Tuesday in Muscat

Tuesday morning we woke and had breakfast inside the main house. We walked out of the guesthouse, through the kitchen, and into a breakfast room. We were able to look around the main floor at the different rooms, and it really was beautiful.

The breakfast room was octagonal with windows along one side and a view to the courtyard in the middle of the home on another. The rooms had gorgeous marble floors and beautiful, valuable artwork. The diningroom was huge with an immense table that ran the length of it. We did also notice that Suheil's artwork was showcased in this room, and it really looked great!

After breakfast, Ken stayed in the guesthouse as Kay's bug seemed to have passed its way on to him. Kenton and I followed Kay who was chauffered by Susan's driver into town where Kay went into the gallery to get some work done on a couple of projects she was working on with them.

Kenton and I went across the street to the museum there. In the museum, we saw photographs along with different objects that would have been found in Omani homes in the 1700s and 1800s. The photographs were especially interesting to me because so many of them looked as though they could have been taken yesterday except for cameras and vehicles etc... in the photos.

After the museum, Kenton and I went over to the Souq for more shopping. We weren't there long as it was HOT, around 110 degrees, and we were quickly feeling very tired...We headed back to the home of Princess Susan (only taking one wrong turn! Kenton did very well!), stopping at Pizza Hut to pick up some lunch.

Once back to the guest house, we opened up our pizza, and Ken, Kenton, and I were all midbite when one of the servants came in to let us know lunch was ready inside the main house....oops! So, we went in around 2pm (lunch on Princess time) and ate with Susan. We all sat once again at the large octagonal table with the large lazy Susan in the middle and had a vert nice lunch together.

While lunching, Susan asked if we would enjoy swimming at their family's private beach and then made arrangements with her driver to take us out there around 5pm when the sun would be less harsh.

The beach was beautiful and was set behind their 'beach house' which was much larger than most houses I have seen. The white sand beach led to the Gulf of Oman/Indian Ocean where we swam, looked for pretty rocks and shells, and found a hermit crab which we told Kay she had to leave on the beach. I hope the pictures give an idea of how beautiful it really was there.

After swimming, we had scheduled dinner at 7:30 with Susan, which turned into 8:30 (princess time again ;o) ) and we all enjoyed a nice dinner together again in the octagonal room. Princess Susan was a very gracious hostess and was very pleasant.

Monday - Going to Oman

Monday morning we got up early and headed out around 7:30am. Kenton got to take his turn driving and we were off to Oman! The border experience was interesting...we had to roll down the front windows because they are too tinted for Oman. The rest of it was pretty much going from this person to that, from this building to that building, in the car, out of the car, passports out, car insurance bought, Pizza Hut stop....then we were off again.

We did stop at an area where there were openfront small shops in a line and saw some Oriental rugs. Kenton and I got a great deal on a silk one there and now will be hauling that with us to Chicago!

After a couple of hours on the road, we made a stop at Ahmed's farm near Sohar. As Kay said, most fathers buy their new son a new puppy, Ahmed bought his son, Obaid, a farm. :o) Here we walked around for a bit, looking at the chickens, dog, donkey, banana and mango trees. Then, while we waited for our lunch (which was ordered and then picked up by a man I believe is the caretaker of the farm), Kay, Kenton, and I all took a dip in the pool out front.

The pool was still being filled - all fresh water, no chlorine - when we drove up. The temperature inside the pool felt wonderful as the water was from a well. Most of the water around here is HOT because it comes from above buildings and is heated by the sun all day....It was around 105 degrees the day we were there! We spent just under an hour swimming in the fresh water pool under the mango tree!

After eating our lunch (Lebanese style chicken and rice), we were once again on the road. A couple of hours later, we were in Muscat. At 7:30pm we went to the Bait Muzna Gallery where we attended the exhibition for an Austrian jewelry artist and met those that worked at the gallery as well as Princess Susan Al Said who owns the gallery.

