Wanderlust Heaven!

“When a man no longer believes in God, he’ll believe in anything.”

–G.K. Chesterton

I really do mean to keep this entry relatively slim – I’m still recovering from last week’s blockbuster 14-page/36-photo extravaganza.  That’s what happens when you try to see the Greatest Hits of the Nile Valley in under a week.

I had a bit more time in Cairo remaining before taking a train up to Alexandria, a place I was excited about seeing.  Went back to Estoril for a couple beers – the Sadat lookalike barman remembered me and greeted me warmly.  I suppose we each consider the other exotic-looking.

Briefly visited the large synagogue near my hotel.  It’s well-guarded and well-maintained.  The fellow inside was Jewish, he showed me around and (of course) hit me up for a donation.  He told me there are only about 200 Jews left in Cairo/Egypt…down from thousands a few decades ago.  I won’t repeat my frequent riff about it being better for Jews to maintain a broad global presence instead of crowding into Israel and the US.  Anyway, I’d done my quick Jewish sight-seeing in Egypt – I feel the need to check out some of these sites, if they’re close by.

Stayed on top of the Mumbai terror attack story, given my imminent trip there.  Spoke with some friends in India – the mood was understandably grim.  But the authorities seemed, slowly, to be putting a lid on things.  I decided to stick to my plans – and to my guns.

On Friday morn, hopped on a train to al-Iskandariyya, Alexandria.  The trip was quick – just 2.5 hours.  While sitting there, I reflected on my time in Egypt and came to the conclusion that the Indian visa torture had actually forced me to plan my time well and be particularly efficient.  I had felt a bit rushed, but really it had come down to a few very early mornings – I’d not had to skip anything I’d truly wanted to see.  And I also knew that the average tourist here only has a week or so, so my quicker-than-usual pace was probably just the norm for most.  Still, given my preference for slower travel and spending a good month in most lands, it wasn’t ideal.

Got into Alexandria, and took a taxi to my hotel, Crillon, right on the Corniche.  Verynice budget place – a few floors up, via the usual ancient elevator.  Staff very welcoming – and my room had a balcony overseeing the harbor, which is one of the world’s most picturesque, at least when it comes to seaside cities.

Strapped on my Tevas and went for a long walk along the water.  Some travel writer called this city ‘Cannes with acne’ and I thought that fit perfectly.  There’s an underlying sheen and glamor, but the city is clearly old and in need of a bit of spiffing up.  Still, you quickly come to feel that Alexandria is, or at least was, a decadent place, it oozes (faded) grandeur and is full of spirit and grace.  Quite different from Cairo.

Stopped into el-Qobesi, reputed to be the ‘king of mangos.’  This place has tons of fruit on display and makes brilliant juices – I had the mango juice and it blew me away.  Definitely the best I’d had.  Made a note to stop in at least once a day over the weekend for more of those.

Had the vague idea of a late lunch at a fish place down near Qaitbey Citadel, which anchors one end of the harbor.  Heard about and wound up at Qadora, chose my own 400mg millet and they grilled it for me.  Along with the fish came about 5 plates of salads and dips, and bread.  Total bill was well under US$10.  And the fish was excellent.  Millet is considered a pedestrian sort of fish, but I like it and the value is terrific.  I’d been dying for some good seafood, Jordan and Egypt had been light on it.

Got to Qiatbey Citadel, which was built about 500 years ago on the site of one of the 7 ancient world wonders, the Lighthouse of Pharos.  Some of the ancient stones from that were re-used for the Citadel, which is a pretty nice-looking fortress:

The locals are super-friendly.  One family kept waving to me from their window – they probably don’t see all that many whities up here.  Decades ago, the city was full of Greeks, Jews, you name it, but after Nasser seized power in the 50s, the game changed and most left.  Now the city is 99% Egyptian, but you see a number of Greek noses on people and there are still local ethnic clubs and such.

