Monday, May 30th, last full day in singapore, had the tour of the city yesterday.  Went to China Town, visited one of their more important temples, which was built about 1840's to enable Chinese sailors to pray for a storm free sea, or to thank them for the calm seas, and Singapore was the prime north/,south travel route to and from China. Across from the temple was the wharf for loading and unloading the ship's, but today it's about a mile inland from the harbor, and inbetween are dozens of tall skyscrapers built not on the fill, but down to bed rock.  Whether it's Chinese, Indian, Malay... there is a style to their neighborhoods, with ethnic styles thrown in.  The buildings from that period (1800's and after) are all two story, with the second floor over hanging the first with columns to support the hangovers, and between the buildings and the columns exist  sidewalks, protecting pedestrians from rain or providing an escape from the sun.  It was law even back then, shade is a valuable commudity.  The decorations, types of columns, colors, distinguished one ethnicnity from another.  Even the hostel I'm in  has the columns which are wide square massive things, with minimal doodads reminding one of British colonial construction, even if I'm in Little India this building which has been thru many renovations reconstructions must have had some type of British roots.  Others on the street are of the two story variety, or a whole block was rebuilt with ten story tall structures.  This can no longer be done because the city officials are trying to keep the ethnic feel to the neighborhoods, so the traditional two storys will remain, with a store on the first part of the first floor, depth deep into the building is flexible with living quarters, storeroom or garage entrance from a direction except the frontage road.  Upstairs are living quarters.  It really is a stylistic statement to have the variations of the same building throughout the area.  And the shade sidewalks are enjoyable, though a good number of the sidewalks are just a street side extension of the business, which you can wind your way thru, or walk the streets edge for faster progress.  On the tour we did both.  The gardens have been in existence approaching 150 years, have been rated amoung or  the world's best.  Don't remember the exact acreage but at least a hundred or more. The rubber tree was hybridized here, other research is being done, and they have the world's largest most diverse orchid collection, and much hybridization has been done.  The whole city istree and plant covered.  It is very clean and except for merchant debris at their store, very clean, so unlike Cairo and Dehli. 

Catching up!  After I was told about the controversy about mortar or mortarless rebuilding, I paid close attention to the undamaged parts of the walls of the temples.  In fact I had noticed the brick pattern was similar to the temples of the Inca but with bricks, not huge boulders.   It seemed similar to the rock s carved to make the walls of their temples and houses of their Elite so you couldn't slip a piece of paper inbetween the rocks.  The closeness of the bricks in the Kathmandu temples, gives them a harmonious feel to the walls without mortar between the bricks.  There is a smoothness to these walls without mortar.  Many walls of  gardens, privacy walls were destroyed by last year's earthquakes and  whomever repaired them just stacked the bricks atop one another, no mortar and where there were not enough bricks to make the walls high enough, coiled barbed wire was coiled atop of non-mortared brick walls even if at eye level the barbed wire could tear clothing, cut a face of the pedestrians on the side walks.  Then yesterday I flew from Kathmandu to Bangkok couldn't leave the airport, had only an hour between flights, but I couldn't see the downtown, the airport must be far out from the city.  i hoped to see some of the tall buildings there.  The humidity was a factor too, very hazy.  The flights went well, except both were by Thai Airways and they served the same meal, chicken with curry.  And I was getting well enough to want to eat, but not curry. So in Singapore I got a good old burger King hamburger with mushroom and Swiss.  Good thing I'm a little nosey, because instead of a cab ride alone to the hostel I found a ground transportation desk, which offered transportation to various different parts of the city, I had a blue sticker, others were yellow and other red.  Fifteen minutes later a guy came around found we blue sticker folks, loaded us into the minibus and delivered us to our sections of the city.  And lo and behold, can you guess which person was dropped off first....me!    Plane landed at about eleven at nite, a good half hour standing in line for my hamburger, but I was starved, and the drive thru the city,  my room and bed assignment, and stowed my suitcases and backpacks under the bunk, and was in bed by one thirty.  .  Boy was that bed welcome. Best nites sleep in over a week!  Today's tour was of the harbour district, and it's icon a lion-fish spurting water thru it's mouth into the harbor.  And the buildings down there are stupendous.  Three identical maybe seventy story buildings with a concrete boat, palm trees on top of the skyscrapers.  Their orchard gardens were fabulous !  There were various religious temples...

