that morning and were delighted to see they upgraded us to a suite- which we would have thoroughly enjoyed had we not been planning to check out early the next morning. Go figure! They said we were “repeat customers” Ha! Who else would be crazy enough to check in and out of the same hotel three times on one trip?!
Day eleven… Exhausted we slept in until 9, checked out and went back to our friends home (with a few life threatening moments on the drive there of course!) We picked up Tiffany and went to Islamic Cairo where J took K and walked around various mosques and a place they call “city of the dead”- a whole town built around a cemetery since they are really running out of room in Cairo. Tiffany and I shopped at the famous Khan market. It was fun to haggle for a little while and I was able to pick up a few unique pieces. After all the crap I bought at the markets in Asia I’ve finally learned to control myself because, really, there is just nowhere to put most of this stuff! We had dinner back with Rick and Tiffany and celebrated their daughter’s b-day. We left again for another late night flight and didn’t arrive back in Amman until 12:30am. Oh, of course K was awake the entire time! :) But she never fussed or whined so for a kid that needs a good 12 hours a night and two naps a day still- she managed pretty well on 8 hours a day total! We really could not have received a better baby for this crazy life of ours.
Final thoughts on Egypt:
Basically, Egypt is an Islamic Police State run by a dictator who could care little about the vast majority of the people there (unless you are rich). At least that’s what we were told. Of course, President Mubarak is a friend to the US because we often support bad leaders because they are friendly to the US but that is another matter. Their human rights are atrocious and the thing that made me the saddest was the child labor. Extremely high rate of kids spending 11 hours a day doing dangerous works that would make some factory jobs in China look good. Their education system is horrible too. Of course Mubarak is famous for suppressing the freedom of the press, torture etc. One day, while driving, we saw a man thrown in the back of a truck by several police. He probably doesn’t have much hope! The police are everywhere there- this is supposed to be reassuring to us as tourists, which it was given the number of terrorist incidents there, but people are also frightened of the police because sometimes people just “disappear”. Egyptian gulags somewhere? It is also a very “religious” country, more so than we originally thought. Most of the women we saw wear the hajab (much more so than Jordan) and often the men scar their forehead so people think that they were on their knees praying extra hard. Many of the people are very, very poor. In most of the towns, we would see large groups of people desperately surrounding a shop and we would wonder what was going on. Later we learned that those shops were where the subsidized bread was sold. One thing many tourists complain about is “Baksheesh” or tips. EVERYONE expects a tip for any minor thing they do. Traffic cops at intersections (they don’t have a lot of lights so usually it’s just a cop in the middle of an intersection) expects tips for letting a particular lane go first. It was actually funny to see the cops at the pyramids pose in a photo for tourists and then hunt them down on their camels when the tourists didn’t tip them afterward. Many people are just desperate for money. But they were friendly, very friendly and say that they like Americans, just not Bush. :)
Day one…Thankful that the airport was open due to all of the snow. Interesting to fly over the Suez Canal and get a great view of it. When we flew over Cairo J and I decided that we had never seen a city so massive! It seemed to go on and on from the air. The coolest part at the airport was the Embassy had sent what they call an "expediter" - someone to get you thru customs in a hurry. It was awesome and I will miss that in the future. We've waited some pretty long lines before so to have someone whisk you right out of the airport was unbelievable. A perk I could get used to. The weather was SO much nicer in Cairo- warm and sunny, I loved it!
