Jack & Sophia Memorial Day '06

Wow Ata, that's so cool that you are traveling again. Please invest in a digital camera and a good computer so we can share your experiences.

Hi everyone. Here's what Sophia and I have been up to. Last weekend Sophia had her last soccer game of the spring season. It was the hardest game of the year against Sophia's winter indoor team. Ata, you came to quite a few of her games so you know the team I am talking about. They are good. Anyway, we played tough and the game was a draw. With that draw, Sophia's team went undefeated 2 years in a row. More good news, Sophia was selected for the All-Stars team which plays June 17-18. I am so proud of her. She's doing great in school also. She took her final SOL (Standards of Learning) test today and pretty much they've all been a cake walk for her.

This weekend Sophia is visiting Grandma Marilyn and Grandpa Marty in their new downtown NY apartment. Peter and I are on our way to cousin Jonathan's wedding also in New York. It will be great to see everyone. We come back Saturday afternoon. Sunday I am riding my motorcycle in "Rolling Thunder", the Vietnam Vet inspired Memorial Day Motorcycle Ride where thousands (I mean like over 100+) congregate at the Pentagon and then ride past the Vietnam Memorial. It is such a rush being in a sea of motorcycles, drowning in the thunderous rumble. Monday I plan to relax and maybe go see the new X-Men III movie that opens this weekend.

That's it for now.
Love you all.
Jack

Update from Ljubljana

Hey everyone, nothing happening with you to be worth sharing?!

I am spending some more money - this Friday, I am leaving for a 9 day "vacation" to the beautiful coast of Črna Gora (Montenegro) which has just voted for their independence from Yugoslavia (or rather the present Serbia) by the way, where I'll be sunning myself on the sandy beach (boring for me, but time to catch up on my reading). My main interest is really in the travel to and from, through the length of former Yugoslavia and seeing the country, and the price is right - $250.00 for the round trip buss fare, room and two meals a day for 7 days in one of the local hotels that many Slovenians have been frequencing for years (the particular coastal area on the Adriatic Sea is actually called a "slovenian beach").
What are you guys doing?
Love from Ata.

garden talk

Ata writes: " Regarding my visit, I'll have to get back to you Monday or Tuesday, after I return from the downtown Travel Agent who will confirm the final dates of my trip. I was there last week and tentatively set my departure from Ljubljana sometime between the 26th and 30th of June and a return between 15th and 22nd of September. The final decision will be seat availability and lowest airline price.
By the way, I am looking forward to enjoying your garden and the morning sunshine I can enjoy and look forward to waking me in the mornings. Here I get only the afternoon sun, but am partly compensated with beautiful sunsets (sometimes).
Tell Ian that I too have a "Clematis" blooming on my balcony, right now there are 5 beautiful purple blossoms on it and 7 buds waiting to open. Of course, there is also a profusion of begonias, geraniums, petunias, alyssium, forget-me-nots, carnations, and fuscias making it a most pleasant and relaxing place for me to enjoy. I fear that the woman Marjeta from Kranj, who will be here to care for this miniature garden spot high in the air will not do a good job, as I have learned from experience last year and even in my recent short absence. "

Ata, your balcony garden sounds lovely! And we can envision it as well, now, since our visit. Yesterday we went to a nursery about 25miles away in order to take advantage of their lower prices. We already have rhodos and azaleas in full bloom, the tulips that we plants en masse last fall are going strong in the south perennial garden (so much that they're blocking sun from the perennials tryingto come up!). The rock cress and other spring bloomers are still around, and the allium are just starting to peek open. We also have a little peonie plant near the kitchen door which is starting to bloom. At the nursery yesterday we picked up a bunch of annuals with which I will stuff my pots, and we also found three huge hanging fuschias to put on the arbor that you and Ian built. The neighbors across the alley have put up some fencing of their own on their south border and have poured a concrete patio but are still planning to park their cars where the trees used to be. Grrr!! The fuschias will do a nice job of blocking that view. I have some ivy geranium to put in the house-front hanging boxes today, and Ian and I are having breakfast with some friends this morning. It's another gorgeous sunny morning; I think we're also going to check out a farmer's market.
This summer the project will be to pull out the hedge in front of the house and replace it with pretty plants and a wrought iron fence. We also want to replace the window well on the north side of the house; that will be an involved process and we can't wait to have Ata's help!
Happy mom's day, again!

