Merri Travels in Egypt

Arrivals

Tracy & I slept head to foot on a small mattress but neither of us noticed the other. In the wee hours somewhere way back in my subconscious was a man's voice singing, very beautiful voice in the middle of nowhere (it was the muezzin 5 AM call to prayer). And then about 8 it was full morning (what day is this anyway?), and I was jumped on by some terriers.

I got up and walked outside onto the porch for what I was waiting for (it's been a long time) - one of my favorite things: breathing in the morning of a foreign country. It was just what I expected. There were already people working in their fields, water buffalo out front, palm trees in the morning haze, the hint of a smell of cooking fires, a man & his little daughter riding by on a donkey, little rat dogs everywhere, people carrying huge bundles of leaves/fodder.

I had a bad cup of instant Nescafe, which always tastes wonderful when I'm travelling, & I went up on the roof with Steph, where you can see several pyramids only ~1 mile away. MA and her 12 rat dogs joined us on the roof. The dogs are like a little swarm of cockroaches whenever MA appears - they come out of the woodwork from all directions, their toenails skittering on the tile, then shoot off again, following her in a swirling frantic whirlwind.

MA drove off to her stable while SJT & I walked a couple of blocks, past a little local 'store,' a donkey fruit cart, mansion, palm thatched shacks with donkeys & water buffalo hobbled outside, to Paul's stable/mansion. His wife's the Ethiopian diplomat, & he just plays with lots of horses (lots of stallions around). The living area & fabulous outdoor patio is above the cool stone stables. We had tea with an Egyptian history lesson & instructions on the uses of the miraculous date palm tree.

MA took us in her SUV to the desert to scout trail for Friday's ride (as she calls it) or race (as Paul calls it). We drove along the canal road, thru the village - kids out of school swarming the roads, on donkeys, bright material/clothing hanging out to dry beside the dusty road and mud brick & concrete dwellings, camels laden with 10 ft long palm branches which look, from behind, like floating sashaying huge palm fans, women toting loads on their head (no hands), braying donkeys pulling fruit carts, women washing dishes in the filthy canal, loaded minivans driven by 14 yos jamming the narrow canal road.

MA drives fast with narrow margins (she says, "You just don't hit anybody") - I employed the very useful tactic learned in Sri Lanka of looking out the side window - no worries that way! She stopped at her other piece of land, around an acre grove of palm trees on the canal with a view of the Bent & Melted pyramids. Then on to the 'drive' in the desert... which was really rocketing over the sand dunes, whipping thru the wadis, skidding about like a boat on water, catching air, ripping around the pyramids (there are many) & ruins & excavations, tearing thru the army's dump.

A couple of times MA said "oops" or "that sounded bad" & as a solution hit the accelerator. Steph was having Abu Dhabi dune driving rushes. I couldn't stop laughing. We stopped at Ali's nice place (lots of stallions) at the edge of the desert for an informal meeting to organize this ride. The hot shoes discussed 2 start times - for the fast riders and slow riders. Hmm, doesn't that defeat the purpose of a demo slow ride?

Casual vet checks, drivers to follow the kids, what to do if the predicted sandstorm develops. Morad took Paul in his jeep & we followed the testosteroned dune boys back along the desert 'trail.' There isn't really a trail, just tracks EVERYwhere, and not a thing grows in this desert. We whipped and bounced along down to the lake & back, following Morad doing donuts and riding at 45* angles on dunes, and MA said "I think there are alot of eccentrics in Egypt." Ya think?

Back at MA's the 15 dogs swarmed out to greet us. Destry stayed home all day doing school correspondence work - what a fantastic education opposed to staying in the states for your senior year. Morad & his wife came over with dinner, we devoured it & talked about the that FEI is as a governing body here, and a few horror stories of bad horse treatment.

There was a ride in Jordan last year where an SUV was following a tired horse on the course, bumping it along to keep it going, & it knocked the horse over and killed the rider. Anybody hear of that one? Getting endurance 'riding' going here as opposed to endurance 'racing' seems so far beyond hopeless that it's a non-option. From my viewpoint anyway. Not when FEI sets the rules and breaks them at will for whoever it's convenient or whoever needs to win the race. (And it's not just endurance riding this happens in).

These guys would do better to just do trail rides, though they couldn't even be called "competitive" trail rides without FEI getting involved. A rat dog jumped on my lap and dropped some more fleas on me (I am getting bitten, as usual). The guys and Morad's wife smoked like bonfires inside, so much I had to escape outside with the mosquitoes for a while.

Merri

Egypt: Adapting to Local Conditions

Some dogs barked outside, all nite. The dogs inside piped up a few times, and our front room here is quite the spectacular cathedral echo chamber. I got about 20 more bites and I got dreadfully hot.Dogs kept jumping on the bed and I kept ejecting them.

I must not have needed any sleep. Coffee on the roof again, watching the Egyptians ride their donkeys, lead their cattle, cut fodder, pick veggies (huge cabbages growing in adjacent field), walking by the big rich mansions.

MA had to wait for someone to show up to work on the house, & T wasn't feeling 100%, so S J & I walked across the road and canal thru the mango grove (if it were August, mango season, I"d go insane), where the desert abruptly begins and the Sun Temple ruins are right up the first sand hill. It looks, from MA's roof and as we climbed up to it, just a crumbled pile of rock.

Surrounding it on our side in pieces halfway up was pieces of a wall, rocks maybe 3' x2'by 8", made,not natural (?).When you crested the hill, instead of just a pile of crumbled rock it was an entire complex,maybe 5 acres,maybe only partially excavated - partially buried walls exposed, blocks of granite and alabastre (obviously shipped here by barge), some the size of half a VW.

A guide showed up, and I thought, Oh hell, because I'm used to being beseiged by Indian touts, but this man quietly followed us around, pointed ways to go, inscriptions to see. At the top of the rock pile the sahib took Steph's picture, and he helped J down the hill.

It's, what's the word, bizarre? that many several-thousand-years-old temples/ruins are literally in people's back yards. If this temple is as old as the pyramids it went up ~2000 BC, give or take 500 years. At least for the pyramids there's evidence that the builders were not slaves but a highly organized work force of Egyptian farmers redeployed while the annual Nile flood inundated their fields.

As we started to leave,none of us had an Egyptian piastre on us,& we think he was asking for $. Normally this annoys me, but if you figure that this is probably his job (MA said maybe he's put there by the gvt, or maybe it's just something that's been handed down from his father) and he sits there in the hot sun all day and likely doesn't see many people, this being way off the beaten track,and he probably has a little plot of land that his kids work during the day,and what we give him is probably more than a week's salary...we tried to tell him we'd be back with $. I don't think he understood.

We walked back to the house via Ali's place, and Steph and I got 20 pounds (on MA's advice) & walked right back out to the Sun Temple. Sahib was not there - I yelled "Hello!" on top,and then in the distance from a hut on the edge of the desert we saw him walking towards us.

I handed him the $ with a "shukran" and he said something along with "shai." Did we want to join him for tea? Yes!

In front of this mud-walled 1-room hut was, under a roof of palm branches was a little fire going plus his sheesha water pipe. He had us sit on a little carpet - but keep your feet off, and sit on the cushions he hands us, cuz that's where he sleeps - and he put on some tea for us & handed us his pipe. I didn't inhale, and I witnessed but didn't document evidence of Steph huffin' and puffin'.

He then brought us out a little wrapped pack of 3 baladi bread (like Indian nan) with halawi - YUM! It's not gooey like baklava but along those lines. I've had it somewhere before and it's delicious. Would it be so good at home? Steph ate half of one and I had of course had no self control & scarfed a whole one (love this bread too) when S said, "Hmm, I bet we are eating his lunch" seeing as we showed up right at noon when he was at his hut ready to eat his own lunch, drink his tea & smoke his pipe.

It's likely the norm here for him to invite us to tea, but when, or what, is it proper and expected to say "no thank you" without offending? We drank 2 small incredibly sweet glasses of tea with him and he started to make more before S caught that and said No, we go. (It was the right thing to say). He did offer to let us nap on his bed (probably praying to Allah we wouldn't), but we said no, shukran, bye.

All of our time with him his only word in English was "madame" - he did ask where Jackie was, "madame ___?" and I motioned she was sleeping - and our Arabic words were "salaam" and "shukran." Everybody ought to get to do this one day.

We walked back home - very muggy today. Does this mean the predicted sandstorm will come tomorrow? We had a quick lunch before we got into the SUV to go to MA's horses. We being we 5 humans and about 12 of the 17 dogs. The dogs leaped into the back seat, with our intention of having them hop in the back of the back seat. MA yelled "Get in the back!" to the dogs as J got in; half the dogs hopped in the very back as Tracy climbed in the back seat and half the dogs jumped back to the back seat with her. "Get in the BACK!" Dogs are way excited, popping in & out of the back seat while Tracy can't quite get all the way in or back out, "BACK! GET IN THE BACK!" Squirming wiggly hopping jumping happy dogs in chaos. Tracy tossed one in the back back while 2 popped over onto the back seat; I ejected one into the back back & Tracy scooted over and sat on the dalmation who yipped his discomfort.

We all somehow crowded in, with dogs continuing to try to pop over our shoulders and crawl on our heads as we drove the few blocks to MA's. Unloading the car was a riot: J & I slipped out quick, but Tracy, stuck in the middle, was inundated under a waterfall of terriers pouring over and around her. I felt like a queen on my throne (i.e. quite uncomfortable) as the grooms saddled our horses for us. We rode 4 of MA's horses & 1 of Morad's. Mine was Isaac. We did a city ride - thru fields and alleys and on dirt roads by the filthy canals, on busy paved roads. We rode past a graveyard (where a couple of naughty boys scared our horses), past yelling kids "hello! Hello!", past blowing plastic bags, past Egyptian canal frogs (which sound really scary, like mini cougars), past honking horns and fast moving cars ()the drivers, just like MA, don't slow down & pass with narrow margins & the horses don't flinch), along and around a busy corner with big scary dump trucks - and the horses never flinched.

Oh God, can you imagine riding Zayante here?? He wouldn't've made it out of the front gate past the colorful donkey cart without the donkey attached. We stopped at a couple of stables, all of which had 20+ horses, and plenty of stallions. Aside from the common Egyptian crow, which has a gray front & back, we saw a couple of kingfishers in the canals. Tracy had a few nervous moments (one near the graveyard) but she was a good sport & did very well.

MA's car was dead so TSJ & I walked back home... and on the road, there was our Sun Temple guide on a bike who said hi. At home we ate & downloaded pix onto S's computer. I feel like I'm cheating with my new digital - I snap pix totally at random,with no care at all about what I'm composing or if it's in focus. As a photographer, is this really legal!?

In the evening Morad & a group of ex pats came over, maybe not all necessarily for the 'ride meeting.' Tracy & Morad worked on the ride entry list & phone #s (about 25 are entered), and vet cards. MA brought out her collection of liquor, which I can't touch, and which Morad wouldn't touch because he had a wee bit too much the nite before and a helluva a hangover the next day not to mention he was rather concerned when we told him he'd spent hours dancing on the tables.

I opened my mouth about a cold beer would taste good, and Morad left and returned in 10 minutes with a bag of Meister beer, which, poured on the ice cubes that father Doug & Jo brought, tasted might-y good. I have the feeling, if you need anything here in Egypt, you ask Morad, he will find it or know somebody else who will.

I get the feeling this ride is going to be rather disorganized,with the 'rules' being largely ignored. It sounds like it will be a race for some with questionably fit horses for 40 km on sand, and others may turn around at the halfway point.

We'll have a mid-way 'vet check' for those who wish to participate. Well, as long as all (riders, 'management') understand it's a demo for what we do in the states, and everybody just has fun, it should at least serve as a learning prop for everyone.

T said "Ya know, if this doesn't' work, we have to comeback next year." S "Yea, for a 2-day." Me "A 3-day, in the Sinai!" I've always wanted to go to the Sinai,and MA's been talking of a several-day ride down the Sinai coast, ending at their place in Sharm el-Sheikh...

The Ride

When we were all following Pol & Morad thru the desert, scoping out the trail, the brief directions were, "ride out to & around the pyramid (which one??),turn right at the sarcophagus."

Who needs trail markers out here in the Egyptian desert?

The ride was to start at 8 AM. We went to Ali's about 7,where all the SUVs were parked in a paddock, and tables and chairs were set up on his nice lawn.

2 small animal vets, Mohammed & Anoor showed up, and around 7:30 the vet check started. It went well enough, though the vets weren't overly familiar with horses nor were they real sure or comfortable in doing what our vets do.

A goodly # of the horses didn't know how to trot out - all were handled by the grooms, not the riders, and near half were drug by their reins or drug their grooms by the reins at a canter.

MA had said there'd be 80% stallions there, and there were about 80% shiny, vocal, verile stallions present. No accidents,though :)

26 riders entered, and around the time all vetted in, everybody climbed on their horses.

Ali said there'd be a rider meeting in the next paddock, as few people knew the exact directions, or that there would be a vet check with a 20 min hold on MA's acreage by the lake, what their vet cards were for,etc,.

I was all ready to climb out in the sand dunes with my cameras for the start, and yeehaw, there they went!

I hopped in Karen's SUV and we, along with half a dozen other SUVs, spilling people and grooms out the windows, gave chase. It cracks me up that the norm here is to race after riders across the desert every step of the way in their vehicles.

There's the story of a Shiek from UAE who came here to do a 40 km ride and, the lazy sod rode, about 10 km then climbed into his air conditioned crew hummer and ponied his horse out the window. Bet ya he won the race, too.

