Sharm El-Sheikh: Egyptian Los Cabos

Just finished three days in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort city at the tip of Southern Sinai on the Red Sea famous for its diving. The whole area is, geographically speaking, basically mountain deserts coming right up to the ocean with deep indigo blue waters. I made 4 dives in the Ras Mohamed National Park here to discover massive underwater landscapes with sheer cliffs dropping off into the deep, caves you could move in and out off, and teeming with lush multi-colored corals and tons of schools of fish. The underwater visibility here was stunningly clear and stretched far. I saw a new fish – Crocodile Fish. Didn't see what people claim here is pretty common – sharks, mantaray, hammer heads, and few others.

The town by itself (with its two parts, Old Sharm and Naama Bay, that are 10 minutes apart) has been turned into a European tourist destination with almost nothing Egyptian about it. Predominantly the tourists are from Russia, Italy and UK. The town is pretty deserted during the day when people are either diving or snorkeling or lallygagging on the beaches of major resorts runs by the likes of Hilton, Marriott, Sofitel, and some European outfits like Movenpick and Iberotel. The evening comes alive with tourists wandering the promenade trying all kinds of non-Egyptian food (Hard Rock cafe', TGI Fridays, Italian food places, etc.), smoking sheesha (hookah) at upscale versions of Cairo coffee shops and shopping for souvenirs.

And then the whole place explodes after 11pm when the discotheques dance music. start pumping out loudAll three of major clubs - Pacha (best space - partly open air), Little Buddha (best music), and Hard Rock Cafe (so-so) were jumping till 4am. At night the whole place does not have a hint of Egypt, the Egypt I discovered everywhere else - traditional conservative muslim society. The only exception was that in all the clubs there was a noticeable feature - multitudes of Egyptian men hanging out at the periphery of the dance floor staring and feeling awkward. The younger ones are much more adventurous to hit the dance floor and mingle with the tourists but majority abstain from such outings. A crazy dynamic!

The weird thing about the whole place is you see almost no Egyptian women. Since they do not work in any of the establishments (restaurants, souvenir shops, boats in the marina, etc.) its basically Egyptian men running everything. May be if Burqini's take off in Egypt the women here can enjoy the beaches and so many other water sports activities available to them.

People mentioned that the government is heavily promoting Sharm El-Sheikh as the new face of Egypt. I think that is unfortunate! On my first day of dive I noticed two warships off the coast and my dive master (an Australian) mentioned that the President was in town hosting some conference. Because of recent history of terrorists attacks here the security is very tight and police sets up road blocks at the drop of a hat. I almost missed my flight out of town because of one such police check post where the police officer harassed my hotel minibus drives for good 15 minutes!

In the end though, Sharm El-Sheikh is a fabulous place to dive. And I guess if you are trying to escape the cold of St. Petersburg, a good place to chill out by the beach and party hard at night. But nothing else if you want to experience real Egyptiana! It can be a good break and a nice stop as you continue along to other attractions up the Sinai coast (more diving!) and peninsula, including hiking up to Mt. Sinai and exploring Bedouin life.

Desert Travels: Encounters With Dali’s Dreams, “Shamanic Consciousness!” & Berber Libertarianism

I spent almost 5 days in the Western Desert in Egypt and discovered some amazing landscapes, proud people and interesting fellow travelers.

FYI – (a) The Western Desert covers two thirds of Egypt and extends for 310 miles west of the river Nile. (b) Sahara in Arabic means desert - so Western Desert in Egypt is a sahara but not the Sahara!

Black & White: A Natural Expression in Surrealism

My first stop was an overnight camping trip about 300 miles south west of Cairo where one discovers the wonders of two distinctly contrasting landscapes - Black Desert and White Desert. In the Black Desert, landscape changes color from sandy beige to a smattering of dark black along the desert floor and mountain tops. (The scenes here reminded me of the burnt out mountain sides one notices after forest fires in California.) The thin layer of black in the desert apparently is from the debris and lava spewed out by volcanoes active here many millions of years ago!

I found the White Desert to be much more stunning. It is the soft limestone of this desert sculpted by desert winds into bizarre and fantastic shapes that takes your breath away. When you spend a long night with utter silence and a black sky with gazillion stars, you start thinking of mother Nature as the most scintillating craftswoman (or craftsperson)... Here are some pictures of these beautiful desert deviants!

Faces of The Desert – Indigenous & Outsiders

During this part of the trip I ran into many interesting people including an Italian geologist who was kind enough to explain a lot about the rocks and sand in the desert. Only a geologists can say – “Oh! these fossils are pretty young, say about 30 million years”. (My idea of pretty young things is obviously “pretty” different!)