seattle, sat morning

Greetings family! Ata, loved your account of your trip -- you should think about taking up travel writing as a hobby! Of course, that would mean you would have to travel more, and maybe you're ready for a break, but there are definitely other interesting places in the world that would fascinate you (everyone really needs to get to Cambodia to the Angor Wat area) and while they have their fair share of tourist-plying locals, I don't think it's nearly as bad as Egypt sounds. (By the way, do you have your flight info yet for your trip to seattle?)
It's another Sat morning and once again I can't sleep with all the sunshine coming through the windows -- it drives me crazy! What do I have to do? Get black curtains? (Did anyone else see that movie entitled "Insomnia" with Al Pacino as a murder investigator? It takes place in Alaska during the height of summer when the light is present 24-hrs a day; I always think of him bleary-eyed and delirious, trying to put aluminum foil or something on his windows to block the light.) So I've been up since 5am and Ian's still snoozing. We are usually very go-go-go but this weekend we were expecting to be in Spokane so we didn't make any other plans, and now we're not going there so we have a whole weekend to do whatever we want! Crazy! It will most likely involve gardening. There's an old camelia shrub/bush right outside our front door and it's gotta go. It only blooms INSIDE the shrub where no one can see them. It doesn't make any sense. So it's out. We're thinking of putting in a small Japanese maple in its place. I know you're all fascinated.
Anywho, we're also finalizing plans to come to the east coast from June 2-11. Ian has a conference in DC over the second weekend, so we thought we'd frolic a little in NYC then visit Beth and Anna (and families) in Raleigh before inviting ourselves to stay with Jaki. :) (We invited ourselves to stay with B&A too, so don't feel badly!) We have tickets to see a play (called Festen -- anyone heard of it? It's about a dysfunctional family -- I'll take notes and let you know how the Okorns compare), and I'm trying to priceline a 4-star hotel. They (priceline) keep telling me that my bids are too low, so we both (the computer and I) are going to take a break and come back together to talk about it when we're feeling more reasonable about compromise. (or Ian and I can stay at the bus terminal or something)
That's all for now... Mom, have a wonderful Mother's Day! I'm sorry that you're all by yourself, but know that we're thinking of you and of all that you've done for us (...and to us) -- just kidding! you know I love you more than anyone (just don't tell Ian)...

Egypt - an education ! PPS:

Hi Jaki,
thank you for saving these reports on your hard drive
but I was thinking more like
hard Paper, so no electronic glitch could erase/delete or otherwise loose it.
Ata.

Egypt - an education ! PS:

Hey, how do I make a copy of these reports?
I'm having problems with my P.C.
Can one of you perhaps print out these past reports of mine, to keep them from being erased? Mine printer is not functioning anymore.
Thank you.
Ata.

Egypt - an education - part - last

There is one other significant fact and commentary I wish to present.

No matter where in Egypt you travel, there is an overwhelming military presence. The buses as well as other traffic had constant extensive and well guarded road blocks to pass through continuously every so many miles, or even just street blocks apart. The police or the military were present at all major road, canal, and rail crossings, at the railroad stations, bus stations, boat tie-ups, all parking areas, plazas, public parks, mosque sites, shopping areas, around hotels, and of course at ALL archeological sites. Many times I felt I was in a war zone because of the pill boxes, reinforced guard posts on the ground, or up in concrete towers, where the armed guard pulls up behind him the ladder he uses to get into it.
The police are generally dressed in white uniforms with side arms, some members also have kalishnikov rifles (they look like sawed-off machine guns?). The regular military (all with kalishnikovs) are in khaki brown, special units are dressed all in black, and a select number are dressed in gray or light blue shirts with black pants.
I asked a stupid question of the Egyptian bus driver, why. Of course the answer was "for the protection of tourists", so I wondered how long this has been going on. I assumed that it was since the terrorist activities (by the way, one bomb explosion occurred in an Egyptian resort area on the Sinai Peninsula while we were on our tour, but that was far away and of no concern to us),

(Something happened here and erased all I had printed - so here goes again!)

or since the 9/11 incident. He said that it was in place even before that. I questioned if it existed since the Israeli conflicts. He said that even before that. Apparently it was already in place since king Faraouk's time or, that is, since the English ended their colonial power in Egypt. "Did the tourists also need protection then?" I asked. "Well . . . I don't think so" he replied.
In my opinion, the virtual state of siege apparent everywhere is only partially explained as safety for the tourists, but in the main, I think it is for the protection of the Government, to intimidate the population from any uprisals, and to prevent and control any disturbances where people might gather. The Egyptian guide also told me that Egypt has the strongest and biggest army in that part of Asia and Africa, and that even more men in civilian clothes keep an eye on everything than are evident in military uniforms. Therefore it is also to the benefit of all who are dependent on their jobs from the military, that they maintain the status quo.
Another factor in keeping the population docile and subservient is their blind obedience to the Muslim faith that has them trained to be faithful to their religious (some, at the same time also political) leaders. Whereas the Christian and Jewish cultures call on their faithful to observe one day a week for prayer, the numerous minarets everywhere announce (nowadays by taped recordings) obligatory prayer to all their followers three times a day, not to mention prayer and fasting for the whole month of Ramadan, as well as an expected pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. This, in addition to the military presence, serves to condition the people not to think for themselves, to be obedient and servile even unto death, to even explode themselves for the cause of what is perceived as justified martryism.
To my surprise, much of what I have seen and described was not evident to my fellow tourists, as if the deplorable way of life was something quite normal and expected. Perhaps many have already traveled extensively throughout the world and seen similar or even worse conditions among the natives elsewhere and have become insensitive to their conditions. I came to understand the attitude of the hawkers of souvenirs who see all the tourists as a goldmine to be exploited. On the one hand they envy us, but at the same time hate the rich foreigner who is so tight with his money.
On the whole though, Egypt is NOT a poor country. Because of the Asswam Dam and the Naser Lake it has plenty of water for irrigation of their fertile and now expanded farm land, and an almost unlimited source of electricity. Another rich source of funds comes from the fees charged at the Suez Canal. And lastly the tourism trade, because of the worlds interest in their antiquities, is a never ending and ever expanding source of rich revenues in fees at each site, as well as cash for transportation, lodging, food, and various purchases that no tourist leaves without.
Love you all.
Ata.

