2010 Jamaica

When you pay $65 per night for a resort hotel room in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, you don't expect a whole heck of a lot. Rooms Ocho Rios, was pretty much just that, rooms. But the lady who checked us in at the front desk had been extremely nice, efficient and helpful. So when we were considering whether or not to drive into the Blue Mountains, we went back down to talk to her. We'd been through the mountains during our previous trips, but it was still a little scary. We'd heard many stories about police doing "racial profiling" and pulling white Americans over to make them pay a traffic fine, whether they'd violated any law or not. There were stories of other bandits and general bad people up in the mountains as well. Driving from Mobay to Ochi had been a little scary at first, but it turned out to be not so bad - there were some crazy drivers, but the traffic moved along, and the roads were passable. We were pretty sure that the roads in the mountains would be a much different story. I did, on the other hand, still want to see the verdant mountain scenery, get some famous Blue Mountain coffee at a plantation, and maybe take a short hike or two. So we asked, "is it safe to drive up into the Blue Mountains?" Simple enough, no? I expected an answer of something like, "Yes, it's perfectly safe, just be careful on the hairpin turns", or "No, it's not very safe for tourists, but you can consider this organized tour instead." But the actual answer, when it came, was one we'll never forget. "Well... I DON'T KNOW...." That doesn't sound so funny, but the way she said it was. Just ask Debbie to re-enact the whole conversation for you. Instead of the mountains, we drove to another place on this side of the island that I'd been wanting to see for a long time: the idyllic little village of Port Antonio. This was the home of James Bond author Ian Fleming and actor Errol Flynn. Located on the eastern end of the island, it was supposed to be remote, but scenic. Sounded a little like the village of Hana on the island of Maui. Like the trip to Hana, this drive had some hairpin turns and took much longer (2.5 hours) than planned. It was scenic, but not so much compared to the Maui drive. When we arrived in Port Antonio, we got a bit of a surprise. Yes, it was different from the other villages we'd seen driving around Jamaica; it was *much* worse; a total slum. We immediately turned around (which in itself was a challenge, with driving on the left and then hitting roundabouts and one-way streets), and drove the two and a half hours back to Ochi. So now we still haven't set foot in Port Antonio, because we never even got out of the car there. Ochi itself was also a little disappointing. Not the hotel so much, since our expectations weren't high, but the noise. First there was the booze, I mean, sunset cruise. They BLASTED out the noise as we were trying to get to sleep: "Bend over. Boom, boom, boom. Back it up. Boom, boom, boom. Now help me put it in. Boom, boom, boom. Now wiggle, wiggle wiggle." And so on. Then, not to be out-done, a bar down the beach started blasting extremely loud music that finally died down about 3:30am. The announcer may have been the same guy from the boat. The highlight of the Ochi portion of the trip was, however, Shaw Park Gardens. They were beautiful, complete with waterfalls, gobs of different types of flowers and outdoor ornamentation. The views looking down at Ochi were really great. Vincent, the head gardener, was our guide. We got to Sandals Whitehouse in one piece. I was sooo very happy to be relieved of that rental car. Whitehouse is on the opposite, southwest side of the island. Sandals is the only resort in the area. The south side is undeveloped, and totally different. Sandals is totally different as well. You could say that we had different expectations for our nearly $400 a night room than for the $65 a night room. Our expectations were met in both instances. All meals, drinks and tips are included. The resort's layout, gardens, rooms and other amenities were all first class. The food was plentiful and very good as well. I should also mention that it's party central. It helped that the whole family was there to join the fun. And speaking of parties, Mike and Brittany's wedding was fantastic. Never having attended a beach or any destination wedding, it sure was memorable. Of course the weather, the beach, the scenery and everything was absolutely perfect. The ceremony was really well done by Sandals and their minister. After some photos we sat down - right on the beach - to a great meal; the best we had there. The day was capped off with a gorgeous sunset. It couldn't have been better. Debbie and I pretty much stayed put at the resort. There wasn't anything nearby to see anyway. The rest of the gang went on a zipline safari one day, but they otherwise stayed put as well. I snorkeled a couple times and took two other boat trips with Debbie. I ran the beach and the roads. (For more about that, see my running blog.) Debbie and I walked the beach each day as well. Another highlight was the Jamaican people themselves. After some initial trepidation, we learned that they are truly gentle and very nice to talk to. The best part of all was being with the family for so much of the fun.

