We are going to spend a few days in Jordan.
We are flying to Amman, then busing/taxi-ing to Petra for 3 nights.
Then off to a jeep/camel/hike trip in Wadi Rum for a couple of nights.
Then the Dead Sea for a day or so.
Then back to Amman for a day or so.
So, at least we have an excuse for a week or so for not updating the blogs 🙂
So today, I worked from the apartment as usual.
Then I hoofed over to Mohandaseen for a talk at the Egyptian Exploration Society held at the British Council entitled Old Kingdom Settlement at Giza; Recent Excavation of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project.
What caught my eye about it was the presenter’s name was Ana Tavares.
It was one of the better organized and more interesting (to a layman) talks I have been to since we have been here. (We usually attend 2 or 3 a month. We try for more, but.. There are so many every week. A sample listing. )
Anyway, the talk was about the worker village under excavation and their finding. Truly fascinating stuff.
After the lecture I walked about 5 minutes to the Cairo Jazz Club. Had a pizza and listened to a 4 piece classical and latin jazz band. They were one of those groups that really seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was a lot of fun.
Then headed home.
But we needed milk for coffee for tomorrow morning and we had a bunch of clothes at the makwagi [“ironing man”. The old school makwagi uses a foot iron heated over hot coals. Our modern makwagi uses a plain old electric iron]
But it was after midnight. Well, malesh! [no problem]
Walk up the Corniche along the Nile, stop at the “supermarket” (open 24 hours) for a kilo of milk.
Then stop at the makwagi. He was still there pressing clothes (this is a VERY late night culture). Paid him the equivalent of US$3.85 and carried home two arm loads of freshly pressed linen clothes. [he apologized because his delivery boy had already gone home]
Just an ordinary day in Cairo.
I read this news story today.
What is sadest about it is, is that I met a gentleman here in Cairo that was working on sewage treatment projects in Gaza (and elsewhere in Palestine). Until Hammas won an election and all US based foreign aid was cut off.
They had to abandon the project.
Aint politics grand.
For an enlightening read on Egyptian politics, take a look here.
The Citadel is a walled compound built on the hills on the outskirts of Cairo.
It started out as a small pavilion built in the early 800’s.
It was fortified and made into a fortress and royal city by Salah Al Din (aka “Saladin”) in the late 1700s 1100s [Thank you Kelley]
More details and history can be found here.
We visited with a group of the ALI (Arabic Learning Institute). The guide is a professor of Islamic Art. She has an astounding knowledge of the history of architecture and art in the Islamic world, and Cairo in particular.
We usually jump at the chance to go on one of her tours.
We toured all the mosques and other buildings, in chronological order, inside the Citadel. Some guide books play down the citadel as uninspiring and even a waste of time with all the other things to see in Cairo. I can see that if you were to go to the Citadel without a guide, or at least a good guide book.
Our guide greatly enriched our experience.
I took just a handful of shots. Flash is not allowed inside most of the buildings, so not alot of the shots came out. Here they are.
She says “hi” to all our cow-orkers.
She can’t WAIT to get back to work.
They get rain there. And they have money. So buildings and cars are new and kept clean. No trash on the streets.
Very few taxis, compared to Egypt. Much more money, most people own cars. We asked our hotel to call us a taxi and they said it would be a 30 minute wait. They suggested walking out to the traffic circle to try to flag one down. We had to wait 10 minutes for taxi to even go by! And that one was occupied. This is quite a bit of culture shock after spending time in Cairo, where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a taxi.
The labor force is imported. Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Phillipino etc. L
Lots of English spoken. I could see it being difficult to learn Arabic living in Doha.
Lot’s of money. Bentleys, Mercedes Benz, high end SUVs.
I didn’t even realize this until the 2nd or 3rd day when I saw someone trying to cross the street. It then occured to me that he was the first pedestrian I had seen. Everybody drives.
Well, that was interesting.
It is a nice track for the racers. The traction is good, the track is wide with good passing areas. A rather long straightaway. No elevation changes to speak of. Wind can be a problem at times.
It is not a great track for spectators though. There are only 3 places to watch the track from
1. The main grandstands. This is the only place you can go if you have a regular ticket.
2. VIP Suites. Air-conditioned, glassed in suites above the pit garages. You have a view of pit lane and the start/finish/grid area. TVs in the suites for everything else.
3. VIP Grandstand. There is a grandstand in turn 10 with a shuttle bus for VIP occupents to get out there.
You can’t walk the track. There is a service road inside and one outside the track, but that is not open to spectators.
All in all, not a great spectator track.
The best reason to go to this race is that there is almost no one there. The paddock security is laughable. Pit security is tighter, but you can just walk right into the paddocks and look in the back of the garages.
Because of the lack of spectators, the riders and teams are really laid back. No one is rushing from the garage to the trailer to get away from the hordes. Very laid back. You will often see riders just stopping to chat to each other “out in the open”.
They stop for autographs and photos. They are very relaxed.
All in all a good trip. I am glad I went, but I probably wouldn’t go there again. There are other tracks I would rather visit.
(many of the pit photos were taken through the glass of the VIP suites, so there are some odd reflections and refractions)