Echidna Media Organization project S.N.A.L.'s Journal
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Echidna Media Organization project S.N.A.L.'s LiveJournal:
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| Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | | 8:40 pm |
Isketch Now!
Meet me in hell!! I mean uh isketch.net!
It turns out ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) whirled -at least for the time being- still has internet access (she's on some sort of secret mission to some obscure place called "Queensland), so we're about to play isketch RIGHT NOW (also now she is without her wacom tablet, the tides have turned.
Room is "The Possum Cave". Join us!
| | 4:39 pm |
Old Timey Religion, Part II
Simultaneous with the "Old Timey Religion" entry I just made:
Kingdom of Laighin, Hibernia (Ireland), 375 AD - The River Nore naturally flows slowly, with a delicious chocolate colour. It is surrounded by lush emerald vegatation. Vines hang from trees that lean over the embankments, and beside the river a flat area, perhaps flooded at times of greater rain, is covered in leafy shrubs and flowers.
The scene still looks like it did a thousand years previous, and as it will look one thousand years in the future, or even one thousand six hundred and thirty four.
Several druids (or draoiochts as they'd call themselves) have gathered by the bank in their flowing white robes. Having consulted the auguries, the head druid has predicted the imminent arrival of a time traveler.
River Nore, County Kilkenny, Ireland. 1997. Suddenly there is a burst of light and a crackling noise and a strange contraption emerges in a puff of smoke. It appears to be a seat attached to several tanks with tubes and wires connecting them. Pistons and gears festoon the sides in several places and the machine vents steam as it comes to a rest among the lush foliage. The pilot unbuckles himself from the chair. He is wearing tight jeans and a shirt from the thrift store that he considers to be "ironic" in keeping with the latest styles of 2009. He pushes back his dreadlocks to remove the "buds" of his ipod from his ears. " Druids! Excellent! I'm a pagan just like you!" Chad, the time traveler, eagerly greets the gathered druids. The druids look on aghast. Finally one turns to another, "I think we should sacrifice him."
Southern California, 2009 AD - It was a nice warm fall evening, and Travis, a youth pastor at Saddleback Church, was just walking to his porche to go home for the evening. Suddenly there was a flash of light and a loud crackling noise. Travis turned around to see a cloud of smoke rising from around a figure standing in one of the "reserved for pastors" parking spots. As the smoke cleared Travis could make out that he was holding what looked like a tea kettle with flashing lights on it. The lad was dressed rather peculiarly, "kind of like a European" thought Travis. On his feet he wore not normal shoes but what appeared to be some kind of covering that closely followed the contours of his feet. His haircut was federation standard. The strange figure looked around, looked at the giant SADDLEBACK CHURCH sign, the "parking reserved for pastors" sign and Travis looking dumbfounded about to put his keys into a car under it. " Oh you're a bishop! Excellent! I'm a redneck too!" exclaimed the time traveler excitedly, not realizing that what he knew as the word for that ancient religion of "Christianity" didn't exactly mean the same thing in the good ole days. Current Music: Client - Here and Now | | 12:35 pm |
Too Late
So of course, after having no idea what to write for the weekly LJ Idol topic all week ("Bearing false witness") and finally writing something guaranteed to offend some people and imo not terribly exciting anyway, I NOW remember a story I'd been meaning to write about at some point that would have worked better.
What follows will be a very rough skeleton / summary of what it would have been.
May 7th, 1946, Prague -- German-held Prague is sandwiched between Red Army forces closing in from the East and US Army forces just a day or two away to the West. Inspired by the imminent collapse of Nazi Germany, insurgents in the city have risen in revolt two days prior. A major motivating factor for this 11th hour revolt may have been to deliver the city to the US forces rather than the brutal Red Army.
The Waffen-SS is however conducting a violent operation to recapture the city using tanks and airstrikes. With their overwhelmingly better equipment the SS is decimating the resistence. Ironically, a goal of the Germans was to capture the train station so that Army Group Centre to the East could be evacuated westward to surrender to the US.
When all seems lost, suddenly a division that appears to be German is attacking the SS itself. I'd imagine this must have seemed very confusing at the time. The unit is actually a German unit formed of captured Soviet prisoners of war ("the ROA"), which has just defected. They are all Russian and veterans of the Eastern Front. They have the experience and the equipment to significantly disrupt the SS offensive and turn the tides of battle.
However as word of the imminent arrival of the Red Army spread, the ROA quickly leaves the city to head West for US held territory, knowing that Soviet policy is to treat anyone who has been captured by the Germans at any point under any circumstances as a traitor. Germans hold sway over the city for one more day (the Waffen SS ignores the official surrender of Germany that has been announced that day) until the Red Army arrives the next day.
Much of the ROA force succeeds in reaching US lines. There they are rounded up by US forces and forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union where they face execution. Also the US Army could have reached Prague days earlier but halted at the demarcation line that had been negotiated with Stalin.
On a related note of questionable allegiances, apparently the Waffen-SS in Prague included forcibly conscripted Estonians, who described the experience as "Czech Hell" and were later trusted by the Allies to guard the Nuremburg Trials.
So yeah, the above is obviously just a summary, but I think it'd make for a really good story. If only I'd thought of it 36 hours ago. ):
Monument to the liberation by the Red Army, Bratislava, Slovakia | | Saturday, November 21st, 2009 | | 2:42 pm |
LJ Idol - Topic 5 - Old Timey Religion
"Let's get back to the city, the religious nuts out here kind of freak me out" says the girl, grasping the boy's arm.