And then I ran into this group of German and Swiss people who had just come back from a 5-day camping trip in the desert as part of a “Shamanic Consciousness” seminar. They talked about experiences of ecstasy and love and used phrases like “Natural Language Processing” to train the mind. Finally a guy said I should check out the energy in that room in the ruins of the Temple of Oracle in Siwa (an oasis – see below) where the Sybil (the black priestess) used to make her pronouncements. Finally something I could experiment with – I stood in that room looking for energy - flowing or static. To me it all sounded like a bunch of hooey – I didn't feel no energy – but then may be I haven't yet met a real Shaman.

Check out another weird story below -

Life in the Oases

My idea of an oasis was a little watering hole in the middle of the desert surrounded by palm groves and few, if any, dwellings around. It turns out all the five major oases in the Western Desert are full-fledged towns (with populations in tens of thousands) set in geological depressions many miles long & wide and sometimes below sea-level, with the surrounding desert floor acting as an escarpment around the oasis. These oases have multiple springs feeding them with water. These springs can be natural or man-made; cold or hot water; fresh or salt water. I spent a few nights in two oasis - Bahariya and Siwa.

The Siwa oasis, close to the Libyan border is much more interesting for many reasons -

1. It has a long and interesting history – among other things, Alexander the Great visited here to be declared son of Zeus by the famous Oracle in Siwa; a few centuries later Cleopatra visited as well and bathed in one of the natural springs (I swam there as well – the bubbles do tingle!); the British and the Italians bombed each other around Siwa during WWII...

2. Siwa's indigenous population is Berber who are fiercely independent and nearly ignore the diktats of regional and federal government. In my conversations with the locals, I learnt that there are 11 tribes, each headed by a Sheik. These 11 Sheiks basically run the affairs of the village. E.g. (a) Locals buy and sell land and the transactions are not recorded by the government but blessed by the Sheiks; (b) To settle disputes (like water theft for irrigation purposes or other infractions) among Siwans, the Sheik of the plaintiff and the Sheik defendant discuss over a cup of tea and hammer out solutions including monetary compenation and 80 beatings by stick publicly! The local police and judiciary is involved for matters related to non-Siwans.

The economy of the oases mainly revolves around growing palms and olives and to a lesser extent figs, apricots etc. Tourism is another major source of income for the locals who in addition to selling regular lodging-related services also sell desert safaris (including sand surfing, dune buggies, etc.) and handicrafts.

Here are some of my encounters with people, landscapes and life generally around these oases -

Face(t)s of Cairo

The last few days I have been walking through the streets of Cairo, meeting the locals (not as much as I would have preferred!), taking cab rides, and visiting some of the sights.

The overarching theme: Cairo is a non-stop commotion.

The chaos of masses, traffic, jaywalking en masse (this will be heavenly for Rudy Giuliani!), haze, pollution, food on the sidewalks, smells, more than 120,000 ancient items in Egyptian museum, history spilling into the streets with monuments and mosques from the times of rulers of all kinds (and hard to remember!) - Abbasid Caliphs, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks (the slave soldiers), Ottoman Turks, modern Egypt... blah, blah, blah... the list goes on!

After the Pyramids in Giza, the best part in Cairo has been the food, conversations with the locals, and some of its Islamic architecture. Luckily two most common foods in Egypt are vegetarian - fuul (a dish of slow cooked fava beans with garlic and garnished with parsley, olive oil, lemon, salt, black pepper and cumin - it sooooo yummy!) and kushari (a mix of noodles, rice, black lentils, and dried onions served with fiery tomato sauce). They also have falafel, just much crispier and flat and they call it ta'amiyya. The sweets have been another god send - my favorie, kunafa, a vermicelli-like pastry over a vanilla base and so sooooaked in syrup... slurp, slurp, slurp!

And then there are the ahwas, the coffee shops where men gather in the evenings and stay put till midnight and beyond to talk about everything (except criticize their "much beloved" President Hosni Mubarak loudly) over many cups of shai (tea), coffee and smoking sheesha (hookah or hubly bubly, as the travel books call them!). I hung out here two nights straight and for the record, "...I didn't inhale and never tried it again."!!!

Here are some of my encounters in Cairo - its people, neighborhoods, street scenes and foods, set to the latest hit single "Lealy Nahary" from Amr Diab, Egypt's answer to Ricky Martin... Before that furrow deepens on your forehead, you better be careful, Egyptians are very proud of him since he has won World Music Awards as the best selling Arabic artist thrice!