2010 Dan in Romania

Although I’m usually not self-conscious, I’m truly one of a kind here in Romania. Men, and women for that matter, don’t shave their heads here. At all. In fact, I’ve only seen one other person with a shaved head: another guy named Dan at the office. And I do see a *lot* of people, most of them on the Metro. Most people don’t run at 5am either, and even most of those who do run don’t do so when it’s cold and rainy. I guess that’s not so different from other places. It has indeed been cold, in the 40s and 50s, and rainy every single day for the first week. It eventually cleared up a bit when I was almost done. Did I mention ‘another guy named Dan’? There are a lot of them. Dan is surely a popular name here; I’ve met with several of them. Dans and Bogdans – Bogdans may possibly outnumber Dans by a bit.

Another thing about the guys here: they carry man-purses. I should mention that I carry a backpack with my laptop. But that’s not the same thing. Really, it isn’t.

The last two times I was here (this is my fourth time), I took a train from Bucharest to medieval towns in Transylvania. Since I had a free weekend, I considered this again. I did a tiny bit of research on it. But the rainy weather held me back – I couldn’t see going through all the trouble of traveling in the rain when I can walk around in the rain in Bucharest. Besides, staying in town would give me the opportunity to see the Palatul Parlamentului and a museum or two.

The National Museum of Romanian art is supposed to be one of the great ones, and it lived up to its reputation. As I went through the exhibit halls, the works became more and more modern. I enjoyed all of it, but the more modern stuff from the late 1800’s on into the twentieth century was best.

The Museum also had an exhibit on Dracula. Drac is also known as Vlad Tepes III and Vlad the Impaler. They had several artifacts from his time (late 1400’s) as well as a lot of information about him. The best part was seeing the famous portrait of Vlad. It turns out to be the oldest remaining such portrait, but even it was done after his death, based on a now missing wood engraving of him.

The difference between historical facts and the fiction surrounding this interesting character was driven home over and over. Vlad is regarded as a Romanian National Hero by some, for his generally successful efforts in fighting off the invading Ottoman Turks. Although he treated his vanquished enemies with cruelty, he was probably no more violent than other rulers of his era. The problem was that he made enemies not only of the Turks, but also of other parties in Europe, including Hungary. After his death he became known as Vlad the Impaler in Germany and elsewhere. The Romanians believe that this is due to a prejudice by Western Europeans against the Slavs of Eastern and Southern Europe. Bram Stoker wrote his book, “Dracula” in the late 19th century, where he incorporated Vlad’s now bloodthirsty reputation with the legends of vampires. Romanians believe that this view continues to show prejudice against their people. I find the history truly interesting, but would like to point out that although Romanians are anxious for the truth to be known, they are also happy to accept the tourism that Vlad generates.

A rainy walk through the central historical Lipscani area of Bucharest revealed a pleasant surprise: the place is much improved. Over the years, I could tell that improvements were being made in order to clean up and restore this old district. Those efforts are finally paying off: it’s now a pretty neat place to walk, with shops and restaurants apparently doing quite well. They still have a ways to go, but things are definitely improving.

“Is closed to visitors today.” This, a day after, “No tours today, come back tomorrow,” which was what the guard had told me yesterday. This couldn’t all be based on some jokester’s whim of some kind, could it? Nah. Such are my now comical attempts to visit the Palatul Parlamentului. I stay right across the street from the dang thing. You’d think that after about four attempts, I’d be able to get a tour of the place. But one thing or another always seems to go wrong.

I had devoted most of my Sunday to seeing the palace, so plan B turned out to be the Romanian Peasant Museum. Some had called it Romania’s best museum of any kind, but I preferred the art museum that I’d seen the previous day. Seeing dozens of manikins dressed up as Romanian peasant women, along with their various textiles and pottery, just doesn’t do it for me. Debbie probably would have appreciated the place better than I did. At least it was something to do on another cool wet day.

