Camels and Trinkets

Cairo - 3 hours away across the Sahara

Wagons hitched, guns loaded, sirens blaring, 25 coaches headed off to Cairo some 3 hours away. I was in a private vehicle but was not allowed to leave the convoy. The picture is one of three trucks of armoured guards, with sirens on. Yeah! 3 hours of gruelling low speed Cairo traffic. 85 million people live in Egypt and 25 million car driving ratbags live in Cairo. There is no public transport system to speak of (makes NSW look good) and fuel is cheap.

The Cairo Museum

To set the scene; 25 busloads of Aussies, 10+ busloads of other nations, all simultaneously crowded into the museum, sans cameras, trying to listen to Museum guides explaining Egyptian history in languages matching their linguistic origins. It looked more like the entrance to the Easter Show and the toilet queue was just as long.  

 King Tutankhamen’s 110-kilogram 24carat solid gold coffins, 20-kilo head adornment and gold thongs (Tut called them sandals) are the star attractions. All of the items found in King Tut’s tomb are on display and are truly breathtaking demonstrations of mastery of cloth, wood, metals and gems. Tut lived a privileged life as King until he mysteriously died at 19yrs from a hole in the back of his head. At least KRudd was allowed to step down, alive.

There were also miscellaneous carved rocks from the Old, Middle and New Egyptian Kingdoms to fill the rest of the museum and amuse the fee paying tourists.

Interestingly, a more complete and richer Egyptian Museum is to be found in the Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italy. The naughty Napoleon Bonaparte took home many artefacts from his Egyptian campaign and the French Consul General in Egypt took some more. The Italians acquired most of it for reasons unknown.

The Pyramids…

To touch the pyramids is both a mystical and painful thing to do. Did you know that some Egyptians still make their bread by placing it on rocks in the sun until it is cooked? It was 55 degrees at midday when we finally arrived at the Pyramids; Cairo needs a cross-city tunnel.

The pyramids shimmered under the heat haze of the Egyptian sun, wavy camels slid across the horizon, 25 coaches roared to a stop on the Sahara sands disgorging sun burnt Aussies with terabytes of empty camera memory cards. It was a sight to behold.

Everyone must touch a pyramid once in his or her life. You connect with the sand blown land, the heat, the architectural extravagance and the labour of tens of thousands of Egyptian slaves who’s lives were spent in their 30 year+ building. It was very disappointing and disrespectful that several tourists had to be chased off the pyramids as they climbed up their sides to capture a trophy photo.

For many of us, photo’s taken, and safely back inside the air-conditioned coach, we reconciled to the magnitude of human achievement that the pyramids are. This was quickly brushed away with “go faster” excitement as 25 coaches and a few private vehicles raced down the hill to be the first to the SPHINX.

Port Said

One minute we were in the Suez Canal then suddenly it opened up into a seething ocean of large ships and a huge shipping port called Port Said. This port exists because of the Suez Canal and its occupants are derived of the many visiting sailors through the eons. Conjure your mind pictures now and add 50 degree heat, accumulated dirt from no rainfall in years and the arrival of 2000 Australian passengers dressed in less than RSL Club minimum day attire.

In short, this is one dusty, grey town with machine gun armed police, soldiers and shady looking characters on every corner. There is little to see or do despite the physical size of Port Said. All the action is in the two streets paralleling the harbour.

Port Said is the closest docking port to Cairo. Most of the 2000 passengers wanted to see the Pyramids so we left for Cairo. Every cross street was shut down by armed guards for kilometres as our “convoy” headed out.

Suez Canal

The canal is 163 kilometres long, with no locks, joining the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. Convoys of 10 ships at a time travel Northbound and southbound through one lane with a lake for passing in the middle.

The Suez Canal has been operating since the 13^th Century BC, built by Ramses II. It has been abandoned, closed, modified, blown up, and rebuilt many times. In 1956 the Egyptians decided to nationalise and seize the canal provoking a war with Israel.

The bully French and the failing British Empire, recently united by a world war and fearing loss of access to the canal, joined in by also attacking Egypt. The canal re-opened after agreements were signed allowing free passage for all with a nominal maintenance charge by the Egyptians.  “Nominal charge” meant $250,000 per large ship with over 50 ships per day and 22,000 per year.

The Canal also closed for a few years from 1967 to 1973 whilst the Arabs(Egyptians) and Israeli’s sorted out some more differences of opinion.

Egypt collects a tidy sum from the canal to fund its heritage preservation work.  It is a mystery why the Cairo Museum and outdoor historical sites are in such disrepair and exhibits so poorly presented. If this mystery was solved we might also solve the riddle of why NSW trains, hospitals, schools and roads are in such disrepair despite healthy tax collection.

