According to this report over at Yahoo Sports Floyd Landis' "B" sample turned up traces of synthetic testosterone when follow-up tests were conducted on seven urine samples submitted by the Tour de France Champion. The article quotes from the French newspaper L'Equipe, where the report orginated.

Landis, who has continually maintained his innocence, claim that the tests should not have been conducted at all since his primary, or "A", sample tested negative for any banned substances. To further complicate matters, Landis' own "expert" was suppose to be allowed to witness the latest round of testing, but was barred from the room while the tests were conducted, despite an agreement that would have had him observe the testing process.

This latest twist in the story comes after a report a few months back that Landis' samples may have been mislabled, and someone else's samples were the ones actually being tested. Over the past ten months, there certainly has been a lot of back and fourths to this story. At this point, it's difficult to figure out who to believe. Clearly the French labs have issues with their testing process, that much is evident from other cases as well. But these samples testing positive doesn't bode well for Landis either. So, at this point, we either have a plot by the French to discredit another American cyclist, or Landis is guilty of using performance enhancing drugs. I'm not sure I'd rule out either option at the moment.

Thanks GoBlog!

While I was away last week National Geographic announced the 2014 Adventurers of the Year, a distinction that goes to 13 individuals who achieved extraordinary accomplishments in exploration, adventure sports, conservation or activism. As usual, this year's list includes climbers, skiers, endurance athletes and a host of other amazing individuals who pushed boundaries in some unique ways.

Amongst those who have earned a place of honor on the 2014 list are Dave and Amy Freeman, who traveled across North America on foot, in kayaks and on dogsleds, covering some 11, 647 miles (18,744 km) in the process. They're joined by Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted who put up the first ascent of the tricky K6 in Pakistan, and Sarah Marquis, who traveled on foot from Siberia to Australia over a three-year period. Unsurprisingly, Diana Nyad makes the list for her amazing swim from Cuba to the U.S., and ultra-runner Kilian Jornet is honored for his amazing feats of speed and athleticism in the mountains. See the full list by clicking here.

As has been the norm the past few years, Nat Geo is also letting us cast our vote on who we think should be the top adventurer. The winner of the vote will be named the People's Choice Adventurer of the Year in early 2014. Vote early and vote often by clicking here.

As usual, there are some very good choices on this list and some people that I've written about regularly. It's great to see some of the folks that we admire get recognition beyond just a niche following on the Internet. Congratulations to all of the winners. These honors are much deserved all around .

I posted a programming not a few days ago for a televisions how airing on The Discovery Channel called Adventure Bhutan. The two hour program aired last night, but in case you missed it, remember, it was on the Discovery Channel, I'm sure it will get played over. And over. And over...again.

Judging from the traffic logs for my blog, there seems to be a lot of interest in the show, so I thought that I'd share my thoughts on it while it's still fairly fresh in my mind. First off, I'll lament the fact that the show wasn't in HD, nor was it aired on the Discovery HD Channel. It would have looked amazing seeing Bhutan and it's stunning scenery in full HD. The show was letterboxed and seemed to be in the 16:9 aspect ratio, which leads me to believe that it was filmed in HD, just not aired in that format. But that's neither here nor there.

The show followed a team of adventurers and explorers as they traveled down the Mangde Chu River by whitewater raft and kayak. This area of the World has never been seen by Westerners before, and it's safe to say that it's likely not been visited by many (if any) humans before. There were points on the river where the rapids were rated as Class VI, which one of the members of the team explained meant that there was about a fifty percent chance of survival. Not only would you have to be a world class kayaker to survive this river, you would need excellent gear and boats to navigate the area, which probably points to the fact this was indeed the first group of people to explore the region.

The team certainly met with their hardships along the way. The river was more challenging than they expected in spots, and the narrow canyons made it difficult for them to run the rapids. They had to portage around some rather nasty areas, and those portages, over rocks and through jungle were not easy at all. When team leader Gerry Moffatt fell and gashed open his leg, there was a serious threat to his health and quite possibly his life. (I couldnt' have been the only one who winced in pain when they showed that gash!)