"Oh, they're just, you know, old timey" reassures the lad, as if this explains it. "They mean well, really"
"They're so damn conservative though, lord knows what I might accidentally do and have them accusing me of sorcery." Coming upon the edge of town she was relieved to look up and see the city itself not too far off.
"Haha no one's going to be burning anyone at the stake" says the lad, giving her a playful bump sideways as they walked, "they're just, you know, farmers, and things are slow to change out here."
"Just as long as the religious nuts don't get control of the government again!" exclaims the girl, feeling more at ease to speak freely now that they were away from the nearest houses.
"I don't think that could happen again," speculates the lad, recalling a recent leader who had started an unsuccessful war in the Middle East.. and died there. "Valentinian's got a handle on things, I don't think it will ever happen again" notes the boy.
"Damn pagans," grumbles the girl, adjusting her tunic. "How much further to Rome?"
I don't understand people who call themselves "Pagans." The word "pagan" comes from latin "pagus," meaning literally "peasants." The modern day "pagans" wouldn't be the new agey hippies of Santa Cruz with their vague supplications to "the Goddess," it would be the "rednecks" and "hillbillies" of the deep Christian backwaters. "Pagan" means simply "the religion of the backwaters." Or at best, it is not a specific religion. Saying you're "a pagan" is like a Christian describing himself as an infidel because that's what an intolerant Muslim might call him. Yet still you see people, including many here in LJ Idol (at least last year) who will go on seriously about how their religion is "Pagan." THIS IS NOT A RELIGION. You can be wiccan or norse or believe in Celtic or Gaulish druidism, or one of hundreds of other things that have been called pagan throughout history, or you can be something new agey you're making up as you go along based on whims as they come to you, but I feel like if you call yourself Pagan you are probably keeping alive an insult that the original believers of the religion you're trying to follow would not have appreciated at all. In other news, a few years after the above narrative takes place, Valentinian ("the Last Great Roman Emperor") dies and his son Valentinian II has his power usurped by a "pagan" chief of the military. And around it goes. Picture of the Day
Winged Athena
Roman ruins of Ephesus, near Selcuk, Turkey
And here's a kitten
(and in a continuing series of animals in ruins, a (emo?) snail, a (electric!) hornet, and a zombie.)***EDIT: NOW WITH A SEQUEL! | | 1:34 pm |
Isketch!
Pictionary time!
Guess the word! whirled introduced me to the online pictionary at isketch.net yesterday. We proceeded to play it until our eyes were getting fried (damn thing doesn't automatically give you breaks so with two people the timer is ALWAYS going for you to either be drawing or guessing) last night (/ whatever time it was for her in Australia). You can see some more she managed to cut paste from last night behind the fake cut here that actually goes to her entry! --
( GUESS THE REST! ) I swear my doodling is a lot better with an actual pen/paper. Anyone want to make a plan to meet up on isketch and pictionary together? Tomorrow (Sunday) at noon (PST) perhaps? Photo of the Day
The "Golden Gate of Istanbul" (as we called it), one of two bridges over the Bosporus, connecting Europe and Asia.
That's right you're looking at Europe (foreground) and Asia (across the water) at the SAME TIME I'm trying to convince my dad, a marathon runner, that he should run the Istanbul marathon -- it crosses this bridge, making it a marathon between continents. | | Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | | 12:45 pm |
Vespa Orientalis
Remember this lass? I know you were all on the edge of your seats to find out what it was. After some poking around I've determined that it appears to be an Oriental Hornet (Vespa orientalis).
Interesting note on V. orientalis, they appear to use electricity! Various structures or constructions of the Oriental Hornet Vespa orientalis such as the cuticle, the spun silk and the comb cell walls discharge an electric current. In the dark, at a temperature range of 5 - 33° C, this current increases with rise in the temperature and decreases as the temperature drops. Between the ascending and descending "lines" of the current, a broad hysteresis is formed.þ The created current may attain a level of up to 700 nano Amperes (nA).
Upon exposure to light of the hornets or its constructions, the electric current diminishes within minutes to its minimal values, no hysteresis is formed between the warming and cooling lines and the voltage increases.
...
In the Discussion section, an attempt is made to explain the thermoelectric mechanism in pupal silk and its contribution, as thermometer and thermostat, to thermoregulation of the individual pupae, each of which is an independent thermal unit. The thermoregulation here is compared with the mode of action of heat pipes in industry. - source
Also the above-linked website has some cute pictures, such as oriental hornets drinking milk, trying to fly away with too big a piece of ham, eating hamburger, and my favourite, being surprised by an ant. Current Music: Against Me! - Thrash Unreal | | Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | | 11:19 am |
Pictures of the Day
Looking out the window of the Hagia Sophia, minarets of the Blue Mosque in the background
Uploaded more pictures yesterday, mainly of the Hagia Sophia. Some people got the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque confused in previous pictures, so here's the two of them in one picture (Hagia Sophia is the one on the left).
Was aiming to get all my Hagia Sophia pictures up in one spurt, but my pleasant evening of editing and uploading pictures was interrupted by going out and being social. Rude. (:
Went to the bars with my friends Mark, "Papa Smurf" and Alex(andra). Mark and Alex were flirting quite a bit, which is alarming (apparently they'd never met before).
Anyway now I'm off to lunch with Alex at my favourite thai place :d
Inside the Hagia Sophia!
...and the other pictures I uploaded yesterday! Current Music: Hotrod Frankie - The Darkest Hour | | Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | | 11:00 am |
Other Accounts
Mark's picture of the inside of the "Basilica Cistern" next to the Hagia Sophia
(damn, wikipedia has a sweet picture of it)
Mark has all his pictures up on picasa now. I don't know if you can see it but he also uploaded some to facebook, which might be easier to digest since he's pared it down to just his favourites. Of particular note he bought an underwater disposable camera and has some pictures from underwater in the reefs (these pics seem to only be on facebook though so hopefully you can see that).
