Before I get into this blog today, I must tell you of a most interesting sight on our flight from Pucket to Bangkok the other night. As we approached Bangkok, we dropped out of the clouds and the sky turned upside down. We were over the Gulf of Thailand and below us were thousands of fishing boats, each with a single bright light. They were spread out randomly as far as we could see and looked like constellations spread in the night sky below us.
It's Thursday morning; we're sitting in Jen & Bruce's apartment organizing our last two days on the road, deciding which tasks we really need to finish before our return home, flight confirmation, last minute souvenirs, a couple of hours for a ski trip at Ski Dubai. Wow! Home seems like a strange thought. Seems like another life. We really haven't been home since the end of June; just a quick organizing and packing stop between Phoenix and this trip.
We've been getting weather updates from home and, to be honest, I don't really want to be there right now. The snow, rain and floods are not very appealing. We have been swimming, sweating and living outdoors for the last couple of months and that is quite pleasant. Last night we had a beautiful dinner in the garden of a nice restaurant, no jackets or sweaters. Very comfortable. This part of the world is just getting into the outdoor season because it is cool enough to go to the beach without frying. Swim-wear ads, gas barbecues in the store; just like summer at home.
Reflecting on our trip, there are some changes we will make when we do this again. Next time, we bring a laptop with us. Because of weight and security considerations, we chose to do without this trip. Although there are internet connections throughout the world, they are not always easy to find, are not easy to use because of language barriers (with people and with keyboards), can be very slow, so you are tearing out your hair and running up a bill for wait time and may not be available when you want to use them.
There is that end-of-the-day, winding down period when you are journaling in your hotel before bedtime, when it would be so convenient to put it all on the computer and organize all the emails and blogs, so you could just upload everything in a very short time when you did get connected.
We will bring a phone with an international calling plan. One of the most frustrating aspects of our trip is phones. Europe is not so bad. You can buy phone cards that work for many of the EU counties, but you still have to deal with which phones will let you use which cards to call which countries. And which phones use cash only or credit cards only.
Many counties have several different companies providing different levels of service at pay phones and you have to learn which ones work for you. Most of the time, you do your learning while you are trying to make a very critical call which can make the difference of having a hotel room for the night or having transportation in the morning. It's kind of a panicky way of learning.
We also ran into phone economics problems in some of our second world locations. We had hotel personnel who could not (would not) make calls which seemed like normal business practice to us. Calls to tour operators who hadn't shown up or calls to airlines to confirm tickets which couldn't be made because the clerk couldn't use the phone until the manager came in to approve the call. The clerk couldn't call the manager to approve the call because he didn't have the manager there to approve the call to the manager. The clerk couldn't use his own phone because calls were too expensive. The last reason we found to be legitimate because some of these people made very little money compared to the cost of a phone call.
The wardrobe held out OK for me. Gail decided she won't bring jeans next time and would bring different tops that could be washed and dried more easily. I brought all nylon and my clothes would dry overnight even in the most humid conditions. Most EU countries had laundromats, but when we got out of there it seems we could do laundry only in our room at night. We haven't seen a laundromat since Palermo, and that must have been somewhere back in 2004, or so. You can find places that will do your laundry for you, if you are going to be around long enough for them to get it back to you. For a long time I really enjoyed doing the laundry in our room at night. It seemed like such a fun little camping trip. But, it sure was nice doing laundry in a real washing machine last night. I guess the fun little camping trip chores wore out.
All of my shoes were comfortable and held up for the trip. None of Gail's shoes were comfortable. Her expensive walking shoes, podiatrist recommended, turned into a bust. Every pair she picked up along the way were blister factories. There were times I thought it would be less expensive and easier to just buy a wheelchair and go barefoot.
I was going to list some of our highlights, but I'm going to save that for another day. See you soon.
Happy travels!
Dan & Gail
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Shallow Tourist's View of Thailand
There is a lot of Thailand we have not seen; so, I can only give a shallow, big resort view of it. Pucket Island is about half way down the country's penninsula on the west coast. It has a variety of spaces, from the very large port-city of Pucket City to water-bound hamlets accessible by only plane or boat. In between are sleepy villages to non-stop rock and roll, girly-bar, red-light districted towns like Patong, where we are staying.
Thankfully, we are in a very expensive (quiet) resort on the edge of Patong Beach. It is a refuge from all the noise and glitter of town. Nightly, in one or another of the restaurants at the resort, there is some soft (read: old-folks) rock till early in the morning. Unlike uptown, where the hard rock goes all night, until the last guy has found his date for the night and the youngsters have drunk themselves into oblivion.