BUT- As soon as we got in the car to head to the hotel in the center of Cairo I knew I was in for it...the traffic. I could naturally go on and on about this because it is truly indescribable. I was prepared for bad (I've been in Beijing after all) but this was much worse than I could ever imagine. Thankfully, this car at least had a seatbelt (never did get our travel car seat due to the bad weather so we were taking K with hope and a prayer). Let’s just say every time we got in a car - most of the times without a seatbelt - I prepared for death and made peace with my maker. As J says, in our lifetime of driving we've never had so many close calls as we had there in a week. Basically, 20 million people, terrible roads and no rules means A LOT of fatalities. My ulcer worsened when my friend told me how bad the hospitals were- gross and unsterile. Her daughter spent the night in one a few months back and she said it was best to avoid them at all costs. So- not only was I afraid for K's life in the car but also terrified that if something did happen the hospital would be worse. Talk about guilt! This fear didn't leave until we made it back to home where I wanted to kiss the ground! I will never fear Amman traffic again- it is high school compared to Cairo! J says he felt like the taxi drivers were just NASCAR drivers on a city terrain. They didn't even bother to avoid the people (they don't have the right of way anyhow) so often I saw people literally JUMP out of the way as we sped past, dodging donkeys, debris and whatever else happened to be in the road.
We finally made it to the hotel and you would have thought we were staying at the White House not the Inter-Continental with all of the security. I have NEVER seen so much before and figured that it must just be like that in Egypt. Later we learned that the real reason for all the security was they were holding the Hamas / Egypt negotiations concerning the Gaza border at our hotel. We laughed feeling safe that if Hamas were going to blow something up, at least they would not choose their own hotel!
That night we had dinner at our friend’s house. They live in the nicest part of Cairo called Maadi. It was beautiful, lush and green everywhere. We also met up with some USMA cadets who were studying there so it was fun to hear about their experiences- reminded me of how I would have been back in college- so excited and enthused about everything! Boy have I changed, instead I was a nervous mother so protective of my little cub! I envied their ability to relax without a care! It was great to see our friends though and esp after having missed my girlfriends so much- talking to Tiffany was as much fun as seeing the pyramids.
Day two... J spent the morning getting briefings at the Embassy so K and I just chilled. We walked around the hotel and watched them make homemade pitas in a kiln. When J came back, we walked over to the famed Egyptian Museum where as J likes to say, "they have a lot of old crap!" Only the two of us could have been in and out of there so fast (don't ask what our record at the Louvre was, I know, we have no appreciation at all!) We did however spend more time in the Mummy room where after paying a fee you get to see several of the pharaoh mummies up close and personal. That was interesting and yes, they looked pretty gross. Too bad no photos! After dinner (I insisted that we eat all meals at the hotel because I was terrified of getting sick!) we headed by taxi to the train station. Again, grateful to be alive, we spent the next 2 1/2 hours heading up to Alexandria. We arrived late and crashed at the hotel. I believe the Super bowl was on that night but we missed it- a great game I’m sure.
Day three... We had a tour scheduled for early that morning which took us around Alex (a nice city on the Mediterranean) and up to El Alamein. The really only interesting thing about this day was our tour guide, Kholoud. Now I've had many tour guides in my life but she was the very best. We talked and talked and I hated to say goodbye because I learned so much from her. Not about the sights (to be honest, I really don't care about ancient Egyptian history) but I am fascinated with their modern history and current state. It was such a history lesson hearing her feelings on Ali, the King, and Presidents. She really sparked my interest and for the rest of the trip I was so curious to learn more. Since J's whole purpose as a “student” is to study the culture and current political environment, I had fun playing my role as "interviewer" (secret Oprah wannabe) since it would not have been appropriate for J to ask personal feeling questions because he was a man and Kholoud a female. We also talked candidly about Islam and women. She wears a hajab herself and we laughed together when I joked that some of them women I see covered from head to toe needn’t worry about tempting another man (yes, I know that’s not very nice to say but it's true!) Overall, she feels the future is pretty grim in Egypt and unfortunately, that seemed to be the consensus with most of the people we talked to. We did stop at the famous Bibliotheca in the afternoon but I skipped the library tour- figured it wasn't worth making K suffer thru another tour. She had more fun interacting with the people in the lobby. That night we stayed in and watched Egypt play in the African cup. I was just excited to watch TV again after a month.