Morad told us that Middle Eastern riders are conditioned from birth to stay in the saddle. Get off and walk on foot? Oh no. It is more honorable to finish ON a 3-legged horse in the saddle than it is go get off and walk with your horse in the sand.

Karen was keeping an eye on her husband Sharif, who was sponsoring a junior, a German girl, Desiree. They were already at the rear, and after less than a mile I could see D's horse was tying up. Drenched in sweat, tail down, D kicking her to keep trotting (yes it was a mare) .... choppy trot.

What's my responsibility here? What's the proper cultural procedure to suggest her turn around? Fortunately the horse's distress was obvious to Karen too... but she still had her Egyptian, riding-ingrained, never-quit-till-you-die husband to convince.

She spoke German to Desiree, English and Arabic to Sharif and said something about me being an experienced American endurance rider (there are many, many tales told in Egypt, and who knows if they are true? But as MA says, "Who cares because they are so entertaining!").

Between us,and Desiree feeling her horse was behaving unusually, we convinced Sharif it would get worse if she continued (she'd've never made it 12 miles in that sand), and it was OK (and smart, and good for the horse) for Desiree to turn around.

So Sharif continued on (now with no riders in sight, with an unmarked trail in the desert) while Karen & I turned around and followed D back to Ali's at a walk. Karen is so cool - she's been in Egypt 24 years,"I am a grandmother here," is from Brazil and puts me to great shame, speaking Portuguese, English, Arabic, German, French & Spanish. Right. I grew up in S Texas and can barely say a few words in Spanish.

Even after 24 years here, K has never taken it for granted or lost her appreciation for it. She kept saying, "Isn't this just beautiful! I just love it out here!" She drove in the sand like a maniac, i.e. a native.

After we got close to Ali's stable, their groom (in our car) took D's horse back while D climbed in the car with us. Then we tore out after Sharif, searching for a tiny speck of a man on a horse in the vast bare Egyptian desert.

When we found him, he was talking on his cell phone (that seems to happen alot here), and he told us to go on & figure out where the trail went. We followed some fresh jeep tracks, which ended up being the wrong ones. By the time we turned around & ripped back toward Sharif, he was long gone,and WE couldn't find the right way to go.

We had Morad's crude map, but exactly WHICH side of the gas plant did we go? I finally recognized the track to the hole in the fence, and we sped on, past the Dashur or Red Pyramid, heading for the Melted Pyramid, when we spotted Sharif again. Closer to the Melted Pyramid, Pol and Jeannie were waiting for Sharif - and calling him on his cell phone - disproving my stereotypical prediction that Pol would be racing up front.

They cantered on toward the lake and we went ahead to scout trail... and followed tracks till we got to a creek crossing - what!? A WATER crossing in the Egyptian desert for these highly bred royal Egyptian Arabians!?

Karen didn't think we were on the right trail (I knew we weren't, cuz we hadn't driven that way on Wed, but I sure didn't know which sand dune we were supposed to take), and she didn't think the SUV'd make the water dip crossing. Pol insisted this was the right way, until he got to the water (water!!) crossing, and the men insisted the SUV would make it....

The SUV did get stuck and the horses would not cross. One of the men had to come save the day and get the jeep unstuck - once we women found the palm leaves for traction (and note: the women would not have gotten stuck in the first place, instead would've found the route around) - and then Pol pulled out his bandana and blindfolded each horse and led them across the creek.

We followed them in the ~half mile around the lake - which is more a swamp,full of grazing sheep, goats,cattle,water buffalo, kids (no school on Friday) and Bedouins - down the road a short way to MA's acreage and the vet stop. It looked to me as if it was going well,though the actual check was on the canal road, which got a bit chaotic when local trucks and donkeys and carts had to get by.

A couple of people opted to pull here, including MA, and ride along the roads thru the village back home. I hopped in the car with Tracy and the vets Mohammed and Anoor, and they gave us a little Islamic tutoring on the colorful drive back to Ali's. We saw several Muslim women almost completely covered in black - the further from the city you go,the more likely you'll find more traditional clothing.

At Ali's lunch was just about to be set up, riding friends and relatives were having tea on the lawn. Right around 11:30 the first 2 finishers came racing in - Morad just beating a French gal he had a rivalry with by 2 minutes.

Her horse looked like he'd cantered 5 miles and he pulsed down in 5 minutes. His mare looked like she'd galloped 110 km - i.e. like s***. They had 30 minutes to pulse down, and with 3-4 people working on her, she pulsed down in 29 minutes. Skilled horsemanship or... what?

Maybe it's OK to push your horse and race a little over her head. Maybe it's OK to chill when it's a fun demo ride called the Dashur Dawdle. Maybe it will be hard to get people who are used to FEI racing and winning at all costs to adapt to the idea of riding just for fun with the welfare of your horse being a priority.

That's why I told Desiree several times she did an awesome job, making the decision to quit cuz her horse wasn't right. And maybe it just doesn't matter in the whole big scheme of life and death and taxes. You just have to decide, what's your priority?

18 of the 26 riders finished, including Osama Bin Laden's niece (I guess it wasn't his brother, but doesn't he have 50 or so brothers? Maybe it was a brother and a niece. Remember, we are in Egypt.)

I drove to pick up Destry at MA's because we all forgot about him. Everyone had brunch, socialized,and drifted home. The riders all seemed to have a decent time, but I think the American ride management was a bit hard on themselves for things being disorganized.

It had turned into a humid sweltering (for me) day, no big scary sandstorm. We hung out at the house with the 19 dogs (and 2 cats!), recovering & rehydrating, and trying to figure out our plans since our days here are limited. Morad and his French wife Hortense,very cute and friendly gal, looks like she's about 20,came over and we all 8 piled into MA's jeep, terribly disappointed we could not also fit in the dogs, for a dinner outdoors at Christo restaurant, where you had a nite view of the main Giza pyramids when lights shined on them. MA ordered us all kinds of appetizers and sea bass and shrimp and calamari and beer.

I was played upon by the restroom attendant, a young girl who handed me toilet paper and wanted a tip. I put a 1 pound note in her little tray and she looked very pointedly at the 5 pound note she had sitting there. "No, 5 pounds." I shrugged. "No more." She pointed at my pockets. "Nothing." She pointed at her lip and face - eye makeup or lipstick. Do I look like I'm wearing any? I shrugged. She saw my watch and pointed at it. "No, not my watch." She tried again for pockets. "No, no more." This would have gone on all nite, so I said, "No, shukran, salaam," and she gave me the cutest smile. Darn, didn't get any more off her!

Steph went in later and gave her 1 pound and the girl just said Shukran. I guess you just don't mess with Steph!

All that was under $20 apiece, and that of course included the entertaining drive into and out of Cairo. Here the cars/trucks/donkeys/camels/anything with motors drive wherever they want, though somewhat generally on the right side of the road. And at nite they like to drive without their headlites on. Why? MA said "Every Egyptian knows it saves your car battery!"

We passed a huge outdoor wedding celebration and were really thankful it was very far from home,as the speakers blaring out the music and singing would have easily put the next door recycling plant to shame. Nobody but me slept well last nite (earplugs, no dogs jumped on the bed because 10 slept in MA's room and the other 12 all slept with Destry!) so tonite sleeping pills were popped and earplugs jammed. Tracy and I changed our sheets and we fiercely guarded the bed from the dogs jumping on, as did Jackie. And Steph.

Destry LEFT to go stay at Morad's - nooooooooooo! Who will sleep with all the dogs??!! MA took more in her room, and who knows where all the other little buggers are!

Merri

Egypt: Becoming Tourists

We intended to leave ~8 AM for the Pyramids, and we did get off about 8:30. Driving along the canal to Giza (which we call MA's canal, though I'm sure we couldn't tell it from another), MA answered all the questions we had while zooming past kids and donkeys and trucks with inches to spare and talking on her cell phone. She's so knowledgeable about everything here and we are so lucky to be staying with her.

Occasionally these filthy canals are dredged, and the gunk is piled alongside. What do they do with the gunk? The dirt is taken and used in the fields. Plastic trash is recycled (I bet some of it is keeping us awake at nite!). I'm not sure what this has to do with dredged canals, but the plastic slip-on shoes are called "ship ship" because of the noise they make when people don't pick their feet up when they walk - Riche are you reading this. The shoes are worn by peasants.

I asked why all the different religions are so tolerated here as opposed to other middle eastern countries - who knows? People here just don't care what religion you are. You are also not allowed to proselytize (in Islam or christianity or ??).

I noticed there seems to be (in this area at least) a lack of animosity towards the rich, Egyptians or ex-pats, and I thought it was partially because, as in India, people just seem to accept their lot in life. That's just the way things are.

MA said it's also your own attitude. If you are open & friendly, not afraid and don't build walls around you, then people are friendly and open with you. People here are worried about the evil eye. Hmmm - maybe a useful thing to remember. >:)

Giza was quite smoggy/dusty and crowded with apartment highrises one on top of the other - and suddenly in the midst arises the 3 Great Pyramids of Giza. It seemed so normal. We drove up to the entrance, where MA got out and got us all tickets (20 pounds each) then drove us in - oh my. There are 2 huge ones, 1 slightly smaller 1, 3 small ones

(Queen's Pyramids, the tombs of Khufu's wives and sisters), the sphinx down below, other tomb entrances, holes, passages, etc, all built between ~2500 - 2100 BC or so. Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) - son of Sneferu who built the Bent & Red Pyramids at Dashur out our direction - built the biggest one in Egypt, completed ~2570 BC. It was 481 ft high when finished (it's now ~30 ft shorter), & ~2.5 million limestone blocks, weighing ~2.5 tons each were used in construction!

Looking at these you just can't fathom the construction at all. How on earth!? Why?

Khufu's son Khafre (Chephren) built the Pyramid of Khafre 448 ft high and it still has its limestone casing on top. Over the centuries these outer blocks have been stripped away and used to build palaces and mosques, exposing the Pyramids' softer inner-core stones to the elements. Especially on the 3rd and smaller Pyramid, Menkaure, you see about 4 lower layers of nicely preserved blocks that are so nicely preserved because they were buried under sand a longer time. There's also blocks surrounding the Pyramids that have fallen down over time and litter the ground around them.

So, we drive to near Khafre and Tracy says, "Merri, we're in Egypt!" (We've been saying this since we arrived). We got out, walked up to this Pyramid, and I said, "Oh my god, we're in Egypt!@!@! Who woulda thunk this? "

Again - how-why-who-what were they thinking- and how much do you not see? How many more ruins and temples and tombs are still laying out here buried in the desert? We walked up to the Pyramid - you can TOUCH them. I TOUCHED a Pyramid. I even sat on one, though signs say No Climbing.

There's policemen on camels, some with rifles, though MA said "But you never know if they have bullets." The camel touts were not nearly as bad as I was prepared for, i.e. they didn't follow you around for 20 minutes as you said no for 20 minutes, while you picked up another tout each of those minutes and then had 20 of them exponentially following you. And it was really nice to have a native Arabic speaker to stop someone with designs on tourists in their tracks. It was like we were walking with an invisible shield around us - what a treat!

Steph was easily talked into a camel ride - and Destry went with her. MA, J, T & I wandered around; J & T went inside the Menkaure Pyramid. We spent about an hour wandering around (alot more people starting to arrive now) then went back to the car; S & D hadn't shown up so MA drove off to look for them.

In about 10 minutes she's on her way back - with a camel driver in the car and a stern look on her face. He said he knew where they were. We got in and he directed us downhill, past the Sphinx - which I didn't even know till there it was there, and which was pretty small and which was probably carved during Khafre's reign and is carved from the natural bedrock at the bottom of the hill from the Khafre Pyramid.

We went out the main entrance, into Cairo, further into Cairo, and MA was getting a little irate that Steph & Destry had been camelknapped. Finally we got to the camel office, where S & D had been taken - conveniently - to visit a papyrus store and essence store. But they had a great time, so all was well.

We then went to a real grocery store where I went wild on mango juice (but it's only 35% juice) and cookies and halawa!!! A whole little tub of it! I have a feeling I'm going to be stocking up on this to take home.

We then raced home, and MA realized her important meeting to try to dump one of her businesses was at 12:30, not 2:30, so she raced us to her old house in Maadi - a great old 3-story British mansion - and 'old' as in, she's been out of the house for 5 days now.

Here Nabeel, and I-cannot-remember-his-name, became our guides and drivers for the day. Tracy & I were starving so they drove us to a local corner place that served kushari, a mix of noodles and rice and lentils and chickpeas and stuff with a tomato sauce on it - and a nose tissue each for napkins - yum! Then Steph wanted a coffee, so the 7 of us piled in the car, pulled out on the road, turned around & drove a half a block, got out & went into an ahwa for coffee... which was strong and thick enough to chew! yikes!

They then drove us to a block that had 3 shops to go in, and we must've spent almost 2 hours there. Got all our Xmas shopping done! The man whose shop we all spent the most time in gave us his "best price", but was not interested in bargaining (which was a relief cuz I HATE bargaining). His prices did change a bit - on me they went UP as we added them on his calculator. Oh well! I ran out of $ here and am now in need of an ATM. (2 I found were broken).

It was late enough we decided to skip a felucca ride today on the Nile - we missed the sunset cuz we shopped too long :) - but Destry directed us to Drinkies, a place we could buy beer & wine (hmm, wonder how he knew this?). We stocked up, and the guys drove us home - losing their way once we took the one exit - but between the rest of us we remembered the way home.

