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Ang! Miss you guys at the house of mouse. I miss our lunches in the lounge watching Springer, Lucy, or just exchanging self-deprecating humor. Hope you guys are still making animation magic. Every now and then I run into people who are delighted to hear of my work on Meet the Robinsons. I met this family from Ottawa who watched it on their flight and thought it was great. These great Italian friends I met in Corfu had heard of it as it may have just been released out there. They treated me like a movie star at dinner, very amusing. Thank you for helping me stay fed and healthy on the trip. As always, give everyone my regards.

At the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, there's a statue of a scarab beetle dedicated by Amenhotep III to Khepri, god of the rising sun. It's fun to watch people walk around it. They say three times for luck, five times for marriage, and seven times for children. Check out this video (though it'll probably be a blurry mess on YouTube).

Labels: Egypt, Food, Videos

Houston baby! So great to hear from you. It's nice that you, Rick, and Cara are doing so well in Texas. Still heading to Patagonia? Can I tag along?

I used your contribution to stay hydrated in Egypt. With all of the desert trekking through tombs, temples, and pyramids, you have to keep drinking the water. I also treated myself to a few orange sodas. I mentioned in another blog that I loved drinking Fanta in the heat. I never drink soda in the states but it just tastes so good in Egypt. While I was in Luxor, I also had a nice chicken meal with Hamdi, this young Egyptian merchant that I ended up chatting with for three hours. He asked me why I didn't have a girlfriend and I told him I didn't have money. He thought this was odd but later, I asked him why he didn't have a girlfriend and it was the same sentiment. He said, why would I want a girl? To talk to her? I can talk to myself. To eat dinner with her? I can eat with myself, cheaper. On other reasons, apparently religion prevents other benefits of a mate. He seemed to have dreams of visiting Costa Rica. He had friends in California. All of his brothers worked together to run shops. Later I also tried to explain my shyness. Hamdi found shyness in a man to be ridiculous. He simply explained that I am man and a woman does not expect shyness in a man. I had to be strong like an Egyptian. Later, we were hanging out on the street and found myself in a tag team with him as we flirted with a tourist. He said, you are not shy. And I told him that he was strong enough for the both of us. So I told him whenever I needed a boost of courage, I'd think of him and would say, "Hamdi-la!" It was all very amusing. Great time.

I hope to see you guys again someday, maybe over some Texas BBQ... unless we can find a good paella somewhere.

And now for the great statue of Ramses II in Memphis and the awesome hypostyle hall at the Temple of Karnak:

Labels: Egypt, Food, Videos

It's nice to "meet" you, Angelica. I'm glad my travels have brought back fond memories of your own trip and good luck with your next journey. In Luxor, Egypt, I met a cool guy from New York who was on the tour of the temples with me. After being beaten down by the desert sun all morning, we headed into town to find some lunch. We stopped at a kushari joint and I had a big bowl with a bottle of orange soda. I don't what it is about the desert, but it makes me crave orange soda. (similarly, Athens makes me crave lemon Fanta). Kushari is like this Egyptian fast food where they serve up a bowl full of macaroni, lentils or other beans, dried sweet onions, and a side of watery tomato sauce that is just slightly spicy. At the table you can find a lemon and spice mixture to pour over the kushari as well. But I wasn't up for anything that was sitting in the sun all day. (I've seen people put their thumbs on the top of the bottles to mix the lemon juice up... yeah, no thanks)

Me and my new friend watched the scene on the streets below of people praying, carrying carpets on their heads, and selling fruits and breads. It was a good meal and cheap, too! Thanks for feeding me. My camera broke that day so I don't have photos yet but here's a video of me and another traveler crawling around a tomb in Saqqara:

Labels: Egypt, Food, Videos

It was great to see your name come up on FeedTony.com, it's been so long. I'm diggin' your artwork, I love finding old friends from SJ who are living the life of the artist. I'm doing my best to drink all of these travel experiences in so that someday, something creative will be born of it. I took a tour of temples and pyramids in Saqqara, Dashur, and Giza, Egypt a couple weeks back. I had a driver named Hossein who cracked me up all day with his singing, his reckless driving, and his Egyptian humor. We stopped by the Saqqara's Nest restaurant for a hearty meal of chicken, hummus, falafel, eggplant, spicy tomatoes, and this rice wrapped in some sort of cabbage leaf. De-friggin-licious! Here's a little video thanks for you, keep creating!It was great to see your name after so long. I'm diggin' your artwork, I love finding old friends from SJ who are living the life of the artist. I'm doing my best to drink all of these travel experiences in so that someday, something creative will be born of it. I took a tour of temples and pyramids in Saqqara, Dashur, and Giza, Egypt a couple weeks back. I had a driver named Hossein who cracked me up all day with his singing, his reckless driving, and his Egyptian humor. We stopped by the Saqqara's Nest restaurant for a hearty meal of chicken, hummus, falafel, eggplant, spicy tomatoes, and this rice wrapped in some sort of cabbage leaf. De-friggin-licious! Here's a little video thanks for you, keep creating!

Labels: Egypt, Food, Videos

Back in Cairo... another hot day. I wandered the streets a bit on my way to the post office. Had some kushari for dinner and went back to do some reading at the hotel.

I started to feel a bit miserable. Three months of traveling. I miss my friends and family. I wonder what you're all up to. It trips me out to be lying on some bed in Africa, staring out the window wondering what's to become of my life. (I'm sure Anonymous has plenty of ideas but you can keep it to your damn self)

I fantasized about the 'perfect' life. I realized that I'd pretty much packed everything up before I left and upon my return, I'd still be 'traveling' essentially. There's no place of my own to return to. I'd love to come back to my own place. So that would require some sort of job. But then a full time job just gets in the way of my dreams. So the fantasy is to make just enough... Just enough to be on my own and to continue working on the dream. I'd like to have time to visit everyone who's helped me out these past few months. I'd like time to digest the experiences I'll come away with from the trip. America though, it's difficult not to conform. Will I return to the path of conformity or will I continue on the road less traveled? This freedom I have right now, how attached will I become to it?

At some point I'll want a partner. But I can't help but think that I won't accept anyone unless I'm on this path of conformity. I still haven't been able to shake that. Maybe I'm looking for the wrong type of woman. I've certainly run into many on my travels who aren't 'typical' in the late 20's, early 30's American sense.

I continued staring out the window and wondering whether I'd be able to pull the pieces of my master plan together. I looked to the journey ahead, the rough streets of India, the other sweaty beds I'd be lying in, in Southeast Asia, and the dire financial situation I'll be buried in once I return to Paradise.

I flipped through my ipod and put on the TMF '06 Video Mashup. This collection of pop hits from 2006 has become my new anthem on the second phase of the trip. In the beginning, I was lulled and intoxicated by Feist's albums but now, it's beat-filled dance music that reinvigorates. I got up in my hotel room and danced by myself in the dark. I danced like I knew how and I danced til sweat bathed my back and chest. I'm still alone. I'm still traveling. And I'm still livin' it.

Labels: Egypt

I've got some terrible news. I was visiting Deir el-Bahri on the West Bank of Luxor yesterday and my digital camera stopped working. It doesn't turn on anymore. It could have been the desert heat or it could have been this photo I took in front of the god of the underworld (or something creepy like that).

Either way, no photos or video! I'm shipping a new camera to my mom immediately. I have no idea how she's going to get it to me in Greece or India but hopefully FedEx, USPS, DHL, UPS, or a messenger pigeon can find me without a lot of hassle from customs. So enjoy the last photo I took with my Canon Elph SD400.

On the upside, I hung out with a cool Egyptian dude named Hamdi in Luxor. We chatted for three hours. It's very strange how I keep running into locals and striking up long life conversations over chicken meals. It's fantastic stuff. I walk away with a lot to think about and a new perspective on life. Hopefully I'll find time to share some things with you later but right now, I have to wash up. I've been wandering through tombs and crazy streets. I've just hopped off an eleven hour train ride (looking out the window at these different Egyptian towns is completely unreal... sheep herders, mosques, farms... a completely alien world straight out of the movies).

Okay, I really gotta go, they're trying to clean up around me as I type. I'll take the hint.