Also, being a saucy fellow, he got some pictures of the Israeli solder girls:
Also amalie has unlocked her travel entries so if you want to read about the adventures in far more detail than I described them, check out her lj. And once again, she also has a lot of pictures up on her picasa, such as this one of Mark getting pwned by me at chess:
:D
So what's up with this picasa thing anyway? How does it compare/contrast with flickr? Current Music: Ozma - Korobeiniki | | Monday, November 16th, 2009 | | 12:38 pm |
Back to Orange County
 (By the delightful miss whirled.) Which is to say I'm back in my native habitat ... for about two weeks. Then I should be skipping from city to city again, via sail. Other than these two weeks it looks like I could be posting every single LJI entry from a different city (: Fortunately I did not actually forget my keys. I DID however keep forgetting my cell phone recharger (had to buy a new one in New York and then forgot THAT one when I went to Philly), and the USB cable for downloading pictures from my camera (I have two at home but forgot to bring one, bought one in Istanbul, it got left in Tel Aviv, had to buy ANOTHER one in Cairo)... In wildly unrelated news, we're having an interesting meta discussion about categorization of blog entries over at joeymichaelsamalie_, who was also on the Middle East trip, is now blogging about it and posting her pictures ... but it's all friends-only ... so go friend her! :D Picture of the Day
View of the Bosporus from Topkapi Palace, Istanbul.
The picture posting can begin in earnest now. (: I took 870 pictures total over the month. In past epic trips though I only end up uploading about 1/6th of the pictures. Bonus snail outtake! | | Friday, November 13th, 2009 | | 10:43 am |
Philadelphia
Got Megabus (megabus.com) tickets from NYC to Philadelphia for $10.50. By far the best deal to be found after a thorough investigation. Local commuter trains would have been $20 and half an hour LONGER, and amtrak would have been $45.
Was concerned that the bus would be gross and dirty and/or unreliable but was pleased to see a very dapper looking shiny double decker bus pull in right on time. Definitely was pleased with it and would recommend megabus to get between any of the cities they service (mostly only the NE it looks like).
Arriving in Philadelphia it was announced that the bus was stopping at one of two stops there. Garian said to meet her at the Independance Hall stop so I jump out and ask the driver (who's unloading people's luggage) if this is that stop. I don't know what language he spoke back to me but it was the most incomprehensible thing I've ever heard. I ask again if this is the Independance Hall stop and again he answers with what I'm not even sure IS a language. Not even a hint by intonation or body language if it was affirmative or negative or if he even understood the question. As he's walking back to the cab I hear him actually announce "independance hall!" to other passengers. "Hey! This is my stop! I need my luggage!" I say to him because he's closed the baggage compartment. He looks at me with a mighty eyeroll and comes back to give me my bag.
A little later Garian is showing me the sights. We go into the Liberty Bell monument and I see they're going through bags. I have my bag with ALL my stuff in it on my back so I ask him if I can just leave it at the front. He gruffly says "no!" and reaches for it. I think well okay maybe he'll just peak inside. Nope! He pulls EVERYTHING out. There in the entryway of the Liberty Bell building he makes a pile on the table of all my shirts, dirty socks, pairs of boxers, everything. I could probably sue him for violation of privacy or something actually if I were the litigious type. He pull out the bottle of Raki (an anis liquor) I got in Istanbul with a great "AHA!" and "security, security!" into his walkie talkie.
While we wait for security he tells me I may pack everything back into the bag myself. "Thanks!" I say as if he is just TOO kind.
Finally a police officer shows up and takes me aside. Once we are out of sight from the over-zealous door security he hands me back the raki apologetically and tells me to have a nice day.
Other than that Philadelphia has been nice and I really like the neighbourhood Garian and her husband live in (Mt Airy). They've been delightully hospitable and I wish I had more time for the details but I should get going right.
I'm taking Megabus back up to NYC today, where I'll once again be for the weekend. Then I have to find a way to get to Laguardia Airport and then, the hardest part, somehow get from LAX down to my parents house in southern Orange County about two hours drive away. My dear friend Alex offered to pick me up from LAX, but I'd still have to get from her place in Long Beach the rest of the way. Hmm /: | | Thursday, November 12th, 2009 | | 10:55 am |
LJ Idol - Topic 4 - 28 Years Later
The Colorado River had been a ghost of its former self. For generations during the height of human civilization just five percent of the water that once flowed through the Colorado Delta actually made it to the sea. Even this water was almost entirely agricultural waste. The delta itself, once a lush green marshland of extreme ecological value, was reduced to mostly dried mud flats.
One day, however, a stream of fresh clear water begins to flow again. The flow increases over the coming weeks until the thirsty delta is once again filled with clean water from half a continent away. Many species have been lost forever in the last century, but those that remain quickly bounce back to recreate the lush habitat that once was.
Some 300 miles to the northwest, the suburbs of Los Angeles are vibrant with life. Rabbits and deer chew on the grass growing between cracks on the freeways, and the abundant shrubs in former lawns. Former housecats stalk the former pet rabbits, to in turn be chased by dogs. Native bobcats, coyotes and cougars prowl the bounty as well.
Birds flutter in and out of holes in roofs, and in the evening bats stream out of the shattered windows of houses to be silhouetted against the monolithic hulks of skyscrapers. Possums trundle among the calcified human skeletons in the shrubbery, searching for tasty snails to snack on.