Click To Play

Giza Pyramids & Sphinx: Face-to-Face With Ancient AND Contemporary Egypt

Yesterday, on a hazy morning, I took a 45 minute cab ride from Cairo city center to the Giza Plateau. Its only about 15 miles but the notorious Cairo traffic gets in the way.

The Giza Pyramid complex (or necropolis, if you prefer the morbid!) consists mainly of three Pyramids (Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure - named after the three Pharaohs from Old Kingdom - 2686 BC to 2025 BC), a Sphinx and a ship housed in a museum. Except for the Ship, I visited all of these and few other adjoining structures - funerary complexes, smaller temples, tombs for the King's mother, wife, architect/engineer, etc.

Once you get to the Pyramids, the only surviving Ancient Wonders of the World , the awe-factor completely overwhelms you, until you run into some other modern realities of visiting a "tourist" site in Egypt - hagglers, vendors, dust, camel & horse dung, heat...

As with Taj Mahal, I found the stories of the people (architects, designers, workers) who build these great structures much more interesting then the story of the Pharaohs themselves and their henchmen (aka noblemen) etc.

The largest Pyramid, Khufu, was build using nearly 2.3 million limestone pieces (approximately weighing 2.5 tonnes each). The symmetry and the mathematical precision required to construct these massive structures is pretty impressive by our modern standards (what with malfunctioning solar panels in the International Space Station!), let alone more than 40 centuries ago.

The Pyramids are not just a beautiful sight to behold but also a salute to the incredible human ingenuity that led to their construction. The biggest and most pleasant surprise of the trip to Giza Pyramids, for me, was to see the insides of these pyramids (especially inside the Khufu Pyramid) with their narrow passageways and chambers - simple, fully ventilated and designed with incredible care in red granite. I lucked out to be in the King's chamber, an empty 3o feet by 15 ft by 20 feet hollow space in the heart of the Khufu Pyramid in relative darkness, without any other tourists for few minutes - it was quite surreal!! Here are some highlights from this extraordinary experience -

(FYI: 1 US $ = approximately 5.5 Egyptian Pound)

JFK to Cairo: An Angry General & Accomplished Pentathletes

The plane that Egypt Air uses to fly from JFK to Cairo must be the oldest aeroplane I have ever flown. As soon as I boarded the flight MS 986 (Boeing 777-200) I noticed the general drabness. The carpet underneath the seats was torn. The bathrooms had scratches in the toilet (I didn't wanna know what happened there!). The rows of seat in 2-4-2 style were covered in dull light blue or dark blue fabric in the front and yellow in the back. The seat cloth with a "bird in flight profiles" design seemed to not have been changed or washed since the airline started in 1932!

Thankfully the cabin crew was very professional and helpful. The food seemed pretty good for non-vegetarians (fish, beef, fried potatoes, yogurt, cheesecake) as apposed to the boiled rice & vegetables for vegetarians.

On top of that, the plane with 319 seats was slightly above 50% occupancy. So I was pretty excited to have the seat next to me empty. But that didn't last long. Few minutes after I had made myself quiet comfortable to my "scintillating" surroundings, three girls boarded and plunked right next to me. They were all dressed in tracksuits with "New Balance" logos and "EGY " blazing along the sides and back. My disappointment lasted only few minutes. They were the chirpiest, happiest and loudest people on the plane - they were members of the Egyptian Pentathlon team.

These three girls and four boys (sitting in front rows) were heading back home from a sports camp in Colorado Springs to train at high altitude. I sat next to Aya Medany who has already qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. She recently won the World Cup final and has won a few of these Youth Championships before. She was accompanied by her teammates Omnia Fakhry and Yasmine Khaled. They were very generous with their time and wrote down for me all the restaurants in Cairo to try, Egyptian music that is a must-listen and sights to visit.

Mid-way through the flight one of the guy pentathlete exchanged seats and ended up next to me. He was Yaser Nafne. He started as a swimmer and then took up running, shooting, fencing, and riding to compete in Pentathlon. He mentioned Egyptian Federation has been pumping in lot of money in the sport and that has reflected in Egypt's recent achievements in the field. They have a Polish coach who I guess brings that famous East European ethos and regimented approach that gave us the world class gymnasts and swimmers during the 1970's and 1980's! All of these players ranged in age from 19-25 and were full of energy. The cabin crew provided them with extra meals, snack, etc (Egypt Air is another sponsor for the Pentathlon team!).

There was a gentleman sitting, in seat 32H, right ahead of Aya & then Yaser who was not shy to constantly express his annoyance with them whether they were swapping iPods, passing along Kashi Trail Mix bars, or answering questions for people like me and and many many other people (mostly Americans - baby boomers from Atlanta, Spokane, Los Angeles) or generally being 20 years olds. With about an hour left to land this man lost his patience, got into an argument with Omnia and yelled out in Arabic (Yaser translated for me), "I am a General in the Egyptian Army and I'll have you arrested until you all shut up".