The third try was a charm. Third try this trip, anyway; I'd tried to get into the palace on other trips with similar results to what I described above. But I had the afternoon off for my last day on this trip, and thought I'd give it yet another try. And I *Did* get in!


And guess what? It was worth all the trouble. The Palace of Parliament is one of the largest buildings in the world no matter how you slice it, and it's truly impressive on the inside. The halls, hallways and terraces are opulent. The view was also spectacular. I'd recommend this to anyone visiting Bucharest.

I still walk to and from the Metro to get to the office. My daily commute is still an adventure. For more on my daily routine here, check out my fun blog entry from last time, A Day in the Life.

It should be mentioned, once again, that one of the best aspects of Bucharest, more than the tree-lined boulevards and busy squares, even more than the museums and historical buildings, is the parks. There are many fine city parks, although most are fairly small, causing my runs to be more or less circuitous. But on the whole, they’re really great.

As I’ve noticed during my previous visits, the people are truly wonderful. The best part of this is that they seem to truly love Americans. Maybe it’s just me.

For more on my running in Romania, see my running blog entry, (Another) Rhapsody of Running in Romania.

2010 Finger Lakes

The glaciers did it. That always seems to be the reason behind any geological formation anywhere on the planet, so of course it would apply to the Finger Lakes region of New York. The only other explanation I've seen is that they are the hand-print of God. That may be so, but I'm wondering why God came up with eleven fingers.

It is, to be sure, God's Country. There is beautiful scenery, plenty of recreation and over 100 wineries. Debbie and I went for a long weekend to celebrate our 35th anniversary.

After 5 1/2 hours of driving, we dove right into the wineries along the west side of Seneca Lake. This is the biggest of the fingers, and is as deep as the Great Lakes. The wineries almost all have a great view of the lake and the surroundings. We hit several before we wound up at our hotel in Corning, which is to the south of the lakes.

The next day we hiked in Watkins Glen State Park. It's 1.5 miles out through the Glen, which includes gobs of waterfalls, including two that you walk behind. It was fairly strenuous, but we took a slightly easier upper route back. That afternoon, we circumnavigated a different lake, Keuka. Of course there were more wineries to be explored. The best of all was the granddaddy of them all, Doctor Frank's Vinifera Winery in Hammondsport. Also in Hammondsport we took another trip down memory lane by stopping at Pleasant Valley Winery, home to Great Western Champagne. Like Watkins Glen, we'd experienced this place before. Many years before.

For our last trip we took one final trip down memory lane by stopping at Letchworth State Park on the way home. We've camped there twice in the distant past. Letchworth is the "Grand Canyon of the East", although, as I'm fond of saying, they don't call the one in Arizona the "Letchworth of the West". Letchworth is indeed beautiful however, and it was great to see it again.

2010 Egypt

The Joy is in the Journey
This is always the case, and it should be the opening chapter to any travel story. It’s even more so when traveling overseas, and more so still when traveling to a third world country like Egypt. This time, as almost always, the Lady Adventurer and I endured flight delays, abysmal airline service, and anxiety over possible missed connections and potentially lost luggage. We were also forced to ask ourselves, how much to pay for a nap? The itinerary called for overnight from Detroit to Amsterdam, followed by nine hours in Amsterdam, followed by a 9pm to 2am flight to Cairo. We would be sleep-challenged for two nights in a row; a nap in Amsterdam would be most beneficial.

How much would those Z’s cost? I figured $200 for a hotel, including taxi fare. That’s $5 per wink, assuming we got 40. The solution? We found a “Yotel Hotel” in the airport where we rented an 8 x 10 foot room for four hours for 49 Euros. This is still pretty steep, and the room was comically teensy, but it worked for us.

Our 2am arrival into Cairo was tough. We stood in immigration/customs queues - sometimes the wrong ones - for well over an hour.

Cairo
The arrival at the Movenpick Cairo-Pyramids hotel was at 4am, which turned out to be not an alert time for us. We were stunned to look outside later in the morning daylight to see the Pyramids right there – almost directly across the road! They weren’t kidding with the hotel name. It turns out that crowded, polluted Cairo has sprawled out to the steps of the once remote Pyramids. We were told that modern Cairo now has 18 million inhabitants, placing it as one of the most populace cities on the planet.