I recently read World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide, both by Max Brooks. They were a fun read, but I had a major complaint with one aspect of his vision of the coming zombie apocalypse (Don't worry I don't think this is a critical spoiler) -- with humans being overrun by zombies he describes complete environmental destruction. The environment is completely devastated somehow by the upheaval of human civilization in his books.
I think this is a fair bit daft since one of the greatest "extinction events" in history is the very existence of humans. There's even a word for it -- the holocene extinction event. It's estimated 140,000 species a year are currently becoming extinct, with possibly a loss of half of all species by 2100.
Even if you suppose the collapse of civilization entailed nuclear meltdowns, well, see this quote from wikipedia about the Zone of Exclusion around Chernobyl -- There have been reports that wildlife has flourished due to significant reduction of human impact.[3] For this reason, the zone is considered by some as a classic example of an involuntary park. Populations of traditional Polesian animals (like wolves, wild boar and Roe Deer), red deer, moose, and beaver have multiplied enormously and begun expanding outside the zone. The area also houses flocks of European wisent and Przewalski's Horses released there after the accident. Even extremely rare lynx have appeared, and there are reports of tracks from brown bear, an animal not seen in the area for several centuries. Basically, most animals simply don't live long enough for the lingering effects of a nuclear event to significantly effect them. Or at least, a nuclear holocaust is not as bad for wildlife as the regular activities of people are.
I think I may need to write my own zombie apocalypse book, where the zombie apocalypse actually returns the world's environments to equilibrium.
Several houses on the end of a suburban cul-de-sac have had the fences between them removed and around them reinforced to create a modern hunter-gatherer village out of decaying upper-middle-class homes. Around 100 people live inside the complex. They hunt for food and cook it on a fire pit that once was a jacuzzi. They still have guns to hunt with and clothing that was made of durable synthetic fabrics during the high point of human civilization, but in time they'll run out of bullets, and their denim and gortex will wear out, and they will have to re-learn how to make their own tools and clothing. Already they have a younger generation among them that will never know facebook, wikipedia, and blogging.
The evening sun sparkles off the remaining windows of the skyscrapers of Los Angeles to the north. Sadly, the sunset actually isn't as beautiful as it once was when the air was full of colourful pollutants.
A villager looks up at the distant tower and regards it as a solemn reminder of the beauty of how advanced civilization once had been. He then returns to a life that has much more in common with the way humans lived for most of the 200,000 years they've been on this Earth.
 | | Monday, November 9th, 2009 | | 1:06 pm |
New York City
Friday So like I said, arrived in New York City Friday around 6:30am. Was EXPECTING to emerge in a terminal with, you know, a currency exchange, coffee shops, maybe an internet cafe, you know, like when you arrive in any OTHER country in the world. No it splurted me out in a dingy underground parking garage filled with taxi drivers with signs. Not even COFFEE. This is the welcome most travelers get to America? By this point in my trip in Egypt, Egypt would have seemed more on top of things.
Took the airport rail shuttle to the connection with the city subways and finally got my coffee. You see, in the middle east, yes they have the infamous strong "Turkish Coffee" made from putting ground beans directly in a cup, but they don't have BREWED coffee anywhere. If they don't want to make turkish coffee they instead make "nescafe" instant coffee (ALWAYS nescafe). If you order coffee somewhere without specifying turkish, congratulations you just paid two bucks for shitty instant coffee. (Always order tea)
Subway to downtown and then wandered around completely aimlessly. Didn't even know what direction I was going. Found that internet cafe checked what was going on in the world. Then went to a good ole diner and had some corned beef hash (was craving biscuits and gravy (Specifically inspired by comments about it in the LJ Idol green room, true story!) but they didn't have it on their menu!). Wandered around aimlessly some more. Good thing my luggage is only 10 kilos and fits comfortably on my back.
Went into an AT&T store and they were good enough to let me charge my phone there. Lingered there for twenty minutes while it charged, read all the informational brochures on their cell phone plans ... still don't understand them. I swear you need to hire a lawyer to figure out which cell phone plan is best.
Back to wandering. Found myself unexpectedly in Times Square for the first time. Laughed at the WEAK attempts of flyer-giver-out-ers to solicit me. Psh y'all got nothin on the entrepreneurial spirit of the middle east.
Was about to shave in a starbucks rest room like the vagrant I looked like when my friend Paul called me about hanging out. Turns out he lives only two blocks from where I happened to be so I was spared from these particular act of vagrancy and shaved at his place (due to an inconveniently timed black out, followed by a blown fuse, I hadn't gotten to shave in Cairo)
After hanging out with Paul for a bit (14:30 to 16:00) I met up with my longtime lj friend memeworrywort. We went and got cheap NY pizza and then he helped me navigate to where I was meeting Kerri, at a bar near where she works on Wall Street.
Bar was quite pleasant. Had this "Six Points Ale" or some such which was quite good. She showed up and we went back to her place in Brooklyn. That night we hit the local bars until they closed around 4am. This was probably approximately 24 hours after I had woken up.
Saturday
I wake up and Kerri's already out in the livingroom. I wonder why she's up so early and go out there. Turns out its 3pm!!! O: So much for doing anything today.
We get on the subway to go to a museum but once we're on it we find out the line is down for repairs and is being rerouted through busses after a certain point -- we'll never get to our destination before it closes now. So instead we wander around by the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge. Was going to get some pizza reputed to be the best in New York but the line was ridiculous. Had some other pizza instead.
Returned to HQ. Drank calimochos (in the spirit of our trip to Spain last May) and watched episodes of Arrested Development on her computer while we waited for it to be late enough to go out.