But of course, in the end, they were able to make the first descent on the Mangde Chu, and reach their destination at the border of Bhutan and India. I have to admit, it looked like quite the adventure, and there was some amazing white water to run. However, the show turned into more of an kayaking adventure and less of an exploration of the territory to me. As someone who enjoys kayaking very much, I was thrilled to watch them tackle some crazy rapids, but I really wanted to see more of this "Unexplored World" they kept telling us about. Yes, we did get some shots of the canyons and this new area that man was seeing for the first time, but often times we would get a shot of one of the team members telling us how amazing it was there, when what I really wanted to see was the things that made it amazing. The camera work wasn't exceptional while in the canyon, and there was little to distinguish the area from any other canyon on Earth. I was hoping for more of a mix of the white water kayaking and exploration elements at times. It also didn't help that it took the first hour of the show for the team to just arrive at the unexplored area.

That said, I was entertained by the program. It was great to see, and learn more, about Bhutan and the people there. It's a part of the World that many people don't even know exists, and few Westerners will ever travel to. The team setting off into an unknown region, by kayak no less, was fun to watch, and I did get into their struggle to reach their goal. All in all, I would say it was well worth the two hour investment, even if I would have liked to have seen more of a focus on what they found in the region they were exploring. The overall quality was what you would expect out of the Discovery Channel, which is to say very good, it just left me wanting a little more. I guess that just means I'll have to plan my own Bhutan Adventure. :)

Just like clockwork, the 2013 Antarctic season appears to be ramping up right on schedule. We already know that the Scott Expedition is off and running, but soon they'll have company out on the ice. Veteran adventurer Richard Parks will soon embark on a solo expedition to the South Pole and he hopes to do so in record time.

Parks left the U.K. on Monday of this week and should be in Punta Arenas now. He is no doubt resting, sorting his gear and preparing for the flight to Union Glacier for the start of his speed attempt. He will be taking on the daunting task of trying to beat Christian Eide's speed record for traveling 1150 ki from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole, a distance of 1,150 km (715 mile), that was set in 2011. At the time, Eide managed to make that journey in an astounding 24 days, 1 hour and 13 minutes. To do that, he had to average 47 km (29 miles) per day, which anyone who knows anything about Antarctic travel will tell you is an insane pace. Parks hopes to go faster.

Richard has set a goal of completing his journey to the South Pole in 23 days. That means he'll have to average 50 km (31 miles) per day, which doesn't sound like a lot more but those extra kilometers it can really wear on someone day in and day out, particularly when they are dragging a heavy sled behind them the entire way.

If all goes as expected and the weather cooperates, he hopes to begin the expedition in mid-November. That means he has a couple of weeks to rest and prepare before heading out on the ice. I'll certainly be following his progress once he gets going.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Scott Expedition continues to make progress, albeit at a slow pace. They boys have been on the trail for just five days but pulling the heavy sleds have made it tough so far. Their pace has dropped to as little as 1 km (.6 miles) per hour as they slog through powdery snow when they would prefer to be on hard pack. On top of that, the weather has taken a turn and gotten colder (-40ºC/F this morning!) and windier. They're now getting a real taste of what it is like to travel in Antarctica.

This was all to be expected of course and that's the reason Ben and Tarka set off early in the first place. It is also not uncommon for polar travelers to struggle early on, then find their groove once they've had a chance to acclimatize to the conditions. I suspect that will be the case here as well.

That's all for today. I'll update the progress of both of these expeditions as we get word and I'll post more starts as they come.

I have to thank my friend Louise of the superb blog Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland for letting me know about this fantastic site. The 'Towers' is one of the best examples of a nineteenth century folly existing today in Ireland. The Towers were commissioned by Arthur Kiely-Ussher in around 1835. He had inherited over 8,000 acres of land in the area, and quickly gained a reputation for being a harsh and cruel landlord. It is said that his wife had become deeply envious of Strancally Castle, built by Arthur's brother John Kiely, and hectored Arthur to build a residence to outshine that of his brother.

Plans for an extravagant mansion were drawn and work began on the long and winding carriageway, with an ornate gate lodge (see above). They then constructed the elaborate bridge over a small stream, with large towers flanking each side of the bridge. However their grandiose ambitions quickly outstripped their funds and they ran out of money soon after completing the bridge and their dreams of building a huge mansion were never to come true, they spent their days living in the now demolished Ballysaggartmore House, and must have felt despair as they travelled along their stunning carriageway, that it would never lead to the mansion they had so desired. An account at the time deriding the extravagance of some of the gentry in Ireland at the time noted that

"...the crowning folly of them all, at Ballysaggartmore in Waterford, huge gates, then an even larger bridge, then for economy a smaller bridge and then at last, no house for there was no more money, the derelict demense lies heavily overgrown, enclosed and silent..."