Day four... We decided to get our own driver and see a few more sites alone that morning so we went to some Roman ruins and catacombs. The catacombs were actually awesome; they were way underground and well preserved. Discovered them several years ago when a donkey fell thru the ground. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant -which I did not have a very good feeling about but we were in a hurry- and headed back to the train station for our 2 1/2 hour ride back to Cairo. We thought for sure K would sleep on the train but leave it to a toddler- they never sleep when you want them to! She was awake the whole trip but I have to hand it to her; she was content on our laps the entire time with only two books to entertain her. Thank goodness she didn't want to walk around- that train was filthy! We checked back into our Cairo hotel again and noticed the extra security presence was gone.
Day five...Woke up with Egyptian Stomach as they call it. Figured I’d get it eventually and unfortunately, we had a busy day ahead of us with v. questionable bathrooms. Somehow, I made it thru the day and after a strong drug, finally felt better by day six. Rick picked us up early for a tour of the pyramids in Giza (a Cairo suburb) the ride there really takes you thru the gutters of Cairo and Giza. Egypt is such a poor country- much poorer than I expected. Once you get to the pyramids, you are constantly hounded to buy things, ride a camel etc. The weather quality was bad that day so that was a little disappointing but they were still incredible to see up close. We loved going inside and just walking around. Rick had been there a bunch so we didn’t spend as much time there as we probably would have on our own- we decided we’ll just have to get there again one day. After that, we met Tiffany for lunch at the American Club (a little slice of heaven in a crazy city!) and then took the Metro (yuck!) to Coptic Cairo- the Christian part of town where there are several beautiful Orthodox churches and also a Synagogue that we visited. We saw where the ‘holy family’ hid out when they traveled to Egypt and where baby Moses was found, (behind the Synagogue of course) it was a nice visit but with my stomach issues, I wasn’t much in the mood for more sightseeing. That evening we walked to the Hard Rock (again, we figured a safe choice) which would have been a nice night except K rolled down two stairs and hit her head on a cement floor resulting in a goose egg. Boy did we make quite the seen- hopefully the waiters didn’t understand all of the four letter words they heard that night, yah right!
Day six… J spent the morning touring the Suez with Rick and I got to hang with Tiffany and have girl talk. We went for coffee and commiserated together, it was good therapy. Later we met the guys for lunch and then left them with the kids while we shopped. I ordered a kartush for myself. Then we had a driver pick us up and take us back to the Cairo airport so we could fly down to Aswan. By the time we got there, we were tired and I forgot to mention earlier that this was the busiest travel season for Egypt and since we only planned our trip a couple weeks in advance there were not any good hotels available in Aswan. This left us staying at a place I wasn’t too fond of… granted if it was my dollar I would have been more understanding but when someone else is paying for 5 stars I want 5 star (can you really blame me?) There was a hole in the wall of our bathroom where a fan was so I could see directly into the bathroom of the people next to us. I was anxious for checkout the moment we checked in! We survived though (a test of character I’m sure, ha!) and enjoyed a lovely Egyptian breakfast of beans the next day!
Day seven… Couldn’t wait to leave the crummy hotel and get on the ship but when we left the hotel we found our only “taxi” to be a carriage so we took a horse to the boat, luggage and all. The ship was lovely and I couldn’t wait to just sit in our room and relax for the rest of the day. I think K took a long nap and I got into a good novel. As usual, J left us to veg while he roamed the streets looking for interaction and bottles of water. There were only a few kids on the boat besides K, so I was nervous for lots of long meals in a fancy dining room like the one you find on cruise ships. We were lucky- she was a doll at every meal and spoiled rotten by every person in the room (how can you be naughty when everywhere you look someone is blowing you a kiss or making a silly face?) The waiter said he wanted to marry K in 10 years but we told him we still thought that would be a little young. Strangely that was not the only time we heard that and I’m not absolutely sure that the Egyptians would consider 11 too young! Later we toured some ruins and the high dam, then I left the tour to go back to the boat so K could nap and J toured a temple.