Went for a run that night.  The Corniche looked inviting, right along the sea, but the stones were in bad shape and it was all I could do to avoid twisting my ankle.  Finally went to the far side of the street, onto normal pavement, and that was good.  Still, the sidewalks were crowded.  At one point I had to vault a dude praying on his mat – funny but slightly unnerving.  Got lots of giggles from the lasses – like I was so funny-looking, with them walking around with headscarves or even chadors.  I guess it’s all about context…

Saw the new Alexandria Biblioteca – a massive, soaring structure that resembles a sun-disc plunged into the Earth.  Made a note to try to go see it over the weekend.  As we hopefully all know, Alexandria’s major claim to fame was its ancient library, which was destroyed long ago – by the Romans, by the Christians, by the Muslims, or (most likely) some combination of those.  Sad saga.

Went for a drink at Cap d’Or, one of the few old-time pubs.  The place is 107 years old, the staff look about that age, and it’s a classic little joint.  Used to be Greek.  You’ve heard my rant about it being good for people to be mixed all round the world??

Had some grilled calamari and read the International Herald Trib, which was even more full of terrible news than usual.  Seems the level of indebtedness in the UK is grim, even worse than that in America.  Also read a lighter piece about Indian baseballers, two guys are having tryouts soon.

Alexandria reminds me a bit of Mumbai, with its faded elegance – except that Mumbai’s elegance is even more submerged (under paan spit and general grime).  And Alexandria has only 4 million people – it is far more relaxed than Mumbai is.  Less energetic as well.

Thought ahead to my travel/life plans post-Israel.  Decided to try to wedge a few days in Japan in the mix – am missing some friends and the food there.  Should be doable.  All depends on my India trip and what emerges from that.  Could be back at work fairly soon – probably by early March at latest, and if the Indians have any say in the matter, might be earlier – although I’m in no real hurry, as you might have guessed!  Only I could feel put upon and crunched for time with only 3 months left…

Moved over to the nearby Spitfire Bar, which seems a real sailors’ haunt.  Complete dive.  Mix of gaunt locals and tourists in search of gaunt locals.  The proprietor spoke to me first in Arabic – I replied, appropriately, ‘huh?’  He had thought I was Egyptian.  I do seem to have a morphable (word?) face – people tell me I look Italian, Greek, Arabic, Spanish.  They generally don’t guess Jewish – which I suppose is just fine.  And American also isn’t their first choice.  Again, just fine.

I only have a few basic rules about whether or not I tell people I’m American.  The first, and really the only steadfast rule, is that if they’re holding something dangerous, I don’t fess up.  They could be holding:

-a firearm

-a glass beer bottle

-a car steering wheel

Any of those things, and perhaps a few others, all qualify for my ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rule.  Make sense?

I really like this city, by the way.  That’s probably coming through in the writing…

Only had one day to check out the city’s numerous sights.  Got a fairly early start – with a modest hangover – and had a busy day.  First, the Alexandria National Museum, a terrific place with exhibits from the city’s long and glorious history.  Well worth a visit.

Wanted to check out the library – at least from the exterior.  It’s huge and I didn’t want to spend hours roaming the many offerings inside, at least not so early in the day, but I headed over there to give it a look.  I asked some cops for directions, they passed my question on to another guy, and he wound up giving me a ride to the libes in his little Skoda beater.  Eggsellent…

The place was mobbed, so I just walked around for a few minutes and then moved on.  You’ve gotta make choices sometimes, and anyway it’s not like this version of the library is an ancient wonder – it might be a modern wonder, but it’s only 6 years old…

The heart of the day, and my efforts, were given over to exploring potential sites for Alexander the Great’s burial tomb.  His body may not still be in the city, but was almost certainly here at one point.  No one knows…

Started at Chatby Necropolis, which was discovered by chance in 1904 and is the city’s oldest Greek burial ground – about 2400 years old.  Many archeologists think old Alex was here for a while, but they can’t prove it.  The place is impressive and it’s something to stand in the midst of it:

Walked to another potential burial area.  BTW, the locals don’t give a shit about the Alexander thing – they seem to know a bit, but it doesn’t get them excited.

