a few photos

Ok I know this is a lame attempt for photos. But blogger really sucks for uploading pictures. I put a whole bunch on facebook for those of you one facebook.

Advance Diver????

So I'm back in Cairo. Hanging out at a hostel waiting until it's time to go to the airport for my flight back home. I just walked down the street and I realized that women in Cairo actually go out unlike in the rest of Egypt where they seem to hide. So that was nice.

I finished my diving course. It's kinda funny that I did the Advance course...because at the beginning I couldn't even submerge into the water. The crappy dive instructors at the first place I went to just kept pulling me under. I kept asking what I was doing wrong and they didn't tell me. Anyways finally I went to another diver center where there weren't Arabic men that wanted to hold my hand underwater...and it went much better.

We did two really famous dive sites, The Canyon and Blue Hole. It was kind of scary as we were walking to Blue Hole there were all these plaques of people that had died there. My instructor reassured us that none of them were recreational divers, all were dive masters and instructors pushing their limits. It was still a little sobering. But they were really fantastic dives. The one dive we went 30m into a canyon. When we were swimming back up everyones bubbles were floating up to the top of the canyon with tons of different colored fish (and I think I was just slightly gorked from the nitrogen) it was beyond spectacular. I also discovered why you're not suppose to drink and dive. One evening after a day of diving I only had 3 beers and I was already buzzed. I can't imagine drinking while diving. Sorry mother if this offends you.

No Mike I took no treasures from the sea. Whats up with you being so corny lately? And Uncle Gil I decided to leave the mummies at the museum. I'm a little disappointed I didn't get back to Cairo in time to see the museum again to check out the mummies after seeing their tombs and temples. But it's all good. Oh and parents, thank you for letting us know you are alive. When do you come back? And Tricia thanks for taking care of the U of M stuff. Now that I'm in the acknowledging mood...thank-you to all who have faithfully read my blog. Likely this will be my last post until I take off around the world again. At this point I'm not sure when or where that will be. Potentially Iceland in August....but no plans yet. If I do end up going to school in Sept this will seriously hamper my travelling. But that's life.

Diving

So here I am so close to Mount Sinai....and I"m probably not going...let alone to Petra. Spending the whole time diving. I ended up at this cheap hostel with a cheap dive club. And well sometimes you get what you pay for...and the first 3 dives I had problems. So now I"m over at another dive club and it went well this am. They've convinced me to do my advanced open water dive course. This means I can dive down to 30 m and do night diving. It also means more stress and money. And that I will be taking a bus back to Cairo on Thurs so I can make my flight Fri am at 0400. Oh well. This way I will get to see some of the cooler dive sites here. The only problem is i haven't studied for the stats course at all, let alone do the material for this weeks assignment. Ooooppps. I knew taking a course would be a bad idea. Oh well. The test is not worth that much in the final mark.

Overnight bus rides

As a rule I try to avoid overnight bus rides at all costs. But when it's to escape an annoying guy, than it's worth it. I had yet another guy decide I was the girl of his dream so I had to leave Luxor. He did take me to a wedding party which was very cool to see. But then it was time to leave. I took an overnight bus trip. It was suppose to be 14 hours turn into 20 hours. We were stopped for 3 hours by the police because our driver didn't have the right registration. Considering how brutal a 20 hours overnight bus ride sounds, it wasn't so bad.

Dahab is overrun by tourists. I have to admit that usually I would find that frustrating, but right now it's welcome to be able to wear shorts and nobody cares. Not sure how long I will spend here. Will probably take a refresher diving course tomorrow and then dive. Can't pass it up when I"m in the Red Sea and it's sooo cheap. They place I am staying offers day trips to Petra. I"m trying to decide if it's worthwhile considering will only be there for a few hours. But would be cool to see it briefly. Ok thats it for now.

My impressions of Egypt

I have been here now two weeks. I am nowhere near understanding the culture or expectations but I do have some observations.

Obviously this country is jam packed with the most and oldest stuff in the world. It's something else to be looking at paintings done 3000 years ago!!! Or wandering through temple ruins 2500-3000 years old or more. It's impossible to even begin to see a fraction of it. I love the rock paintings. Some of them are still so colorful and bright. Here in Luxor there is just tons of tombs with paintings.

Egyptians are some of the friendliest and most hospitable people I have ever met. I probably get invited for tea 10-20 times a day. Sadly I refuse most of these invitations. For one it is impossible to have tea that many times, and secondly I have learned to usually refuse if I am alone and it is a man (an it's always a man asking I haven't had a woman ask yet). But I have had a few opportunities when with another westerner to visit in some of their homes and be fed. This has never happened in any other country I have visited. It's very cool.

