Long Trip

I've had some long trips since moving overseas three years ago, however, this one seemed to justify posting a blog on. In twelve days I needed to cover 17,938 miles across nine time zones in six countries.

So it begins early on a bright Sunday morning weaving my way through Dubai traffic on Sheikh Zyed road passing the rapidly forming metro system and the nearly complete Burj Tower, the worlds tallest building.

The airport is packed as expected with all of the expats trying to make their way home for their summer holidays before the worst of the heat and humidity sets in. Dubai International Airport is beyond its carrying capacity and everyone is anxious for the new airport to be built which will be larger than Chicago O'Hare and London Heathrow combined.

I try to take advantage of the opportuntiy to stretch my legs before the 17 hour flight to Houston gets underway. With a last check of the flight monitors, its time to head to the gate and get settled in. Emirates flies the new Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft on this route as its the only commercial jet liner capable covering the 8,176 mile flight without stopping. These aircraft are able to connect virtually any two points on the globe on a single non-stop run.

As luck would have it, the flight is packed and I've been up-graded to first class. The Emirates first class is ridiculous. A total of eight suites comprise first class. Each suite includes a fully flat bed, a mini bar, a 21 inch television screen, and best of all can be sealed off giving the occupant complete privacy. The pictures only do it partial justice.

I know....I look like a gluttonous pig...but I knew all to well that I had Egypt Air awaiting me for one of the final legs of my journey so I knew I had better enjoy this while I could.

So with wheels up at 9 AM in Dubai we were off across two continents and one ocean landing in Houston at 4:30 PM local time (1:30 AM in Dubai).

After a quick overnight stop in Houston / Galveston and a lunch with a customer its back to the airport to make my way up to Kansas City for meetings there. I had never been to Kansas City before, and wasn't quite sure what to expect but it turned out to be a great visit. I would say it has to be one of the cleanest major cities I've been to. Definately a good place to live and the great thing is you are a maximum of four hours from anywhere in the US. I even got to experience a classic heartland summer thunderstorm. After two days of meetings and a dinner at one of the oldest restaurants in the city where apparently you used to be able to pick the chicken you wanted to eat for dinner from those wandering around the backyard, it was time to make a move to the airport. Things went down hill from here....

It turns out that there isn't alot to do at the Kansas City International Airport. After seven hours there I felt I had a good handle on what the airport had to offer. One of the more unpleasant side effects of the classic heartland thunderstorm is the havoc it causes with airplanes. I had intended to fly to New York and make a relatively tight connection for the night flight to Oslo, Norway to meet with my project team there the following morning, however, arriving five hours late into New York there was no plane there and none leaving anytime soon.

So with that, I had to cancel my project team meeting for the following day, find a place to sleep and figure out how to get across the Atlantic in time to meet Vivian in Santorini for the weekend. After working the phones I had both a place to sleep for a few hours and a flight out the next day to Greece with British Airways via London.

Luck was on our side and Vivian and I landed in Athens within five mintues of one another to catch our connecting flight out to the island of Santorini for the weekend (seperate blog).

After parting ways with Vivian at the Athens airport, it was onto Beirut, Lebanon via Cairo, Egypt. I should have known that any contact with Egypt inevtiably meant problems. While the flights managed to adhere to schedule, my sole bag failed to make the connection leaving me alone staring blankly at an empty baggage carousel in Beirut. After struggling through my limited Arabic to convey that I had lost my bag it was off to the hotel to clean up as best I could for a dinner with the local agent.

Beirut is a city that looks like it has had its fair share of rough times. After being bombed heavily by the Israelis in the summer of 2006, the city is just now starting to come back together. Driving around the area the signs of war are clearly evident with numerous buildings half destroyed and vehicles on the road with bullet holes in them. While I was visiting, the country was full of excitement in anticipation of the release of hundreds of prisoners by the Israelis. We concluded our numerous meetings with customers and various authorties and ventured out across the city to our agent's residence listening to the sounds of automatic gunfire from Hamas as they celebrated the homecoming of the prisoners.

So, after twelve days on the road it was time to finally come home, luckily with my bag which apparently made it into Beirut the evening before my departure to Dubai.

Seychelles

Seychelles

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to dream up a place as idyllic as the Seychelles. Located off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles is comprised of numerous small granite and coral islands.

