I went to school on Tuesday morning since I had class at 8, and by 10 most of the students were gone, and by 10:30 all the teachers had the official ok to leave.  Hurricane Gonu was on its way and approaching quickly.  So I was home by 11 with nothing to do.  Linh, Rahim and I chilled for a bit, thinking this isn’t going to be a big deal…but then we started getting warnings on our phones through nawras and oman mobile (equivalent to rogers and bell back home).  So we went out and picked up pizza hut for lunch and dinner and also tried to go to rawasco (local convenience store) to get extra water but that place was crazy – couldn’t even walk in… We also tried going to the new dvd rental store (discovered just a few days earlier) but it was closed.  So we headed back to our apartment and planned on hibernating here for a few days.  We watched some local tv and His Majesty Sultan Qaboos formally declared that people will be off school and work from today (Tuesday) until next Sunday.  Woohoo!!!  But what the heck are we going to do, trapped indoors for so long?!?!?  Face Off was on tv, so we watched that and then we all just passed out from boredom.  We woke up around 7, ate the left over pizza, and were anxiously waiting for the storm to hit, but nothing…just a little wind.  Other areas of Oman had already been hit and hit pretty badly.  We decided to go for a drive to the beach to see the waves.  Athaibah beach was pretty crazy.  Lots of people were coming there and watching.  The waves were rough and high and in the 15 minutes we were there, they become stronger and more frequent.  We headed back home and all just slept for the night. 

Around 4am, it started raining hard and it got really windy.  I was in and out of sleep for the rest of the night.  At 9:30 Linh and I decided to go outside to see what was going on.  We took an umbrella (thinking it would help us, but really there was no point).  We did a walk around our building and were drenched and we almost blew away.  Unfortunately pictures don’t do it justice.  The cable is out, the doors are shaking like crazy and the lights are going on and off.  We’re making lunch now, honestly, not much to do other than sleep and eat.  The worst of the storm should be over by 4pm.  Will write again then to report on what happened…So I’m continuing the story now…the guys (Salah and Aboodi) came to visit us in the 4x4 and took us for a drive to see waterfalls in the mountains, mini-niagara falls, and wadi’s.  It was crazy.  This 1 traffic light near our place had a big wadi and a big truck was stuck in it.  This jeep wrangler tried to go through it and almost made it, but then got stuck and came back.  The water was up to its window.  We were gone for probably less than an hour, but we saw so many crazy sites. Then the storm got really bad and the wind and rain was getting stronger.  The AC in my bedroom (the kind in the wall) started seeping water through the sides into my room.  So every hour we had to go into my room and mop up the mess.  It was crazy.  I emptied everything out of my room, and packed up my clothes so nothing would get wrecked.  Then we got a text message saying that the eye of the storm was going to be around 10pm and everyone would be in the tornado for about 40-60 seconds.  This freaked me out just a bit…so we packed emergency bags (with our passports), and went up to Linh’s place to sleep (seemed safer b/c it was on a higher floor and no leakage).  We were ready for it at 10, but didn’t feel anything, and then we just fell asleep and woke up the next morning around 8am.  It was sunny, but the wind was still strong.  I went down to my place a little scared to see what happened in my bedroom overnight, but it was completely dry.  Yay!  I was ready to shower, do laundry, and put this all behind me….but….the running water was gone – fantastic!  So Linh and I went for a walk to Khimji’s Mart (convenience store).  The line up was crazy inside and everyone got tonnes of water.  We got the last few bottles, and some chocolate bars (the necessities – haha) and walked back home.  Every hour I would open my tap to see if there was any water, but no such luck.  I was at home all day, then in the evening, we were all tired and bored, so Rahim came to pick us up and we went to see if any restaurants were open.  A few were..so we went to this Chinese restaurant, then went for a drive to one of the beaches (jawharat al shatti), but there was no one there…all the restaurants there were closed.  Normally this place on a weekend is packed…you can’t find parking.  But tonight was a different story…the place was deserted.  Then we stopped off at mcdonalds for dessert and headed home.  Again a little anxious to see if the water had returned…but no such luck.  I headed to bed and finally got a good nights sleep.  Again, Friday morning, fingers crossed…any water???  Nope!  So I attempted to shower with bottled water…quite challenging.  Its Friday at 4pm and I’m still waiting for water… 

It's Monday...and this morning when I woke up there was water!!!  The first thing I did was take a real shower...now I'm on my 3rd load of laundry...I feel so fresh and so clean... ok gotta run!

On Wednesday afternoon, after class, we set out for Dubai – 5 of us – me, Aliya, Linh, Salah, and Aboodi.  We had a really fun drive there, and got to our hotel in Sharjah around 9pm at night.  Then we headed straight to Burger King for dinner (its tradition when we go to Dubai, since there’s no BK in Muscat).  Then we took a walk along the water and headed back to the hotel.  We wanted to spend all of Thursday at Wild Wadi (equivalent to Wild Water Kingdom back home).  First we went for brunch at Central Perk and then we headed to the water park.  The entrance was really expensive, so we decided we would stay till the park closed to make the most of our money.  It was a really fun, hot afternoon with the Burj Al Arab right behind you all day long.  Then we went to Mall of Emirates to check out the ski slope, do some shopping and had dinner there.  By 10pm we were exhausted!  We headed back to our hotel and crashed!  The next morning (Friday), we wanted to go to the Gold Souq, but everything was closed in the morning since it was Friday.  While driving through Deira, we saw a machine filling sand in the water… they were creating the Palm Island in Deira – it was such a cool site!  Then we went for brunch, then went to see the new Ismaili Centre being built near Lamcy Plaza and then went to Deira City Centre and watched a movie.  Before leaving, we got Krispy Kreme donuts for the ride back.  We got back to Muscat around midnight.  It was a really fun weekend!

The heat in Muscat was really getting to us, so we had to make an escape to a place a little cooler.  Karim (Rahim’s bro) was now in Muscat visiting and Aliya was still here, so we decided to do a weekend camping trip to the mountain.  You ready for this one?!?!  So there were 7 of us that went, so we took 2 cars, well actually one 4x4 and our rental car (the Honda City).  Some people had told us that you have to have a 4x4 to go up, and others said it doesn’t matter.  I think you can tell where this story is going.  So Rahim was driving the Honda City and our 2 guests were with him (all part of the initiation process), and plus I wasn’t ready to risk my life!  The roads up the mountain were so narrow and rocky.  The 4x4 would go first and then the car, we kept looking behind us after every hill to see if they made it behind us.  One time, it was taking them awfully long to get up, so we started going back in reverse to see if they were ok.  Finally we saw them coming super fast.  Apparently, as they were going up the hill, Rahim’s foot was completely pressed down on the gas and the car didn’t move…it started rolling back down…they were honking like crazy and totally freaking out…but we didn’t hear anything.  Then they tried again and made it up! Whoa!  The scenery all the way up was beautiful…but if you looked too far over you would see the edge of the cliff!  Finally about an hour from the bottom of the mountain we made it to our campsite which was 8000ft up.  From there we did a hike.  The hike was around the mountain and so cool!  It was hard to capture all the scenery cause you had to watch where you were walking so that you wouldn’t fall.  We had some rest stops (requested by Aliya) and just sat in silence!  It was about 5:30pm, and we were still hot…imagine how it would have been at noon! Then we headed back to the camp for dinner.  It was alright….nothing that great… then we all hung out in a tent for a bit, played some taboo (yup I asked Aliya to bring mine from home), and then headed to sleep.  Here’s the fun part again…so as we were getting ready to sleep…what do we find on Aliya’s bed?  Yup a scorpion…we had that killed immediately but obviously Aliya couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night.  There was also a party going on in one of the tents and they were playing really loud music until 2:30am, then there were some dogs that wouldn’t stop barking after that, and then some construction started at 6:00am, so when we all woke up at 7:30am we were in a bad mood cause no one slept well.  We complained to the owners and ended up paying only 3 rial/person, instead of the originally agreed upon 10 rial/person.  Omani wasta at its best!  We ate some breakfast and then headed out for another hike.  This route was really rocky and really hard to walk on, and it was boiling hot, so we didn’t last long at all.  We decided to leave, back in the same cars we came in…we said our good byes just in case the Honda City didn’t make it down – hahaha!  The drive down the mountain actually wasn’t bad at all.  On the way back we stopped at Misfah village (a very nice traditional Omani village) and did a walk through.  We were all pretty tired by then so we just headed back to Muscat. 