I do not understand the role of Egyptian women whatsoever. From a westerners perspective it would be easy to make assumptions, but these would be false. Just as the assumptions that are made about Western women are often false. I try as much as I can to say hello to women and catch their eyes and smile. Very few women work in restaurants or stores, but when I find these businesses I try to frequent them more often as this is more comfortable for me and also gives me a chance to talk to them.

Twenty million times a day I get asked "where are you from" "what is your name" "where are you staying". Often I turn it into a joke saying I'm from Japan and my name is Suzuki. This turns into a laugh which is a good way to avoid answering the question. Otherwise I have found myself chased down the street with them calling out "Canada Dry" or my name.

Egypt is a very poor country. So getting hassled to buy stuff is understandable as people are just trying to feed themselves. It is frustrating at times and I try my best not to get too frustrated.

I hate the comments I get from men. But this is the way it is. I try my best to dress conservatively. This is all I can do. I have not yet been inappropriately touched so that is good. I think they way I dress has something to do with this.

Dorky Photos

Ok these photos took me almost 2 hours to load and post so be greatful. I pretty much chose the dorkiest photos I had, especially the pyramid one. Well the one of me on the camel doing the same thing is probably worse. The middle one is in the Shali at Siwa and the top one is in front of the temple at Abu Simble with the statues of Ramses II which I described in last post. I posted two other photos on facebook for those on face book.

Mike is cheesy

Can't handle that cheesiness Mike. Have had enough for the rest of my life.

As to photos, I'm sorry but I have been using this crappy old computer at my hotel. I have been looking at the internet places to find one that I can put photos on. Will try. I'm sorry to disappoint my readership. I do appreciate all the comments I have been recieving. It's really nice. Especially when I was feeling so lonely and annoyed.

There are WAY LESS independant tourists than I expected, especially females. I guess I must be a crazy nut....because almost nobody does it seems. I can kind of understand why. However it's been fun regardless. The American girl I met on the train is an archeologist and she is in Aswan for a few days. So it's been fun to have someone to hang out with. She is blonde and tall as well so I think sometimes it's double the attention but oh well.

Today we went to Abu Simbel to these temples from around 1274 -1244 BC. They were discovered in 1813 covered mostly in desert sand. The one temple had these huge 30m high and 35m wide statues of Ramses II (four of them) at the entrance. In side there were several rooms with beautiful painting and carvings in the rocks. There was a second temple that was smaller but also magnificent. It's is crazy all the freaking old stuff in this country. It's pretty overwhelming.

Then we went over to an Island and ended up having this guy show us around. He informed us he wasn't interested in bakseeh (a tip) and was quite helpful. He did give us the option donating to a school they were trying to build which we did. It might have been a scam but he was really nice and it least it was a more creative scam. He took us to his house for tea and all around the island. It's nice to have someone to have a travel companion. Because based on my last two experiences in Siwa and Cairo I"m pretty hesitant to go anywhere with a man by myself, which means I miss out on cool experiences. Oh well thats the way it goes.

My stories

As I expected a western women generates alot of attention walking down the street, this is expected along with lots of ridiculous flattery. However I hadn't thought what it would be like if ones guide falls in love with them. And well supposedly this has happened twice.

First it was Cairo with the guy who was suppose to get me a student card. He had a dream a week ago that someone from far away was going to take his heart, supposedly I was the one. At first the prices for things were reasonable (dinner cruise with belly and sooky dancing) but then he took me out to see the pyramids to this tourist place that wanted $135 US for a tour. I felt trapped because he had brought me out. He acted like he was just doing all this because he wanted a friend, however in retrospect I realized it was all scam and he was getting a comission for everything I"m sure. After the pyramids he tried to take me to another place to get a student card, which of course didn't work unless I got one of their stupid tours. When I refused he was trying to pressure me into it. I managed to dump it and enjoy Cairo after by myself. It's funny because shortly after I saw him on the street talking to another blonde lady, probably doing the same thing. So I just figured it was all part of his scam.

But in Siwa it was different and much worse. I was trying to find a guide to take me out in the desert. It was difficult to find something not to expensive because I wasn't part of a group. Then I ran into this guy who had a group already going (of the Egyptian guys....which I was leary of but they were the least of it). He lets me know at the last minute that I"m going in a separate jeep from the group. I didn't realize this was a ridiculous cost and the price he quoted me didn't begin to cover his costs for gas and the driver. We were having lots of fun but he kept hinting he liked me. I told him I had a boyfriend. He then cried and cried that he was in love with me, that his heart was hurting etc etc for what seemed like forever. Not to mention this was under the stars in the desert. I tried to be sympathetic without laughing, because he really was a nice person. But how do you fall in love with someone after 24 hours? Finally I managed to get back to the group. Then it came time to go to sleep. He starts setting up two matresses and two water bottles in the tent. I clue in to what he's trying so I said "I don't need two waters" and he said "oh ones for me"!!! I then firmly told him I was sleeping by myself. Can you imagine after all that he still thought that? Crazy their perception of Western women. I decide to cut the trip short and make him take me back to town the next day so I can get out of there. He wouldn't let me pay for the cost of the trip. I felt bad because he was so nice.