blow this one up

Catching up!  After I was told about the controversy about mortar or mortarless rebuilding, I paid close attention to the undamaged parts of the walls of the temples.  In fact I had noticed the brick pattern was similar to the temples of the Inca but with bricks, not huge boulders.   It seemed similar to the rock s carved to make the walls of their temples and houses of their Elite so you couldn't slip a piece of paper inbetween the rocks.  The closeness of the bricks in the Kathmandu temples, gives them a harmonious feel to the walls without mortar between the bricks.  There is a smoothness to these walls without mortar.  Many walls of  gardens, privacy walls were destroyed by last year's earthquakes and  whomever repaired them just stacked the bricks atop one another, no mortar and where there were not enough bricks to make the walls high enough, coiled barbed wire was coiled atop of non-mortared brick walls even if at eye level the barbed wire could tear clothing, cut a face of the pedestrians on the side walks.  Then yesterday I flew from Kathmandu to Bangkok couldn't leave the airport, had only an hour between flights, but I couldn't see the downtown, the airport must be far out from the city.  i hoped to see some of the tall buildings there.  The humidity was a factor too, very hazy.  The flights went well, except both were by Thai Airways and they served the same meal, chicken with curry.  And I was getting well enough to want to eat, but not curry. So in Singapore I got a good old burger King hamburger with mushroom and Swiss.  Good thing I'm a little nosey, because instead of a cab ride alone to the hostel I found a ground transportation desk, which offered transportation to various different parts of the city, I had a blue sticker, others were yellow and other red.  Fifteen minutes later a guy came around found we blue sticker folks, loaded us into the minibus and delivered us to our sections of the city.  And lo and behold, can you guess which person was dropped off first....me!    Plane landed at about eleven at nite, a good half hour standing in line for my hamburger, but I was starved, and the drive thru the city,  my room and bed assignment, and stowed my suitcases and backpacks under the bunk, and was in bed by one thirty.  .  Boy was that bed welcome. Best nites sleep in over a week!  Today's tour was of the harbour district, and it's icon a lion-fish spurting water thru it's mouth into the harbor.  And the buildings down there are stupendous.  Three identical maybe seventy story buildings with a concrete boat, palm trees on top of the skyscrapers.  Their orchard gardens were fabulous !  There were various religious temples...

Last when I posted was just after my bath/ shower with the elephant, it was the same elephant I had ridden the day before.  Went to eat lunch but half way thru boy! Oh boy! Did I get sick with intestinal cramps....  I think it was something other than the aquatic elephant experiemce, because it was less than hour since that occured.  Did the usual medical remedies, and doubled the dosage, but the symptoms persisted four days.  This morning is the first time I have felt half way decent.  Anyway I Flew back to kathmandu without embarrassing myself, stayed in bed, couldn't eat, and did manage to do the four hour tour the first day,  But did the three hour tour the second day.  The Flights to Bangkok and Singapore were eventful, except both flights served the same high curry chicken dinner, and just when I was feeling good enough to eat, but not spicy curry.  But back to Nepal, last I remembered anything about Nepal was when the prince had killed his father and other family members.  But two guides, and a lady who is native Nepelees, but now lives in Australia filled me in on the government.  Maoist zealots control the country, and won the election by a thousand rupee bribe or a gun barrel to the head.  What they all told me was that great words were spoken but nothing was done.  Two of them even brought up that the prince didn't kill his family members, it was a communist coup plain and simple, and the blame was put on the prince.  No body video taped it, so who knows what really happened.  But services are not being delivered, garbage, strikes (transport strike the day of my four hour tour) so getting around was easier than usual.  The five, six, seven hundred year old temples are still in ruins, collapsed, or propped by wooden beams.  And this is all over, except the private buildings seem to have been repaired.  I was told the UNISCO has given a lot of money for monument relief, but none has been spent.  One reason is a fight between the traditionalists and more modern viewpoints.  Every old temple is made of bricks, and there appears to be no morter between the bricks.  The ancient builders used a paste made up of molasses, and other organic materials and traditionalists want the old paste used, the modernists was mortar.  In looking carefully at in damaged parts of these temples, there appears to be no mortar.  

Today I took a bath, or rather a shower, with an elephant in the mild rapids of the river.  Why at the rapids, rather than a mildly flowing part of the river?  Because the river's crocodiles prefer calm waters to turbulent parts of the river.  Got pics to prove it, a fellow tourist who declined the bathing privelege took the pics for me, while I was in the river on my camera, not the tablet.  Lunch time after a conventional shower in the cabin.  More later.

Today I took a bath, or rather a shower, with an elephant in the mild rapids of the river.  Why at the rapids, rather than a mildly flowing part of the river?  Because the river's crocodiles prefer calm waters to turbulent parts of the river.  Got pics to prove it, a fellow tourist who declined the bathing privelege took the pics for me, while I was in the river on my camera, not the tablet.  Lunch time after a conventional shower in the cabin.  More later.

Today I took a bath, or rather a shower, with an elephant in the mild rapids of the river.  Why at the rapids, rather than a mildly flowing part of the river?  Because the river's crocodiles prefer calm waters to turbulent parts of the river.  Got pics to prove it, a fellow tourist who declined the bathing privelege took the pics for me, while I was in the river on my camera, not the tablet.  Lunch time after a conventional shower in the cabin.  More later.

As you can see I've grown some since you've last seen me, wonder where I'll be able to find shoes to fit when I get home.  Notice my springbok shoulder bag I got in Capetown south Africa to hold my tablet, water bottle and other essentials.

Sunday...I think, May 22.   Rode elephant Indian style in a basket on elephants back, and it seems loose on elephant S back, and we are climbing a mountain road, so my feet are hanging over edge of road.  Mahout didn't understand English except to ask for five hundred rupees tip, so he wouldn't move to middle of road.  Basket slid around on elephants back with each step.  I really enjoyed elephant ride in Africa, where I sat straddling elephant on blanket on elephants back, felt I had some control with my legs.  But in basket sliding around on his back I felt like I could fall.... oh well another experience.  Visited another Mongul fort in Jaipur this time, beautiful but fourth or fifth Mongul fort, is getting repiticious.   Jaipur is dramatically cleaner than Agra or Dehli, guide said Morti  , president or prime minister is pushing public for a cleaner India, boy does he ever have a job on his hands .  Guide said difference in Jaipur is dramatically improved in last two years.  That's a job changing a society's habits.  Traffic is markedly better in Jaipur than in Dehli or Agra.