Egypt - an education - part 9

Back in the luxury hotel in Cairo - time to relax, take a shower, sit in the sun by the pool and satisfy my enormous thirst for beer with the remaining E.Pounds left in my pocket.

Some of our company, but not too many (we all had enough antiquities by now!), chose to take an afternoon trip to "Memphis" and "Sakkaro" in the neighborhood. Since almost all the material has been carted away by subsequent populations and used as building material for their homes etc., not much remained on these sites - other than the written mention of the important role they played in the history of ancient Egypt, its in situ location has more or less been erased.

In the evening, the tour guide treated us to a dinner at a typical Egyptian restaurant (in lieu of the hotel) that offered native food (again, eaten with trepidation). Later, after stuffing myself and relaxing with the others in the garden (patio?) area, we were treated to entertainment: a belly dancer that, after concluding her several provocative dances, invited others present to make fools of themselves with their pitiful imitations of her gyrations - only the girls, or rather elderly retired women who had perhaps too much beer, were daring enough, and a "Dervish" dancer performing his dizzying and monotonous twirling to haunting and hypnotic music. Waiting for him to lose balance and reel over at the end of his 15 or 20 minutes non stop twirling, was to no avail - there must be a trick to it, like the ballet dancers that also don't loose balance. By the way, I was bitten several times with mosquitoes at that place and wondered if I was going to get yellow fever or perhaps even the fatal Pharaoh's curse that did-in the discoverers of "Tut's" tomb.
We finally returned to the hotel at about 10:30PM to be called for the bus to take us to the airport at 1:00AM for our flight to Istanbul in Turkey where we had a seven hour layover for the connection to Ljubljana. I never knew it was so boring waiting for so long at the airport. I ate, I drank, I read everything I had with me, twice lied down on the seats and slept and still had time to just wander around the confined area.
At the Great Pyramids in Gizza on our first day, if I hadn't mentioned it yet, I bought an Arabian head dress (white sheet with corded rope crown holding it down). Now I thought it would be neat to wear it on the way home (when will I again have that opportunity). No problem in Cairo airport and on the airplane to Istanbul, nor there at their airport, however, after finally boarding the airplane for Ljubljana, we were delayed - the armed security people came on board and wanted MY papers and ID and confirmed that I was NOT a terrorist endangering anyone - hell, all the security procedures were already carried out BEFORE our boarding the plane, but they just had to double check. When arriving in Ljubljana there was not even a second look given to me by anyone prior to my neighbor Ana getting a kick out of it when she met me in the hallway.
One more installment coming up.
Ata.

Egypt - an education - part 8

Our vojage down the Nile River ended in the morning at "Luxor".
After breakfast we were again loaded on buses and driven to the desolate west side of the Nile, to the "Valley of the Kings", where there are numerous underground empty tombs. The place reminded me of a vast rock quarry with piles of excavated rubble everywhere (perhaps even on top of yet undiscovered tombs still buried under it).
We had time to visit three of the most decorated, or extensive and complex or historically significant because of their previous tenants. Sad to say, as you already know, none, other than the tomb of young king "Tutankhamen", were not plundered already in antiquity - any and all contents that were still available and existed anywhere in modern times, are now housed in the Cairo museum or scattered in museums all over the world.
Not far from there, in an adjoining valley, we also stopped to explore the temple of queen "Hatchepsut". This building is an impressive broad and three storied (almost "modern looking" and well preserved) columned edifice tucked under and into a broad high mountain cliff. On the way back across the river, another opportunity for photographs - this time at the colossus of "Memnon" (two huge statues in a sitting position that are by their lonesome in an open area, some yards apart from each other - perhaps at one time in front of a now nonexistent temple)
The tour guide gave us one more opportunity to spend money - this time at an alabaster shop, where there were being offered locally made items from this translucent rock. As far as I was concerned, these were just more stones I can live without, regardless of their admitted beauty, especially in the form of vases or statuary.
In the afternoon awaited us the most impressive sites of all - "Luxor" and "Karnak", which, in spite of them being in ruins, are majestic in size and scope and better preserved than most of the rest, partly because for ages they were buried under sand. The complexes are near each other and in their time, when observing some religious or royal ceremonies, there was held a solemn procession from one to the other along the avenue of the "Sphinxes" still extant.
In the evening, we again boarded the train for an all night return to Cairo. I was exhausted from much walking all day and after the TV supper in the sleeper coach, I had no problem falling asleep. In the morning I was awakened barely in time to get dressed, eat my TV breakfast and get my tired ass off the train in the hot and crowded Cairo RR Station. By the way, did I mention that the sleeping cars on the train and of course all the buses, needless to say, also the rooms on the boat and in all the hotels, were air-conditioned? Stepping out of them was like entering an oven.
Almost done, be patient!
Ata.