So it's a dillema. Now in Aswan I'm ignoring everyone and being so rude. Men are asking why I"m not smiling. But can you blame me? I'd rather not have anyone else fall in love with me. So I was planning to go on felucca ride on the Nile for two nights from here. But I'm feeling kinda of hesitant about that now.

Blah pictures......overrated if you ask me.

Aswan

I'm in Aswan. Will write a real post soon. I have funny stories to tell but to lazy to share. As for dying my hair don't think it would make any difference. No matter how hard I try I won't look middle eastern. So just have to put up with guys thinking they are falling in love with me. Thankfully my bunk mate on the train last night was an American girl, and boy between the two of us the stories we have. Anyways will write a proper post next.

Alexandria

Arrived in Alexandria this afternoon. Had a great time in Siwa...went on a desert trip and slept out in the desert. There was this awesome hot spring in the middle of the desert. The driver was this crazy guy and he would just rip up and down the sand dunes...it was so fun. I was kind of leary because after I had signed up for the trip I found out it was all Egyptian guys also going. However they were really cool and friendly but ignored me most of the time which was much better than the opposite attention that I have been recieving too much of. Unfortunately I have had two specific such experiences in the last week and its getting quite tiresome. I won't elaborate more at this time. Tomorrow night I take a train to Aswan which is in the south of Egypt.

Siwa Oasis

By the end of this trip, after I have been hassled to no end and joined the masses to see the sights, I might wish I had saved Siwa Oasis for the end. This place is just a tiny little town in the dessert where they ride their donkey carts through town. There are some interesting ruins of temples and the old town to explore. I rode a bicycle around to explore earlier today. I went to the Temple of Oracle is from about 600BC and Alexander the Great was there around 330BC. And also to Tombs of the Dead which have interesting paintings in some of them. Apparently most of them were destroyed. During the 2nd World War British soldiers would pay local a few cents to cut out pictures from the wall. Now I have to go to the old town, which they call a Shali.

There is just a handful of tourist who made the long journey out here. So no tour bus loads like in the rest of the country. When it is prayer time (which is 4 or 5 times a day I haven't figured it out yet) it is only on the loud speaker for 5 minutes instead of an hour like in Cairo. Which is lovely at 5am. There is no hissing by men as I walk by, which is nice. But I know I will have to brace myself for this when I go back to Alexandria on Tuesday. But for now I am enjoying the peace and quiet. Tomorrow I might go on an overnight dessert trip. Haven't decided yet.

Sorry no photos yet, the computer here doesn't have an USB outlet and I was to lazy in Cairo.

In the desert

I've just arrived in Siwa Oasis. Had a long 10 hr trip to get here. It is almost at the Libya border if anyone cares. It's a small little place so should be refreshing after Cairo. Yesterday the Egyptian Museum was amazing. The mummies are probably one of the most phenomenal things I have ever seen. Man those ancient Egyptians were brilliant. It's crazy to look at fingernails, hair and ears of someone from 3000 years ago!!!!! There were animal mummies to. It's just amazing all the handiwork from that time period. Theres sooo much of it.
Planning to spend 3 nights here.

No I was not kidnapped

I am still alive and well. However I was scammed by the whole student card thing. After reading my previous post....I can't imagine why I didn't clue in right away. Oh well. Don't feel like going into details right now....still to ashamed of how scammed I was. But that's what happens and it's no big deal. Just over paying for stuff. The pyramids were spectacular. Today heading off to the Egyptian Museum. Tomorrow I go to Siwa Oasis. I'm still having a fantastic time.

First Day in Cairo

Wow. What a place!!! First, had a fabulous sleep after I got into my hotel at 4am and didn't get going until noon. That is a first for me after an international flight. Then spent much of the afternoon getting lost, going to the train station, getting tickets etc etc. Egyptian people are incredibly helpful. And no one asked me for Baksheesh (a tip) once. Of course I walk around with the pitiful "help me look" when I am lost, so I get lots of help. Tricia knows what I am talking about. It drove her crazy on our Eastern Europe trip. And crossing the street isn't so bad. On less busy streets you just walk around cars, like in Vietnam with the bikes. And on really busy streets there are policemen that stop the traffic so you can cross. So not to bad.