I've enjoyed experiencing India, the first radically different country I've experienced.  And this a country I studied at Univ of Illinois where I got my bachelor's degree, 12 or 16 hours credit, and I'm still surprised feeling it all.  Beggers,  persistent sales people.. very persistent folks trying to make a living, to get tourists cash as they pass by whether the tourists are walking or in vehicles, on elephant rides, whatevet, tourists are open targets to sales people, cows in street really effecting traffic flow , push carts heavily loaded with freight being pushed by one or two slim short men in middle of street, bicyles, and bicycles with huge loads on them sometimes four to six feet high, rickshaws of converted motor bikes or motor cycles for two passengers but often with six or more people or instead of seats the rickshaw was equipped with a freight bed, and they really had huge loads, trucks grossly overloaded with stuff hanging over the top by three feet at top of truck ten feet above the ground, cars, rickshaws, trucks going the wrong way on divided highways because it's shorter going against the traffic than going the half mile with the traffic before being able to do a U turn to go in the proper direction on the road, and cows donkeys goats walking or laying in the road and not always on the roads edge, but in the middle of a lane, routinely vehicles four abreast on a space we would use as a two lane road they are litterly a few inches apart, and at intersections vehicles, people pushed or some variety of motorized vehicles turning left from right lane or vice versa, roundabouts the same, sometimes traffic just comes to a standstill, and every type of thing on the road cutting in front of oncoming vehicles, and people crossing the streets anywhere holding up their hand in front of an oncoming vehicle and walking confidently across the road trusting that that vehicle wouldn't kill them.  Traffic is horrendous.  And I did not see an accident. And I saw almost zero vehicles with damaged bodies. Fender benders or what have you, the vehicles are usually in good condition.  the worst shape vehicles are the hand carts, and horse, donkey, camel pulled vehicles.  And there would be three to five people on a motor bike, with most of the women sitting side saddle with their hands on their husbands shoulder, the women's thin fabrics flowing garments blowing in the wind.  These drivers are super skilled in handling their vehicles, I am not capable of driving in India.

East face of Taj at 6 am.

May 21, Saturday, up at 4:30 am, to go to Taj Mahal before dawn.  And I wasn't disappointed, the light from the east simply lit up the white marble and inlayed colored stones. It was so beautiful, irradiated.  The guide was so right that the first light would show it off best, and we were among the first people there. No crowds.  We just sat looking at it and taking pics til the monkeys and crowds arrived.  Then to the  hotel, shower, breakfast, packing and by nine we were off to JAIPUR .  On the way we stopped at a fort, again beautiful red sandstone and in the residence there faint remnants of paintings in the alcoves.  In five hours we were in Jaipur. On USA roads it would have been about a two to three hour trip, but at home we wouldnt have to dodge rickshaws, cows wandering or laying in the street right of ways, people pushing handcarts...  

Damn, I just lost a long post, will have to do it over, so frustrating!  Got to be more careful not to jiggle the tablet or away it all goes.   Will do it tonite, want to walk neighborhood of hotel, then dinner.

Thursday and Friday, May 19 & 20

Thurs went to Red Fort, Mongul fort that Muslim rulers governed India before the British, and after the Hindu Maharajas.   The  Muslim Mongul kings ruled India in the 1600 & 1700's, and one of these kings built the fort as their palace from which they ruled India.  Like other of My descriptions, it is another superlative, huge, beautiful red sand stone and white marble, and in the Mongul rulers throne and living quarters precious and semi-precious stones inlayed into the marble and then sanded  , so unlike painted designs on the surface of the material in this case marble, the inlayed stones are as fresh 400 years later as they were when they were made.  The same inlayed technique was used in the Taj Mahal.   I remember reading the descriptions by the first British sailing ship captain who met with the Mongul King, of his reactions to the glamorous living quarters of the Mongul kings.  He later made the first trading deal on behalf of the British nation and the Mongul powers for silks, spices...  in exchange for British technology and goods...guns, cannons...  next we drove to the grounds around the Taj Mahal, and from where we had to leave the vans and walk almost a mile to the Taj grounds.   It's not just the Taj itself, but a mosque, three or four gates, which are large buildings each in themselves, in the walls around it, and to complete the symmetry matching buildings on the other sides.  Got my picture taken just where I remember Hillery sat for her pic at the   Taj...  it has been very very hot, got to the hotel sopping wet from sweating, had to wash everything I had on.  Today was a trip to a national park.  Tigers have been removed to another park because so many people around the the park edges.  There are many bird species, permanent birds in the park and migratory birds from cooler and wetter south India, and others which fly in from Siberia and other points north.  Got great pics on my camera.  Oh the traffic, wandering sacred cows and buffalo in the streets, guys pushing overloaded carts on foot in the middle of the road,  bicycle rickshaws and 'trucks', motorcycles with one, two, three, four and five people on them, or huge loads of freight, converted motorbike taxies many-most grossly overloaded, garishly decorated trucks, busses, .. all jockeying for the positions on the road.  Right lane people and vehicles turning left, and vice-versa cutting in front of one another, driving on the wrong side of the road, vehicles,people in roundabouts adjacent to one another going in all four directions...  Cairo traffic was a breeze compared to Dehli and Agra's. 