Let me tell you, Kenton and I knew who Susan was as soon as she entered the room. She is tall and beautiful, a former high fashion model, and very regal. We got a kick out of listening to her and watching her!

Once we left the gallery, we were off to the home of Princess Susan where we stayed in her guest house. Our view from the guest house overlooked the guest pool and then beyond. We have some good pictures of both the guest house as well as the main house.

Sunday in Dubai

Sunday morning we had the chance to see where Ken works in the Fairmont. It is a beautiful building; the lobby/main area was amazing. We met many of the people Ken in the office, including Ahmed Al Mansoori, Ken's former student who brought Ken and Kay to Dubai.

Kay had not been feeling well (curse of the pharoah still...) so she stayed home and made arrangements for us with NetTours for the night. We spent some time packing for our trip to Oman and getting ready for our tour, then headed downstairs at 3 to be picked up by our NetTours Land Cruiser.

First on the tour was dune bashing! I don't know if any of the pictures will really do it justice. The 4 of us were in our own Land Cruiser, driven by an employee (named Taj) of NetTours of course. We drove into the desert in a line of the vehicles and drove (fast!) up, around, over, into the sand dunes. We would stop every now and then for a little break and to get out and take pictures. I always seemed to be looking out the wrong window; I'd look to my left, and the next thing I knew, we were sliding to the right, down a dune...We all had a great time!

After dune bashing, we went to see camels where we were able to walk right up and pet them if we wanted. Then, we drove on to the final location for the tour where Kenton and Kay got to ride camels around in a circle (all roped together and led by a guide). Just down a bit from this was an area with a small stage surrounded by tables with pillows and then surrounded by small shops for tourists.

Kay and I each got henna tattoos, and Kenton and I each got to hold a falcon and pose for pictures while we waited for the huge buffet to be cooked and set up. Kay and I did a little jewelry shopping (which seemed to be the theme for this entire trip...). We enjoyed the buffet, including having the chance to watch the flatbread made over the fire inside a huge clay oven - he just would toss it inside, right into the side of the oven, then pull it out.

After dinner was the bellydancing show! This of course is not something that is really from Dubai, it's Turkish I believe, but was a lot of fun. Kay was first of our group to get on stage with the dancer; she got a little skirt with golden coins on it and danced with the belly dancer and some other tour participants. We had a lot of fun watching and laughing along with them. Ken also got his chance to dance on stage!

Afterwards Taj drove us back home and dropped us off somewhere around 10pm.

Saturday - Dubai

We started the day off at the Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai for the "Open Doors. Open Minds Programme" of the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding designed to increase understanding between UAE nationals, expatriates, and visitors to Dubai.

I was, heaven forbid, wearing a skirt that came just below my knees when I sat down and showed a little too much skin, so they handed me an abaya to wear for the tour. In the beginning, while standing outside and watching the washing demonstrations, I was overly warm in the long, black, polyester abaya, but later I thought it was pretty cool once I got in the air conditioned mosque.

Before entering, we had to take off our shoes and I had to cover my hair with one of my new pashminas. I am telling you, I could save a small fortune on haircuts and dye if this would just catch on back home....

The mosque was beautiful and the tour was very informational and interesting. I do wish that Americans were exposed more to the reality of the Muslim faith rather than believing it is a violent religion. But as with many things, most opinions are based off of misinformation.

After the tour, we were off once again to another pharmacy (we seem to stop in a lot of them) - the LIFE Pharmacy which is open 24/7 and delivers. It is amazing to see places that deliver since there really are no true addresses or zip codes etc. The streets and buildings are too new. I don't know how anyone gets around here; I depend so much on GPS, but with all the changes here, it wouldn't do any good anyway.

Then we were on to LIFCO (Lebanon Food Company) Supermarket (the one in the same building as Ken and Kay's flat) to select lunch. Kay hadn't been feeling well - we blame the lemonade in Cairo - so she rested rather than coming with us. We chose a very special meal of Mac & Cheese.

