Lucky 7

Today the blog hit 4700 visitors and it is my 70th post!  Do you see the lucky number 7? Nothing much to say, just that since blogpsot started keeping track in May 2010, we've had 4700 hits to the blog.  I think it's pretty cool.  I only wish I knew how many people have read it since we started it in September 2009.
My request: if you read this message, please post a comment with your location and how you found the blog... Thanks!

Rain Day

Well, today is one of those days when we would have been better off staying in bed all day! It has steadily rained all day long. We left for work this morning with light rain and thunder; and it kept on falling all morning. At 12:40, school administrators decided to close the school as many of Riyadh streets were already starting to flood and we had to send all our students back home with their drivers and nannies.

Access road to the main highway was also flooded

Within an hour, all students had left and we were let go as well. Traffic was indeed really bad on our five minute drive back to the compound and several streets were already high with water… I’m telling you, the desert cities are not build for rain. They shut down in bad weather! Let’s see what tomorrow brings…

These two pictures were taken on our drive back to the compound this afternoon...As you can see, one of the streets was already totally flooded with a car stranded in the middle of it!

Getting a haircut, finally!

It’s funny how little things can make you happy!  Well, this afternoon, I finally got a good haircut in Saudi Arabia.  I asked one of Emma’s friends’ moms where she got her hair cut and she shared her place.  I had been there, the Luthean Spa, a women only salon/spa/fitness club/hotel, full of luxury and pampering – and loved it.  As you may know, my hair is hyper straight, fine and thin and any bad scissor cut will show badly.  Plus, the fact that I don’t blow-dry limits the complexity of the cuts.  Last spring, I did get a cut, rather more like a trim and did not like it a bit.  The girl had come to a neighbor’s and offered her services at home (mani, pedi, cuts…)  It took me almost a year to want to try again, and this time, I wanted to go to a real salon and feel the difference. 

 Today, the lady was from Lebanon and knew how to cut hair and, if I may say so myself, did a pretty good job on mine!  So, next time you’re in town, looking for a nice relaxing salon that caters to all your needs, check Luthean Spa and Salon!

How to Drive in Saudi

Over the past 18 months, I've had many occastions to be thankful NOT to be allowed to drive.  I also know I never thought I would actually said that out loud...however, the way drivers apply their driving skills is quite different than in many other places in the world.  Imagine all the bad drivers you've encountered in your country.  Now, imagine that ALL countries send their bad drivers to Saudi and you pretty much have the average driver...  Defensive driving is key, not getting hit at crossroads or when turning is a definite must.

I'm not the only one saying this...
Go check out this page How to Drive in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Brian, a US teacher who decided to go back to the States at the end of last year, sent us the link, as he knows our daily reality.  The How to guide is not much different than in any other place...it's the application of those guidelines that is tricky

Don't drive over the speed limit. Although very common, it is being enforced; there are cops with speed cameras almost everywhere. Undercover cops are also very common on highways, usually a white lumina, crown victoria, or corolla with flashers hid behind the tinted glass, and sometimes they have police bumpers.- My note: Yes, this is true.  In Riyadh, they've really cracked down on speeding and have installed permanent radars all over town.  If you get flashed, don't expect a notice in the mail.  Next time you visit the ATM, you will be asked if you want to pay your ticket, directly from your bank account...  How do they know that information, you may ask...Well, all residents receive an Iqama, a resident card that you have to produce to open a bank account, get a drivers' licence, get insurance..so that number is in the central database and all accounts are linked!


Use turn signal/indicators in the direction you want to go when changing lanes, turning, and waiting at signals, etc. My note:  You can dream on this one!!!  People do not use their turn signals.  When you see one, most probably it was left on three miles down the road and doesn't indicate anything.  At a crossroad, it's always better to stay in the middle lane.  Expect drivers on your right to turn left or drivers on your left to turn right and be ready to slow down to let them pass.