Aliya just arrived yesterday and Farrah M will be leaving later on today.  So we woke up really early on Friday morning and headed to Qantab beach so that we could try to see dolphins.  We got a guy to take us in his boat and he drove for quite a while.  It was so hot but the breeze felt nice.  Finally we saw a few dolphins, but they didn’t fully come out of the water, we ended up just seeing a bunch of fins.  On the boat ride back, we asked our boat driver to drop us off on a secluded beach.  We got to one, but there was not an inch of shade in sight.  It was 10am at this time, so we asked him to come back at 11:30 cause we knew we wouldn’t last in the sun for too long.  We got off on the beach, threw all our stuff in a corner and just jumped into the water…it was too hot to stand on the sand.  The water was absolutely gorgeous…crystal clear!  We saw little fishes, sandfishes, crabs, all sorts of things.  When our boat driver came at 11:30 we weren’t ready to leave…so we made an executive decision to ask him to come back at 1:00pm.  We got out of the water for about 5 mins to have a food break.  We had brought samosas (from Shell gas station – they have the best ones!) with us and chips.  And then jumped back in.  We played Frisbee in the water for a while…monkey in the middle style – it was so fun!  While we were at the beach, another boat drove up and the people inside were fishing.  They had some awesome R&B music they were playing on their stereo.  Before we knew it, it was 1:00pm and we got onto the boat and headed back.  This is where the fun begins….we were all exhausted, hot, and dying to shower, so we headed back home…and then the sunburns, tans, and peeling began…everyone was BLACK and in pain! 

Farrah M just arrived yesterday and we had planned to go to Al Sawadi Beach today.  Rahim was on his way to pick us up in the morning, but couldn’t make it….the roads were all blocked because the Sultan was traveling so no one could cross the highway.  Oh no!  Finally a couple of hours later, the roads re-opened.  Minor setback on the plans, but no stopping us…we were on our way to the beach in no time.  We got there around 12:30 and headed straight for the water.  The water was so nice and warm.  It was way too hot to sit on the sand.  We stayed in the water for a while, but couldn’t even look up because the sun was too bright.  Then at 2:30 we all went to get massages done.  It was awesome!  Then we ate lunch at one of the cafes and then returned to tanning/burning.  When we went back in the water around 5, it was so different from the afternoon.  The water was much cooler, and the tide was stronger and was pushing us to the left quite a bit.  We came back out around 7 and just chilled on our chairs under the umbrellas until 8.  What a relaxing day!

I couldn’t sleep all night because first it was really windy and then it started raining really loud and hard.  It hardly ever rains here, but when it rains, it rains bad.  My alarm was set for 8:00am, since we had class at 9:00am, but I was kind of awake from 6:00am.  At 8, my alarm went off and I got up.  I looked outside my window and it was pouring and everything was muddy.  Two minutes later, I heard rattling at my door…I thought it was the wind, because it does that sometime…then my doorbell rang…it kind of freaked me out…I looked through the peep hole and I see a guy drenched with a baseball cap…it was Rahim!  He woke up super early, thinking that it would take really long for him to pick us up…normally a 5 minute drive, took 40 minutes.  There is no drainage system in the city, no sewers…so the rain just piles up, until trucks come to carry it away.  There’s lots of hills, so there were times when Rahim couldn’t even see the tires of the cars in front of him.  School is only a 1 minute drive from my place, so we got there no problem.  There were only a handful of students on campus.  And none of my students showed up…so we waited for about 15 minutes and then came back home.  Linh, Rahim, and I chilled at my place all day!  I made pancakes for breakfast, we watched Blood Diamond and Babel on dvd, while we snacked on chips, chocolates, and fruit, and then we had shawarmas for dinner…what a great day…so all of you back home got a few snow days this year right?!?!  Well today we had a rain day!!!

 The next day there were pictures in the newspaper…I have a great one to show you guys when I get back home…its all these 4x4’s that were parked in a budget rent a car lot that got pushed into a wadi (valley) that was filled with water…what a site!  Also, you know when it snows, the snow ploughs push the piles of snow to the side…well there were piles of mud on the sides of the roads for the next few days.  

On Thursday morning we drove from Muscat, through Ibra, through Sur, and ended up in Ras al Hadd/Ras al Jinnes 4 hours later.  We also passed this small town called Bid Bid and I thought the name was so cute, that I totally overused that word all weekend long and claimed that I would name my first born that – hahaha!  Along the way we saw army bases, new pipelines, mini tornadoes in the sand, mountains that looked like there was snow on the top, and we experienced many stupid drivers doing crazy over-taking.  When we arrived, we hardly had any gas in the car, so we went to this ghetto gas pump where a man used a funnel to pour gas into the car.  We saw men across the street standing in horizontal lines (looked like they were playing red rover)…but I think there was a wedding going on.  Anyhow, we finally got to the campsite – Al Naseem.  We sat there for a couple of hours, talked to the other people that were going to spend the night there, and met Ali (Bedouin camp worker) who sang some Arabic songs to us. 

Dinner was ready at 7pm.  It was absolutely delicious!  The week before, we tried doing a cleanse/diet so we hadn’t eaten any tasty food for a little while.  Dinner included: daal and rice, lamb (so tender), chicken, and fresh tuna.  At 8pm the campfire started.  People were smoking shisha and singing songs in Arabic and Hindi.  We met this young couple (husband from U.S., wife from Nepal) that work in Kuwait and their parents were visiting and they came to Muscat for vacation.  At 9pm, we all got into our cars and drove to the turtle beach.  It was about 10 minutes away.  We parked our cars, turned off all the lights and walked on the sand towards the water.  The sky was so clear!  There were so many stars, that you couldn’t see any patch of sky that was empty…it was all lit up by stars.  There were tonnes of people there.  Mr Ali Al-Turtle was in charge of the beach and briefed us on the rules and also general information about the turtles mating and laying of eggs.

