Frank and Rosalind Reinhard: From India to Egypt

From India to Egypt

Spring 2004

Our trip began April 16 when we flew United to Washington where we spent two nights. I won’t dwell on our Washington doings other than to say that we saw the very excellent “ Return of the Buddha” exhibit at the Arthur M. Sackler gallery and were pleased to see that some of our own pieces compare quite favorably to those exhibited. Our flight to Frankfurt was unremarkable, and after a long layover we boarded the Lufthansa flight to Delhi. Surprisingly, the meals in Lufthansa’s Business Class were superior to what was served in United’s First Class, perhaps understandably so as international passengers are more demanding. Shortly after midnight we arrive in Delhi - back in India after so many years! After several past trips we had always longed to go back. Some friends ask us why we like India. It is this combination of exotic culture, the colors, the temples, the incredible mix of people, the interesting history, the palaces - in short, what I would call the “Splendor of India”. Are we saddened by the poverty we see? Of course, we are, but I will say that during one week which we spent in three major cities, moving about in crowds of people, we saw very few beggars, while on earlier trips we remember being accosted constantly. This is not to say that there aren’t large poor areas, as I am sure there are, elsewhere in India. Perhaps the policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party have had some success though the result of the recent elections seems to contradict this.

After resting up a few hours in Delhi we drive south towards Jaipur . We soon leave the state of Oriana and cross into Rajasthan. At the state line our driver, Rakesh, has to pay a tax. He explains to us in halting English that this tax needs to be paid at all state line crossings. As we enter Rajasthan a fifty-foot statue of Shiva greets us - and India has us at once under its spell! But then we see also a very modern aspect of this country: many nice-looking apartment high rises , factories and other enterprises in interesting architectural designs. This highway connects Delhi with Bombay via Jaipur and Udaipur, but our first destination is the Fort Palace of Neemrana. This fort palace, first owned by a maharaja and later converted into a hotel, is considered the outstanding example of a heritage hotel. Built on eight levels into the Aravalli hills and hidden from the highway, surrounded by walls, it offers a stunning view especially under the floodlights bathing in amber light at night.

But then begins our ascent! There are no elevators, and there aren’t even steps. We drag ourselves up on ramps probably designed for horses until we get to the Reception at the forth level. We had reserved a room with large terrace on the eighth level, but were very pleased to accept the suggested change to a small room on the fourth! A small room? It’s a suite large enough to accomodate six people. Dark wood panelling in the Indo-British style, furnished with old memorabilia and objets d’art, a study, bathroom but --- none of the conveniences of a five-star hotel. No telephone; at the door a huge padlock with an old iron key which did not lock, and we decide to leave the door open as theft in a place like this is unlikely. We have a wonderful Indian dinner on the small dining terrace, surrounded by a crenelated wall and battlements, and there’s a pond with water lilies and frogs and a fountain. It’s romantic, and exotic and strange. There are just six or seven other guests; this out-of-the way place can’t be very remunerative for the owners..-- We sleep somewhat restlessly because the air conditioning leaves something to be desired, and the night temperature “only” drops to 86 F. In the morning our breakfast silently appears. We look around the Fort Palace some more - it’s truly an astounding place breathing atmosphere everywhere. And then we climb into our trusty Toyota Qualis where Rakesh is waiting for us. Neemrana is about halfway between Delhi and Jaipur - around three hours from either city. On to Jaipur!

We pass thru villages and towns. Camels along the road. Women in colorful saris, bougainvilleas in vibrant colors, a few gaily decorated elephants. Yes, we are in India! The morning temperature has already reached 90 F, and we are happy that Rakesh carries ice cold water in the car. Not quite in Jaipur yet, we see Amber Fort, an old Rajasthani fortification dating from the time of the wars with the Mughals, but we do not stop as this is on tomorrow’s program. Entering the “Pink City” of Jaipur we see a giant deserted palace in a muddy lake. Jaipur! 3-1/2 million people and they all seem to be out in the streets. Rakesh skillfully avoids cows that wander about , and passing the “House of the Winds” (see below) we get to our hotel - the Rambagh Palace. This is a simply incredible place, and in all our travels we cannot recall having stayed at a finer one. The architecture is very Indian, with round scalloped arches and “kiosk” turrets on the roof. A large inside court the size of a football field is beautifully tended with lawns, flowers, walks. Our room is a sumptuous suite with bedroom, living room, dressing room and bath, all in marble and sparkling. Here, of course unlike Neemrana, all creature comforts are catered to: two television sets, sophisticated air conditioning and lighting controls and impeccable service. Rakesh comes back for us after a very fine lunch, and takes us to the bazaar where we get some excellent buys.