Most of the islands are uninhabited, and those that do support year round populations have only done so for the past 150 to 200 years. Arab traders were the first to visit the islands, followed by pirates who used the islands as a base of operations to prey on nearby merchant shipping, and then finally by small colonies of mainly French, Indian, and African nationalities who set up plantations and fishing operations. After gaining independence in 1976, Seychelles has slowly developed a very understated tourism industry.

















We were fortunate enough to spend four days in May mainly on Praslin island, the second largest of the nations islands. It didn't take us long to realize that this was not nearly enough time. After a quick four hour direct flight from Dubai we landed on the main island of Mahe where we quickly caught our connecting flight to Praslin on Air Seychelles.
















Our hotel, Chateau de Feuilles, was a small hotel of about a dozen bungalows perched on one of the points jutting out towards La Digue island, the third largest island of the nation.



















One of the best parts about the staying at such a small hotel, of which most are in the Seychelles, is the solitude. It was almost as if you had the entire place to yourself!











While we could have spent the entire visit happily loitering around the pool or jacuzzi taking in the fresh air and sounds of the waves crashing below, we managed to muster the strength to head out for a day on the hotels private island.


After a stroll down to Praslin's jetty, we were aboard the hotel's yacht and on our way out acorss the waters of the Indian ocean to Big Sister Island.



















After arriving, the group of maybe eight total spread out across the island giving us the feeling that we had been marooned on this picture perfect island with our only company being the wild tortoises!



















The island was just amazing in every sense, with the huge granite rocks creating a striking contrast against the turquoise waters, white sands, and lush palm tree groves.























After a morning of relaxing on the beach, we had a lunch of freshly caught fish followed by even more relaxing! Eventually, this perfect day had to come to an end and we made our way back aboard the yacht for the ride home as the sun set across the island.

On the higher elevations of Praslin Island, unique rain forests exist that are home to the Coco de Mer. The Coco do Mer is the largest nut in the world and is only found on Praslin. Whats unique about this nut is its shape (see picture). When Arab traders brought back the nuts, they were prized posessions by the Sheiks and Sultans of Arabia as they were believed to hold special fertility powers.

We spent one day on La Digue Island, where we spent the majority of the day biking around and seeing some of the sights. La Digue is where Robinson Cursoe was marooned, carving the number of days he was stranded onto a tree on the island. One of the most interesting sights was the islands taxi system....ox carts!

Our last night was spent on Mahe Island, the largest island and home to the world's smallest capitol city, Victoria. Pictures below of the port in Victoria as we approached from Praslin....there are not many ports in the world this picturesque!

This last night in the Seychelles we stayed at the Hilton resort, which even though it was a bit more crowded was definately a place we would return to.

So with that it was back to the heat and chaos of our home town.....Dubai. We are already planning our next trip back to the Seychelles!

The Republic of Djibouti

The Republic of Djibouti

Djibouti is a small country on the Horn of Africa nestled in a very rough neighborhood with Yemen just across the Gulf of Aden and Somalia just to the south. It is an incredibly poor country with only the revenues from the Port of Djibouti to subsist off of. The country has a very heavy French influence, as it was a French colony before gaining its independence.

I was in Djibouti on business for three days to explore what the country and its hinterlands might hold in the way of new market potential for our ships. It was a trip I had been putting off for some time given its less than appealing location. What would have been a 3.5 hour direct flight from Dubai, had there actually been an airline willing to service the route, was actually a 12 hour journey via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia aboard the well worn aircraft of Ethiopian Airlines. So after taking off from Dubai at 4:45 AM, I arrived at the Djibouti International Airport in high spirits with malaria medication in hand and countless vaccinations coursing through my body.

There was only one other plane at the airport when we landed, however, it wasn't an airline I was very familiar with.

After negotiating my way through immigration, it was off to the hotel to get cleaned up before the first meetings. After checking in at the hotel, (which happend to be the tallest building in the country at four stories) I noticed the hotel was bustling with activity. I mentioned this to the front desk clerk, who said that I was the only one staying in the hotel who was not a part of the UN sponsored peace conference underway between the dozens of warring Somali clan representatives.

So with that it was off to the Port of Djibouti for a site visit and meetings with the port officials.

The port itself was an interesting experience, the potent mix of heat, humidity, flies, and smell was unlike any port I've ever been to. The liberal bathing policy at the port was a first as well (see photo above).

The working hours in Djibouti are unusual and apparently a holdover from the French colonial days. The day starts at 8 AM and breaks at noon for the afternoon off. Work begins again at 4:30 PM and continues until 7 PM. The working week is a half day off on Thursday, all day off on Friday, and then a half day on Saturday.