Day eight…woke up and walked into Aswan to tour the market. Since I was waiting to do my real shopping back in Cairo, we made it thru pretty quickly. Later went on another temple visit and sailed that afternoon. The sailing was the best part of the trip for me, I loved just sitting in our room while K slept and looked out the window at the interesting scenery. Sometimes very lush, other times dry, or we would pass towns or other boats. It was the most peaceful time ever! That evening we had a night visit to yet another temple, which was beautiful to see it lit up at night. I found the hieroglyphics to be great to look at but really, how many temples does one need to see? Dinner didn’t start until after 8 that night but somehow our little dream traveler managed to wait. She really was the easiest baby, just went with the flow every day. We sailed again that night and took turns attending the ship’s evening festivities. It was a small ship but fun to people watch, groups from the UK, Japan and Chile were all on board so it was quite an international group. Everyone knew us because of K and many people commented on what an easygoing girl she was. Always happy and never fussing- thank God for small (or not so small) miracles given the limited amount of rest she was getting. She definitely takes after her father’s temperament!
Day nine…We woke up in Luxor and our small tour group left early to visit the Valley of the Kings, Queens, and the Temple of Hatshepsut. It was hot so after going in a few of the Pharaohs tombs I opted to stay in the bus with K and let J enjoy the sights without 30 extra pounds on his back. Our driver was such an interesting man and I loved talking with him while I waited. He was a Christian which makes him very unique considering only a small percentage of Egyptians are Christians and it is illegal to convert (you must be born to Christian parents to legally be a Christian). He talked a lot about what it was like living in an Islamic state as a Christian and how he studies the Koran along with the Bible in order to share Christianity with his Muslim friends. He told me how evil he believes Islam to be and I couldn’t get over how brave he was- for those words alone, plenty of people would have killed him. Really. You cannot say anything against Islam over here without risking your life. We had a long talk and I kept thinking what a real missionary he was. That evening we went to the Sound and Light show at Karnak temple. This is the tourist thing to do in Egypt. They light up the ancient temples and you listen to the history of the place. We were so bored but it was beautiful walking thru the temple at night. Poor K though, it was a good hour too long but somehow she managed. The ride back to the ship was more interesting though, Egypt won the African Cup in Soccer so everyone in Luxor poured onto the streets and went crazy. The horns didn’t stomp honking for an hour and the traffic was even madder. It reminded me of being in Athens when Greece won the Euro Cup and how crazy that was. I decided that I am good luck for countries, ha! That put everyone in a good mood though and the Egyptians on the ship smiled from ear to ear the next day. We were just glad they won so we didn’t have to deal with a bunch of grumpy people.
Day ten…Our tour guide took us to Luxor temple and back to Karnak temple where we opted for our own tour so we didn’t have to listen to all of the stuff you just forget about later anyway. Then we had to rent a hotel room in Luxor for the day because our plane didn’t leave until late that evening. We found a place with a beautiful view of the Nile and spent the day walking around Luxor and resting. It was one of the Kings old palaces with the most beautiful garden and K felt grass again for the first time in months. We got to the airport that night and probably waited for three hours to get on our flight after 11pm. Poor K, she just could not sleep- she was wired, again, not that I could blame her considering we were expecting her to sleep in a v. busy airport with people coming up and kissing her, touching her and taking her photograph constantly. Even if she did sleep, they would still come and touch her. This leads me to another observation on Egypt. They simply LOVE white babies. It was unreal to us- I’m not exaggerating when I say that at least 75 different people took her photo and another couple hundred gave her a kiss (the germaphobe in me had a hard time with this but there wasn’t much choice, they did it so quick you didn’t get a chance to do anything and they were all so nice), she was given a dozen little presents and absolutely everyone she looked at gave her a big smile or tried to entertain her. You would have thought she was Brad and Angelina’s baby the way people carried on. The baby thing is just crazy over there…but we really came away with a soft spot for Egyptians, how could we not warm toward a people that treat your baby with such unbelievable affection? As tough as it can be traveling with a baby at times this part kind of made it fun. In the States I think babies are seen as somewhat as a nuisance (or at least I felt that way prior to having kids since I was not a ‘baby person’) but in the mid east they are ADORED!! Again, just fascinating to watch grown men stop their work to come and say Hello to K and make a silly face at her. She def left this trip feeling like the world revolved around her. We FINALLY made it to our Cairo hotel at 1:30 that morning and were delighted to see they upgraded us to a suite- which we would have thoroughly enjoyed had we not been planning to check out early the next morning. Go figure! They said we were “repeat customers” Ha! Who else would be crazy enough to check in and out of the same hotel three times on one trip?!