Labels: Egypt

[I scribbled this out in my Moleskine notebook while on the train, forgive my grammar and randomness]

Wednesday, Aug. 1- Cairo, Egypt:

I was booked on a 10pm train to Luxor from Cairo. The hostel receptionist told me a taxi would take me to the train station. I killed time in the evening posting the YouTube video (45 minute upload, hope you liked it) and reading a Lonely Planet Egypt guide. Sometime around 9:30pm one of the guys that work at the hostel takes me downstairs. He stands in the street trying to flag a taxi down. They pass by one by one. Some stop, he speaks Arabic to them, they shake their head, and zoom away. This happened about five or six times before he called up stairs. Whatever they told him made us start walking down the street ("More taxis", he told me). We try to flag down a couple more cars. No luck. He's on the cell phone again. This time his eyes light up and he beckons me to follow him as he starts a slow sprint down the busy sidewalks. I ask him what's going on and he tells me, "Four minutes". We're running now. I'm smashing into people, men, women... I'm jumping over merchants' goods spread out on the sidewalk. People are shouting at us. It must have looked like I was chasing a thief. I'm carrying two bags and I'm exhausted. I slow down as my stomach starts to cramp up. He beckons to me frantically. I shout at him, "I'm carrying bags here!"

We get to the station. It's chaos. We bolt to a train, he asks different people questions. We bolt down stairs and through tunnels. I remind myself of the tomb descending and horseback riding I'd done earlier in the day. Rather, the pain in my thigh muscles do the reminding. Wrong platform. The kid jumps onto the train tracks, a meter drop. He beckons. I pause for a moment to see if he realizes that I'm still carrying luggage. He beckons again. I toss him my backpack and leap down. We run across grime and debris, I glance back and forth for moving trains. We toss the bags up onto the platform and use a pipe to boost ourselves up. He asks people in windows, hanging out of doors, and standing around the platform if they know where 926 to Luxor is. I notice how crowded and sweaty the train looks. I'm not sure if I even want to get on it if we found it. He runs off again. Jumps down to the tracks. I follow. At the other end there is no pipe to help us up. We struggle for a second, toss the bags up, and use our arms to pull us up. He runs around asking again and again. The train is gone.

We sit on some steps by the station while he phones the hostel manager. I am laughing in disbelief. His manager instructs him to exchange the ticket. So we head back through the tunnels to the ticket office. No one will help him. After an hour of climbing up and down stairs, back and forth from different offices, booths, and whatnot, I lose my patience. I was sweating head to toe, more than I ever had on the trip. (I powdered my junk but at this point, it didn't matter) My Geox Respiras definitely weren't respirating enough.

The officials all refuse to exchange the ticket. Aziz, the manager of the hostel, shows up and asks me to cough up 90 LE for a ticket to the next train. Angrily, I hand it over though I'd been fantasizing about heading straight to Corfu. It's close to midnight now and my train has just pulled up. The kid (who turned out to be 19) showed me to my air-conditioned car and I was on my way to Luxor.

Note: The train was actually too cold. I didn't bring any sort of jumper so I tucked my arms inside my shirt to sleep. A plain clothes security guy spent most of his time sitting in the seat in front of me with a sub-machine gun. So I wasn't too worried about my bags.

Labels: Egypt

Went out and checked out Saqqara, Dahshur, Memphis, and Giza. Had a fun driver named Hossein take me around. Met an Aussie named Tom who spit some history knowledge at me while we climbed up and through things (the Mastaba of Ti was pretty cool). Had a meal sponsored by Julie (Thanks! Video when I find a fast connection) at the Saqqara Nest restaurant. Climbed into a pyramid, wandered into a tomb, rode a horse for the second time in my life, and survived not only Egyptian traffic but the Egyptian meal as well (so far).

Part of the tour involved checking out a carpet school (where they tried to sell me some goods) and a papyrus shop (where they tried to sell me goods). I can't be buyin' nothin' folks, sorry. Though after learning a bit about papyrus history and stories behind the art, I was tempted. I suggested that they make smaller pieces.

The tipping thing is frustrating. Everyone wants a tip for something. At the step pyramid, the guides wanted some so I slyly pointed towards the Aussie who hadn't come out yet and they went after him. My driver got a kick out of that. At the carpet shop, the merchant wanted 10 LE after I offered 1 LE. He refused to take it. My money's no good unless it's more (granted, I think 1 LE is 20-cents... but if you're an Egyptian, that'll get you a bottle of water where I have to pay five times or more as a tourist) The horse guide also didn't like my tip. But you know what, I've got six more months to live and some plastic debt building up, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I've learned how to say no and thank you in Arabic. That's all I need I think.