For reasons hinted at but not really clearly expressed, the country's political structure has allowed prostitution to flourish among a people who seem to be so nice, polite and morally uplifted. The whole Buddhist nature of the country directs it towards niceness. As an example, a Japanese tourist was murdered last week at a remote temple site and the government and press followed up with several apologies to her parents from as high as the king and admonishments to the people to keep their faith and do no harm to others.
Patong Beach is a totally tourist based town. Its streets are lined with restaurants (with great food and prices that are good, but high compared to eating in non-touristy places), T-shirt shops, tailor shops, massage shops (mostly real), trinket and souvenir shops, and about every block there is a 7-11. And the street is lined with little Tuk-tuks, the local transportation; small trucks with seating in the back. The drivers and street hawkers are SO polite. They will urge you to come in, to ride, to look or buy: but when you say "No", they say, "Thank you!" and leave you alone.
There is a local T-shirt that says: "NO! I don't want a g*$ #&^m tuk tuk ride, a new suit or a massage!" Kind of rude to my way of thinking. Sure you hear a request about twice a minute, but they are polite.
We visited a Muslim village of the people called "Sea Gypsies" Out on the edge of the sea, picture the mangrove islands which flourish along Thailand's coast. Everything is horizontal, the sea and these long, low islands. Then, these huge limestone mountains (I believe the word is schist?) rise up a thousand feet. They are lone giants, not like a mountain range. You can see several at a time, but they are spread along the horizon.
Behind one of these limestone mountains, we found a village completely on stilts. It is a complete town, with homes, stores, restaurants, schools, children in school uniforms and a mosque. We even heard the call to prayer while we in town. The history is of a couple of fishing families coming into the area from Malaysia and staying to form this community well away from threatening neighbors. No alcohol, dogs or pigs are allowed in the town.
We've done some snorkeling on coral reefs, which is beautiful. We had threatened to get our PADI certification while we were here and do some SCUBA diving, but my asthma kicked in and I'm not sure I want to be underwater and have a coughing spell. I'm not certain how that works with a regulator. Next time. The water is so clear here, and warm, that it really makes you want to be underwater.
All in all- Gail and I think Thailand is wonderful. We are so glad we didn't miss this part of the world and hope we return to see a lot more of it. We leave tomorrow for a couple of days in Dubai, then it's back to Shelton on Dec. 8th. Well, I hate to be repetitive, but it is time to head in to town for a massage. See you soon.
Happy travels,
Dan & Gail
Thankfully, we are in a very expensive (quiet) resort on the edge of Patong Beach. It is a refuge from all the noise and glitter of town. Nightly, in one or another of the restaurants at the resort, there is some soft (read: old-folks) rock till early in the morning. Unlike uptown, where the hard rock goes all night, until the last guy has found his date for the night and the youngsters have drunk themselves into oblivion.
For reasons hinted at but not really clearly expressed, the country's political structure has allowed prostitution to flourish among a people who seem to be so nice, polite and morally uplifted. The whole Buddhist nature of the country directs it towards niceness. As an example, a Japanese tourist was murdered last week at a remote temple site and the government and press followed up with several apologies to her parents from as high as the king and admonishments to the people to keep their faith and do no harm to others.
Patong Beach is a totally tourist based town. Its streets are lined with restaurants (with great food and prices that are good, but high compared to eating in non-touristy places), T-shirt shops, tailor shops, massage shops (mostly real), trinket and souvenir shops, and about every block there is a 7-11. And the street is lined with little Tuk-tuks, the local transportation; small trucks with seating in the back. The drivers and street hawkers are SO polite. They will urge you to come in, to ride, to look or buy: but when you say "No", they say, "Thank you!" and leave you alone.
There is a local T-shirt that says: "NO! I don't want a g*$ #&^m tuk tuk ride, a new suit or a massage!" Kind of rude to my way of thinking. Sure you hear a request about twice a minute, but they are polite.
We visited a Muslim village of the people called "Sea Gypsies" Out on the edge of the sea, picture the mangrove islands which flourish along Thailand's coast. Everything is horizontal, the sea and these long, low islands. Then, these huge limestone mountains (I believe the word is schist?) rise up a thousand feet. They are lone giants, not like a mountain range. You can see several at a time, but they are spread along the horizon.
Behind one of these limestone mountains, we found a village completely on stilts. It is a complete town, with homes, stores, restaurants, schools, children in school uniforms and a mosque. We even heard the call to prayer while we in town. The history is of a couple of fishing families coming into the area from Malaysia and staying to form this community well away from threatening neighbors. No alcohol, dogs or pigs are allowed in the town.
We've done some snorkeling on coral reefs, which is beautiful. We had threatened to get our PADI certification while we were here and do some SCUBA diving, but my asthma kicked in and I'm not sure I want to be underwater and have a coughing spell. I'm not certain how that works with a regulator. Next time. The water is so clear here, and warm, that it really makes you want to be underwater.