Then this interesting Egyptian guy started talking to me. The next thing I knew I was having tea in his cousins living room. And then he took me to get photos. He was trying to help me get an international student card. Unfortunately the place was closed tonight but we're going there tomorrow. Supposedly you just have to be under 30...not a student!! That means all the entrance fees to stuff is half priced!!! He asked me if I wanted to see Egypt as a tourist or as an Egyptian. I said as an Egyptian. So then we went on a boat tour that mostly Egyptians go on with belly dancers and local Egyptian dancers. It was awesome. And tomorrow he's going to take me to see all the pyramid stuff so I dont' get ripped off with tour prices. He didn't want any money. I had to insist to pay my share for stuff. He just like meeting new friends. He seems cool. But don't worry everyone I'm being cautious and making sure to take care of myself. I think if he had wanted to rip me off or hurt me he would have already. Generally Egyptians seem very friendly and hospitable generous people. It's really refreshing.

Will keep you all updated.

Amsterdam

I arrived in Amsterdam at noon on schedule. Went to the city center and wandered around for a while. I didn't get lost this time. It is a really beautiful city. So unique with so much character. There are canals and 5 story buildings everywhere. Very impressive.

I went to the Anne Frank museum which was fine. I am not a museum person. And I was planning to go to the Egyptian Museum tomorrow and I'm already out of the museum mood. Although I have a feeling it will be uncomparable with Anne Frank, nothing against Anne Frank. The Anne Frank story is remarkable but I always feel like I don't get my moneys worth because I just glance around and leave. Should just stick to reading the book.

My flight here was amazing. I had two seats to myself. And each seat had a TV with multiple movies and no time frame. I managed to sleep about 4 hours which is a the best I can hope for when flying. Well will try to update this week in Cairo.

Egypt Bound

Thanks Tricia for posting my password. Anyways since I'm off on another trip guess I should update this thing. Leaving tomorrow around 4:00pm to Minneapolis, than to Amsterdam, layover around 10 hours and then to Cairo. Will be there just over 3 weeks (29 days). Planning to see as much of the country as possible. It is tourist season so all depending on availability of transportation etc. The only thing I have booked is my flights and the first 4 nights in Cairo. Will play the rest by ear.

Pam, your password is skittles.

Love,

Tricia

Nothing to say

Well I have been back in Oxford House for almost a week now. Everything is good here. Nothing very exciting. It has been beautiful spring weather here. But their is still ice on the lake. Hopefully will be fishing in a few more weeks. They are still ice fishing, but I'm too chicken.

When I was flying from Hanoi I had a 10 hour layover in Seoul. I went on a city tour. I had to share these pictures of the spandex policemen on rollerblades. I thought it was hilarious. Also a picture of me with my eyes closed. I'm with the statue of the year of the monkey, the animal for 1980. I'm wearing one of the jackets I had made in Hoian.

Go sens go!!! I'm a bandwagon fan. I ignore them when they are losing and then get excited when they are doing well. It is overtime of game 2 with Jersy and I am blogging at the same time. A real fan wouldn't do that.

Flying away

Well I am flying home tonight. With Tricias help I managed to pack up all my stuff (actually she mostly packed....I suck at packing). In typical Pam fashion, I bought way too much stuff. So I had to buy a big ass suitcase which Tricia helped me bargain for (I also suck at bargaining). Oh well. Vietnam has so much cool stuff for cheap even without bargaining.
The other thing that is amazingly cheap here is salons. I have never really been a salon person. Other than hair cuts/coloring and an occasional wax, I don't bother with them, too expensive. But I have fallen in the trap here. I have had 4 manicures, 5 pedicures, 2 masages, 1 leg hair removal, and my hair straightened all in 6 1/2 weeks. Before coming to Vietnam, I think I have had 2 manicures, 0 pedicures, and 1 massage in my whole life. Pretty funny. I'm sure it won't continue when I get back home. First of all there aren't any salons in Oxford House. Secondly, a manicure is worth $2-3 but not $30. Well looking forward to my fabulous flight. Flying to Seoul tonight, arrive around 5am, and don't leave for Vancouver until 4pm. Then I have to get to Winnipeg after that. Should be great!!!

For those of you on facebook these photos are exactly the same as the ones in my album . These pictures are from Sapa. Aren't my "galoshes" with the shorts hot?
I am sad to say I am going home tomorrow. Other than missing Mike I think I could keep going for a few months yet. But it will be nice to get back to Oxford House, I do miss that crazy place.