Walked for a few minutes on Sharia El Eskander el-Akbar – Alexander the Great Street – but this isn’t one of the hypothesized spots.  Figures.

Made it to one of the city’s main drags, Tariq el-Horreyya.  In ancient times this was the Canopic Way, connecting the eastern Gate of the Sun with the western Gate of the Moon.  Where it intersects a street that now runs through Chatby Necropolis is another potential burial spot.  Can’t say with any specificity where, in this area – there are loads of ancient Greek and Coptic burial grounds and I suppose all are candidates.  Here’s the modern look, not all that promising, huh?

Walked by a sports oval.  A couple kids had put down a mat and were praying before their match.  Now I know why I lost all those matches…

Got a taxi to the heart of the ancient city, the intersection of Sharia al-Nabi Daniel (which may have been the old Soma Road) and Tariq el-Horreyya.  The philosopher Strabo claimed the tomb was around here:

Again, pretty innocuous.  But Troy rediscoverer Heinrich Schliemann came to the city in 1888 and thought it was buried under the nearby, unimpressive, smallish Mosque of an-Nadi Daniel.  I went there – a fellow took me down into the cellar, atop which was a newish wooden stairway.  I went down and looked around.  There was a dark hole – a well/spring, or something entirely different?  Across the chamber, there was a large crumbling antechamber which might, with further digging, lead to something.  I spent a few minutes hanging around, my mind wandering freely, then mounted the steps and went back up.  I asked the fellow ‘feen Iskander el-Akbar?’  and he smiled and pointed to the cellar.  Well, OK, maybe.  One thing I’ve noticed is that there are almost always multiple claimants to things like these (see:  Sanliurfa vs. Ur).  I also wondered what the name of the mosque indicated – was the Prophet Daniel also supposedly down there?  Because I’d seen his tomb in Samarkand.  And I’d also seen the so-called ‘Alexander Sarcophagus’ in Istanbul, but that was found in Sidon, and was not really the tomb in question – there are merely amazing battle scenes carved onto it, prominently featuring Alexander.

So that was my tour of potential Alexander the Great burial spots.  As quick and dirty as they get – I didn’t expect to find anything stunning in the course of a half-day, and I didn’t.  Perhaps should have done some research before starting…but I still enjoyed my half-ass tour, and might want to get more serious about this one day.  Please chime in and elucidate if you have something to add. The websites are certainly full of theories…

Checked out a few more ancient sites.  There’s a well-preserved Roman Amphitheater, dug up by Polish archeos while searching for Alex’s tomb a while back.  On the site there’s a small building called Villa of the Birds, inside are a couple floor mosaics that are worth seeing.  A local teenager showed me the place – she asked me my origin and I told her I was American.  She didn’t like America, mostly because of the Iraq War, but I worked on her, got her to laugh and lighten up, and hopefully helped reverse her.  I might start claiming stuff like this on my tax returns…

Then went to ‘Pompey’s Pillar,’ which was not actually built by Pompey but hey, they used to think it was.  It’s in the midst of the ruined Serapeum Temple.

The really cool bit is a passageway below the temple, with a number of different corridors.  This used to be the ‘daughter library,’ which held overflow books from the ancient Alexandria library.  They excavated this only a few years ago – but found no books, unfortunately.  Still, it’s a thrill to walk around under the Serapeum and try to envision what it looked like with scores of ancient papyri stuffed into holes in the walls…

Finally, went to the nearby Catacombs of Kom Ash-Shuqqafa, which were also found by accident, about 100 years ago, when a donkey plunged into a hidden chamber.  I hired a guide outside, he seemed credible and it looked like one of those places which you need a bit of help with.  He took me down to the burial chambers, the original was built by a wealthy local family and incorporates fascinating blends of Egyptian and Greco-Roman beliefs and gods.  There’s Anubis dressed in Roman centurion garb…Dionysus next to a king cobra…etc.  They were hedging their bets – why not worship all the gods, in case some are ‘right’ and some are ‘fake’?