Went out to bars in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, which I'm told is the epicenter of the "hipster" population. Kerri pointed out some prime examples for me. Being a Good Friend, Kerri vowed we'd drink enough to make up for the relatively small amount of drinking I had on the rest of my trip. It was a valiant effort that involved many glasses of whiskey and shots of rum .. until the bar ran out of rum and we moved to shots of vodka. I'm assuming we left when the bars closed at four but for all I know we didn't make it that long. All I remember was a very very drunken journey home.
Sunday
I woke up feeling alright (I'm unhangover-able!) but Kerri felt totally shitty. We ended up just sitting around watching most of the rest of the three seasons of Arrested Development all day (why did they cancel this show??). I think this was the first day in at least three weeks I hadn't beenon my feet all day walking around some foreign city or some such, so it was a nice change of pace.
This Week
Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'm going to take the amtrak down to Philadelphia to visit my good friend Garian and her husband. Last time I saw them we were passing through Eugene, Oregon on Epic Roadtrip 2008 and they put us all up on their couches.
Wednesday I'm going to rent a car from there and drive a few hours west to visit an LJ friend who lives in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and keeps bees and distills. These are both hobbies of mine of course so I'm looking forward to seeing his system.
I have another friend in that general direction (North Caronlina) who I might go see after that (Thursday), or I might return to NYC. Flying out of NYC on Sunday.
Something Might be Terribly Wrong With My Head
Warning: people writing about their health problems is a notoriously boring subject of livejournaling. I'm going to write this in hopes maybe someone has some insights as to what's wrong with my ear, but you've been warned. (:
( Read more... )
And Here's a Camel
 On the nighttime trek up Mt Sinai, because I don't feel like uploading more pictures just now. :* | | Friday, November 6th, 2009 | | 10:37 am |
| | Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 | | 11:36 pm |
LJ Idol - Topic 3 - Smile
Hurghada, Egypt, last night, 2:25am - "Dude, that's a 200!" Mark informed me impatiently
"Yes, that is a 200," also sounding impatient, the taxi driver weighed in on the subject. I, however, hate to take anyone's word for anything, much less how much money I'm pulling out of my wallet, so I continued to hold the bill in the dim light of the window looking for clues. Because I'm OCD like that I always arrange the bills in my wallet largest to smallest, and had pulled it from the back, so everything pointed to it in fact being a 200 but still, when pulling a bill worth 50 USD out of my wallet I'm going to need visual verification on that.
Being as the digits we use with the latin alphabet (123 etc) are "arabic numerals" I was surprised to learn that apparently modern arabic has new, utterly different, "arabic" numerals. So the money in Egypt is printed with "arabic numerals" on one side and "arabic" numerals on the other. Additionally the numbers are written small and in only two corners of each side, so I had to turn the bill over several times and really squint before I could see for myself that it did, in fact, have a 2 followed by two 0s on it. I handed it over to Mark who impatiently forwarded it to the taxi driver and it disappeared behind the front seat.
The original fare my local friend Michael had negotiated with the driver was 20 pounds. Because taxi drivers try to scam us every time practically without fail I make it a point to clarify the rate the moment I'm in the car. Unfortunately this time it was too late. Michael said 20, we got in the car, the door closed, I asked "20 right?" and as the car pulled away the driver said "no, 50!"
Mark tried arguing with the driver the entire drive back (which wasn't more than 10 minutes, definitely no more than a 20 pound fare in these parts) but only managed to get it down to 40. Still ridiculous but $10 isn't goign to kill me and I knew it wasn't worth getting my blood in a boil over something that wasn't going to change.
Egyptians for some reason HATE making change. It is their least favourite thing. They would rather you asked them to eat a pineapple whole than make change for a 100 or 200 pound bill. Incidentally ATMs only dispense 100 or 200 pound bills.
Mark had smaller bills but for some reason in order to make change with what the driver had he wanted a 200 from me. I wasn't really sure what kind of silly math he was up to, I was tired and anxious to get back to the hotel to pack my stuff in the 20 minutes we had before the bus left for Cairo, and not entirely sober because we'd spent one last evening at a club with our local friends.
"Dude you gave him a 20!" admonishes Mark disapprovingly, as a bill comes back over the seat. The first thing I notice is that even in the dim light I can tell its not the same colour bill I just handed over. The driver is insisting that I handed him a 20 and not a 200. Between the two of them telling me it was a 200 originally and pulling it out of the back of my wallet and seeing the 200 with my own eyes before handing it over I don't think I could possibly be more certain I'd handed him a 200. Egypt!
Funny thing, we can make correct change now that there's a 20 mysteriously floating about. Arguing that it was a 200 is utterly fruitless so I just count it as a loss and proceed to the hotel more or less totally pissed off.
Arriving at the hotel we are met by our companion Aaron coming out with several bags, including mine. "Fuck you guys, I had to pack your stuff for you" he says in as friendly a manner as one can say that.
Now, like with my wallet, I don't ever like to have to take anyone's word for that my stuff is packed, and like having my bills in a certain order, I like to have my stuff packed in a certain order (stuff I'm less likely to need on the bottom). Now recall also that I was already totally pissed off.
"What?! Why'd you do that???"
"You guys weren't here, the bus leaves in 20 minutes!"
"I could pack my stuff TWICE in twenty minutes!!"
Aaron's wife Amalie chimes in: "Well we have to check out fifteen minutes before we leave, and that is now"
"Well I could pack while you check out then!"
"No you couldn't" says she. If she were a dude I think I might have punched her. Instead I go do exactly what she said I couldn't possibly be able to do. I go to the room. Inside I look everywhere I've put anything and it all seems to not be left behind at least.
