About half way up at the hut.

Toyota quality?

maybe this is why toyota is nearly number one...

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrk6vsb77xk

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfZDtC9kjVk

(Temporary) Home Sweet (Temporary) Home

I'll never be accused of having a high level of patience. In fact, more often than not just the opposite is true. Funny how in one situation a person can be considered patient..in another a procrastinator.

As i sit here trying to write something about my vacation 3 weeks ago, i like to place myself in the patient column, not procrastinator column. 3 weeks ago i spent a week in Egypt with a good friend of mine from the states..some diving, some good eats, good scenery, some camels, lots of sand, pyramids, there is just too much to describe without boring everyone to death. Aside from the shear volume of what we did, the biggest problem is immediately after my vacation i headed to the states for a 2 week work trip. I'd like to tell you i spent the last two weeks slowly compiling a blog on a (most likely) once in a lifetime trip, but that would be a lie. I thought about starting one, does that count? Maybe i really am a procrastinator.

Anyway, the vacation kicked off by slowly winding our way from Zurich (or Boston in Bonnie's case) to Sharm El Sheikh (via Cairo) for some diving. Red sea diving is considered some of the best in the world so i had high hopes. The biggest surprise was the water temp, it was cold! I hadn't even considered this risk so i arrived with nothing more than a dive skin. I mean come on, this is Egypt, I assumed the water would be like bath water, i even brought soap! Luckily the dive shop anticipates this sort of thing and has wetsuits available. Just how cold is the water? Well, some people were in dry suits if thats an indication.

Following Sharm it was a short flight back to Cairo for a few days of site seeing in the city. Cairo was pretty much everything i expected...noisy, crowded, smelly, dirty, but i mean that in both a good and bad way. If I visited Cairo and it was like any number of other cookie cutter European cities I visited it just wouldnt be as interesting. Once in Cairo we of course visited the Pyramids, hit the Bazaar and really just enjoyed the city for a few days. 3 days was enough though and when it came time to leave i was ready to head back to my cookie cutter European city.

That's a really short recap but below are some pics. They tell a much better story than i kind. For anyone considering visiting, i highly recommend it but here are a few things to keep in mind.

1-People are extremely friendly. Too friendly in fact because they are all selling something. I'm not exaggerating, they've all got a friend who runs camel tours, sells papyrus, drives a taxi..something. When i saw a cab driver tip a cop for passing some business his way, the reality of the economy really dawned on me. We ran into 1 guy who was truly friendly and not looking for something..if anyone visits i can pass on his contact info cause i'm pretty sure he's the only one.

2-Americans are a rarity. If you're sheepish about this, tell people you're from the UK. If not, you'll get some pretty interesting comments which might include;

-“Now we kidnap you. Just kidding!” from a friend of the above mentioned nice guy who gave us a ride.

-”I don't like bush” what can you say to that, except “umm...ok”

-”Hi hi silver!” From a camel jockey. I'm not being derogatory, it was from a guy riding a camel.

3-Pay for things in Egyptian pounds. The exchange rate is between 6 and 7 pounds per dollar..its easy to forget about the exchange rate and overpay.

4-Pay 50% or less for anything you want to buy. It's all negotiable, and most of it's junk anyway.

5-If someone offers you tea, its rude to say no. But rest assured, they will try to sell you something. Most likely perfume or some other “local”product. Note: if they start to make the tea from tea leaves...just leave. You're about to get royally screwed. And not in a good way.

6-People pray allot. Don't walk on their mats.

7-You need to be open minded. Particularly when it comes to things like what constitutes a bathroom.

8-Taxi drivers are insane. I'm not being funny, I'm pretty sure they are all mentally insane. You must be to drive in that craziness. No lines on the roads, no lights, no cops...just lay on the horn and go. When we asked someone about speed limits and traffic laws he just laughed and said “the cops have more important things to do”. That part, well, i could actually probably get used to that. I came home to 2 fresh speeding tickets in my mailbox. Don't worry ma, they weren't bad, just 6 and 8 over. Side note...anyone out there who supports speed cameras keep that in mind, there's no negotiating. 4 over? FU, pay up. 6 over? FU, Pay up.

Well after all that does anyone still want to go? Hopefully you answered yes because its well worth it. Except for leaving my camera in a cab the whole trip was great. Would i go back? Probably not, but I've already seen it. There are far too many other places to see!

