Trip of a Lifetime

This was a fabulous trip; 2 months in China, a week in North Korea, a week in Hong Kong, and 2 weeks in Egypt.

China was a wonderful place.  It was relatively easy to get around, the metro systems were very simple and new so they were clean and ran on time. Yes, they got crowded, but hey, it is China!

Being in Beijing during Golden Week was amazing.  Watching people move like liquid down the street because there were so many of them.  Experiencing aggressive grandmas at the Terracotta Warriors, being hip checked out of the way so they could see.  (They were all about 4' 7" tall, so the only way they could see anything was to be at the rail!.  If you were taking a shot with your camera, they would barge into the shot and push you out of the way.  I understood, only the most aggressive could secure scarse resources, but, China doesn't seem to be wanting for much.

The biggest rant I have is that air quality in China is really appalling.  Beijing is really bad. Fall is supposed to be the "good" time for air, but I had to be masks that will strain out particulate that can embed themselves deep in your lungs.  Just what an asthmatic needs!

If China can clean up its environment and loosen its controls on individuals there will be no stopping its economic power and reach.  I hope the president elect takes notice of the sleeping Tiger there!

I encourage everyone to find some time to visit China.  The cuisine never got old, it is so varied and delicious, dumplings never fail to make me smile, ma po dofu never fails to make me think....Jeez this is so much better than mine, simple steamed and quick friend veggies highlight their tastiness, and pork in a bazillion different ways.  Ahhh, I love Chinese food.

Sigh!!

Our last day in Cairo

We awoke and Bill wanted to head to the market(s).  I was a bit concerned as there had been 2 attacks thus far in Cairo; one on policemen and a second on a Coptic church.  I was a bit concerned about being in touristic crowds.  We didn't bring maps with us, but had a general idea that the markets were in a certain direction.  We walked down a Main Street, July 26, and headed off to the southeast after hitting a park.  What we found as a completely local market.  We wandered in and there was a butchery area, with veal carcasses hanging, head, organs, and other assorted parts sitting on counters. There was no odor that sometimes butcher shops get.  There were electronic areas where they were selling rotary phones and fixing anything electronic you could need fixing.  Cell Phones, cell phone accessories, children's toys, clothing, and then furniture.

This was the most God-awful furniture I have seen . Huge over-stuffed pieces that belonged in Saddam Hussein's palace. Lots of gold embellishments...Think Trump.  All out on the street, not in a storefront.  Cars and trucks whizzing by, the bicycle banana man pedaling his fruit in a huge pile on the back of his bike.

We wandered around checking everything out, and avoiding "boring streets" and choosing only those streets that looked "interesting".  My stomach started cramping and I thought that it would be better to go back to the hotel by cab, than walk around some more and possible have to locate a toilet where there aren't any.

The cab ride was uneventful, and we got back to the hotel in one piece.

**final thoughts on Egypt**

Egypt needs more touristic infrastructure.  They have the basics, but are lacking in an integrated travel sector.  If they had an tourism ministry that could encourage less graft and baksheesh and more standardized approach to the antiquities.  Straightening out the Egyptian museum should be priority number 1.  What a waste of the treasures.

The Pyramids of Giza, December 13

We decided that we wanted to take the metro to Giza, which is a suburb (???) of Cairo.  On the metro from Tahrir Square, it is only 6 stops.  Once we got out at Giza, we were totally at sea.  There were the usual touts hawking rides for usury rates, "helpful" people telling us where to go, tons of everyday commerce going on, utter confusion!

We were given a tip to cross the street and next to a mosque were buses went to Giza.  We stood there for a while looking utterly confused and confounded, when a man in a white trench coat started talking to us.  He said he was a chef in Giza and on his way home.  He would help us get to the Pyramids.  We get into the Cairo version of a dollar van and pass our money up.  The man is talking to us about getting camels or horses for our visit and that we should go to the government sponsored stables as they can't haggle, they have to give you a fair price.  Bill, realizes that he is a tout, he tells us we have to change vans, and we jump into another one this time the man pays for our fair, 1EP, about 5 cents.  We get out in a residential area, and he leads us to a government stable.  Now his friend starts to sell us a carriage/camel/horse ride to see the pyramids.  I am not interested in riding a horse around as bad things have happened to me on horseback....falling off, it is a long way to the ground!