Some interesting info about turtles:  the males stay closest to the water where the temperature is about 26deg.  There are males and females in the middle of the sand where the temp is 26-29deg.  And farthest from the water is the females where the temp is >30deg.  Green turtles are in the majority, but there are also some red turtles (these bite you) that come to this beach.  The green turtles have an avg size of 1.5m and weight of 163kg.  When the female is ready to lay her eggs, she comes onto the sand and digs a hole with her front legs that is about ½m deep.  If the sand is too loose, she won’t release her eggs and will keep trying to find a suitable hole.  If the hole is good, she will lay all her eggs in 1 hole.  A small turtle lays ~60 eggs, medium turtle lays ~80 eggs, and a large turtle lays ~120 eggs.  The life span of turtles is 150 years.  After the eggs are laid, the female covers the hole with sand, using her back legs.  Then the female digs a decoy hole about 2-3m from the original hole to fool the foxes that will try to dig up the eggs.  2 months after the eggs are laid, they will hatch.  If they are laid at 9pm, they will hatch 2 months later also at 9pm.  Out of all the eggs laid only 2-3 will survive.  The baby turtle that hatches on the beach will return to the beach that he/she was born at after 25 years.  Turtles come back to the same beach every 4 years.  April, May, June are the most popular months to lay eggs.  June and July are the most popular months for babies to be born. 

There were lots of really large holes in the sand.  These were made by the female turtles testing out the sand to see if it was good enough for them to put their eggs into, but these didn’t meet to their satisfaction (sand was probably too soft).  All of us were falling into the holes as we walked across. We were allowed to take pics, but not with the flash, so nothing really came out well.  The first pic that Linh took had the flash on, so her camera got confiscated for a little while.  Mr. Ali Al-Turtle, brought us some baby turtles to play with while we were waiting to see the female turtles lay their eggs.  We got some really cool pics of the baby turtles in our hands.  Finally it was time to see the female.  We saw 1 big turtle.  It was digging a hole in the sand with its front legs.  She was moving the sand out quickly, but quickly decided that the sand wasn’t good enough for her babies, so she returned back to the water, and would probably look for another beach the next night.  The baby turtles were returned back to the water, but before they went all the way in, Mr. Ali Al-Turtle directed a flashlight in different directions and the baby turtles followed the direction of the light.  Crabs are known to eat baby turtles eyes, so baby turtles should always be kept safe.  This night there was only 2 turtles seen that were trying to lay their eggs.  The day before there were 7 and the day before that there were 22.  In the popular months there are hundreds.  We left the beach at 12am and returned back to the campsite.  Linh, Rahim, and I all slept in the same room under mosquito nets (just in case!).

The next morning we wanted to see dolphins.  Ali from the campsite found a fisherman (Hussein) that agreed to take us in his boat.  The boat smelled of fish and there were fish guts everywhere…but its all part of the experience…right?!?! We saw lots of fishermen in their boats and we even met Ali’s father and cousin.  The fishermen looked so happy as if they had no worries in the world.  Finally we had gone really far into the water and we saw tonnes of dolphins jumping around.  They were jumping in single file.  You guys have to see the video we took of this!  There were hundreds of them and they were so cute and fast.  We also saw 1 male and 1 female turtle in the water.  And we saw a wrecked ship.  We saw two boys in their own small Styrofoam boxes fishing in that.  It was a really nice morning.  Then we headed back to the campsite and drove back home. 

Qaroot Al Janubiah – The Persian Steps

Thursday February 15, 2007

We had planned to go watch camel racing in the morning and then go for a hike through the Persian Steps.  We thought camel racing would come first, but on our way realized that it was actually 2.5 hours away from Muscat, rather than the ½ - 1 hour that we thought it was.  So we skipped out on the camel racing and headed towards Izki to the Persian Steps.  It was in an area called Qaroot Al Janubiah (South).  We drove about 1km down a gravel road and then parked our car at the entrance.  There was no one else around, other than the five of us (Rahim, Linh, Cynthia, Armand, and I). 

It was a very rocky area as we began our rock climbing.  It was actually really intense and it was hot!  We were sweating a lot and needed lots of water.  About 1.5 hours in, we were wondering why we still hadn’t seen the Persian Steps to our left…we had definitely gone too far in, because the book we had said that it should only be a 45min-1hour hike before you see the steps on the left.  So we decided to turn around, especially because it was getting harder and harder to climb.  The rocks were slippery and high and it was definitely an awesome workout for my arms and legs.  We had a little picnic on the rocks with our subway sandwiches and apples.  Then we headed back and kept looking for something that would resemble steps.  Finally we found it (only 20 mins from where we parked our car), and there was a small white arrow drawn in a rock pointing up.  There are over 3000 steps here to climb.  These were steps created by the Persians when they attempted to conquer Oman hundreds of years ago.  We began the climb and boy could you feel it in your calves.  We were going really high and the view of the mountains below and the city in the distance were absolutely incredible.  It was so peaceful, no one else was there…not touristy at all (hence why we couldn’t find it initially).  We climbed to about 750m and then decided to go back down.  We wouldn’t be able to finish the climb today because we had already wasted almost 3 hours since we passed it the first time around.  When we were nearing the bottom, all of our legs started shaking and they felt like jelly…it was crazy…we started at 9:30am and finished at 2:30pm…and none of it was flat terrain.  We will definitely try to go back and finish the climb, because apparently there is a ruined mosque higher up and a few other sites, and then you can take a taxi down J  

Thursday December 28, 2006 Muscat to Delhi

When we arrived at the airport in Delhi we bought our train tickets to Agra and Jaipur, but there weren’t any 1^st class seats left, so we just got 2^nd class.  We went to the pre-paid taxi booth and also asked about hotels.  They suggested one that was apparently clean, so we took the taxi there.  It was located in Carolbagh (northwest area of the city).  When we saw the hotel, it was dirty.  There were lots of hotels on that strip, so we walked along until we found one that we thought was clean.  We were exhausted and hungry.  We found a South Indian Vegetarian restaurant and had dosas – yummy!!!  Then we began walking around our area and ended up in a bazaar.  It was packed!  Lots of shoe stores, and lots of food was being sold on the streets…Linh really wanted to eat the food, but I wouldn’t let her…not ready to get sick from the food yet L Then we decided to take the metro to the train station and see if we could upgrade our train tickets to 1^st class.  The train station was ghetto!!!  We weren’t able to upgrade the Delhi à Agra train, but we were able to upgrade Agra à Jaipur (which was a much longer ride anyways).  Then we went for dinner and headed back to our hotel.  In the lobby of the hotel, we saw a rat (we hadn’t even been in the country for 12 hrs)!  We freaked out and screamed really loud, the hotel workers came and told us it was good luck.  They came to check out our room, but couldn’t see anything there.  It was too late to find another place to stay for that night, so Linh and I squeezed into the middle of 1 bed and slept with the lights on in fear of something crawling on us in the middle of the night. 

