life on planetm

the chosen ones…

I will now attempt to do a bit of travelogue and catch you up on what I have seen!  What I have also seen is the influence of being a major power on your people.  I was shocked at lunch to hear Americans defend their dollar bill with such vehemence and complain that coins were too heavy.  For a country with such a gigantic fiscal debt, this seemed an irresponsible choice.  But of course the fact that every other country in the world uses coins for that denomination of currency because of economics is the same as the fact that every other country (except an obscure African one I believe) uses the metric system.  Somehow, as Americans, they are above logic and global practices.

There seems to be something of the same in the Egyptians.  Sonia emphasizes at least once a day the accomplishments of ancient Egypt and how Egypt is not a third world country.  Apparently she hasn’t got the memo that “developing economy” is the politically correct term 🙂  And Egypt is a developing economy.  I am mostly alone in spending a few dollars every day on stuff kids sell me.  Sure, they should be in school but I don’t think there is free public education in Egypt so you do what you can when you can’t change the system.  They have to engage me and work for it but I am spending less than the cost of a visit to Starbucks so how can it be a bad thing…

So here is the time to be arrogant about my own people 🙂  I am very happy to be Canadian every day.  But when I travel I am generally pretty proud of my people.  We don’t go around puffing out our chests or proclaiming our accomplishments.  We just troll around in the background, many of us trying to learn about the culture and meeting the local people with an open mind.  And we are starting to get noticed 🙂  CNN gets on my nerves pretty fast so I normally listen to BBC World News when I travel.  I haven’t managed to catch an episode yet but they are doing a series on CANADA this month.  Cause apparently we are happy and prosperous and the Brits are trying to figure out our secrets 🙂

The most fun I have had this trip chatting was with an Englishman I met in the bar at Mena House on my last night.  It was such an easy conversation.  I didn’t have to watch my tongue.  And he told me to exchange some money and carry around a handful of carefully folded five Egyptian pound notes (about $1).  He explained how poor the average Egyptian person is and how tipping is how the economy runs.  Maybe not the ideal system but I am not going to change it in 10 days.  So I am the Canadian girl who tips… but only if I like you and think you have worked for it.  So not everybody gets money…

I realize the travelogue has been diverted… you will get it!  But I am really fascinated by cultures – and how they interact.  Today we had to take a horse and carriage ride to Edfu Temple, a lot closer to the ground and the local culture than we normally get.  I thought it was brilliant.  But apparently it’s politics.  There used to be an air-conditioned A&K bus instead of the horses.  I am happy I am here now.

It’s definitely interesting trying to understand the political situation in Egypt in 2012.  Suzanne is a little obsessed in understanding the politics, which has endeared her to me.  But I think there is no obvious answer.  Despite how much the Egyptians seem to want to deny it, we are in Africa…  and in Africa nothing is simple or logical… but people are generally happy and really easy to crush on… kind of like Canadians… There is a lot to be said for not being the chosen people and using humility as your trump card…

Soon I will be back in Amsterdam.  One of the things that has endeared the Dutch to me so much (in addition of course to the fact that most of them are gorgeous :)) is that they are the only empire I know that managed to navigate the tricky path from world superpower to lesser power with grace and still maintain a vibrant economy and enviable culture.  Perhaps the 21^st century belongs to the also-ran powers – the Netherlands, Norway, Canada… nice places to live – with happy, friendly people… 🙂

Here in Egypt we are “Canada… Canada Dry”… but they sing it… I think we have to thank the Italians for that 🙂  It really makes me feel proud to be a Canadian.  The Americans are important to Egyptian politics and to its economy and they get a lot of respect… but when I say Canadian, not American, the Egyptians seem to light up a little bit… and then I smile… and they tell me I will break their heart when I leave Egypt… it’s gonna be tough going back to reality 😉

the boullibaise of religion

Sonia’s style is exclusively focused on the trees so trying to find the forest a bit of an intellectual puzzle.  I know there were a bunch of Pharoahs from different dynasties, the Greeks and Romans (Alexander, Cleopatra and the gang) messed things up and the Hixus (sp?) were an evil mob from the Middle East.