But between being cheated out of $50 for a $5 cab ride, having my stuff packed by someone else, and being given attitude about it, I'm veritably seething at this point.
Throughout the trip we'd heard about what a miserably filthy place Cairo is. As we drove towards it this morning you could tell where it was on the horizon by the black smog around it. However to get to this internet cafe (computer use: 3 egyptian pounds an hour -- that's 68 cents!!) I walked maybe a mile down a crowded street alone at night (well 10pm) and no one bothered me. Cars and taxis (all 80s era volkswagon vans painted white, and they drive with the sliding passenger door open) share the road with donkey carts and herds of sheep and goats (yes in the middle of Cairo!) (no pigs though, apparently they had them ALL killed due to misplaced swine-flu fears. Trash they normally ate is consequently building up on the streets), and pedestrians. (Michael commented on once traveling to Amsterdam and finding "there are so many rules! About when you can cross the street and where you can walk...")
Despite the shenanigans of this morning and dire warnings about this city from everyone we'd talked to earlier in the trip who'd been here, and especially despite that I ordinarily HATE big cities, I found myself walking down the crowded street an hour ago (composing this entry in my head while doing so ;) ) and smiling.
Sometimes I think the best part about a vacation is when the plan goes completely out the window and things go haywire. When I drove around three states in New England by myself during Epic Roadtrip 2007, when the itinerary was already totally out the window by day 3 of Epic Roadtrip 2008, unplanned marooning in Portland last October, when Kerri an I accidentally became separated in Zaragoza, Spain, last May ... these were all some of my favourite times of the trips.
Some people hate to travel because they're stressed out about what they'll do if their plans go awry. Some people travel but then are miserably upset when plans DO go awry. Some people stress about staying on itinerary and make their companions miserable in so doing. I think the secret to enjoying your vacation is remembering that you're on vacation. Don't stress. Remember that the very reason you travel is to experience things. (:
Cairo, Egypt, the next day, 23:45 - I wash my hands and the bathroom attendant hands me a paper towel. I mumble "shukren" (sp? Arabic for thank-you) and turn to exit the airport bathroom, but the attendant blocks my path in a "none shall pass!" manner and puts out his hand for a tip.
I place a 1 pound bill in his hand and start to step forward but he doesn't budge, making another "give me money" gesture and holding up two fingers. This is a bit saucy since I know one pound is an entirely acceptable tip for handing me paper towels. I open my wallet and show him I don't HAVE any more one pound bills -- the smallest I have is a ten. He points at it eagerly. HAH. "Can you give me nine back in change?" I ask him. I don't even know why I was humouring him this much, I guess I was in a good mood, and anyway I didn't expect him to be able to (recall, they loathe making change). He nods enthusiastically so I skeptically hand him the ten. He hands me back 5 shiny one pound coins. "Hah are you serious?!" I exclaim, followed by "whatever dude" and I go on my way shaking my head, and smiling. It's only about $1.10 anyway.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, because of it I had a smile all the way back to my gate. It was just.. so Egypt. Such a fitting end for my stay.
Picture that Should Have Been Posted Last Week of the Day
Sunrise over Mt Sinai. I finally managed to upload some pictures at an internet cafe so I put up the ones pertaining to the trek up Mt Sinai I described last week.
Unrelated to LJ Idol Entry, but to those who care -- I'll be arriving in NYC around 6am this Friday (the 6th). I'll be in the general area for about a week (by "general area" I mean I'm liable to rent a car and show up anywhere within say 12 hours driving distance) and have no solid plans (its sort of a vacation from my vacation (which will be followed by a two week vacation from my vacation vacation before I start my next endeavour). So if you want to meet up drop me a line. In particular, the person I'm probably crashing with this first weekend presumably has work during the day on Friday so it might be nice if someone who lives in the city has a place I can stop by during the day and not feel totally homeless all day (: | | Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | | 6:34 pm |
Hugharda
"Wait!" says Aaron, holding up his hand "wait for the first wave to go through to occupy them!"
"Yes, hold back hold back!" urges Mark, catching onto the idea
"They're actually lining up waiting for us!" I observe. Across the exit from the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor trinket peddlers have formed a line, cheap chinese made goods in hand, waiting to assault the tourists disembarking the shuttle tram.
Even waiting for the first wave of tourists to go in we were still immediately assaulted as soon as we entered the gauntlet. People trying to shove wares into our hands, tie turbans onto our heads, step in front of us. Our travel companion Tonja, being as they say "african-american" and wearing a headscarf was actually assaulted even more, we think because the guys wanted to hit on her. Christina kept switching which side of Tonja she was walking on to stay between her more persistant suitors.
...
When our friend Aaron is not with the rest of us he is invisible to the peddlers because he looks middle eastern and therefore they assume he's local. On the flipside however if he tries to talk to tourists they automatically ignore him, assuming he's trying to sell them something.
Saturday night I went out to the bars with my local friend Michael. To get back to my hotel he hailed me a cab and talked to the driver and said it would be 15 pounds (about 3.50 USD), I got in and as we pulled away I ask the driver "15 pounds right?" and he says "15 dollars!" ... which is a preposterous rate around here. Fortunately Michael called me back while I was in the taxi (apparently specifically because he was afraid the driver would try to scam me) and as soon as I started to complain to him the driver said "15 pounds 15 pounds!"
Monday (yesterday) Mark and I went scuba diving during the day. That night Michael took us (our entire group - Aaron, Christine, Tonja, Mark and I) to an actual Egyptian restaurant (ie one locals actually eat at and consider good, as opposed to the shitty tourist ones that are hard to get away from when you're a tourist), it was far and away the best food we've had there and cost 1/10th as much as the crappy food at the hotel restaurant.