My favorite warning is the following...
Driving can be dangerous. If you cannot drive in another country or are not capable of driving normally, do not attempt to drive in the KSA. 
My note: this must be the understatement of the week!

the GRAND chicken

Although Saudi Arabia is in the Middle East, sometimes when you drive around, you forget about it, with all the familiar US made cars, SUVs and trucks, street signs hanging in the middle of the streets, AND there are fast food places all over town.  You name it, we have it: Mc Donald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino, Little Cesar Pizza, Texas Chicken (or you may know it as Church’s Chicken), Hardees, KFC, Popeyes…  We usually stay away from fast food, but once in a while, we go to BK or another.  Recently we tried Mc Donald's newest chicken sandwich, the Grand Chicken.  Not sure if it’s offered in the US, but check out the mouthwatering description from the box: “ a generous portion of crunchy coated juicy chicken, with three slices of tasty emmental cheese and lots of lettuce and tomato to make it even juicier. All of it dressed with special Mayo-Mustard sauce and served on a taosted sesame seed bun. Indulgence, anyone?”  and you know what…for this one, the calories were worth it.  I wouldn’t eat it every day but it tastes darn good.  I may have another one in a few months, that is, if it stays on the menu!

Impressions of Egypt

Within the last week, I had some time to mull over our adventures in Egypt, and all I can say is how great Ancient Egypt was and how unprepared and shocked I was for my observations of Modern Egypt. I guess I had not realized how poor and underprivileged some people were in the country. In Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, donkeys were being used as vehicle and were pulling wooden carts loaded with fresh vegetables, trash, sewer pipes…just as they were used 1000 years ago in rural areas.

We saw women and children begging for food and money in the souk, barefoot and hair tangled. In certain areas of town and in the countryside, some houses were still built of mud and roofed with palm leaves. We saw young tweens sweeping the streets and picking up garbage in the middle of the night in Aswan as well as teenage boys working as camel handlers around the pyramids, instead of attending school.

Streets in the tourist areas were paved…but as soon as you moved away from those highly frequented streets, we found ourselves walking on dirt roads…in the middle of cities. No curb, no sidewalk, no water evacuation systems, and just highly trampled mud. In Luxor, our hotel was situated right across from a mosque at the end of the tourist area and at the beginning of the traditional market street. One side of the cross street was paved; the continuation of the same street was dirt. In Cairo, we again took a side street from the Souk and found ourselves the only Westerners walking in areas where people appeared to be barely making enough to survive.

Although poverty is high in the country, it seems that not many are starving. The availability of fresh produce helps sustain the people who help each other in hard times, paying it forward on a regular basis. After all, Egypt is a very fertile land, producing huge amounts of fruits and vegetables that are consumed in and out of country. My favorite strawberries come from Egypt!

Street vendors are also selling very nutritious dishes at low cost. One that we tasted daily was the Kushary, a typical Egyptian dish, consisting of several kinds of small sized pasta over which are spread chickpeas, lentils, fried onions and tomato sauce. On the side you are also served lemon juice and a hotter version of the red sauce. Kushary comes in big filling portions and the most we paid for one was 5 Egyptian pounds, or about 75 cents, with the least being 3 pounds, or less than 50 cents. Kushary quickly became Emma’s favorite! You could also buy falafel all dressed up for about the same amount. Meat dishes such as kebabs were more expensive. After seeing the butcher shops, we didn’t buy any of those. Not being a meat lover myself, I get easily turned off by meat, but these butcher shops were more than I could stomach! An animal carcass hanging from a hook on the street, people pointing at the piece of meat they want and the butcher carving it on site. These shops have no refrigeration systems and I don’t even want to imagine how the meat looks in the desert heat of the summer! The carved bones are just thrown to the side and pile up as the day progressed, with flies and stray cats all over them.

What mostly shocked me was how dirty everything looked and actually was. Egypt, just like Saudi, is in a desert climate, except for the few miles on each side of the Nile. And just like Saudi, it doesn’t get much rain either. So, everything gets dusty and dirty quickly…and stays that way. There is very little efforts put toward cleaning up and picking up garbage. We saw mounds of garbage bags, pilled up under bridges in Cairo, on the side of the road and in holes, even just in piles in the city or overflowing the few dumpsters spread around town.

Cairo is the largest city of the African continent with its close to 20 million inhabitants, where garbage pick-up is organized by private companies, thus economically excluding those who cannot afford to pay. In Giza, in the streets leading to the pyramids, is where I saw the most shocking filth, with camels, horses and donkeys being kept on the streets, eating and relieving themselves right there, with people living and taking care of their business, selling produce and other merchandises, cooking meals and selling them right there. The stench was unbelievable, a mix of rotten garbage smell, animal refuse, and people Body Odor…and again this was in the winter. I cannot even imagine the smells in 45 Celsius/110 F temperatures!