Friday December 29, 2006 Delhi

We woke up to the sound of our neighbours horking (sp?) really loud (as though they were sitting right beside me).  We checked out, since we refused to stay there for another night.  We were going to start sight seeing in Old Delhi with the Red Fort.  So we began walking to the metro station, and a bunch of rickshaws stopped to give us a ride.  We found one person that said he would take us to the Red Fort for 50 rupees (rs), so we got in.  After we were in the rickshaw, he told us that the Red Fort was closed all morning due to practices taking place for their National Day on January 26^th.  He wanted to take us to all these other places.  We totally didn’t believe him (our Egypt trip made us less gullible and more on guard).  We got out of the rickshaw and hopped on the metro.  We finally got to the red fort – it was massive!  We walked around inside for a while, had some snacks at the restaurant in there, and checked out the Mumtaz Mahal Museum inside there.  From there, we decided to walk to Jama Masjid.  It was so difficult to walk, b/c there was a huge market in between and the roads were really busy.  We finally saw the sign (Mina Bazaar and Jama Masjid).  We walked through the entrance and totally got separated.  Tonnes of people everywhere, and since it was so close to Eid, everyone had goats with them that were way too close to us.  I was scared (you know my fear of animals!).  The masjid was so far away, we took a quick pic, and then just left.  Then we wanted to go to Humayan’s Tomb, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We found a rickshaw driver to take us there.  On the way, we passed Rajghat (site where Gandhi’s ashes are), so we got down there for a few mins and went inside.  It was a really nice park that you walk through.  Then you get to an area, where you have to remove your shoes, and then you walk a little further and you see the flame in a clear box with flowers around it.  It was a very clean and peaceful area.  We got back into our rickshaw, and then we got dropped near what we thought was Humayan’s Tomb, but the guy actually scammed us….he took us to Connaught Place.  Since we were there, we went to the tourist office to see if they could help us find a clean hotel for the night.  They were rude and also tried scamming us, so we just left.  Finally we got into yet another rickshaw, who took us to Humayan’s Tomb.  It just closed 5 mins before we got there…so we took pics of the outside L  The rickshaw driver then helped us find another hotel and even bargained with the hotel owners for us.  He was really nice…Linh fell in love with the old man ;) After finding a hotel for that night, we were famished.  We found this really nice restaurant and had great food!  There was live Indian music there too.  We went back to our hotel, didn’t see any rats, but still slept with the lights on.

Saturday December 30, 2006 Delhi to Agra; Agra to Jaipur

We woke up at 5:30am to catch our train to Agra.  The people at the train station looked so poor.  Remember we were not able to get 1^st class tickets for this train, so we were in 2^nd class.  Everyone pushed their way onto the train when it arrived.  They squeezed 3-4 people onto 1 seat.  Linh and I kept our backpacks on our laps and didn’t move for the whole ride.  We didn’t eat or drink anything in fear that we might have to go to the bathroom…which was disgusting!!!  On the train ride, people kept walking down the aisles selling chai and snacks.  There were many people begging for money on the train.  One guy had his legs wrapped around his neck and was sliding on his bum down each aisle.  When we were about 20 mins away, the train stopped and a bunch of people got off.  All these people were sitting in 2^nd class, but actually had tickets for a lower class, so they were getting kicked off.  I can’t even imagine what the lower class would have looked like.  Finally we reached Agra.  We were only going to spend a few hours here, and then go to Jaipur the same evening.  So before heading to the Taj Mahal, we decided to go to a nice hotel and use their bathrooms and clean up. J  Then we went to the Taj Mahal.  The line up at the main gate was really, really long.  So we walked over to another gate, where the line was much shorter.  We had to put our backpacks and cell phones in a locker.  The locker area was crazzzzy.  There was 1 guy to take stuff and give stuff, and there was of course no order or line to the system.  Finally we went through the security check and got in.  When you first walk in, you don’t see the Taj Mahal, you’re in the foyer…you have to walk a bit, climb up some stairs and then when you see it, you can hear your breath, gasps all around you…it really is breath-taking.  You forget about the ghetto train ride, the pushing and shoving in the line, and are ready to relax and take in the view.  We took tonnes of pics…and asked people to take pics of us together.  Whenever we would ask people to take pics of us, after they were done, they would ask if they could be in one with us (yes it was usually Indian guys – hahaha…I felt like a bollywood star and was ready to give them my autograph too).  The white marble looks amazing (its not one of those sites that people hype up and then you’re disappointed when you see it – like the mona lisa).  When you go inside the actual building you either have to take off your shoes or put booties on top (reminded me of my novopharm days with the safety shoes, hair net, and lab coat).  Inside it is dim, the casket in the middle is Mumtaz Mahal’s (Taj’s wife), since he originally built it for her.  And then beside hers (a little to the left), is the Taj’s.  That’s about all that you can see inside, the rest is closed off to the public.  Then we left the Taj Mahal.  We had to get back to the lockers to get our stuff.  You ready for this…so we’re pushing and shoving, and then a bird craps on my head – ewww gross!!!  Linh had to clean it off and pour water all over my hair…it was quite entertaining for everyone around us…in fact it even calmed the crowd down quite a bit, and got us to the front a bit quicker b/c people felt bad for me.

After the Taj Mahal, we took a rickshaw to the Red Fort (Agra Fort).  This is where Taj’s son had prisoned him until he died.  Taj used to be able to see the Taj Mahal from the fort since it was just across the Yamuna river.  The red fort was ok.  Nothing that great, and since it was so foggy/hazy, it was hard to see the Taj Mahal from it.  After this, we had a bit of time before our train left for Jaipur, so we thought we would stop at the Holiday Inn we saw near the train station and use the bathrooms, etc, so we could avoid it on the train.  Apparently there are 2 Holiday Inn’s in Agra…who would have thought?  And our rickshaw driver took us to this other one on the other end of the city.  So we were screwed and running late for our train, so we ended up paying 300rs ($9 – super expensive) for a cab ride to the train station – serves us right for being high maintenance Canadian girls! 

We made it just in time for our train to Jaipur – and finally it was first class seating that we had.  We were listening to the ipod and fell asleep for a bit…I woke up and looked up top to where we had put our bags and I didn’t see mine.  I rubbed my eyes and looked again, still no bag.  I woke up Linh and she didn’t see it either.  We started yelling on the train (ok maybe I’m overexaggerating) and we asked if anyone had seen a black backpack.  This one man said he saw this other man take it.  And he asked this one lady who was breastfeeding her child who the man was and where he took it.  She didn’t speak any English and basically said that the man was sitting in 2^nd class.  So Linh, me and the man went into 2^nd class to find my backpack.  Luckily we found it right away, just lying in a corner (I guess my grungy clothes weren’t considered valuable).  For the 30 seconds that we were in 2^nd class for, it scared us…it was all men and they were arguing, and it smelled so bad…thank god we were in 1^st class for this train.  So when they tell you that a train ride is 5 hours, don’t believe them…its actually closer to 7 hours.  We reached Jaipur around midnight, and luckily we booked a hotel online and took a rickshaw straight to it.  Let me tell you….hotels in India are not cheap, and even when you pay close to $100 cdn you’re not getting a 4 or 5 star hotel.      

Sunday December 31, 2006 Jaipur

We froze overnight in our hotel.  In the morning we asked our hotel if there was anything happening that night since it was New Year’s Eve.  They showed us a flyer for a party that was taking place.  We asked them to get us 2 tickets.  We started our day by going to Jantar Mantar (observatory).  It was really fun…there were sundials and all kinds of cool things to tell time and provide details on celestial bodies.  We acted like it was a playground and had fun with all the different things inside.  After that we walked through the streets and stopped off at some shops.  Jaipur is known for its bandni material, so I bought 1 saree and 1 piece of material to have a salwar kameez stitched.  I would have bought more, but I ran out of cash, and the ATM’s weren’t working.  Jaipur is beautiful.  All the architecture is a salmon pink colour.  Its not busy like Delhi.  It’s more picturesque and mountainous and serene.  Then we went to Hawa Mahal (palace of winds).  After that we took a rickshaw to the Amber Fort.  It was really nice to walk through and see the line-ups for the temples inside. 