It’s complicated when you are confronted with one of the oldest, most complex civilizations of all time.  One of my big takeaways so far is the impact of religion on Egyptian society.  That fact really hit home this morning when Sonia said the Greeks have no religion.

I think what she meant was that they were pagans.  They had whole bunch of gods, one for everything, if I have my primary school education correct.  Their gods were pretty glamorous but kind of mean – The Real Housewives of Olympus…  I guess religion means one god – even if it seems a lot of people get killed every day trying to sort out exactly who he is.  It’s like The Dating Game and there are three mystery suitors.  You ask some inane questions and then decide it’s god number 1, 2, or 3 that seems like the best prospect.

Last night I had an interesting discussion on comparative religion with a family from Chicago.  The punch line of the conversation is that the children are named Rachel and Noah – but they didn’t seem to be very pious 🙂

The Chicago family are my favourite people on the trip.  I also have a fondness for Suzanne and Chuck.  They are all from Chicago… what that means I am not sure.  I would venture perhaps the answer is that they are interesting and cosmopolitan yet down to earth.  Some of the others seem a bit inexperienced with the world and I feel a bit nervous I might state an opinion that will get me in trouble.  Despite the crap state of their economy and the humbling effect you might expect that to have, most of the Californians seem a bit haughty.

As expected, it’s the Egyptians that I enjoy the most.  They are warm, gracious and charming.  Everyone noticed today that I wasn’t at breakfast.  And Tito was worried he had done something wrong cause I didn’t say “hi” yesterday but I didn’t know his special spot by the obelisk when he wasn’t in his shop.

I think we were talking about religion… believe me, I am no expert on religion in Egypt at this stage.  I gather it started with the Pharaohs who mostly worshipped the sun.  They discovered that many of their systems and beliefs were very similar to the early Christians so they embraced Christianity at an early stage.  Then there were the conquerors from other Arab states and from Greece and Rome so it got all mixed up.  It wasn’t said out loud but I think “deface” came from the habit of one of the groups to scratch out of the faces of the previous groups.  The Pharaohs each have a kartouch – and they would wipe out the kartouch of the original guy and overwrite their own.

It’s fascinating but there is so much writing on the wall in most of the tombs and temples we have been to that it is very challenging to figure out what is going on.  Today we went to Edfu Temple.  It’s for the falcon god.  I’m not quite sure what he was god of but there were a lot of falcons so I got some photos – and could at least recognize some of the stuff on the walls.  Edfu was fairly recently discovered buried in sand and is very well preserved.  The carvings are incredible.

I think the praying to the falcon god is from the religion of the Pharoahs.  Yesterday we were to Luxor Temple and there was a church and a mosque on the same property.  We were even in the right time to hear to call to prayer.  But not everyone was headed for the entrance to the mosque.  It’s a fascinating country – religion has always played a key role in society – but the religion of choice – and the mix of religions has always been changing with the shifting of the sands in the desert we get to experience every day.

the imagery of life

Right now I am sitting in chaise lounge on a luxury boat floating gently along the Nile sipping guava juice brought to me by a super cute Egyptian guy with a killer smile named Allah.  Not an image I would have expected in my childhood as being part of my adult life.  I am not big on mystical self-help theories… and I think it would be boring to visualize what you want and then have it come to you like clock-work.  It is much more fun to hop on a plane having barely read the itinerary and wake up every day to some unexpected adventures and delights.

It is now day 4 of our official touring activities. Days 2 and 3 were packed like one of my regular 13 hour work days so there has been no time to write about anything that I have seen or experienced.  The overall feeling has been one of being pampered.  I am not as well looked after as I was in Tanzania but it is a close second.  What has been most enjoyable is meeting certain staff members and establishing a bond so I am not just some random tourist.