All in all- Gail and I think Thailand is wonderful. We are so glad we didn't miss this part of the world and hope we return to see a lot more of it. We leave tomorrow for a couple of days in Dubai, then it's back to Shelton on Dec. 8th. Well, I hate to be repetitive, but it is time to head in to town for a massage. See you soon.
Happy travels,
Dan & Gail
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Dear Bluecross, I'd like a change to my insurance policy.
We think we have finally determined the course of our trip. After getting to Dubai, we were convinced that we were traveled out, that we were headed home ASAP. After resting up for a few days, we thought we would continue as planned; even emailed Jan and Pete Janda to finalize our visit with them in Bangladesh. After dinner one night last week we sat down to rehash all we have done and seen. We found that everything kind of mashed together and we had difficulty differentiating where we had seen and did what. That's when we decided that we needed to save the rest of our tour for another time. We will be going home on December 8, after a couple weeks in Thailand.
We are currently at a beautiful resort in Patong Beach on Phuket Island. The water is warm- we swim every day. The weather is hot and muggy- we sweat every day. A hour of the best massage you can ever think of costs about $7.00- we get massages every day. Dear Bluecross, you currently have a max on massages per year- here's my proposal: at $7 an hour, we could get one massage every day for about fifty bucks a week; less than we pay for one hour at home. Can you change my policy to a max of one massage per day? Thank you!
We accidentally arrived here two days before the Festival of Lights. On the full moon night in November, the Thai people launch candles set in ornate floral wreathes onto the water- a river, lake or sea. Locally, they also lauch small hot air balloons with fires in them. They are made of white kitchen-garbage bags with a small frame inside that holds the opening in a circle with three spokes which hold a cup for burning material. The bag is inverted and one person holds it open as another lights the fire. As the balloon's air heats, it gradually lifts off. There are hundreds of them in the air, each giving off a soft red light until it burns out. (Dave, I thought of your ballon project that was so successful until the airport shut it down!)
The night was a fiesta! Street vendors selling great local foods. Group making the floral wreathes to sell; others with balloons for sale. We noticed that a lot of the foods-grilled corn and tropical fruits- are just like Mexico. Families were out together having wonderful parties on the beach. Local school bands and choirs performed. The party lasted well into the morning.
Well, we've got to head into town now; it's nearly time for a massage. See you soon.
Happy travels,
D&G
We are currently at a beautiful resort in Patong Beach on Phuket Island. The water is warm- we swim every day. The weather is hot and muggy- we sweat every day. A hour of the best massage you can ever think of costs about $7.00- we get massages every day. Dear Bluecross, you currently have a max on massages per year- here's my proposal: at $7 an hour, we could get one massage every day for about fifty bucks a week; less than we pay for one hour at home. Can you change my policy to a max of one massage per day? Thank you!
We accidentally arrived here two days before the Festival of Lights. On the full moon night in November, the Thai people launch candles set in ornate floral wreathes onto the water- a river, lake or sea. Locally, they also lauch small hot air balloons with fires in them. They are made of white kitchen-garbage bags with a small frame inside that holds the opening in a circle with three spokes which hold a cup for burning material. The bag is inverted and one person holds it open as another lights the fire. As the balloon's air heats, it gradually lifts off. There are hundreds of them in the air, each giving off a soft red light until it burns out. (Dave, I thought of your ballon project that was so successful until the airport shut it down!)
The night was a fiesta! Street vendors selling great local foods. Group making the floral wreathes to sell; others with balloons for sale. We noticed that a lot of the foods-grilled corn and tropical fruits- are just like Mexico. Families were out together having wonderful parties on the beach. Local school bands and choirs performed. The party lasted well into the morning.
Well, we've got to head into town now; it's nearly time for a massage. See you soon.
Happy travels,
D&G
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Random Thoughts From Dubai
The weather has been fantastic- mid to high 80s since we've been here. Going out at night without a jacket is nice. The last couple days have been foggy in the morning. I still don't know how those ladies can handle it in those black abayas during the day time.
All of the people love their ruler. Unlike some other countries where the leader's picture is everywhere because of policy, these people have Sheikh Mohammed's picture (and Sheikh Rashid's, his late father) on the back windows of their cars, in their homes, even on T-shirts. Both have led their people out of poverty to wealth in the last 50 years. Where other's power and wealth have led to corruption and terror, these guys chose to share their power and new-found oil wealth to improve the people's lives.
Sheikh Mohammed drives his own SUV around town. When he stops at traffic lights, people come out to his car to greet and honor him. He visited Jen & Bruce's school recently for a huge education convention involving leaders of all the Muslim countries. A huge retinue was waiting for him- he pulled into the parking lot, parked his car, hopped out and joined the group.
