Bahrain and Egypt

Our flight from Delhi took us first to Bahrain, in the Persion Gulf. What struck us immediately upon arrival was the over the top Christmas display, complete with moving Santa’s and snowmen. Men and women wearing traditional muslim dress taking pictures of Santa. We had a 12 hour layover so we were able to get a 24 hour visa and the airline put us up in a hotel with meal vouchers, it was a leisurely day.

We arrived in Cairo before sundown. We were staying in one of the busiest areas of the city, a street full of shopping and eateries. We spent our first day exploring the city and eating, such a great selection of food there, meat cooking in windows and shawarma’s being made on the street. Matt blended in almost too well, people would automatically speak to him in Arabic thinking he was Egyptian. We always received local price though, which was great!

The next day we arranged for a guide to take us to the Sakkara and Giza pyramids. He explained to us that he had to say we were Canadian. He said “if I tell the guards I have Americans in the car, they’ll make us ride with a security guard and I don’t really like having men carrying guns with me.” It was completely understandable and seems that the security detail would only call attention to us. We went inside the pyramids of Sakkara, walking down a long, narrow passageway about 4 ft high until we reached the bottom. The hieroglyfics on the wall are still perfectly in tact. Then we were off to the Giza pyramids. It’s impossible not to be blown away by them, we didn’t have a lot of time so we decided to go back the following day. The next day at the pyramids was much nicer, blue skies and not a lot of wind. We encountered a few characters while we were there. A camel guide really had his pitch down and before we knew it we had scarves wrapped around our heads and were sitting on a camel. He wanted a ridiculous sum of money for it after, as usual, but a price of $4 was reached. We also ran into some police officers who wanted some photos with us and a little baksheesh (tip). We walked every inch of the place and then headed out into the desert to see the pyramids from afar. It’s a beautiful site to see, the pyramids laid out before you.

The following day we went to the Egyptian Museum. It contains over 120,000 artifacts and less than half are on display. The most famous exhibit at the Cairo Egyptian Museum is the Gold Room that holds the treasures from the Tomb of Tutankhamen including the funerary mask, throne and second/inner coffins. We spent most of the day there and probably only saw 50%.

We went to the khan al khalili bazaar a couple of times, one of the largest markets in the Arab world and on an ancient trade route that dates back to the 1300’s. There are tons of Egyptian goods for sale; rugs, hookah pipes, shisha, souvenirs, etc. We’ve been to many markets throughout Asia but this one was different. People want to talk to you, eventually to make a sale but either way, the vendors want you to sit down, have a cup of tea and talk. It isn’t for hagglers who want a quick purchase, if you want a good price in the Khan, you need to spend some time. We were in the market for perfume oils so we found a shop and sat down for tea. Two cups of tea and over an hour later, we all agreed on a price. The Market vendors are always saying things as you pass, sometimes it’s the common, “where are you from?” while other’s try to make you laugh by saying things like, “welcome, please let me take your money”. It’s great fun to walk around and a place to mingle with the locals.

The last day we were there was the end of Hajj, the largest annual pilgrimage in the world to Mecca. Everyone in Cairo was preparing for the big feast. People perform animal sacrifices, to symbolize God having mercy on Abraham and replacing his son with a ram, which Abraham then sacrificed. After the sacrifice, the animal is divided into three parts, one for the family, the second for neighbors and friends and a third to feel the poor. We witnessed sheep and goats being pulled out of the trunks of cars, blood smeared in the street and butcher’s walking around covered in red. The elevator to our hotel was being fixed so we took the stairs up the 8 floors. On the 4th floor we came upon a large cow tied to the elevator door. It was strange to see such a large animal on the 4th floor of a hotel in such a busy part of town but we just figured he was for the feast and kept walking. When we walked back down about an hour later, the floor was covered in blood and the cow was being quartered. We did not expect to see that!!

We spent our next days just walking around the city and taking in the rest of the sites. Cairo is a city that lives by a different clock. Restaurants and shops stay open and the streets are full of people until about 5am, in the morning the city is deserted until about 11am when people start coming out.

We had a great week, it went by much too fast but we’ll be coming back to Egypt some other time. It’s time to finally go home!

Nepal: Kathmandu and Pokhara

We arrived in Kathmandu and decided as a group to stay in Boudhanath. It’s a peaceful area of Buddhist monasteries and temples and 6 km away from the craziness of Kathmandu city. We stayed at a guesthouse run by the Tharlam Monasterym which was founded by a late Tibetan Lama who fled Tibet in 1959 with the Dalai Lama. For just $4 per night we had a beautiful room with a hot water shower overlooking the area. The monks who ran the guesthouse were so nice to us.