He keeps dropping the price, so we finally give in and for about $25 US we get a carriage, driver, and admission to the Pyramids.  This deal all starts to smell bad when we go up to the exit booth, and another tout jumps into our carriage to buy our tickets, and the tout that jumps off, heads into the exit booth, comes out with tickets that we never see or touch, and then hands them to the guard at the exit, who happened to turn them over which revealed a couple of Egyptian bill notes.  Ahh, we are going in the back door with help from our "friends".  We enter on foot and our driver and horse have to go around, we start to wonder if we were really hosed big time, but the carriage appears, we ascend and off we go at a good clip.

To go from the Sphinx to the other 3 Pyramids, you must go up this rather steep hill.  The horse had a tough time hauling our fat asses up that hill.  The driver giving the horse the whip to pick up the pace, I was really embarrassed!  We shoot past Cheop's Pyramid and head to the stretch of sand that is adjacent to the other two Pyramids.  We get down, wander about, and have numerous camel drivers ask if we want our photo with a camel/on a camel/fucking a camel, etc. Politely as we could, we decline.  Then over come the photo posers.  Let me take your photo with your finger on the top, pushing on the side, walking over, sitting on, etc.  All politely declined.  The driver takes a couple of shots of us in the carriage...all pretty bad....and I snap one of him and the horse's ass!

 This is the steep hill up to the 3 Pyramids.

 This long low building is the Cheop's Solar Barque Museum

 This is the Pyramid at the top of the hill

 Here is the 3rd and smallest of the pyramids plus the bonus camel

 Bill striking a pose

 Obligatory Selfie

 Carriage shot

Driver

Horse's Ass

We head for a spin around the smallest pyramid and then head down to the Sphinx.  Here is where I really felt bad for the horse.  The descent down the hill was really tough on the horse, it was skidding down digging their back hooves in to keep the carriage from pushing them down the hill at a faster rate then they wanted to go. We didn't see this on our carriage but in others descending down.  There was one really bad case where the carriage held 2 men and the horse was trying to go up hill.  The horse wanted none of that!  The driver kept whipping the horse, but no go.  The horse kept backing up driving the carriage into the wall.  The two men in the carriage did their best not to look terrified!

 I wanted to get to the other side of the Sphinx so that I could get the sun behind me for a better shot.

The edge of the Cheop's pyramid.

We headed into the Cheop's Solar Barque Museum, which was far better than I expected it would be. What put me off at first is that you need to put these canvas slippers over your shoes.  These slippers are so full of dust and sand that it is a joke that they may be keeping the barque clean.  The Museum is on several levels, the pits from which it was recovered, and then 3 level above that to view the boat from below, along side, and from above.  Unfortunately, they did not allow photos without paying for the privilege to take them.  The boat is tied together, there are no nails.  It is made from Cedar and I am guessing Lebanese red cedar.  I was fascinated by the way that the boat was bound together.  There were holes and slots in most of the boards through which the ropes were thread and wrapped.  With a solid wetting, the boat may swell and float down the Nile again!

We headed across the road and then over the sand to the west side of the Spinx.  Unfortunately, that was the exit and there was no way to get a good picture.  So we went back to the road.  There were a few short walls which one created a barrier for Bill.  He tripped and fell over it in a face plant in the sand.  The impression was unbelievable!  You could see the outlines of the button placket of his shirt, the folds in his trousers and his belt buckle in the sand.  We had a good laugh about that.  We had to climb over a higher wall to get back to the road, which made us both a little more nervous given the previous difficulty!  Needless to say, there were no more falls.

After we exited, we hadn't the slightest idea of how to get to a metro to get back into town.  We were approached by a young man, could not have been more than 10, who asked in English if we wanted to go to the metro.  He then quoted us 5EP for a seat.  We agreed, and were then asked if we wanted the entire bench, and if we did, then we needed to pay another 5EP.  This was a small minivan.  There were 12 people crammed into this as we went hurdling toward a metro station.  The young boy told 2 teenagers to look after us and get us to the metro after we left the van.  They took their charge seriously.  We got to the metro station, of course, it was not the same one that we used that morning, but hey, it was ok, just a few stops further down the line.