As the ship was restricted to 5 knots, this was an all day experience starting at 4.30am. On the starboard (northern) side is the sands of Saudi Arabia and on the port (southern) side the fertile, Nile irrigated, farmlands of Egypt. Soldiers and tanks patrol the northern side and sleepy fisherman and farmers couldn’t care on the southern side.  At the end of this Canal is Port Said.

Dubai – Burj Khalifa – tallest building in the world

  Bloomingdales is a poor mans Harrods but was still fun to look around. Having warmed up from snow skiing we sought out some of the other “supersized” structures in Dubai. We jumped a Range Rover Taxi to the Burj Khalifa; a tallish building in the centre of Dubai, which is coincidentally connected to another super mall so more golf buggy fun was inevitable.

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum named the building Burj Khalifa in honour of United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan. Sheikh Khalifa is also ruler of Abu Dhabi, the emirate that came to Dubai's help late last year to the tune of $US10 billion ($A11.15 billion) to bail out the bankrupt project. The Sheikh al-Maktoum is now building a taller building in Abu Dhabi with his name on it. Boys and their toys!

(note how large the base of the building is to get a sense of scale)

At 828 metres and more than 160 stories, Burj Khalifa holds the following records:
• Tallest building in the world
• Tallest freestanding structure in the world
• Highest number of stories in the world
• Highest occupied floor in the world
• World's highest observation deck with an outdoor terrace
• Elevator with the longest travel distance in the world
• Fastest elevator at 80 kilometres per hour in a single shaft
• Tallest single elevator in the world

The trip up in the elevator was a juxtaposition of chilling and astounding. The lift car is pitch black and lights up like a nightclub as you hurtle to the observation deck at 80kph. The sense of drama of this incredulous trip was heightened as one indigenous child began to wail in a non-melodic tone the moment the doors closed. The lift began to pulse with coloured strobe lights and Arabic music; the wailing increased; the lights pulsed faster; the wailing increased; the music and the wailing synchronised into a single crescendo of light and sound climaxing in the doors opening at the top of the Tower of Babel. Phew, that beats reading compliance messages in the lift at work…..

Stepping out of the lift was a simultaneous auditory relief and a sensation of movement under foot as the Burj Khalifa sways between 2-6 metres; more than your average palm tree on a windy day at Manly. Words struggle to alliterate the feeling that goes with the view. Everything below appears so small but you know everything below is larger/taller than most Sydney buildings. There are electronic viewing binoculars to help you take in the panoramic curved-world view programmed to switch from actual view to video replay mode if a sandstorm obliterates the view. They replay exactly where you are aiming the viewer and replay a blue sky and blue sea image even though you can’t see it. WOW! WOW! WOW!

We took tea (drank not stole), accepted requests to photograph several NASB (Non Arabic Speaking Background) tourists with their own cameras and then excitedly headed back to the nightclub they call an elevator.

Dubai -5 degrees, I nearly got frostbite

We arrived at Dubai Ocean Terminal to a colourful milieu of jangling belly dancers twirling away on the dock welcoming us to their country. Having jangled and shaken enough these beautiful women waited to offer us photo opportunities as we swarmed, like lemmings off a cliff, down the gangways into their world.

Everything is bigger than big in Dubai, no reference to the belly dancers. The buildings, the boats, the shopping malls, the desert; where to start?

Dubai is the commercial capital of United Arab Emirates, population 4.4 million people, with most appearing to drive Ferrari’s, Range Rovers and Bentley convertibles. There was a LEXUS showroom for the working classes. The shopping centre car parks look like luxury car dealerships.  The multi section shopping centres make Westfields look like St Vincent DePaul outlets. The Dubai Mall is so large you get around in golf buggies and even then it takes over ten minutes to get from one end to the other through the Egyptian, Persian and Chinese themed sections!!!!

What sound does an Arab make when bumped into with an electric shopping buggy?

“Jihad, Jihad, something, something, something” (at least that’s what I thought it sounded like)

It’s 45 degrees outside and rising. Being outside is not a comfortable environment. A brown haze, that at first looks like industrial pollution but is actually sand, blows in from the Arabian Desert. You can taste it in your mouth and it covers everything in a gritty blanket that must play havoc with car paint.

Back to the frostbite; As we drove through slowly thru the mall we happened upon a shop (bigger than any Westfield) called “Ski Dubai”. I am a keen skier so I thought I would pop in to see what was on sale. After considering some new equipment I was invited to try it out and to step into the trial area. We geared up and stepped out the back and as you can see Dubai had imported Perisher Valley complete with lifts and coffee shops. There were fast and slow runs, learning areas and snow boarding jumps. Some three hours later I had to leave as I could no longer hold the stocks (didn’t think I would need gloves ha-ha). The temperature was -5 degrees. Absolutely unbelievable, I am sure I was in the Tardis (Dr Who) because it just kept going and going. 