Jaipur is called the “Pink City.” All houses, with the exception of some hotels which are white, are painted in pink, rose, orangy and ochre hues. Even the recently finished state parliament - Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan - was painted the same way. It seems everybody has agreed to avoid other colors. In the late afternoon light the colors come out beautifully. There’s something fairytale-like about Jaipur. The people are very friendly and respectful.We move about in throngs of people - and cows everywhere - with complete ease. Back at the hotel we find gorgeous silk robes spread out for us on the bed, and there’s always someone nearby who will hasten to assist us. When we leave the hotel, a guard springs to attention. I am beginning to feel very “pukka sahib”. One could get used to that kind of life.......!.-- Next morning (April 22) a guide picks us up at the Rambagh Palace. His name is Parmar and he speaks English (and German) quite well. Our first stop is the Amber Fort which we had passed yesterday. It lies about 3 miles north of Jaipur and one drives first thru Amber, a town of some 30,000, which used to be the old capital before the ruling maharaja moved it to Jaipur. Driving up to Amber Fort there’s a large pond or rather mote on our left , and - what a sight! - six elephants bathing in it. The fortifications are high up on the mountains and stretch over several elevations. The palace is on top of the highest mountain. It contains very beautiful Rajasthani artwork and the amazing Hall of Mirrors. After that visit we go back to our hotel and after a great buffet lunch on all-Indian cuisine, Parmar, our guide, takes us back into the city to see the wondrous “Jantar Mantar”, an observatory erected by one of the Rajput princes on about one acre, and still in working order today. Its many cream-colored quadrants, sextants and sundials offer a strange and somewhat mysterious sight. -- We pass the House of Winds, a pink-colored high building in the middle of the city. Here the ladies of the maharaja’s court would sit in airy comfort (hence the name House of Winds) and watch the goings-on down in the street in privacy. Only the pink façade of the building is still there. The temperature has meanwhile gone to above 100 F. We pay a brief, and unnecessary, visit to a rug workshop as well as a very satisfying visit to an antique dealer and then return to the hotel. It’s amazing how everybody navigates traffic in this city where the streets teem with people, cows, camels, occasional elephants, cars, jeeps, motor bikes, bicycles and every other means of transportation. - The hotel has agreed to let us keep the room till 4:30PM, and we drive out to the airport, check our bags, and..........the flight to Jodhpur is cancelled because of desert sand storms. We are of course disappointed as we had looked forward to seeing also this other great Rajasthani city (We will leave Jodhpur for our next trip when we will also include Jaisalmer and Bikaner, both in the same area near the Thar desert). Luckily we were able to reach the manager of the travel agency on a cell phone which a lady lent us (cell phones are all over the place in India), and he came right out to the airport and straightened things out: Air India paid for our hotel, dinner and breakfast, and we are to leave directly for Udaipur the next morning. We are put up at the Jaipur Sheraton, which is 5-star but does not compare to the Rambagh Palace, have a late dinner, and get up soon after at 4 AM to make the Jet Air flight to Udaipur. ( On our next visit to India we want to avoid Air India, the state airline. Though they finally accomodated us it took them a long time, and only the insistance of our agent accomplished it. Private Jet Air is a better airline).

In talking with our guide in Jaipur we found out that polygamy, which was widely practiced until abolished after Independance, is still practiced in areas around Delhi, and so is.......polyandry! ( Personally, I don’t much care for polyandry!).

Friday, April 23, finds us in Udaipur. This city is altogether different. It’s a city of lakes. The Maharana (a rank above the maharaja) built palaces in Udaipur and then created lakes. Had we not seen pictures of it before we would have been quite taken aback by the hotel, the Lake Palace. It’s a hotel-island, or an island-hotel. It rises out of the lake, and there’s no land around it. The hotel is the island. We reach it from a jetty by motor launch and are greeted at the entrance by musicians playing Indian instruments and a group of pretty girls who strew rose petals in our path. The Lake Palace Hotel was the Maharana’s summer palace which, as so many other Indian palaces, has been converted into a hotel. The conversions occurred because after the departure of the British, the new government cancelled all government subsidies that had heretofore flown freely into the coffers of the Indian princes, and the latter had to look for new sources of income. Turning their palaces into luxury hotels was a logical thing to do. The Maharana of Udaipur owns four palaces one of which is the present Lake Palace Hotel. His Highness lives most of the time in Europe, and occasionally visits his Udaipur properties.

Here the rooms are the size of normal large hotel rooms, and ours has a beautiful view of the lake, the city of Udaipur and the City Palace. Our new guide, Vivek, obese and very knowledgeable, first takes us for a walk into the city. Udaipur is smaller than Jaipur. It has 500,00 to 800,000 inhabitants (I got different estimates from different persons), but all of them are out in the streets! Many of the houses we pass are colorfully decorated with attractive paintings from Hindu mythology - something we had not encountered in Jaipur. We walk among dense crowds of people, vehicles and cows. The cow is sacred, and hurting or killing one is punished. To atone for their sins some people buy cow-feed and give it to the cows in the street. We wonder how the cows get back to their owners among all this hubbub, but are reliably assured that the cow knows its place and finds its way back. Cows can, incidentally, get a bit nasty if they are annoyed and may kick one, so we make sure there is at least one foot between them and us. As we had expected, the city is very colorful with its markets and bazaars. - We also find time to stop at the small Ahar museum containing relics of the so-called Ahar civilization dating from around 2000 BC. Some huge Ahar earthenware vessels are very impressive. The museum contains also some fine stone statues of Shiva, Parvati and Vishnu dating from 1000 AD.

April 23rd being my birthday, the hotel had prepared a beautiful surprise: Two huge bouquets of white roses and carnations, a good-sized cake and a bottle of excellent Bordeaux! I can’t begin to describe our surprise! Of course, they knew the date from my passport, but in all our travels no hotel had ever gone to such length. Everything was done with wonderful grace and warmth. And then there was fireworks over the lake - but that wasn’t for my birthday!