Egypt - an education - part 7

OK - I'm back to finish my report on the Egyptian situation nowadays as I saw it.
By the way, Ian, your Friend Mike and companion were a real pleasure to meet here last Sunday and we had a good time, though uneventful. Both were pleased and complimentary about Slovenia and Slovenians, and they certainly saw a lot of the country. I am sure that Croatia will be also an exciting experience for them. Their only negative comment (not unexpectedly - I too found it an unwelcomed blight from abroad) was a surprise that here too there is a profusion of "graffiti".
Our hotel on the Nile, the boat "Ochestra", continued down the river to "Edfu" where, after breakfast, we viewed the temple of "Horus". To get there and back (perhaps one mile from where the boats were tied up) the tourists are driven by horse drawn coaches (seating for 4 - but very tight). There must be at least two hundred of these coaches constantly ferrying tourists to and from. The guide advised us that the price is already included in our cost of the tour AND that this included tips for the drivers and that we are to ignore their begging for more. The crafty Egyptians were of course not deterred from asking or demanding additional E. Pounds or Euros, if not for them, for their horse. But even regarding their horses, there is a big bulletin board at the entrance to the temple complex (which I read, but was ignored by others in their rush to stay with the group) that is a dedication to a rich English lady who set up a foundation for the perpetual care of these herd of horses pulling tourists, to be properly housed, fed, shod, as also to get veterinary care.
The Temple of Horus was of course (as are all the others) properly impressive for all of us to ooh & aah, take more photographs and be amazed all over again at the ancient culture. No point in describing the contents and peculiarities of each of the many temples and tombs individually.
One positive aspect of this city of horse carriages is that it is cleaner than previously noticed native habitations. I actually saw people sweep and wash with water hoses their streets and places in front of their shops or homes. Logically, with so many horses leaving their urine and droppings wherever day in and day out, the whole place would quickly become a stable knee deep in excrement that even Hercules would not be able to clean, as in one of his seven tasks.
Upon returning to our boat, we had a leisurely quiet day, waiting our turn to go through the locks, which we did at "Esna", but already after dark. I took a long shower and then lounged on the deck under a hazy sky most of the afternoon, while others left to do more shopping in the city. For the final night on the boat, there was a party after supper for which many bought native traditional clothing. Frankly, I was amazed at how spendthrift some tourists are. I too was tempted to at least buy something to fit in, but decided not to - everything was pricey, and when and where am I going to ever again get an opportunity to wear it?!
To be continued.
Ata.

I got nothing

Wow! I have never been much of a writer or a blogger, but you all are posting such fascinating stories and remarkable updates that I might just be converted! Ata - what a trip, and your descriptions keep me reading like I haven't read since the Da Vinci Code. I can see the scenery, and it's not what I imagined. I thought all of Egypt was like the road to Abu Simbet, but apparently the Nile Valley is different entirely. I relate to the manual labor there - it was the same way in Vietnam, where the workers with conical hats labored in the rice fields bent over all day. Their "technology" were water buffalo. I've always wanted to go to Egypt. Perhaps you'll take us all back some day to spend more time at your favorite sites and introduce them to all of us kids. I have to admit I am a little disappointed by the local aversion to alcohol, but at least we would have even more reason to eat plenty of dark chocolate.... Half-marathon runners - you guys are incredible. Dobrina and I have been huffing and puffing on our 2-mile runs this week. You guys are naturals, but we have some training to do before we all do a half together. And way to go Sophia! Thanks for all the notes and stories - keep 'em coming! Ian

My my my Ata!

My my my Ata, what an adventure. I had casually heard from my siblings that you had made a posting about your trip to Egypt. Well, I've never really been a huge computer/internet surfer outside the office so I am just now getting to your blog. And look at you, six entries and they're all awesome. Please don't stop. I am tremendously enjoying every piece of your story. Feel free to describe even more detail.

So, how grand was Abu Simbel? I can’t wait to see your pictures. I hear what you are saying about south of the city being barren. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the driest inhabited places on the earth. The last drought lasted 6 years. That is crazy. What is up with the 5000 year old farming too? Wow, that is truly amazing. Keep the stories coming. I love each and every one of them. By the way Ata, you are an excellent writer. I truly enjoy "hearing" your story. It’s like I’m there by your side. Your creative translation of the days events has often made me laugh out loud. Thanks.

As for the rest of my dear family, here is what Sophia and I have been up to this last weekend. To start off, Greg and Maggie came down for the weekend to run the half marathon (as Greg noted in his earlier post). Peter came over and we stayed in and watched TV. Saturday morning we were at Sophia's 9:00am soccer game. She won. I think the score was 3-0. Then Sat afternoon we went to check out the race course along the Potomac River. Afterwards we swung by the hotel where the race was being organized to pick up our packets which includes our bib number, official race t-shirt and an assortment of junk.

Following packet pickup, we took a short tour of the Viet Nam, Korean and Albert Einstein memorials, snatched some ice cream from Maggie Moo's, and made our way to Peter's apartment for the traditional pre-race spaghetti dinner. Bed time was early that night as we had to be up at 5:30am for a 7:00 start.

All I can say is Sophia is a trooper because the poor kid had no choice in the matter. That alarm clock rang at 5:30 and I was dragging her butt out of bed with the rest of us. She held in there like a champ. Way to go girl. I was in high spirits and I think Greg and Maggie were too. We headed out to the race. It was really cold at 6:30 and pretty much all of us runners (there were 500 of us) were shivering from the cold and anticipation- or was it nerves? The race was very long but steady. We finished in 2hrs 8min. Just under 10 min miles. I wouldn't say it was the toughest run I've ever ran, but it was by no means easy. My lower body was sore pretty much the rest of the day. I think Maggie felt a little like me whereas Greg was completely fine.