Then the girls went home and we met up with some friends of Michaels and went to a local club. Our group was a total of nine people and we had a great time. It was awesome to feel like we were actually experiencing the local experience .. with locals!
To get back to the hotel we managed to cram all of us into a normal sedan taxi. Plus the driver that makes 10 people!!
Today Mark and I went scuba diving during the day again. The reefs here are beautiful.
Tonight we're planning on going out with Michael and friends again, even though we have a 3am bus to catch to get to Cairo. That just means we have to aim to be back at the hotel by 2!
Presently I stopped by Michael's shop after getting back from diving, and he's letting me use his computer. Admittedly when I first got to this town I thought it seemed like kind of a shitty place filled with scammers and dirt. Between diving and windsurfing and such on the one hand and hanging out every evening with locals though I'm actually sad to be leaving so soon and feeling like I'm going to miss the place. | | Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | | 11:45 pm |
From Hugarda!
Friday night - I'm walking to a club in Hugharda (sp?) with my three new Egyptian friends. Of my travel companions, Amalie and Aaron have gone to Cairo to pick up another one who's joining us, Tonja, and Mark is feeling under the weather for the evening, so I'm surrounded by nothing but Egyptians. Egyptians and Russian tourists.
And I'm wondering why people in the club are wearing costumes. Is this some theme of the club or something?
And then it suddenly hits me. Oh my god, it's been Halloween all day and I never realized!!
A new low for halloween (in completely failing to observe it), or a new high (by experiencing it emersed deep in Egypt?)
Since last update, we flew across the red sea from Sinai to Hugarda here on the coast of mainland Egypt. We'd heard horror stories about the Sharm el Sheikh airport we were departing from but they must have renovated it because it was totally top notch (and a giant tent!!). Flight across the Red Sea (the fourth sea we've seen this trip btw) only took 40 minutes and we could see ample reefs below. Arrived here and found the resort/hotel we're staying at to be pretty nice. Was promptly scammed by the internet cafe in it though (turns out sitting at a computer after the warm invitation of the proprietor, then getting up after less than five minutes and letting your friend use it just as quickly incurs the full 20 pound fee as a whole hour). Friday Mark and I learned to windsurf, while Amalie and Aaron went on a mad adventure to Cairo and back. Apparently they spent the whole day in transit (gettnig back around 2:30am), having adventures that are an entire entry to themselves. Saturday (today) we went and saw the sights at Luxor. Presently I'm in the internet cafe hoping to steer clear of any scammy pitfalls, while outsite Russians sing karaoke. And one of my Egyptian friends just called me (they gave me an extra Egyptian sim card they had which I popped into my vodaphone and voila I have an egyptian phone!) about going out tonight so I'm gonna go see if Mark's ready. Cheerio! | | Friday, October 30th, 2009 | | 9:08 am |
LJ Idol - Topic 2- Uphill Both Ways - Climbing Sinai
Last night* we pull into a little outpost in the middle of the darkness of the Sinai. There are three shelters in the pool of light -- two are wooden frames with dried palm fronds for a roof, one is made of brick but is largely open on the front and also has palm fronds for a roof. Three goats sit on a picnic table in front of the latter. A loud techno beat blasting into the night completes the completely surreal picture. In one of the the shelters two local men drink tea wearing the typical bedouin garb of what we've called a man-dress for lack of a better term and head covering. In the other open one two men are playing a soccer game on a tv screen. One of them has the white uniform of the Egyptian police/military, with three gold stars on the shoulder (unless they have generals stationed at every little checkpoint this does NOT mean what it means on a western uniform). The brick structure is a poorly stocked little shop. The sound and smell of the diesel generator from which the little outposts electricity no doubt comes from dominates the inside of the shop. The sign outside the shop identifies it as the Buddha Cafe. A sign inside proclaims that "Allah is great!" After a 15 minute stopover at this location so our driver and tour guide can smoke their 150th cigarettes of the day, we continue. We're driving through the night in a little van. Our driver, tour guide, security guard and about 11 tourists somehow cramed in. Its a few hours to Mt Sinai, and we pass through a security checkpoint at least once an hour, as we did when we initially came in to Egypt. The security checkpoints consist of barriers in the road that make you have to drive zigzag, as well as speedbumps. Finally there will be a crossbar and a little hut. At the hut will be the white-clad police-military (though sometimes they're not wearing a uniform at all). Often they don't have a weapon at all but sometimes they'll randomly have an AK-47, and once one had a sword. They seem to actually harass locals a lot more than tourists, I guess they realize they need our money. In contrast to the police/military, private security such as the guy in our van typicallu wear suits and carry an MP-5 or similar small submachinegun under their coat. So we drive through the night. We left our little resort around 10pm. I had always pictured the Sinai as a large flat desert. Desolate it certainly is, but flat it is not. At least the southern portion consists entirely of endless rugged mountains, completely devoid of anything green, or of dead plant life, or of soil, or anything other than rock and gravel. Its really a wonder anyone can live here. The road winds through these crags, at some point dynmited right through them (the grave of the engineer who did this was pointed out to us as we passed. Turns out he dynomited himself too). We arrive at the base of Mt Sinai around 2:30 in the morning. I wasn't sure what to expect but I'm greeted by throngs of tourists, dozens of idling busses, shops and camels. Figures. Everyone climbs Sinai at night because it's simply too hot to do during the day. Before we start the trail we must go through a metal detector, like most public places in Egypt. In this case the power was off on the metal detector and the guards weren't