The Sheikh's license plate is A1, which makes it easier to pick out his white SUV from all the others. The license plates are kind of interesting. The first plates were issued to the emirates with the most important people getting the lowest numbers. You own your plate for life and it apparently is part of your estate. You can sell or gift your plate to someone else. Low numbered plates have sold for a million bucks. Gail just showed me an article about a recent charity auction in which 87 license plates, including 3 2-digit plates, got 28.8 million durham ($7,900,000), the lowest number selling for $770,000.
Yesterday, we walked to the museum, had lunch along the creek side, did some shopping and went for a boat ride. The museum was much more interesting than we expected, with archaeological evidence of civilization in this area going back to 3,ooo BC. There are great, life size dioramas of life in Dubai in the olden days (before wealth), Bedouin life in the desert and the pearl divers. The dioramas of shops include videos in the background of craftspeople making the items offered in the shop. You actually walk among the displays, which causes some real violations of the "Please don't touch the exhibits" signs as tourists clamber to have photos taken with their arms around camel's necks and standing arm-in-arm with Bedouins making their camps. All we could do was shake our heads in dismay at the lady who tried to climb on the camel for that one great shot.
We spent the rest of the day on the creek, really a 15 mile channel that started life as a shallow inlet. It was dredged in the 1950s to help increase trade. It has since been lengthened to make more waterfront inland. It now extends to the Burj Dubai (world's tallest building) to form the lake surrounding the Burj Dubai and the waterfront for the new Marina Commercial Center.
Lunch was a treat for all the senses. The creek-side restaurant bustled with customers from around the world,some in native dress. Birds circled, swooped and screamed overhead, hundreds of boats maneuvered out of one another's ways on the creek and thousands of little fish swam just under the surface, jumping out of the water to make mass escapes from unseen predators, leaving a silvery, splashy meteor's trail on the water - it really was there, you know you saw it, but it happened so quickly and it's gone.
We took a short ride across the creek aboard an abra, a small, open motor taxi that holds about 20 people. On the north side, the trade wharf is filled with tons of trade goods from macaroni to tires to tank trucks which are being loaded on dhows for trade around the middle east. The activity is non-stop as dhows arrive, off-load, on-load and get under way. The crewmen don't have entry rights, so they live aboard the dhows dockside for three or four days until they get under way again. The dhows tie up five and six abreast, hundreds of them along the wharf.
We spent time on our boat ride photographing all the different shapes of buildings along the creek. The sun was setting as we landed and took a short walk through the silk sukh, dealing on some items Gail needed, then headed for home and a relaxed evening.
Happy travels,
Dan & Gail
All of the people love their ruler. Unlike some other countries where the leader's picture is everywhere because of policy, these people have Sheikh Mohammed's picture (and Sheikh Rashid's, his late father) on the back windows of their cars, in their homes, even on T-shirts. Both have led their people out of poverty to wealth in the last 50 years. Where other's power and wealth have led to corruption and terror, these guys chose to share their power and new-found oil wealth to improve the people's lives.
Sheikh Mohammed drives his own SUV around town. When he stops at traffic lights, people come out to his car to greet and honor him. He visited Jen & Bruce's school recently for a huge education convention involving leaders of all the Muslim countries. A huge retinue was waiting for him- he pulled into the parking lot, parked his car, hopped out and joined the group.
The Sheikh's license plate is A1, which makes it easier to pick out his white SUV from all the others. The license plates are kind of interesting. The first plates were issued to the emirates with the most important people getting the lowest numbers. You own your plate for life and it apparently is part of your estate. You can sell or gift your plate to someone else. Low numbered plates have sold for a million bucks. Gail just showed me an article about a recent charity auction in which 87 license plates, including 3 2-digit plates, got 28.8 million durham ($7,900,000), the lowest number selling for $770,000.
Yesterday, we walked to the museum, had lunch along the creek side, did some shopping and went for a boat ride. The museum was much more interesting than we expected, with archaeological evidence of civilization in this area going back to 3,ooo BC. There are great, life size dioramas of life in Dubai in the olden days (before wealth), Bedouin life in the desert and the pearl divers. The dioramas of shops include videos in the background of craftspeople making the items offered in the shop. You actually walk among the displays, which causes some real violations of the "Please don't touch the exhibits" signs as tourists clamber to have photos taken with their arms around camel's necks and standing arm-in-arm with Bedouins making their camps. All we could do was shake our heads in dismay at the lady who tried to climb on the camel for that one great shot.
