Egypt: Pyramids and a Revolution

15 May 2012

Egypt is a country in transition. The recent revolution has left the infrastructure in disarray. The first thing you notice is the trash. The previous waste management company was fired and the new one seems to be still negotiating terms, while the city of Alexandria is drowning in a sea of trash. Looks like the perfect recipe for a plague. Add to that the economic depression and you observe that virtually all new construction was abandoned for financial or tax reasons. There are so many vacant building the city looks more like a Third World country and many areas look like a war zone. What a shame for a country with such a long and honored history. It was sad to see.

In twelve hours we traveled from Alexandria to the Pyramids and the Sphinx, then to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Tourism is a leading industry and last year they had almost none. Though it has returned some this year (post-revolution) it is still significantly reduced. I see no reason for that to change, unless there is significant change internally. There is a level of desperation existing just below the surface that shows itself at times and could lead to significant chaos. Though the leadership and intellectuals try to suppress it with rhetoric like "Muslims + Christians equal Egypt" or future hope. With locals rejecting the low-grade fuel forced on them, the infrastructure in disarray, and an uncertain economic future, I am discouraged about the country's prospects and would not return.

The pyramids were impressive as you neared them. Surprisingly they are adjacent to town. The vendors are the most aggressive, rude, and persistent I have encountered anywhere. Most of which I attribute to the above circumstances.

The Egyptian Museum is in such disrepair and lack of maintanence that they decided to relocate it to a new facility somewhere rather than attempt to restore. I preferred the British Museum or the traveling exhibit, which is a shame for it was once one of the great museums of the world. What I thought would be a highlight of this trip, may be its greatest disappointment.

Cynthia Whitcomb, screenwriter and playwright, who is teaching our writing group during the cruise, checked off "ride a camel" from her bucket list.

Fortress of Louisbourg

August 12, 2010 Lousibourg, Cape Breton, NS

Louisbourg RV Park on the waterfront:

From the wharves we can see the Fortress of Louisbourg looming over the sea.

Louisbourg is the largest reconstructed 18th-century French fortified town in North America.

The French came to Louisbourg in 1713 after loss of territory to the English in Newfoundland and Acadia (Nova Scotia) in the War of the Spanish Succession. Louisbourg soon became France's most important stronghold and seaport in the Atlantic on account of trade and the thriving fishing industry.

In addition to arms and imported goods, livestock and gardens were integral to the community's health and survival.

By 1760 the English ruled and the fortifications lay in ruin. The reconstruction and reenactments are based on life as it was in 1744.

Red Coat and Blue Coat interpreters march, pipe, drum and fire off a cannon.

Lloyd buys bread the size, and half the weight, of a cannonball. And about the equivalent in flavour.

Jay's workout for the day: cannonball presses.

The crier reads aloud from a scroll which states that the guy in white stole a bottle of wine. The French officers will parade him through the streets, drumming all the way, then fasten him to a pole with an iron collar where he will serve his time: 2 hours a day for several days. In fact, he served five minutes before the interpreters ignored the unsympathetic crowd and let him go.

Jay writes his name with a quill pen next to the recently freed thief.

Since we couldn't elect Eric for public punishment we ordered him into the lime kiln for a time out. ;)

Back at the campsites, the boys strum it up. It's difficult to see, but Jay and Eric each trade a hand to play: Jay's left hand plays Eric's fretboard and vice versa (their right hands strum their own guitars).

In the evening we attended a ceilidh next door at the Louisbourg Playhouse featuring Jason Kempt, Beverly MacLean, Erin Martell, Lyndon MacKenzie, and Troy Young. Celtic music is expected and oatcakes hoped for, but this ceilidh included a box drum called a cajón and comedic costumed sketches too.

In the morning we had time to enjoy the sun and cereal by the sea.

-P

Glimpses

July 29, 2010 Lunenburg, NS

Glimpses, presented by AllsWell Productions, is back for a third season at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. Glimpses offers a great introduction to Lunenburg, or a refresher, on the local history and characters in a script, song and slides format. It's one of the better edutainment performances we've seen, and one of the funniest. Good times!