Before leaving, we had received ample and repeated warnings about not drinking tap water nor eating green salad in Egypt, for fear of catching nasty bugs and having stomach issues for several days! Well, there are reasons for that. The public water system uses the Nile water that is somewhat cleaned before being distributed. Green salads in restaurant are washed with that same tap water. We wisely decided to abstain from salads for the duration of our stay and we purchased liters of Dasani and Aquafina water and none of us got sick!

Again, these are my observations during our stay in Egypt. We saw all this in part because we did not stay in 5 stars hotels but instead in cheap accommodations, which are thus located in cheaper/older parts of town. I wouldn’t think that a tourist, who stayed at the Intercontinental or Four Seasons type hotel, did a Nile Cruise for several days and used tour groups from beginning to end would have the same observations or have experienced Egypt like we did. However, I don’t regret being able to see that part of Egypt and being able to contribute to the local economy or helping a few people. The children have opportunities to travel but need to see that not all places are tourist haven and that local people struggle and live in what we perceive difficult conditions. It is part of developing that understanding of the world and becoming open-minded and caring.

Walk Like An Egyptian

During the Winter break, we had the opportunity to travel to Egypt during ten days. Our impressions of Egypt are quite conflicting. We loved Ancient Egypt, but could not believe what we saw in Modern Egypt. For that reason, this blog entry will be divided into 2 parts: Ancient and Modern Egypt.

We started our Ancient Egypt Adventure with a visit to the world renowned Egyptian Museum in Cairo. That extensive collection was breathtakingly amazing, spread over 4500 years of history and giving us a first look at some of the marvels of the ancient world. Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed within the museum, but our memories will never forgot the upclose encounters with the eleven Royal Mummies, such as Ramses II, Amenhotep IV and the controversial queen Hatshepsut. Those were key in our trip, as we later visited Ramses II Abu Simble Temple and the queen Hatshepsut temple on the West Bank in Luxor as well as some Royal Tombs in the Valley of the King.

The life-changing moment for all of us was seeing King Tutankhamun’s treasures found intact in his tomb in 1922. His collection is extensive and mostly outshines everything else. It occupies most of the upstairs of the museum building and even exhibits the four guilded shrines that fitted inside each other and held King Tut’s gold sarcophagus. At the center of this collection was the young Pharaoh’s Golden Mask displayed in a glass box that we were able to see it within inches. My whole life I had seen it in pictures and learned about it in history classes, but seeing it so close was an unforgettable moment, forever seared in my memory.

The children were equally amazed at seeing the Golden Mask and the entire collection. They kept asking questions about how, why and how come that we attempted to answer as best as we could. They also were asked to wait until we could visit some of the other Ancient Egyptian sites and receive more explanations. Alex kept circling around the glass box containing King Tut’s mask and, looking at it from below, he noticed that the hieroglyphics had been carved from the back. Although mesmerized by them, Emma took an instant dislike to the Canopic Jars and to the idea of cutting your left side to remove your viscera and storing them into jars.

Seeing the Egyptian museum on the first day of our trip in Egypt was a great way to introduce Ancient Egypt to the family, to make connections and refer back to it during the rest of our jump back in Ancient time.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Saqqara, the site of the most ancient necropolis, strewn with tombs, temples and pyramids. Walking through a narrow and low corridor, bent in two, we entered the Step Pyramid of Zoser, the oldest stone monument, only 4600 years old. The walls of the tomb were beautifully engraved with hieroglyphics and scenes from everyday life, unlike the Giza Pyramids that are much less decorated.

We then did what every tourist passing through Egypt is sure to visit: the Giza plateau and its three main pyramids. Thankfully, we chose to see them on Camel back and approached them from the back, instead of the heavily trafficked front entrances packed with tourists. Emma and I were on the front camel while the boys rode the second camel and we slowly approached the pyramids, discovering them peak at us behind a dune.

 The sights were breathtaking and the peacefulness of the site was unbelievable, just a few hundred meters from the hustle and bustle of the city, yet totally quiet and respectful to the dead who were buried on the Giza plateau thousands of years ago. Those three pyramids are gigantic and make humans look like ants. We stood on camel back up-close to one of them and even touched the limestone building block…and were barely at the top of the first rock. Imagine a whole bunch of them expertly assembled together and measuring over 140 meters high!