Discussed this with my guide at some length.  He’s Muslim, but likes to drink wine, and feels that religions arise largely to scare people.  No argument there.

Couldn’t take any photos of the Catacombs, but you can probably find photos online if you look.

Was fried from the crazed sight-seeing – but was happy I’d hit the high notes and done the Alexander ‘survey.’  Walked to el-Qobesi for another mango juice – heaven.  Then went back to the hotel to relax a bit.

Made plans to see a friend’s dad on Sunday night, when back in Cairo.  The Metrys are Egyptian-American, Adam went to Tufts with me and we’re old friends.  I know his folks, and it turned out they’d be in Cairo when I was there.  So it made sense to try to see each other.  More on that later.

Last night of my brief visit to Alexandria.  Went back to the Citadel area and had dinner at the superb Greek Club, a real holdover from old(ish) Alexandria.  Perfection itself – dolmades, souvlaki, bread and beer.  Of all the cuisines in this part of the world, they say that Lebanese, Greek and Turkish are the best, the ‘mother’ cuisines.  I believe it – and Greek may be the best.  But I tend to suffer from the recency effect, so don’t put all your faith in my occasional pronouncements…

Hit the sack – had an early train back to Cairo.  Easy enough trip – but this was another very early morning and my body really does not favor those.  Back in Cairo, the taxi thieves were out in full force at Ramses I station.  Refused to cave in – took a while, but found a guy willing to take me to Pension Roma for 10 Egyptian Pounds.  Funny guy – loves Obama.  Hates Bush – said his name and accompanied it with an imaginary machine-gun round.  Later he also brought up the Mumbai situation, and repeated his machine-gun act.  I told him I was going there the next morning – he was shocked, and asked me not to go.  I patted him on the arm and told him not to worry.  Then I did an imaginary machine-gun and he laughed so hard he almost ran into the car in front of us.

Back to Pension Roma – felt like a homecoming of sorts.  This place is a terrific place to stay – great value, and the staff is like family.  And they did an emergency load of laundry for me right away, saving me the potential annoyance of dealing with it in Mumbai.

Was picking up my passport and (hopefully) Indian visa in 2-3 hours – decided to visit the Islamic section of Cairo and see what was there.  This is an old quarter of town with tons of mosques and old streets, you could spend days wandering around but I decided to just get a taste for the area.  Started at al-Fishawy, a famous teahouse right in the bazaar, Khan al-Khalili.  Had a chay and a sheesha – sat there while vendors walked around trying to sell us tchotschkes.  Looked at the local at the next table, in resignation – we both laughed at the absurdity of sitting there smoking, while being harassed by trinket vendors.  At one point I motioned a vendor to go on, to the table behind me, where a couple were sitting – surely, I indicated, the female would be a buyer?  Vendor went there – I looked at the local guy and we both laughed again.

Walked around, getting a feel for the area.  Good place to just wander and get lost.

Found a beautiful, enormous mosque, the Mosque of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah – memorize that, right now.  Huge inner courtyard, very picturesque.

Had a cheapo lunch of ta-amiyyah (falafel) and potato chips.  Looked at my watch – about 12:30.  Indian Embassy was opening now – I had till 14:00 to pick up my passport.  Could not miss that window, otherwise my trip was screwed.  Looked around for a taxi – that took a few minutes, and I was getting a bit edgy, but finally flagged one down.  He extorted a bit extra from me, but I was desperate and I guess the ride was somewhat long.

Got to the Embassy (the Consulate, really), went up a couple flights of stairs.  I’d already been there twice, Thursday most recently, and I was praying this would be it.  Got to the top of the stairs, looked over at the door – and the sign there read ‘Closed.’

Remember that bit earlier when I wrote about praying to every god and hedging your bets?  Well, I was starting to cycle through a series of oaths to every god that came to mind, and against the Indian visa authorities, when I decided to at least check the door.  I thought I heard a noise beyond it, and when I tried to handle, sure enough it turned.  The sign was wrong…I was saved.