Next day we take the boat again to meet Vevik, whom we find at the jetty huffing and puffing a bit in the heat, and off we go fifteen miles out of the city thru the verdant Aravalli hills to see a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, decorated with very fine stone carvings depicting scenes from the Ramayana epic, and some erotic scenes reminiscent of Khajurao. These carvings are quite exquisite, finer than we had seen on the Hindu temples of Angkor. A small but deserted Vishnu temple is set back a little from the Shiva temple. We drive back into the city and visit a very lively large Shiva temple where throngs of people crowd in to bring their offerings to the god. The gods Vishnu and Ganesha are also worshipped here. We walk with the crowd into the temple only to catch a glimpse of a not very impressive Shiva image.

On the way back to the hotel we pass literally hundreds of marble shops left and right of the road. Marble is very much in demand in India. Several varieties are found here, others are imported. - Excellent lunch at our hotel and back across the lake - by now we are used to taking the little boat back and forth - and again Vivek waits for us at the jetty. The project now is a visit to the City Palace which is part hotel, part museum and part the residence of the maharana when he deigns to visit. Being a little worn out from the morning excursion I inquire of Vivek if there are many steps. “About a thousand” he replies. He must be wrong because I think there are at least ten-thousand! Up and down, down and up, thru the palace, and now I, for my part, have seen enough of the interior of palaces and do not have to see more, and that includes European castles and châteaux! But one thing is very exciting: the palace contains the maharana’s Crystal Gallery, which is truly amazing. This very large room is completely filled with the best crystal money can buy, the very finest - glasses, carafes, chandeliers, some in gorgeous ruby red and green colors, brought by the maharana and his forbears from England, Italy etc. - There are large crowds of Indian tourists at the City Palace, comparatively few Europeans and Americans, as was indeed the case throughout this trip. Americans do not seem to travel a lot in Asia now because of safety concerns. These are quite unwarranted here in India.

We return to the hotel jetty just in time to reach a boat which cruises the lakes. The largest one, Lake Pichola, is only 4 km long and 3 km wide. Apart from the Lake Palace Hotel there is another hotel in the lake which is used for gala receptions. Back at the hotel we say good by to Vivek. He’s a decent fellow and does not seem to expect a tip - but of course we do tip him.

The next day is Sunday, up at 6 AM, checkout, launch across the lake to the jetty, and the fellow from the agency drives us out to the airport, which is quite a distance, for our Jet Airways flight to Bombay (Mumbai). Here everything goes very smoothly, and the flight takes only 90 minutes. I want to mention here that security at Indian airports is very thorough. After two inspections there is yet another one on the tarmac before boarding. B In Bombay we are met by the agent at the airport and taken to the Taj Mahal Hotel where Freny Dalal, our Bombay guide, a pleasant, voluble and rather corpulent, young woman expects us.

The Taj Mahal Hotel! It has memories for us. We stayed here many years ago on our first visit to India, and then once again. Though the old wing which we had requested is not shiny like the new tower wing, we wouldn’t stay anywhere else. The Taj is indeed the grande dame of Indian hotels where dignitaries stayed since it was built in the 19th century. We at once recognized the inside courts with their iron railings. Our room is on the second floor with a splendid view of the Gateway of India, that monument which symbolized Britain’s sovereignty and through which the last British troops departed. When we stayed here in 1966 we had a room on the first floor - one floor above ground level - almost within reach of women holding up crippled children tied to ten-foot long poles, begging. They are here no more, instead we see hundreds and hundreds of people milling about the Gateway, women in colorful saris holding babies and their husbands, some taking boats over to Elephanta island or other destinations, some just enjoying the Sunday. (Again I want to stress Ido not mean to say that poverty is gone, but it does seem to be much less visible). We walk along with the crowds trying to get to our boat bound for Elephanta, climb over the gunwale of two other boats moored parallel, together with hundreds of local people who have also decided to visit the island. Our boat takes off and makes its way alongside Indian navy ships and a fort in the bay with sky-ward pointing anti-aircraft guns, until we reach the long jetty of Elephanta island. It is very long and a kind of children’s train runs on it to carry visitors to where the ascent to the Elephants caves begins. Our corpulent lady-guide and I gamely climb the 120 steps in 100 F heat with 90% humidity while Memsahib Roz like a maharani glides by us on a palanquin carried by four men. The Elephanta caves consist really of just one cave dedicated as a temple to Lord Shiva and Parvati, his consort. There is one very large head of Shiva with the same serene expression that we saw on the four-headed Brahma in Angkor. The cave is man-made. Unfortunately, when the Portuguese were here they used it for target practice which damaged many sculptures. There are large crowds everywhere, and as far as I can see we are the only non-Indians. We return to the pier - after getting almost crushed by others also trying to get on the little train - and all that in stifling heat. We are glad to get back to our hotel and airconditioning. The Taj Mahal, incidentally, is not a converted maharaja’s palace, but was built by the well-known Tata family and is designated as a landmark.