After lunch, Ken, Kenton, and I took off on a short (few hours long) road trip through the Northern Emirates:

Deira section of Dubai

Sharjah Emirate (including past Suheil's residence)

Ajman Emirate (noting that 3rd world site Ken saw in February is now leveled)

Umm al Quwain emirate (smallest emirate, saw Indian-Bangladeshi settlement on the peninsula and wide tidal plain for which ruler has grandiose plans to build a major port and resort.)

Ras Al Khaimah Emirate (town just starting to boom; open desert)

I'll admit to sleeping through a lot of the road trip. I was alone in the backseat of the FJ and I have a hard time not falling asleep while in the car....but I did see a lot of interesting sites!

For dinner, we had KFC - apparently very popular here. :)

Friday - back to Dubai

Friday morning we headed back to Dubai around 10am. We got settled back in at the flat around 3pm or so and then Kenton and I went down to the pool for awhile. The water was so warm it actually made the air (well into the 90s) feel cool when we got out.

Friday was a fairly relaxing day - sort of decompression from the previous few days. We came back and got ready to go to Tony Roma's (our choice for last night was that or Chili's - we were in the mood for more familiar foods....)

Also, I really am working on getting some pictures on here...although I am probably not trying all that hard, I'll admit - hey, I'm on vacation! ;o) at the first sign of computer troubles...I turn it off.....

Thursday in Cairo

Ok, I will put some pictures on here tomorrow!

Thursday we slept in just a little, then took one of the little black and white cabs to the Egyptian Museum where we lunched at the cafe then explored. As Kay mentioned, it really was hard to remember sometimes that these were the actual artifacts and not replicas. There is just an enormous amount of...things....everything in there.

The best part was that we could actually touch a lot of the artifacts. Of course, that is not the best part for the actual artifacts since you can see, and sometimes feel, the wear on them. Ken said he thought they were rebuilding another site for the museum; I am guessing people will no longer be able to touch the items then. Probably a good thing to preserve them, but I'm pretty glad we got the opportunity to actually feel them under our hands and imagine how they were made, what they were like, and where they were thousands of years ago.

Unfortunately, the museum was not the best at marking information or giving any sort of descriptions. Most of the printed information on the displays had been obviously typed on a typewriter and the paper was very yellowed, so obviously very old. I found it interesting when these would say things like 'we are not currently sure how this was used...' or 'we don't know much about this yet....' because that note was probably from 50 years ago and it makes me wonder if we do know those things now! So hopefully the new museum will update all that information.

Much of Cairo seems to be the same as that museum - beautiful structures. You can tell these were given much thought and care in planning, but very little thought and/or care in maintaining and updating.

After the museum, we went to a huge bazaar filled with local color. The surrounding areas of it were definitely more high pressure - merchants would either already be standing in the corridors or would come popping out of their store spaces when you walked past. They would shove things at you and give prices, but it was best to walk past these until we reached the inner area (where fewer tourists generally make it through) and met with a much lower pressure sales pitch.

We found quite a few souveniers - I did well with necklaces as usual. Kenton also picked up 4 small green marble 'grenades' - canopics - replicas of the canopic vases that held the viscera (organs etc) of the dead.

Upon leaving the bazaar, we spent about an hour riding around in yet another black and white cab, looking for the elusive Windsor Hotel that Ken had stayed at on previous trips when he had brought students from Creighton. We never did find the hotel and have decided that it clearly was part of a CIA mission or something.

The actual cab ride was very very interesting though...this was by far the most adventurous driver we had. Kenton got to ride in the front seat for that ride and I'm sure he regretted taking that seat....

For dinner, we ended up at the Conrad hotel and had their International buffet, then off to pack and get ready for bed!

Wednesday in Egypt

currency in Egypt = the Egyptian pound - currently at about 5.37 to the dollar

We woke early Wed morning an had breakfast at the hotel buffet (no pork sausage or bacon of course - although there is beef bacon everywhere....) After eating, we headed down to begin our tour that we had set up through Mustoufa the day before.