However it is hard to feel too much sympathy for the Kiely-Usshers. Arthur was reputed to have been a cruel and avaricious landlord during the Great Famine, evicting large numbers of tenants who could not pay their rents. He demolished their homes and replaced them with livestock who could bring in a better revenue. A reporter from the Cork Examiner in May 1847 reported on Keily-Ussher's estates that:

The interior of one of the towers

"I found twelve to fourteen houses levelled to the ground....and groups of women and children still hovered around the place of their birth..."

As the tenants became ever poorer and more desperate, a group tried to assassinate him, they failed in their attempts and a number were sentenced to be transported to Tasmania in 1849. The Famine was one of the most catastrophic events in recorded Irish history. In this area around Lismore alone, the population fell by over 50% between 1841 and 1851. To spend so much money on an extravagance like the Towers while the country starved gives a good indication as to the nature of the Keily-Usshers.

Despite its unjust and sad history, today the site is a wonderful place to walk. It has a real fantasy feeling when you finally encounter the Towers, they reminded me of something from the HBO show Game of Thrones!

The woodland walks alone are worth the trip, and you can find a diverse range of trees like horse chestnut, holly, hazel, ash, oak, sycamore and spruce. The main avenue is planted with poplars and rhododendrons, with a number of benches to take a load off and enjoy nature, it must be a really wonderful place to walk on a bright summers day, or perhaps even better still when the leaves turn golden in autumn.

The site is pretty easy to find, just take the R666 from Lismore heading towards Fermoy (signposted left after the bridge past Lismore Castle). You'll find the Towers after about 3–4km well signposted on the right hand side. A fairly large carpark and a number of interpretative panels are on the site, I recommend when you arrive to follow the path up the slope to the right and loop around to the Towers that way, first entering by the Gate Lodge.

There are a number of other sites nearby, and Lismore town itself is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon with plenty of great cafes to stop and refuel as well as a number of heritage sites.









I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy stories of the turbulent medieval period in Ireland try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews and to download your free audioguide to the Rock of Dunamase  or the free audioguide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath

All photographs © Neil Jackman / abartaaudioguides.com 

Earlier in the year I had the chance to checkout an excellent documentary about heliskiing in Alaska called The Alaskan Way. The film was originally suppose to be about the incredible risks and rewards that come along with backcountry skiing in remote parts of that state but during filming tragedy struck and two people were killed in an avalanche. Now, a few months later, the entire film is available online for free and is definitely worth checking out, especially as we head into the ski season. You can watch the entire 59-minute film below, but I suggest you click this link and watch it in full resolution on Vimeo instead. If you find you like the film, then hit the "tip" button on the page and give the filmmakers a few bucks. 10% of everything this is raised is going directly to avalanche education initiatives, which is certainly a good cause.

The Alaskan Way from Godu Productions on Vimeo.

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There are over 170 dolmens (also known as portal tombs) recorded in Ireland. Geographically they are more common in the northern half of the island, with some clusters in the south-east and in the west. Gaulstown is one of ten examples in County Waterford. Portal tombs may be one of the earliest of Ireland’s megalithic tomb types, and a forerunner of the more complex court tombs. Typically a portal tomb is a simple chamber formed of upright stones, with a large capstone. The monument was then possibly covered with a cairn of small stones or a mound of earth.

The Gaulstown Dolmen dates to the Neolithic Period, likely to have been constructed some time around 3,500 BC.

 It is situated in a wonderfully atmospheric wooded glade at the base of a steep slope known locally as Cnoc na Cailligh (The Hill of the Hag). The stone to construct the tomb was locally sourced. Some subsidence of the tomb in recent years has been repaired with the addition of a concrete slab to ensure the structure is supported. Positioned close to the dolmen is the remains of another stone-lined prehistoric tomb known as a cist burial. These features generally date to the Bronze Age period. Its presence so close to the dolmen may suggest that the site continued to be an important spiritual place for millennia. 