The Pentathletes called for the cabin crew and the so-called General was escorted to the front of the plane and when he appeared 10 minutes later, he was very quiet and stayed that way until we landed 48 minutes later!!!

India Trip in Conclusion: New Disocveries & Old Confirmations

At the start of this India trip (Oct 17 through Nov 6) I wanted to find out about the "New India" for myself - the new India of outsourcing, call centers, rapid economic growth, changed attitudes of its peoples, a new found confidence, a certain spring in its step...

At the end of the not-enough-time trip, I found some signs of this new India but tons of evidence of the same old - the same old lack of good roads, uninterrupted power supply, lack of basic sanitation in cities (see right), nightmarish traffic, mismanaged public services (including bus stands, as a small example; see below), generally a lack of commitment among public servants to help people, corruption, horrible pollution, and a definite lack of focus on improving quality of life for the vast masses of the country.

In my various conversations with auto rickshaw & taxi drivers, street vendors, etc. there was a palpable frustration with their inability to find opportunities and means to improve their lives, send their children to good schools, have access to good health care.

To me this is real India - the struggling masses. There was a definite enthusiasm in certain sections of middle classes as their earning potential and access to opportunities to advance seems to have increased by leaps and bounds thanks to newly created jobs from an influx of multinational corporations. The challenge for any government in India would be how to extend these benefits to many many more teeming millions living in the villages, slums, and small satellite towns!

I was also disappointed in the deterioration of standards in the media in India. I remember the leading English language national dailies (Times of India, Hindustan Times, etc.) for their high quality and a journalistic fervor to expose the malfeasance of the powerful. But now they have all turned into tabloids more interested in covering celebrity gossip and tidbits from Bollywood. Similarly there has been a profusion of television channels but they also, with very exceptions, waste precious air time on covering the tawdry. Late night these multiple channels turn to stories with a heavy dose of supernatural, superstition and illicit sex.

The trip was a very pleasant discovery of the past glory and natural beauty of India - be it the Mughal architecture in Delhi & Agra, backwaters and spices of Kerala, lagoons around islands of Lacadives, beaches of Goa (see left), and successful synthesis of foreign influences (Portuguese and Dutch influences in Kerala and Goa).

The best part of the trip for me was meeting so many interesting people, developing acquaintances, and the conversations I had with them. People who were so willing to open up and share about their lives, their dreams and their families - the road side vendors, the small children performing their tricks in the trains, the hotel managers...

Bombay: Maximum City with Extreme Contrasts

Today is my last day in Bombay (aka Mumbai) and after 4 1/2 days here, my first visit, I can safely say that this mega city of 14 million or so, by the ocean, is an assault on your senses - the masses of humanity, the heat and humidity, the excesses of wealth and poverty, the high class socialites and straggling street vendors, the cricket obsessed fans and the wheelers & dealers of business world, world class hospitals and an utter lack of medical care for the huge number of slum dwellers... it is an unending roller coaster of an experience.

After my visit here it seems like I grew up in a very different India - out in the boonies! The Bombay world seemed alien and not so alien at the same time to me. I thought I had seen high density population in Delhi or New York, but here it goes to an all together new level. And surprisingly, by Indian standards at least, these concentrated masses have developed a system of movement that seems to work pretty efficiently, especially the public transport in metro trains and local buses.

The Metro train travel in Bombay is a unique experience in itself and the least of it is the incredible overcrowding. I cruised a couple of trips on these trains and here are some thoughts on the whole adventure.

On the streets on Bombay the urban life manifests itself in varied ways. One day I walked through the neighborhood of Mahim and came across an array of characters and events unfold in a span of 40 minutes or so on the sidewalk - from roadside barbers, flower sellers, to vegetable vendors, locksmiths, lottery ticket sellers... I think this was a neighborhood for lower middle class. Here is a collection of some of these encounters.

Bye for now, kali.

Paradise Islands: Lacadives

The 3 1/2 days stay in the middle of the Arabian Sea and completely removed from civilization was fantabulous! Dove down to fifty feet and saw lion fish and juvenile scorpion fish for the first time and some other familiar creatures of the deep like groupers, snappers, sting rays, etc. Didn't have equipment to photograph these or the beautiful corals, but here are few shots of the world outside the water in two of the islands (Bangaram & Agatti) in the archipelago of the Lakshadweep (aka Lacadives by the British).