First stop - Memphis. This was the site of the first capital of Egypt. Here we saw a huge statue of Ramses among other artifacts (many completely open to the elements, just standing outside). There was, as always, the police presense.

Kenton and I did get a great picture with a few of them (they were, of course, armed), and then after offering to pose for the picture and taking it, they of course asked us for money. When we said 'oh...we don't have any Egyptian $$', they said that the American dollar would be fine as well....We ended up keeping our money and leaving some disappointed (and one fairly angry) guards behind us. This was not the first or the last time we had such an experience.

Also looking for money there (as well as everywhere in Cairo) were women and men standing outside of restrooms holding toilet paper hostage. They shove a small wad in your hand as you walk past and ask for money. Most of the time I ignored them or said I didn't have any. In Memphis, I told her, with a smile, that I had my own and showed her the Kleenex in my purse. The old woman shook her head and said, 'no, money to use the bathroom'. I told her I didn't need to go that badly so I'd use it for free. :o)

After Memphis was the Tomb of Mereruka (northeast of the Step Pyramid), then on to Saqqara, the largest necropolis (city of the dead) in Egypt. We saw the Step Pyramid (designed my Imhotep), it was the first of the Great Pyramids. I don't know if you can truly understand how enormous they are unless you are standing near it. Truly - even pictures do not do it justice. This is especially true when you think of the fact that these were built around 5 thousand years ago!

After Saqqara (or Sakara...there are apparently 6 ways of translating everything from Arabic to English which totally confuses me when I'm trying to remember how to spell things and what they are called!), we visited the Oriental Carpets and Tapestry School. There were many of these types of schools as we drove near Giza.

At the carpet school, we learned how the handmade Oriental rugs are made and got to watch the children, women, and young men making them. It was pretty amazing to watch. They start around 11 years old (well, that's what they told us, but some looked younger) and the youngest work only 2 hours per day (or so they told us anyway - they made it a point to tell us this over and over so they obviously know child labor issues would cause issues in selling carpets...). I even got to try making a couple of knots on the loom myself!

Of course next came the part where they try to sell you a carpet...

After the carpet school was the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Again, you really have to see it I think. Amazing. It is the largest of the 3 Giza Pyramids - over 450 feet with almost 2.5 million gigantic stone blocks, each one taller than a person. I will never understand how they built these back then. This is the only survivor of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

Once again, the police are here as well, once again with their assault rifles (just assume from now on that there are police everywhere - oh, also, they use mirrors to check for bombs under the shuttles, vans, etc when you pass the security checkpoints outside the hotel.)

Inside the Great Pyramid presented more of a challenge than I expected, even after hearing Ken's warning (this was his 4th visit to Cairo). In order to get to the funerary chamber where the sarcophagus is, we had to go through a fairly athletic process. We climbed steep 'steps' which are really boards (nailed?) into a smooth surface at a high incline, we had to squat/duck walk through passages, and up and up...and I'm not going to lie, it's probably not the safest. The railings leave plenty of room to fall through. Then, once you're ready to go back out, it's right back the way you came, and there are people going the opposite way at the same time, both ways.

We saw the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx - the other 2 of these pyramids are the Pyramid of Chepren (2 feet shorter than teh Great Pyramid) and the Pyramid of Mykerinus (last to be built at Giza). All around these are tombs of the pharaohs' family, officials, and nobles. The Sphinx was made in Chepren's image to guard his tomb. Kenton and I also went through Valley Temple of Chephren which has an alabaster floor and many huge, smooth granite columns.

Next, our tour guide took us to a restaurant which I cannot remember the full name, but I know it was something...Peace. It was a nice enough restaurant and the food was very good. From here we went to Flower Cotton where we were shown how to wear Egyptian style headdresses and bought some Egyptian cotton clothing (great quality) at great prices.