You get to where you recognize this hut, or that local 'gas station' where they use jerrycans to fill you up, or that little fruit stand. The guides had told us $20 US plus food - and somehow the less-than-a-dollar-apiece lunch and same-for-the-coffee came out to an extra $15, but that's just the way things are. It was great having people drive us around places and not having to take taxis or busses or figure out where to go or get hassled or HelloMadameComeIntoMyShopJustLookIGiveYouBestPriceHelloMadameHowAreYouCo meInside.

Merri

Egypt: Just another Day in the City

I joined Tracy on the roof for a cup o' green tea - which was mighty wimpy compared to that cup of engine-cleaning-fluid referred to as coffee that I had yesterday at the ahwa. Tracy woke up at 5 AM again and she discovered the pleasure of watching the countryside come awake, enhanced by 4000+ yr old temple and pyramid ruins in the hazy close-distance.

Morad came over for his running date with Tracy. Tracy is not an experienced rider but she is an experienced runner, and her entire focus since the ride has been to get Morad out to run in the sand to experience just a minute fraction of what he put his horse through in the ride.

He said "We'll go out to the wadi (big sand valley) where there's hard packed sand - I'm not running in the soft stuff." Me "But that's the point! That's what you made your horse do!" They were gone for hour - running? Or Morad collapsed in the sand? Morad's very bright, not to mention very enterprising, as most Egyptian men are because they have to be, and he's apparently good with horses and he says he loves them (how many men say that?)

Tracy is determined to get him to understand his own body's reaction to the same physical stress he puts his horses through. We all just can't believe the attitudes here of never getting off your horse to walk. Everyone's also been tossing around ideas for Morad coming to visit the states as an apprentice - stay with & learn from some trainers, farriers, etc. He would soak up everything like a sponge.

However a visa would be a problem because all Americans know he is Egyptian therefore Arab and therefore a terrorist. We got to talking about the Middle East, a place I've always been fascinated with, as has Steph. MA talked about Beirut, Jordan, Syria - all places I want to go - and they're all RIGHT HERE and I've already come this far. I don't really have to go back anyway, as I lost my summer job thanks to whatsisface...

Then MA has to go open her big mouth and say that Greece is only a 1 1/2 hr flight away - AHHH! And she knows a woman who has horses and trail rides in Greece - AHHH! What would happen if I didn't go home to do my taxes - is that a problem? Can somebody just write me an excuse??

Yesterday MA picked up a Middle East Times newspaper, a paper with an Arab perspective. Not an inflammatory rah rah pro-Arab anti-American paper, just one that tells what's happening here. Steph said, "Why is it that Americans are the only ones who can't see and don't get it??"

I really want to watch Al-Jezira while here (MA has no TV), because it just can't be any worse than Fox News (and MA and Steph say it isn't, because they have seen it) with their patriotic tickers and waving flags on the bottom of the screen and their mind-directing and fear-conditioning stories that stir scared American people up.

We made several plans which kept changing. Finally around 11 MA was worried that Tracy & Morad hadn't returned (no answer on his cell phone), so Jackie and I climbed in the jeep with MA, and we took off for the Tara Bezedat - the wadi of tables - to look for a speck of a jeep and 2 human figures in the sand. We fishtailed by the pyramids of Abu Sir and Saqqara finding some fresh jeep tracks but nothing else. After ~1/2 hour MA got a call on her cell (among several other calls) from Morad - they were at the country club having a coke.

MA scolded, "You get 100 lbs deducted from your salary every time you go out in the desert without a cell phone! I'm going to rip your limbs from your body and beat you with each of them!" She's such a mother to people - and the mother of the Egyptian family is highly revered and respected, especially by males of the family. She talks about using the "Mother Look" especially around kids to show that she is serious - and it works.

We passed close to Saqqara again - it's a huge complex and it looks like at least 1/2 mile away they are still excavating parts of the site. I want to ride there!! Hortense joined us back at the house, then Julie the Brit (been here 8 years) came by. MA's house is always open; there are always people coming and going.

MA had things to do, and we decided we'd go to Saqqara, after we all went to a stable so Morad could look at a horse that Julie wanted to buy. Julie said "I've been depressed. So I'm shopping - for

a horse. Some people eat chocolate; I buy a horse." Morad transported Tracy and I in MA's jeep, and we think maybe he was showing off just a wee little bit. You know, guys and cars, with women inside, then add the Egyptian male machismo... you get the picture.

We were flying down that canal road at over 60 mph. It's a 2-way 1-lane road, with donkeys and kids and carts and sheep and trucks, the canal on one side and dwellings on the other. Oh shit, this time I was in front, and though I had on my seat belt, I didn't think it would've done me too much good at Mach 3 in a crash. I just quit looking!

We eventually ended up in one of the myriad stables crowding the road at the foot of the Giza pyramids. On the way, I swear Morad knew everybody, stopping and rolling down his window, talking, shaking hands, hugging, cheek kissing. The horses at these stables didn't look so terrible; this stallion (stallions, stallions, everywhere - which works here cuz there are few paddocks where any can be turned out) Julie wanted didn't look bad, and she bought him. When Jackie asked her if she'd geld him - you know, to have a nice little gelding to ride - she looked totally confused. Morad actually flinched at the thought.

A poor little donkey kept carrying huge loads of sand to bed down stalls - I know those loads and I KNOW that was too much. It pained Tracy too - the plight of the Egyptian donkey depresses her. One day we passed 1 kid beating his poor donkey with a stick on his neck for no reason, and 2 big kids riding 1 donkey, and she yelled out the window, "Get OFF him!"

Leaving the stable, we passed other stables, some with nice looking horses, and some horribly skeletal ones. Humans note: Be good in this life so you don't come back in your next life as a horse or donkey in a 3rd world country. Morad took some obscure turns into some back alleys to a store (looked like a 'wholesale' little place) that Morad just happened to own a percentage of.

Steph had mentioned she wanted 2 big stone Sphinx's for her house in Idaho (with of course no hope for shipping something like that). Well, watch what you say, because when you rub the magic Morad Genie Lamp, you get your wish. The guy brought out 3 little boxes with 3 Egyptian pharaonic type statues, one of which is a sphinx, which she plans to put on the dash of her truck.

Then, with me in the backseat this time, and Steph and Jackie also along, we raced to Saqqara, this time on the main paved road that parallels MA's canal road. We went even faster, and this was, at times, a 2-lane road. Or not. You will pass anything like cars trucks donkeys horses camels carts bikes, at any time, from any direction, travelling any direction.

People honk here out of necessity. A honk means, to a car or human, "I'm passing, watch out," or "I'm in your oncoming lane on this blind curve." Or "Move over." It's not road rage, it's communication. I noticed none of us wore seat belts - sometimes you just don't worry about it.

We were probably going 70 at some places, still with inches to spare from cars and pedestrians. Jackie still squeals and oooh!s and slams on her imaginary brake pedal - we giggle but sure don't watch thru the windshield. Saqqara was closed, as I thought it might be. It was 4 PM. So then we sped all the way past MA's into Giza, not sure why, maybe cuz Morad liked driving MA's SUV, or maybe cuz I opened my big mouth and said I needed an ATM, then once we got into Giza discovered I wasn't carrying the ATM card to put in the ATM.

Morad stopped at a little store for cigarettes, and this time he didn't know the people. He bought us a bag of hot peanuts and hot squash/pumpkin seeds. Very salty - I've noticed the Egyptians tend to go heavy on the salt.

Back at the house, MA's furniture from her old house and her new curtains had arrived, plus Haj Shaban, the local omda, or 'capo de capo' or headman of the neighborhood who gets things done, (MA told us one day, if we had any problem if we are out walking around, say "Haj Shaban, Haj Abdul Rashid" - the man and his brother - and everybody will know who we mean and will find them for us) along with several men who had hung cabinets in her kitchen and who then spent the evening, and night, varnishing them with some awfully toxic varnish.

I swear between this and all the cigarette smoke my lungs are going to turn black. I might as well smoke the sheesha here myself! Tracy and I talked on the roof for an hour till it got dark (I just realized this evening that you can see the tips of the 2 large pyramids of Giza from her roof, when the sky is not smoggy) and the bright half moon was over us and the imams chanted the evening prayers.

We picked at leftovers soaked in varnish fumes, then Pol the Norweigian came over for a visit and a few smokes. Tracy and I sat on the plastic covered couch on the porch for some 'fresh' air (though they were painting cabinets on the porch too) and the company of 22 rat terriers. Later, as the workmen left at 10:30 (and MA went to Pol's to try to email) 7 or 8 little dogs were interwoven in layers on the plastic covered couch waiting for MA to get home.

Oh - Destry left today - he's staying in Maadi tonite cuz he's leaving on a plane for the states early tomorrow AM, after spending 3 months in Cairo. What a way better education in his senior year than attending a high school daily in the US. When he left, Morad said "I love that kid. He is SO COOL!"

Merri

Egypt: I found a Horus!!!

It's actually called the site of Abu Ghorab, and has 2 royal sun temples dedicated to the worship of Ra, the sun-god (where's the 2nd temple?)

In the Abu Sir Papyri - archives of Old Kingdom documents written in hieratic (shorthand form of hieroglyphs), found in Abu Sir's Pyramid of Neferirkare - it says there are 6 temples here, though only 2 have been discovered (where's the 2nd??).

It was a valley temple with a causeway and large stone enclosure. Inside was a large limestone obelisk (now missing) 122' high on a 66' high base. In front of the obelisk, the huge alabaster altar is still there - we stood on top of it. Hieroglyphs on the alter say, "The sun god Ra is satisfied." And, I like this even better, MA said Abu Ghorab means "Father of Crows."

She says crows are a nuisance to the farmers here, as they are to many people in the states. (People are all wrong about crows and ravens!)

Here they try to scare them away or shoot them, so the clever crows hang out during the day at the dump and other places, and around evening they fly one by one to behind the sun temple. There they wait until the call to evening prayer, when they fly into the orchards at the edge of the desert to roost, cuz they know people are at their prayers. :) (Who knows if everything is true in Egypt, myth or legend or truth, but the stories are great).

Morad came by, and sheepishly admitted he was sore from running when I asked him. Tracy went with him to the jockey club; there's some big race on Saturday. Pal visited, bringing a little memory card, and was able to transfer my digital pix off Steph's computer to his and MA's computers. MA went to his house to email.

The working boys came back to paint; Mohammed (MA's driver) and Nagette (her housekeeper) arrived. We were maybe going to the big market today... but another lovely Egyptian morning seemed to be slipping away; MA finally made it back and we were were off about 11 AM.

Mohammed drove - not so fast! We all told him he was a good driver. :) He smiled and nodded his head - I expect he knows exactly how Morad drives. First we went to Maadi to MA's bank - I used the ATM, where the Egyptian men stood aside to let me go first - and Thomas Cook.

Then Mohammed drove us through Cairo to the sprawling market Khan Al-Khalili, where Cairenes have plied their trades since its founding in the 14th century. It's a fantastic huge maze of shops selling anything you could ever want (well - except for a stuffed Horus - the Egyptian falcon in the hieroglyphs, which I really want to take the place of my Raven who I didn't bring) - it's full of little nooks and crannies and holes and corridors and upstairs.

Lots of gaudy tourist stuff - trinkets, Tshirts, Egyptian clothing, fabrics, papyrus, antiques, carpets, fantastically detailed inlaid wooden boxes, carved ebony and ivory, spices, sheeshahs, breads - thousands of people and lots of noise, colorful sights and smells and sounds and aggressive sellers "Hello Madame come in just take a look, hello madame sheeshah?" We had, at the newish fancy Naguib Mahfouz (a famous Arabian author) cafe, 'salad' stuff - which here is tabouli, baba ghanoug, tahini, and hummus. And, get this: REAL MANGO JUICE!!! So thick with real mango I chewed half of it. I about died in my chair. Not to mention a strawberry drink, a tamarind drink and guava drink - all pure.

Which fueled us to do more shopping.

Which made us thirsty for turkish coffee and erfa. I had this - a glass of hot milk with a whallop of cinnamon and a little sugar - yum! at the Fishawis coffee house - open continuously for 24 hrs a day the last 200 years (or so they say in Egypt) - which was a crazy place. It's in a narrow corridor, and continuously flowing by are tourists, Egyptians, roaming kids and men and women soliciting money and selling tissues, sunglasses, bad necklaces and bracelets, tiny cigarette water pipes, seats, cushions, robes, skinned foxes, wallets, cigarettes, all around people drinking coffees and smoking sheeshas.

What fun!!

I found a hand-sized black stone Horus, which the man told me was 10 pounds - I said "What!?" (This is about $1.65.) "For you, yes, 10 pounds." He sent me inside where the guy wanted his picture taken wrapping my falcon.

Then, in a spice store, as I waited on MA to conduct her spice business with the guy, I noticed they were talking about me. What was that all about? I asked MA. "100 camels he offered for you." 100 camels! My South African friend Janet was worth only 20 camels! But that was about 10 years ago - gotta be inflation. MA burst my Egyptian bubble by saying he probably didn't have the camels anyway. Oh well!

We left near 5 PM, and as Mohammed picked us up and drove us away, we passed the REST of Khalili - we had only touched a fraction of it. You could spend a month in there and never see it all - and maybe never find your way out.

Back home, we were due at (another) Mohammed's for pizza - his patio had a great view of the Abu Sir pyramids (one lit up at night). A 3/4 moon, with a large halo around it, was directly overhead, and many from the ride were there - Morad & Hortense, Janie, Sharif, Ali & Ramda, Somaya, Pal.