The streets are full of locals, tourists, monks, children and students studying at the various Buddhist colleges in the area. At the center of the village is the Boudhanath Stupa, one of the largest in the world. It was refreshing to see people performing the chora in peace with no presence of military. Many Tibetan refugees fleeing China on their way to Dharamsala, India end up living in this area. Over 5o Tibetan Gompas (Monasteries) have been built in the area due to the influx of large populations of Tibetans from China. It’s also refreshing to see people use their freedom of speech, free Tibet messages are everywhere.

We heard from our friend Yonten shortly after we arrived. Yonten is a friend we met in Dharamsala almost 1 year prior…the one with the 8 children at the TCV. He was in Nepal with Aashish, another friend we met in India. We arranged to meet and ended up spending the next week together. It was great seeing Yonten again, his English had improved so we were able to communicate much better. It was funny to walk around with him, we couldn’t walk more than 5 yards before someone recognized him and wanted to stop and chat. We were stopped by foreigners, Nepalis, Tibetans and monks, all of greeting Yonten warmly. We introduced Yonten and Aashish to everyone in our Tibet group and went out to explore Kathmandu together.

One of the first places we went to was Dakshinkali, on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Dakshinkali is a Hindu temple dedicated to Kali, the Goddess of Death and Destruction. Hundreds of men, women and children come here every Tuesday and Saturday to make a sacrifice to Kali, in an attempt to feed her eternally insatiable stomach. The Kali Temple arranges Nepal’s largest number of animal sacrifices, totaling tens of thousands every year. Nepali people believe that the death of the animal will give it the chance to be reborn as a higher life form. The marble floor is smudged with fresh blood. The pilgrims, in single-file, pass the gate into the shrine with bare feet, carrying their sacrificial animals, which must all be un-castrated males. Three young men in dirty blood stained rags, wielding long, curved knifes await the pilgrims. These men are called Kassi and they are Kali’s executioners. When an animal is about to be sacrificed, the bells start ringing softly at first, then poeple in the crowd start ringing bells louder and louder as the anticipation grows. Then the bells stop, the animal is sacrificed quickly, the blood smeared on the statue of Kali and the animal is taken to be cleaned and given back to the pilgrim. Many people don’t take the animal home. Instead, they picnic in the forest next to the shrine, roasting their meals on campfires while the slitting and hacking continues below amid the clanging of bells and shouts of prayer. We stayed until Aashish made a sacrifice for his family while David (a vegetarian) and Yonten (a Buddhist) waited at a nearby restaurant. Neither one could be a part of it, Yonten said he didn’t understand why an animal had to die for some goddess. He said "Hindu’s have so many gods, so many temples, me, I just have one Buddha." He was respectful of Aashish and his religious beliefs but you could tell he didn’t want to understand them. We then went to Patan Durbur Square, with tons of temples scattered around the complex.

We had a great week with everyone but soon had to part ways. Sara and Maria were headed to India, Aashish was going back to Dharamsala, Ryusuke was headed to Thailand and we were going to Pokhara with Laurin and Alex.

The ride to Pokhara was long, almost 8 hours, but passing beautiful scenery along the way. We found a great questhouse with views of the mountains. Pokhara is a small village surrounding a lake, with the annapurna mountain range as a backdrop. We went with Laurin and Alex for a boat ride. We intended to get a boat man but since none were available, Matt and Laurin were more than happy to row us around. We had fun, talking to people on other boats (who sometimes wanted you to come close enough just so they could splash you!). The holy Barahi Mandir temple is on an island in the middle of the lake and many pilgrims were being shuttled back and forth.

We had every intention of trekking to Annapurna Base Camp, a 7 day trek over 80 km but we opted out. I think we are starting to get lazy during our last weeks of travel! We relaxed in Pokhara for a few more nights before heading back to Kathmandu. We’ve met a lot of people who have said to just stay a couple of nights in Kathmandu but we really love the city, it’s an easy place to stay.

Yonten was still in Nepal so we were able to spend a little more time before we were off to India. He helped us to our taxi and gave us scarves and gifts before we said goodbye. We only had a week left before our flight out of Delhi. We may have decided to just stay close to the city since travel in India takes time. We had promised to deliver books for our Tibetan guide though and had donations from him for the Dalai Lama. We had to get there. Since train travel takes over 24 hours to get to Dharamsala, we decided to shorten the trip by taking a flight halfway to Chandigarh. We then hired a driver to take us the final 8 hours to McLeod Ganj.

It felt great to be back, going to a place you’ve been before seems to give an at home feeling. We took care of the delivery of books and donations straight away and even had time to get some business suits made. The rest of the time was just spent relaxing, the best thing to do in McLeod Ganj. The days went fast and we found ourselves back in Delhi waiting for our flight to Egypt, the last stop on our itinerary.