The Gaulstown Dolmen really is one of the finest examples of a portal tomb in the region and well worth a trip. You’ll find the tomb roughly around 7km south-west of Waterford City. Follow the R680 from Waterford city towards Kilmeadan. At Tramore crossroads (signposted for Tramore) turn left onto the R682. Continue along this road, driving through the first set of crossroads until you reach a second set of crossroads. Turn right here and continue down this road (you will drive straight through another crossroads) and the site will be on your left. The tomb is signposted, but you can easily miss it as a large modern gate blocks the laneway to the site and makes it look like the entrance to a private residence. Please be careful not to block the gateway when you park your car to the side of the large gate. Access to the site is through a pedestrian entrance to the side of the gate, follow along the short path to find the site.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog, if you’d like to support us please consider downloading one of our acclaimed series of audioguides to Ireland’s heritage sites, they are packed with original music and sound effects and a really fun and immersive way of exploring Ireland’s past. They are available from abartaheritage.ie. Try our latest guide for free; The Sligo Heritage Trail. Narrated by Sligo actor Ciarán McCauley and packed with facts, history and tales about Sligo through the centuries, it's an immersive way to enjoy the story of Sligo. 

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Climbing.com the website for Climbing magazine has posted an excellent preview of the upcoming climbing season on K2. As things start to wind down on Everest, the Karakorum season will be starting to warm up.

There will be four teams gunning for the summit on K2 this year, three of which will be climbing alpine style, with small teams. None of the four intend to use supplemental oxygen. Two teams will challenge the West Face, which remains mostly unclimbed. One of those teams is a large Russian expedition which will lay siege to the mountain, while Peter Hámor, Dodo Kopold, and Piotr Morawski will go light and fast having recently topped out on Nanga Parbat and still being acclimatized for high elevation.

Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Serguey Samoilov will be looking to climb the North Face, on a route that has never been attempted. They'll be going up an 11,000 foot vertical face that that is amongst the most challenging big wall climbs anywhere in the World. The North Face remains largely unexplored and few climbers have even scouted the area.

Finally, on the South side, Americans Bill Pierson and Fabrizio Zangrilli will be attempting a new route themselves, going up the 9500 foot wall before merging with The Magic Line route that is amongst the more direct climbs on the mountain.

K2 remains one of the more dangerous climbs amongst the 8000m peaks. Not many climbers actually find themselves on the summit, and of those that do, nearly half perish on the descent. The mountain is a mere 240 meters shorter than Everest, and yet it is orders of magnitude more difficult to climb. Fortunately, the teams that are attempting K2 are all seasoned pros, with plenty of high altitude experience. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about these climbers as we get closer to the Karakorum season, but I'll take this opportunity to wish them all luck now.

Thanks to Jason over at The Adventurist for passing this one on. He has his hands full with all the Everest news at the moment, so if you're looking for the latest, be sure to head over to his site and catch-up.

Traditionally the main entrance to Fes-el-Bali (Fes' old walled medina) is through the beautiful Bab Bou Jeloud. Two things were "missing" when I strolled over to take a look a couple weeks ago. One was the large... birdcage in a corner of the square where the captured crown prince of Portugal was once displayed as he slowly died of starvation; and the other was the truly intolerable myriad of uber-aggressive "guides" (angry, unemployed young men with major chips on their shoulders). The scourge of tourist tranquility, the hordes of these pests are pretty much... gone (as they were even earlier from Tangier and Marrakech). I think Fes was the last hold out.

An aside here. Roland and I were once walking around in the late afternoon, wandering aimlessly in the vicinity of the Bab Bou Jeloud when a particularly obnoxious, snarling guy insisted that we couldn't walk around without him. The discussion quickly degenerated into him cursing and screaming at us and calling us Jews and Americans and whatnot; very threatening. When a cop appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him we were very relieved; our relief turned to mortification when the copy commenced beating him savagely. But I guess why we didn't see him or any of his colleagues on this trip.

There are now signs posted throughout the labyrinth that makes up the old city, marking sites and routes. I mean, it could be Rome or Dublin almost. It is no longer the forbidding, scary place it has always been reputed to be. We never even felt intimidated to not walk around late at night. We wandered around anywhere we wanted for 3 days essentially unmolested. Maybe the Fassi saw the benefits tourism have brought to Marrakech, but something-- maybe aggressive police action-- has made Fes' medina a lot more comfortable for tourists-- and a lot more profitable for bazaris. It isn't Disneyland yet and you won't see Ma and Pa Kettle ambling around alone yet, but that's probably coming soon. I definitely saw a lot more European families walking around freely.

I've been meaning to feature Giulio di Sturco's photography for a while now, and recently revisited his website, to which he added a number of galleries.

One of those consists of his work during Indian Fashion Week in New Delhi, and is titled Dreaming Fashion.

