Monday, April 30, 2007

Spring

It’s springtime again and all my anxieties seem to have come back to life to haunt and torment me. I have not been able to sleep well for the last couple of weeks. Have recently begun to sleep curled into a ball again – I fall asleep in this position and wake up in the same, foetus position in the morning. Strangely enough, I have discovered myself almost relieved if I can keep a little light on, in an adjacent room during the night, as if I was afraid of something. I have never really been afraid of dark – was quite a good little girl after the age of two.

I feel strange, ill at ease. I wonder if it’s just spring. Can I blame it on the spring? When I try to closer analyse it, I realise that I can’t really put my finger on it. It’s melancholy, apprehension, yearning, guilt. I have been a bad wife, daughter, friend for quite a while now – it’s a miracle people still contact me. Have been concentrating on work, travelling like crazy and trying not to delve too deep into serious thoughts.

As part of my efforts to refrain from cutting myself off completely from the rest of the world during my free time, I met M on Saturday and we went together to see a movie – “Perfect Stranger” with Bruce Willis and Halle Berry. A psychological thriller, quite entertaining actually. We parted with the promise to repeat the outing soon.

Yesterday I spent more or less the entire day reading Рwhiling away the long Sunday hours ensconced in my bedroom, with my book, a couple of my favourite cornets a la cr̬me to keep me company. And, of course, lots of Turkish coffee.

It seems to have been a great weekend, at a first glance. But appearances can’t fool me any longer - it’s time for the big questions. Hard, difficult questions – where will I be next year, what do I really want to do with my life, where do I want to live? Why can’t I start writing my book yet? Why can’t I just dismiss these thoughts? I could be happy, even if only for a day. Tempting.

This sort of questions were hanging about in my mind last night, almost making me believe it was going to be yet another sleepless night, searching for answers and decipher them one by one. Luckily enough, or not, I was in the Land of Nod before finding answers to them all.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

My fantastic trip to Oman

For more pictures visit my flickr site

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Oman














I have been in Muscat for almost ten days now. Despite the oppressive temperatures I really love it! The country is beautiful, civilised, clean, almost everybody speaks English, people are nice and friendly. The city is mountainous (actually the whole country seems to be like that) and the contrast ocean – mountains is quite breathtaking.

The hotel is absolutely fantastic, we have been very spoilt here – and yes, I do see the ocean from my room’s window!

On a different, sad note, it has been a difficult period, in which my morale was not that great (maybe too much back to back travel?). Consequently, I have maxed out my credit card buying more clothes and several pairs of shoes :-( right before leaving Brussels for Muscat and have had difficulties to get decent sleep. But the situation has improved quite a lot lately.

The work has also been good. Our team here is made up mostly of Indians and even the Finance Manager is Indian. He is a nice guy and I have learnt lots of interesting things about India during my stay here. He has been trying to convince me to go and visit India – we don’t really need too much convincing as India is among the places we do intend to travel to in the near future.

The weekend here is Thursday and Friday, Saturday and Sunday are working days. Some Muslim countries have already shifted the weekend to Friday and Saturday, to align themselves to the rest of the world. It’s not the case here which makes the business communication with the rest of the world quite tedious.

On the weekend, we went to the city centre and visited one of the souks (I just bought a silver bracelet which I am already tired of) and we made a desert trip. Actually, we drove approximately 500 km, on a trip outside Muscat last Friday. This contained a desert adventure (with a Nissan Patrol – good, lasting car!), coffee with a Bedouin family in the desert and a visit to some oasis. Everything was enjoyed and considered a great experience.

Tomorrow night I fly back to Brussels. Even though Oman is fantastic, I am actually glad to be back home in my flat. I can hardly wait!

PS I am posting some pictures taken by M. Mine have to wait to be downloaded on the laptop at home.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Tales From the Land of the Dust (continued)




Yesterday we went to see the remains of the ancient city of Memphis and the Step pyramid of Saqqara.

The day started bad because we arrived downstairs, in the hotel lobby, a few minutes late and we missed the organised tour that we had meant to join. Consequently, the concierge had to arrange for another guide and car, just for us. Of course, in the end, it all turned out fine, but it was just a bit unpleasant to see the concierge shrug his shoulders and tell us that he was sorry but, as we were 10 minutes late, the guide had already left without even giving us a call.

We first stopped at Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt and of the old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 1300 BC. The ruins of Memphis are approximately 20 km south of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile.