"All the songs are original from the pens of Hank Middleton, Vince Morash, Sherry Dean, Dave Brumwell, and (our friend) Jon Allen. Admission has been by donation with a portion of the proceeds going to local historical societies."

Jay didn't waste any time finding a jam session. Hank Middleton, the feature musician for the night's performance, jams with Jay while some of the cast grooves along in the background after the show.

-P

Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

July 29, 2010 Lunenburg, NS

Exploring the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic is an ideal activity on a humid grey day, and more of a pleasure with family (Tina, Dwayne, Shannon, Coletyn) ...

... and friends.

That's the Faires family in Cape Sable's wheelhouse.

Here, our 3 year old nephew Coletyn hoists a lobster and trap into a fishing boat while big sis Shannon watches on.

Coletyn hoists a sail, many times, with sound effects. So cute.

No one else in the family cared to face their weight.

My oldest brother, Dwayne, and my niece, Shannon, try to coax Coletyn to look through the whale's eye, but he's busy scooping sand from the sandbox inside the whale.

Three floors of exhibits and many interactive attractions.

Shannon and Dwayne board Cape Sable while the Faires's and Lloyd head down the wharf toward the boat building barn.

Little dory man.

-P

"Shadow Country" Country

February 27, 2010 We listened to Peter Matthiessen's "Shadow Country" en route to Chokoloskee Island, to stretch our Chokoloskee Island experience.

"In 1898, 42-year-old Edgar J. Watson became a living legend when a book credited him with shooting the outlaw queen Belle Starr nine years earlier. The descendant of a prominent South Carolina family, the legal or common-law husband of five women, the father of possibly 10 children, a leading pioneer on the southwest coast of Florida and a man killed by a large group of his neighbors in 1910 ..." in the land of walking trees, the mangroves.

Established in 1906, the Smallwood Store Ole Indian Trading Post and Museum stayed open and active until 1984.

Here we were told that Chokolskee isn't really an "island" at all, rather just a huge mound of seashells accumulated by early inhabitants, the Native Americans, with a smattering of soil on top.

In 1887 Ruby Tigertial, a Seminole native, wore at least two hundred strings of beads. "It was an effort for her to move her head ..."

Not a fitting souvenir for two vegetarians: "White Trash Cooking I" and "II".

Ha ha ha! Okay, not so funny... kinda creepy.

-P

Darrell Scott & Kenny Malone Jammin at Hippie Jacks

Tonight's entertainment was an extraordinary concert in the lower level of the TN State Museum by Darrell Scott on acustic, baritone, and steel guitar and Kenny Malone on percussion. The two rocked the house with several standing ovations. Kenny is a Nashville session icon and has backed many of the greats like Ray Charles and Marty Robbins. Darrell is a Grammy nominated song writer and sang many of his original songs from both his past and upcoming double album. The concert was filmed with five HD cameras to be televised on the PBS Jammin at Hippie Jack's. Jack Stoddart from the previous post is the original Hippie Jack. He and his family host and film the concerts on his farm in the Tenessee mountains.

We sat next to a young woman who is a river biologist for the state. She collects, counts, and records the insect populations of the middle Tennessee rivers and streams. We learned tonight that a river is any body of water that flows for more than 99 miles and everything 99 miles and less is a stream. There is no telling the knowledge you can gain visiting a museum. Tomorrow the Grand Old Opry. -L

Adding my two cents... Darrell has "a collection of weird instruments" including baritone guitars and an aluminum guitar - bright green and thick with a hollow neck and a hubcap for a resonator plate. We wish we had a photo of the guitar to show you. We do have a photo of Darrell and Kenny:

Darrell's best instrument might be his fine-tuned voice - full, layered and rich.

-P

Darrell Scott & Kenny Malone Jammin at Hippie Jacks

Tonight's entertainment was an extraordinary concert in the lower level of the TN State Museum by Darrell Scott on acustic, baritone, and steel guitar and Kenny Malone on percussion. The two rocked the house with several standing ovations. Kenny is a Nashville session icon and has backed many of the greats like Ray Charles and Marty Robbins. Darrell is a Grammy nominated song writer and sang many of his original songs from both his past and upcoming double album. The concert was filmed with five HD cameras to be televised on the PBS Jammin at Hippie Jack's. Jack Stoddart from the previous post is the original Hippie Jack. He and his family host and film the concerts on his farm in the Tenessee mountains.