Monday the 26th, our well-nourished guide Frejie picks us up again. It turns out she is a Parsee (Zoroastrian), not a Hindu. We pass a Parsee fire temple with its ever-lasting flame and then a Tower of Silence where she graphically explains the - to us - shocking “burial” customs of her co-religionists. (I will spare the reader the details). There are some 165.000 Parsees in the world. When the Arabs invaded Iran (Persia) many Parsees left for the West-Indian state of Gujarat where the maharaja permitted them to settle so long as they wore Hindu dress and learned Gujarati. Frejie then took us to the Jain temple in Malabar Hill which we were anxious to see. This is dedicated to the Lord Mahavira, the 24th and last of 24 “Tirtankara” (saints). The Jain motto is “Every man makes his own fortune”, and this might explain why most Jains are business people. Jains will not kill any living thing, not even lice. Young women will tear out their hair by the root to rid themselves of lice, and they will do so again and again. We saw men and women wearing masks over their mouth to prevent insects from being killed by being accidentally swallowed. - The statues in Jain temples are always white with golden adornments. After seeing the Jain temple we want to see a Hindu temple and our guide takes us to one dedicated to Lakshmi, Vishnu’s consort. Her image is black with gold, and the crowds are practically crushing us. -- And then she takes us to see “the world’s largest laundry”. This is called the Dhoti Ghat, where hundreds of men toil away constantly to pound, rinse, wash thousands of garments on stone slabs. They then return them to their customers, clean and beautifully pressed. Cost of washing and pressing a dress shirt? 2 U.S.cents!

Next on our program is a visit to Gandhi’s house. It contains many displays depicting his life as a young man in India, London and South Africa, up to his assassination. We are impressed and moved by this great man of peace. We lunch at the Taj Mahal Hotel on ‘tiffins’ washed down with sugar cane juice with ginger and lemon - great! We skip dinner in anticipation of the cruise. .

Tuesday the 27th - we forego a visit to the Prince of Wales Museum as it contains chiefly British exhibits. But we find an antique dealer and come to a quick agreement with him for two exciting Hindu bronzes. Brief lunch at the hotel, and at 3PM we embark on the Seabourn Spirit and say good-by to India.

Friday the 30th - after two and one-half days of sailing the Arabian Sea we sight land at 8 AM as the ship enters the Bay of Muscat (Oman). This is the first Arab country we reach. The city of Muscat lies in a bay against the backdrop of a high, craggy mountain range reaching 9000 feet. These mountains are completely bare like some California mountains but much more pointed. The city center looks clean, with white buildings of no more than three floors. No high rises here. We first follow a 3 mile coastal road to Mutrah which is the oldest part. Even though it is Friday the souq (market) is open, and we see beautiful silver work, leather, and other locally made goods. There is some bargaining, but only up to a point. Oman is much more conservative than, for example, Egypt, Syria or the neighboring Gulf states, yet not as much as Saudi Arabia (with which it has a long common border). Alcohol is generally frowned upon and available only in hotels. Most men wear a long white garment called dishdasha, and most women a black abaya which most of the time covers the entire face except the eyes. Their complexion is a deep olive.- At midday the chant of the muezzins comes to us from various mosques. This Friday midday prayer is the most important one of the five daily prayers. Traffic is light today as this is the day of rest. - We visit the Muscat museum which exhibits much fine silver work - rifles, daggers, swords, and then go for a drive to Ruwi, the new commercial, residential, and governmental section. It boasts a beautiful new mosque, shopping malls, apartment buildings, and wide avenues where quite a bit of traffic whizzes by. This new part seems many times larger than the center.-

Back to old Muscat where we see the Sultan’s palace from the outside. Sultan Quaboos is the ruler and his word is law, and though there is also an elected parliament Oman is far from a democracy. Even though Oman’s oil reserves to not compare to those of the other gulf states there is no poverty, no beggars, no little kids pestering us here. It seems like a quiet, conservative but not fanatical country that has not yet reached the standard of living of its richer neighbors.

On Saturday. May 14, the captain advises that the port of Khasab, Oman, has to be dropped for technical reasons and our ship proceeds thru the Strait of Hormuz which separates the Arabian Peninsula from Iran, to Dubai . Dubai is called the Hong Kong of the Mideast. It has enormous oil reserves, and the evidence is everywhere. Ultra- modern skyscrapers, fantastic highways. The life-style seems easy-going here. On the pier a large band of Arab musicians in dishdashas and checkered red-white gutras welcomes us, and little girls in native dress hand us flowers. One has the feeling here that Dubai is removed from the Mideastern tensions and just interested in business. A young German girl is our guide on this first excursion, who, according to her, finds living in Dubai is very pleasant.- We get into four-wheel drives and go into the desert. There are sand dunes all around us, like in the Lawrence of Arabia movie. Suddenly our driver stops at the top of a sand dune, we look down into a bedouin campsite, our four-wheel drive plunges down the steep slope and comes to a halt within three feet of a camel! I get out and up on the camel and we go for a ride around the campsite. The bedouins, with the help and money from Seabourn of course, have set out a delicious barbecue, and a lithe belly dancer entertains us during the meal. We forego the cushions laid on oriental rugs on the sand for regular chairs and tables. The dancer wheels round and round, with lit candles on her head, while a young woman in a blue abaya announces each dance in perfect English. We are a motley group - Mexican, Australian, Chilean, Canadian, German, Americans, and we get along well,( though on this particular cruise we did not meet anybody we would really want to see again). Beer and wine flows freely as alcohol is not subject to any restrictions here. Dubai women dress anyway they like - from abayas to low-cut dresses - this is very different from Oman, let alone Saudi Arabia. And it seems a very safe place...