By the way, if more than an hour goes by without you seeing a rat or a man peeing on the street, something is wrong.  After the Amber Fort, we headed back to our hotel, but on the way, we bought some meat off the street…I was hesitant, but did it anyways.  We ate outside our hotel on the steps…and after that realized there was a sign saying no meat was allowed on the hotel premises – oops.  Then we arranged for a rickshaw to take us to our NYE party.  It gets really cold there at night, and we didn’t bring any dressy clothes with us, so we wore pants and sweatshirts to the party.  It took our rickshaw driver 1 hr to get to the place.  We were frozen.  The party was at an outdoor resort.  There were lights everywhere.  Everyone was decked out in sarees and they were all locals…we felt just a bit out of place.  But it was great b/c we could act as silly as we wanted and nobody knew us.  There were some delicious appetizers, and amazing coffee (I had 5 cups).  There were many campfires set up with chairs around them, there was a huge stage at the front.  There were dance performances (reminded me of variety shows), a dance floor and a good mix of English and Indian music.  There was also a buffet dinner, and fireworks at midnight.  We ran into a few other foreigners (Canadians) there and we hung out with them.  At the end of the night, our rickshaw driver picked us up and took us back. 

Monday January 1, 2007 Jaipur to Mumbai

In the morning we took a flight from Jaipur to Mumbai.  So much better than taking the >20 hr train ride.  When we arrived at the Mumbai airport we got scammed by a taxi driver.  He told us the ride was 500 rupees. We told him 400, then he said 450, we said no, 400.  Finally he agreed to 400.  He was apparently an agent and got in the car with one of his drivers.  He told us to pay him and that his driver would take us where we needed to go.  We told him we would pay at the end of the ride.  He insisted on getting the money then.  So Linh took out 200, and I took out 200 and we gave it to him.  3 seconds later he put one of the 100 bills away and claimed that we only gave him 300.  Linh got so pissed off and started yelling for him to give us our money back and let us out of the taxi.  The driver was silent during all of this, and then finally told the agent to get out of the car.  The agent took the money and the driver got nothing.  The driver then paid another taxi to take us, and he went back to argue with his agent for the money.  This was the closest we had gotten in all of our travels thus far to being cheated. 

We were tired of staying in cheap, ghetto hotels that were dirty and had rats, so we decided that we were going to splurge on hotels in Mumbai.  We checked into the Taj President for 2 nights.  What a nice place!!!  We had a really chill day and just went for dinner and walked on Colaba (popular street) with little shops.  “Madam, madam…looking is free…pashmina, pashmina”  were phrases that we learned to ignore over the next few days J

Tuesday January 2, 2007

We went to see the Gateway to India and the Taj Mahal Hotel.  Then we took a 1hr boat ride to Elephanta Island.  On the boat we ran into Raheem Khamisa and company from Toronto. How random?  It was cool to see other Ismaili Canadians.  When we got to the island, we got a tour guide to tell us all about the island, the caves (made from 1 piece of rock) and the carvings of shiva (hindu god with 8 arms, 4 on each side) and paruthi (shiva’s wife).  There were monkeys everywhere! The islanders were selling tamarind and bbq’d corn.  There were stalls with all sorts of souvenirs.   

That evening when we got back to our hotel, our room door was left open.  Housekeeping did not close it completely when they were done.  We complained to the front desk and told them that they better do something about it.  Then we went to check out the pool but it was too cold to swim in.  So we hung out in the steam room.  The burning felt sooooo good!  I have never seen so much black dirt come off me.  Can you imagine how dirty India was?!?!?!?!  That night we went to Mocha for coffee and dessert.  It was a cool hangout.  Then we took a walk along the marine and decided to walk back to our hotel after that….big mistake!  It was a scary walk because it was so dark and there were rats, cats, dogs, and homeless people everywhere. 

Wednesday January 3, 2007

Today we were going to check out of our hotel and check into the Hilton.  When we were checking out, we reminded them about our door being left open and spoke to the manager and Linh let him have it.  He offered the 2 of us a free dinner that night in any restaurant at the hotel.  But we mentioned that we had 4 other friends.  He said that he could give all of us a free dinner….score!!!  So we chose the Thai restaurant at 9pm.  Rahim, Anita, Ali, and Salah were our 4 friends.  Rahim was also in India during this time, but in other cities.  This was the first day that we were going to see him since we all left Muscat.  We met up with all of them for breakfast and then made our way to Gandhi market for some Indian clothes shopping.  At night was the big feast…wow….so much great food all for free J

Thursday January 4, 2007

Today Rahim, Anita, Ali, and I decided to go visit Hasanabad.  Hasanabad is an all Ismaili area in Mumbai.  When you enter through the gate there is a Mausoleum straight ahead and a Khane to the right.  The mausoleum contains the bodies of Aga Hasanali Shah (46^th Imam – used to be buried in Iran, but SMS moved him here), Aga Ali Shah (47^th Imam), and a 6-month-old baby (Sultan Mohammed Shah’s Brother’s son) who fell off a swing and died.  The mausoleum is 90 feet high and made of white marble.  When you enter, the coffins are lying horizontally in the centre on a raised platform with clothes draped on top of each one with agarbati’s and coconuts around them.  First is Aga Ali Shah’s, then Aga Hasanali Shah’s, then the baby’s.  There is also a small juro that you can partake in.  On the right wall, there are many pictures of our Imams.  The first picture has Hazrat Ali in the middle, Hasan and Hussein underneath him, and two other people on top of Hazrat Ali.  The second picture is of Hazar Imam when he was young.  The third picture is of Hasanali Shah and Ali Shah.  And there is one more picture (but I can’t remember who it is of).  Coconuts are placed beside each picture by visitors.  There is an area where you can sit and pray.  When you are finished, there is a little box outside the entrance where you can put some money which goes towards purchasing more coconuts. 

In the basement of the mausoleum is where the actual bodies are.  When you enter through the door, there are 6 bodies to the left.  These are of the women that took care of Hasanali Shah and his wife.  In the centre is Hasanali Shah and Ali Shah.  Beyond that are 3 bodies of Sultan Mohammed Shah’s guards.  To the right of the entrance is the baby.  There are many swings placed around this.  Women who are not able to get pregnant, come here and build a swing out of any material and pray.  Apparently after that they are able to have kids.  Beyond this is an underground path that takes you to Prince Alykhan’s Hospital.  It is closed off now, but Sultan Mohammed Shah used to use it a lot.  It was also the area through which all the bodies were brought in.    

After visiting Hasanabad, we went to Prince Alykhan’s Hospital.  There is a khane in that complex too.  We went inside the hospital, and we saw the schools in that area.

After that, we went back to the Hilton, used the steam room one last time J and checked out and Linh and I were off to the airport for our flight back to Muscat.  When we arrived at the airport, we were informed that they overbooked our flight so we had to stay 1 more night in Mumbai.  They put us up at the Park Plaza and we got free dinner there!  The next morning we had to wake up at 3am to catch our flight.