Even though Lady Adventurer and I would be seeing them again the next day, we decided to walk the mile or so over to them while we had the extra time. Along the way we were accosted by several (possibly well-meaning) Egyptians, wanting to talk to us, wanting to help us cross the busy 14-lane highway, wanting to sell us camel and carriage rides, wanting to personally show us around the Pyramids. They all wanted a tip. I did tip the guy who helped us to not get killed crossing the highway, as well as a guy who wouldn’t quit following us around at the Pyramid itself because it seemed to be the only way to could get rid of him.

How were the Pyramids themselves? They are as imposing and impressive, not to mention downright BIG, as advertised. It was awesome to walk right up to them and then look up. Oh yes. At 4,500 years or so, they’re pretty darn old too. When we returned the following day we also got around to see the nearby sphinx.

It was interesting to learn the latest theories about their construction. It’s now generally believed that each of the big three were built in about 30 years by skilled workers – probably farmers during their off-seasons; not by slave labor over longer periods as previously thought. There is even some evidence for this as the remains of some of the buried workers are now being uncovered. These people were apparently well treated.

Of course everyone will want to know if I went inside. I did go down into one of the smaller “Queens” Pyramids. The passage was steep, small and dark. It led to a very small cubical nearly empty room that had held the mummified queen. I was told that the inside of the larger Pyramids were the same – nothing to see inside. The tombs in the Valley of the Kings would be far more interesting.

The Egyptian Museum ranks as one of the top two Archeological Museums in the world. The other is in Athens. Although the accompanying information was sparse, the treasures are magnificent. Among other highlights are the bust of Khafre and all of King Tutankhamun's stuff, including his golden death mask. Great stuff!

An important announcement about King Tut was made a few days later while we were still in Egypt: scientists confirmed his cause of death as malaria. They also announced that he had had several genetic disorders. His father was confirmed as Akhenaten (He was the Pharaoh who announced that he was not a deity, and who also stated that only one god exists. What was he thinking?), and his mother was Akhenaten's sister. By this point I'd finally learned more about the Boy King than I'd been aware of from Steve Martin's song.

Relatively speaking, Cairo isn’t so old. Really. It’s “only” been around for 2,000 years or so. Memphis and Saqqara to the south, and the Pyramids of Giza to the southwest, are much older. We did get to see parts of “Old Cairo” in the central part of the city. We got to see the Coptic Christian “Hanging” Church (About 15% of Egyptians are Christian), a church above the spot where the Holy Family hid from King Herod, Benezra Synagogue, and the Citadel, including the huge Mosque of Muhammed Ali. Ali, who neither floated like a butterfly, nor stung like a bee, is considered the founder of modern Egypt. He built this famous mosque in the early nineteenth century.

Alexandria
The trip from Cairo to Alexandria took about four hours. It was notable because of the police escort we were given. At times we had one police vehicle in front of and one behind the bus as well. We also had a guard who was armed with an assault rifle with us inside the bus. Lady Adventurer noted that she wasn’t sure whether to feel more secure (because the guards were present) or less so (because they may have been needed).

I had expected Alexandria to be cleaner and nicer than Cairo, and it was. I had expected it to be smaller and quieter than Cairo, and it was. But with 5 million people, and also plenty of sprawl and traffic, not by much. Here, at least, dust and pollution are mitigated by the prevailing winds blowing in from the north over the Mediterranean Sea.

Founded by Alexander the Great’s Generals, Alexandria has a rich and storied history. Alexander himself had conquered and ruled Egypt, but hadn’t actually set foot right here. One of the stories, of course, is that of Cleopatra VII, the famous one, who had encounters with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. She was the last Egyptian to rule Egypt for nearly 2,000 years. We were able to live part of this history by visiting Fort Quaitbey, the site of the famous Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and also the site of famous battles of the Greco/Roman era. Another goose-bump historical moment came when we visited the new world-class library, Biblioteca Alexandrina. This is at the site of the earlier library, the planet’s original university and center of learning and knowledge.

Lady Adventurer and I walked, and I also ran along the Corniche, the famous miles-long promenade on the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the beaches looked nice, but it was a bit cool for swimming, so we stayed dry.