It's Wednesday, May 18th, and I did another tour day.  Found out I could hire a driver and car, including the gas and parking, but not the admission fees or lunch, which have been included on my previous day tours on this trip for only two thousand rupees, so without gulping at all I said yes last nite when I found out this was possible.  Well, don't think I'm a spendthrift or anything, that two thousand is... Are you sitting down??? A whopping $30.00 US.  So I went to NEHRU's house & museum, tried to go into Inderia Gandi, his daughter's house and museum, but there were a dozen tour busses on the road, and hundreds of women getting across the street and entering the gate to her museum, so with that crowd, I chickened out.  But I did see the Lotus Temple, a Baha'i religious Temple; Qutb Minar--beautiful 1100's tall tower, mosque and tomb a Muslim Mogul Prince built using carved columns from the ruins of Hindu temples; India Gate the original British War Memorial on the India government's National Mall (very much like the Washington DC Mall), but after independence the British soldier statues were removed, but the gate similar to France's Arch de Triumpe is at the far end of the mall from the government buildings; National History Museum of India--where I wish I had a couple of days to peruse, but didnt; Lohdi Garden, a huge garden with many specialized gardens memorials, tombs, art works... Alas I saw but a fraction of it; etc. One item I was fascinated by was a four hundred year old astronomy group of concrete instruments, which tell time to within seconds accuracy, point to the north star, tell the seasons: spring and fall solistaces...  Very accurate, and made out of concrete.   It was a day packed with history, awe, and oppresive heat and humidity, that had my clothes soggy by eleven am. but I didn't get back to the hotel until 6:30 in the evening.  Good ending to my last full day in Dehli.

First morning in Dehli, India I went on a city tour and saw the second largest mosque in Asia, holds 35,000 people, and was built about 500 years ago by a Mongol ruler of India at the time.  Dramatic yet a simply built structure.  Visited Gandi's home in Dehli were he was assassinated at the climax of the British withdrawal from India and the partition of old India into Pakistan and today's India.  He was the first of the pacifist leaders that achieved their humanistic goals for their peoples without war, Mandela of South Africa and ML King back home are the other two.   Now I've been to all three of their memorials.  Inspiring!  Saw the India national government buildings which are on a dramatic Mall, remarkably similar to the US National Mall in DC between our capital, the World War ll, Washington and Lincoln Memorials.  The grandure of memorials honoring historical figures are remarkably similar in national capitals, other cities, as I was reminded visiting an Indian Mongol memorial this morning.  When eatying lunch with the guide of the tour, I was reminded that religious rituals are so similar for all the people's of earth.  Tuesday is a holyday, and not a holiday, when faithful Hindu's abstain from eating meat, fish, or fowl, just as Catholics did on fridays, except the Hindu's include fish from their abstainations.  

Smooth flight til we drew near to the clouds.

Clouds & sky just before landing on flight from Dubai to Dehli, India.