We were not quite impressed with what we saw. Apart from a giant statue of Ramses the 2nd and a few other statues of gods and goddesses there was nothing else to be seen so we were soon back in the car and on our way to Saqqara. The weather was incredibly annoying because there was a very strong wind which basically blew all the sand into our eyes, mouths, noses and pretty much everywhere. We soon had to find out that this was even worse at Saqqara. Moreover, it was very hot.

Saqqara was one of the main burial fields of the ancient city of Memphis. It is located some 40 km from Cairo. The most significant monument of the complex is the Step Pyramid of Djoser. The complex covers an area of 6km by 1.5 km.

Our visit was spoilt by the very strong wind and the sand which simply made its way everywhere – I had sand in my hair, on my face, on my lips, eventually in my mouth, in my light white shoes, in my clothes. I could hardly wait to get back to the hotel and wash the dust off my body. On the way back to Cairo, our guide tried to tempt us into visiting one of those Carpet Schools which are so popular now with tourists. We resisted heroically as we genuinely are not interested in carpets and we have already seen lots of such places in our travels (Morocco, Turkey, etc.).

Today we called our first guide, Mohammed, who speaks excellent English and has a wonderful sense of humour. We arranged for him, a driver and a car to accompany us on a tour of Islamic Cairo and, ultimately, of the famous City of the Dead. He was a bit taken aback when A told him that we wanted to go to the City of the Dead. I discovered that, for some reason or another, the Egyptians either don’t want to admit it or they genuinely don’t know too much about this place. Anyway, Mohammed was even a bit scared of going there and he tried to convince us to give up the thought. In the end, A succeeded in making him agree to take us there and drive us a bit around the area, for us just to have a look.

The day was generally pleasant. We visited several mosques, walked a lot in the city and also went to a market. The mosques (most of them very old) were really beautiful. What I totally disliked was the fact that we had to take our shoes off and, at one place, they even requested me to cover both my body and my hair with veils. We bought a pair of socks for me which I wore each time we went inside (as I didn’t want to be bare foot in the mosque). However, I refused to go inside the place where I was supposed to cover myself. I have my own theory about this whole thing so I didn’t want to go against my principles. Mohammed was intrigued and I saw he wanted to discuss but didn’t have the courage to start a debate. I had continuously challenged him on the subject of women and their role in Islam so he knew this was a delicate issue.

We also visited an old Islamic house which was decorated and inhabited by a British officer during the time when Egypt was occupied by the Brits. The house had lots of rooms and Mohammed was joking, telling us several times to hurry up because there were ‘further 200 rooms to be seen’ (he was very funny!). At some point, he told A to hide into a secret niche in the house and urged me to look for him. It was very frustrating, I had to search two rooms, I even suspected where the secret door was but I didn’t know how to access the secret mechanism to open it. The guys had a good time and found the little hide and seek game very funny. Mohammed even said that I looked like a little child who lost her mother.

The visit to the City of the Dead was short and rather saddening. There was not much to be seen, just a poor area with extremely thin stray dogs and cats wandering around. We found a man who was tipped into letting us have a look inside two courtyards. There was a poor family cooking dinner for the two children and some chickens held into a wooden cage. Somehow we wanted to be out of there. Quickly.

The Easter break is now over. It’s time to take our leave. We’ll fly back to Europe tomorrow and a good part of the day will be spent travelling. Maybe this is our last time in the Land of the Dust, who knows! We have already said our farewell ...

Friday, April 06, 2007

Sun, desert and … sun again!









I am scribbling this post in the hotel room, in bed, under covers, shivering and munching some Mozarttalers which A brought me from Vienna. No, it is definitely not cold, either in the room or outside. But the skin on my arms and face is sun burnt. Yes, I’m afraid I did it again to a certain extent :-). It was extremely hot today in Egypt, I wore a t-shirt and we had to walk a lot in the sun so … A is making a fuss about it although I specifically asked him not to … It’s far from being as bad as the Malta experience.

But what a busy day this has been! We set off quite early (for a day off) – I hardly had time to grab a take away coffee from the coffee shop in our hotel (well, to be really honest, A brought it to me, together with a fresh croissant. Poor chap, he knows very well how grumpy I can get early in the morning, before having my coffee). The guide, Mohammed, was already waiting for us in the lobby at 8.30.

Our today objective was El Fayoum, a beautiful area which serves as holiday destination for many Egyptians. It has a big lake, Qaroun, apparently Egypt’s largest salt water lake.
The prehistoric people who lived here were, at first, nomadic hunters and gatherers, but later began harvesting plants near the lake. This developed into what is said to be the earliest agricultural area in the world, where fences were erected and guarded warehouses built. It has remained an agriculture center, the peacefulness of which is a relief from the hustle and bustle of Cairo, from which it is a brief trip. Bird life still abounds around Lake Qaroun, bordered by semi-nomadic Bedouin settlements and fishing villages.