You may wonder what I chose to feature this gallery on what is essentially a travel photography blog.

My rationale is multi-faceted: this gallery of edgy fashion and striking models underscores the enormous strides made by India in becoming an Asian economic powerhouse with a new growing middle class and modernizing cities, but also emphasizes the growing wealth disparity between its haves and have-nots.

Another reason is Giulio's photographic style. His blurry photographs impart both a dreamy look and one that suggests motion and energy.

The third reason is the pretty models...always a magnet.

Giulio's work also includes more sobering work. His galleries of photographs of the Ganges' pollution, the misery of Bihar residents after a flood and violence in Kashmir provide a reality check, and a reminder that not all is rosy in India.

Giulio di Sturco is an award-winning Italian photographer working between Milan and New Delhi. He studied photography at the European Institute of Design and Visual Arts in Rome, and was published in D (La Repubblica delle Donne), Internazionale, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Anna, Amica, Geo, L'Espresso and others.

Is it just me, or has Ikeikemaru started cutting back on their list of specials? Well, this skilfish was basically the main thing that they were advertising today, suggesting that it had a "beautiful fat content similar to otoro." I picked up a couple of pieces for S$13.60 (US$10.85). It wasn't quite as rich as otoro but nonetheless was still tasty enough to eat easily.

I've always wanted to learn to SCUBA dive. It's been something on my list of things to do for some time, and eventually I'll get there. But here's one more reason we should all get certified.

That USA Today article tells the tale of deep sea explorers who have salvaged over 17 tons of gold and silver coins dating back to colonial-era America. The haul is estimated to be worth a whopping $500 million. For various reasons, the salvage company has not divulged any information about the ship or it's location as of yet, but it is said to lay in International Waters, and is subject to the rights of salvage at sea. The salvage team has already pulled up more than 500,000 coins and artifacts that are said to be in better condition than typical finds of this type.

That settles it, I'm going to book my scuba classes immediately. Anyone want to join The Adventure Blog salvage team?

With 300,000 tourists stranded in Thailand-- and the economy losing at least $2 billion-- Thailand's Constitutional Court banned Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from office for 5 years. Flights to and, more importantly, from Bangkok's two airports will resume Thursday.

Somchai, the brother-in-law of crooked billionaire/fugitive and ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, was booted out of office over election fraud. Thaksin's party, the People Power Party (PPP) was disbanded. Somchai, whose illegitimate right-wing government had fled to Chiang Mai, agreed to the terms of the court ruling.

This CNN report was a little premature in it's gloom and doom:

National Geographic Adventure has posted a cool audio interview with climber Mike Libecki who recently returnd from a trip to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan where he, and his brother Andy, climbed Mount Asan.

The two brothers spent five weeks exploring the climbing possiblities in the area, and finished off with a 3000 foot ascent on Mount Asan's headwall. The trip was quite a bonding experience for the brothers, who have also climbed together in China and Greenland, but this was the first real technical climbing for Andy.

It sounds like the two had a great time, despite the fact they got food poisoning, from eating goat head and intestine, a local delicacy. If you ask me, if you go to a foreign country and eat goat head and intestine, you're just asking for food poisoning. ;)

MountEverest.net has an update on the Kazakhs who topped out on Everest yesterday. It seems the pair are back in ABC, safe and sound, although they did require a bit of aid from some Sherpa's on the way down.

Word is that they need a "small puff" of oxygen from one bottle and warm drinks, but they finished the descent under their own power and are resting comfortably now in their tent. Good news all around!

In other news, Fausto de Stefani has returned to Lhotse to clear up some unfinished business of his own. Fausto claims to have summitted all 14 8000m peaks, but his climb on Lhotse back in 1997 was called into question. At the time, he was climbing with friend Sergio Martini, and the two believed they had reached the top, but because of an awful blizzard, they were unable to check their position properly. Another climber later claimed to have seen the pair descending before they had reached the summit. Thus, Fausto was never credited with reaching the top on Lhotse. It remains the only 8000m peak he hasn't topped out on. Hopefully he'll soon correct this oversight and join the ranks of the elite. Hey Fausto? What took you so long to come back? Good luck!

I have to admit, Egypt has always been a destination I've dreamed of, like since I was a kid even. I mean, in our culture-- replete with Bible stories, mummy movies, Napoleon, Israel, hi-tech aliens building pyramids, Cleopatra-- how could it not be? And if you've been following this blog at all, you've probably figured out that Roland and I have always been looking for cool and challenging places to go experience. Egypt sounded really exotic to us both and we finally made it over about a decade ago.

