Today I had a meeting at my normal hotel – the Cairo Hyatt. I walked in and it looked like Ramadan. The bar was there but it was empty. It turns out that the franchisee of that hotel is Saudi and when he was in Cairo last month returned from the Mosque all fired up and inspired to be a good Muslim. To show his faith, he took every single alcoholic beverage and had employees help him throw all those bottles in the Nile. The total damage was in the millions. Then he went to the Hard Rock Café next door and demanded that they throw away all their alcohol but the HRC refused since they are not owned by this guy. Hyatt had given him until June 1 to restock the bar and serve alcohol again or he will be in default of the franchise agreement. No one is sure what will happen but I’ll find out on June 1 as it’s tomorrow and someone I know is staying there. In the meantime, I’m sure the HRC is enjoying a booming bar business.
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Egypt life - no foreigners can drive in Egypt unless they are missing some brain cells. Road signs barely exist and when they do, they are in Arabic. Driving guidelines are in place but it's an odd free for all. If you get in an accident, it's your fault because you are the foreigner. When we go out for work, our local co-worker has to come and pick us up from the hotel. Same as LA. You might only need to go 10 miles but allow one hour for the drive (including time to find the non- existant parking space.) You pay the street workers to watch your car (hence not destroy it) and you pay them again to help you leave when you are boxed in and traffic is coming fast. Then to get anywhere you have to cross the street with non-stop traffic and play Frogger as you do so. Always a challenge! My hotel is not a big tourist hotel. It's mainly for business with a lot of Arabs & Egyptians and a few European men. I've seen a few Japanese, some British ladies and me. The hotel i...
Sheraton Cairo, 21st floor. Only a short distance from the usual hotel but a whole new experience. I am in the middle of all of the noise of the commuter traffic and a never-ending parade of cars and horns. I like the noise of Cairo so I'm okay with it but relaxing it is not. If the sky was clear I would be able to see the pyramids but the smog is obstructing the other side of the river so no view today. Day 15 of the trip. This is my first downtime day and now that I had a chance to sleep in, eat a slow breakfast (cucumbers & cheese) I am ready for a nap and it's only noon. Things that make me happy today are in-room coffee and a real steam iron instead of the dorky press iron that never works. My fruit basket is edible so lunch is an easy deal today. I have plenty of bottled water and all I need is boost of energy or maybe more caffeine !
I'm in Cairo now. I traveled in by myself and had the hotel arrange for pick-up. Cairo airport is always a hurdle and it changes each time. I was sure that the when the pick-up notice read "meet outside customs" that meant after I was stamped in. I was rushing to get to the Visa window and bypassed all the guys with signs. I'm inline for customs and a man is asking me if I'm Karen Reek. As the only non-middle easterner I was once again an easy find. The thing that threw me off was I was all prepared with my 5 egyptian pounds to tip the cab driver but was totally unprepared on how to tip the greeter so he didn't get a tip. Bummer for him. I feel bad. Since I never got my hotel points from the Hyatt Cairo (I did but through Hyatt after I complained) I'm at the Sheraton Cairo. It kind of sucks but since I'm doing a protest stay, I have to live with my actions. The room is about the same but the club lounge has such slim picking for food I sense another ...
Yes, it's true. The Saudi's don't want the women looking at monkey butts. The other story this man told me was that when he first moved there from Egypt, he was showing Mickey Mouse on the television monitor in his restaurant. The religious police came in and told him to stop the video and never show it again because Mickey was kissing Minnie and Donald kissed Daisy. Since he didn't want to get arrested and have the business shut down, Mickey & Co. had to go. Even cartoons can't kiss in public.
Checking in but nothing to write about. Work has kept me busy and I seem to have less downtime in Bahrain than in Kuwait. We're trying to cram in more work here because we're bringing in people from other countries to meet with us. Since I can't go to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi guys are here. Last night they told me about the zoo in Riyadh. It turns out that when the zoo is open, women are only allowed to go one day a week. The rest of the week, only men. Families cannot go together. It is either men or women but never mixed except for small children. On women's day at the zoo, all the monkeys have to wear pampers. Go figure.