Day eleven… Exhausted we slept in until 9, checked out and went back to our friends home (with a few life threatening moments on the drive there of course!) We picked up Tiffany and went to Islamic Cairo where J took K and walked around various mosques and a place they call “city of the dead”- a whole town built around a cemetery since they are really running out of room in Cairo. Tiffany and I shopped at the famous Khan market. It was fun to haggle for a little while and I was able to pick up a few unique pieces. After all the crap I bought at the markets in Asia I’ve finally learned to control myself because, really, there is just nowhere to put most of this stuff! We had dinner back with Rick and Tiffany and celebrated their daughter’s b-day. We left again for another late night flight and didn’t arrive back in Amman until 12:30am. Oh, of course K was awake the entire time! :) But she never fussed or whined so for a kid that needs a good 12 hours a night and two naps a day still- she managed pretty well on 8 hours a day total! We really could not have received a better baby for this crazy life of ours.
Final thoughts on Egypt:
Basically, Egypt is an Islamic Police State run by a dictator who could care little about the vast majority of the people there (unless you are rich). At least that’s what we were told. Of course, President Mubarak is a friend to the US because we often support bad leaders because they are friendly to the US but that is another matter. Their human rights are atrocious and the thing that made me the saddest was the child labor. Extremely high rate of kids spending 11 hours a day doing dangerous works that would make some factory jobs in China look good. Their education system is horrible too. Of course Mubarak is famous for suppressing the freedom of the press, torture etc. One day, while driving, we saw a man thrown in the back of a truck by several police. He probably doesn’t have much hope! The police are everywhere there- this is supposed to be reassuring to us as tourists, which it was given the number of terrorist incidents there, but people are also frightened of the police because sometimes people just “disappear”. Egyptian gulags somewhere? It is also a very “religious” country, more so than we originally thought. Most of the women we saw wear the hajab (much more so than Jordan) and often the men scar their forehead so people think that they were on their knees praying extra hard. Many of the people are very, very poor. In most of the towns, we would see large groups of people desperately surrounding a shop and we would wonder what was going on. Later we learned that those shops were where the subsidized bread was sold. One thing many tourists complain about is “Baksheesh” or tips. EVERYONE expects a tip for any minor thing they do. Traffic cops at intersections (they don’t have a lot of lights so usually it’s just a cop in the middle of an intersection) expects tips for letting a particular lane go first. It was actually funny to see the cops at the pyramids pose in a photo for tourists and then hunt them down on their camels when the tourists didn’t tip them afterward. Many people are just desperate for money. But they were friendly, very friendly and say that they like Americans, just not Bush. :)
Nile view from Luxor hotel
You can see how the cruisers dock 5-6 in a row and you have to walk thru all of the ships to get off the boat. strange! This was a beautiful view though!Valley of the Kings, Luxor
It was so hot this day. Basically just go into the tombs where the pharaohs hid all of their things for the afterlife and the mummy's were found. Lots of hieroglyphics but of course you can't take photos in there so this was the best we could do...
Carriage ride
One of our many modes of transportation on this trip was by horse. In both Aswan and Luxor the carriage guys absolutely hound you for business. You could get an hour tour around the town for $1. Sadly, a lot of the horses are mistreated. This paticular evening we took the carriage to see a temple at night and when we were done our driver was nowhere to be found- turns out he was busy smoking the "sheesha" (just look at his smile!), a water pipe with a flavored tabacco that everyone seems to smoke in the Mid East. It actually smells really good when you walk by the sheesha cafes, like cotton candy. We will try eventually and let you know- it's a right of passage here. I guess since they're not supposed to be drinking they have found another way to have fun! :0
One of the views from the cruiseship
The best part of the cruise was watching the beautiful scenery as we sailed by. Parts were really lush and tropical and then other parts were very desert like. 