Salads and pizza and horse talk: how did we feed, how did we train; on a multi day ride we rode the SAME horse 5 DAYS?!

And out of this talk came thoughts of the first multi-day ride in Egypt, scheduled for November. Yes, we're all planning to come back!

Merri

Egypt: The Parrots Move

I slept through it all.

I've been sleeping so hard I don't dream at all. I did hear the imam's 5 AM prayer thru my earplugs, and I did wake up to throw a dog or 2 off my face during the night. When I got up, I just couldn't stand it any more - I pulled out my hairbrush and scratched the flea bites on my fingers till they were almost raw. Ahhh! I knew I brought that hairbrush along for a reason.

Tracy and Morad went off to run in the desert again. Another lovely made-for-riding Egyptian morning passed without me riding, and I could have gone out with Pal. It made me ache not riding, especially when Christine and Hortense rode up to the house.

Hortense was on this gorgeous young stallion with a long mane thick as sheep's wool. I couldn't stop running my hands through it. I want I want I want to go galloping through the desert on one of these Egyptian Arabs but I don't want to get my hopes up too high and have them dashed. I have, after all, had many other great experiences here.

We may ride this afternoon but it would be through the countryside, and we're supposed to join everyone for a ride Friday, but as things go here in Egypt, that may not happen nor fulfill this desert-galloping desperate urge.

Oh well!

Our Wednesday and Thursday is booked, so I have only Friday and Saturday to do this. And that's because, on Wed & Thur Nabeel is taking us to the Sinai!! Oh my god I am going to the Sinai!!! We're leaving tomorrow morning, driving ~6 hrs to Sharm al-Sheikh, stay at her huge house there, leave the next morning for St Katherine's Monastery and Mt Sinai - oh my god I can climb Mt Sinai!

I've been wanting to go here for 14 years!!! Oh my god, I can't believe I'm in Egypt and I'm going to the Sinai! Nabeel, the driver is a copt Christian so I expect he'll have lots of info about the Sinai.

Wow. Now get this - I look out the kitchen window into the back yard this morning I see - a tortoise! I yelled "There's a turtle!" MA said "Oh yea - I have 2 tortoises." See? All these animals just come out of the woodwork. Who knows how many there really are? One night when we rode with Morad in the car, I asked what the guy in the little store/stall right by MA's gate sold, and Morad said "He's the fuul man. Makes the best beans around." I opened my big mouth and said ... "Yum!"

So, what happens today at lunch, the man who lives by our gate comes to the house with a bag full of Egyptian lunch: ta'amiyya (like falafel), fried taters, fuul - sent by Morad. It was delicious!

We left around noon - Mohammed taking Steph in to the airport, and Jackie and I with Maryanne to her house in Maadi. I can't believe Steph is leaving this Middle Eastern adventure - what are we going to do with no Steph??

We stopped at a market, a real supermarket like Safeway, and I got out of the car lame - I couldn't walk! It was like I pulled a muscle up high in my right leg. Hmm... maybe I did it pushing an imaginary brake pedal??

After some more errands, the mission at MA's old house was to move her parrots (did I mention MA has parrots too) to her new digs and their huge new cages. Sure, I said I'd help. I have a mean little parrot who bites hard and breaks the skin and when he does it hurts like hell.

"Where are the gloves?" MA "Oh, I don't use gloves." Huh? "I just use my hands because they're scared of gloves." This woman doesn't use gloves and these are no mean little parrots. 3 are African greys with big beaks and 3 are Nasty Rotten Amazons with Big Beaks.

I quickly amended my "Sure I'll help" to "Sure I'll watch." I mean, that's like sticking your hand into a hot fire to pick up a hot coal - you know that no matter what, you're going to get burned and it's going to hurt! In other words, I'm just a coward.

She got the 3 African grays with no bites, then plunged into the Amazon War Zone. Oh, the shrieking was horrible - the wild birds and MA. Each one of them bit her good at least once. She grabbed one, it grabbed her, but she bit her lip, carried them out the cage and threw them in the carriers that Mohammed held open.

I watched the door so the other birds wouldn't escape which of course was the farthest away from those beaks I could get as possible without leaving the property and still being able to say I was 'helping.'

After she got those 3 then she cried out in agony as Jackie poured water on her bleeding fingers. We hauled the birds back home and put the carriers in their new huge aviary cages and opened their doors. The Amazons flew up high; the Grays climbed out of the carriers and sat on the doors.

Ali looked so sweet; he took pumpkin seeds from me in the car but I knew better than to try and pet him. Inside the house I started picking things up off the table, and there was coffee in the French Press. I started to ask Steph if she wanted coffee, but Steph was no longer here. :(

We decided to go for a ride, and drove to MA's horses. The grooms saddled up our horses around 5 PM, which still just feels too wierd. I rode Geneh ("Wings") or Birdie, the mare Steph rode last time. I could still hardly walk (what on earth did I do to my leg?) but that didn't matter because I could still get in the saddle and ride fine. Tracy rode faithful steady Bunduq ("Hazelnut") again, Jackie rode Nazeer ("Visionary"), and MA rode my mount of last time, Nayzak ("meteor").

We started off down the alley, onto the little trails through the fields. There were lots of little kids around yelling "Hello hello!" Some of them had brilliant smiles. Ragged clothes, dirty faces, barefoot, and beautiful smiles that lit their whole beings up.

One little girl ran beside me with her hand up and I reached down and she gave me a high 5. She ran off laughing. Tracy was last in line and led a parade of little children yelling Hello! and waving. The horses aren't bothered by this at all, nor the snarling barking dogs that run out. Nayzak started acting a bit silly, just because he needed a good blowout in the desert instead of just walking, and when we met Morad and Hortense and Julie on her new stallion on the opposite side of the canal, and they turned to follow us, Nayzak did a little buck and shimmy, and MA landed on the ground. Naughty horse! She stayed off and led him, and when we met the other 3, Morad switched horses with her.

Julie was leading the way on her prancing stallion, and at a corner didn't know which way to go, and with the vicious dogs and Hello kids and grownups watching and our horses milling around, it was quite chaotic - and the horses didn't even react. MA decided it was a day to just go home, so we all decided to end the ride and turned towards home. I told Hortense, "Friday morning I want to ride with you or Morad or Pal in the desert on a fast ride!" She said "Oh yes, Morad will take you. Our group usually goes out Friday morning anyway."

I then told Morad I wanted to go for a gallop in the desert Friday morning. Not far, but just a gallop in the desert. "Oh, I have something special planned for you." I said "Uh - what? Uh oh." He laughed "Your tone sure changed there!" I said "Just don't put me on something crazy that bucks!" though maybe if I time it right and hit the soft deep sand it won't be so bad.

Morad and Hortense came over for dinner. I was so starved I had 3 helpings of the spaghetti MA made, and I could have had more. Tracy changed her ticket home - she is now leaving here April 15 and flying to Paris to visit there a while - I am jealous! We hit the hay early because MA is taking us into Maadi at 5 AM tomorrow (and Hortense is going with us) where Nabeel will pick us up to go to the Sinai.

We feel terrible that MA is getting up to do this so early, not to mention that she basically arranged the whole trip, and is giving us her house in Sharm to stay in. This woman is just amazing.

Merri

Egypt: Under the Suez into Asia

We were getting up at 5 so MA could take us in to Maadi where we'd meet our drivers at 6 - we felt awful about her getting up so early to do this,not to mention her arranging this whole trip for us - but that's MA.

I didn't bring an alarm, so I set my inner alarm for the muezzin's 5 AM call to prayer. He started chanting at 4:50 AM. When I took out my earplugs there were several of them, and they weren't all finished till ~5:20. Does this happen every AM? Maybe it does, and the recycling plant, which was quiet this morning, normally drowns it all out.

It was so cool hearing the layers of chanting in the dark.By the time we got out of the house and picked up Hortense and got to MA's house in Maadi it was 6:30 AM. Nabeel and driver Shoki (same guy) were waiting for us. We loaded up in his 6-seater beater Pugeot wagon, & headed east out of Cairo for Suez.

Suez - on the Suez Canal! Jackie fell asleep in the front seat, Hortense crashed in the back (she's been to Sinai once before), and nearing the city of Suez, Tracy closed her eyes.

How could they sleep?!

Highway 33 took us east to Suez through the bare desert. Looked much like areas of the Nevada desert - bare flat sand, sometimes with minimal scrub, a few sand hills to the left, tall bare desert mountains in the distance to the right. Major power lines from Suez to Cairo following the road.

You wouldn't want to just rake off riding here though - lots of military 'bases' or 'stations' and firing ranges. Hey - just like Nevada.

Just think - east ahead of us is Sinai, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan (I have got to come back here), north is the Mediterranean Sea (!!), south is Sudan and the rest of Africa, behind us west is the Libyan desert & Sahara (!!) - all the way across Northern Africa. I just can't believe I'm here.

Tracy said "Merri - we're in Egypt!"

After around 1 hour we stopped at a gas mart - just like an AM/PM - used the clean bathrooms (no attendant to tip - and I must say, clean free bathrooms are so pleasant) and got a cup of Nescafe espresso - just like the espresso machines in AM/PMs - and gee, I thought this one was pretty darn tasty, maybe because I'm in Egypt, and got back in the car.

Nabeel was a little antsy because he's got us on a schedule. We are stopping at St Katherine's monastery and Mt Sinai on the way, and he wants to be there by 11 AM. He also wants to climb Mt Sinai - for him as a Christian this is very important and sacred. He was concerned about Hortense (or "Amina" as he calls her - when you become Muslim you take another name) being Muslim and going to the monastery, but I guess they worked it out.

We came to a checkpoint before Suez where we were stopped. Shoki talked to one man - who confiscated a pen from Shoki, and then paper, and talked to Shoki, and wrote some things down. I heard "Amrikan" and "St Katherine." Right out Hortense's window was the magazine of an AK47 slung beside a loafing soldier.

The scribe talking to Shoki did something strange; he sort of threw the pen on the ground as if he dropped it, then bent to pick it up, and glanced in at the rest of us. Why he didn't just look in, I don't know -[ they've got the guns. I didn't feel any animosity - apathy rather. Too many soldiers with nothing to do. The most nervous I've ever been was crossing Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin in '89. But this is Egypt.

The closer we got to Suez the more billboards there were - too bad I can't read Arabic - or rather, glad I can't, because anywhere - except Vermont where they are thoughtfully banned - billboards are annoying.

Reading Arabic is hard, say MA and Hortense. I've got the numbers down, and I can recognize Cairo, but that's it.

We got to Suez, went under the canal in a tunnel (didn't actually see the Suez Canal - the sides are elevated) - into Asia.

Tracy said, "Merri - we're in Asia!"

After Suez we turned SE along the Gulf of Suez and the west coast of Sinai. Oh my god - I'm in the Sinai. The blue gulf was on our right, bare hilly desert to our left. In 10 minutes Shoki turned off the road at a spot marked only by some mud shacks and little stands like a flea market. This is(supposedly) the spot where, after Moses led 600,000 of his people out of slavery in Egypt across the Red Sea,they got to this hot dry godforsaken desert (as opposed to that hot dry godforsaken desert they left, but they were told they were going to the promised land,and I can see they might've been a bit skeptical), and they whined and complained (as Tracy said, not much has changed!) and they were dying of thirst because the water was bitter, and God told Moses to strike a rock or throw a tree in the spring, and he did, and there was good water.

They they complained more and God sent them food. (For those of you wanting historical accuracy, check your Bible, because I learned this long ago, and Nabeel is telling me some of this, and the other bible - the Lonely Planet Egypt - says another, and remember, we are in Egypt).

Originally there were 12 wells; now there are 3. Nabeel said since this is a Muslim country they don't care about preserving it. There's not even a sign on the road marking it. The Lonely Planet calls this Oyun Musa, "springs of Moses", & also says there's one at St K's monastery, but I expect Moses had to strike alot of rocks for water because I sure see no evidence of any water anywhere.

I know I would've been the loudest whiner in Moses' group, because I bet they didn't have ice cubes back then and for me it was already terribly hot, maybe 85*, and it's early spring here.

Following the gulf of sparkling blue water - very polluted I bet - was an insane explosion of condo cities, most under construction. It looked like Florida beachfront. Between these sprawling condo tracts would be a little mud hut and maybe a Bedouin walking.

We turned inland and climbed just a little, into wind or once-upon-a-time water carved desert canyons, hills pushing up to mountains. Hortense pointed out a dirt road winding up one in the distance. Where for us that would be a BLM road for 4-wheelers or an old mine road, she said "Wherever you see a road, there are people living out there somewhere." Tough desert Bedouins.

The landscape looked alot like Death Valley and a little like the Badlands. I sure hope they never discover gold or silver here.

Nabeel brought us homemade fuul and falafel - on man - that was THE best falafel I've ever had. We had to stop at a few checkpoints - only showed our passports at one on the Sinai side of Suez - they are mainly interested in Israeli's coming to Cairo. At each, Nabeel told them we were 3 Americans and 1 French. He said here they are more concerned about our safety as Americans. That's why, when I travel, I often say I'm Canadian. Being Canadian inspires alot less animosity in people, depending on where you are.

Poor Nabeel wanted badly for us to get to St K's before noon, when it closed. Naturally, we women had to pee and there happened to be a little checkpoint and gas station at the inland turn to St K's.

Nabeel asked us to please hurry. When we got back in the hot car, one of us said, Why don't we just go on to Sharm and spend the day on the beach, and leave tomorrow early for St K's. Sounds better. I'm not much of a beach person, but a plunge in the water sure will feel good now.