I thanked the storeowner and went to the next small shop in the mall, Bloomingdales, to warm up.

Oman

Muscat also has coffee vendors on street corners serving a thick black substance that poured like syrup and smelled like petrol, I declined....  note the coffee pot and yellow spittoon!

Muscat in the country of Oman (next to Saudi Arabia and Yemen)

Oman has a population of 3.5 million people and is a significant producer of oil. It is a small but extremely wealthy country. Muscat has been a key controlling sea-trading port since the 1^st Century AD. Oman is one of the most conquered countries in the world. It has been controlled by the Omani’s then Persia, Bagdad, Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire before returning to Omani control in the late 18^th century. Muscat is still actively guarded by two fully armed forts, one facing the sea and one inland.

We parked the ship at the front door of Muscat, handbrake on, some Omani Rials in the meter and we went ashore. ($AUD1= $RIAL3). It was 43 degrees at 7.30am and rose to 46 degrees by mid afternoon! The whole city is a clutch of white flat roof buildings hugging the ocean and built right up to the rocky beginnings of the desert. Fifteen minutes in any direction (except east) and you are in the desert and heading for the next country.

 Our time was spent visiting the only mosque and several “SOUKS”. Souks are shopping alleyways that specialise in gold, silver and bric-a-brac. No great stories to tell here. This was also a “short-stay” port as we left at 2pm heading for Dubai.

Mumbai Photos

Mumbai Traffic

haircut & shave $2

That's me after a shave. The poles are to hold up the roof, no kidding!

Breaking News – Nathan wins cocktail mixing contest

Yeah, that's me under the hat.......

I must have learned a few things about the fine art of mixing cocktails whilst on board as I found mixing cocktails to be an almost natural talent.   In the midday sun, on deck, the ships company assembled for the mix off, bar staff v passengers. Showmanship was measured alongside potency and colour of the cocktails. It was a tense and sweaty experience but I prevailed; my prize being to drink what I had made, a task easily accommodated.

Mumbai Photos

The heritage listed Taj Hotel with the new unsightly adjacent hi-rise addition to the hotel

When in Rome....... or Mumbai. This is a silver plated horse and carriage !!

Gateway of India
 plus Ghandi's bedroom and office. Note the wooden thongs

I found Jesus in Mumbai

The first thing I saw as I stepped onto the streets of Mumbai was Jesus, at least a truck named Jesus, and I was moved; moved to get out the way as Jesus was clearly on a mission that did not involve slowing for the people as is most of the traffic here.

Mumbai, or Bombay until 1997, was settled in 1509. The British East India Company took over Mumbai in 1689 and set up adorning it with massive Victorian buildings to prove that the sun never set on the British Empire.

India has a population of over 1.2 billion with 14 million living in Mumbai.

A most humbling experience was a long visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s home and now museum. In times of major global upheaval Ghandi was a living role model of persistence, moderation and acceptance. I was moved by one particularly astute observation made by Ghandi in 1921;

“To call women the weaker sex is a libel;

It is man’s injustice to women….

If by strength is meant moral power then woman is immeasurably man’s superior…

If non violence is the law of our being the future is with women.”

Ghandi also wrote to Hitler in 1939 asking him to reconsider his war effort on behalf of humanity but received no reply.

Today was a busy day, The Taj Hotel, Gateway of India, Ghandi Museum, dobi Ghat (outdoor laundry), Elephanta Caves, Prince of Wales Museum, shopping, and a haircut & shave for $2. To absorb local culture and blend in we chose a traditional horse & buggy for part of our travels and tuk-tuk for the rest.

A macabre tour we took was to follow the killing trail of Muslim terrorists that set fire to the heritage listed Taj Hotel and killed many people along the way. We began with lunch at the Leopold Café where Muslim terrorists lunched and then began their bloody massacre and then onto the Taj and Oberoi Hotels to see where the massacre continued. There are red circles at each point where a person was killed or injured. The hotels show little sign of the fire and machine gun damage from the Muslim terrorists but security is now incredibly tight to gain entry.

Cochin Post Office

St Francis Church 1503 - burial place of Vasco da Gama. Note the manual overhead fans in the photo below, operated by Indians from outside the church

Cochin, India

Several days at sea in the Bay of Bengal had many passengers sea crazy. It was a rough crossing as indicated by the pools being closed for most of journey because they behaved more like washing machines than swimming pools. The ship looked like a parking lot at a nursing home, walking frames in every corridor. Finally we reached Cochin, India

Cochin is a large shipping port handling 5 million tons of cargo a year. Cochin is actually a cluster of islands connected by bridges and ferries.