As we head into central Cairo, these 2 young men, yelled out, Madam, this is Sadat Maidan, which is Tahrir Square.  We thanked them and told them that we were going 1 more stop.  We decided to try this pigeon place.

This pigeon place has no English name.  We knew it's address but that was all.  After 2 passes down the street, we finally found a place that thought might be it!  The only thing that the restaurant does is stuffed pigeons. You just have to tell the waiter how many.  The meal comes with hummus, pitas, and 2 different types of salad and a mug of bird broth.  The sides were delicious and a wonderful prelude to the pigeons themselves.  You just had to rip them open with your hands. This was made comfortable because there was a sink right behind me where you could wash your hands pre and post meal.  I just split the birds in two and pulled out the rice and then tore into the meat.  It was a really nice meal.  Was this the best meal we ate in Egypt?  NO, but it certainly was one of the most memorable.  The broth was really tasty.  Coupled with the rice from the birds, a trip into heaven.

 When all the tables were full, the waiters pull closed a gate and people lined up outside the gate (one of the only orderly queues we saw in Egypt).

It is clearly a neighborhood place, because right to my immediate right on the floor, someone had thrown some tidbits for this orange cat!  The cat was very happy!

We left full, sated, happy, and just thrilled to have found that place.  It is in Lonely Planet Egpyt.

 Carnage after the meal

 Broth and some birds

 Plate of the 5 we ordered

 Hummus and pickles

Pita and green herb salad

A truly memorable meal in Cairo.  If you ever go, I recommend trying to find it.

Monday, December 12

We try our luck again in finding the United Airlines office.  This time, we take the exact address with us, I know, I know, rookie mistake.  We find the place, highly disguised, with a big sign above Canada Air.  They were unable to help but did tell us that we needed to contact the STAtravel to make any alterations.  They allowed us to use their wifi to initiate that conversation, but it quickly became clear that this was not going to be possible to change or get credit.  We finally were able to understand that they could only make a change for the same route, Beijing to NYC, so we burned it.  The round trip was only about $25 more than the original price for a one way...

We decided to head to Zamalek Island and visit the Cairo tower. We walked over one of the 3 bridges that connect to the island from the east side of the Nile River.  We then meandered around the grounds of the tower.  When I say around, I truly mean that.  The grounds are walled off and we couldn't find how to enter!  At long last we found the access road and made our way to the tower.  The access road was very leafy with trees and scrubs, but just off to the side on each side of the road was rubble and trash.  I can't figure out why the government allows tourist sites to become so trash filled.  It wouldn't be difficult to hire a few people to clean up these areas and put out a couple of trash cans.

 View from the top of the tower

 Our destination

 The washed basketball courts and below the haze and pyrami

The tower is a large lotus blossom tipped phallus. It rises majestically above all of Cairo, I am assuming to assert the country's manhood.  We take the elevator up to the observation deck.  You immediately know you are not in the states.  The barrier between you and kingdom come curves outward.... Not inward to prevent access, but outward as to invite one of Darwin's testers to crawl out for a selfie. Which we did see.  A young man was sitting on the barrier and only came off when someone came over and half-heartedly yelled at him to get down.  I can only guess that was the content of the exchange as it happened in Arabic.

The view was spectacular.  I could see the entire city stretching out before us and to the southwest, the tips of the pyramids poking out of the haze that surrounds Cairo. Below us was a HUGE sports complex.  Tennis courts, basketball courts, a dressage ring, soccer fields, etc.  The irony was there was someone hosing a basketball court down, but the rest of the city was covered in dirt and grit.  It would take so little to clean up the city.  They could use the Nile water rather than potable water and take a block or two a day and clear the grit from the facade, windows, doorways, etc.  That is my biggest take away from Cairo, the eternal grittiness, literally, of the city.