This has been, I think, Jackie's goal of the trip - lay on the beach at the Red Sea. It got hotter...water bottles frozen solid when we left Cairo were melted by noon. The flat sand stretched to the turquoise and green Suez gulf on the right; dry stark Death Valley-like mountains rose on the left through the haze which was - sand? Pollution? Humidity? A few oil wells in the sand on the water side; a few rigs out in the water.

One road sign was an outline of a camel - Watch for camels, like we Watch for elk. Nabeel said "Sharm 1 hour." It took 1 hr 45 minutes, me sweltering in the sun in the back seat with cigarette smoke and now gas fumes from when we stopped for gas (90 piasters a liter).Gotta love it! When we got to Sharm el-Shaikh spread by the sea, it was a lovely place of pink and white modern villas and hotels on the blue Red Sea. Nothing at all Egyptian but for the Arabic writing.

Americans and Europeans love to come to obscure foreign countries and build replicas of their vacation homes and insulate themselves from the country and call themselves exotic travellers. And here we are. :)

Nabeel was supposed to call MA when we got to Sharm... and here we come to the typical Egyptian man - organized American women - 6 people in a car with important to say - beach-craving people scenario.

Being a man,and an Egyptian man, Nabeel wouldn't call MA. He preferred trying to follow the directions written in Arabic - and either the directions were bad or he couldn't follow them - and have Shoki pull over so he could ask directions. Shoki just kept driving driving driving no matter what, no matter if you said Slow down or Turn right, he just kept driving.

Soon he would pull over, and while still always rolling forward Nabeel would lean out his window and ask a guy directions, and Shoki would lean out his window and ask another guy directions. Hortense tried calling MA on the phone, but it kept cutting out,and she was having to shout, and the 2 guys kept pulling over and asking directions.

T & J offered suggestions and I sat in the hot smoky gaseous back seat beating my head against the window while suffocating. Finally Tracy got the phone and talked to MA, who told Tracy what road to take; T would say it in English, Hortense would say it in Arabic to Shoki, and he wouldn't follow the direction, like "Turn right here!", either because he was an Egyptian man or just wanted to keep driving, so Hortense would yell to turn right, and Nabeel would say to turn right and he'd turn right at the last second.

We finally got to the entrance gate, where MA talked to the guard on the phone - then Nabeel got the phone, listening to MA's directions. At the first intersection we obviously took a wrong turn. Finally Nabeel says "Somebody who understands English talk to MA."

Well by then we are lost, and we FINALLY get Shoki to stop happily driving aimlessly through the condos and to turn around, only it's a 1-way street, and he can't. Now, with all of us offering helpful advice so that Tracy can't hear MA on the phone,she tries to describe where we are so MA can figure it out.

We just can't get Shoki to stop driving, so Tracy finally hops out of the car and starts walking so that Shoki has to follow her the correct way on the winding streets through the little villas.Now the men know,or think they know,where they are, so we're all calling to Tracy to get back in the car; a guard is yelling at us not to proceed so Shoki is listening to him and not to Tracy; I am near suffocation in the back seat and it's so hot my brain cells are bubbling.

FINALLY we turn into the correct cranny,and MA's place is the 2nd on the left. Gratefully we crumble out of the car after that 1/2 hour misadventure, unload our stuff, and send our 2 directionally impaired Egyptian guides off to their hotel. We walk in the 4-bed/bath condo, with a back-door view right out over the sea, and whose picture is on the cover of the only magazine in the place, as if to welcome us?

Viggo Mortensen on the cover of Vanity Fair - gotta be a good sign.

It's now 1:15 PM, thanks to our guides, and people are dying to get to the beach, but we have to wait for the guys to come turn on the water. Finally we walk down to the beach below the layers of thousands of villas and condos.

Hotel/resort chairs and umbrellas cover the beach; here you can ride a camel, learn to belly dance, learn to jazzercise to some loud bad Eurodisco music, shop, eat, suntan, get a massage, go topless, or snorkel. This beach covers the whole point of Sinai, is part of the Ras Mohammed Nat'l Park, Egypt's 1st(and so far only) national park (in '89). It's 480 square kilometers of land and sea, and has some of the world's most spectacular coral reef ecosystems.

In fact you can't even swim right off the beach; there are 2 pontoons you have to walk on to take you past the coral reef where it drops off. First thing we saw in the water (and we were reprimanded for walking out in it - I touched the Red Sea!!) was a stingray!

Jackie laid down to read a book by the Red Sea; Tracy, Hortense and I walked up the beach. Tracy & I walked out on a pontoon, and oh my god - the colorful fish - unbelievable! It was like being at the Newport Oregon aquarium. There are over 1000 species of fish and 150 species of coral in the Red Sea - this is one of the 7 Underwater Wonders of the World as of '89. I decided oh heck yea, I had to snorkel.

Tracy and I ate first, and a table full of 5 Italians stared at us... We walked back through the lobster-fried people,mostly Italian, and stopped to get the snorkling equipment we brought from the house. I tried the facemask on - hey I forgot I wear glasses. Wait - this isn't going to work! and I can't see shit without my glasses - so what's the point! Ay yi yi.

Tracy snorkeled and I just looked off the pontoon over the coral. My favorite fish was an irridescent green and blue. I walked back up the beach and wandered around, found nothing interesting, so went back out on the pontoon and sat with my feet in the water. After around 10 minutes a few big fish swam by - 2' long ones that swam with their mouths in O's half in and out of the water. A few turned into a dozen, to several dozen, to a hundred to a thousand. Back and forth, splashing under water, back to mouth the air and water surface. They swam within 3' of me - cool!

The guy ran us off the pontoon at 5 PM, and we walked back to the house. I hung out on the nice grass in the beautiful backyard overlooking the sea (and I had to lie down in the grass) till it got too dark to read, then we watched a Discovery channel show on the Sphinx. That's here! I was there!

We made dinner, and MA called to check on us, and to tell me my friend in LA emailed me (and this coincidence must be another good sign): "She says to tell you she's going to the premiere of Hidalgo and to a party afterwards to meet Viggo Mortensen." ... Bitch!

But I looked out the glass door as I said that, past the patio out over the Red Sea - the Red Sea!! I am in Egypt - who needs to go to some movie premiere with Viggo Mortensen! After dinner we went outside in the backyard, under the near-full moon, Mars also out there, looking over the sprawling condos of Sharm el-Shaikh on the Red Sea - I can't believe I'm in Egypt!!

Merri

Sunrise over the Red Sea :)

Our drivers were coming at 6:45 AM; Hortense said "I called our donkey and he is on the way." As we left at 7 AM we decided to drive up the east coast of Sinai to get to St Katherine's - a little shorter, and wow - what spectacular scenery.

Think Death Valley times a hundred - a hundred times more rugged and 100 times more mountains crammed in. We followed a rather narrow flat sand valley with the bare rugged mountains rising straight up from it. Sometimes a lone acacia -like tree would be sticking up, bright green in the layers of sand and brown/tan/gray/red mountains.

At one spot several camels with cute babies were trotting along the road by themselves. Shoki was either driven by Nabeel's urgent time schedule; or he is a male driver with an excuse to see how fast his car will go; or an Egyptian man - because he was roaring down some of those roads 140 km/hr. The only thing he slowed down for was the uphills which thankfully the Pugeot had trouble getting up with its load.

He liked especially to straddle the road, and really especially liked to pass on blind corners. He also spent more time looking in his 2 car mirrors at all of us rather than at the road.

At one checkpoint, where we turned west inland to St K, they didn't care about us but Shoki had to get out of the car, and once opened our trunk. Perhaps he has a driving reputation here!

Not much traffic on the road coming our way(whew!),mostly tourist vans headed our way for St K. When one of these passed us or he spotted one ahead, he was like your endurance horse on a ride - it got his competitive blood running hot and he had to catch up and pass him. Once we were alone, no others in sight, he cruised along at a moderate pace.

Driving west into the middle of Sinai we saw more Bedouin and the landscape became more fantastic. I could spend years photographing this place (but not in summer!) and never touch the surface. Maybe it's cuz it's new to me and a place I've always wanted to come,but it's one of the most amazing places I've ever been.

There were bedouins riding on camels, herding their goats, a woman wearing all black but a bright red cloth around her waist following the black and brown goats in the brown and tan desert - a Bedouin on her camel in the blowing white sand with fantastically wind-carved rocks and layers of mountains in the background. Bedouin shacks and lean-tos and tents with their sheep and goats scattered about - and their toyota land cruiser.

Camels off grazing at green bushes scattered all over in the desert - do the camels come when they are called or whistled for, or do they have to be gathered and herded like cows?

About 1/2 hour short of St K, a Bedouin was sitting on a hill on the side of the road; Shoki slowed the car down and stuck out his arm and waved. The Bedouin got up and started walking toward us, and Shoki, we know how he is, drove on.

We turned into the canyon where St K's monastery lay about 10 AM. We passed an old tiny Mosque and graves and Nabeel said this is where Moses' brother Arun (sp) was buried... he was Muslim too? Is Moses in the Koran? We were stopped at the checkpoint and they wanted Shoki's papers - and there was a problem again.

Nabeel spoke Arabic to Hortense, and I understood "If we can't go..." I thought - not go up Mt Sinai when we are here?? Oh well, what happens will happen. We moved on in 5 minutes. The parking lot was jammed with tour busses and people like the pyramids. The entrance to the monastery was narrow - either you go in or out but not at the same time, and you had to wait on 30 people pouring out before you could slip in.

Inside there were hoards of tour groups, mostly French. Nabeel ushered us in to the chapel. The monastery has been a place of pilgrimage since the 4th century when the Roman empress Helena had a small chapel built, by what was believed to be the burning bush from which God spoke to Moses.

It's called St Katherine after the legendary martyr of Alexandria who was tortured on a spiked wheel then beheaded for her Christianity. Her body was transported by angels away from the torture device, which spun out of control and killed the pagan onlookers, and onto the slopes of Gebel Katarina, the highest mountain in Egypt, south of Mt Sinai. The body was 'found' 300 years later by monks from the monastery. (All note: all my info for this trip is coming out of th Lonely Planet unless I say who told me things.) Her remains are in the alabaster coffin in the nave that we walked by.

After that there was a museum to see, but I really don't like museums, so I headed outside, which took a good 5 minutes, and I sat outside watching the hoards going in. I bet St K's is a very special place after it closes at noon, or staying in the monastery guesthouse, but with all the mobs I really got nothing out of it.

We did see the Burning Bush, still growing (it's huge) as Nabeel said but the Lonely Planet says it's "thought to be a descendant of the Burning Bush," and it doesn't matter, because aren't all these stories, from the pyramids to Christianity, wonderful?

Nabeel then showed us another little building with lots of bones & skulls - as I understood from Nabeel it was Christians persecuted and killed over the years and they felt the need to preserve those heads.

It smelled a bit like dirty socks.

Then Nabeel said "You go back to car, get your things, you climb the mountain if you like, it will take you 5-6 hours I think, maybe not want to climb, better comeback before dark, 6 hours to Cairo, I want to show you Moses' hot spring and --" (something else).

Hmm - we will do what we want, thank you, because we are paying you to drive us. Besides, the book said it would take 2 hours up, so I expected it should take us ~3 hours round trip. I said we'd be down by 3. Nabeel didn't think we could do it in 3 hours, I couldn't carry my heavy pack, (it wasn't heavy), we might need to ride camels, etc, but I tried to tell him this is part of what I do for a living.

Tracy and I bargained down a few Bedouin scarves, then we packed our things at the car, and Jackie, Tracy & I started up the trail to Mt Sinai to noon. Hortense followed us to the cafeteria and stayed there.

I'm not sure what altitude we started at, but the camel trail was a nice wide 10% grade for ~1 1/2 hours, plus, at the top, 20 minutes of 3750 Steps of Repentance laid by one monk as a form of penance, to a height of ~7500' on top. As we wound up the canyon it was getting prettier - and windier. I see why the Bedouins wear their layers of clothing - but man their eyeballs must be made of sandpaper when they're on the desert.

We trudged upward ~1 hour. We passed 3 older people resting on their way down who said it was still 2 hours to the top - no way! A little after this, Tracy decided to turn back, then Jackie did. No! Oh well - I wasn't turning back but I said I'd hurry. So I hoofed it on up.

There were several tea/snack stalls but they weren't open. I still had ice water from my frozen bottle this morning :). It wasn't too hot, and though the wind took alot out of you, it sure felt good. A bit of trash on the trail - water bottles and cookie wrappers and juice boxes. I picked up a couple and threw them in the trash cans that line the trail. I reached the staircase and started up. Had to stop several times to rest, and every time I turned back around to look,it was just stunningly beautiful.

Each time I said "S**t!" or "D**n!" then I remembered this was a holy place and not appropriate so I kept my mouth shut. Very near the top were more tea stalls, 1 with a Bedouin who said to me "Welcome" and "Coffee? coke?" I said and motioned I'd have tea on the way down. He said "2 minutes."

The last few steps, and up top, were lined with maybe 2 dozen covered rock tables of Bedouin things for sale... but there was NOBODY up top. I had the summit of Mt Sinai to myself!

On the summit is a Greek Orthodox chapel which was locked. The views were just spectacular - soaring jagged peaks, layer after layer of them. And just think, maybe Moses was up here and got the 10 Commandments. I mean - I'm on Mt Sinai!!

And I was really kicking myself on the way up that I didn't bring my Raven with me - my Raven who does endurance rides (he has over 1300 miles!), bags peaks (he's been up Mt Whitney and even signed the register) and visits national parks. Darn! But who knew I'd be coming to the Sinai and getting to climb Mt Sinai!?