Fayoum is not a true oasis since it depends on Nile water instead of underground springs or wells. The ancient Bahr Yussef canal runs through the center of the city and irrigates the land. Only two hours from Cairo by road, Fayoum is renowned for its year-round warm climate, numerous water wheels (introduced by the Ptolemies in the 3rd century) and lush agricultural land. Cotton, clover, tomatoes, medicinal plants and fruit are all grown here. The local Souk (market) in Fayoum City sells copperware, spices and gold jewelry and there is a special pottery market once a week.

We made the first stop to explore some ruined temples belonging to various ages – ancient Egyptian, Ptolemaic, Roman. We were a bit surprised as tourist police was everywhere, our car was stopped and our guide had to give details about our nationality, what we intended to visit, the hotel we were staying at in Cairo, etc. He was even given a telephone number that he could call in case something was wrong and we needed help. We were escorted by armed policemen during our visit to the temple which felt a bit oppressive and weird, since Egypt is generally a safe country. As it is with all these ruins, there was not that much to be seen, of course and, by that time of the day, it had become extremely hot and the sun was incredibly powerful so our walk was quite tedious.

The second stop was to see an interesting pyramid built around 1000 BC. It looked quite strange; we were told that it was built in three layers (lime stone, red granite for the burial chamber and bricks on the outside). The inside was flooded so we could not see much. We were told by the armed policemen that around the pyramid there were several tombs of the workers that built the pyramid. To prove that, we were invited for a short walk around and were shown remains of bones that looked like white sticks and were scattered everywhere in the sand, holes in the ground where the tombs were supposed to be and even two skulls that were supposedly remains of those times. To me, the skulls looked quite new, so I secretly doubted they belonged to the poor workers that toiled to build the pyramid. But, of course, I kept those thoughts to myself.

We then stopped in the city of Fayoum to see the famous waterwheels and, especially, to have some cold drinks. When we returned to the car, something interesting happened. A group of local young women that were admiring the waterwheels saw me, surrounded me and were trying to tell me something. Our guide told me that they wanted to take a picture with me. They were so enthusiastic and friendly so I immediately agreed. So they grouped close around me, we almost held hands and one of them took the picture. Other people automatically stopped in the street and took pictures as well, some of them using their phone cameras! A also took a picture so I will be able to post it here as soon as he downloads it. Later, in the car, the guide told us that apparently it’s every Egyptian girl’s dream to be blonde and have green or blue eyes. Apparently this is their ideal beauty. I don’t know if this was Mohammed’s attempt to compliment me. All I know is that I was touched by the girls’ reaction.

The last stop was to see the lake itself. We stopped at a 5* hotel built right on the shore. We entered the reception area and went directly to the swimming pool which was located near the lake. There was nothing really special about the lake, apart from the fact that it was big. The water was quite dirty so we were not really impressed and left quite quickly not before visiting the loo which was very civilised there.

I had a very interesting conversation with our guide on the way back to Cairo. We talked about many things – couples, sex and marriage in Egyptian society, the role of women, and day to day life in Cairo. I was a bit surprised to hear that the Egyptian society is still so very conservative and many things considered normal in Europe are viewed here as completely outrageous and unacceptable. It is, for example, unacceptable for a girl not to be a virgin when she gets married. If she is not a virgin, the new husband has every right to divorce her immediately and disgrace her by making the fact known to relatives and friends. Furthermore, if the girl is a virgin but is so ‘weak’ as to agree to make love with her future husband before getting married, the guy would commonly think that that particular girl is not, in fact, made for marriage and would have serious second thoughts about marrying her! Apparently, if she was weak with him, she could be weak with somebody else, after the marriage consummates! This sounds so bloody unfair and silly to my ears!!

The family circle still plays the most important role in getting the young people together and, ultimately, making them marry. Mohammed’s sister, for example, got married through the mosque that she was regularly attending. At that mosque, there was this old woman whose role was to facilitate young people to get to know each other with the view to get married. And our guide’s sister ended up marrying the old woman’s own son! Mohammed told us that, if he wanted to find a wife for himself (he’s 34), he would typically ask his mother to spot a few suitable girls and introduce them to him. It is also forbidden for young people to date and spend time alone with each other - they always have to meet in the presence of their families.