We planned to spend about a week in Cairo and a couple weeks roaming the country (including a Nile cruise to Aswan). Although it didn't seem so at the moment, some real misfortune for everyone else turned into a break for me and Roland. Just as we were leaving L.A. in November a bunch of religionist fanatics slaughtered a busload of tourists from Switzerland or Austria and Japan. It was really a spectacular horror show with scimitar-wielding terrorists chasing unarmed tourists through the ruins and mercilessly slashing them to death. It was a bloody slaughter; 5 dozen were murdered. Egypt, one of the world's biggest tourist destinations, immediately emptied of tourists. And they stopped coming (at for a couple weeks). I feel terrible for the Austrians and Japanese, of course; I mean what a way to go! But... well, Roland and I pretty much had Egypt to ourselves. I mean it was just us and the Egyptians, who, except for the scimitar-wielders, are an extremely generous, friendly and gracious people.

Example of how this worked: the cruise. Normally these big boats are packed-- hundreds of people (including brats) running around making noise and slowing everything down. And the cabins are tiny little cells. I mean really, really tiny. The giant ship had a full crew (which included an Egyptologist) plus me, Roland and two sprightly old Brits returning to London from a lifetime of foreign service in Oman and seeing Egypt on the way home. That's right; instead of a couple hundred tourists we were four. The first result was that instead of Roland and I having to share one of these tiny cells, we each got our own tiny cell. Still horrible but an improvement. Later the Egyptologist explained to us that no tour group in his experience on the Nile had seen as many things as we had. That's because normally the tour goes as slow as the oldest and most crippled turtle-like member. The 4 of us were all really into seeing everything-- and we did.

We flew to Cairo on TWA direct from L.A. They're out of business now. Some guy from the Warner Bros affiliate picked us up at the airport and whisked us through an otherwise annoying customs rigmarole and hassel-hell. We checked into Le Meridien on Roda Island right in the center of town connected to the Corniche by its own bridge, and got a great room with a balcony overlooking the Nile. Good hotel with the best views of Cairo in the city and not expensive at all (although it probably is now). On the way back we decided to stay in the Sheraton in Dokki, a little bit away from the hectic part of town but still convenient. It was pretty inexpensive too, although I have a feeling that all the prices were down because of the recent brutal murders of all the tourists.

Food in Egypt is definitely nothing to write home about. It's amazing that such an ancient culture doesn't have a unique cuisine, like China or Morocco or Turkey. But they don't. It's kind of garden-variety Middle Eastern. The restaurants were non-descript from a culinary perspective, although the food was ok. On the cruise there was always the very boring, semi-bland choice of "chicken or fish."
If you've looked through my blog, you're no doubt aware about how I delight in the cuisines of the countries I visit. Scratch Egypt off that list. There was not one memorable restaurant in almost a month! Even the lavish ones the Warner Bros affiliate people brought us to served food that was just slightly better than mediocre. This was definitely not a food trip. It was a tombs trip.

In Cairo the biggest deal is, of course, the Pyramids. And were we in luck on that score! You know the guy always on CNN whenever they do a story on mummies or anything old in Egypt-- Dr. Zahi Hawass? Well, one of the musicians, Andy Paley, in a band on Sire Records, where I used to work, was friends with some well-known American Egyptologist, a Rockefeller no less, and through this guy we had an introduction to Dr. Hawass, then Governor of the Pyramids (now Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities). This turned out to be a golden key to the most amazing visit to the Pyramids imaginable.

Dr. Hawass treated us to a tour usually reserved for heads of state. He literally closed down the Great Pyramid and made everyone else wait while we had it to ourselves! It's pretty awesome. Most things don't live up to expectations; that one did. He said we could sleep in it if we wanted to. We didn't at the time but now I'm sorry we didn't take him up on it. We didn't climb any pyramids the way Bush just did in Chichen Itzen in Mexico last week, looking like a pansy. We didn't because a U.S. marine climbed up and fell off and died; so it's forbidden now. Afterwards he showed us a small, locked up pyramid that no one is allowed in except Charles De Gaulle and other people they wanted to impress. They don't want general traffic in there because of breathing. Next door they had a little museum with an ancient ship with a bunch of mummified pharaoh's servants on it. The Sphinx, on the other hand, was covered in scaffolding and seemed to be crumbling into the sand. Roland claims they were injecting silicon into it.