Well, I compromised and took a picture of my Raven Dancer tattoo on the summit. Not the same as The Raven, but the spirit's there. It was dry and windy, but oh so peaceful with nobody (!) up there. I spent 20 minutes, then figured I'd better head back so as not to keep everyone waiting too long.

Good timing, as 2 guys were coming up the last few steps. Back down at the Bedouin hut they still weren't really open, but I stuck my head in, and they said "Come in, come in." I took my shoes off and I sat with Achmed and Selim and had a cuppa shai. The hut was made of stone and cement on the sides, to keep the always-blowing wind out, and lined with many thick blankets. The top was made I think with bamboo(of if this one wasn't, another was later).Bamboo comes from the Nile Valley. The camel hair blankets are woven and thick and warm and waterproof and fireproof.

Achmed said most people hike up to the summit at night, to see the sunrise. If they sleep up there it's at Elijah's Basin a little below, a plateau where a 500 yr old cypress tree marks the spot where the prophet Elijah heard God's voice. I looked down on that pretty spot as I hiked up and down.

Achmed also had 2 camels with his brother in his village, and he said I could comeback and he could take me everywhere out in the desert. I can bring all my friends too. "Can I bring my new husband?" He'd asked if I was married and I'd said No, maybe 10 years from now. "Yes, OK, yes, bring new husband, it is OK." I spent 15 minutes with them - had 35 minutes left to reach the bottom by 3 PM, so I ran down Mt Sinai - over half of it anyway.

There were plenty of people on the way up now. I pretended I could speak French (Tracy and Hortense were speaking French in the back seat - Tracy knows a bit of French because her husband Laurent if French, and I think Jackie knows a little French & German, and hey - I can speak English!) and told everyone "Bon jour," guessing most of them were French, or at least spoke it, which they did, and they said k"Bon jour" back.

My legs were shaking when I got down at 3:15, and I rounded the corner to see... not 5 impatient people but Jackie and Tracy waiting - for over an hour, everyone else gone but a few Bedouins and one open shop. Hortense and drivers gone.

The drivers showed up at 3:30; Nabeel said "Now we go to St K city, then on way home we stop at - some other monastery and Moses' spring..l." Tracy said "No, no more, we're ready to go home." We asked several times where is Hortense? N "Who is this Hortence?" Uh - the other girl who's been in the car with us the past 2 days." "Amina," I said. "Oh yes, Amina. She is waiting for us in SK city."

So we pile in the car and drive to the town,and we keep asking where Hortense is, and N says "Maybe in this white pickup coming I think." We slowed down but Hortense wasn't in the truck, and he still wouldn't tell us where she was. T "Can I call her?" N "Yes yes. I think maybe she is in this white pickup." We pass the pickup, Shoki slows down but keeps driving happily forward, nobody in the pickup. T "Can I have the phone?" N "Yes yes" and he doesn't hand it to her, and Tracy is about to KILL him, "I think maybe she is here soon." Finally he calls Hortense, and speaks to her in Arabic; I hear "pharmacia." So we drive to the pharmacy, and Hortense is there with a man Ali.

As Shoki puts some of Hortense's things in the car, plus 3 more boxes of food (she'd left us 2 already), Ali says to me "I could shoot that man."

Remember the Bedouin man on the side of the road that Shoki slowed down for? That was Ali. Shoki was supposed to stop - he had gotten a phone call from Ali just before we got to him, and Ali told him to stop. Ali knew we were coming because his Bedouin friends 30 miles down the road had spotted oru car and called Ali. And drive-happy Shoki just drove right on by.

This will be continued whenever I can... I have to go to a party tonite.

Merri

Ali's Ranch - A Stop on the Multi Day Ride??

...So now we are in the car, but Ali wants to take us driving out to see his place in the desert. He's arguing in Arabic with Nabeel - N wants to leave now (it's ~4 PM) because it's a 6 hr drive back to Cairo. Ali's saying if you stopped like I told you, we wouldn't be in this situation. I am taking them with me!

We climbed into Ali's truck, with him still arguing with Nabeel, and in parting, Ali said under his breath, "Why do you have to be so difficult!"

I just went with the flow - if we get back at 10, 11, 12, what does it matter. Another chance to see the desert - and this the Real Desert with someone who lives in it? Hell yea.

Ali isn't actually a Bedouin - he's an Egyptian from Dashur & has a farm there, that's how he knows Hortense. But he's lived out here off and on for 23 years, knows everybody, and is an 'honorary' Bedouin - he's part of their local council. The Bedouin like to have an outsider on their counsel to have and see the outsider's viewpoints - but you have to be an inside outsider, and it took him 23 years to be accepted.

Unlike with Shoki, the armed police at the checkpoint just smiled and waved us through. He drove us ~20 minutes back out the road we came in - to where he'd been waiting for us - I remembered the hill - and turned onto one of those anonymous Bedouin sand tracks that have been fascinating me since Hortense first pointed them out to me. I've been consumed with the questions, where do these tracks go, who made them and what they were doing - well now I know!

We drove down a sand wadi, past little canyons and around a hill - and this was Ali's place. Just about as far as you could see was his land - here as a Bedouin you pick a place, squat on it, dig a well, which unofficially makes the land yours, and when the government gets around to deciding to supplying you with electricity it officially becomes yours.

He's having workers build a stone hut, then will come sleeping huts and bathrooms - he's starting a horse riding/trekking business - and guess who will do the horse end of it:... Morad.

Then he drove us back across the road into more beautiful desert - sand, orange sandstone, pillars and cliffs, white mountains, hidden oases (if you know where to go) - you could ride forever here and not see it all.The altitude is ~3000' (like Ridgecrest) & it doesn't get as hot here as lower by the gulfs and sea.

Ali knew the movement of the moon and stars, the rhythm of the desert, how to track and catch rabbits, how to tell who drove on this track, and when. Here, if you need, say some gasoline, you put your can on the side of the road, and you come back later or tomorrow and some Bedouin has picked up your can, taken it to town and filled it for you.

I asked Ali about the camels - do they know to go home? "Yes, they know, or they will come when their owner calls. If you call, they will run away." In fact on the way back, he stopped by a camel of his friend who was grazing below the road, and he clapped his hands and said Ho home! and threw rocks near it till the camel started moving homeward. Ali gave me a round wind-polished agate-like stone he's found in the desert.

We reluctantly headed back - give me a horse and I could've just stayed here - to our waiting donkeys. I asked Ali if the little mosque was where Moses' brother wasburied. He said, "Moses had a brother?" Moses is, however, in the Koran also and he led the Esraelites across the Red Sea. So - how does Islam come out of this Jewish tale? I really want to learn how these 3 religions developed. And why can't we all just get along?

Nabeel was wanting to get us loaded in the car; it was 5:30. With 6 hours of driving ahead, Tracy and Hortense wanted to go back to Sharm to stay. Jackie & I wanted to go on to Cairo.After all my dream of galloping in the desert happens tomorrow morning.

Merri

Changing Donkeys in Midstream

Oh well - just don't think about it - insha'allah. God willing, we'll get there.

So we started off ripping along the winding road toward the west coast, at 100, 110 km/h, Shoki'e eyes darting in both mirrors at all of us, staring at Jackie testing her blood and giving herself an insulin shot, not watching the road, driving in the left lane. Hortense finally told him to stay in the right lane.

I got to work on my journal while I had a little light. Then I got a tap on my shoulder. Tracy leaned up to my ear (Nabeel sat beside me) and said: "Merri. Watch the driver's eyes. He's falling asleep." Oh, SHIT.

That's one thing that gets the adrenaline firing through me - a driver whose eyes are closing. Hortense said, "I've been watching him. His head nods and his eyes close." Well, this is bad. Insha'allah's not going to get us home in this situation.

Tracy and Hortense talked, then Hortense asked Nabeel how far it was to the nearest hotel: 100 km (already!) back to St Katherine; 250 km to a place on the coast. More talk, and Tracy & Hortense & I decided to make our drivers turn around.

This wasn't going to be easy, or pretty, but then none of us wanted particularly to die that night in a nasty car crash in the Sinai desert.

My Egyptian transmissions would've ended abruptly. They may still, whenever your number's up it's up, but here we had a choice in the matter. (Jackie was asleep in the front seat so was unaware of all this.)

Hortense started speaking Arabic to Nabeel and it went something like this: I've been watching our driver, he is tired and falling asleep, we want to go back to stay in St Katherine for our safety. Nabeel said something like this: Only 1/2 hour to the coast, then several hours to Cairo yes - which had nothing to do with our point.

Hortense's voice became a little stronger, saying the same thing, but with Nabeel interrupting her constantly. She switched to English: "Stop interrupting me!" and back to Arabic... Shoki is now wide awake and has slowed down (!)... Nabeel raises his voice and interrupts again and Hortense erupts in her commanding MOther Voice in Arabic STOP INTERRUPTING ME! Nabeel is turned backward in his seat and gesturing in Hortense's face with both hands and yells in English this time, "You watch how you speak to me. I am not your father!"

Hortense responded instantly with a soft but very forbidding voice - she knew just how to pitch it - that seemed to cast a spell on Nabeel because he didn't open his mouth. She sounded like a patient mother explaining something blantantly obvious to an errant stubborn child, and it ended in creschendoing thundering English... "because we are FUCKING SCARED!"

Nabeel was shocked into silence for a moment. "I hear you but I want to hear what THESE women have to say."

He turned to me. I said "We want to go back to St Katherine and spend the night, leave early in the morning."

N "Ah - no, not possible, I have many things to do tomorrow."

Me "OK you turn around, take us to St K, and you can still go on to Cairo tonite." I could see dollar signs in his eyes and he started to speak, but I interrupted him in my best imitation of a patient mother voice. "We will still pay you. Just take us back to St K. We'll feel safer. Drop us off and you can go to Cairo."

Tracy said "We're paying you, and you need to respect our wishes." By now Shoki had heaved a sigh, and actually put the car in park, and turned off the motor! He looked about ready to beat his head on the steering wheel.

N "How you get back to Cairo?"

I shrugged - who knew? We'd find something, no big deal. I made something up. "Morad will come pick us up - it is not a problem. You go to Cairo, after you drop us off in St K." I was going to jump out of the car if he didn't agree to take us back.

Nabeel couldn't believe us, but he told Shoki to turn around. Shoki REALLY couldn't believe it. Like one of the resigned Egyptian donkeys that accept their lot in life and do as they're told, Shoki sadly started the car, put it in drive, and turned aorund (almost pulling out in front of a car). This time he drove about 80 k/h - and guess what: he does drive with his lights off. Hortense kept talking to Shoki to make sure he wouldn't fall asleep.

Hortense called Ali and spoke French to him about the driver falling asleep. I knew then he'd drop whatever he might be doing, and come back to St K's.

We got back to St K at 7:30; they dropped us and our bags in front of the pharmacy and shook our hands and said "Thank you," a civilized gesture when we were both probably thinking, You Donkeys Asses. I don't remember who brought up the payment issue, but I said I had no US dollars on me (I didn't). Tracy and Jackie had enough for all of us but we wanted to think about this. I said "Is it OK to pay you tomorrow in Cairo - we don't have US dollars on us." He said yes.

After they left we debated. 2 of us thought we should pay them the $50 apiece we agreed on, 2 of us thought we shouldn't. We concluded - let MA decide! She'll know the proper thing to do.

ONe of our group was really worried about where we'd stay tonight, how we'd get back to Cairo; she didn't want to bother or impose upon MA or Ali or Morad... Me, I felt quite at peace and totally unconcerned with anything at all in life. Ali was on his way and would take care of things. If he hadn't been around to call, I still would have been totally unconcerned. I've learned in my travels to just accept help from someone when they offer. You'll pay them back in kind one day, and if you don't get the chance, you will help someone else. Just go with the flow and don't worry - things will work out, and almost always work out the way they are supposed to. I will miss my ride in the desert tomorrow, c'est la vie. Tonight and tomorrow morning I am meant to be (alive!) in St Katherine in the Sinai.

A Bedouin came up to us, "Welcome. Welcome to St K. If you need anything, guide, taxi, good place to sleep not so expensive, I will get it for you." Several taxis stopped to ask if we needed a ride. "La - shukran." The muezzin started singing in the mosque across the street. People walked by greeting each other, "Salaam wa aleikum." The almost-full moon was overhead, it was the perfect 75* night, I had no idea where I'd close my eyes tonight, or when or if I'd leave tomorrow, and I didn't care. It was so natural, and it was so peaceful here.

I really really wanted to sleep at Ali's place out in the desert under the moon and a warm thick camel hair blanket - but it was not to be. A hotel was decided on. Ali picked us up and drove us to several motels that wanted only US $ (~$58 for a double), and at the first place the bank card machine was broken. They wouldn't accept Egyptian pounds unless you had the bank exchange receipt (who carries those things?). Same thing at 3-4 other hotels, so Ali said, "I'll take you to this Bedouin camping place. The guy hates my guts but it's a nice place and very inexpensive."

The guy hates Ali because this guy took a tour group out on Ali's land and trashed it, so Ali made him clean up not only the area he trashed but the whole wadi. But the guy welcomed him/us in, showed us a couple of rooms with 3-4 sleeping matts on the floor in each - 15 pounds a person (like $2.50). Oh, I just love these places. This is how I love to travel - staying at these neat, simple quiet little traveller's places - and this one was clean and had several toilets that were clean.