All the way home the Sirens of the hot tub were calling to us like we were Odysseus’ sailors- and we obliged readily. After much rest and relaxation we headed to Sophia's second soccer game of the weekend. This game was tough as the other team marched right down the field and scored in about 5 minutes. We were shocked and amazed. We couldn’t remember the last time another team scored on us first. That quickly woke the ladies up. Our girls (by the way their name is the Green Dragons) came back and won the game 3-1. All you can eat Chinese dinner was the reward Sunday night as each of us kicked back, stuffed ourselves and reminisced about our accomplishments of the day.

Monday morning, yesterday, I dropped Sophia off at school, Greg and Maggie off at the airport, and headed to work. All in all, I'd have to say it was one of the best weekends of my life.
That's it from here.
Love you all.
Jack

Egypt - an education - part 6

Let me now tell you about the river boats.
Each boat is almost a duplicate of all the others, it differs only in the internal design of the lobby and lounge areas as also the cofiguration of the upper sun deck with the swimming pool and jacuzzis that I could see from the deck of our boat named "Orchestra" - perhaps also in their dining and recreational rooms (which were not visible to me). At each location there were anywhere from 30 to over 50 boats tied up and down the shore at one time. The boat nearest the shore has to allow all the passengers of the other boats tied to it in parallel to pass through it. At one time we were number 7 and thus had to pass through the lobbies of the other 6 boats to get to ours. At another time we were number 2 and had a constant train of interesting passengers parading through our lobby to and from the city tours. The whole world seems to have moved to these boats - all countries and races from far and wide speaking a Babylon of languages.
The boats are 3 storied with an upper deck, and dining area just bellow the water level - on the floors in between are the two passenger cabins (by the way I was always alone, but for an additional fee - on the boat, on the train and in the hotel). These boats have a very shallow draft (the river is no more than 3 meters deep on average), and are just barely able to pass under the bridges, and when passing through the locks (there were two of them on our northbound voyage), just narrow enough to leave a foot clearance on either side. Thus, because of the limitations by the bridges and locks, the boats are almost clones of each other.
I chose not to go swimming in the pool (though I did bring swimming trunks with me) and just enjoyed lounging around, watching the girls cavorting in their flimsy suits or sunning themselves. Actually, there was not much sun to be seen (which did not prevent some people from getting a bad sunburn). To my disappointments regarding the present situation in Egypt, was added the appalling air pollution - and I mean throughout the length of the Nile river (which is virtually the entire populated area of Egypt). Wherever you have factories they belch through their smokestacks a continuous thick column of black soot and what have you. The trucks and the boats just add to this with their own diesel exhausts. The field burning was also there but not as bad smelling. Most of the time, when resting, I preferred to stay in the air conditioned and filtered cabin or hotel room. Though there were never any clouds in the sky, the hazy sun could barely be seen through the thick smog (the exception was on the last day in Cairo - perhaps that day the wind was blowing it away from us).
I'll call it a day for now and will continue after my guests tomorrow continue on their vacation trip.
Perhaps the next installation will be on Monday or Tuesday next.
Ata.
P.S.: I hope that this is not boring to you.

Egypt - an education - part 5

We are still moored at the city of Assuan and the next morning (actually already at 3:00AM) awakened to take an extra excursion (those who wanted to for an extra $130.- and I felt it worth the money) by bus to the temple Abu Simbel that was cut up into manageable cubes and moved to above the Nasser lake that the dam created, otherwise it would now be under water. The project was at that time internationally financed, and let me tell you - it was no small deal! Our bus was second in line of a convoy exceeding 20 buses, that sped for 3 hours through the desert to the upper shore of the lake where the temple now stands in all its majesty.
From the city south, there is nothing but desert but not sandy as I expected - nothing but rocks and gravel - and not a blade of grass or cactus or brush like in the US South West. Barren, and I mean really BARREN!
Of course, when you have 20 or more buses arriving almost at the same time on any one sight, the crowded condition around the temple is just too much, not to even mention the impossible situation inside, to be able to see anything up close or hear the explanations of the tour guides. All in all it was still worth every penny.
You may wonder why a convoy - perhaps for safety reasons as we were told, but I doubt it. Personally I think that having only two visits at the site (one in the morning and one in the evening with a similar number of tourists), each lasting only one to one and a half hours at the site itself, it is easier and more manageable for the authorities to control, as well as shorter work hours for them.
Another 3 hour journey back to Asswan and after supper on the boat a much needed rest and sleep.
In the morning another short excursion to the nearby quarry where we viewed the unfinished obelisk still half embraced by the bedrock, but abandoned because it developed a fatal crack before it could be extracted. It would have been the largest ever made. I find it amazing that in those times the ancient technology was able to raise and transport such huge and heavy masses of stone, first out of the quarry, down to the river, and then again to its designated site wherever to put it upright. With what we have at our disposal now, it would seem to me to be impossible. One of the Pharaohs, who decided to erase all traces of his predecessor from temples, statuary and written records, tried without success to also topple his obelisk - he had to satisfy himself with hiding it by building a wall around it high enough for it not to be seen.
While we had lunch back on the boat, it lifted anchor and we floated leisurely down the Nile to our next destination "Kom Ombo", about which in the next installment.
Ata.

Holy Moses!!