We spent the rest of the day on the creek, really a 15 mile channel that started life as a shallow inlet. It was dredged in the 1950s to help increase trade. It has since been lengthened to make more waterfront inland. It now extends to the Burj Dubai (world's tallest building) to form the lake surrounding the Burj Dubai and the waterfront for the new Marina Commercial Center.
Lunch was a treat for all the senses. The creek-side restaurant bustled with customers from around the world,some in native dress. Birds circled, swooped and screamed overhead, hundreds of boats maneuvered out of one another's ways on the creek and thousands of little fish swam just under the surface, jumping out of the water to make mass escapes from unseen predators, leaving a silvery, splashy meteor's trail on the water - it really was there, you know you saw it, but it happened so quickly and it's gone.
We took a short ride across the creek aboard an abra, a small, open motor taxi that holds about 20 people. On the north side, the trade wharf is filled with tons of trade goods from macaroni to tires to tank trucks which are being loaded on dhows for trade around the middle east. The activity is non-stop as dhows arrive, off-load, on-load and get under way. The crewmen don't have entry rights, so they live aboard the dhows dockside for three or four days until they get under way again. The dhows tie up five and six abreast, hundreds of them along the wharf.
We spent time on our boat ride photographing all the different shapes of buildings along the creek. The sun was setting as we landed and took a short walk through the silk sukh, dealing on some items Gail needed, then headed for home and a relaxed evening.
Happy travels,
Dan & Gail
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Fantasyla...no, Disneywor.....no, Las Vegas without casi...no...Boy is this place Hard to Describe!
Being in Dubai is easy. Explaining Dubai is difficult. Let's see if I can even explain my confusion.
We've taken the BIG BUS tours in many major cities, the narrator indicating points of interest, museums and historically significant places, giving dates and names. The Dubai BIG BUS tours from mall to mall, indicating which rank each is in "the largest in the world" category, giving names of designer stores and opening times. Along the way, the narration is of each building that is the largest, tallest, most square footage under one roof, largest indoor span, highest indoor fountain, greatest water flow in a fountain, highest indoor ski hill, most designer stores under one roof..... After each is presented, the notice is given that this information is only temporarily true because the (name goes here) will be completed in 2008 (or 2009 or 2010) which will eclipse all other buildings of it's type in the world.
To be fair, we did pass the Dubai Museum, which is supposed to be quite nice, and the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's House, dating from 1896, with live portrayals of life before wealth. There is not much old stuff here because the Emirates suddenly had the money to tear down the old and build new. In Europe we found that the wonderful old cities were usually the result of a community going broke and never recovering enough to modernize. It's understandable, if you had lived you life in 120 degrees in a tent, palm-frond or coral-rock walled home with no insulation, you would jump at the chance to tear it down and put up the latest style with unlimited A/C if you could afford it.
We are staying with our Daughter, Jennifer, and Son-In-Law, Bruce, at their apartment in downtown Dubai. It is a large city, 1.2 million, with traffic problems and growing like mad. There is something under construction everywhere you look. We had read that 20% of the world's construction cranes are in Dubai-I just counted 49 from Jen and Bruce's balcony and the sun is in my eye's looking west, so I may have missed a few. Every day the street system changes as new construction gets under way and they are putting in a subway system, so miles of streets are rerouted for that. Even the newest GoogleEarth pictures are out of date.
Now some good stuff. Entry to Dubai was the easiest of any place we've been. You don't need a visa and customs involved "Welcome to Dubai!" Everyone speaks English and all road signs are in English and Arabic. The city is very clean. The taxis are very new and clean. All drivers know where they are going-which is amazing for two very strange reasons. One is the streets are not known by their names. The Emirates have a custom of putting like businesses together, so you have an area where all the banks or all the computer stores or all the car dealerships are side by side and the street becomes known as Bank Street, Computer Street or Car Dealer Street. For instance, the street I'm looking at right now is really "Sheikh Kalifa Bin Zayed Street, but because the World Trade Center is located on it a few miles away, it is known as "Trade Center Street."
The even stranger reason is-THERE IS NO ADDRESS SYSTEM IN DUBAI! The reason still hasn't been explained fully; it has to do with such fast growth and there never having to be a system when the town was small and everyone knew each other. To get around you have to know landmarks. For example, when returning to our apartment, we tell the taxi driver, in stages, depending on how much he already knows: The Centrepoint Apartments (almost all drivers know it)-off Trade Center Road (it's on Kuwait Street, but no one knows that name)-by the new Spinney's (a fairly big food store nearby, but you have to say the "new" Spinney's because there are others)-near Bur Juman (a very upscale mall which everyone knows)-in Al Mankhool (our neighborhood). We haven't gotten lost yet!
We'll continue this later. We've got to get ready for our dinner cruise tonight. Happy travels!