Pics 1

From this

To this

and we're there

Pics 2

When in rome...and yes, i got a haircut when i was back in detroit.

Smokin the huka. Chuka...how do you spell that?

try fitting that street name on your drivers license

anyone wanna guess what it is? its a bus schedule.

Pics 3

The hotel at night

The hotel during the day

dive boat docks.

Pics 4

Fellow divers from the UK

View from the boat

Enjoying a book between dives

new resort. i guess its pretty big.

Pics 5

Yes, that is a dry suit.

Pics 6

Tomb for the pharoahs doctor.

The city was pretty diry. look close..thats a dead horse. wait, maybe dont look so close.

The red sea. oddly, not that red.

Pics 7

Tombs.

Pyramid.

Pyramids.

Bonnie thought she saw a hand come out.

Pics 8

There are 9 pyramids in Giza..here are 2.

And another one.

Same one, with another one in the foreground.

the little people on the right give you an idea of the size of these things. by little people, i dont mean midgets either.

Pics 9

The Egyptian Musuem. The pyramids are empty because everyhing is in here. Well worth a visit, but more than 2 hrs or so is enough.

Pyramid and Sphinx. At least one was built by aliens.

Pics 10

A fitting end...

The bazaar in Cairo. Not so bizarre

Mosques. dont forget to take your shoes off!

Animals in the middle of cairo.

Engineering Math

These didnt come from me.

Really.

The Invisible Hand Strikes Again

Beer, BBQ, boardgames and...uh...skiing. Is there a word for skiing that starts with B? Too bad I’m not a snowboarder. Anyway, beer, bbq, boardgames and skiing, that pretty much sums up my weekend. I was out with a friends house Saturday for a winter bbq and after nearly having to run to Zurich to bail a colleague out of jail (I’ll get to that in a minute) we decided to stay in and play some boardgames rather than head out to the bar. After a few rousing rounds of that old classic Connect 4 later we got out the mother of all boardgames, Monopoly. This version just happened to be the 1961 German version so all the street names were from Germany and ended in Strasse, the currency was Deutschmarks, the cards were nearly unreadable etc etc., but its still essentially the same game. The main difference was that instead of Jail, they had concentration camps and instead of building hotels on your own property you invade the neighboring property and build military bases. Ok, I made that last part up.

Despite the language barrier I managed to rather easily dominate the whole board and in the end I bankrupted my 3 (now former) friends. Good thing I drove myself. After the game they were discussing why they lost, why I won etc etc but I just listened quietly because the reason is simple-the invisible hand of capitalism always wins in the end!

If you ever find yourself playing monopoly with 3 Germans, a few words of advice.

1-Germans are train crazy so they will always buy the railways for far much more than their really worth. Try to get all 4, it’s a good bargaining chip.

2-Don’t go straight for the hotels, just cover the board with houses.

3-German jail must suck because the get out of jail free cards commanded quite a price. Try to collect a few.

And now to the, perhaps, more interesting story of the evening. Mid bbq I get a phone call from a colleague who was coming in from Spain and flying out to the states the next day. After approaching the customs people to enter Switzerland he was politely informed that he had an unpaid speeding ticket from Feb. and he could either pay 700 Francs on the spot or spend 16 days in Jail.

And welcome to Switzerland.

Did I mention that they don’t take credit cards and had no ATM. Well they don’t, and they didn’t so he called me to see if I could bring some francs up to the airport to keep is ass out of the klink. It was already about 9:00 and the airport is two hrs away so I did what any good friend would do…I told him I was down 3 on a Connect 4 tournament and he would have to wait a few hours. The sacrifices I make..i tell ya.

Luckily I knew yet another colleague who was already in Zurich and leaving the following day for America so phone calls were made, ATM’s visited and jail was narrowly avoided. It does make me wonder though, how bad could Swiss jail really be? Its probably all fondue, chocolate and goofy felt hats. Work detail probably finds you milking cows or churning butter. The exercise yard, yeah, its a ski mtn. Maybe i'll stop paying my speeding tickets, i mean if i ever get one of course.

But there is a lesson in all this…and what’s the lesson kids? Always pay your speeding tickets.

Some of you might’ve thought I would’ve said that the lesson is not to speed, but that’s just crazy talk.