We tossed our stuff in 2 rooms, then went outside and sat in the little short-walled enclosure filled with matts surrounding a fire. Ali was also there - he was calling around, trying to find us a ride to Cairo for the morning - and was going to stay the night to make sure we were OK. He was unable to drum up a driver this late - no problem we said, maybe we will find one tomorrow - whatever. We had tea, cigarettes, and talk under the moon in the Sinai. Steph would have just loved it.

Does it get any better than this?

Merri

The Road to Cairo

The first few days I was here I felt like I WAS cheating. Whenever I've travelled, it's always been out of my backpack, on my own, arriving in a foreign country by myself, having to figure out how to get into a city one you land at the airport, fend off the swarming taxi drivers who try to take you to the wrong guesthouse and try to rip you off. Try to find another guesthouse late at night when the one you pick out of the Lonely Planet is not there; figuring how to find the right bus to take you somewhere when everything is written in their language and nobody speaks English. You get your ass grabbed on busses that are so crowded you almost have a panic attack. Riding in a 3rd class train compartment and being so grateful you and a friend have actual 'seats' on a luggage rack, etc.

Here at MA's I would be - and was - cheating: I was staying in a house, being driven around by a driver, everything was arranged for me/us, food cooked for us. I need a bank? I'm taken to an ATM. I want to go to Sinai? It's all arranged for me and I have a beautiful villa to stay in. I am SO over thinking that it cheating!

This is just another view of living/travelling in a foreign country. I'd have never experienced any of this if I'd come to Egypt my normal way. It's great to be able to do it the hard way, but it's OK to do it the easy way, and important to do it if you get the chance.

Look at all these wonderful people I've met and things I've done. And MA isn't included in the wonderful people category - she's way beyond that.

Anyway - in our little $2.50 sleeping rooms the only thing to cover up with were these huge thick blankets that I'd love to have in the Sierras when It's 15*F outside. In here I'd suffocate. But wait - I had those beautiful Bedouin scarves I bought. I pulled one out, covered up with that, and that's all I needed.

I got up at 6:30 and went and sat in the little tea area. It was nice and cool, the sun just about to come up, with the mountains towering above us. Sunrise in a villa on the Red Sea one night, sunrise under Mt Sinai in a little Bedouin camping place the next night.

Ali joined the fire and made a few more phone calls, and said he found us a driver who'd take us back to Cairo for US $120. We were glad, as he would've taken us himself if nothing else turned up.

An Israeli couple was staying there; everyone seemed to like them or at least get along. I asked Ali about them, and he told me how things are in Israel. It's not the same thing we always hear in America - this was the point of view of someone who's lived here in Egypt his whole life (and he doesn't hate Israelis).

In America you just don't get the other points of view except the extremism. There are always more than 2 sides to every story and as Americans, saddly, we often get only one. It's hard to have any other opinions when you know only one side.

Our driver Said got there around 8:30 with a nice roomy van; Ali said we were going to pick up some other people, drop them off in Taba, then he'd take us to Cairo. That was 1 ˝ hours of backtracking, but we didn't care and I was thrilled because we'd be seeing a new portion of the Sinai.

We picked up an Israeli couple and a British couple at St Katherine's monastery - they'd climbed Mt Sinai at night to watch the sunrise - and they were a bit - uh, slightly - perturbed to see that the taxi they'd hired to take them to Taba now - surprise! - had 4 more passengers and baggage. Uncle Ali (as Hortense calls him) has his connections.

The Israeli man put his arm around Said's shoulders and they went off to negotiate. The Israeli man was friendly (while the others slept); we talked as we drove back to the east coast. The Bedouins were out there doing what they do every day: herding goats, riding camels. A few acacia-like trees dotted the wadis occasionally.

The Israeli man didn't know their name in English, but he did say that a Bedouin will hang something from a tree, and come back a month or a year later, and it will still be there. Isn't this Bedouin concept of not taking what's not yours so nice?

It was warmer again on the coast, and the Gulf of Aqaba was a beautiful inviting blue and turquoise. The coastline was dotted either with hotels and condos (Hortense called them "mushrooms" because they pop up and grow so very fast) and little primitive palm/bamboo huts to stay in (those looked fun!) - diving and snorkeling heaven.

We turned into the Sofitel Hotel where these guys were staying and we went in to use the nice bathrooms. Oh my - I'd have no problem cheating and staying here a night or 2. Usually my only way into these fancy places are to use the toilets, like I was doing.

As we drove along the gulf, we could see - Saudi Arabia! Tracy and I had thought we could see it in Sharm but it was only an island. This was really Saudi Arabia! And then before we got to Taba, we could see Jordan!!

Tracy said "Merri - we are looking at Saudi Arabia and Jordan!"

I just can't get over this. Our driver Said stopped at a pretty bay for us to take pix (his idea - and I'm sure he knew the café owner), and later at a spot where ancient pilgrims on their way to Mecca carved writing in stone. We stopped for lunch at a little dive in Taba, and while the driver left, supposedly to do something with our names and passport numbers, we walked down an alley to the beach - and sat by and waded in the Gulf of Aqaba, with Jordan and Saudi Arabia in view.

I mean - I was standing in the Gulf of Aqaba!! Maybe nobody gets as excited as Tracy and I do about these things. We walked back after half an hour and each had a HUGE lunch - huge plate of Egyptian rice, baladi bread and tahina, 3 different types of fried fish, plus a bowl of salad - each! And the tomatoes must taste very good here, because I'm eating them, and I don't think it's just because I'm in Egypt. We couldn't finish it all.

Back on the road we drove back out of Taba, away from Saudi Arabia and Jordan views, and turned inland on the upper highway crossing the center of Sinai - yet another view of the peninsula. First was a winding poorly paved road through a very narrow canyon - through more jagged harsh mountains - I've just run out of words to describe this country - I give up. See my pictures when I get them downloaded.

We emerged from this canyon onto a high desert - and a thick sandstorm. Which lasted only a mile and we drove obviously onto heavier sand which didn't blow. All kinds of desert we passed: flat, absolutely flat, as far as the eye could see; hills, mountains. Herds of goats, scattered camels, some of them loaded, but just grazing with no Bedouins in sight. We passed a herd of goats tended by a few women; they were dressed all in black except for their faces - which they covered with a veil (except for their eyes) when we passed.

Out in the middle of nowhere in the light sandstorm would be a police checkpoint - and a mosque (or a gas station and a mosque). Said would stop, shake hands, and hand the guys a newspaper. We passed a little Peugeot-like car stuffed with people, with the top of the car overloaded with boxes, suitcases, TVs - like that IKEA VW commercial on TV. The 2nd car like that we passed - guess what. Said knew them. Having taxi'd all around this area for 23 years, he knows a lot of people.

He pulled beside them (yes we're going about 110 km/hr, luckily not a lot of traffic) and waved and honked; they waved and honked. 2 or 3 flashed especially big grins and waved at us. They were Egyptian men returning from working in Jordan. Said let them pass us, and we passed them again, and there were our new friends, grinning and waving heartily. I said "Tracy, they love you!" T "That's why I'm keeping my head down. Boy, if I had a big ego, I'd be really happy here!"

I felt a little safer with this driver - until Hortense said he was getting sleepy. This must be an Egyptian man driver thing? So she climbed in the front seat and kept him talking - all the way 3 hours to Cairo. She later said "I ran out of things to say! Every little bird or camel or hut I saw I'd ask him about it. He started just grunting answers, so then I got him to talk about his family."

Hortense saves our lives again. Not only did we enjoy her company but it was so handy being with an Arabic speaker. Gives you a huge mental cushion of comfort.

A couple of places Said hit the brakes: drifting sand on the road. "Black ice in the Sinai," said Tracy. We crossed under the Suez canal again (!!) and emerged into a full-on sandstorm. Wind, blowing sand, low clouds - and sprinkles! Oh dear, this looked serious (We heard later the airport was closed) - this could mean my dream of galloping in the desert just may not happen this trip.

But oh well! I wouldn't have traded away anything I did. If it's meant to be it will be, and if it doesn't happen it wasn't meant to be.

The closer we got to Cairo, the traffic picked up, and Said found the REAL gas pedal, and he scared the shit out of me several times and I wasn't even looking. I was thinking about how nice a good shower and HAIR WASH would feel at MA's (I am NOT travelling with long hair again), but after a few near sideswipes and scary swerves, I amended that to thinking it sure would be nice just to GET to MA's.

We crossed the Nile into Giza, and suddenly the 3 great Pyramids pop up right there on the edge of the country where the desert starts - how fantastic, I think every time - does anybody ever get used to that view?!

We did get to MA's at 5:30, and what a wonderful reception we got from all our friends: 25 leaping bouncing yipping ecstatic wagging happy dog tails, 2 cats 2 turtles 3 goats and a camel. Or - I'm not sure, maybe I was really tired and some of that was a desert mirage. The shower felt great and the cold beer went down good.

MA's son Nadim and his girlfriend Vanessa (just returned after Nadim's job in Cyprus ended) came over, and we had a great meal of chili and fuul. Then Nadim, Vanessa, Tracy and I walked in the cool damp evening (felt so nice!!) to Morad and Hortense's house. They were having a minor party and some seriously fierce soccer X-Box games. I only kept my eyes open for an hour before I had to slip home.

the best is yet to come :)

Merri

Dreams Fulfilled

We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. This was My Day. Tracy didn't feel good so she stayed home. MA and J dropped me off at Morad's. I suddenly realized I hadn't put a charged battery in my digital camera - some professional photographer I am!!

This was my only chance to get pictures of me galloping in the desert! I was about to run on foot back to MA's when I saw a car with a driver in the driveway who'd just dropped some people off. I didn't know who he was, didn't care - I ran up to him somewhat panicked. "Oh! Oh! Can you drive me down the road very quickly!?" "Yes yes come."

I ran around to the passenger side and jumped in, and the driver backed out of the drive, even as the 2 ladies I hadn't met yet gave us some startled looks. He drove me to MA's where I ran in and grabbed the new battery and ran back out to the car and hopped in. He drove me back, I thanked him profusely, and I hopped out to meet the ladies whose driver I'd carjacked. They were Denise and Fiona, with (what a great coincidence this is) Arabian Horse World magazine.

Fiona and the art director from the magazine are flying out with us on the same flight tomorrow. Could anybody have planned this any better? "By the way," I said, "I am a horse photographer":)

Denise was riding with us and Julie (and her black stallion) and Hortense and Morad and Christina. A groom leads out into the sunshine my mount: a huge magnificent flaming red stallion with a flowing mane and white-rimmed eye. My eyeballs popped out, and when I climbed aboard my jaw dropped.

He turned into a fire breathing dragon - he tried to savage the groom holding him and tried to bite my leg several times, and he lifted me out of my saddle (English saddle, not used to this!), and lunged, mouth wide open into the palm branch we walked under as if he could devour the whole piddly little date palm itself.

When he walked he bowed his beautiful neck to his chest and his mane rippled over both sides of his neck and his forelock covered his face. His steps were light but he was so terrifically powerful I was like a mosquito on his back.

I noticed the reins were extra double duty thick - probably because he pulls so hard he's broken a few. Great! As we walked a short distance down the paved road, he shook his mighty head and jerked it down again, and I knew he could launch me to the moon if he wanted.

Oh, Morad, what have you done to me??

We turned into the mango grove which drops you right onto the desert at the Sun Temple. Harry was walking calmly but I could just feel him ready to explode. I remembered the first racehorse I rode just bolting away with me at a dead run (or so it felt) and I had no control and I was scared.

This is why I love endurance riding - it's my speed (slow), and lots of it. We got to the sand, and there were maybe 7 or 8 of us, and I thought Oh God, we're all going to take off like a cavalry charge, or Morad's going to come charging by me, and Harry's going to deposit me neatly in the sand (thank goodness it's sand).

But everybody just walked on, chatting; Morad trotted near me, and I said "Morad, you might've put me on too much horse." He gave me a big grin and said, "He's the lightest one I have," over his shoulder as he cantered off to some other riders on a hill. His lightest one? Right. I was going to die out here. Visions of getting my face smashed again popped into my head - I wanted to gallop in the desert!? How 'bout just a pleasant little canter on a quiet little gelding instead of this colossal dragon?

Morad came cantering back, and he and Pal took off galloping up a little wadi. Hortense said to me, "Come, we can go up this hill." I thought, well, if he bolts off at a dead run, at least it's sand and he's going uphill. I had a cross on Harry's neck if I needed it though so far out here on the sand, I hadn't touched his mouth. I was ready though, I knew it was coming.

I moved my hands just a little, and thought Forward, (but not too fast), and Harry bowed his head and floated into a trot. I could feel every powerful bone and muscle of this horse beneath me; I wanted to canter in the desert!? Heck this trot is pretty darn nice, thank you.

At the top of the hill where it flattened out, I thought Oh Shit, here we go - and Harry did nothing but continued floating over the sand at the trot awaiting my command. I did notice I was still barely touching his mouth. He had a big smooth trot and was ahead of Hortense so she moved Maximus to a canter.

I thought, OK "THIS is where Harry bolts off" and what the hell, it's time to find out if I'm going to hit the sand or get scared. I gritted my teeth, I touched my legs to his sides every so lightly - and Harry bowed his flaming head and touched his nose to his chest and broke into a canter the same speed as his trot, and I still had never touched his mouth.

Oh my God, I thought, what is this thing I am riding!? We cantered on, trotted on, and came to another group of people, and Pal joined us. We'd left the others behind by now, and I asked Pal if it was OK for me to have left Morad behind and he said Yes of course.

