Walk Like An Egyptian (Egypt)

Cairo is a city that really benefits from those pictogram tourist maps, where the significant attractions obscure the route detail and distances between them.  Don’t get me wrong, the sites are spectacular with the various pyramid and pharaonic archeological areas, the citadel and grand mosques of the old Islamic city.

But in between is frenetic mayhem in a traffic swirl beneath a haze of smog.  The infrastructure is crumbling under the weight of 25 million people, and for a civilization that introduced iconic feats of engineering and architecture; it is sad and somewhat ironic to see the surrounding areas of urban filth and decay. 

While nothing newer than 3000 years old is particularly attractive, that stuff is awe inspiring.  Is it easy to wander the complex that includes the Great Pyramid, Sphinx and adjacent support pyramids (although there are camel and horse-drawn carriage options as well).

The Nile flows slowly north dividing the City in two – the gritty downtown working area and the more serene West Bank (where all the high end hotels and embassies are situated). There is, however, a more equitable split of accumulated floating garbage on both sides.  I think we’ll journey further up river before we venture out on the water.

Arriving in Luxor was quite a breath of fresh air, both literally and figuratively (and this after a 10 hour overnight train ride).   While the Pyramids get all the hype and photo presence, the magnificent temples and tombs in the Luxor area provide meaningful insights into the life and, more importantly, death rituals of this ancient civilization.  

The grandeur of the Karnak and Luxor temples is evidenced immediately by the corridors of stone carved pillars (about 20 metres high and 3 metres in diameter), and then you discover that even the lintels have been carved and painted. 

A few skyscraper obilisques reveal more truths in their detailed hieroglyphics.  The immense statues here, and similarly in the smaller sister temple back at Luxor (they are only 3 or 4 km apart) are a prelude to the tomb complexes we will be visiting tomorrow on the West bank of the Nile.

For the rest of the day we opt for the sunset Felucca (Nile sail boat) ride, as the river is more natural and serene this far south (despite the myriad river barges and high end hotels at shore side).  Our captain – Mohammed – seems a bit of a “Gilligan” in terms of nautical skills, having to use the gang plank as a paddle to assist with our return up river.  All the while, we were under the watchful eye of Che Guevera – whose portrait was painted onto the sail (at least it wasn’t Ahab or Noah).

The Desert Mountains on the West bank seemingly form a pyramid-like shape, which apparently satisfied the ancients so as not to require more new pyramid construction to house their tombs.  The area is chock-a-block with burial chambers, the most important being within the “Valley of the Kings”.  There are a few dozen, and for our $20 entry fee we got to choose three (Tut was excluded as were a couple of others – from what we could tell, so as to offer additional fee opportunities).  Our guide explained how the tomb depth was the measure of stature, based primarily on the term length of their rule. 

While in Cairo earlier we had visited the Egyptian museum, where most of the tomb content is now housed – ornate crypts, sarcophagi, mummies, jewelry, pottery and other trinkets (the facility is jammed with objects continuously being extricated from archeological sites over the years in a facility that is itself a representation of 19^th century museum storage and presentation techniques).

Much needed context for the museum pieces is revealed within the ornately carved and colourfully painted subterranean tombs.  Each section of wall outlines a specific motif regarding the afterlife, with animal-headed humans, evil and protector snakes, and the ever-present scarab.  

Similar clusters of tombs honour the “lessers” including the Valley of the Queens where we actually thought the quality and preservation of the murals was at its highest (although our guide suggested this was because these chambers were more recently discovered and therefore less impacted and damaged).  We ended the day staring down the monolith Colossi of Memnon – 20 metre high twin seated Pharaoh statues from 1400 B.C.