Next morning we take an early bus excursion to the neighboring Emirate of Sharjah, an easy ride along the corniche in easterly direction. There are no borders between the emirates, just a sign “Welcome to Sharjah” tells us we are there. Sharjah has its own laws which are stricter than Dubai’s. For instance, while alcohol is permitted, drunkenness in public is punished severely.. In the center of Sharjah we visit the monument to the Federation. It was created in 1972 out of the so-called Trucial States.The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has seven members of which Abu Dhabi is the largest one and the seat of the federal council which is composed of the Emirs of the seven. The Emirs decide on federal policy and international affairs, but internal matters and laws rest with each ruler who is advised by a parliament. This seems to work out well, chiefly because these states are awash in oil revenues, which do trickle down to the people, as is quite evident from the big modern buildings, shopping centers and general aspect of the places we saw. Nowhere do we see the slightest trace of poverty. Health and education are paid for by the governments, and business is thriving. Dubai has always been an entrepôt for trade with India, and is next to Abu Dhabi the most outward looking of the seven. The opulence of the buildings and their modernity is really quite astounding. -- Our guide to Sharjah, Priscilla, turns out to be the lady in the blue abaya from the campsite, but now she wears jeans and we hardly recognized her! - We see no security of any kind in these states as though there were no need for it at all......

In the evening we go for a ride on a “dhow” on the Dubai Creek. The creek is a saltwater inlet around which the city has sprung up.On the freeway to the port our bus runs into very heavy rush-hour traffic. A veritable sea of cars inches forward bumper-to-bumper on a highway that puts California freeways to shame. After 45 minutes we reach the Creek where the dhows dock. The boats are illuminated with hundreds of little lamps - much like the San Diego New Year’s boat parade. Our dhow glides up the Creek past a multitude of office buildings and apartment high rises featuring very innovative and imaginative designs - literally hundreds of them. Residences and office space is very expensive, we are told. The mosques are pretty, floodlit, and decorated with thousands of lights around the outlines, their slender minarets reaching toward the sky. One building stands out especially; it seems to be the landmark of Dubai as its design appears on the licence plates of the cars. - The food on the dhow is very good, Indian cuisine, and during our meal musicians strike up Arab tunes. Girls in abayas offer to paint our hands or feet with henna (no charge) but we pass on that. The ambiance is festive and fascinating as the city glides past us in the night with its neon-lit buildings on both sides of the Creek. We are sure to remember this evening.

On Monday, May 3, the ship arranges for a courtesy safari into the desert, probably to compensate us for the dropped Khasab stop. Again four-wheel drives, twelve of them, and into the desert. This desert is endless. Dunes, dunes, camels wandering about as though they did not belong to anybody they do). Our 4WD bumps and swerves over the dunes on an invisible track, and at times we wonder if Khalid, our driver, knows the way (he does!) One of the passengers in our car needs a rest stop and as the other cars keep racing ahead, we lose them. Khalid tries to make up for the delay and madly rushes over the dunes yanking his steering wheel around, until suddenly we find ourselves on a paved road which leads thru the neighboring Sultanate of Oman and we can make out the high craggy mountains of Oman which we saw in Muscat from the other side. Khalid turns abruptly, and we spot the other eleven cars perched high up on a hill-top over a deep depression in the sand, and then careening down at breakneck speed! They all make it, and we now proceed to the Hatta Heritage Village - where there isn’t much to see, and then to an isolated, but luxurious hotel in the middle of the desert where we are served lunch. And then again a speed back at night speed to the ship.

Tuesday, May 5th, In the evening, after two nights in Dubai, our ship slides noiselessly away from the pier. We pass the Strait of Hormuz again, this time eastbound and at night, and then change to a southerly course along the Omani coast. After another day at sea we arrive on the 6th at the port of Salalah, Oman, The Salalah region of Oman is primarily known for frankincense, a prized fragrance since time immemorial. A bus takes us down the coast toward Yemen, and on the way we see the Boswellia tree, the source of frankincense, and we scratch the bark to sample the fragrance. Further down the coast , only some 75 miles from the Yemeni border, we arrive at a lookout point from where one can see Yemen on a clear day. An Arab comes up to me and shakes hands, and I decide to try my few words of Arabic. We have a very small conversation which went about like this:

I: Sabah-el-Khair (good morning).
He: Sabah-el-Noor (good morning to you.)
I: Kif halak? (How are you?)
He: El hamdullilah, wa inte (praised be God. And you?).
I: El hamdullilah.
He: Marhaba!
I: Marhaba! (good-by).

Not much of a conversation, but I am pleased as punch! - - The bus then takes us to “Job’s Tomb”. It’s a small building, like a tiny mosque, we walk in after removing our shoes, there’s frankincense burning, and there is indeed a tomb. I ask our guide if there is any historic evidence that Job lies buried here and he shakes his head. Who knows if Job existed, anyway? -- Back to the city of Salalah. The city, even less so than Muscat, does not begin to compare to the development in the Emirates. But the mosques with their blue domes are prettier than in the UAE. At the market there isn’t much to buy, everybody wants to sell us frankincense, but what would we do with it? Roz says she prefers Chanel No.5! At last we see our ship , and soon after we sail out of the azure bay into the open with our course set for the Red Sea.