Wow, Ata -- what an experience! I am riveted by your accounts, so keep them coming! I can empathize with your tourist-trap stories, as our experience in parts of SE Asia were similar. There are only so many ways to politely say "no, thank you" until you are forced to scream at them "NO!" and run away. :) I LOVE your story about the guy wanting to sell you "nothing" (I hear you can buy that on Amazon.com too!).
Ian says that his co-worker/friend Mike will be at your place on Sunday (tomorrow morning) -- don't sweat being a tour guide. Just take them for a walk around the cobbled streets of downtown, by the river, up to the palace, etc. Go out to lunch and call it good! They're probably getting into tourist overload and will relish some down-time -- remember, they're on vacation! :)
It's Saturday morning here and I am pretty sure I have become mom, in her hey-day. Remember how she'd be up at the crack of dawn? And on a Saturday morning she'd be talking to Aunt Joann on the phone? Well, regardless of the time I go to bed, and despite pulling the shades down and the curtains across, here I am at 6:30am typing to you guys. Ian puts up with me talking to him for about 30 min then politely kicks me out of bed.
We have a Cinco de Mayo party to go to tonight -- do you all remember my friend Marcie from residency? She's very lively, brown hair, really sweet; she was one of the two greeters at my wedding? Anyway, her b-day is today and every year she throws herself a party. She's originally from Texas so her parents Fed-Ex a huge box of tamales up for the party (she's vegetarian so we get "bean and cheese" and chicken). Her party has grown each year so she's farmed out some of the chores and Ian and I are in charge of making "horchata" -- Mike, help me out here: it's some type of rice drink in which rice has to be soaked overnight, then you add vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon. I have no idea how it's going to turn out so am hoping that whoever is in charge of margaritas is in better shape!
We have some additional gardening to do this weekend. Last Sunday we took a poll of our neighbors (whoever happened to pass in front of our house) and decided to pull out a big tree that was by the front door; now we're deciding what to put in its stead. We're also planning to hoist the queen-size bed out of the second story window (Ian has some small corded rope) and lower it down two flights to the patio where we'll place it in the new bedroom -- that ought to be amusing! (Now I get all of the those jokes about falling pianos!)
That's the latest here -- love to all!

Egypt - an education - part 4

Enough negative and not so pleasant aspects of life in Egypt for now - but keep in mind that no matter where, the conditions I have described are in general present everywhere.
When we arrived by train in Assuan, we went by bus on a sightseeing tour of the high dam that Russia helped finance. To my amazement (though I shouldn't have been surprised, since Nasser and Tito were great friends and leaders at that time of the third world "uninvolved countries" (forgot the proper nomenclature) for the then Union in a sense, of African, Asian and S. American countries where they were spreading socialism/Communism, supposedly friendlier from the Soviet Union), I spied the affixed large iron plate on the bridge over the river commemorating the builder as "Maribor" and "Litostroj" from Yugoslavia (actually Slovenia, but at that time it was all Yugoslavia). Apparently, a good proportion of the bridgework, locks, turbines and other steelwork was provided by Slovenia as well as technical knowhow. I was told that many Slovenians workers stayed there for years. Near the dam site itself stands an enormous concrete sculpture (probably 4 or 5 hundred feet high, perhaps more) commemorating in Arabic and Cyrillic writing the friendly cooperation between the Soviet Union and Egypt in this gigantic project.
The positive aspect of the dam is that it provides huge amounts of electricity and of course water for irrigation - the negative side is that many archeological sites disappeared below the lake and the river no longer floods the farm land to regularly and naturally enrich the soil. The lake is gradually silting up, and the farmlands are now dependent on expensive artificial fertilization.
Also, whereas before, the river was like a muddy Mississippi, now it has a clear greenish hue, more pleasant to the eye. (The same thing happened to the Colorado river after the dams were built on it.)
On returning from the dam to the city of Asswan, we boarded the river boat and were assigned our rooms for the duration of the float down the Nile. Later that day, we had an excursion on the river on the local traditional sail boats the "feluka". My luck was that I was on the one that got stuck on a sand bar and it took a few crewmen to wade knee deep (no fear of nonexistant crocodiles here) to push and rock it off its sandy mooring - there was no wind and eventually a motor boat took us in tow.
By the way, the food on board was varied and good, even delicious - you know my propensity to overeat where you have self service (breakfast, dinner and supper), however, no matter how careful we all were not to drink their water (we all drank exclusively bottled water) or eat anything that might have been washed in their water ie: salad and fruit that has not its own peel (like banana, orange, grapefruit), with the exception of two or three, we all had diarrhea the entire time in Egypt - some were even heaving, had a headache and temperature (I only had the runs for a few days thanks to my stock of dark chocolate which firms things up. Others had hard whisky with them to disinfect their stomach, mostly unsuccessfully) - the guide however, was kindheartedly supplying us with medication to alleviate the situation. I suspect that in most cases, the kitchen and the help in it was not too clean. The other possibility (also very probable) was that the bottled water was just water from their faucets poured into the plastic bottles and sold to us - it is not difficult to reseall the plastic cap, besides, the waiter or whoever brought you the water opened it himself for you and poured it into your glass at the table.
I would have preferred to drink beer or sodas and juices, which were no more expensive than the water, but it was seldom available and of course, alcohol is not sanctioned by Muslims, thus is was available for tourists only on board or in the hotel, where we returned mostly to sleep.
Next installment later.
Ata