After the observation deck we hit the cafe a floor below, well, only after a fruitless trip to the revolving restaurant directly below the deck.  The door slid open when we approached, Bill took a walk through trying to find someone, and no one was there.  So another half floor below was the cafe.  We got a good sampling of shishies and a salad.  One observation that I made was Egyptian Feta cheese has the texture of soft tofu and kind of looked like tofu.  Bright white and an easily mashable texture.  Not as sharp as other fetas and it worked very well in the salad.

After lunch we walked around the island on the west side trying to find the Marriott.  It was reported to be a great place to get a drink.  Originally, it was a palace for Queen Eugenie of France and it was converted into a hotel.  There were 2 wings, an old wing and a new wing.  The new wing had zero, and I mean zero, character.  Soviet bloc style painted tan.  The old wing, this is where you would want to stay.  Beautiful Arabic style.  We had a drink and some cookies in the cafe, before migrating down to Omar's Cafe.  I stayed in the Cafe while Bill explored the casino.

We walked back to the hotel, I had a lie down and Bill explored the multitude of casinos in the other nearby western hotels.  We ended up having Indian again at the Maharaja restaurant in the hotel.

The view of sunset from our balcony.

Sunday, December 11

We went out trying to find a United Airlines office to change our flight, or try to get credit for the unused return trip.  We couldn't find it!  We knew the street it should be on, but we didn't know if it was at ground level, or up on another floor.  There never was signage to let you know!

I was getting frustrated and tired, so we headed to the Ritz-Carlton to get something to eat.  We stumbled into their buffet luncheon.  OMG, what a spread.  From cooked to order meats, to a carvery station, to beautiful fish, to many vegetarian choices as well as many Egyptian choices.  Fuggetabout the dessert bar....

We sampled as much as we could, and then some.  Everything was absolutely delicious!  The bill came, and it was 200 EP each, now that is about 12USD.  Can you say WTF, all that for less than a cocktail in a not so fancy bar in Manhattan???

With bellies full, we decided to hit the Egyptian Museum.  I know it houses some of the worlds best treasure from the Pharoanic dynasties, but the place is a dump.  The lighting is awful, and forget about being able to read any of the descriptions that are in English.  You can't because the lighting is so bad.

Bill posited that any random choice of 15 items would be the centerpiece of a collect in any of the smaller US cities.  Here, sarcophagi were stacked 5 deep in cases so you couldn't see 3 through 5.  There was so little organization to the collection that it was just a overwhelming. There were cases upon cases of little items that were tucked between the wrappings of the mummies but none were identified.  It seemed that a curator with a color fixation organized the collection.  Let's put the blue things all together, and then over here the metallic things, and over here the stone stuff.  BAH.

I was hoping to spend a couple of days in there, we were out in about 2.5 hours.  Had to see the Tut exhibit, and that too was not well curated, but better lit.

We left and went back to the hotel for a lie down.  We ended up in the Pub again watching a Russian woman in a fur (it's 70 degrees) chat up this Englishman.  It was hilarious to me.  She had on skin tight pants and a spangled top however, this was a body that should not get that kind of attention.  She could drink though!  I left Bill to try his luck and went to bed!

Sniff, last day and back to Cairo, December 10

We were picked up and taken to the airport in Aswan at 12:30 pm.  The Aswan airport is a tiny one but it served its purpose in that it got us back to Cairo.

When we disembarked the plane, we were in the new terminal!  There was no scrum of cabbies, in fact we worried that we weren't going to find one.  We found a nice man who agreed to take us for a usury rate, by Egyptian standards of 120 EP about 6 USD.

He took us to the wrong hotel first, which is understandable, as it used to be a Hilton, but we finally got to the correct place.

Our room was wonderful it had a balcony and a Nile view....all of this courtesy of Marwa.  She really took care of us.  She called the room, had fruit sent to us, she called to check if there was anything that she could do for us.  Lots of personal service that would make us use this hotel again when in Cairo.

We ate at the Indian restaurant Maharaja.  It was a great mean.  With beer and food, it was still a bargain!

This was the view from our balcony.  The tall dark structure on the left is the Cairo tower, and the blazing lights are for a huge sports complex of football pitches, tennis courts, and several horse rings.  (We were able to see this when we went up the Cairo Tower later in the week)

Friday, December 9, Aswan

We slept docked at Kom Ombu and set sail for Aswan in the morning.