Inside, the usual bustle.  The woman I’d dealt with was behind the window.  I eventually got to her, and she handed over my passport.  I exhaled, and it felt like the first time in a couple weeks or more.  I’d enjoyed my travels in Jordan and Egypt immensely, but this had been hanging over my head and now it was in the bag.

A bit too early for a celebratory beer…and I’d be seeing Adam’s dad, Dr. Metry, later on.  So went back to Pension Roma, did a bit of reading (‘SuperScience’ by Michael White – found it during previous Pension Roma stay), then fell asleep, deeply.  My hectic weeks had caught up with me and I was weary.

Phone rang at some point  – Dr. Metry.  We talked, and we made plans.  I caught a cab to the Four Seasons, Nile Plaza – not my usual sort of digs these days.  Fancy schmantzy.  Dr. Metry found me – we hugged, hadn’t seen each other since 1996 or 1997, when I was living in NYC and the Metrys were in town for a holiday.  We went, with a friend of his, to the Sea Horse Café, which his friend’s family owns.  Ate a terrific spread of grilled fish and various salads, and a couple beers.  Covered a lot of ground with Dr. Metry – he’s a great guy and always has a lot going on.

Had a few more things to take care of in Cairo.  Went to the Cairo Gateway Bus Station and got a ticket to go to Sinai on December 15^th, after my India trip.  There’s only one bus per day from Cairo to St. Katherine’s Monastery/Mt. Sinai, and I was concerned that if I waited till the day before, I’d be out.  So decided to be neurotic and plan ahead that far.  Also had booked a room at the Monastery Guesthouse for that night.  December is busy in Egypt and you never know.

Egyptians often use Arabic numbers, which are to the usual numbers as Cyrilic is to the Roman alphabet – quite confusing.  So I wonder why we tend to call ‘our’ numbers ‘Arabic numerals’?  Any answers?

Next morning, flew to Mumbai.  The terror attacks had been (finally) stopped, with tremendous loss of life and damage.  No more needs be said here.  Got into Mumbai – fairly straightforward.  Got my bag, headed out the door, and didn’t see a driver (I expected Freddy, the usual Mumbai driver) with a sign for me.  Called the office assistant, she had lost her mobile the night before, and the attacks had made planning difficult, so chaos was the outcome.  A fellow finally came with my name on a piece of paper – whew.  Was getting ready to change some money and get my own ride into town.  It was over 30 Celsius and I was pretty fucking warm already…welcome to paradise.

The usual hellacious traffic – took an hour to get into Colaba, the scene of the attacks, and my hotel.  Checked into the Suba Palace – nice enough, and, more importantly, not a tourist icon.  Noticed crowds in front of legendary Leopold’s Café, of which I’ve written many words in past entries.  Leo’s had been shot up by two of the terrorists, and about 10 people, including two waiters, had been killed.  Just awful.  Anyway, it reopened quickly and people were thronging it in support.  Good.  I made a note to visit sometime during the week.

Lots of good memories came flooding back – I’d spent a lot of time in this part of Mumbai since ’92.  I also recalled a few hassles and less thrilling times, evading beggars and lying cabbies, trying not to sweat to death, holding my nose to escape the smell of god knows what, etc.  India is all things, sometimes all at once.

Many of you know that I’m in Mumbai to investigate a potential work opportunity, in a new business unit of a former employer.  I don’t kiss and tell, and won’t say much about this in my blog.  I’ll just say that it was an intriguing week – spent time in the office talking to lots of people on the team…made trips to two other Indian cities to check out project sites and meet people…and reflected on what I want my life to be like in the next few years.  Transitioning from fulltime travel to fulltime work is a serious pivot – so I’m not taking this step lightly.

Had dinner that night with the office head, at the Breach Candy Club.  When I lived nearby, in ’92, I had a membership.  It’s a great club with a huge (saltwater!) pool, and a very nice resto with good fish dishes.  If I do return, I definitely want a membership here.

Small world – the office head and my b-school classmate Rajan know each other quite well, they live near each other and their kids are classmates.  Good for me to have a bit of a network here in town.