On our way back to the Camel Stables, we encountered the Sphinx, which, surprisingly to all of us, was not as imposing or round as we all expected. It stood toward the front of the site, keeping a watch on the pyramids and looking toward the city of Cairo. You’ve all seen photos of the Giza pyramids but did you realize that the city has grown all the way to their steps. Nowadays, they are standing at the very edge of the desert, although when they were built, they stood far from the royal city of Memphis, about 25 km away. We couldn’t help ask the questions about how they were built… and were told that only 3 months of the year were they able to work on the pyramids, when the Nile River was cresting and coming close to the site, to transport the limestone blocks from the quarries on the East Bank to the Plateau on the West bank.

After that wonderful camel ride, on Christmas eve, we took the overnight train to Aswan, a 14 hour trek to the very South of Egypt. On Christmas day, we toured the Philae Temples on Aglikia island in the lake between the two Aswan dams.

In the 1960s, the entire complex had to be moved from a now flooded island to its current location and present a richness of temples, built by the Pharaohs, then added on by the Romans and even being used by the early Christians who turned one of its halls into a chapel.

 As everywhere in Egypt, several of its representations had been damaged by vandals and some walls even presented signs of graffiti by soldiers from foreign armies in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the temples are on an island, we had to ride a little boat between the island and the mainland, which made it all worth it to the two children.

The next morning our wake-up call came at 2:45 am and we were ready for a bus pick up at 3:15 am. We formed a convoy to travel together to the magnificent Great Temple of Abu Simbel built by Pharaoh Ramses II. In our convoy, en route to the site, a tragic accident involving another tourist bus killed 8 American passengers. We didn’t learn about the accident until later when we saw the wrecked bus on the way back to Aswan and when we started receiving concerned emails and Facebook messages asking if we were ok.

Just like the Philae temples, both Abu Simbel Temples were relocated on their current site in the 1960s to save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, formed with the completion of the Aswan High Dam. Amazingly, you cannot tell that they were not built on site…

The front of the temple is made of four gigantic statues of Ramses II, flanking an opening into the temple, carved out of the mountainside. We felt like minuscule ants next to the statues and also inside the temple, a feeling that was repeated several times during the trip, as we stood next to statues or pillars. The Ancient Egyptians truly knew how to built grandiose monuments that stood the test of time, as they are still standing and sporting some of the original wall paintings from 3000 to 4000 years ago.

We worked our way back North and stopped in Luxor, the site of ancient Thebes where the Upper Egypt dynasties set up their permanent residences. At the height of its power, the city had almost one million inhabitants, more than twice its current population. In Luxor, history is all around, with temples situated in the middle of the city and the famed alley of the Sphinx in the middle of a busy intersection. The West Bank is the site of the Valley of the Kings and Queens where many pharaohs, nobles and regular old folks were buried

We made it the Temple of Karnak, a spectacular complex of sanctuaries, pylons and obelisks dedicated to the gods and the glory of the pharaohs and also the second most visited tourist attraction in Egypt, after the Pyramids. We were most impressed by the Hypostyle Hall, a hall area of 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m2) with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. 122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters.

The vastness of the site was overwhelming and we hardly had enough time to see it all, one of the caveats of going with a tour and having to stick to a program. The kids took their time to walk like an Egyptian and jump in front of a variety of monuments, which became a must do at various sites we went through!

We also took a few humbling steps in the Valley of the Kings and visited the tombs of Ramses iV, Merenpath and Ramses I, which again did not allow ANY photographs inside the Valley and not just inside the tombs! The tombs were all dug in the limestone rock mountain and were built in similar ways: the usual tomb plan consists of a long inclined rock-cut corridor, descending through one or more halls, mirroring the descending path of the sun-god into the underworld, leading to the burial chamber. The first tomb we went in was Ramses IV and presented us with beautiful, intact and vividly colored hieroglyphics and carvings..it truly was amazing. As a lot of ancient sites, this tomb also contained Coptic symbols and graffiti as it was used as a Monastery in the 2nd century AD.

The second tomb was that of Merenpath, the 15th son of Ramses II: it was newly opened, as we still could smell the freshly cut planks used to build the pathway and fences for visitors. The burial chamber contained a limestone coffin and had a huge ceiling. The walls were not as nicely decorated as Ramses IV nor did it compare with the grand Abu Simbel temple of his father Ramses II.