Dubai, the magnificant

In Dubai airport, awaiting flight to Dehli, India.  Got here Thurs nite.  Hotel great.  Fri went on self tour via hop on/off busses.  City super modern, fantastically clean, what a change from Cairo.  There are artificial Islands built into the Arabian(Persian) Gulf, guess it depends on which shore you are on as to its name.  One is in the shape of a huge palm tree, trunk, and about 14 fronds with a semicircle wider Islands protecting the fronds from the Gulf.  Each frond had a road down the center from the trunk to the frond tip.  There are private homes-villas on each side of the frond road with about a hundred foot plus private beach on the water side.  Most fronds are fully developed, with one frond completely undeveloped--just a huge palm frond maybe 600-1000 feet wide, and mot quite a mile long, it's hard to tell exactly from the trunk road.  The trunk road is quite a bit wider, with wide median strips, an automated elevated monorail, parallel access roads on each side of the main trunk road and huge hotels and apartments and condos along the whole palm trunk road, which is two or more miles long.  At the end (Gulf side) is Atlantis, an enormous hotel-resort-shopping mall, with many amenities, para sailing, scuba diving, various boat trips... and more... The building has a he-mungous Arab doorway in the middle of it which can be seen all along the trunk roadway...very impressive.  Another 'palm' a duplicate, is being built some miles west.  There are three main 'downtown' areas, although only the center one is designated as downtown.  The official downtown city is the center one, the other two are about eight miles to the east and west of the center city.  The downtown city has about 100 skyscrapers, and the center of the downtown area is the Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world, much bigger than Minneapolis Bloomingdales Mall.  It has a series of waterfalls, with aluminum men diving down the waterfalls.  There is a huge Aquarium with sharks, and hundreds if not thousands of different varieties of fish, coral, sea weeds... It is three stories high and a block long with a tunnel people can walk thru and look up at the fish swimming over your heads.  There is an ice skating rink, larger that the hub roller skating rink-Marcia. The stores are grouped by type, carpet stores together, womes wear, sports.... All in different areas.  The exception to the separation is various food, candy, ice cream, and similar stores mixed in all over the mall, and a huge area of restaurants, of every type and variety, but mostly upscale restaurants.  There are 'souks', or traditional hallways of spice, gold, fabric... Stores all in the Arabian decor, and beautiful they are...  Glittering, chandeliers, tile, ceiling decorations, wall coverings or paintings, sculptures....  All Arabia of old and glamerous.  And arising from the mall is the world's tallest building, 165 stories tall, with a narrow sphere going quite a bit higher.  Next to the mall and Burg Kadaif (tallest building) is a continuation of the creek, a salt water river, widened here into a lake about twice the size if the Jordan Creek Mall's lake,  with a fantastic water fountain  which dances to music and lights for about ten minutes every half hour from 6 to10 or 11 pm with a variety of music and dances of the waters.  On the far west end of Dubai is the Marina City,  a hundred skyscrapers restricted to apartments for rent, conds to buy and up scale hotels.  Seems impossible but that's what the recording on the hop on.off bus said, a restricted residential area, no business offices... Winding thru these buildings is a street car system and a salt water river system with harbors, lakes, sea side restaurants and art galleries and other amusements, all very up scale.  And the recording said they are almost filled up.  Huge ocean going yachts, smaller big boats, excursion boats are on these waters.  The three cities are connected by a monorail system, with service every ten minutes, all automated--no driver, neither was the monorail servicing the different terminals at the airport.  I rode on both of these systems.  At the eastern end is the original Dubai, of very old reproductions of the fishing village, the late 1800's semi-modern traditional homes and stores, and the recent (1970's) buildings and then the ultra modern sheek hotel, mall's... in the eastern city part of the single city-Dubai.  This old-to,-new city is on the banks of the Dubai Creek, a DSM sized creek-river & larger sea water inlet from the Arabian Gulf.  Here are real souks of gold, spices, fabrics... that smell and feel like I imagined they would be.  Took a dhow (boat)ride on the creek for an hours cruise.   The hop on.off ticket offered the water taxi, dhow ride, the aquarium visit, museum visits, restored shiek's house, which is now a history museum ... And some more i didn't have the time or energy to do.  And Friday and Saturday I was out and about from nine am to ten PM.  Also went to a mosque on Sunday which offered gentiles tours and explaination of Islamic faith.   Sunday i was pooped so i got back to the hotel by eight pm, showeted and ate at the hotel restaurant.  Still was ten pm by the time i turned in to sleep.  Those three days i walked my ankles off, almost.  Oh!  I went up to the observation deck of Burg Kahalifa (spelling ?).  I didn't go up to the 148 observation floor, it was 500 durhim, while my trip to the 124th floor was only 149 durhims.  Bye for now, folks are lining up to board the plane.

Saturday, May 14th,  10:30 PM
Had tour of old part of Dubai.  The historical village, before the seven Emerites States United about 1970.  Fort, museum, old housing, restored to historical neighborhood, then converted to hotels, art galleries, association offices, looks like residences of old, but now more civic minded uses.  Then walked gold and spice souks (specialized markets).  Went back to Dubai Mall, which by the way is the largest in the world, but newer on is already under construction, and will be bigger than Dubai Mall.  Then went to world's tallest building, the 160 floor building, plus another twenty unoccupied floors, because the floor space is so restricted.  The went to Emerites Mall, where the downhill skiing hill is built inside the mall, also sledding shutes, ski chair lifts, zip lines, walking in the snow...  Saw it all from ski viewing Windows in the mall. Took rapid transit home to hotel, and walked from station to hotel, proud of my self and got back by a direct route.  Was still very warm and humid, so was swetty.  AC is greatly appreciated.  One more day in Dubai, then I'm off to India on Monday.