On Saturday, May the 8th, we pass the Bâb-el-Mandeb which is the narrow point between the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula, and after leaving the shores of Yemen behind us we enter the Red Sea. We see old fortifications on starboard - the Yemeni side -, but nothing on portside, the African coast being too far way. We are due to arrive at Safaga, Egypt, in three days. The Red Sea is very calm. Occasionally we see other ships, mostly container vessels going in either direction. We spot dolphins playing around our ship.

Tuesday, the 11th, we arrive in Safaga, Egypt very early in the morning. Still a bit sleepy we look at the city and find that there isn’t much to see. But then we start on the trip into the eastern desert, and it gets more interesting. The mountains have sharp peaks, and not a blade of grass grows there. The desert is as dry and barren as it gets. Unlike the Arabian desert we do not come across any sand dunes. Our bus travels in a convoy of buses with police cars in front and in back, and we pass military checkpoints every so often. Next to our driver sits a stone-faced guard in civilian clothes with an automatic weapon poking out from under his suit coat. The Egyptians take no chances with terrorism after the tourist massacre at the Hapshetsut Temple some years ago. There’s security everywhere in Egypt. Hotels have armored guards and security gates. There are armed personnel at all antiquities, and I must say, this makes us quite safe. -- The drive takes us thru impressive mountain areas, and then barren flat desert with an occasional camel being the only living being. Once in a while a bedouin will catch a wild camel - and that’s quite a catch, because camels cost $500 and up. During the last half-hour the road runs south in the Nile valley which is verdant and alive with fellahin working the fields. We reach Luxor where we check into the Sonesta Hotel. Almost immediately we leave for the Temple of Karnak, and wander about this great temple complex dedicated to the god Amon-Ra. I cannot describe here all we see, and it has been described so many times anyway, but we do find it overwhelming. Especially the Great Hypostyle Hall with its huge columns. We are dazed by it all.

Lunch at the Sonesta and then off to the Temple of Luxor. This temple is also beautiful, in a different way. It’s much smaller and it’s easy to see all of it. After dinner at the hotel dinner we return to Karnak Temple for a Sound and Light Show which we could have done without as we are not much impressed by the emphatic hyperbole of such shows and the absence of historical facts.

12th of May - another early call for the visit to the Valleys of the Kings and Queens on the west bank of the Nile. We enter some of the tombs: Ramses VI, Ramses III, Tutankhamun. Among the queens’ tombs we enter only that of Amonherkhepshef - a son of one of the queens. The walls of most tombs are decorated with paintings, some of them so brilliant they seem almost new.. The mortuary Temple of Hapshetsut is at some distance from the queens’ tombs. She was the only queen who ruled Egypt like a pharao, (except for Cleopatra who lived very much later). We wonder at this amazing temple from the outside without going in for lack of time. In returning to Luxor we pass the Colossi of Memnon representing Pharao Amenhotep III, unfortunately they are badly damaged. And after lunch we board the bus for the drive back to Safaga. On the way back, Mohamed Ossama, our guide, provides a few facts on present-day Egypt. Polygamy is dying out in the cities but still popular in the countryside, as are arranged marriages. The divorce rate in the cities is very high - more than half of young married couples are divorced after a few years. Pensions for retired people are practically unknown except for executives and government employees and even for them the highest possible rate is $150 per month. Rents in many areas are controlled. Mohamed’s father lives in a controlled rent apartment for $2 per month, while Mohamed pays $200 a month for a decontrolled apartment in the same general area.. Elementary education is free, high school is not. ---- Finally we arrive back at the ship in Safaga after two eventful days.

I realize I am not giving Egypt’s great history and art any space in this account, but how can one? The history covers over 5000 years! There is so much......and so much has been written about it.

Our ship crosses the Red Sea during the night of May 12 and in the morning we arrive in Aqaba, Jordan. Aqaba is Jordan’s only seaport. In itself it does not seem very interesting, but on the other side of the gulf we see another city - Eilat, Israel, which seems to be much larger and more developed. The distance might be some ten miles or so, but we can clearly see all the apartment high rises, port facilities and two very large apartment complexes which look just like the pyramid-shaped ones north of Nice. - Our excursion to Petra was arranged by the Voyagers Club. The bus trip from Aqaba to the entrance of the Petra area takes two hours. We notice that the security that was all around us in Egypt is absent in Jordan which seems strange as several terrorists were arrested in Jordan recently - luckily before they were able to commit terrorist acts - and one would think the Jordanians could be a bit more concerned about their considerable revenues from tourism. In any event we never saw anything suspicious, and we were very well received, as we have been everywhere else. The scenery in Jordan is different from Egypt. Rugged coastal mountains give way to an undulating high plateau as we drive north. We see quite a few bedouins and their black tents and are told there are more than 20000 in Jordan, and they are permitted to freely roam the countryside. The land is owned by the government. The bedouins move from place to place in search of wells and pastures, and some of them occasionally do some farming. Quite a few of them own trucks nowadays!

On the way to Petra we pass the place where Moses (Moussa in Arabic) is said to have struck a rock and water sprang forth.