The other stuff in Cairo we went were the Egyptian Museum, which was like an over-stuffed warehouse but still amazingly interesting; El Azhar Mosque (the spiritual center of Old Cairo where, unlike the Moroccan mosques, all are welcome); the 12th Century Citadel and the Muhammed Ali Mosque (an incredibly magnificent Turkish-style mosque also known as the Alabaster Mosque and unrelated to boxers); and the City of the Dead, basically a gigantic cemetery with hundreds of thousands of people living in it.

After a pleasant enough week in Cairo we took an Egypt Air flight to Luxor to meet our Nile ship. Luxor is really spectacular (although it took some effort to put all the screaming, terrorized Austrians and Japanese being hacked to bits by the terrorists out of our minds). The temples, big and small, and burial areas in the outskirts-- The Valley of Kings and The Valley of Queens-- were mind-boggling and themselves worth a trip to Egypt. We stayed on the ship and they took over the routine, starting with the Temple of Karnak-- the heart of the Amon cult and one of the most spectacular sites either of us has ever seen... anywhere. After seeing it, the also incredible-- albeit much smaller and less grand-- Temple of Luxor wasn't nearly as breathtaking and memorable. We wound up going back to the Temple of Karnak for a cool touristy sound and light show the next night. The boat stayed tied up on the dock for a few days-- a floating hotel/restaurant for us, while we explored the Luxor region. It was really amazing. We were supposed to sail north to Dendara to see the Temple of Hathor, the goddess of love, but the Nile was too low so they kept us in Luxor longer-- which was fine with us-- and gave us a gift certificate for a night at the Hilton Hotel in Taba on the Sinai.

It's 140 miles from Luxor to Aswan and this was the heart of our trip. We (me and Roland and the two old Brits) stopped everywhere and did everything. First stop was Esna, a tiny ancient agricultural town-- we were in rural ancient Egypt now-- with an awesome little temple dedicated to Khnum, the ram-headed god. On the other side of the river and 30 miles away is Edfu. By this time we felt really comfortable on our ship and we had taken over the sound system and were playing Velvet Underground tapes as we watched ancient Egypt float by. The Temple of Edfu, the holiest site of Horus, the falcon god, is the most intact temple we saw on our whole trip. In some ways this was the one, the one where it was easiest to fantasize that I was an Egyptian living a thousand years before Christ. I wasn't in the real world any longer.

Next came Kom Ombo, the site of the temple to Sobek, the crocodile god. Roland loved it. I felt I had seen enough temples by then and I hate and fear crocodiles anyway. I was also getting bored with the crappy food on the boat and I was happy when the boat Egyptologist told us if we wanted to we could go for a camel excursion into the Libyan Desert to visit an old Coptic monastery. We all jumped at the chance and we had a truly remarkable day, although Roland picked up some accursed Arabic phrase that made my nasty camel run off whenever he shouted it.

Our last stop was Aswan, best known for the Aswan Dam, of course, but there are some pretty cool things to see there too. I think the last thing we did as part of our organized cruise was to take a falucca to Elephantine Island and Kitchener's Island to visit the gardens. It was very beautiful and peaceful and helped feed my fantasy about living 3,000 years ago. We checked into the Pullman Cataract Hotel, famous as the site of the film Death on the Nile and very beautiful-- Moorish in style. It's a luxury hotel but it was inexpensive and not really all that luxurious. Like everywhere in Egypt, the food was mediocre.

On a lark we decided to go see Abu Simbel, way down near Sudan, the gateway to Africa. We flew there from Aswan on ZAS. Most people fly in for a few hours and fly out with the same group. We were the only ones who stayed. The town gets lively when the planeful of tourists arrives and then gets real sleepy when they fly back in the evening. We loved being the only ones in this very primitive African town. We found a basic hostel to stay in. There were no real hotels. I don't recall any real restaurants either and we traded a farmer a pen for some tomatoes. The Temple of Rameses was as spectacular and awe-inspiring as the photos lead you to believe it is.

We wound up flying back to Cairo and I let Roland talk me into taking a night bus through the Sinai to Taba (to use our gift certificate and cross over and visit Eliat). We went to visit Jerusalem too-- and spent Christmas Eve in Bethelhem where tradition says Jesus was born, but that part of the trip is for another time.