It's slow right now so I'll tell you my Kuwait airport story and try to convey the American in Kuwait feel of it all. Normally American's travel to/from Kuwait via a US or European carrier in the international check-in. Flights in the mid-east are handled on the domestic check-in side. Most of the times that I've traveled via this method I have been with someone. I can't think of a time where I was alone for domestic check-in. Sometimes I fly business, sometimes coach. Most flights are short and the class of service all depends on the fare. I prefer business because no one wants to get stuck sitting next to a light haired American female on the flights. I am a leper. So it was with this awareness of my leper status that I got into the economy line for the flight to Bahrain. Two lines over was business and two Kuwaiti women were in that line. The line to my left was economy and a bunch of Indian guys were in that line. In my line there were two Filipinos (one male, ...
The view opposite the ocean. This is the one area of Kuwait that has a tourist attraction and it's the water towers below. You can rent jet skis here but I didn't see anyone riding them yesterday. Today's paper had a full page article about jet ski season has arrived. I guess the temp has to reach 100F before people go in the water? Who knows. Today is good-bye Kuwait and hello Bahrain.
Kuwait seashore. The two black dots in the middle are women swimming in their burkas . The unusual thing isn't that they are in burkas but that they are even in the water at all. Today was really, really hot and I would have gone in too. The guy with me told me not to get close or be seen taking their picture but really, what were they going to do? Suddenly be the fastest swimmers in the world while wearing burkas and then sprint across the beach at me? We had just eaten at TGIF and our table was the only table with male and female eating together. Every other table was men or women only to keep up appearances. The young people texted each other since they couldn't sit together. Now before you picture the restaurant full of black burqa's , there was quite the range of girls in tight Ho outfits to western dress, to modern Muslim and only two black fashionable burkas . Almost all the guys were in jeans and tight t-shirts to show off their muscles. The girls at the table n...
Back to business A Kuwaiti man was arrested for the murder and burning of the body of a Filipina worker that I mentioned a few days ago. He confused to the crime and while married with children, he murdered the Filipina because she wouldn’t have sex with him. No one fell off a building for the last 48 hours. A 60 year old Kuwaiti women slipped and fell in her bathroom and was found dead. Alcohol party A Kuwaiti citizen caught his Asian driver drinking alcohol with friends. He said he was passing by his driver’s room when he hear loud laughter. On opening the door he realized the man was having a party with friends. There is no privacy in Kuwait. I think you’ve all figured that out by now. The laughable story on page one which shows all is okay in politics if the US has relations with that country. Islamist wins “will of the people” US. These are the guys that were paying people to vote for them. As a country, we’ll ignore and encourage corruption as long as we get oil and military bas...
An election tent in the desert. People vote in election tents and had to wait in line for hours to get in. With the 106F temps and lack of a/c and water there were plenty of fainting spells. Elections In the second year that women had the right to vote and they had a 60% female turnout, no women were elected. The women’s rights movement had the two extremes in the paper between the group who want to see women represented in government and the Islamist’s who don’t. Male liberal politicians lost gains to Islamists. Vote buying is common and politicians will pay people $3000 cash to vote for them. The daily arrest report was replaced with this: Women only fit to apply makeup An old woman said she would not vote for a woman because women were not capable of achieving anything. She added that if elected to parliament, all they will do Is quarrel among themselves and apply makeup on their faces during parliament sessions. Women should focus on child-rearing After casting her vote for the f...
More Kuwait desert. I'm not sure it needs explanation. This is Kuwait. It's dusty. Today sunrise was at 4:56 am and I had partially left my curtain open when I went to sleep and was woken up by light. When I looked out the window, I went into total panic thinking I had overslept because the sun was up although you couldn't see it due to the sand in the air. But no, it was not even 5:00 am yet. Tonight the curtains will be closed. (There's 3 layers of them and it's still not enough) Priorities. In the middle of a new desert community, a beautiful new mosque that hasn't been beaten down by the sand yet.