The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama led an expedition at the end of the 15th century that opened the sea route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.  King John III rewarded him by making him Indian Viceroy, but he soon became ill and died in Cochin on Dec. 24, 1524. He was buried in the St. Francis Church, the oldest in India. The history of St Francis church mirrors the colonial struggle of India. It started as a Catholic/Portuguese church, then Protestant/Dutch, then Anglican and now the Church of South India.

Cochin is a small place with a only a few but significant landmarks; the St Francis Church, Fort Cochin and Mattancheri. We visited all of these in 35+ degree heat in a tuk-tuk, the dominant local transport. The day was uneventful but hot, hot, hot…….

What did you have for dinner last night?

Appetiser:
Crabmeat and Papaya Cocktail with Citrus Vinaigrette
Soup: 
Cock-a-Leekie Soup (Chicken, leel & potatoes in Scottish broth)
Main: 
Salmon Coulibiac with Spinach & Rice en Croute
Vegetables: 
Grilled Vegetables Baked in Puff Pastry

Dessert: 
Burned Rhubarb Napoleon with White Peach Ice Cream
 Wine:
Grant Burge Sparkling Chardonnay - Methode Champenoise  (of course)

Martini Time

Hi,
 It's martini time so I thought I would share a Bond Red Eye and chilli olives with you all. Cheers! Most of the day its water but at 4pm it's a good way to change gears heading into the evenings activities.


Larry Hagman is on the ship, he is a load of fun to talk to with stories right back to "I Dream of Jeannie". It was so strict at the time that the USAF had to clear many of the scripts to ensure they were not too close to reality or gave away any military secrets, WOW..... now back to my martini.

Kuala Lumpar

After a calm trip up through the Malacca Straits, watching out for pirates, we dropped anchor at Port Kelang container terminal. We are within spitting distance of Kuala Lumpar (KL) population 25million. Like Canberra and Adelaide, KL is a fully planned city but inland so is a sticky 35+ degrees. Kuala Lumpar means, “muddy estuary” at the junction of the Klang and Gambock rivers. Of the 87 original settlers, 70 died from fever or tiger attacks in the first six months. Now, it is the air hub gateway to Asia and rivals Singapore as the most popular city of this region.

Having been to KL previously, the days’ agenda was more of a shopping trip. We rushed to the KLCC to Isetan Shopping Mall sitting under the Petronis Twin Towers, once the tallest building in the world. New socks, Italian underwear, jeans and work shirts at a fraction of Sydney prices. KL IS the place to shop!

With first priorities complete we headed to the massage parlour for a famous THAI sports massage and again limped out but feeling great. Time was running out so we walked the Jalan Bukit Bintang and took in the local culture.

Singapore in pictures

Off on an army duck....

Standing at the top of the Singapore Flyer, 42 stories high.....

Singapore looking past the observation car in front of us. The Singapore Lion is top right on the waterfront.

Sunset over the Singapore oil refineries where much of our aviation fuel comes from....

Singapore – Selemat Pagi!

Singapore is at the west most tip of the Malayan Peninsula sitting almost on the equator. It has a population of 4.8million with 77% Chinese, 14% Indigenous Malay and 8% Indian. We were warned not to drop any rubbish or to chew gum, as both of these are offences in Singapore. Jaywalking is also a highly policed offence that leads to arrest and fine.

We started the day with a city highlights tour in an old, but gaily painted, WWII Army Duck. It drove us around the city then slipped into the harbour for a look from the wet side. Whilst on the harbour we spotted the biggest Ferris wheel ever so headed for it next.

The Singapore Flyer, the newest and highest ferris/observation wheel in the world at 165 metres (higher than a 42 storey building) was our next tourist event. The “London Eye” Ferris wheel is only 130 metres.  Amazing is an inadequate description, the carriages are fully air-conditioned and large enough that you can have dinner in them if you wish. People get married in them! It takes 30 minutes to complete one revolution.

After this we needed rehydration so went to Raffles Hotel for a famous Singapore Sling at $US20, but you get to keep the glass. In early Singapore women were not allowed to drink alcohol in public so Sir Stamford Raffles invented this drink that looks like a fruit punch but contains lots of alcohol.

Lunch was at China Town that looks like every China Town in every other city of the world, nothing special but the food was actually Malaysian and excellent.

To wrap up the day we taxied over to Orchard Rd and walked its length window-shopping some of the biggest brands and most luxurious shopping centres I have seen. Singapore is almost the same prices as Sydney for nearly everything. The only discount is in the exchange rate of $AU1 = $SG1.20, not really enough to entice you to spend up.

Back to the ship and off to Kuala Lumpar