Wednesday May 11th, 9pm.  Internet cut out last nite, so whole message didn't go thru.  In Alexanderia yesterday went down to catacomes-- they were built for same reason as in Rome, to hide Christian religious services and burials from Roman authorities.  Catacomes were discovered in last few decades, so still uncovering new things.  Saw church complex where Holy Family, tradition says, hid there when they had fled to Egypt from Harrod the Great when Jesus a baby. They were here 2 to 5 years.  Churches were built to recognize they're being here.  Went to citidel built by Alexander the Great, huge fort to protect Alexanderia harbor, in pre canon era, great views of Alexanderia, saw new Alexandria library, built in last little bit, ultra modern, built near site of original library which was burnt when Romans burned fleet in harbor, debated whether library burning was an accident or planned????  Three hours drive each way, and a little over four hours there, so long day.  Relaxed today, debated going back to see a lot more than fast overview of the Egyptian Museum and a short cruise on Nile, but it was too expensive, so walked around this area of city, got a blank papyrus page, when I get home will make my self a cartouche, a pharaohs like name plate.  Beautiful ones in silver and gold, with beautiful prices.  So I was given a card detailing the alphabet equivalents in hyroglyphic characters.  I already have my name in Chinese and Mayan, so will add Arabic and hyroglyphic characters.   Gotta pack yet, but flight leaves at 2 PM, so don't have to leave til ten, an hour to airport, and be there the recommended three hour prior to flight.  Before I stop discussing Egypt, I must discuss Cairo traffic.  It is remarkable!  I could never drive here.  First of all are the vehicles. Cars, of course, vans--including 1970's VW vans-trucks with their rear motor 'hood' open, because of the heat, to help keep the motors from overheating, , many, many more modern vans transporting men to and from work mornings and evenings, motor scooters remodeled with a body to hold the scooter driver in the front, and designed for two but often holding three or four people in the back seat, buses, trucks, huge trucks, hand carts loaded like trucks being pushed in the street, donkey carts with truck sized loads--boy do I feel for the poor donkeys, bicycle delivery vehicles with front & back or/both boxes for holding the delivered items, pedestrians, crossing the streets everywhere dodging the vehicles, or walking in between them, or more frequently walking in the streets, even two a breast, because the sidewalks are blocked by restaurant tables and chairs, or items delivered but not yet brought into the store, or blocked by cars on their driveways across the sidewalks, plantings or fences blocking sidewalks forcing walkers to move to the street, designed for various reasons to block the side walk so that their sidewalk store front is cleared from obstructions, or that store or hotel-like this one-looks clear or has a space in front so vehicles can unload passengers or goods to the store or hotel, or just junk, garbage blocking sidewalks, or street center medians, if any,  So most folks walk in the streets. Except for downtown Cairo, roads don't have lane markings, or are supposed to be one lane roads, many have dirt edges which drifts over the pavement, if there is pavement, so obstacles galore!  Then there are the drivers of all the vehicles.  They drive with a vengeance, skirting around one another, to get that one car length advantage, driving three or four abreast in a "two lane" road.  At intersections, mostly without traffic signals, there, vehicles face in every direction, often turning left or right from the wrong lane in front of the other vehicle, and there are those who then drive the wrong way in the street a half block so they can turn into a side street, alley, or store front.  If this last description is confusing then I have accurately described the street and sidewalks of many areas of Cairo.  And the most remarkable, I have not seen or heard any accidents, nor are there vehicles which are driving around with bashed in doors, fenders, front or rear ends.  As I said, the  drivers of Cairo are skilled remarkable drivers.  Now there is one more factor when considering the Cairo street scene, and that is the almost unceasing noise, horns blasting because they are approaching another vehicle, horns sound because they want to pass another vehicle, or they sound off because they don't want the other guy to pass them, horns blast away when the driver slams on his vehicles brakes, horns can jusy toot away when a rare car is alone on the street, and the driver is just delighted with his luck and he merrily bounces along going toot-toot, toot.  There are many other reasons to toot your Horn, but I don't want to bore you.  Then there the horns themselves, a VW bug might have its usual tinny beeb-beeb, or it might sound like like an eighteen wheeler hurling down on you from 100 feet away at 60 miles per hour saying get out of my way, NOW!!!!  The drivers give each other emphatic gestures, and I've seen doors slam and the drivers ready to kill one another with threats and once with fists, at an intersection.  There is garbage everywhere, in the center of the streets, it's endemic along the curbs, at a building site empty cement bags, unused stone & rock & dirt rubble, it's really dramatic when the occasional store, home or hotel cleans the sidewalk, curb, and a swath of road in front of its building, then placing a row of stone, street-cones or lumber so other vehicles aren't parked by their location.  I did note that yesterday's pile of rubbish is gone in the morning from street centers, or large piles of junk where cars are supposed to be parked.  So the city does try, how vigorously I don't know, but the population density is tremendous.  Well in the morning I'm off to Dubai, United Arab Emerites.  On the positive note I must report the people are friendly, helpful, smile, and even without an intention of trying to sell you something engaged me I conversation, for example last night I was asking a couple of folks a directions question who didn't understand me, when a driver passing inches from my side, I was of course forced to walk in the narrow street, and the cars go carefully along avoiding anything on the side of the road, and the pedestrians like me, when he leaned out of his passenger side window and yelled at " two blocks straight, then left, left again; sure enough he was right, there was the busy street I recognized.

Tuesday, May 10th, 8pm
Finally I've gotten the tablet to work properly, it had converted to instructions in Arabic which I can't read, so I was frustrated last nite, then today the tablet made an alarm sound which together we shut off, but the the picture functions were radically changed, so tonight we got it straightened out.  And the Arabic text is gone too, woopie!  Well I got to Cairo Saturday morning, thru the airport, taxied to the hotel--which I thought the cabbie had delivered me to the wrong one after I got in into my room and compared my paperwork from home to the documents here.  Later, I found out the hotel had changed part of its name about twenty years ago or so from Delta Pyramids Hotel to the Pyramids Plaza Hotel.  Anyway the let me in and out no questions asked.  Walked the neighborhood of the hotel, met a local who showed me a market Streetof small shops where I purchased a wide belt to put around my suitcase because the two halves are held together the cloth zipper, and when it is carried it bulges out three to five inches, I was worried it would break, I saw the same suitcase in the airport which the owner had put a wide belt around it, so I wanted to follow suit.  Met a young guy from Equidor who works in Chile, he checked in to the same hotel some hours later.  At breakfast we talked about our plans, and he joined my tour.  We went on an abbreviated city tour and visited the pyramids, rode camels, went to the Egyptian museum saw King Tut, next day went to a famous mosque built by the Ottoman Turks after they took over Egypt six hundred years ago, and ancient Coptic Orthodox Catholic Churches ( tradition tells that the Holy Family hid there after they fled to Egypt from Harrod after Jesus was born), visited Memphis the first capital of pharoic Egypt 5000 years ago, it's mostly long gone except for a beautiful intact statue of Ramses, one of the ancient pharaohs. The statue is about twenty feet tall, from the calfs of his legs up, the ankles and feet are missing.  Other than that the statue is in like new condition, after five thousand years.  There is a smaller version of the Sphinx, but it is the largest one other than the one by the pyramids, and it is undamaged.  Next we visited the Squanrah (spelt wrong), where the first pyramid was built by the sons-in-law of a revered Pharaoh to honor him prominently.  But it is those sons-in-law tomb which was beautifully preserved with relief carvings, many with the paint still on many parts of the carvings.  Today we went to Alexanderia, went down to ancient catacomes, the Citadel a 1400s fort built by Alexander the Gr