Dan & Gail
We've taken the BIG BUS tours in many major cities, the narrator indicating points of interest, museums and historically significant places, giving dates and names. The Dubai BIG BUS tours from mall to mall, indicating which rank each is in "the largest in the world" category, giving names of designer stores and opening times. Along the way, the narration is of each building that is the largest, tallest, most square footage under one roof, largest indoor span, highest indoor fountain, greatest water flow in a fountain, highest indoor ski hill, most designer stores under one roof..... After each is presented, the notice is given that this information is only temporarily true because the (name goes here) will be completed in 2008 (or 2009 or 2010) which will eclipse all other buildings of it's type in the world.
To be fair, we did pass the Dubai Museum, which is supposed to be quite nice, and the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's House, dating from 1896, with live portrayals of life before wealth. There is not much old stuff here because the Emirates suddenly had the money to tear down the old and build new. In Europe we found that the wonderful old cities were usually the result of a community going broke and never recovering enough to modernize. It's understandable, if you had lived you life in 120 degrees in a tent, palm-frond or coral-rock walled home with no insulation, you would jump at the chance to tear it down and put up the latest style with unlimited A/C if you could afford it.
We are staying with our Daughter, Jennifer, and Son-In-Law, Bruce, at their apartment in downtown Dubai. It is a large city, 1.2 million, with traffic problems and growing like mad. There is something under construction everywhere you look. We had read that 20% of the world's construction cranes are in Dubai-I just counted 49 from Jen and Bruce's balcony and the sun is in my eye's looking west, so I may have missed a few. Every day the street system changes as new construction gets under way and they are putting in a subway system, so miles of streets are rerouted for that. Even the newest GoogleEarth pictures are out of date.
Now some good stuff. Entry to Dubai was the easiest of any place we've been. You don't need a visa and customs involved "Welcome to Dubai!" Everyone speaks English and all road signs are in English and Arabic. The city is very clean. The taxis are very new and clean. All drivers know where they are going-which is amazing for two very strange reasons. One is the streets are not known by their names. The Emirates have a custom of putting like businesses together, so you have an area where all the banks or all the computer stores or all the car dealerships are side by side and the street becomes known as Bank Street, Computer Street or Car Dealer Street. For instance, the street I'm looking at right now is really "Sheikh Kalifa Bin Zayed Street, but because the World Trade Center is located on it a few miles away, it is known as "Trade Center Street."
The even stranger reason is-THERE IS NO ADDRESS SYSTEM IN DUBAI! The reason still hasn't been explained fully; it has to do with such fast growth and there never having to be a system when the town was small and everyone knew each other. To get around you have to know landmarks. For example, when returning to our apartment, we tell the taxi driver, in stages, depending on how much he already knows: The Centrepoint Apartments (almost all drivers know it)-off Trade Center Road (it's on Kuwait Street, but no one knows that name)-by the new Spinney's (a fairly big food store nearby, but you have to say the "new" Spinney's because there are others)-near Bur Juman (a very upscale mall which everyone knows)-in Al Mankhool (our neighborhood). We haven't gotten lost yet!
We'll continue this later. We've got to get ready for our dinner cruise tonight. Happy travels!
Dan & Gail
Monday, October 29, 2007
Even Dracula's castle looks good on the internet!
Wow! We are in Cairo. We've seen the pyramids and they are super! We are doing fantastically! And now...The rest of the story:
The flight from Tunis to Cairo was only a little late, so that wasn't so bad. It's scheduled arrival was 2:30 AM, that was bad. Tired, dazed and weary from dealing with travel on our own, we were led through customs by a very caring guy, which wasn't bad. Instead of showing us where to catch a taxi into town, he showed us upstairs to his travel office, that was bad. He talked us into a tour of the Giza and Saqqara pyramids of a lot less than we thought we would have to pay AND a car to our hotel (the hotel driver did not show up and we couldn't get through to them on the phone) so that wasn't bad. We arrived at our hotel, in a very seedy, somewhat scary location to find it somewhat of a dump.....no let's be honest here....it was a dump; and this was bad. After a very short night's sleep, we ventured forth in Cairo to find a new hotel. After a somewhat difficult search, Gail and I hit the "do it yourself, budget travel" wall. And this is GOOD!
After two and a half months of do it yourself, budget travel, we are staying in a suite at the four-star Flamenco Hotel for approximately ten times the room cost of our last hotel. We have hot and cold running water 24-7, bath towels, a toilet that flushes, windows that open and close, with the Nile River under our balcony. We even ordered a room service dinner our first night because we didn't want to search for a place to eat.