Also in Alexandria we visited some Christian Catacombs, and the Montaza Royal Palace Park and Gardens.

Marsa Matruh
Marsa Matruh is west of Alexandria, where the desert meets the sea, and the contrasts are extreme and stunning. Before arriving we stopped at El Alamein, site a decisive World War II battle. It was here that German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, was beaten, and the tide of the war turned. The museum was fine, but the Commonwealth Cemetery was particularly moving. One of our British traveling companions told me the story of his father, who was in the battle and then lost in the desert for three weeks. Eventually hooking up with two New Zealanders and a German, they survived by taking water from a broken down truck’s radiator.

Our hotel, the Jaz, was brand new; we were the first to use it. It was a huge resort with hundreds of rooms, and the 37 of us only took up a few of them. What’s more, there were other brand new resort hotels next door, and they were empty as well. We had the whole place, and the beach, to ourselves. We arrived in the midst of an Honest-to-Allah sandstorm of Biblical proportions. As we settled in, the storm abated, but we discovered that the place still had some bugs to work out: most notably the Lady Adventurer was trying to switch on a floor lamp at the same time that I was turning it on from the wall switch, and this resulted in a small explosion and severing of the cord in Debbie’s hand. Her hand turned black, but she was ok.

Although we had some free time here, we did get to do some sightseeing. We saw Rommel’s cave/headquarters, the town of Matruh, and the beautiful beaches nearby. These included Cleopatra’s Beach (she really did swim here), and stunning Agiba Beach.

We were informed that millions of land mines had been planted in the general area in World War II, and that some are still being found. This turned out to be a consideration for my morning run on the beach. For more about that, see my running blog.

Cairo II: the Return
The bus took a different route through the desert back to Cairo. Before arriving we stopped at Wadi Natrun, an oasis village where we saw the Monastery of St. Bishoi. There was some interesting architecture (the place dates back to 340 AD), but the stop was fairly comical because the Monk who showed us around spoke very fast in some strange dialect of English such that I only understood only about ten of his 10,000 or so words to us.

Once back in central Cairo we stopped at the famous Khan Al-Khalili Bazaar. It’s hard to describe. For one thing, it’s huge, taking up dozens of city blocks. Traffic all around the place was bad; it took us something like an hour to park the bus. And then there was the shopping experience itself. We ran the gauntlet of venders attacking us from every side, but we managed to survive with our money intact.

Aswan
Lady Adventurer and I, along with the rest of our group, took a very early morning flight from Cairo to Aswan in “Upper Egypt” to the south. Aswan is the site of the famous “High Dam”, which was built in the 1960s, and has dramatically changed Egypt in several ways: there’s now a lot of electricity, and no more flooding of the Nile, but this is causing farmers to use chemical fertilizers due to the lack of silt, and it’s also causing the shoreline of the Mediterranean to erode. Yin and Yang, good and bad. Another problem was that several ancient temples were to be flooded when Lake Nasser was created by the dam. Some were relocated, and we saw two of them: Philae and Abu Simbal.

Philae temple stands on an island, and was dedicated to the god, Isis. We saw great frescoes, but some had been defaced by early Christians, who didn’t like the depiction of virgin birth by the ancient Egyptians; it seemed they wanted the idea to themselves.

Abu Simbal was particularly stunning. It’s actually two adjacent temples built by Rameses II, also known as Rameses the Great. He ruled for 67 or 76 years, and built one temple for himself and the other for his beloved wife, the beautiful Nefertari. They had been relocated 60 meters up, and 180 meters over and above the lake by Unesco. This was quite an engineering project, as the temples are huge, and are built into hillsides. We had driven three hours through the completely barren desert to reach them. But the trip sure was worthwhile. The temples, as well as their location on the lake are stunning.

Did I mention the heat? Upper Egypt was suddenly extremely hot: something like 35 Celsius, which equates to 95 Fahrenheit.

Cruising the Nile
The Movenpick Radamis II would be our moving hotel for a three night cruise north on the Nile. It was small compared to the Ocean Cruise ships we’ve been on. Unfortunately, all our meals were in the form of buffets, so our bellies didn’t go along with the small theme.