Back in Cairo it was Emad at the bar.  I couldn’t understand 100% of what he was saying but he was so charming and gracious it didn’t matter.  Here on board the ship I have Mohammed, who has taken the role of my personal server.  I get the best Chardonnay (there are 3 choices) and he makes sure I am looked after at every turn.  I will have to purchase something from Tito (a nickname) before I leave the boat.  He runs the shop and has the same charm I encountered in Turkey.  These Middle Eastern guys really give the Italians a run for the money 🙂  Everyone keeps trying to plan my NEXT trip to Egypt!

So… what have I been doing besides flirting with gorgeous Egyptian guys you ask?  Well, I saw the Pyramids!  So, one childhood goal ticked off.  I was a little worried they might not live up to the imagery of my childhood dreams.  But when you see them close up, they are astonishing.  Apparently it was religious fervour that built them.  Egypt’s history is so long, rich and complex and I am approaching it in such a haphazard way that I won’t be able to enlighten you much.  I definitely need to read up when I get home so that I can put all the astonishing things I have seen into context.

Right now I only have a few basic facts.  There was an Upper Egypt and a Lower Egypt and originally they had separate Pharoahs but there was a joining of kingdoms under one Pharaoh for a while, which was Egypt’s golden age.  I think Ramses II was a really important Pharoah.  But they were a whole bunch of Ramses – and they had a ton of wives so I think one of them had 200 children!  I should likely be paying more attention to Sonia instead of wandering off trying to get better photos.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy listening to her and learning about Egypt.  It’s just that there are 23 of us and usually a few other tour groups as well so getting a photo that looks like I am in Egypt alone is a challenge – and wandering away from the herd and trying different settings on my camera and playing with the light the best way to get a photo the rest of you might want to see.

And Sonia is Mediterranean.  I really like her – but the instructions are kind of vague and the timetable far more flexible than she seems to think.  Yesterday we were at the Temple of Karnak.  You may have heard of it.  I definitely had.  But all these things are just random names.  I don’t know any details.  But apparently the “Hypostyle Hall” in the Temple of Karnak is an incredible forest of giant pillars, covering an area larger than the whole of Notre Dame Cathedral.

So far everywhere that we have been is astonishing.  Hypostyle Hall was incredible but we were there midday, not a photographer’s delight.  I WAS listening for quite a while but so was everyone else and it was hard to get a photo without a bunch of random heads in it.  So I got obsessed with trying to get the right photo and figured it would be easy to catch up to the group.

I spied a couple of other people from our team also taking photos so figured it was fine… but then I looked up and they were gone.  Earlier Sonia had stressed we had to leave by 11:35 and it was pretty close to that so naively I thought if I wandered out the temple to the entry point I would catch up with the group.  Having been abandoned in Pompeii some years ago, I knew it was possible.  But it didn’t seem A&K’s style.

But I believed Sonia’s timetable so thought they must be ahead of me, not behind.  So I was running through the midday sun in the desert (it was about 43 degrees!), fighting off aggressive merchants and hoping I remembered the way back to the bus (it was a long, circuitous route).  I arrived at the bus unscathed at the time we supposedly had to leave for the boat.  But I was the only one there!

I realized this might be a bad thing – and Sonia might be looking for me back at the temple.  I asked the driver to call her and tell her I was on the bus.  He assured me he would.  Then I waited… and waited… I asked him to call her 4x – and by time 3 I brought her contact sheet from the A&K info (with her photo :)) and my phone and gestured what to do as I was pretty sure he didn’t speak English and was just agreeing with me without understanding what I had said.  I did eventually get him to call her but he just said she wasn’t answering her phone.  And wouldn’t call again.

It all seemed pretty silly to me.  I gather a search party had been organized – and I think I messed up the schedule a bit.  BUT if we had BEEN on schedule, it would all have been fine.  And why wouldn’t you train the guide to call the bus FIRST – or the bus driver to call the guide when some random passenger showed up early?  The difference between Africa and North America…

At least I think my photos are pretty good and once I have proper internet access I will post them so you can see if you agree 🙂  More African adventures to come…