One of the other interesting aspects of the culture is the use of Khat. Khat is a weed that is chewed to produce mild euphoria. Its easy to pick out the men using the narcotic as they tend to have a glassy eyed look to them and their teeth are stained a lovely brown. The port has placed signs around the premises banning the substance, however, its still very prevelent.

Djibouti is a very poor place and the following pictures reflect the average housing.

So with the meetings complete and more than enough of Djibouti to last a life time, it was off to the airport being careful to follow the sign board and stay straight versus hanging a right and ending up in a place probably even worse than Djibouti!

Cairo, Egypt

Our blogs are going to be out of order since I'm posting Egypt before Norway, but I have to get the Norway pics from Alex's camera (which we recently broke when we had the grand idea of taking pictures while swimming in the ocean in The Seychelles). No worries, I'll get them off the memory card in the next couple weeks and post those as well.

Anyway, we went to Cairo the first week of April. Let me just say that there are some locations which make blogging easy. You post the photos and they can pretty much speak for themselves. Egypt was NOT that way. These pictures are the best part of the trip. They are going to be your best bet if you would like to see the Giza Pyramids of Cairo. I hear the south of Egypt is better, but Cairo was a hard pill for us to swallow.

Where do I start? Lucky for you, we have had a couple months since the trip, so our emotions have calmed a bit.

A week before we left for Cairo, Alex says to me, "Honey, the driving in Cairo is absolute chaos and I know how you hate that so you are going to feel like you're in hell when we're on the roads there. If you think Dubai is bad (number one cause of death here in Dubai is road accidents), then you're in for a stressful ride." But he then adds a welcome caveat that the traffic is so bad no one can drive fast so whereas accidents happen all the time, death isn't the usual outcome. Whew! I'm feeling better, right?

So, we land at the Cairo airport and our driver is there to meet us. Another car is blocking his and he can't get out of the parking space so he proceeds to lay on the horn for a good 2 minutes all while yelling at the other man (who is frantically trying to get his guests luggage in the car and move out of the way) and making wild hand/arm gestures. This is before we have left our parking spot! I promptly look over at Alex and ask him if they sell Valium anywhere in this country. Sadly, he says they don't. Finally, we're out of our parking space and on the road toward the hotel (about a 30 minute drive from the airport). Well, as luck would have it, we have come to Cairo on a Friday morning. Friday is the Holy Day here in this region and everyone is at morning prayer as we make our way to the hotel. This means there isn't the promised traffic and we are going at least 100 miles an hour weaving in and out of cars, using the almost non-existent shoulder to pass people, even using the oncoming lanes to pass people. In between my constant prayers, I again ask Alex if he's absolutely SURE they don't sell Valium here. I'm not sure if he heard me over the ever present horns honking and the morning sermon in Arabic blasting on the radio.

Once we arrive at the hotel, the driver looks back, smiles and says in broken English, "I do good driving, we get here very quickly, you tip me nice?" Right. I leave Alex to fork over the money and head straight for the nearest place to sit and catch my breath.

This photo shows the taxis. Yes, those ancient black and white cars with the white racks on top are the taxis!

Our hotel was situated right on the bank of The Nile river and our balcony looked over the famed river. It was really an awe inspiring sight.

We put down our bags and went down to meet yet another driver and go see the Giza Pyramids. This driver was much better I am happy to report. Our knuckles were still white from gripping the door handle, but we were able to look at some of the sites as we passed by at least!

The Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx take your breath away the minute you lay eyes on them. They perch above the south side of the city up on a hill. The contrast between the new modern city so close to an ancient, historic site is striking.

Keep in mind we are being driven by someone who works for the agency that Alex's company ARC contracts with in Egypt. So, this is a man who knows his job is on the line as he takes one of his clients and the client's wife sightseeing. He is the one with me in the photo below.

As we pull up to the entrance to the pyramids, an Egyptian man opens the passenger door (Alex and I are in the back) and gets in the car. He says in broken English that he should be our tour guide. He will show us all around the pyramids and tell us all the history for a small price. Our driver all the while is yelling at him to get out of the car. The man just yells back. There is a lot of back and forth yelling in arabic with hand motions to boot. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the gist of the conversation. It takes our driver about 5 minutes to get the man out of the car. Alex and I are sitting quietly in the backseat with our huge round eyes wondering if that really just happened.