I was also rather shocked when Mohammed asked if I can cook, if my cooking skills are good. I naturally said ‘no’, as they are actually inexistent. He smiled and said that, in Egypt, when a guy is about to marry a girl, he has the right to ask her to cook for him, so he can test her cooking skills. And men here apparently prefer the women to cook everything from scratch and avoid using semi-cooked food that is found in the supermarkets. How very nice indeed! A observed that Egypt seems like a nice place to be. For men. Not for women though. Well, I had no cooking skills (and, sadly, I still lack those – gee, I have to do something about it. I think.). And I also wasn’t a virgin upon getting married. My goodness, there must have been something I was doing right though :-). I wonder what :-). I have just made a mental note to remember to ask A!

Later on in the conversation, it was Mohammed’s turn to be astonished when I told him that I’m 32. And I got the same comment about my looking much younger, again early 20's. Hmmm … maybe I should start using some make-up!

We are already looking forward to tomorrow. The city is just a few steps away and is alive and waiting for us!

The City That Never Sleeps

Today our assignment here in Cairo was officially at an end … Yet another job finished. And it has been definitely good, a great experience from many points of view. It was the first time for me to work with M and I liked it. It was the first time for him to work with people in the Brussels team and, somehow, I am under the impression that he had a jolly good time in the process too (well, apart from Cairo itself, which he didn’t quite enjoy, but that, again, is a question of personal preference, of course)… That is really great since we are going to meet again, in one week, on the job in Oman. Oh boy, I definitely look forward to that! We will be staying in Muscat at this hotel http://muscat.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp. It looks like a nice place :-). I look forward to the ocean and the desert, to a bit of daydreaming while admiring the ocean waves from my room’s window… Moreover, the very thorny, worrying visa problem was solved rather nicely and painlessly – I exchanged a couple of emails with our Finance Manager in Muscat and he assured me that European citizens can obtain their visas on the airport, upon arrival. Nevertheless, I am still amazed that The Sultanate of Oman has neither an embassy nor a consulate in Brussels … Strange.

I am usually not a big fan of socialising, especially when this is imposed and in big quantities. But here, in Egypt, this has really been quality socialising and I haven’t felt it like a burden at all. I have met very interesting people, funny, witty, kind. Last night it was our turn to invite the management to dinner. The reservation had been made at the Lebanese restaurant in our hotel. The food there is, indeed, delicious and the service impeccable – a true 5* restaurant. We spent the most enjoyable couple of hours, laughed a lot, discussed lots of subjects and explored the cultural differences (good grief, we had a German, a Portuguese, a Romanian, a South African and several Egyptians around that table! No wonder we had lots of things to discuss). One of our Egyptian colleagues told me that I look very young, in my early 20s. As much as I wanted this to be true, I felt compelled to reveal my age, to my interlocutor's utter astonishment.

Today, after the closing meeting was finished and M and L were driven to the airport to catch their flights back to Europe, I was invited to lunch by Maha, our HR Manager here in Egypt. She is a great lady, I felt so attracted to her and made friends instantly. She is a former engineer who converted to HR, who believes that, if we really want something in life, we can achieve it, who has brought up her teenage daughter and son on her own as her husband died several years ago. We went to one of the many restaurants on boats and enjoyed a frugal lunch that mainly consisted of spaghetti (I was not hungry at all, I only accepted the invitation because I really like the person). Over lunch I found out interesting things about Egyptian society, way of life, customs and traditions.

Then A called to tell me that he landed and he was on his way to the hotel so Maha and I had to cut our lunch rather short. In the evening, a short nap, a long business long distance phone call and a long fax sent to his office by A later, we managed to make it to the restaurant for dinner. More food! :-(

It has been rather hot this week in Cairo, especially today, and it will be even hotter in the next few days. Luckily I have brought plenty of summer clothes! So much for my plans to travel light!

Easter holiday at last! Tomorrow we’ll go to El Fayoum oasis, a place located some 1.5 hours drive outside Cairo. We have arranged for a car, a driver and a guide to wait for us rather early tomorrow morning. I hope it will all be worth the few hours of sleep we’ll be giving up :-) . Tonight I also settled my hotel bill and I realised that I paid a small fortune for the uninterrupted internet access in the room that I have benefited from during my stay. It might have well been the most expensive hotel internet so far!

There are still so many things to be seen, to be explored in Cairo, the city that never sleeps … It literally never sleeps! There are people everywhere on the streets, bad traffic jams and ear bleeding noise around the clock. But it's so alive! So many things to be seen! And I have only scratched the surface!