Ali-baba

Well, it's been a wild and crazy few days... First off the last weekend of Ramadan where we had from Friday to Monday off was a bit of a runaway, as per usual I s'pose. For those of us expats who hung around the resort we planned a tournament each day. Friday was golf, Saturday was Poker and college football (via slingbox), and Sunday was pool. I was relatively well behaved Friday and Saturday nights even though I had dressed up in my galabeya (spelling?!) to play golf... But Sunday was a little different. After he pool tournament it turned into crazy expat karaoke, followed by drunkin' room rally in my room, followed by even more drunkin' beach crashing... I only remember about a 2/3 of the evening, and I'm not proud of that either. Needless to say the sun was well up when we finally crashed and I didn't wake up until 3:30pm Monday afternoon. I'll try and post some pictures as there was a guy taking some until the wee hours... You could safely compare him to "that guy" that takes a camera to a bachelor party, I thought what happens in Egypt stays in Egypt.

So then I had a squash game lined up for Tuesday evening. So I get back to my room after work around 6pm, realise I'm running low on Egytian money so I take $400 US out of my safe and put it with my wallet so I remember to take it to work the next day to change. I leave my room at 6:25pm to play squash and return at 7:40pm to find the US cash, my Egyptian cash, and both my mobile phones gone. No signs of forced entry, but also not all "valuables" are gone, only the cash and phones. So the rest of the evening is spent convincing hotel security that I didn't just misplace it all and it didn't fall behind the desk. It all seems a little sketchy for my liking, even by Egyptian standards. I'm hoping the perp is a hotel guest who's gone now, but if it was staff then we're all f'd.

Bottom line, I'm out about $600 in mobile phone technology and $500 US equivalent in cash and an uneasy feeling leaving anything of value in my room. But where do I hide a laptop and related electronics, sunglasses, watches, personal documents, pictures, etc in a 250 square foot hotel room with a .5 cubic foot safe? Son of a... So I had to call Rogers and deactivate my YYC SIM card/number so don't bother calling that one. Mind you I've been here 8 months and the only calls I field are Scotiabank trying to sign me up for credit card insurance. I'll replace the SIM and reactivate the # at Christmas when I'm back on the continent.

I grew a goatee over the weekend (ok ok, last 2 weeks)... I don't think I like it and haven't decided if I'll share it with anyone. blah!

Ramadan

Below is a presentation that was forwarded to me via email that Shell put together for their non-Muslim employees to let them know a little about Ramadan. It has been Ramadan here in Egypt for nearly a month and it's ending this Friday... As a foreigner working in a predominantly Muslim country it has been quite the experience that I'm glad to have had. Living in a "European" style hotel run by a Coptic Christian Egyptian hasn't exactly been too effected by Ramadan, but my work environment and other interaction with Muslims has been enlightening.

This weekend, starting Friday, we get 4 days off... Some of my co-workers are taking off to Europe or other places to take a break, while me and some others are sticking around the resort. We've planned a weekend of tournaments, including golf, poker, pool, and couple others. I'm looking forward to a relaxing and fun weekend, glad to have a break from travelling...

Hope all is well in your part of the world.

Slingbox

Does anyone in Canada have access to a SlingBox connection that they want to share with me so I can watch Flames' games? One hooked up to a PVR would be prime, that way if I sleep through it I can watch it the next day...?

P p p p pleeeeaaaasssseeeee...

Europe Video - again

Here is the video again through blogger in case you can't access YouTube.

Europe Vid

Here's a quick video compliation I put together of the recent trip to Prague. Sort of amateur, but whatever. Enjoy...

Eastern Europe Pics

Here's a link to about 50 pics from the Europe trip on Facebook... hope you can get to Facebook from work...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56093&l=a12f0&id=666980653

Insert Homer Simpson scream here.