We have our Egypt itinerary all in order with the help of our new travel agent friend. We visited the pyramids at Giza and Saqqara yesterday. We got to climb down into 4,500 year old burial vaults on our hands and knees (boy are they sore today) just like you see the explorers do it in the movies. And we walked on the pyramids. We didn't worry about getting lost, or how get back to town or where to eat.
Today we had a relaxing day at the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. We spent hours looking close-up at thousands of items. They have the full Tutankamun exhibit there. It's amazing how well these items have been preserved. tomorrow through Sunday we will be at Alexandria and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings and Aswan and then up to Dubai for a visit with Jen, Bruce and Jack and Kim Stracke.
The Egyptian people are amazingly friendy and helpful. They are all trying to make a buck but they are really nice. Cairo is a city of eighteen million people and I think they were all at the main square the last couple of days. It is very, very polluted in Cairo with all the cars running at about eleven miles per hour average. There are water buffalo being herded to the fields in morning rush-hour traffic and donkey carts are a very significant part of the transportation, even right in the city. It is a strange, beautiful place with exotic people dressed in all sorts of traditional dress. We are really happy we are here. Happy travels!
Dan & Gail
The flight from Tunis to Cairo was only a little late, so that wasn't so bad. It's scheduled arrival was 2:30 AM, that was bad. Tired, dazed and weary from dealing with travel on our own, we were led through customs by a very caring guy, which wasn't bad. Instead of showing us where to catch a taxi into town, he showed us upstairs to his travel office, that was bad. He talked us into a tour of the Giza and Saqqara pyramids of a lot less than we thought we would have to pay AND a car to our hotel (the hotel driver did not show up and we couldn't get through to them on the phone) so that wasn't bad. We arrived at our hotel, in a very seedy, somewhat scary location to find it somewhat of a dump.....no let's be honest here....it was a dump; and this was bad. After a very short night's sleep, we ventured forth in Cairo to find a new hotel. After a somewhat difficult search, Gail and I hit the "do it yourself, budget travel" wall. And this is GOOD!
After two and a half months of do it yourself, budget travel, we are staying in a suite at the four-star Flamenco Hotel for approximately ten times the room cost of our last hotel. We have hot and cold running water 24-7, bath towels, a toilet that flushes, windows that open and close, with the Nile River under our balcony. We even ordered a room service dinner our first night because we didn't want to search for a place to eat.
We have our Egypt itinerary all in order with the help of our new travel agent friend. We visited the pyramids at Giza and Saqqara yesterday. We got to climb down into 4,500 year old burial vaults on our hands and knees (boy are they sore today) just like you see the explorers do it in the movies. And we walked on the pyramids. We didn't worry about getting lost, or how get back to town or where to eat.
Today we had a relaxing day at the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. We spent hours looking close-up at thousands of items. They have the full Tutankamun exhibit there. It's amazing how well these items have been preserved. tomorrow through Sunday we will be at Alexandria and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings and Aswan and then up to Dubai for a visit with Jen, Bruce and Jack and Kim Stracke.
The Egyptian people are amazingly friendy and helpful. They are all trying to make a buck but they are really nice. Cairo is a city of eighteen million people and I think they were all at the main square the last couple of days. It is very, very polluted in Cairo with all the cars running at about eleven miles per hour average. There are water buffalo being herded to the fields in morning rush-hour traffic and donkey carts are a very significant part of the transportation, even right in the city. It is a strange, beautiful place with exotic people dressed in all sorts of traditional dress. We are really happy we are here. Happy travels!
Dan & Gail
Friday, October 26, 2007
Yes, and what is your flight number?
"We will be arriving much later than we expected; Can we still check in that late?"
"Oh, yes, that is perfectly acceptable. We can send a car for you. It will be 50£. Is that OK?"
"Yes. We would like you to send a car."
"OK, he will meet you at the airport. What is your flight number?"
"We are arriving by ferry at the port of Tunis."
"Yes, yes, yes; OK. What is your flight number?"
"We are not flying. We have no flight number. We are coming by ferry from Palermo."
"By ferry. OK. What is your flight number?"
"We arrive at the port of Tunis on Grandi, that's G R A N D I, Navi, N A V I, Veloci, V E L O C I ship Majestic. Boat, embarco, ferryboat, ship, OK"
"Uh....yes, yes, yes, I see. Majestic. He will meet you.
That was the conversation I had with our hotel last week. We caught the ferry early Saturday morning in a torrential downpour. Most of southern Europe has been experiencing some funky weather, so we were happy to be heading to Africa. We met some really interesting folks on the ferry, but I spent most of my time asleep. Because of last year's experience with vertigo, I had taken some anti-sea sick med that made me drowzy. Little did I know what was making me so tired.