There is only so much focus on the afterlife one can absorb, so despite the fact that still more temples and tombs can be visited up river, we opted to retrace the steps of my forefathers (de)parting (via) the Red Sea to Sinai…

Notice: additional photos posted on flickr

Two sets of additional photos have been added to our flickr site:

Morocco:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoobers_pics/sets/72157625360179719/
Tunisia:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoobers_pics/sets/72157625519906203/ 

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away (Tunisia)

Our trip south included a unique Tunisian conveyance called a “Louage”.  These mini-buses (really extra large vans) mirror the bus routes, sometimes even sharing stations.  Approaching the area, drivers scream out their destinations in a competition for your Dinar (currency).  The irony is that normally Tunisians tend to rush to get on and off of all transport, yet they embrace a mode that requires all eight seats to be filled before departure (which may take from 5 minutes to 1.5 hours).  After about 30 minutes wait, we were en route.

The stark and dramatic desert landscapes of the south coupled with ingenious indigenous housing and structures also turns out to be a picture perfect stand-in for alien worlds. 

The first Star Wars movie was filmed here back in 1977, and don’t think the locals don’t know it – making it part of every back-country tour.  Many of the sets are still in place and one - teenage Luke Skywalkers’ whitewashed subterranean home is now a hotel in an area where there are still families living below ground to moderate the 50+ degree summer heat and sub-zero winter nights.

We spent several days touring the wild and wonderful, strange and unnatural near the towns of Tozeur, Matmata and Tatouine (which again Star Wars borrowed as the planetary name of Luke Skywalker’s birth).

Besides the underground dwellings, sites were constructed within vast dune areas and alongside gleaming white salt lakes.  Looking more like the inspiration for the Flintstones (vs. Star Wars), the oddly round shaped multi-storey “Ghorfas” (originally self-sufficient desert communities) doubled as extraterrestrial encampments.  It’s a sci-fi nerd paradise – if I only had my light-sabre!!!

We ended our Tunisian sojourn on the desert island of Djerba, an odd collection of history and package tour beach front hotel properties for the Euro crowd (there are direct flights from many major European centres which may explain the multitude of well-fed German and French seniors lounging about). 

The island boasts a fort exploited and refurbished by the various controlling interests over the last millennium, as well as an impressive, and still active, synagogue dating from the 6^th century with some of the oldest Torah’s in the world (my mom will be so proud).

Despite the Roman ruins, alien landscapes and other antiquities, one lasting impression of Tunisia is the endless groves of Olive trees, no matter how arid, dusty and inhospitable, they were ever-present.

The national tourism documentation touts the country’s achievements endlessly and there were recently celebrations of the 23rd anniversary of “the change” - a date conspicuously coinciding with the first “election” of the current President (who incidentally changed the country’s constitution to be able to run indefinitely).  A quote from the Tunisair magazine states “… nourishing and perpetuating the Tunisian dream and as a result, the entire nation’s horizon will light up…the country itself which rises in the hierarchy of nations.”  Based on our observations, we aren’t quite sure whether “the change” represents puberty or menopause…

NOTE:  MORE TUNISIA PHOTOS LOADED ON flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoobers_pics/sets/72157625519906203/

The Empires Strike Back (Tunisia)

Notre entrée dans la vie Tunisienne a vraiment démontré la manière que le peuple célèbre la camaraderie et la fierté nationale… Oh, sorry, I have been speaking French for three weeks and just got carried away...

Tunis Performing Arts Theatre

Our entrée into Tunisian life really demonstrated the way the people celebrate camaraderie and national pride as a group of returning soccer youth (who had just won a tournament in Morocco) serenaded the crew and passengers of our flight with chants and fight songs for three straight hours (save for the meal break).  They even broke into harmonized refrain at the luggage retrieval area and again when greeted by family and friends just past immigration and customs (not something likely to be tolerated at Pearson – me thinks).