On Thursday December 7^th we (Me, Zahir, Rahim, Linh, Salah, and Aboodi) packed up the 4x4 and headed to Wahiba sands for a weekend desert safari.  On the way there, we stopped off at some beautiful beaches and wadi’s (valleys).  At one of the places, we did a 3 hour walk through muddy waters (since it rained so much a few days before).  Although it was kinda gross, it was so much fun.  A few people fell into the water…I won’t mention any names (but Zahir and Linh finally dried off by the end of the day).  The view was incredible – mountains and water everywhere.  We even had a biryani lunch along the way!  Finally we reached Wahiba sands where we would camp overnight.  We sat by the fire and roasted marshmallows at night and then we slept overnight in cabins.  It got quite cool there at night.  The next morning we went for a drive through the sand dunes….soooooo cool!!!!  Our driver, Jamal, was really awesome!  Note: it might not be such a good idea to eat a big breakfast right before you do this!  Then we headed back to Muscat and stopped off at some more wadi’s and hot springs along the way.  A great weekend!

For the first 3 months I was in Muscat I managed to stay away from Dubai, but then I ended up going twice in 1 week. J We had a 4 day holiday from the college from Nov. 28 – Dec 1^st so a bunch of us planned a trip to Dubai.  We had a great time just chilling at the beaches, malls, and checking out the night life (since there is a huge lack of that in Muscat). 

Then when Zahir came to visit me, him and I went again.  We crammed everything into 2 days.  The buildings and construction is crazy!  We managed to visit meena bazaar (indo pak clothing), deira (gold souk), mall of emirates (indoor ski slope), burj el arab (7 * hotel on the water), and the construction site of the new Ismaili Centre.  The Ismaili Centre is really coming along nicely and it seems like it will be really big.  The bus ride there and back was quite amusing.  We had a bunch of local omani’s on the bus that shared peanuts and chai (tea) with us.  They talked to us lots and kept us entertained at the back of the bus.  We had a few people on the bus that got rejected at the border, so we had to leave them behind L. 

On December 1^st, 2006, my brother Zahir came to visit me in Muscat.  1 week before that, we were very lucky to be given invitations to the AKU convocation ceremony.  We managed to get our flights and visas within 1 week so that we could attend the ceremony on Saturday December 2, 2006.  The Aga Khan is the chancellor of the AKU and therefore he would be there to confer the degrees on each student.  Zahir’s flight arrived at 11pm on Friday night and our flight to Karachi was at 1:30am.  We flew PIA (Pakistan International Airlines – a.k.a pain in the ***).  The flight was delayed, there was a really strong smell and the seats were so crammed.  We arrived in Karachi at 4:30am, and had just enough time to check into our hotel, obtain our entrance cards and get ready.  There was an AKU hospitality booth set up 24 hrs/day at the Sheraton hotel, where they arranged all transport and events for out of town visitors.  They did an incredible job!  We caught the bus at 8am arrived at AKU at 9:00am.  There was a marquee built on the cricket field for the ceremony.  Passports and entrance cards were checked at the entrance.  We were given a booklet with agenda and names of all graduates.  No cell phones or cameras were allowed.  We got seats in the middle, quite close to the main aisle.  There were lots of people, but not too many Canadians.  The ceremony started at 10:00am with the procession.  This included faculty, students, Aga Khan, and Firoz Rasul (the new AKU president).  The music playing in the background was very nice and everyone looked very happy as they made their way to the stage.  The ceremony was 2 hours long and included speeches, conferring of degrees, and recitation of oaths.  Many students graduated as doctors and nurses – a very proud day.  After the ceremony, snacks were provided at the side of the marquee.  We looked at the diplomas of the graduates and each one had been signed by the Aga Khan.  After the ceremony, we headed back to the hotel and crashed for 6 hours (since we did not sleep at all the night before).  Then we woke up and went to the leather market (did some quick shopping before it closed), and then went for dinner at bar-b-q tonight.  The food was fantastic (especially the keema naan). 

The next morning (Sunday), we went to Garden JK for majlis.  This JK is huge.  It holds about 20,000 people.  There were probably close to 10,000 people that morning.  All 3 floors were full.  The ameens and ginans were recited so loudly.  After JK, we tried to do some shopping, but being Sunday many things were closed, but I still managed to buy 1 salwar kameez (I couldn’t leave Pakistan without buying one).  After that we took a tour of the AKU.  It is a gorgeous campus.  My overall impression of Karachi was dirty, poor, and unsafe.  But the AKU was the total opposite.  It seemed like it didn’t belong in the city (kind of like the Al Azhar Park in Cairo).  The tour was really nice, although it was raining lots.  Then we headed back to the hotel and got ready for a dinner that we were going to attend at the AKU Sports Complex that night.  The sports complex was gorgeous!  They did a magnificent job of decorating it.  We saw the wall with all the donors names on it (I took a picture of the Waterloo-Laurier ISA donation plaque).  The dinner was superb – dishes from all countries – Syria, Afghanistan, UK, East Africa, Pakistan).  After dinner, there were speeches by Firoz Rasul, etc (however we had to leave to catch our flight back to Muscat).  Overall, we spent less than 48 hours in Karachi, and managed to do so much and meet so many Ismailis from all over the world during this time.  All our friends and family were in our thoughts during this very special and unique occasion.

For our first vacation (Eid-ul-Fitr), Linh and I decided to go to Egypt for 1 week.  What an experience!  Warning: This entry is going to be really long – I tried to shorten it, but then just figured, if you don’t want to read it all, you don’t have to, but for those that do…all the details are here.  So, we started out in Cairo, where we stayed for 2 days.  When we checked into our hotel on Wednesday, this guy Sama gave us a map and sat down with us with a pad of paper and pen to help us plan our trip, and offered us some of his dinner (fuul and taamiya).  We were famished!  He started helping us plan our 7 days in Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan, because we had mentioned that we needed to buy train tickets to go to these other cities.  He would leave the room and go call his ‘friend’ to find out about prices and timings, etc…all of a sudden he put together this package for Luxor and Aswan that would cost each of us $200US.  He also tried to put together a package to see the pyramids, because he said we would need a driver and a tour guide.  We finally clued in that he was one of those people we had been warned about and read about that would try to scam you and sell you packages.  We didn’t want a package…we just wanted a train ticket…was that too much to ask for?!?!?!  So we got up and left and decided to go straight to the train station to get the ticket sorted out so that we could enjoy the rest of our time in Cairo.  We took the metro (1 E.P. =  $0.20) to Ramses station.  When we got to the train station, it was madness…people everywhere!  We decided to go into the office that said Tourism Information (thinking that it should be legit).  Oh how we were fooled!  We asked the police officer for a train schedule and prices.  There’s no such thing as anything published, so he wrote it out on a piece of scrap paper.  And then told us, by the way, everything is full until the 24^th of October because everyone is travelling due to the Eid break.  We thought, no way…how can everything be full…what are we going to do in Cairo for 7 days?!?!?  So he said, I’ll take you down to the ticket office so you can check with them.  So we went down with him, and stood in a line, and the ticket officer told us the same thing…everything was booked.  When Linh and I reminisced about this, we recalled that the ticket officer was on his cell phone right before he served us, and so was the tourism police officer, so they totally planned this.  Then the tourism police officer said that he could take us to a travel agency that could help us out.  So we followed him through all sorts of random streets, and ended up at this hotel, where this other guy tried to sell us a package.  We were upfront with him and said we only want a train ticket, and he said just listen to me, I will give you a good package.  So we just got up and left.  Frustrated, hungry, tired, and lost, we had to take a few minutes to pull ourselves together.  We stopped off at this restaurant called Felfala.  The décor was quite nice, and the food was pretty good.  We got fuul and pita.  And we ordered this really yummy dessert called OmAli (similar to bread pudding).  We walked back to our hotel, stood on our balcony for a bit, watched the Nile, and let it soak in that we’re in Egypt!