Two couples we met were headed for a camel ride/camping trip through the desert. I feel for them because the weather followed us here. Thankfully, we had an indoor place to stay; when we finally got there. We really were expecting to see our driver at the ferry dock, but knew there was a pretty good chance he wouldn't be there. After clearing customs, we found several drivers waiting, but none for the Olsons. We eventually found a phone that works, called the hotel and had a conversation similar to the last one: "Our driver isn't here."
"Oh, yes, yes, yes, he is there. He has a sign with your name on it."
"He didn't meet us."
"He called me to say he is there. What is your flight number?"
I grabbed a nearby person who spoke Arabic and French, they spoke for a while and when I got back on the line she directed us to a nearby caffé where our driver picked us up about an hour later. Since then, our Tunisian trip has been less than the best. The weather has been terrible until yesterday and I came down with, what I thought, was the flu.
We did do some traveling here. We visited some Roman ruins in an area that has evidence of population going back 200,000 years. The ruins are very intact of a city of 20-30 thousand people in the B.C. times. This area was a bread basket for the Romans. It is so amazing to think of the extent of the Romans. We stopped at a site (which is being rebuilt) where the Romans captured water out of the Atlas Mountains and sent it by aquaducts to all of there cities in Tunisia. We also passed through the town of Jedidi. The STAR WARS movies were shot in Tunisia and they used a lot of the local names in the movies. A lot of the costuming in the movies looks very similar to the way locals dress in the cold rain.
We did miss seeing the city which was our main reason for coming to Tunisia, because our tour group forgot to pick us up yesterday. This became a good thing. My fever had returned, plus extra symptoms and I would have had a misserable day. It gave us time to go to a doctor where I found that I had picked up a systemic infection and needed to start antibiotics right away. Today I feel great, the sun is shining and everything is fantastic! We are headed to Cairo tonight. See you soon.
Dan & Gail
"Oh, yes, that is perfectly acceptable. We can send a car for you. It will be 50£. Is that OK?"
"Yes. We would like you to send a car."
"OK, he will meet you at the airport. What is your flight number?"
"We are arriving by ferry at the port of Tunis."
"Yes, yes, yes; OK. What is your flight number?"
"We are not flying. We have no flight number. We are coming by ferry from Palermo."
"By ferry. OK. What is your flight number?"
"We arrive at the port of Tunis on Grandi, that's G R A N D I, Navi, N A V I, Veloci, V E L O C I ship Majestic. Boat, embarco, ferryboat, ship, OK"
"Uh....yes, yes, yes, I see. Majestic. He will meet you.
That was the conversation I had with our hotel last week. We caught the ferry early Saturday morning in a torrential downpour. Most of southern Europe has been experiencing some funky weather, so we were happy to be heading to Africa. We met some really interesting folks on the ferry, but I spent most of my time asleep. Because of last year's experience with vertigo, I had taken some anti-sea sick med that made me drowzy. Little did I know what was making me so tired.
Two couples we met were headed for a camel ride/camping trip through the desert. I feel for them because the weather followed us here. Thankfully, we had an indoor place to stay; when we finally got there. We really were expecting to see our driver at the ferry dock, but knew there was a pretty good chance he wouldn't be there. After clearing customs, we found several drivers waiting, but none for the Olsons. We eventually found a phone that works, called the hotel and had a conversation similar to the last one: "Our driver isn't here."
"Oh, yes, yes, yes, he is there. He has a sign with your name on it."
"He didn't meet us."
"He called me to say he is there. What is your flight number?"
I grabbed a nearby person who spoke Arabic and French, they spoke for a while and when I got back on the line she directed us to a nearby caffé where our driver picked us up about an hour later. Since then, our Tunisian trip has been less than the best. The weather has been terrible until yesterday and I came down with, what I thought, was the flu.
We did do some traveling here. We visited some Roman ruins in an area that has evidence of population going back 200,000 years. The ruins are very intact of a city of 20-30 thousand people in the B.C. times. This area was a bread basket for the Romans. It is so amazing to think of the extent of the Romans. We stopped at a site (which is being rebuilt) where the Romans captured water out of the Atlas Mountains and sent it by aquaducts to all of there cities in Tunisia. We also passed through the town of Jedidi. The STAR WARS movies were shot in Tunisia and they used a lot of the local names in the movies. A lot of the costuming in the movies looks very similar to the way locals dress in the cold rain.
We did miss seeing the city which was our main reason for coming to Tunisia, because our tour group forgot to pick us up yesterday. This became a good thing. My fever had returned, plus extra symptoms and I would have had a misserable day. It gave us time to go to a doctor where I found that I had picked up a systemic infection and needed to start antibiotics right away. Today I feel great, the sun is shining and everything is fantastic! We are headed to Cairo tonight. See you soon.
Dan & Gail
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