We sat next to a young woman who is a river biologist for the state. She collects, counts, and records the insect populations of the middle Tennessee rivers and streams. We learned tonight that a river is any body of water that flows for more than 99 miles and everything 99 miles and less is a stream. There is no telling the knowledge you can gain visiting a museum. Tomorrow the Grand Old Opry. -L

Adding my two cents... Darrell has "a collection of weird instruments" including baritone guitars and an aluminum guitar - bright green and thick with a hollow neck and a hubcap for a resonator plate. We wish we had a photo of the guitar to show you. We do have a photo of Darrell and Kenny:

Darrell's best instrument might be his fine-tuned voice - full, layered and rich.

-P

The King's Rides

Elvis had a lot of toys. He had dune buggies, a go-cart, tractors, a pedal car, a skidoo converted to drive on grass, and some "normal" stuff too. Thirty-three of those toys are featured in the Car Museum.

The pink cadillac:

The car below is my favourite vehicle, which has everything to do with the colour, but my favourite feature of the car museum is the home movies, movies that Priscilla and Elvis's friends filmed. They show him at home. He liked to play.

And he had custom jets.

The Lisa Marie (No interior photos allowed. Elvis had all kinds of controls to play with in the cabin. Inside, the Lisa Marie is groovy, and brown.):

One day Elvis realized that his little daughter had never seen snow so he loaded up the family into the jet Lisa Marie and flew to Colorado. Little Lisa Marie played in the snow for a few minutes then everyone piled back into the plane and zipped home again.

Elvis's other jet is a Lockheed Jet Star and this is her cockpit (which looks like something I would see in a nightmare):

Here's her cabin:

Elvis hardly used the Jet Star. Why would he when the Lisa Marie had "a luxuriously appointed living room, conference room, sitting room, and private bedroom, as well as gold-plated seatbelts, suede chairs, leather covered tables, 24-karat gold-flecked sinks and more."? Instead, Colonel Parker, Elvis's manager, and staff shuttled in the Jet Star from city to city, wherever the concert tour took them.

-P

The King's Rides

Elvis had a lot of toys. He had dune buggies, a go-cart, tractors, a pedal car, a skidoo converted to drive on grass, and some "normal" stuff too. Thirty-three of those toys are featured in the Car Museum.

The pink cadillac:

The car below is my favourite vehicle, which has everything to do with the colour, but my favourite feature of the car museum is the home movies, movies that Priscilla and Elvis's friends filmed. They show him at home. He liked to play.

And he had custom jets.

The Lisa Marie (No interior photos allowed. Elvis had all kinds of controls to play with in the cabin. Inside, the Lisa Marie is groovy, and brown.):

One day Elvis realized that his little daughter had never seen snow so he loaded up the family into the jet Lisa Marie and flew to Colorado. Little Lisa Marie played in the snow for a few minutes then everyone piled back into the plane and zipped home again.

Elvis's other jet is a Lockheed Jet Star and this is her cockpit (which looks like something I would see in a nightmare):

Here's her cabin:

Elvis hardly used the Jet Star. Why would he when the Lisa Marie had "a luxuriously appointed living room, conference room, sitting room, and private bedroom, as well as gold-plated seatbelts, suede chairs, leather covered tables, 24-karat gold-flecked sinks and more."? Instead, Colonel Parker, Elvis's manager, and staff shuttled in the Jet Star from city to city, wherever the concert tour took them.

-P

Elvis Lives: The King and Pop Culture

The trophy building exhibits an enormous collection of gold records and awards. Every wall looked like this:

Or this:

A gorgeous Gibson guitar, just one of an extensive envy-inducing collection:

Jay Faires, how do you like that one?

Since we're film fanatics and since everything in this museum is a little ... before my time, I especially enjoyed the Elvis in Hollywood Exhibit and the old movie posters.

That one makes me giggle... :D

This one probably does nothing for you, but I felt a little flutter in my heart:

They're movie scripts. :)

Stay tuned. More to come.

-P