Archive for March, 2009
Sphinx: Horus of the Horizon
There, easy to get impressive post titles after 5 minutes in Wikipedia. Sphinx is the Greek name, Hor-em-akhet (Horus of the Horizon) is a later Egyptian name, no-one knows the real name. I tried saying “Here kitty kitty” but got no response. So that’s another mystery I haven’t solved.
Awesome Bloke in front of Sphinx
This post occurs directly after the last pyramid shot but that post was getting long and I was getting sloppy since I’d had 5 cans of Heineken from the off-license I found just down the road. Yesterday’s exploration was good and I have much better bearings for where I am.
No comments“I was full of dreams”
said Napoleon, “I saw myself founding a new Religion, Marching into Asia, Riding an Elephant, a Turban on my head and in my hand, the new Qu’ran.”
I want what he’s having! Egypt hasn’t quite grabbed me like that yet, though I’ve only been here a few days so maybe it creeps up on you. Anyway boys and girls, I’ve finally made it to the pyramid post.
Against my better judgement, and it seems the advice of the Rough Guide, I booked a tour through the Mayfair Hotel. As the Rough Guide says (paraphrased): Great place to stay, don’t book a tour there. In my defence, I’d just landed and had just been driven through Cairo traffic for nearly two hours.
And anyway, it wasn’t quite as dire as I was dreading so no harm done really. Up early to head off at about 8am, I arrived in the foyer to find my driver asleep, a state he was in for most of the remainder of the day.
He woke up long enough to rive me down to Giza. We hadn’t gone far when I got my first glimpse of pyramids in the distance. When we got a bit closer I stopped the driver so I could take this shot:
Giza Pyramids from road
Then the driver took me to some stables near the pyrmiofds here the hard sell was put on for a camel or horse trip. I started with a camel…
No commentsPlanes over the Sheraton Deira
So I’m not really a planespotter. Well not a good one anyway. But the Sheraton was on the flight path. And it was near the airport. And there was a swimming pool on the roof. And the pool had a bar. And the bar served vodka tonics. And the stereo only had one cd. And the CD was Bob Marley’s Greatest. So to cut a long story short, I took a lot of photos of planes.
Most of them were terrible, a few were ok./ They need better framing which I can’t be bothered doing. Here they are:
UPS Jumbo
Walking to Burj Dubai from Deira
This was a monumentally stupid idea. You can see from the photo in the last entry the two of the reasons why I should never have tried this. It’s a long way away and the air is full of sand and smog. The final reason is hinted at by the picture below. Duba is the domain of the car. I think I spent as much time trying to cross roads and work out which of 5 exits from an intersection was the one I wanted.
Burj Dubai from highway overpass - what was I thinkng!
Back in Dubai after 2 years
On holiday again. Alas unlike 2007, this is not a proper 10 week holiday but a 4 week taster of 2 or three countries. On the plus side, I’m going places I’ve never been as well as catching up on how things have changed in Dubai. Enough fake anticipation, I’m a week into the trip and sitting on the balcony of the Mayfair Hotel in Cairo, a so-called 1 star hotel but actually quite a lot better than that makes it sound. Let’s call it a 1-star bedrooms with 2 star service in a 3 star building. I like it anyway and it is certainly an oasis from the hustle and bustle of Cairo.
Anyway, Cairo comes later. First I had 3 days in Dubai. Don’t believe all the negative press you read about this place. It’s no ghost town. Every crane I saw was woreking. And it makes sense. In a world where you’re nervous about giving credit, giving it to those who do the banking for the oil producers is still a pretty safe bet. Anyway, I could go on about this for ages, but will save that for another post.
Rooftop at Sheraton Deira