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
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
posted by Okorn Family at 12:53 AM
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