Egypt - an education - part 3

OK - more observational commentary:
There must be, and actually are some modern (cement and fired brick) buildings in the cities' downtown bushiness districts and tourist (hotel) areas, on the whole though in the multi million populated Cairo as well as other cities, the people live in hovels (the worst parts of Harlem in NY are in better shape). The buildings are still mostly built from mudd bricks and in various stages of construction or collapse. Our tour guide did point out that their tax structure is such that until the building is not whole and complete, no property taxes are levied on it. No wonder that most of the drab buildings have people living on the ground floor and a story or two above, and over them, bare, partial mudd brick walls stare into the skies threatening collapse at any time as if they had just recently survived an earthquake. These unfinished buildings are not of recent construction, they are not 5 or 10 years old, but generations of families have been living in them. The situation in the countryside is perhaps even more pitiful where, next to the dilapidated mudd 'buildings', people and donkeys together live in lean-tos made of reeds or palm fronds.
"Where is Mosses to demand: 'Let my people go!' in this land of laboring peasants and makers of mudd bricks - that hasn't changed in 5 thousand years?"
The sanitation in the cities, as in the countryside, is something else! The best way to describe it is that they never heard of it. Garbage everywhere - in the alleyways, on the city streets and country roads, market places, parks, railroad stations, canals, etc. (exception is strictly where tourists stay - there it is beautifully landscaped with palms, shrubbery, green grass, and flower beddecked bougainvilleas and oleanders). The water canals that are everywhere are virtually an open sewer system into which stores, households, etc., routinely dump all their garbage. Someplaces (where bridges over them are low) the wind piles up the non decomposable refuse into a big floatable mass of plastic bottles and wrappers as well as dead animals. On two separate instances I observed same - once a dead cow, another time two dead horses in stages of advanced decomposition - and no vultures, hyenas or crocodiles anywhere to naturally dispose of same, only flies. Not far from there children were playing and swimming, and nearby a woman was washing clothes in that canal.
By the way, since the Asswan dam was built, there are NO crocodiles or hippopotamuses left in Egypt in the river Nile below the Nasser lake - and above it is already Sudan.
More in the next installation.
Ata

Egypt - an education - part 2

Hey Greg, good luck on the marathon and say Hello to Maggie for me too.
And yes, I did get the photos developed yesterday and am not displeased with the results in spite of the throw-away camera I had. Sooner or later you will get to see them.
OK - the Egypt adventure was with a busload of Slovenian tourists for the entire 8 days and we got to know each other pretty well,
After viewing the great pyramids and the Sphinx we were driven to a selected shop where they make papyrus the old fashioned way and of course offered for purchase finished products with hieroglyphs painted on - they were beautiful but pricey, and I have no need for more brick-a-brack to poses. The same thing was repeated at another shop where they make perfume, I didn't even bother to get out of the buss and just waited for the others to return from their shopping. Apparently, a lot of the Slovenian tourists spent a lot of money there and elsewhere - I guess I was with some rich and important executives and their families who take many vacations all over the world.
After lunch we visited the Cairo museum - now that's worth seeing! All the ancient Egyptian riches still in existence are sheltered there and many are on display. I could have spent there a couple of days, but we were rushed and guided through it like on a conveyor belt. Returning to the hotel we packed our baggage and boarded sleeping cars on a train for an all night ride to the Assuan dam on the upper Nile. Supper and breakfast was served on the train airline style. I regretted that the trip was at night and was thus deprived of viewing the countryside on the way - but was compensated by the last three hours of the trip already being in daylight hours. The track kind of parallels the river Nile and the main road with lush agricultural land, full of green fields in various stages of planting, growth, and harvest. And I have never seen so many palm trees (mostly date palms) everywhere, some places just individuals or a small cluster scattered among the farm plots or around buildings, but also whole forests of them elsewhere.
It being early in the morning, the locals were already out tending their fields and it took me back 5 thousand years. I was shocked that there is no mechanization evident - no mechanical plows, harvesters etc. Even I had a grass cutter (lawn mower) and a rototiller for my little patch of agarden. The people work with hoes and sickles and ride small donkeys, or have this feeble animal pull a 2 or 4 wheeled wagon (at least the tires a rubber now). Men, as also children, work bent down to the ground, or by squatting cut wheat, rice, clover/alfalfa, etc. with a small hand sickle and make sheaves to be later picked up and hauled away. (Later, on the return trip, I did see an occasional thrashing machine - still, the whole operation of farming is primitive. Even the harvest of sugar cane was being hauled by donkey carts, though an occasional regular tractor was seen at the gathering or collection points for loading onto rail road cars).
More later.
ata

Wow Ata - what an experience indeed. I thought it was bad when I took that west carribean cruise years ago and went ashore to St. Martin. The peddlers were drooling as we deboarded - but luckily I managed to fend off their attempts to rob me. It sounds like the Egyptians were much more aggressive. Good for you for not shelling out more money than they deserved. Did you at least get the picture, or did they keep it?

Were you allowed to climb on the outside of the pyramids? Tell us more. Did you come straight home after the pyramid visit? What else was worth seeing? Were you with mostly Slovenian's in your group?