I'm in Cairo, have blogged twice, and all the typing suddenly disappears, happened twice tonite after many paragraphs, am tired will try to redo in the morning.   Ugg!

View from my hotel room window!!!

Zimbabwe 2

I saw Victoria Falls, and I didn't!  When we were flying into the VF airport yesterday,  I could easily see the mist rising up into the sky, and correctly assumed that it was the spray from the Falls.  Well if you can see the spray that high in the sky from quite a distance away from the Falls, you can then anticipate how much more intense that mist and spray will be five feet from the edge of the canyon into which that river is cascading. You can see the spray and mist rising up from the river below, and it seems to rise up double the depth of that canyon.  When profuse spray and mist goes way-way up over your head you can imagine the torents of rain that fall back to earth, when the momentum up slows and gravity pulls all that water down.  Always there was rain, not just a mist, but a steady hard rain, and when the wind pushed all that water it became a deluge.  I had on a tourist large raincoat, and well before we got half way thru the three kilometer walk on the canyon rim opposite the falling river, I was walking on water, there was that much water in my gym shoes.  I anticipated mist at the falls, but I experienced a deluge of water, forceful gusts of wind, and so dense were the clouds of water, the middle half or two thirds of the falls I couldn't see the other side where the water was falling, so yes I was at Victoria Falls, I did walk the whole tourist's path, but I only saw the right and left edges of the falls where the mists were only coming from one direction.  I got back to the hotel by about noon from our rain-storm walk, i was sopping wet.  I hung everything up to dry, after squeezing as much water out of each piece of clothing that I could, and it's after eight at nite after supper, and most items are mildly damp, except my gym shoes, which are very wet.  I did a more complete job of taking a towel and trying to have the towel absorb as much water as I could from inside the shoe, and I unlaced them to let the air from the ceiling fan try to dry them out overbite.  I did get some nice pics of the edges of the falls, and the rainbow under the bridge over the canyon separating Zimbabwe and Zambia.  This afternoon I did get to ride on Coco a 38 year old female, very large elephant.   She has a gate that isn't motion sick causing, but a side to side, stop and start, and it's bumpy as she takes each step.  Not hard to ride, just have to go with the flow of her  rhythm.  And to remember to lean back when she goes down hill, and lean foreward when she's going up hill.  She is one big animal!   You can senve het powet and strength when on her back.  A few male impala darted out of the thicket in front of us and the handler who sat in front of me quickly cautioned Coco to be steady, and talked to her for a half minute or so, explaining to me that elephants are nervous, alert animals, who can react in fright, alarm or nervousness.  We got to feed a treat to the elephants we each rode, a pellet that is like chocolate to them.  Boy! Did she ever enjoy those handfulls.  Up trunk and she raises her trunk over her head, and I threw a hand full of the pellets into her open mouth.  Down trunk and she takes the tip of her trunk upside down, and you put the pellet treats in to her open trunk opening (her nose), and she blows them into her mouth.  An elephant trunk is her nose to breathe thru, her hand with a 'thumb and forefinger' to manupliate items, and a built in straw to suckup water and blow the water into her mouth.  She drinks about 16 liters of water once or twice a day, depending whether it is wet or dry season.  A large male elephant can drink twice that.  She eats 600 pounds of leaves, grass, and a few fruits and nuts a day.  While we were going along she regularly would turn her head and the trunk reached out and stripped the leaves from branches.  If the leaves don't come off readily she just snaps the branch off and eats them all, leaves, twigs, and smaller branches.  The bark on the twigs and thinner branches has nutrient value for her also.  Then on the way back to the hotel, the van-bus stopped to drop me off to pay for the elephant safari.  Then I walked back thru town to the resort.  Had a hamburger for dinner, had dinner last nite in the main dining room, for $30 it wasn't worth it, and the hamburger is hemungous!  Good. And with a coke zero cost $13.50 with tip.  A much better deal.  Zimbabwe has 95% unemployment, and it's money was so inflationary that the means of exchange now, even the posted prices for everything is the US dollar, but the will accept euros, and British pounds.  Everywhere you walk people are trying to sell you something, to make a living, to get cash to get something to eat.  The luxury and high prices resorts cha. rge, next to the poverty for the person in the street is appalling.  One person I met, don't want to say who specifically since this is an open blog, said that people are not well or fairly treated, because the employer can find an unlimited supply of eager people looking for work.  Tomarrow I fly back to Jo'burg airport, and stay there for about six hours, then at 9:30 fly to Cairo, Egypt.  Will blog Saturday, hoping wifi's are available.