The Rose City of Petra, built by the Nabataeans in the 3rd century BC into the sides of a long canyon, is certainly very interesting, but pales somewhat in comparison to what we just saw in Egypt. As we walk into the only about 12-15 ft wide canyon - two miles of a pretty miserable road - the “Treasury”, a rose-colored structure of Grecian design rises on the left, hewn into the rock, which is an amazing sight. Further down we see an amphitheatre and other examples of Nabataean art, and while it is all highly interesting we somehow can’t appreciate it well enough after seeing Luxor. Or are we getting jaded? Rather than walking back we take a horse cart which was much worse than walking and arrived back at the bus with our insides well shaken up!

May 14th - Overnight the ship reaches its next destination. Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, Sinai Peninsula, for a half-day stop, where the one attraction is to take a camel ride into the desert, but since I already rode a camel in Dubai, we pass on it and remain on board.

At noon the ship proceeds north toward the Gulf of Suez, and it gets lively with three freighters, probably container ships, following us, and there’s also quite a bit of traffic in southerly direction.

May 15th - Quite a convoy of ships enters the canal at Port Suez-Port Tewfiq and moves via Little Bitter Lake, Great Bitter Lake, and Lake Timsah. Right after Lake Timsah we pass the town of Ismailia which is a growing city with quite a few high rises. We see two Egyptian war memorials ands destroyed tank sitting near them. This was the area where the heaviest fighting took place during the 1973 Egyptian-Israeli war. Three wars were fought here during the last fifty years. First, in 1956, the joint British-French-Israeli attack on Egypt. Then, in 1967 the 6-Day War leading to Israel’s occupation of the Sinai, and in 1973 the “Yom Kippur War” which eventually led to the peace treaty and return of the Sinai to Egypt, as well as the re-opening of the canal. One of our two excellent lecturers on board gives a running commentary as we proceed thru the canal. The canal is over 120 miles long, 200 meters wide at water level and accomodates ships up to 53 feet draft. Transit time is about ten hours. North of El Qantara we pass an elegant new suspension bridge. The water in the canal seems very clear. The east side is barren desert, on the west side there’s a road, a few trees and shrubs, a few houses. There are many cone-shaped structures, some fifteen feet high, white stucco, with lots of holes in them. What on earth are they? Nobody on board knows. Later we find out that they are used to house pigeons whose droppings are processed to produce the Egyptian version of Viagra - or is this a tall tale? The temperature is a delightful 76 F. This is our last day on board and our thoughts run ahead to Alexandria and the impressions to come. At 4 PM, exactly ten hours after entering the canal, we see Port Said on portside and gain the open Mediterranean. The night is restless. Though we generally enjoy a bit of rough weather the sea is really quite choppy and the ship keeps rolling and pitching. Towards morning we are awakened by loud bumps against the hull of the ship. It is

Sunday, May 16th, and we have arrived in Alexandria. our final port. At the pier we are greeted by Heshab Abdulla, our guide, who conveys us quickly thru the center to some of the sights we are interested in. We have decided to change the suggested itinerary, omitting some, and adding others. Our guide and driver have come from Cairo to meet us, and as neither of them is very familiar with Alexandria it takes them a while to find the National Museum, but it was well worth it. This museum is much smaller than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and not crowded. The first thing we see is the bust of the Pharao Akhnaton (Akhenaten) in whom we are particularly interested because of his attempt to change Egypt’s polytheistic religion to monotheism under the one god Aton. That was the very first time monotheism was practiced anywhere, preceding even Judaism. In another section is the Coptic room with exhibits showing the fusion of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman art. I questioned Heshab at this point about the Coptic Egyptian language which is still spoken in Coptic Christian churches. It is basically ancient Egyptian, but nowadays written in Greek characters with a few added ones for sounds not existing in Greek. As it is till spoken it gives us an approximate idea of how ancient Egyptian was pronounced.- - - Making our way back thru the city, we pass Pompey’s Column and get to the drive along the beaches - the corniche. We remember it fairly well from years ago when it looked dilapidated. Today it is a beautiful thoroughfare that follows the beach more than 25 miles and describes a half-circle from west to east. One apartment building after another line this avenue.We see the ultra-modern building of the New Alexandria Library but decide not to go in for lack of time. At the east end of the corniche we find the palace where King Farouk gave his abdication speech, boarded his yacht and sailed away. Lunch at the Fish Restaurant, overlooking the Mediterranean, was wonderful with a dozen tasty hors d’oeuvres, fresh fish caught that morning and local beer.

The new road from Alexandria to Cairo is very good. The drive takes about three hours, and suddenly the Pyramids of Giza appear on the right,. but - alas! - a lot of ugly housing developments have sprung up all around replacing the vegetable fields, and the impression is not what it was years ago when we first saw the Pyramids. Besides, the country can ill afford to lose arable land to apartment buildings. On the other hand, the population explosion is formidable - there are70 Million now of which there are some 16 Million is Cairo and 6 Million in Alexandria. But areas for growing food are scarce - just the Nile valley.---

We are impressed with the Citadel overlooking the city and the Mohamed Ali Mosque whose design and elegant minarets are fashioned after the Blue Mosque of Istanbul. The Citadel which we had never seen up close before was the kings’ residence for over 800 years. A long aqueduct runs from the Citadel all the way to the Nile River and was used to bring the water up by way of seven huge water wheels The wheels are gone but the aqueduct is there and in very good repair, made of large stones fitted together seamlessly.. - - In the late afternoon we check into the Nile Hilton, one of the venerable old Cairo hotels. It’s a charming place, a little old-worldish, with a string quartet playing classical music in the lobby. A large stone relief mounted on one lobby wall taken from Karnak long ago (that’s of course forbidden today) depicts Ramses II and the god Amon-Ra. We have a balcony that affords a great view of the Nile. There are cruise ships docked on the west bank, and a few feluccas glide up and down the river. The view is especially exciting at night with the tall Cairo Tower lit up and all the other city lights.