From: Amani.Shenouda@dfat.gov.au [mailto:Amani.Shenouda@dfat.gov.au]
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 1:09 PM
Subject: <> [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

The travel advice for Egypt has been reviewed and reissued. It contains
new information in the Summary and under Terrorism (Israeli government
warns of very high risk of attack and kidnapping in the Sinai at this
time). The overall level of the advice has not changed.
The full text of the revised advisory on Egypt can be found on the internet
at: http://www.smartraveller.gov.au
Please find below the text of the Summary & Terrorism sections of the
Travel Advice:
Summary:
We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Egypt because of the
high threat of terrorist attack. Attacks could occur at any time, anywhere
in Egypt.
Tourist areas and popular destinations such as Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan,
Giza, Alexandria, Red Sea and Sinai resorts, Upper Egypt and places
throughout the rest of Egypt are potential terrorist targets, as are
commercial and public areas known to be frequented by foreigners. We
continue to receive reports that terrorists are planning attacks against a
range of targets, including but not limited to places frequented by
foreigners. These include tourist resorts and hotels, transport
infrastructure, including the Cairo metro system and its stations, and
other symbols of the Egyptian government.

Pics from Europe 2007

Here is a quick link to some pics from the trip... I'll post more and some stories afte some sleep (and golf).

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56093&l=a12f0&id=666980653

Praha 1

Back in Prague, 2nd time in 2 years (I think, the first time is a little cloudy). Not much has changed, it's a lot busier here this time with it being high season... Jagr's bar is closed, it's now an Irish pub/sports bar. The other change is I'm staying at a full-on hostel this time too, which we did a bit of in Krakow but never shared a room with anyone. This time we are, 2 bunks out of 6 in 1 room. How come the more money I make the cheaper places I stay?? Haha, so far it's alright and has been a good way to meet a couple younger people. We'll see what I say tomorrow after listening to 5 other donkeys snore and toss and turn. It's friggin' cheap tho, I'll give it that.

We're thinking of Berlin in a couple days, we're thinking we'd like to see "the wall" since Munich is likely going Oktoberfest crazy with drunken brits, which we also experienced in Poland. No complaints though, just sayin'.

Anyways, enough key clackin', back to the streets!

Poland

Poland has been an amazing surprise. Before this trip I thought that it would be cool to come here one day, almost as a novelty, and now that I've come I can say that I'm sure glad I did. The country is beautiful, full of history and tragedy, and has still managed to not be fully engulfed in western commercialization. This isn't to say that it's not here, but of all the places I've been in Europe Poland has so far resisted being fully converted. This is probably also a result of it only shedding communism 18 years ago... The people are friendly, the sites and people are beautiful, and there is a definite festivity in the air most of the time. There is also an abundance of young people, mostly here on school trips, learning the history and respecting the past.

After 4 or 5 nights of being up until 5 am we had a sobering day today. We went to Auschwitz, which is everything you imagine it to be, and worse. It is just not fathomable what humans do to humans, even in times of war. I can only hope that we've learned from our mistakes.

More touring is planned tomorrow, and then we're heading to Wroclaw to visit a friend of Mike's who is from Poland. Then we're not sure where exactly, probably Prague...

See you around, Ryan.

Stats

Here's a chart of hits on my blog... I guess most people surf on over on Sundays, but not too many during the week, while at work. But the few I do get I should give a shout out to: Nads, Amish, the Colombians, mom... who else are work-time visitors?

We lose a good one

Last night was the going away of one of the waiters/bartenders at the pub in our hotel... he found a better job eslewhere. We smoked cigars and drank cognac in his honor.

Waleed was Rick's favourite (Rick in red):

Me and Waleed (and cognac):
The afterwork pub gang:

More Colombia Pics II

Mucho Aguilas:
Torture table at the Spanish Inquisition Museum in Cartegena:
Museum again, outside at dusk:
Playa Blanca, 45 min boat ride from Cartegena:
Lime anyone:

More Colombia Pics

The three best men:
Three best women:
Bride and Groom, post nuptuals:
Mud bath on the lip of a dormant volcanoe (I hope), that's me looking at the camera:
The Pinzon-Heinz clan looking at wedding photos:

pillow vs pillow = wicked awesome

Had a good weekend here with the Peck's visiting me in Ain Sukhna. They were supposed to arrive Wednesday evening but they were 20 minutes late getting off their boat and subsequently missed the government convoy that is required to drive up the coast from where they were to here. This annoyed them royally, as us westerners aren't used to being told we can't go somewhere without a government escort. So they ended up arriving Thursday afternoon. We enjoyed dinner at the beach and then went to a friend's villa for some beverages on their rooftop patio. It was a great night with some mild debauchery, but the company was the best part.