Before moving north we took a side trip to a Nubian Village that I still don’t know the name of. Nubians are the dark-skinned people here in the south of Egypt. They “like to keep crocodiles in their homes”, according to our guide. Of course we thought he was joking, until we entered a Nubian house and saw the pet crocs for ourselves.


The joy was once again in the journey. We went by boat and witnessed plenty of bird wildlife along the way. The herons and egrets were familiar, but some birds, including some colorful ones, were unique. And then there was the camel ride into the village itself. This was extremely uncomfortable for us males; because of the hump, I was continuously pushed forward and down into the protrusion at the front of the saddle, and came off with a somewhat high voice.

The house crocs were friendly, but we decided not to touch the really big one. We did hold a cute little one though. The house was used by four families, had a dirt floor, but interesting décor, and a decent amount of living space.

Along the way north to Luxor we stopped by a couple Greco-Roman era temples: Kom Ombo and Edfu. Edfu was particularly stunning in the early evening.

Luxor
The Valley of the Kings was everything it was to be. We passed on the Tomb of Tutankahmun after hearing that its treasures were all now in the Museum. We regretted this when we heard that the Tut’s mummy itself is still there. Oh well. We did enter three tombs: those of Rameses I, Rameses III and Rameses VII. The paintings, hieroglyphics and other designs in Rameses III’s tomb were particularly fantastic. The colors were amazing.

We also saw the temple of Hatshepsut, which is built into the side of a cliff for a spectacular setting. There wasn’t much to see once we climbed the many stairs however. Hatshepsut (say that name three times as fast as you can) was a rare and very powerful female pharaoh.

Lady Adventurer and I went off on our own and hired a horse-carriage ride through the town of Luxor. It was larger, and more interesting than I thought. The ride through the Egyptian (not for tourists) Bazaar was particularly interesting. Someone rode by on a bike, saw us inside and yelled back, “English Number one!” Atta, our driver knew we were American, and said quietly, “America is best.” We did, unfortunately, encounter some kids begging us for money.

And then we saw magnificent Karnak. What a place. It is Egypt’s greatest attraction after the Pyramids with good reason: the place is awesome. It’s a collection of temples built over a period of 1,300 years, and takes up over 100 acres. There are temples, obelisks, high pylons and hundreds of HUGE columns. The evening sound and light show was a little hokey, but still quite spectacular. We toured the place again the next morning, and still couldn’t spend enough time there.

Luxor Temple is nearby. It’s smaller, but still impressive. The two locations are connected by a partially restored three kilometer long Avenue of Sphinxes. That’s a lot of sphinxes.

Our day, and our entire tour, ended with lunch at an authentic African restaurant followed by a slow felucca ride back across the Nile.

Cairo III – This Time it’s Final
Lady Adventurer and I had an extra day to spend in Cairo, and we made the most of it. We hired a driver from the hotel to take us to Saqqara, an archeological site about 30 miles south of Cairo.

Home to monuments spanning 3,000 years, Saqqara is the location of Egypt's oldest pyramids and tombs. The famous Step Pyramid of Djoser was large and impressive. There was a small but very interesting museum. We also walked to several of the tombs. Discoveries at Saqqara continue. A Dutch and Egyptian team is at work there now. We saw the excavation in progress.

Eventually we had to head back; the heat and air pollution were getting to be too much for us.



Egypt in Retrospect
I find it difficult to reconcile the glory of ancient Egypt with the modern one. A couple undeniable connections include the Aswan High Dam and the Biblioteca Alexandrina. I come away more impressed than ever with the rich history and culture, not to mention the longevity of this great civilization. I also come away somewhat depressed about modern Egypt. The people we met personally were really wonderful. It’s the pollution, litter, crumbling infrastructure, extreme poverty and population explosion that are so disheartening. These are the descendents of the pharos and farmers of those glory years gone by, and this is hard to think about – it just hurts my brain.

As always with these sorts of trips, our guide, Ihab was great – he had a great knowledge and enthusiasm for the heritage of his people’s history. And as always, we had great memories and made many friends amongst our fellow travelers.

Also check out my running blog entry for the Egypt running.