Ornate Seaside Village Doorway (Sidi Bou Said)

There is quite the variety of sights in the rather small Tunisian footprint.  Carthage was founded around 850 B.C., and lasted until 146 B.C. when the Romans marauded through and destroyed it.  There is evidence throughout the northern part of the country with random Roman ruins (the 3R’s of Tunisia) strewn about the countryside.  Carthage is just a 30 minute tram ride from the Capital, Tunis (at the Hannibal stop), and while most tourists arrive by the bus load, we followed the well marked tourist map to several impressive archeological sites encompassing fortifications, coliseums (one transformed for use in the summer festival), several communities, thermal baths and a museum.

Inlaid Mosaic Tile Flooring (still intact)

An hours’ train ride south of Tunis is the spectacularly restored (the 4^th R) El Jem coliseum complete with underground lion dens.  Despite a small unattractive town built around the site and the blasé treatment it receives from residents, once within the metre thick walls, the place has a palpable realism to it.

It is easy to imagine the gruesome gladiatorial games and gore that passed for mass entertainment (and I suppose, a warning for imperial subjects to walk the straight and narrow or pass up the spectator sport view for a part in the show).

The country is quite a bit more secular than expected in terms of gender roles (especially when compared to Morocco), with women mostly dressed in modern or semi-traditional attire and seemingly integrated into daily activities,  save for the overly testosterone based café culture.  Hundreds of wicker, metal and plastic tables and chairs spill onto the sidewalks from the many establishments, where mostly men sit in groups facing outward, leering at passers-by, chatting and arguing (in quite boisterous tones).

She was a tourist too!

Tunisia has a very sweeping supply of surface transport crisscrossing the country with planes, trains, buses and Louages – a kind of private competitor and supplement of mini-busses that await a full vehicle of 8 passengers before traveling between pretty much every reasonable destination.  Despite this comprehensive coverage, package coach tourism seems to dominate and there is a noticeable absence of information about how to arrange independent travel from one place to another.  Well, we figured it out the hard way and began our journey south.

The Arabs arrived about 800 years after the fall of Carthage and their historical presence is most evident further south, along with the Berber and other nomadic cultures…

Ain’t never gonna do it without the Fez on…(Morocco)

The six hour bus ride from the desert to the city of Fez turned out to be more like 10, possibly due to several lengthy stops to cram live animals (lambs, goats and chickens) in the undercarriage luggage area.    Fez has remained a vibrant city since 600 AD; with a Medina known for clusters of crafts along labyrinth lanes (incidentally we did not see any Shriners driving the streets on tiny motorcycles, although they would have fit in just fine).

Bab Bou Jelou (Entrance gate to the Medina)

 

The tannery section is particularly popular and while it should be difficult to find, the vendor collective has envoys all over the area “assisting” with directions to their shops.  This leather co-operative shares a 600 year old skin and dye facility and even engages in integrated procurement (from sheep, camel and cow suppliers).   

 

The Medina is also an aroma assault, emanating from cafes and patisseries, meat (i.e. sheep heads) and (giant) vegetable stalls, donkey-drawn carts and shepherded live sheep. 

 

 

The architecture is most impressive in the elaborate tiling and woodwork of the various Medersas (theological colleges).

 

 

A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum (well, on the way to some Roman ruins anyway).  Morocco’s best preserved Roman site is at a place called Volubilis, an allegedly 60 minute train ride en route from Fez (through a town called Meknes).  After our obligatory morning transportation nap, we awoke to our preset 50 minute alarm.  Another half hour passed and we asked the conductor why we had not heard any call for Meknes.  He informed us that there are no station calls on Moroccan trains and that we were actually an hour past Meknes (it turns out it is only 30 minutes from Fez).  Well, next stop Rabat…

Rabat is the nation’s capital and as a result is a bit more upscale (with all those expats and diplomats you know).  While most travelers take a miss, we were pleasantly surprised by the less frenetic, more modern feel.  Imposing government and corporate office buildings encompass a tree-lined main boulevard, while a stone’s throw away, the more manageable Medina allows for an almost hassle-free stroll within its soothingly differentiated dual tones of bright blue and white.  We were even able to grab a train straight through Casablanca to the international airport for our flight to Tunis, Tunisia (we couldn’t miss our station this time, it was the last stop).