Heshab gets us going first thing in morning of May 17th, and we walk over to the Egyptian Museum. We had visited it before. At that time the exhibits were poorly lit, but today it’s very much improved. The museum cannot really be visited in a few hours, but we try to see as much as possible. The Tutankhamun section takes up a large part, is now very well arranged and includes over 100,000 items some of which are still kept in the museum basement. Tutankhamun was one of the less inmpoprtant kings - it is intriguing to speculate what the tombs of the great kings, like Ramses II or Thutmose III must have contained! We go thru the Mummies’ Room, and then to the Akhnaton exhibits. The visit takes up all morning, and as all museum visits, is exhausting. But a great chicken barbecue lunch with Egyptian specialties at Andrea’s Restaurant picks us up. We’ll miss Egyptian food back home! And they bake wonderful bread!

The Pyramids were on the itinerary but we decide to skip them as we had been there before, and under less crowded circumstances, and instead drive out to Saqqara to see the Stepped Pyramid built by Pharao Zoser during the 4th dynasty. It is the oldest pyramid ever built and the forerunner of the Giza Pyramids. The builders of the Saqqara (Memphis) period had not yet acquired the knowledge how to build smooth-sided pyramids. This site is on the west side of the Nile and was used as the necropolis of Memphis. There are exceedingly deep tombs at Saqqara, but nothing was ever found in them. In the distance we can see the three Pyramids at Giza, and further away more pyramids. There are actually hundreds of pyramids, and they areall in lower Egypt.

After Saqqara we return to the hotel and get ready for the next stage: Aswan and Abu Simbel. We’ll have to get up at 3 AM because unexpectedly our 8 Am flight was changed to 5:15!

Tuesday, May 18th We take this early flight from Cairo Domestic Airport on Egypt Air to Abu Simbel ,with a stop in Aswan, and on arrival immediately visit the temple area. These temples, built by Ramses II to assert his dominance over southern Egypt and Nubia, had to be raised when the High Dam at Aswan was built and Lake Nasser was created, to save them from the rising water. After bringing them up to their new location they were meticulously re-assembled and are now at about the same height from the new water level that they had been before further down. They are truly amazing! We see first the Ramses Temple with its four huge statues of the pharao in front, then the temple of Nefertari - the King’s favorite wife - which is right next to it. There are six large statues in front of this temple, four of the king and two of his wife. The inside is rather dark but we can make out several carved heads of the goddess Hathor. - Security is very strict everywhere. The Abu Simbel site is guarded by steel-helmeted army personnel.

We fly back to Aswan and check into the Old Cataract Hotel where we are put up in a room fit for a pharao with balcony and a splendid view over the river and the archaeological sites on the other side. Dozens of feluccas - the typical Nile sail boat - cruise upstream and downstream, and after a brief rest we take a ride on one of them to Elephantine Island and Kitchener’s Island where this famous British general collected hundreds of species of trees and plants from all over the world. The walk thru the botanical garden is pleasant, and after taking tea in the garden restaurant we board our felucca again at the other end of the island. Returning to the Cataract Hotel the felucca passes the Aga Khan’s Mausoleum. There are dozens of Nile cruise ships docked at Aswan. We are told there some 300 cruising the river between Cairo and Aswan!

On Wednesday, May 19, our guide Ahmed picks us up and takes us straight out to the Aswan High Dam. It’s an impressive structure. Ahmed shows us a place from where we can look down on the power station. Apart from regulating the flow of the Nile’s water, the dam generates enough power for all of Egypt’s needs,and some of it is even exported to Syria and Turkey. The river is now well under control, but the dam has created a new problem: there is no more natural silt flowing down the Nile valley toward the delta, and agriculture now has to rely on articifial fertilizers. ---- After the dam we take a motor launch to Agilka Island where we visit the Philae Temple dedicated mainly to the goddess Isis during the Ptolomaic period. The temple is a mixture of Egyptian, Graeco-Roman and Christian styles and dates from the 3rd century BC. Originally it was submerged in the river almost up to the top every time the Nile was high, but later it was lifted out and relocated on this island.----- We notice that the people in this southern part of Egypt look different: they are more African than Egyptian, with a very dark complexion - they are the descendants of the Nubians.----

But now we must hurry off to Aswan airport, and after a two-hour flight with a stop in Luxor we land in Cairo and check again into the Cairo Hilton for one more night.

Thursday, May 20th, we have to get up at 2 AM, have a hurried breakfast,and head for the Cairo International Airport for the long flight home. It is very dark , but the city is full of lights, the mosques along the airport road are decorated for us with thousands of little lamps!----

These 5 weeks were wonderful and exciting, but now we feel it’s time to go home. We board our Lufthansa flight, turn on the classical channel --- Beethoven’s Third! We are back in our world!

Frank and Roz

May 2004