Zimbabwe

1. Wednesday, May 4th, I'm at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  Couple hours after I got here, the touring company bus picked us up and drove us to the boat docks on the Zambezi River for a sunset cruise with drinks and snacks, all a part of the our tour package.  We saw a group of hippos about six of them, frolicking about near the river bank.  Fantastic!!!  A croc on the bank opened his mouth to cool off, but it looked like he could take a chunk out of each of us.  The sunset was really beautiful, radiant, with the Sun reflecting on the river's waters.  Took pics with camera not tablet, so we'll have to wait to see today's pics.  Go to see the Falls tomarrow morning, and hopefully ride an elephant tomarrow afternoon.  I'll tell you about it tomarrow nite.

Joburg

Tuesday evening, today I had my tour of the Apartheid Museum and the Soweto area of greater Jo'burg (Johannesburg). I was scheduled about two hours to go thru the museum, and at noon when the two hours were up I had just reached the half way point.  Went out and found the guide and got another hour, so I really rushed thru the second half of the museum.  One of the best parts was were four men discussed the strategy and process of how both sides the African National Congress and the Apartheid government finally got the process negotiated.  Both sides really wanted the blood shed to end, and both sides truely recognized the strengths and weaknesses of the other side.  Besides Mandella realized that the whites had to be given all the human rights of a democracy, and the Apartheid President DeKlerk realized that a peaceful government had to accept all people living in the country as citizens with all the powers and responsibilities of citizenship.  Then too the process was shrewdly accomplished on a people to people-person to person basis.  Besides Mandella was a good polititian, and the truth and reconciliation process was instrumental in putting the past behind both sides.  Great museum, even with various sections being reprogrammed and closed during the interm.Then we went to Soweto, ate at a African restaurant typical black African foods.  Some were familiar to other nationalities food types, some were unfamiliar to me.  It was pretty good.  We drove around the township, the afluent areas were as modern, clean, prosperous as Clive and Wdsm.  That blew my stereotypes of Soweto, then there were middle class areas, and public housing neighborhoods, and the tin shacks many illegal immigrants and extremely poor S. Africans built for themselves on any unoccupied piece of ground.  No piped in water, a public outdoor water tap was put in by the government, until public housing became available.  Portapotties were provided later.  No distinct roads, but twisted paths between the shacks...  Clothes hanging out to dry, goats for milk and meat, eating weeds and the lack of garbage pickup was obvious with refuge all over the place.  How people can live like that seems impossible, but they are.  I saw the faces of some of the people, and really felt the helplessness, lack of hopefulness.  Saw Mandela's home, and ate next door to Bishop Tutu's former home, which he still ownes, but lives almost constantly in Cape Town.  Oh! My last day in Moditlo the guides after much determination found 'my' zebra's.  About three or four of them, mostly behind brush and bushes, but I saw them.  The wild dogs made their appearance again, another animal that makes my skin crawl.  Ugg!!!   Well tomarrow I fly to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, be there two days, then fly back to the Jo'burg airport, remaining their five or so hours, before I fly overnight to Egypt.  Can't believe I'm so far into my round the world trip, it's going so fast.  Give Lexi a Happy Birthday kiss for me.  More tomarrow nite.

Lions at nite.

Expand any picture to see more clearly.

After four safaris I've seen a herd of elephants for half an hour playing in the mud and drinking, many encounters with giraffes in groups or alone, a pack of wild dogs, which are rare, created excitement of the guides in the chase to find them, Radioing back and forth til all the vehicles gathered around watching.  They were eating something they'd caught.  The guide said they are vicious killers, often killing just for fun, and walking away without eating their kill.  Two brother cheetas were orphans and were hand raised, and the guides go out of their way to keep human contact daily so they don't forget humans.  We approached them the first time after they killed and were eating an impala, one was still nibbling on it and the other was full and  stretched out on the ground watching his brother and us occasionally grooming himself like a house cat.  We all ten tourists, the guide and the tracker walked up to one side and snapped away on our cameras.  They both just ignored us. After a few minutes we quietly left them to themselves.  A hyppo's head was seen in the water from the opposite side of the lake, a croc was stretched out on the bank.  We search for quite awhile to find the rhinoceros, and a few minutes later saw another one aways down a dry River bank.  I saw the rumps of a herd of zebra's way across the field, too far for pictures, and too brief a time to try a long distance shot of those moving targets.  There are impala everywhere.  Yesterday while I was dozing on the deck of my cabin, I heard the bushes rumble as something crashed thru them, I opened my eyes face to face with a huge Nyala, a horse sized type of antelope.  We shockenly stared at each other, both of us in complete surprise, then he shifted to the left and sauntered away.  It was only then that I got my wit's about me to grab the camera and snap two pics of him as he sauntered off around the corner of the cabin.  I got up and tried to take a few more pictures, but he was gone thru the bushes.  Later at lunch I showed my pics of him to other tourists two cabins down from mine and they identified him, and said he had gone by their cabin too, but they didn't have a camera out on their deck when he went by.  A half hour ago, as I was checking my pictures on my camera I was visited by a mama warthog and three of her children, I've seen a lot of them too.

Sunday before noon sitting on my porch.  Attached are some visitors I've had:

mama warthog and her family visited while I Sat on front porch of my cabin at Mo-dit-lo Lodge, in desert jungle South Africa