Mohammed said, "Come with us," and Pal said "Let's go!" and he took off. I said to Harry, "Let's go!" He tucked his nose to his chest, picked up the right lead I asked for and we cantered along the western Sahara desert (or the Libyan desert), past the pyramids of Abu Sir. We came to the top of the little wadi we were in and the desert flattened out - acres and miles and countries to ride through - anywhere!

I could ride from here straight to Morocco if I wanted to! Morocco! The group cantered onward; my wonderful mount and I canted by ourselves 50 yards away. Much of the footing out here is not as deep as you'd think - a galloping hoof leaves an impression as deep as one on a groomed racetrack, though the sand's just a little harder.

A lot of the sand is also rocky, and it almost sounds like a gallop over cobblestones. The consistency/footing of the sand changes: from the harder sand to the rocky sand with firmer footing, to soft sand where they do sink down. I could feel the change in the footing and the adjustment in Harry's stride - I'm sure the horses quickly learn to read the footing - though he never bobbled. I could've drunk a glass of champagne from his back. And I still didn't touch his mouth - the reins just sat on his neck.

Harry and I drifted further from the pack; I urged him to a gallop, and my magnificent steed and I flattened out into a gallop, passed the pyramid and temples of Saqqara, and it hit me: oh my God, I am GALLOPING A HORSE IN EGYPT BY THE PYRAMIDS!! I could have cried.

I did cry, many times that morning. This couldn't be real, I was in another world and another time. I am so sorry Steph and my friend Connie were not out here also, but I shared this ride with them anyway. Plastic Walmart-but-not-Walmart-but-worldly-cancerous-plastic bags rolled across the desert like Nevada tumbleweeds.

One was heading our way and would intersect us if I didn't change course. MA said these Egyptian Arabs didn't spook at flying plastic bags. I noticed none of them had in our rides in the countryside. We continued on course, and Harry galloped right on over the plastic bag. I veered back toward the others; we climbed another hill and looked around us.

It was a beautiful partly cloudy and cool day with a slight breeze - just perfect. We walked/slid down the hill, and Pal said "Let's do the Back 40," or something like that, and we all took off again. Pick your path - anywhere, any direction, any speed, any company - just go! Pal and I fell behind the others, and slowed down to a walk.

He said "I read some of your stories on EnduranceNet - I just can't wait to see how all these Eccentrics you're meeting are going to flesh out!" He also read about mine and Steph's tea with the Sun Temple guide. Yes, he said, we did eat his lunch.

NO matter how poor they are they pride themselves on sharing whatever they had. To have refused to share his tea and food would've been impolite. But geez, I didn't have to pig out! Pol's wife is, and I may have said this incorrectly earlier, the Norwegian ambassador to Ethiopia. He talked about his wife's job, and Addis Ababa and Ethiopia. "You have not seen, nor can you imagine, the utter misery and poverty in Ethiopia. I've been to slums in Mexico City and Bogota - they don't compare."

It sounded absolutely hopeless with no light on the horizon - not to mention completely depressing: civil war, famine, disease, millions of refugees, an unbreakable cycle. I said "Then there's no solution." Pal "Short term, no. Long term, yes. You just have to keep hope and keep pushing forward."

His wife is coming to Egypt Friday; I'm sorry I didn't get to meet and talk with her. WE talked about ruins in the area - he said there are hundreds of known sites buried out here - they just aren't excavating them. A lot of it's political and a lot of it is Egypt's treasury - to be dealt out over time.

Pal told me Harry had another name: Asa'il. It means "Honey." Julie of the new black stallion had previously owned him, and couldn't quite pronounce Asa'il. "It sounds like Asshole; I'm giving him a new name!" And Harry he became.

By now we'd lost the others - here riders can cover a lot of ground and they quickly become spots on the horizon - they'd swung east around a string of sand hills. We walked till we got out of the deeper sand, and Pal said "Let's see if we can find them."

As we walked along, I couldn't keep my hands off Harry. I patted his beautiful neck, I ran my hands through his mane, I patted his big red butt. No queen had ever had a more beautiful seat on a golden thrown than I had right here. "How do you say 'You are beautiful' in Arabic?" I asked Pal. He said "'Enta gameel.' It means not only physical beauty, but beautiful from the inside." Oh, yes. I leaned over Harry and put my arms around his neck and I hugged him. "Enta gameel, Asa'il."

Pal moved his horse to a trot, to a canter. Harry graciously bowed his head and floated to a trot, and bowed his head again and glided to a canter. Pal was now galloping, full out running ahead of me. Harry asked me - asked me! - if he could go. "Meshe Harry!" Go on.

He spread his wings, and we ran through the desert. The wind roared in my ears and whipped his mane in my face and drove the tears out of my eyes and across my face. If I cocked my head to the side I no longer heard the wind but the 4-beat of his hoofs on the sand. I dropped the reins and put my hands on that golden red neck and felt his strength through my fingertips. "Enta gameel Asa'il!"

Maybe it lasted a minute, or maybe 10 minutes - but I'll never forget it. We rounded the corner and saw nobody, so we canted on to the top of a hill. Still no other riders, so Pal said "Let's go that way. I'll show you something." And so we canted on, down one row of hills into a little wadi and back up another hill.

Harry adjusted his strides perfectly to the uphill or downhill, softer sand or hard. We crested the hill that Pal had picked out - and we met MA, Jackie and Christina coming from the opposite direction. On top here was a big hole about 20 feet deep and maybe a car's width all around with a hint of remains of a wall, with sand piled all around the hole. "It's a tomb. They just aren't bothering with it because there's so many other big things. There's hundreds and hundreds of them."

Can you just imagine what this area looked like 4000 years ago before sand buried everything? You just get the feeling out here that you are riding over ancient treasures everywhere. We walked down the hill, and walked and trotted along a while, talking. Harry had a big walk and we were out in front, when I spotted 5 or 6 riders off in the distance. I wondered if it was Morad and Hortense and Denise.

Wait - why wonder?

I can zip on over there and find out! I lifted my fingers and Harry confirmed with a bow and we cantered a mile across the desert. As we got close, I could see it was nobody I knew - it looked like a low plodding tour group. Boring! Harry and I arc'd in a big circle and cantered the mile back to our group.

Pal then trotted up to me. "You want to go?" He read my mind! Off we cantered to the distant Japanese Hill, near Saqqara. And cantered and cantered and cantered, over buried remains of Egypt's 4000 year old history.

Japanese Hill is where the Japanese are excavating a huge site a little distance, maybe ~1/2 mile from the Saqqara Step Pyramid, which is likely part of Saqqara. It's the highest hill around, and you can see the 3 Great Pyramids of Giza, Abu Sir, Saqqara, and the Bent and Red Pyramids from Dashur, stretching north and south as far as you can see.

The pollution wasn't so bad this morning after yesterday's bit of rain. (MA said that last year Cairo surpassed Mexico City with the worst polluted city in the world.)

Harry posed with me up top, then we slid our way down and galloped around the hill to meet the others. I took pictures of everybody, and kept handing off my camera to people: "Take my picture!" Usually I prefer to be behind the lens. Not here - not with my new gorgeous Egyptian boyfriend! (Who was quite photogenic I might add.) Please - nobody tell Stormy about this. He gets very jealous.

And OK, now I understand a little the Egyptians' love affair and addiction to stallions. I think this is the first time I've ridden one. They are different! We trotted on past the Abu Sir pyramids, heading back home. I was looking at a nearby hill, and thought - why look, just go! I turned my hand, and Harry picked up a canter, loped to the top, and we stopped and looked around one last time, then trotted back down to join the others, to the Sun Temple, and exited the desert at the mango grove.

I was so happy I cried all the way home. I didn't have to say anything to Morad when he and Hortense and Denise got back a short time later. He laughed. "See? I told you!" I have him a big hug - thank you, that was the best ride I've ever had in my life. I'd've given Harry a kiss on his big red nose but he'd've probably bitten my face off. (And Stormy would've been REALLY jealous, because he loves the nose kisses.)

Ahh - that dream fulfilled, it was time to move on to the rest of our last day in Cairo. We zipped back to the house then zipped to Somiya's stables across the road - she was having a brunch for everyone. I ate enough for 3 - starving after my desert romp with my flaming wild Egyptian stallion. Another trip to MA's house, then we drove in to Maadi with her. Meeting us there would be Nabeel, to collect his Sinai guide money. We'd pre-agreed on paying him US $100, instead of $150 (US dollars are better than gold here). Two of us thought they deserved nothing at all since they didn't get us home and we had to pay an additional US $120 to the new driver, not to mention the driving fiasco in Sharm, and Nabeel trying to take us everywhere HE wanted to go; two of us felt like we could just pay what we'd agreed on, since during our argument to turn around and go back to St Katherine, I said "You can go back to Cairo tonight, we'll still pay you." Technically I hadn't added "what we agreed on."

So we left it to MA to tell us what she thought was best, and she said, and her son Nadim agreed, pay them no more than US $100. Neither Jackie nor Tracy nor I were looking forward to the confrontation, and MA said what we'd all been praying she'd sayy, "Don't worry. I'll take care of it" - like she's graciously taken care of everything here.

We cowered in the den where MA's comuter was sending and receiving email while she went to meet Nabeel at the door, pay him our $, chew him out for us, and send him away. Thanks (yet again) MA.

We went back to the Bedouin market store where we all bought more goodies. The man pulled out something to show us: a very rare very ornate and very old woman's Bedouin head covering. He said there's a picture of it in the January Conde Nast travel magazine.

It was ornately decorated with rows of silver and gold coins - the woman can use these if she needs money. The number of silver/gold pieces on the brow band indicate how many boys ahd had, girls on the other side, and grandchildren. The different colors of cloth indicate what family and tribe she belongs to. Exquisite colorful beadwork hands down both sides of the veil. Stones to protect her from the evil eye might hang from the corners; gold and silver charms, including the hand which also protects against the evil eye, also hang from the browband. This one he said was worth several thousand dollars.

I asked if I could take a picture of him holding it up. "No." Oh, OK, no problem. "I will put it on you." (This guy liked to tease us - MA's known him a long time). "Wait wait! You need a scarf." He ran to get a scarf to drape around me; then I was readied for a picture.

He gave us each an embroidered Bedouin bag on the way out. Another stop or 2 in Maadi, always joining the mysterious Cairo traffic flow. It's fascinating, hypnotic (if you can stand to look), totally indecipherable and disorganized - but somehow it works. No computer program could even analyze this - but I am just starting to scratch the surface of understanding this foreign language.

I expect like all language it takes years to really master it. MA says, "Think School of Fish," and that is about the best way to describe the Cairo traffic. Always moving forward, flowing, weaving in and out, side by side, sometimes very close but never touching, completely independent of each other yet an intricate ballet of teamwork - and this includes cars, busses, donkey carts. On the highway from Giza to Cairo over the Nile, yea, sure, there are sometimes stripes painted for maybe 2 or 3 lanes (wide enough for 3 or 4 cars each), or maybe not, maybe the paint dried on the paintbrush as they got further away from the paint can, and they abruptly end.

They don't mean anything, and I mean, they don't mean anything. On this highway over the Nile you might suddenly get, say, a terrible craving for a bite of cauliflower. You're driving 100 km/h on the far left side of the (usually) one-way Cairo east-bound side of the highway (in what we Americans might call "the left lane"), and you see - what luck! - a donkey pulling none other than a cartful of cauliflower!

You dart among the fish (no sudden swerving, and you might even use your turn signal) and ever so smoothly (one hopes) you make it to the far right 'lane' where you stop in front of the donkey, and he stops behind you, and you get out of your car, and you and the cauliflower man exchange pleasantries and piastres and cauliflower on the sidewalk while the donkey, used to this, waits ever so patiently as the rest of Cairo zooms by at 100 km/h.

Or, maybe one hot afternoon you're zooming home in the far "left lane" and you're dying for a warm coke or hot peanuts or something, and one of those little handcarts just happens to have been parked in the far "right lane", so you deftly swirve over quickly, pull over, get out of your car, and chat and eat peanuts in the hot sun on the highway over the Nile, while other drivers wish they had time to stop for hot peanuts. It all just works - but don't EVEN ask me to try to drive in it.

We were driving along this bridge back to Giza and Abu Sir for the last time (this trip) around 6 PM. I said to Tracy for the last time (this trip): "Tracy - there are the Pyramids!!"

They stuck up out of the desert and over the highrises in the dusk. A full moon was riding over the irrigated fields. A lot of peasants/farmers were on their way home - a parade of carts and animals: a donkey with a big bulging load of berseem (their clover/alfalfa, grown everywhere in the fields and cut fresh daily) also carrying a man, and ponying 2 gamoosas (water buffalo) and 1 cow; a donkey pulling a huge cartload of berseem and pulling a man pulling 3 gamoosas; a loadless donkey leading a man leading a cow and gamoosa; any combination, all going home to eat and rest after a hard and long day's labor to survive, before going out early next morning.

We went home to start packing - we were going to Janie's for dinner, where Nadem and Vanessa were making a special moussaka - when MA realized Nadim had left her computer in Maadi. Ahh! We had to have that to download my pictures from today, and burn all my pictures to CD before I left. I rode with MA back into Maadi and soaked up more of the knowledge and lore and stories she imparts. We were back at MA's at 8 and I quickly crammed stuff in my bag before we went to Janie's. I said hi to Harry as we drove by his house on the way. At Janie's we had a great dinner and a last visit (this trip) with our friends in Egypt. When we left the full moon was shining straight down on us. I said goodbye to Harry as we drove past the last time (this trip). Enta gameel, Asa'il. Shukran. J

Merri

The End - this trip :)