I've also started to tell people that I'm from Canada. I think I should switch it to Australia. Can't let them know there are poor people from California wandering the world.

The one mistake I made today was to take the horse around the pyramids instead of going in on foot. I think I overpaid even after 15 minutes of bargaining and everyone wearing very unhappy faces. What happens is that you take these horses or camels (I'll ride one of those tomorrow) around the hills of the ancient sites. True you get some nice photos from there but you don't actually go inside the grounds where you have to pay for entry. It was an interesting experience but I may have to return to get a closer look.


Toilets: I've suddenly encountered the toilets with a hose next to them for spraying your bottom off. Makes me worry about touching fixtures and handles around the place. Fortunately places catering to tourists have had TP. I've also had to deal with showers with no shower curtain. You get a small square to stand in and the water sprays all over the floor. On the Greek islands this got pretty messy and here in Egypt they often have a big squeegee in the bathroom for pushing the water towards the drain afterwards. Fun.

Labels: Egypt, Toilets, Videos

I made it on my flight to Cairo just in the nick of time. I met a fascinating new friend in Athens and sat at a cafe listening to his life experiences. The man's lived a hundred lives and he's just seven years older than me. Seems that I've met quite a few interesting characters while traveling Greece. I think after Italy, I've been forcing myself to open up more. What I get in return is a mixed bag but I am finding stories and that was one of the goals.

The heaviest bag you can carry is an empty purse.

I say don't seize the day, seize the moment. -Dimitrius the Firebreather

After some apprehension about the price, I got a cab from Cairo airport to my hostel at 4am. It was the fastest taxi ride of my life. I'd been warned by some Canadians that I should just get into a cab, close my eyes, and hope for the best. It was pretty exciting albeit white-knuckling at times. Total disregard for lanes and for other cars.

Today I wandered out onto the streets which are busy with merchants selling the strangest things. I found myself on a street of car parts, a street of blue jeans, and a street of skimpy dress shops. I don't know who wears the skimpy dresses because most women wear head scarves (this is the closest I'll get to Azad's world). The constant stream of beautiful women I've seen in every country I've visited had slowed to a trickle here. Though the occassional beautiful face is alluring when you can't see the rest.

I stopped into the Egyptian Museum which was far more expensive than I was anticipating. 50 L.E. (about $10US) to get in (I'd read it was 20) and another 100 L.E. to see the Royal Mummies. The collection is immense but poorly organized. Word is that there will be a much bigger museum built in the near future but right now, you kind of just wander through this warehouse like hall of artifacts. Fortunately I got out just before the big tour groups were streaming in.

For the next couple of days, I've booked a car to take me out to the Pyramids and a night train to take me to Luxor for the rest of the week. As exciting as it is to be in a wild African city, I'm looking forward to some more island life in Corfu.

Some cons of Cairo: I'm getting eatin' by mosquitos and as soon as they bite, I get nasty reactions. I was thinking about how the West Nile virus was spreading through New York some time ago. Then I thought, "Wait, I'm on the Nile right now... does that mean these 'squitos are carrying this virus?!"

I never know what I'm supposed to pay for anything here. If you're buying something, you're supposed to barter no matter what. But I ain't buyin' anything but food? How much should that water have cost? How much is that soda? Every transaction involves suspicion. And so many people warned me about food poisoning, I'm not quite sure where to eat. Hunger's going to come knocking any minute now. But first, a nap.

Side Story: Some Eqyptian dude on the street saw me looking confused, trying to find my hostel. He pointed the way and started to tell me about how he deals in essences. He apparently runs a 150 acre flower farm and four factories that create the essence from over 70 types of flowers. These oils are sold to clients like the Body Shop. Next thing you know, I'm in a shop having rose, papayrus, and jasmine oil rubbed on my arm. I gotta say, I wouldn't mind having some essence to keep me fresh on my trip but I have my rule about buying things that don't go in the stomach. "Do you have a wife... girlfriend... mother... sister? I have many sizes, strong bottles..." I said I'd think about it and took off. He looked less friendly. It's been a few hours though and my arm smells great.

Labels: Egypt, Greece