interested in looking at bags. We start up the very-well-worn trail up the mountain. Ahead of us we can see the twinkling line of flashlights snaking all the way up the mountain. The temperature is nice. I prefer not to use a flashlight because your eyes eventually adjust pretty good and then its nicer than having your vision limited to the circle of your flashlight. We trudge along up the hill. Eventually the crowd thins out enough and other people realize they don't need a flashlight so I'm able to actually proceed through the dim natural light. Out of the darkness the red dot of the end of a cigarette will emerge every 100 yards or so, to be accompanied by "camel? camel? camel!" ("a very informative people" Aaron notes). I'm sure they understand "no" but we've found saying "la!" (Arabic for no) is infinitely more effective. It shuts them right down like magic whereas "no" seems to be an invitation to try harder. Throughout the journey camels suddenly lurch out of the darkness or appear silhuetted against the stars. The first few kilometers are relatively flat, then it escalates to about a 30 degree grade for a few kilometers, and then the final kilometer or so is at least a 45 degree grade of steep steps. Grueling to say the least. I've been to the top of Mt Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental united states, and I'd do that again -- I would NOT do Mt Sinai again. It's worth doing once I'd say, and the view of the sunrise from the top is nice, but oh my god my kneeeees. We arrived at the top around 5:45, just in time for the sunrise. Aaron pulled out some pringles potatoe chips he'd had in his pack and let me tell you they've NEVER tasted so good. The sunrise was rather lovely and we all took many pictures (I'd post one here but the camera transfer cable got left in Tel Aviv) Then one of us says "now it's time to go back down!" and Aaron adds "and up agani too, since there were downs on the way up!" and I add "uphill, both ways!!" * actually it was two nights ago as of the moment, but I composed this the next day .. I just didn't have internet access for two days due to, you know, wandering the Sinai. [ Posted from a little internet cafe by the beach in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt (Sinai). Please excuse any typos etc, I don't have time to proofread this - hammering it out in half an hour between the cafe opening and my bus leaving] | | 8:57 am |
Arriving in Egypt
Security on the Israeli side of the border crossing at Taba/Eilat consisted of three seperate places where they checked our paperwork and passports and crossreferenced them on the computer (and Aaron almost got taken into custody*); Security on the Egyptian side consisted of a man in a chair.
And then a guy took our paperwork and walked somewhere else with it, and then somewhere else.
Once through, taxi drivers descended on us like flies. One followed us for 400 of the 500 meters to the bus stop insisting that he should give us a ride to the bus stop. First on foot and then following us slowly in his taxi. It was creepy. Then he insisted the bus wasn't coming.
We talked to the bus stop attendant and he said the bus was "maybe" coming. Later the taxi driver talked to him and said "I takled to the attendant and he says bus isn't coming!" Sure enough we then talked to the attendant and he said the bus wasn't coming. I suspect the driver just slipped him a twenty to say that.
So we ended up going with the taxi driver anyway. He wanted 100 egyptian pounds a person to take us to Sharm El Sheikh several hours away. Right after we agreed (having utterly failed to budge him in our attempts to haggle) another driver offered us half the rate -- but we'd already loaded our stuff in the first guy's taxi so we stuck with it.
As we were leaving we passed the bus coming in.
Welcome to Egypt
*Aaron was flagged as an draft dodger. They were all excited about catching him until he showed his US Coast Guard ID and explained that he had had to give up is Israeli citizenship to join the US armed forces. | | Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 | | 2:20 am |
From Eilat!
I'm in Eilat on the Red Sea It's sometime around 4am, I'm not sure I forgot to bring a timepiece ): I've been drinking all night and have about 10 shekels to my name right now. Well, on me. Turns out most ATMs around here only accept four digit pins and mine is five!! ): Before you travel make sure you only have a four digit pin! Catching a bus tomorrow at 6am into the Sinai desert in Egypt. May be stuck with nary an internet connection accept IP-over-camel. Just a minute left of this internet. Gotta go! | | Sunday, October 25th, 2009 | | 7:51 pm |
From Israel!
Hello from a hostel in the middle of nowhere by the Dead Sea in Israel (Masada). If you were following along with my itinerary closely, like you should be unless you don't care and are a bad person ;) you would know we went to Jerusalem today to see the holiest sights. You may also have noticed the headline today of "Israeli police storm Jerusalem's holiest sites" and would be wracked with worry (about what I had done to warrant this).
Well we didn't actually get to that site in our whistle stop Jerusalem tour, but we did see lots of (hot female) riot police, and a dead guy, but I'll get to that.
Friday Arriving in Israel, I was immediately plucked from the line of people disembarking the airplane by a gorgeous young lady with a badge and a gun and interrogated until my friend Aaron came along and convinced her in hebrew that I wasn't a terrorist. I think she just wanted to talk to me ;) It was already evening by the time we got out so we just explored Tel Aviv a bit. We're staying with some of Aaron's relatives on the outskirts. Out at the bars Mark approached a table with a group of three cute girls, when asked what they did they all responded "we're soldiers!" Ah Israel. The cutest one was a tank instructor. Totally hot. (: Saturday Up the coast, ancient city of Caeserea, Acre, and Lebanon border. Gorgeous girls still overwhelmingly plentiful, often with submachineguns. We even saw one with an identical twin as well. Does it get any better than that??? Sunday Lightning tour of Jerusalem. ): Too short, definitely need to return. Took taxi up to Masada here by the red sea. Barely swerved around what looked to be roadkill on the road but was actually a person. Very dead. Rude. Floating in the dead sea: awesome!! And now I gotta run cause internet extremely limited. |
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