Luxor Temple

“We are all migrants through time.” ― Mohsin Hamid, Exit West Go-Date: Day 68, Sunday. March 31 The Past Still Lives Luxor Temple is a large Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in Luxor. This is the largest part of the city of Luxor (population and development), and where […]

Valley of the Kings and Queens

“Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo.” -Al Gore Go-Date: Day 67, Saturday. March 30 Lesson Learned: Back up your web site on a regular basis. Things do go wrong, and they have. I’ve been down for two days, but we may be back to normal. Desert Condos for […]

Luxor – This Sure Ain’t Vegas

“There are several ways to react to being lost. One is to panic. Another is to abandon yourself to lostness, to allow the fact that you’ve misplaced yourself to change the way you experience the world.” ― Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry Go-Date: Day 65, Wednesday. March 28 Lesson Learned: Do Cairo, see what you […]

Bizarre Bazaar

“I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for […]

City of Garbage to Memphis

“Don’t tell anyone, but on the pagan day of the sun god Ra, I kneel at the foot of an ancient instrument of torture and consume ritualistic symbols of blood and flesh. …And if any of you care to join me, come to the Harvard chapel on Sunday, kneel beneath the crucifix, and take Holy […]

Alexandria to Alexandria

“I’m like a good cheese. I’m just getting mouldy enough to be interesting.” -Paul Newman Go-Date: Day 60, Saturday. March 23 Lesson Learned: Sunday is Monday in Egypt. Of course we all know, Sunday is the first day of the week in America. So it is in Egypt, but Egyptians actually start their work week, […]

Citadel, Shopping, and the Ballet at the Cairo Opera House

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet Go-Date: Day 59, Friday. March 22 Lesson Learned: Buying clothing in Cairo is very inexpensive. I don’t mean the shops or vendor stalls that cater to tourists (you won’t find toy pyramids, sphinx, and scarab beetles in these stores), I mean the […]

Egyptian Warehouse of Antiquities

“But what then? What had he really gained by all this trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey? Nothing, say you? Perhaps so;…Truly, would you not for less than that go around the world?” ― Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days Go-Date: Day 58, Thursday. March 21 Lesson […]

Cairo and That Pyramid Stuff

“How you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money. Money mistakes can be corrected, but time is gone forever.” ― David Norris Go-Date: Day 58, Thursday. March 21 Lesson Learned: Travel may not always be easy, but it should always be rewarding. After a Lifetime; Finally, the Pyramids The first […]

First Day in Africa – Cairo

“The Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, writes in “Travels with Herodotus” that with every new town visited, with every new foreign word learnt, the traveler experiences small, almost imperceptible personal changes. Wherever you go becomes part of you and the person who returns home is never the same as before departing. Knowing new people is in […]