After the cotton store, we were on to the Merit Papyrus Institute where we saw a demonstration on how papyrus is made and bought a few as well. Upstairs from the institute was the Merit Center El Bazaar where we did some shopping (I of course got an Egyptian cat figurine - come on, you all knew I'd get one...)

After being gone since around 8am, we finally returned from our very full day tour at about 7 in the evening and took naps before ordering room service and going to bed.


Also to note:
We could hear the prayers from the mosques each day from our hotel room. Unfortunately, Kenton also heard the construction crew across the street from us most of the nights. For some reason, they seem to only work at night; they fire up the bright spot lights and make a lot of noise, then go silent during the day. I slept right through it all, but the first night Kenton needed ear plugs...

The weather was beautiful the entire time we were in Cairo - in the 70s and then cool at night. I wore a sweater quite a bit of the time and was really comfortable. This is interesting to me because - #1 it was about 111 degrees in Cairo a week ago and #2 the weather is so different in Dubai. (It was a warm 95 degrees when we returned)

Tuesday in Cairo

We obviously didn't have a chance to get online while in Cairo...

Tuesday we headed to the airport around 1:30am and took off around 3:30am, arriving in Cairo around 6:30am Cairo time. As for our experience with Egypt Air, it was just fine, but no Air France :o) The breadfast they served had an enourmous egg and a beef hotdog, along with other miscellaneous food; the flight attendants were pretty much all big burly men. Kay had arranged for Expedia hospitality (an Egyptian man named Mustoufa) to greet us there and take us to our hotel, the Hilton Cairo World Trade Center Residence. Mustoufa also set us up for our tour the next day.

We had a great shuttle from the airport to the hotel where we were able to get our first glance at the city as well as the Nile. There were so many buildings that looked run down and dirty! Laundry hung out of windows, dirt streaked buildings, some buildings were even leaning far to one side...There were also many beautiful buildings - we actually saw a few Christian churches (one that was absolutely HUGE) as well as mosques.

We took a short walk once we checked into the hotel and went looking for food/drinks/pharmaceuticals. I was a little shocked at first at how dirty things were; there was a lot of trash strewn around and just dirt and dust everywhere. It was a very sharp contrast from the shiny, new Dubai we had left just hours earlier.

Once we had stocked up on provisions (including Coke and Pepsi in glass bottles - my favorite! - and soda cans with the old pull tabs - which Kenton had to show me how to work because I swear I don't remember them), we went back to the hotel and slept for a few hours before going to the Arcadia Mall and eating in a cafe - Trianon. Of course, we did shop a little afterwards...

That night we took a boat ride on the Nile and had the whole boat to ourselves. It really was a beautiful experience although the boat had some generator troubles so the man taking us on the ride wasn't able to turn on the lights. This caused a passing police officer to yell something at him that we couldn't understand. We ended up cutting our ride short in order to get off in front of our hotel and avoid another cab ride...more about that later.....

We ate at the hotel restaurant/lounge that evening and sampled some local wine (tasted more like water) and beer (the Stella local was our favorite).

A few quick thoughts:
There is a strong police presence in Cairo. Most of the time they seemed to pretty much stand around watching traffic more than actually directing it or stopping anyone. They are however fairly heavily armed.

There are around 15 million people who live in Cairo. This does not count the millions that come in as tourists, workers, etc. You can imagine how crowded that makes things. And the TRAFFIC....wow. You have to experience it to believe it.

I think there are actual lane markings on the streets, but I'm not certain because NO ONE adheres to them if they are there. Sometimes the traffic is 3 lanes wide, sometimes 5 or 6 - in the same area! They pretty much just drive however and wherever they feel like it, trusting that no one will make a sudden move. Pedestrians will just walk out in front of fast moving traffic, stopping in between lanes, then continue to cross. Drivers will actually accelerate even with pedestrians in front of them. Horns are used creatively and apparently with meaning for short vs. long blasts etc. in order to communicate direction and so on.