Galabiyya Party
Our friends lent us their outfits so we could fit in at the party! Talk about comfortable- felt like I had room to eat as much as I wanted :) Spice Market
There are markets like this for spices everywhere. Sometime I'll have to try them although I'm not sure I'd know what to do!Dam tour
J and K overlooking the Aswan High Dam. The biggest one in the world (except for the new one in China) unfortunately for the Egyptians the Dam has some "minor" drawbacks- they have an enormous rate of kidney failure probably due to the poor water quality when the Dam sends the minerals deep into the ground. One of my questions about Egypt was why the black market for organs was so active, now I know that it is not uncommon to be on dialysis there-v. unfortunate. A friend we made on the trip said both of his parents were on it. Another reason not to drink the water...
Cruising the Nile...
K and I in front of the ship. It was beautiful and the staff was very friendly. Less than 100 guests on board so if felt pretty small. K became the darling of the ship of course :)Suez Canal
J and Rick took a day trip out to the Suez canal. This is a pic of a ship passing thru the canal. Cairo train station
This place was pretty gross, crazy busy too! Thank God for J's arabic- we wouldn't have found our train without it!Couch Potatoes
Our friends in Cairo were lifesavers on this trip, they not only planned our entire vacation but hosted us several times in their home. K loved their kiddos too- J snapped this pic while the guys were babysitting and the girls got to shop.
Mom, K, and the Sphinx
Despite the ugly sunglasses I picked up from a street vendor, I love this picture! May it be the first of many mother-daughter adventures!Moses site
This is the site in Coptic Cairo where baby Moses was send to be found floating in the Nile. K doesn't look very interested at this point :)Coptic Cairo
This is in the Christian part of Cairo, as you can see, K is wandering off to say hello to some men. They ended up giving her a chocolate candy bar- lucky girl!
About to enter the pyramid...
Rick was nice enough to watch K so that we could go inside the pyramid. Talk about claustrophobic!!!! The Japanese tour group in front of us refused to go two at a time so we had to hunch down and wait a lot of the way. I kept thinking we'd be dead in an earthquake but then I reminded myself that these pyramids have really withstood the test of time! Just awesome to be inside one!Touring around the Pyramids
Our good friend Rick gave us a tour of the pyramids. He's been there a dozen times so it was fun to talk to him. There were camels everywhere if you wanted a ride but we didn't get the chance. You can see what a hazy day it was. Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Cairo view!
Cairo is the craziest place I've ever been but from above it looks pretty (when the air quality is okay that is!) We loved our hotel view of the Nile but even 19 floors up we could still hear the honking!Hotel toy
Turns out we didn't need to pack toys for our trip afterall- all she needed was for us to unplug the phone. (yes mom, I sanitized it first :)Girls will be girls!
We met this darling gal while J was touring the famous Bibliotheca. She loved her mother's cell as much as K did!El Alamein tour
We always enjoy visiting WW2 battlefields and this was our first in Africa. But the tour was a little dull and I obviously wasn't paying close enough attention when I told the guide at the end that I was surprised to hear the Dutch had been there too. Turns out she was saying the Deutsch! Duh- I blushed :)
Eating Crow!
Actually pigeon :) Whenever we travel I always try to eat the local fare so this time I ordered stuffed pigeon after our guide raved about it. I didn't think much about it until it came and I actually had to take a bite- I realize now I'd never make it on Survivor! Not that it tasted so bad but I had a hard time getting past the thought that it was a pigeon. The worst was our guide insisted I take a several bites and then wrapped it up for leftovers although we assured her that it wouldn't get eaten!
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