On Thursday morning we headed to a different station to see if we could purchase our train tickets to Aswan and Luxor.  We got to the station and ran into this Egyptian girl that tried to help us out.  She was talking with the ticket officer and came back with the same news…everything was booked until the 24^th.  We didn’t know what to do then.  We were close to the pyramids, so that was the first thing that we went to see.  The taxi drivers tried to rip us off, but we ended up getting one for 10 E.P. ($2).  The taxi driver dropped us off at this store, where the storeowner tried to sell us a package to get inside the pyramids and get camel rides from one pyramid to another because he said it was too far to walk.  But we were smart now, or shall I say smarter…we didn’t want any packages, we could do it all ourselves.  We bought a huge bottle of water to last us while in there and bought our entrance tickets (40 E.P. each).  It was soooooo hot inside there!  When you enter, you can see the sphinx at the front and the 3 pyramids in the background.  It didn’t seem that far…we could definitely walk it, no need for a camel ride.  There were lots of tourists (mainly older European people), and they all came with tour guides.  We were the only backpackers in sight.  The sphinx was called the sphinx by the ancient Greeks because it resembled the mythical winged monster with a woman’s head and a lions body who set riddles and killed anyone unable to answer them.  The nose was hammered off between the 11^th and 15^th centuries, and the beard fallen.   The sphinx is corroding away and many attempts have been made to restore it.  The most recent of these is its shiny white paws.

After, seeing the sphinx we headed towards the largest (Khufu – Cheops) of the 3 pyramids.    There were paintings and hieroglyphs on the walls inside.  After coming out of these, we were hot and thirsty!  Then we headed over to the 2^nd largest pyramid (Khafre – Chephren) and went inside this one.  It was so narrow and the height was so low that I must have hit my head a few times.  There were paintings and hieroglyphs on the walls inside.  After coming out of these, we were hot and thirsty!  I could totally feel my calves by the time I got out of there.  And then we walked over to the smallest pyramid (Menkaure – Mycerinus).  This one had a big gash in the north face, when an attempt was made to dismantle the pyramid.         

The whole time we were in this area, we had tonnes of men on camels trying to get us to ride on the camels but we just kept ignoring them.  Everyone would say hello, where are you from?  Nice to meet you.  And you want to be nice and respond back, but then they just don’t leave you alone.  These people are smart too.  They quote you prices in Egyptian Pounds, and then convert it to dollars and say its only $2, that’s not expensive.  They also use lines like, this is my gift to you, take it.  Its all scams.

After the pyramids we went to Coptic Cairo (old Cairo).  It was very peaceful to walk around this area, nobody hassling you or scamming you or trying to sell you anything.  There were churches, monasteries, synagogues, and mosques there.  We were there until it was almost time to break fast and I heard one of the loudest calls to prayer that I’ve heard thus far from the mosque there.         

Then we headed back downtown to the Nile where we wanted to take a felucca (small boat without a motor, moves according to the wind) ride on the Nile and watch the sunset.  This boy named Ramadhan was our felucca driver.  It was so fun and relaxing!  After that, we headed to Ramses station again to try for the train tickets.  We realized that all this time, we were asking for regular train seats, and that is what was full.  But, the train sleepers might have space.  So back at Ramses, we were able to get tickets for a train sleeper to Aswan for Friday night.  It cost $60US.  We were so relieved that we could get out of Cairo! 

On Friday morning, we went to the Citadel.  This was built in 1176 to fortify the city against the crusaders and was home to Egypt’s rulers for some 700 years.  The mosque of Mohammed Ali was the only Mamluk structure left standing when Napolean’s French expedition took control of the citadel in 1798.  The mosque was remodelled with a Turkish style. 

After visiting the Citadel, we made our way towards Islamic Cairo (the part I was most looking forward to).  But we were given so many sets of wrong directions, that we didn’t end up getting there until 2 hours later, with sore shoulders from the heavy backpacks we were carrying.  We walked through many small villages along the way.  We passed the mosque of Al-Hussein which was filling up quickly with Muslims going for prayer.  7000 people were expected for the noon congregation on one of the last days during the holy month of Ramadhan.  We walked through many small streets and saw lots of little souqs (markets) along the way.  Since prayer time was approaching, everyone had come outside their shops and set up their rugs and there were rows and rows of people praying.  There was a huge souq for material – so many different colours, patterns, and fabrics.  Then we passed a market for local shoppers.  And right after that was the Al-Azhar mosque.  We got there as prayers were taking place.  The mosque was huge (I can’t even explain how big), and there were line-ups outside of people that couldn’t even get in.  There was a line about 1 km long of army men in their uniforms with their shields and guns, looking like they were ready for an attack/bomb/riot, but in fact, were just standing there for prayer.  All their army vehicles were lined on the streets.  What a site.  The guards outside the mosque said it would not be open to the public for viewing until a few hours later.  So we kept walking, and finally made it up to Al-Azhar Park.  You should have seen the smile on my face when we got to the main entrance of it.  I thought we would never find it.  After hearing so much about it for the past few years, it felt a bit surreal being there.  The park was huge and fenced with wrought iron gates.  There was an admission fee of 10 E.P. ($2).  All the people that we walked by in Islamic Cairo seemed so poor, and it was so dirty everywhere, that once we got inside the park, it seemed that we weren’t in Cairo anymore.  I wonder if any of those people have even been inside it.  The park was beautiful, so peaceful and calm.  All you could hear was the sound of water fountains.  You could tell that so much thought had been put into the design of every little thing in the park, the symmetry, the colours, the way it looks from the top, bottom, and sides.  There were lots of different plant species.  There was a restaurant and a couple of cafes.  We had mango juices at the Lakeside Café.  There was also a little train that would take you around the entire park.  It was so green, so quiet, so empty, so the opposite of the rest of Cairo.  After visiting the park, we left and headed back to the Al-Azhar Mosque to see if we could get in, but still no luck, so we ventured through the markets. 

We got onto our sleeper train at 8:30pm on Friday night, heading for Aswan.  We got dinner on the train, but it was gross…we didn’t eat any of it.  We listened to my ipod for a bit, but then the battery died, so we had nothing to do but sleep.  So we tried to sleep…but at 3:00am we were still awake.  The train kept stopping abruptly and we just couldn’t fall asleep…and before you knew it, it was 8am, and the guy was waking us up for breakfast.  And then a couple of hours later we arrived in Aswan.  As soon as we got out of the train station, we had people yelling taxi, cheap hotel, etc…we just ignored them and started walking towards the hotel we wanted to stay in.  After checking in, we walked towards the Nile and got harassed by a tonne of guys for felucca trips.  We finally found a good deal with Mustafa (our felucca driver).  We got a 2 hour felucca trip that would stop off at Kitchener’s Island, Agakhan III (Sultan Mohamed Shah’s – 48^th Imam of the Ismailis) Mausoleum, and Elephantine Island. 