The last tomb we saw was Ramses I and was extremely steep! The guide had given us an advance warning before letting us go in. It was hot inside, due to the narrowness of the corridor, the number of visitors and the effort to climb up all these steps on the way out! The colors used inside those tombs were so vivid you could easily forget they had been painted over 3000 years ago, using natural dyes: charcoal for black, chalk for white, a mix of charcoal and chalk for grey, egg yolk for yellow, crushed quartz for blue and green and the dum fruit, still found at the souk was used to produce red, at least according to our guide!

We did not make it inside King Tut’s tomb, for one because we did not buy a separate ticket for it nor did we want to fight the crowds to get in it. After having seen the treasures at the Egyptian museum, it would almost have been a letdown to see his minuscule tomb, built in a haste over 70 days, in sharp contrast with the 20-25 years average spent on the other pharaohs tombs! We preferred to keep our impression of his treasure intact!

Our next site was the Temple built by Queen Hatshepsut, who was a full fledge female pharaoh for 22 years. How she got there is quite controversial as she married her own brother then poisoned him to rule alone. She later was killed by her own nephew who took over power from her. Our guide that day explained that part of history using Emma as the queen, Alex as her brother and Worth as their father, turning history into an exciting soap opera!

This Pharaoh Hatshepsut's reign was long and prosperous. She was successful in warfare early in her reign and inaugurated a long peaceful era. She re-established trading relationships and brought great wealth to Egypt, which enabled large scale building projects. Most of this was erased from records after her death, and by defacing her temples and any cartouche that led to her recognition. Only her appearance as a very feminine pharaoh wearing fake beard and use of feminine when talking about her in texts led historians back on her trace. Her temple was built on three levels, presenting perfect symmetry and used another temple’s stones for its construction, making recycling and being green not such a modern concept after all! The kids loved climbing the steps and discovering the niches on each side, running around and barely letting us keep with them. We almost lost Alex a couple of time in that temple!

Our last cultural stop in Luxor was the Mummification museum, which explained the HOW and WHY of the mummies, as well as presented several examples of human and animal mummies (a ram, a goose, an alligator, a baboon, a cat, a baby alligator and a fish). The kids favorite part was the instruments used to cut and scrape the skulls and abdomens, again flashing back to the Royal Mummies we had seen in the Egyptian Museum.

So far, we had followed the tourist trails…on our return to Cairo, we purposefully attempted to find the less traveled trails and were lucky enough in finding Memo (Mahmoud), a cab driver/guide/history buff/ex-soccer player/ex-engineer/ex-boxer who took us to the Cairo not discussed in travel books. Call him at this number 010 149 3559 next time you’re in Cairo, we highly recommend him! So, Memo took us to the tombs of Muhammad Ali Pasha’s family, in the heart of the city of the dead. For a little history on Muhammad Ali’s story, follow this link Muhammad Ali Pasha .

We even got to climb on top of the tombs and see the city from up there, again, something that tourists never get to do…all it took was a banknote slipped in the hand of the gatekeeper and he let us go up on the roof!

From there, we went through busy market streets inside the city of the dead to the Sayeda Zinab Mosque, dedicated to and named after the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed. Sayeda Zeinab sought refuge in Egypt after the Ummayads slew her brother, Hussein.  Her body is entombed inside the mosque. Many Egyptians—especially women—consider Sayeda Zeinab a saint, and visit the mosque seeking her baraka (blessing) in matters of fortune and health. This large mosque was renovated many times over the centuries and is distinguished by its tin dome. Its interior is intricately decorated and very colorful. We took several pictures that do not completely render it justice.

For once in Egypt, we were the only tourists there and it even felt like we were the first tourists there, as everyone was staring. Emma and Alex’s hair and faces were also touched by women who kept on smiling at us. But stepping off the beaten path was worth it as we saw hidden Cairo and got close to its people.

Overall, the History of Ancient Egypt is fascinating and having been able to see all its traces was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. Taking the children with us to Ancient Egypt was also rewarding as they got to experience it first hand and will be able to draw on their travels later on when studying about Egypt! How many Middle School students can actually say they’ve seen the Golden Mask of King Tut, the mummy of Ramses II, the Pyramids, the Temples of Karnak and Abu Simbel or the inside of tombs in the Valley of the Kings.