Today I got to go 20 minutes north of my normal area in the world of the oil fields. Once you're there it's on the road to Iraq and it's a no man's land for driving since the cops don't bother patrolling here. Needless to say, we were almost sideswiped and then almost hit by another car as we swerved into the other lane to avoid being wiped out. The only war on terror here needs to be the war on drivers. We didn't go to the border even though it was only another 30 minutes. The road gets closed and you can't really get near the border without a permit. But I bet it looks just like this but maybe with tanks.
This morning the breakfast room was full of American college kids. It turns out the tourists I saw last night are part of Boston college's chorus group and they're here for 3 weeks on a music cultural exchange with Kuwaiti students. They just arrived a couple of days ago so for once the hotel is going to be lively. It was pretty funny today watching the Arab businessmen checking out the girls in their tank tops and skirts. The breakfast staff actually seemed relieved to see me as someone they could deal with and the guy remembered I like cream with my coffee. That doesn't seem like much but try getting milk, cream, or even refills from them like normal and you'd be surprised too. Yesterday was election day. More on that later as I talk to people about it and we learn the results. Let's go to the usual: Egyptians fall Two Egyptian workers sustained injuries in a fall. The two were reportedly working on a building under construction when they lost their balance. Tr...
My world for the next 6 nights. Breakfast (at least before the fruit spoils since it's 101F and the a/c doesn't always keep up. It's night so there's no view. I looked out and the windows are so dirty from the sandstorm that even during the day there will be no view. After being delayed in LA, the airplane broke down in DC. I was slightly worried that the flight would be canceled. The only thing worse than going to Kuwait is actually not getting to Kuwait on the right day since I pack my schedule full. But all is well and I'm here. After briefly getting annoyed with the line at customs (they close lines without telling you and then you have to cut and merge into others) my Kuwait happy passport got me an unexpected two smiles and welcome backs from the officials. Go figure. The HIK had their usual welcome and I was checked in and in my room within minutes of the hotel arrival. If I can manage to stay awake another 60 minutes then I have a good chance of sleeping...
So here I sit at LAX looking at a screen that says "Delayed" and I have another couple of hours tagged onto my time here. Luckily I had a 4.5 hr layover in DC which is cut down to 2.5 but in the crazy way that flights get delayed even 2.5 can quickly become 1.5 and so on. And I woke up in the hotel super early just to make sure I posted for school. Oh, do I miss the happy sleep that I could have had.
Kuwait - 36 hours away and the countdown begins. Tomorrow the ceiling repair job should be dry enough for me to try and apply the stain prevention treatment. This can be a big disaster knowing me so I'm going to prepare and hope for the best. I have the suitcase mostly organized, papers all wrapped up and rubber banded , and as I type this I realize that I've forgotten to stick in the emergency granola bars. I'll do that after blogging. My books are ready, like I said, the movie selection is slim pickings on this flight and passport, currencies, and everything else is at hand. This is the part where I still cling to my nice comfy bed and Carlsbad climate. Tomorrow night I start the cycle of hotels beds, a/c, desert heat, and alternating work like crazy/boredom. Oh and I still have one more paper to write tomorrow. Then I'll be ready.
Speed Racer
Yes, it's true - I actually saw a movie again! Too bad it was a boring mostly loser of a movie. The running time is listed as 2:12 and that's about 45 minutes too long. Speed Racer is all visual and not much else. The colors are great, animation is taken to a new level, and even the casting was right on. Too bad that the CGI overpowered everything else to the point of complete and total ughness . I'm not what could have been done to make the audience care about Speed. The movie was either going back and forth between vivid animation of car races and fantasy scenes or boring speeches between people. This was a bummer because the movie could have at least been fun. In the animated series, I loathed Spritle and Chim - Chim . They were the saving grace of this version though and the only time I laughed was when they were in the scene. Real critics have hated this duo but if it wasn't for them I would have cried in desperation to leave the theater. When I realized that I...