Friday was spent making quick work of 9 holes and then heading to the beach. I was a little under the weather (and still am) but as usual the weather was perfect and it was good to relax for a little while. The Peck's enjoy telling stories, so they filled the air recounting their dive trip and other adventures for my co-workers and friends here! But the visit was short and sweet as they had to leave this morning to head back to Rome before travelling to Zambia for their 2 months of volunteering.

Next week I'm off for 2 weeks to galavant around Eastern Europe with a friend from Fort McMurray. We were housemates there (actually he was my landlord) and he's decided to quit his job, sell his house, and go travelling for awhile. So we meet in Warsaw, Poland on the 14th and will be training our way through Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany for Oktoberfest.

It's a hard knocked life.

Silent film

Quick vid from the top of the Nile Cruise boat...

Roots

Three posts in one day, not too shabby.

It seems like I'm going on a lot of vacations lately, which is alright with me. My next "rotation/home-leave" is 14-Sep to 27-Sep. But, I'm not heading home quite yet. I am meeting Z who was my roommate/landlord in Fort McMurray in Warsaw and doing an eastern European tour ending up in Germany Oktoberfest, which I know is a tourist thing to do but we don't care. I'm flying to Poland and then have to make my way to Frankfurt for a fligth back to Cairo by the 27th... we're training it all of the way, which will be cool. The main goal of this trip will be to buy new golf shoes and maybe some WWII shtuff.

Colombia, get off my back already!

Seems like so long ago already! But here it is... Like I said, Facebook is to blame, there are like 50 pics there of Colombia.

Cruizin'

My posts have been infrequent in the past couple months... you have Facebook to blame for this. Picutres are easy to post there, just click and they upload/shrink automatically. But whatev.

So, since 11-Aug I've done a bit... the Peck's are in Egypt visiting... I joined them in Cairo and for a cruise down the Nile from the 23rd to 28th. That was great, my first visit to the pyramids in the 7 months I've been here, not bad! I wasn't in a hurry tho since they're not going anywhere. But it was a great time, good to see close friends overseas. They're due to my resort here tonight, spending a couple nights before they head off to Zambia. Should be a couple days of beach fun, golf (of course), and good times.

The cruise was great as well, pretty much the best place I've been in Egypt so far is the Nile. Sitting by the pool on the roof-top watching the Nile drift by was soothing and enlightening, especially after the hustle and caos of Cairo.

Last night we had a celebration for our project reaching 50% complete for construction. A good milestone, and a glimmer of hope that one day we'll be finished and get to move on! There is already talk of the next project here in Egypt, but I think my first choice will be to go back to Brisbane for the PNG project which is gaining momentum as an LNG job... my fingers are crossed.

Hope all is well in your part of the world!

Alexander The Great

I know, I know, I have haven't written much about Colombia yet, I'm still waiting for pictures to arrive that will make it easier to describe.

But I did do something out of the ordinary this weekend so I'll write about that... The scenery around Stella Di Mare, where we stay here in Egypt, is getting a little boring so I decided to take a roadtrip to Alexandria with one of the locals here. He travels back there most weekends to the Mediterranean city to see friends and family, as well as partake in the local entertainment such as clubs, restaurants, girls, scenery, and atmosphere. Alexandria is Egypt's second largest city with 3.5-5 million people, depending where you draw the line. And now the Wikipedia version: The city of Alexandria was named after its founder, Alexander the Great, and as the seat of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, quickly became one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world — second only to Rome in size and wealth. However, upon the founding of Cairo by Egypt's medieval Islamic rulers, its status as the country's capital ended, and fell into a long decline, which by the late Ottoman period, had seen it reduced to little more than a small fishing village. The city was revived by Muhammad Ali as a part of his early industrialization program. The current city is Egypt's leading port... Here's the full Wiki link.