By the way, for those of you who are familiar with my disdain for early morning activity, you may be entertained to learn that in a Muslim country like Morocco, there are five prayer calls a day – and I mean calls, sometimes beginning as early as 5am.  Each Mosque has a set of loudspeakers (and your hotel is never more than a few hundred metres away), mostly cone design with the sound distortion offering the clarity somewhere between the TTC and the teacher from the Peanuts cartoons.  Actually, it is quite melodic and dramatic with ever loudening tones reminiscent (again no blasphemy intended) of the world wrestling federation familiar call line “let’s get ready to rumble”.  More interestingly, there are now even cell phone “apps” with time reminders and some with GPS to define the direction of Mecca.  Out hotel in Rabat went the less technical route with an arrow stuck to the ceiling assisting with the correct prayer path.

NOTE:  ADDITIONAL MOROCCO PHOTOS ON flickr::

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoobers_pics/sets/72157625360179719/

Midnight at the Oasis - Send your camels to bed (Morocco)

Save for the Korean honeymooners and Cho (another Korean via England where he is studying English), our tour bus to the desert was a pretty much all commonwealth (English and Canucks).  Up at the crack of dawn (my favourite), we hired cart-man (a guy with a makeshift wheelbarrow) to walk our luggage through the eerily quiet Marrakech Medina (kind of an after New Year’s Eve downtown vibe). Sahara Expeditions provided a driver who we later realized was simply that – a driver (not a guide).  We made several stops en route with orders each time as to how long our allotted stop would be (and sometimes the actual name of the place – never the significance).  A combination of highways signage, travel books and random group knowledge filled in the blanks – while I practiced my French with as many supplementary questions as would be tolerated.  While this may seem less than ideal, it ultimately cemented a quicker bond among the group.

 

Climbing 3000M through the High Atlas Mountains, we arrived at Ait Benhaddou, a spectacularly well preserved ancient Kasbah, seemingly drawn from the desert landscape.  It is easy to see why the area has been a Hollywood mainstay as a backdrop for such films as Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator.  There is even a major-ish film studio in nearby Ouarzazate.

 

From there the landscape swapped between canyon lands, lunar-like rocky desert and fertile high altitude valleys where lush green stands of date palms offered a stark contrast against the terra cotta backdrop.

 

The hotel we stayed at that evening was surrounded on all sides by cliff face but it was too dark to explore – so we played a dizzying array of competitive card games (cheat, snap and something the English called “shithead”).  It was interesting to see the national instincts emerge via table trash talk - after all, no one wants be the loser at “shithead”).

The next day included a (“guided”) tour of a Palmeraie in the Draa Valley (one of the aforementioned fertile farming valleys) and a local carpet maker, complete with craft demos and mint tea (and the obligatory “hard sell” ending).

We reached the edge of the Sahara just before dusk and quickly organized a day pack (as we only then were informed that our accommodations were 1.5 hours – by camel - into the desert at a Berber tent camp).  Despite the surprise, this really was a highlight as our camel caravan disappeared among the shifting sands of the rising dunes and we arrived at our camp just in time for the moon rise (an appropriate crescent reflecting the faith of our host country).  Most of the group succumbed to the peer pressure and immediately climbed the adjacent dune before returning out of breath but ready for the traditional Berber drumming and song that preceded dinner.

The festive portion of the evening ended by the campfire with more Berber songs and even a few good Berber jokes, before bedding down under a star studded sky (with no ambient light it actually seemed to be overflowing with constellations).

 

Hand over all your camels - Berber Dave

Another pre-6am start in order to hit the sunrise on our return camel trek, before we chowed down a quick breakfast and (along with Cho) parted ways with the group (they had a nine hour trip slated for the return to Marrakech and we had a similar distance via multiple busses in order to reach 1400 year old medieval Fez.