Walked around Colaba that night after dinner.  Eerily quite – the attacks had only been cleared up on Saturday, two days before, and things were still tense.  Lots of security around now – of course.  We’re always ready for the previous incident, huh?

Sent a few texts to friends around India, then got calls from Hasmeeth and Rozelle.  They’re up north and we won’t meet this time, but perhaps before long.  The calls lasted a long long time – I’m still verbose – and afterwards I was starving.  Walked over to Bade Miya, the kebab cart all Mumbaikers know and love, and had a chicken tikka and a lamb kebab roll.  Right on the money – and the money was only about US$3.  I love it.

The only place in the area that was crowded was Leopold’s.  I was happy to see how much spirit it showed – absolutely indomitable.  There were 2-3 bullet holes in plain view, but the place was full and chattering away.

Next day, had lunch with a new friend, to be precise, she’s the friend of my friend Bettina in Manila.  Angeline’s husband, Michael, works here in the US Consulate.  We met at a place called Britannia, an old Parsi resto which was new to me.  Great food.  Angeline brought a few other friends, including another Consulate worker, who turned out to be from Cape Cod.  Very small world.

The ancient owner of Britannia is perhaps the last George W. Bush fan – well, besides Laura, and even she may be in question.  He bent my ear for a few minutes while I was waiting for the girls – he loves W.’s ‘vision of freedom.’  My sense is that he’s an old Parsi who hates Muslims – but that’s just a guess.  Anyway, the lunch was good and I enjoyed meeting some new folks.  If I do come to work here, I want to have a decent social network in place…hanging out in the office all night is not my idea of the right sort of lifestyle.

That night there was a candlelight vigil for the victims of the attacks.  I had a meeting (surprise) and couldn’t go, but even hours later when I got over that way, there were thousands hanging around, holding candles, chanting, and expressing themselves quite freely.  Lots of ‘fuck Pakistan’ going around.  OK, I understand the sentiment…but we really do need to get creative to make progress on this issue.  What about a joint Indian-Paki attack on the terror training camps?  Might be a naïve notion, but better than India attacking Pakistan proper – the Paki government is so weak, and the state so unstable, that war will only make things worse.

Couldn’t walk near the Taj, the scene of much of the damage and death.  Cuffe Parade was cordoned off.  Did see a sign nearby, put there by protestors.  This was a list of demands to the state/national government, and included a point about having defense weapon standards equivalent to those of Israel and the US…and another point about awarding slain cops/agents the sum of 5 crore rupees – about a million dollars apiece.  Anyone wanna put odds on those two things happening anytime soon?

This morning, on a domestic flight, I read that the Princeton Review had, for the 2^nd consecutive year, named Darden’s professors the best in the business.  While I’m biased, and haven’t met many profs from other b-schools, I couldn’t agree more with this rating, and it made me pretty damn proud.  I felt like yelling ‘fuck Pakistan.’  But the plane was full and that may not have been particularly constructive…

Was met by a driver holding a sign that read ‘Mile Slone.’  And later in the day I was welcomed on an electronic signboard that read ‘Mike Flone.’  Welcome to India.  It was close enough.

BTW, this isn’t exactly a short entry…I keep promising (you and me) to keep these slim, but I guess I just am observing so many things out here that I can’t help myself.  Like G.K. Chesterton, I’ll believe anything these days…

On Friday I have a wrap-up meeting with the office head, to discuss the week and next steps.  I have some thinking and deciding to do.  Like W., I am The Decider.  Let’s pray I make better decisions than he did.  I think I will.  And I promise to keep you posted, albeit somewhat generically.  But it’s not all seriousness over here – I’m meeting some friends for drinks Friday night, and on Saturday I head to Goa for a week.  I’ve missed the place, including Lisa, Richard, and Bean Me Up, and so I’m heading there for the 3^rd winter in a row.  Just for a week this time, but I might return later in the season.  We’ll see.  At this point in my life, I need a vacation after sort of working for a week – imagine that.  I’ll take my leave of you now – good night, godspeed, and good luck.  Over and out.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.