I rented a car and left after work on Thursday. Alexandria 450 km drive from where I am on the Red Sea, and we had to travel through Cairo to get there. It was my first real driving experience (where I drove) in Egypt, which is an adventure in itself. First rule of driving in Egypt is there are no rules. People honk at random, pass on the inside, go 4 wide in two lanes, lanes mean nothing, drive the wrong way down one ways with their lights off, speed limits are for foreigners, etc etc. Most cars in Egypt have at least 2 dents and all of them need new shocks due to the crap roads. So anyway, driving was fun and we made it through the whole trip with no incidents or new dents.

After leaving work at 12:30 Thursday (we work a half day on Thursdays) we arrived in Alexandria around 6pm. To start off we went to the Bibliotheca (library/museum) that is famous in Alex. It was a good place to start to get a history of the city and get the lay of the land. Here is a picture of it at night:

After that we went for dinner at a place called The Sixties, which is Hisham's (co-worker) local haunt. Then it was off to the Plaza to meet his friends via the seaside motorway that took us past many historical spots as well as modern conveniences. The Plaza is a huge hotel/shopping complex where we looked around and eventually stopped for a coffee and desert. Picture a Starbucks the size of a Denny's restaurant pumping house music and filled with young couples, groups of girls, and groups of guys staring at the girls.

After a bit of oogling we left to find the apartment we rented in a western suburb of Alex, which was near the nightclubs we were planning on going to. A 10 minute drive on a freeway followed by a 15 minutes adventure on narrow streets, dark alleys, and tree-lined side streets led us to our modest 'villa'. It was a two bedroom flat with basically no amenities, but it was cheap and we weren't picky. We promptly opened the bottle of Bacardi and cracked a couple tall-boy Heinekens. This was around 10pm... around 11pm it was decided we'd have nap for an hour to gain some energy for the evening. After that we were up again to put another dent in the rum while we waited for more friends to arrive. When they finally did around 3am we were on our way and eventually left for the nightclub around 4am. There was 7 of us heading out, 3 girls and 4 guys. Bouncers are the same the world around, so after a bit haggling we were in. The club was right on the beach, playing electronic/dance music and was a balance of European and Arabic. There was no "hard drinks" served there, so if we wanted a taste of rum we had to go outside to the car... We danced until the sun rose around 6am... and then it was off to find some "street-meat", however we settled on fuul sandwiches, which was basically some sort of bean paste with onions and tomatoes in a pita. It was surprisingly satisfying... Next it was back to the flat, where we stayed up finishing the remaining booze and smoking hashesh on a carpet outside as the day got brighter and brighter.... Around 10am my Egyptian friends decided we'd better get some rest before hitting beach, so we had another nap until 1pm. Then it was up again, gathering the troops, and heading to a private beach club where we lounged on beanbag chairs and soaked up some sun. I didn't go in the Mediterranean Sea where we were because it was darker than chocolate milk, gross in other words. I'm sure it's nicer on different parts of the coast, but not where we were.

This put us at 4pm on Friday and we had to be back in Sukhna in order to get some sleep before work on Saturday. We left Alexandria about 6:30pm and were back on the Red Sea coast by 11pm...

All-in-all it was a good roadtrip... lots of laughs (even if I didn't understand the joke because they were speaking Arabic), good company, a good change of scenery, some action at the nightclub, and an interesting driving experience. It was a welcome change of pace although I sort of missed golfing... haha.

On another point... The Peck's arrive in Egypt on the 22nd of August... I'll be meeting them in Cairo on the Thursday where we'll spend a couple days doing the Pyramid thing, then I'm joining them for their Nile Cruise from the 25th to 28th. We fly to Luxor, board the boat, then disembark in Aswan and fly back to Cairo. Then they leave for southern Egypt for a diving trip and I go back to work.

This damn work thing, keeps getting in the way of my exploring Egypt and my golfing... oh well.

Maa el salamaa