We park and get out of the car. This is some sort of signal that we are prey and it's open season. The local Egyptian men swarm around us, each one saying that we should hire them to be our tour guide. None of them are associated with the government or the site itself. Apparently they show up every day to badger tourists and hope someone will pick them to be their "tour guide" and then pay them, of course. Alex and I are ignoring them as we walk to buy our ticket from the counter, which is outside in the sand. They try speaking to us in Italian since we aren't responding to their English pleas, then French, then Spanish. At this point, I am thinking "wow, these men all know at least 6 languages! Why don't they have corporate international jobs? Why are they peddlers here at the Pyramids?!?" Maybe it's the flexible work hours...

Anyway, the men are becoming more and more insistant even when we tell them no. Alex is telling one man to go away as he is pulling on Alex's shirt. Different men are starting to pull on my arms trying to get us to go with them. We are LITERALLY being pulled in all different directions. Well, as most of you know, I am married to one of the most laid back men in the world. It takes A LOT to rile Alex, but I can see steam building and his face is turning red. He pushes one man off of him who is still pulling on him. I kindly ask Alex to refrain from getting too worked up as I would really rather not have to figure out how to bail him out of an Egyptian jail. Our driver is a cool cucumber, he sees this every day. He helps us, but apparently knows there is going to be no reprieve, no matter what you tell these people. It is just a part of the Giza Pyramid experience. As I look around I see a group of Spanish college students running away from one of the men because they have become so annoyed. He is smiling and assuring them in Spanish that he is the best tour guide around. Below is a pic of some of them on and around their horses.

Once we get nearer to the pyramids and away from the entrance area, the crowds of men seem to thin a bit, but they are still present everywhere. One of them wants me to get on his camel and take a ride. I tell him we have lots of camels in Dubai and I don't need to ride one again. He is persistant but I am not giving in on this one (although it's tempting just to get him to shut up). It is clear these are wild camels and they don't have spit guards on. The man takes his head scarf off and wraps it around my head before I know it. He then takes my camera and starts taking photos of me. When he's done he promptly puts out his hand and says "those are good photos you will treasure forever, you can pay me whatever you think is fair." Alex is a few feet away and I think I hear whistling coming from his head as the steam continues to build. Although he is eventually persuaded to get in one of the pictures with me! We walk away, but we just want to go back to our hotel and hide! Which is exactly what we did after we got our obligatory photos of the pyramid and the Sphinx.

Look at the person riding the camel above. He is a boy aged maybe 8 years old I would guess. I'm sure he already knows at least 3 languages. :)

Had we been with an organized tour group and not on our own, we would have been shielded from this chaos somewhat. Not completely as you cannot totally escape, but if any of you think about going, you NEED to go with a company who offers large group tours. The locals tend to know they don't have anything to offer those people and stay away from them for the most part.

Alex and I agree that this was one of the most intense experiences of all our travels so far. It is the only time I have been genuinely scared and felt so vulnerable. We usually sight see on our own with our nerdy Lonely Planet book as our only companion and we do just fine. Had we looked into this a bit more, perhaps we would have known not to attempt Giza outside of an organized tour (we usually prefer to stay away from those). Bad mistake.

Above we are squeezing our way through the narrow passages to the Sphinx.

We return to our hotel and order some Stella beers. This Stella is only brewed in Egypt and it's better than any Stella I've had in any other country. Maybe that had something to do with our long day, but really, it's great beer!

On the other hand, the National Museum in Cairo was absolutely more than we could have ever expected. Egypt has such a long and rich history. It is one of the most preserved and well documented histories in the world. Archeologists and historians can specialize their career (Egyptology) to focus on just this one country. This museum is so packed with artifacts that they have run out of places to put everything. Some items are stacked on top of other ones! The mummies are fascinating and they also have all of the tomb contents and sarcophaguses (sp?) of the royal mummies on display. I'm sure many of you went to your local museums when the King Tut exhibit went on tour. I saw it in Denver as a kid and Alex saw it in Dallas. It was even more amazing to experience all of it in its home country among all of the other royal mummies and artifacts. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed inside so you'll just have to take our word for it! Here is a pic from the outside though!

Don't get me wrong, Egypt was in some ways more than we expected and in some ways, less. We would love to go back to Egypt but our itinerary will be vastly different. We have heard great things about cruises down the Nile. We would really like to see some of the tombs and pyramids that are in Southern Egypt such as Luxor. Cairo, however, has been checked off the list for now!