The views along the Nile were of ever encroaching desert sands.  Where earlier further north, the "green belt" extended further away from the Nile in both directions.  the sands on the right side were virtually right at the waters edge.  On the left, the greenery extended for a short distance, yards, not miles!

All along the waterway we heard donkeys braying and cows calling, as well as the putt-putting of agricultural irrigation pumps pulling water from the Nile for their crops.

**rant**
As evidence of city life showed itself on the banks, the signs of buildings became evident.  It seems that in all of Egypt nothing ever gets finished in terms of building trades.  There were thousands of buildings, (no exaggeration) that had re-bar sticking out of the top floor evident that the construction was incomplete.  This was true in Luxor as well as Aswan but especially true in Cairo.  I don't know if this is a symptom of their financial situation, or a cause.  There were entire communities where the tops of the buildings were sprouting steel hairs.  Many of these were unoccupied, but some had laundry hanging out.  It seemed so strange when there were many people living in shacks that could use a more substantial habitat.
**end rant**

We docked in Aswan and headed to Philae, a temple on an island.  This was a Roman ruin.  In fact, one of the most beautiful temples was one dedicated to Trajan.

 The sands are encroaching and getting closer to the Nile itself.

 You can see that the capitals are now no longer symbols of the unification of the north and south kingdoms, but more Roman in characteristics.

 There were numerous examples of Christian symbols carved into the stones in various locations

 This is Trajan's Temple.  Since he never visited before he died, the exterior of the temple was never finished it is still rough-hewn Rock.

We climbed back into the small boat that ferried us here and head back for our final dinner on board.

What was wonderful is that for the first time in trip, everyone got together on the upper deck and had a great discussion.  We then went to dinner and requested that the dining tables be assembled into a single large one and the fun resumed.  It was too bad that this happened on the last night.  Perhaps next time we can make it happen earlier!

Edfu and Kom Ombu, December 8

We sailed all night and went through the locks north of Edfu and by morning we were safely docked on the West side of the Nile at Edfu.  We went by Calishe (horse drawn carriage) to the site at Edfu of the Temple dedicated to Horus.

This is the western docking facility.

 These are the capitals of the temple remains

 Affectionately known as Big Bird, this is the statue of Horus at the entrance to the temple.

 This is the center of the temple, the holiest of Holmes, the solar barque that is to transport souls to the other side.

 The center figure is the king, and to his left and right are guiding Hori!

This is a partial view of the mud brick wall that surrounds the Temple.  One of the reasons it survived is that the sand covered almost 2/3 of it and thus preserved it very well.

Back into the carriages and return to the boat.  We set sail again this time for Kom Ombu which we should reach by nightfall.

We were able to visit the engine room during the afternoon sail.  The engine dates back to 1882, London.  It was fascinating to see these engines in action.  They seemed to be such small pistons, it was hard to imagine that they produced enough power to the dual paddle wheels.

 These pistons had to be oiled every half hour.  There were drip trays that channeled the engine oil into a large vat.  I don't know if they reused the oil.  The guy in charge of the engine room had very little English and I think that he indicated that they go through a 50 gal drum every couple of trips.

 You can see the housing for the paddle wheel under the name "Sudan"

This temple is dedicated to the crocodile deity. In fact, there were 2 entrances, one for a good God, and one for an Evil God.

 If you notice here, the renderings of people are less linear, they have butts and bellies.  This is the Greek influence and that they scaling that was used to incise the figures had to be altered because of height limitations.

 The figure on the left is the crocodile God of the underworld.

 We know that the center figure is the pharaoh because of the cartouche that is above his head.

 This was an interesting piece because there are 2 women attending pharaoh before one of the Horus Gods.

These are recurring figures in this temple.

We went to the mummified Crocodile Museum after this.  What an interesting place.  Because the temple was dedicated to Sekmet, the crocodile God, they were required to keep a Nile crocodile on the premises.  After the croc died, it was mummified.

 The above photos are self-evident

This one needs some explaining.  Every guard wants some baksheesh (tip) for doing a little or a lit.  In this case, he posed us around the museum and this was the only shot in which you could see us!
Baksheesh does not guarantee quality.