As an aside, on the flight to Cairo, there was a magazine in the pocket in front of all our seats and in the October edition of the magazine there was an article about this Mausoleum.  I have kept it, so if anyone ever wants to read it, just let me know.  So the mausoleum is closed to the public, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get inside.  But I had gotten the watchman’s name and the password J  So I got down at the Mausoleum and Hosam was sleeping in his boat.  I said Ya Ali Madad to him, and asked him if I could see the Mausoleum.  He let me in, but didn’t let Linh, since she was not Ismaili.  She chilled in the felucca until I came back.  So we walked up these wide steps, passing Mata Salamats villa to the Mausoleum, where Hosam called another man to come over.  This other man brought a bunch of flowers and his Quran with him.  I removed my shoes and walked in.  On the left there was a paragraph written on the wall that described who SMS was, when he was born, when he died, who his wife was, and when she died.  Then I walked down the runner to the other end, where the double coffin was.  Hosam showed me the two and explained which one was SMS and which one was Mata Salamat.  There was a huge dome above this area.  The inside was beautiful.  Then he told me to sit down and the other man would recite the Quran.  I have never heard the Quran recited so loudly and beautifully and emotionally.  He recited the verses that are usually recited during funerals.  I never thought this would be such an emotional experience, but it really was.  Once he was finished, we walked back to the entrance.  There was a guest book there, where everyone that has visited has signed.  So I wrote my name, the date (Oct. 21/06), and Toronto, Canada.  I looked back through the pages, and there were lots of people from Canada, UK, Pakistan.  Then I left and tipped both of the men.  On the way down, Hosam showed me the outside of Mata Salamat’s villa, where her boat was parked, etc.

After we left the Mausoleum, we wanted to go to Elephantine Island to get a taste of the local Nubian culture.  Mustafa dropped us off at the side where the villages were, rather than the typical tourist drop off.  Boy was that a mistake.  We got off the felucca and thanked Mustafa (who was Nubian), very knowledgeable, and a kind man, and really made that felucca ride relaxing and peaceful for us.  We started walking through the villages, but there were no other tourists.  There were farm animals just out in the open everywhere, and for those of you that know my fear of animals, pets, anything that moves…ya I was scared.  We found some little kids and asked them to direct us to the Aswan Museum and ferry, but they turned out to be not very helpful.  So we decided to skip out on the Elephantine Island experience and go back the way we came…but there were no feluccas or anything there to get us back.  So we walked along the water a bit, and then ended up at the back of a hotel.  So we went through the back entrance, used their nice washrooms to clean up, and then got a ferry ride back to the mainland.  Then we wanted to go to the Palace of Culture for a folkloric dance performance (tahtib – stick dancing), but this was closed because of Ramadhan.  We passed by this pizza shop that was so cool (see pics).  We ordered a pizza with ground beef, mushrooms, tomatoes, and green peppers, and it had thin crust on the top and bottom (kind of like a calzone).  They also made dessert pizzas…which we wanted to try but were too full to, but they let us hold them and take pics.  Then we headed to the souq.  It was packed!  So busy and lively.  It was after 10pm at this time.  All the guys would come out of their shops and say hello, do you speak English, where are you from?  As soon as we would say Canada, they would say “Oh, Canada Dry!”  It was the only thing they knew about Canada, and then they would try to sell us stuff.  We bargained with lots of them.  I ended up getting a couple of belly dance scarves (so you know I have to pick up belly dance lessons when I get back to T.O.), and another regular scarf.  It was fun.  Then we got henna tattoos done.  We headed back to the hotel around midnight.  We got to our room and saw a mouse.  We went down to the hotel staff, and they came up and got it out of our room, and we could hear them killing it in the room next door. Frightened, Linh and I slept together on a single bed.  We had to wake up a few hours later.  The next morning we were leaving at 6am for Luxor.

We arrived in Luxor on Sunday at about 10am.  The train we took was pretty gross, there were flies bothering us for the whole ride. We decided we had had enough of roughing it and truly living the backpacker life, so we were gonna splurge on a nice hotel in Luxor and spoil ourselves and relax a bit more and do less touristy stuff.  So we checked into the Mercure.  Wow!  It was so nice.  The room was so clean, the bathroom so clean, it had a pool, and it had a breakfast buffet the next morning.  I had been craving an omelette for 2 months now.  Because in Oman, they only serve omelettes for breakfast at some restaurants, and having fasted for the whole month of Ramadhan there were no omelettes to be found during that month.  After we checked in, we went to the Mummification Museum.  I was really looking forward to this, cause I thought it would be so cool, but it was such a disappointment.  It was only 1 room, and it only had a few items.  Then we went to the Luxor Temple.  We didn’t go inside it, but we took lots of pics from the outside.  It was an enormous structure.  Then we headed back to our hotel and crashed for …many hours…We forced ourselves to wake up at 7pm so that we could make it to the sound and light show at Karnak Temple.  This was really cool.  It was a walking tour through the temple at night where someone was narrating the history and sites we saw.  The temple was enormous, and the hieroglyphics were awesome.  Then we headed back to our hotel where we chilled in the lounge for a bit where a lady was singing live Egyptian music and we got some fruit juices.  The next morning we went to the buffet breakfast where we had crepes with chocolate sauce and omelettes.  Then we went to the pool, chilled there, and played scrabble J.  Then we went to see the Valley of the Kings.  This was where all the famous Kings tombs were, like King Tut and Ramses.  It was blazing hot there, but fun!  The drive was really nice as we crossed the Nile. That night we took an overnight train to Cairo.  Just when we thought the train rides couldn’t get any worse…they did!  So this train was not a sleeper, just seats.  The lights were left on the whole night, so I slept with my sunglasses on.  Everyone’s cell phones were ringing throughout the night with Eid Mubarak wishes. 

Finally we reached Cairo…exhausted! We went to the Egyptian Museum.  It seemed like we were getting less harassed this time around in Cairo…maybe we didn’t look like the gullible travellers we looked like 7 days earlier.  Then we decided to take one last walk along the Nile.  The Nile was packed with kids.  So many people, fireworks, noise.  I think Tuesday night was the first day of Eid in Egypt.  It was really nice just standing by the water.  The next morning was our flight back to Oman. 

What an adventure!  Overall, it was a fantastic trip!  I wouldn’t change anything about it.  But this wasn’t what I expected Egypt to be like.  The city itself wasn’t breathtaking, beautiful, or very picturesque (however the ancient sites were).  The city was dirty, everyone is so poor, and the situation just seems to be getting worse.  I think being 2 girls travelling alone, we got a very different experience from most others.  All other tourists we saw were older and on organized tours, but those seemed so boring.  We wanted to experience the culture first hand and boy did we do that!  It really makes you appreciate where you live and the types of people you interact with on a daily basis that are true and not corrupt.