I'm flying down to D.C. tonight with Maggie - to stay at Jack's and then all three of us will run the Potomac River run half-marathon on Sunday. Strangely, the run starts at 7:00 AM - so we'll be finished by 10:00 at the latest - and then relax until Maggie and I fly back Monday morning. Maggie and I have been training 5 days a week for months, so we're eager to get this overwith. I'm going to continue training for another half-marathon in October (and maybe one sooner), but from now on I'm going to develop a 3-day-a-week training program; 5 days a week is too time-consuming.

Love you all,
Greg

Egypt - an education !

I'm just getting back to my routine after a much needed rest from my trip and am now ready to let you know all about it.
The flight was on Turkish Air and we stopped in Istanbul - and wasted a few hours at the airport before the connection to Cairo where we arrived in the afternoon and were driven to a fancy 5* hotel in Giza (I never had such luxury), buffet dinner and then American movies on TV (other channels were in Arabic and/or French) - too bad that I had such a big room and none to share it with.
In the morning, breakfast and a bus ride to the most famous triple pyramids and the Sphinx (no more than 15 minutes away). The first impression was awesome! Most of us bought a ticket to go inside the great pyramid - but I don't recommend it to anyone with claustrophobia. The long ascending passage was crowded and tight (almost impossible to pass people descending), steep, and stuffy beyond belief- If you are there with only a handful of people it would be OK, but the air starts to give out when you have a crowd like in the NY subway during rush hours. When I finally emerged into the sunshine again I was exhausted and my legs were cramping - the climb was much steeper and longer than I imagined.
Outside of course we were set upon right from the start with peddlers wanting to sell you souvenirs. And believe me, the natives are aggressive and will not take a NO for an answer. I finally relented an agreed to get on a camel to have the guy take my photo (with my camera) for an agreed price - "No problem, ANY price is OK, it is my gift!" was their regular sales pitch. I just wanted a fast picture taken (I think it was for 5 Egyptian pounds), but far from that agreement, the picture taker then wanted 50 pounds, the tender of the camel wanted pounds too, as did the owner of the camel. When I held out my 5 pound they refused to take it and wanted more and were brazen enough to wanting to physically go through my wad of Egyptian pounds themselves. I walked away but they followed and insisted on more money but finally disgustingly took the 5 pounds. I'm sure that I left the place with some Pharaoh's curses following me. I learned that the others had similar experiences, and this was just the beginning of the gauntlet you have to run through the persistent, lying, cheating, robbing and obnoxious natives attacking you everywhere with their questionable wares. For the tourists, the authorities actually design each and EVERY place so that the the exits from any temple, or tomb complex is to have the tourists no other way to return to their buses than through ALL of the souvenir shops (sometimes there are a few dozen in a row), and ALL their hawkers are insistent that you buy something from them. Replies like: "No", "No thank you", "I don't want it", "I don't need it", "I already have it", go right over their heads. They will force something into your hand or pocket and insist that it is a "gift", but woe to you if you believe them and then don't give them something and even more so if it is not as much as they want. I told one guy that I was not interested and he asked me what I wanted, I said "nothing" - his reply was, as he was dragging me into his shop, "I got nothing, let me show you!"

To be continued - if you want more.
Ata

Home Sick

Hi All.

Sounds like everyone is doing well. I'm home sick today (and yesterday) with some type of chest infection. I think the Nyquill has helped stop things from getting worse and I hope time will help me feel better.

Mike, yeah sorry about this B-day Mason, the gift I ordered was supposed to be shipped on April 4 but still hasn't arrived. I've called and they are working out the issue. So, looks like both an uncle and an aunt have a very belated birthday present for Mason.

I guess all is well here. Dobrina, I'm very excited that you are learing French, way cool. I hope everyone else is good, I just wanted to pop in and say hi. Off to bed for me now. Much love, Pete

Monday night

Hello dear family! It's about 11:10pm here and I've just finished up a little internet surfing and will be heading to bed but wanted to check in with everyone. Ian and I spent the weekend with my friend Ginger (we made these AMAZING chocolate chocolate chip brownies with cherries which we used as a base for chocolate brownie ice cream and topped with magic shell -- then we watched the Dukes of Hazzard movie -- it was just like piling on the badness...) But, to work off some of those calories, we also did a bit of gardening. In fact, we completely removed one of the big trees in front of our house and replaced it with shrubs. That was the weekend.
Tonight we played a board game, NAFTA-rail (Ata and Greg will both be familiar with it) and moved all of my studio stuff upstairs in preparation for making the room downstairs into a guest bedroom -- very exciting! Ata, it turns out that Beth and Nathan will be here for about three days the week before you arrive, so they'll get to test-drive the room. Ian's friend Yoshio is coming up to Seattle from San Francisco to interview for a job in May, so he'll also stay with us for a couple of days. (Yoshio was the Japanese man who served as one of his groomsmen -- he's married with two kids and we'll be thrilled if they move to Seattle!)
I've been to two French classes so far (tres bien) and have been listening to the language CDs in the car. It is so fun! I haven't quite perfected the nasal french accent yet, though. I'll keep trying. (Ata, now we count spaces on the rail game in both Slovenian and French -- we'll teach you when you get here. :) )
I'd love to hear from Jaki and Mike on this blog sometime! Mike, I don't know what happened with Mason's b-day present. I looked into it and they never charged my credit card, so I'm not surprised now that it didn't arrive. :) I'll contact them and have them send it again. My apologies to Mason for a very belated b-day present!