I have the worst trouble with electronic devices. I don't know what's going on now but my laptop can't detect the camera connection so no photos for today. I hope I don't have to moblog from the Mid-East because that's pretty expensive! I leave for the Mid-East a week from today. You'll all be glad to know I'm not going to Lebanon. The airport have been closed in Beirut for 3 days (shut down by Hezbollah) and the country is in the early stage of civil war fighting even if the citizens and government refuse to admit it. I arrive in Kuwait on election day so that country will be virtually shut down as election day there is a big event. Not quite a holiday but sort of. I always wonder at my timing on these things. Bahrain and Egypt are also on my schedule and it works out to a week in each country. My biggest challenge this weekend is to motivate myself to pre-write all my school papers so I don't have to mess with them during the trip.
No unexpected ceiling showers today so I guess the plumber knew what he was doing. The water sure smelled bad though as all the rust or something got flushed through. It wasn't rust since the water was clear but even the outside water was smelling nasty for the first few minutes. Not sewage either but metallic. The drywall guy is coming out next week after giving me the mold scare. I told him the only way to cut more drywall was to cut around a beam or two and that the open space looked like it would do the trick. That and I run my heater pretty high so it should be okay.
I lucked out and it was one pipe that had a leak and was corroding away. When I took a shower this morning, the water came from the outside main, through this pipe and then stopped. I hope there are no more future corrosion's waiting to happen. So $107 later and a phone number of who to call for dry wall, the leak is corrected and now the ceiling needs to dry out before getting it repaired.
Not the way to start a day
Good news: at least I was home. Bad news: There's a leak inbetween the second and first floors. It's not coming from my office because that's where I was sitting as I heard strange non-houselike noises coming from below. I can only hope for a broken pipe otherwise it involves the roof over the garage and big bucks beyond whatever I'm about to get hit with. And to top it off, UOP denied my request for directed study. Will blog this afternoon when the plumber gets here. And to top if off, the jury duty summons arrived over the weekend. Time to reschedule that!
It's a two hotel night this week. First up was the Courtyard Oxnard where I was surprised by being Guest of the Day. I have never been Guest of the Day at a Marriott property in all these years. I got a $10 credit for the mini-pantry so I could stock up on bottled water and snacks. All good so far. I checked in and went to my room only to hear the television blaring from inside the room. I froze and stopped. The memory of walking into someone else's room last year was still with me. Now some hotels have the TV turned on with a welcome screen displaying your name but I didn't remember this being the case ever at a CY. I decided to err on the side of caution and went back down to the lobby and asked the desk clerk to call the room or double-check for me. She upgraded me right away to a suite so I'm guessing someone was in the room. What a difference from the last stay at the Four Points where the desk clerk insisted that I made a mistake. I got my bottle of water and...
Saturday afternoon at OB's after swimming - what better a project than to make peach milkshakes? I have to say, the second batch was great! Trial and error led us to find the right blend of peach, milk, and ice cream. Because dessert was the priority, we had milkshakes first, then went to dinner. Cheers!
Sometimes I remember to look up my blog stats and see who's checking in on me. The most recent hits came from So. Cal and Utah, no surprises there. Missouri for the work team next, and Jean checked in from Georgia yesterday. Then there's the accidental hits of blog scrollers or spammers and those came as far away as Japan and Brazil. I haven't had to despam recently so I can only guess that these people were bored and playing the "next blog" game, as I have done from time-to-time to see who's out there. Today's the two week countdown to Kuwait once again. I checked the movie list for the flight and it's looking like I need to make a stop at the book store before I get on the plane. My suitcase is still partially packed from the last trip so at least when I remember to pack, it will be easy. Now I just have to remember that I'm going and not forget to get on the plane.
My personal travel involves a odd thought process. Family vacation this year is in Rome. I had enough hotel points to get us free rooms for a total of four nights, in Rome and Florence. But in my mind, I knew the value of all these rooms in dollars (major expense) and that's how I think of the hotels. (not as free). So I'm talking to Homer about the hotel for the last night (Hilton and I have no points) and how we should just buy with the great pre -pay offer. He's all - but it's $190. And I'm thinking - but all out other hotels were hitting $500. Then I remembered, our other hotels were free. Duh. But $190 a night at an airport hotel in Rome is a bargain, especially when you can wake up and walk to the airport. Worth every Euro or Dollar that's spent. The same hotel via a travel agent was $430. The power of the net and the pre -pay is awesome.