UPDATE: Egyptian Roads

They should be avoided when possible. Christmas week, 2010 and a bus crashed into a truck, killing 8 American tourists, injuring 21 others, going from Aswan to Abu Simbel. Better to fly.

The crash took place early Sunday as the tourists were traveling from Aswan to Abu Simbel, the site of an ancient Egyptian temple.

Road accidents are common in Egypt because of bad roads and poor enforcement of traffic rules. An estimated 8,000 people die in car accidents annually in the country.

The Telegraph has the lowdown on a new paragliding record set yesterday by Bear Grylls, as he soared over Mount Everest in a gas powered paraglider.

Grylls, who is also an Everest Summiter, took off from 11,600 feet from his base camp in Eastern Nepal. The flight lasted four hours, and he manged to climb to a height of 29,500 feet before turning back and returning to Earth in his paraglider that was powered by a small, four stroke, gas engine.

Gryllis smashed the old record for paragliding altitude by more than 10,000 feet. However, he vows that his days as a daredevil are over, saying this was the scariest thing that he has ever done, and that he just wanted to return to his wife and children. His record still needs to be verified by an independent source, but he feels confident that will stand. Besides, it's not like he beat the old record by a few feet or anything.

Thanks to The Piton for this one.

With the holidays now upon us, the season of giving has arrived as well. If you're looking for a great cause to donate to this year, then I'd recommend you consider one of my favorite organizations, the Himalayan Stove Project. The purpose behind the HSP is simple. Its goal is to improve the health, and change the lives, of people living in the Himalaya by replacing their inefficient and inadequate cook stoves, with cleaning burning models that use less fuel. These stoves are better for the environment and produce far less smoke and other noxious fumes, substantially reducing the health risks that use the stoves on a daily basis.

The HSP can use your contributions to the cause at all times of the year, but come next Tuesday they will especially appreciate those donations. That's because they are taking part in #GivingTuesday (which follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday of course) during which all of our contributions will be matched on a 1-to-1 basis by another generous donor. To take part, all you have to do is text "STOVE" to 50155.

You can also help the cause while picking up some new gear for yourself at the same time. When you visit the Himalayan Stove Project's Supporters and Sponsors page you can get new gear from the like of Clothing Arts and Eastern Mountain Sports and with every purchase that is made, a donation is made to the HSP. We all know that EMS has all kinds of items we'd like to add to our personal gear closets, and Clothing Arts makes innovative clothing that can help keep your valuables safe while traveling.

One of the things that I love so much about the Himalayan Stove Project is that is is doing great work that has a direct impact on the lives of the people that they are trying to help. More than 1400 stoves have already been installed in homes across the Himalaya, dramatically changing the lives of the families that have received them. The HSP isn't trying to pursue some nebulous plan that could pay off at some point in the future, they're actually affecting change now. Our donations will go directly to helping further that cause, while saving lives at the same time.

I know that the holidays are a time when we're often busy and stretched thin. I also know that budgets are often tight as we search for the perfect gift for loved ones. But if you should find a little spare cash that you want to give to a good cause, consider making that cause the Himalayan Stove Project. They're doing great work in a part of the world that we all love.

I wouldn't recommend this, but Americans do travel to Iraq. I went out of my way to miss Iraq several times-- starting in 1969-- because I never had the feeling it was a safe place for Americans. And since Bush invaded and occupied the country and presided over the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, the complete breakdown of civil society and the onset of a catastrophic civil war... it's no exaggeration to say it's considerably less safe.

One of my friends, Fred, is over there working. I tried to talk him out of it but he feels he owes the Iraqi people the completion of an important project that has been utterly botched by the incompetent and larcenous Bush Regime, a completion that will require his unique expertise and dedication. From time to time Fred sends me stories about life in the Greed Zone and I post that at Down With Tyranny. Today's installment talks less about politics and more about how one physically gets from Amman (or Kuwait) into Baghdad. I thought I'd share that part, although I recommend the whole piece for, at the very least, context-- like knowing water will be hard to come by and that there are some natives who may be less than friendly towards Americans for some reason.

Traveling to Baghdad under US Government auspices is a dilly of an experience. It was so fascinating that I took notes along the way. After arriving, everything seemed so surreal that I continued taking notes. I was here in mid-2004 but somehow I either was not exposed to the more weird aspects of life in the Green Zone or did not notice it. Anyway, here is the first part of my story for your amusement.

It took 20 hours to get to Baghdad by plane from Amman, Jordan. Prewar, one could drive it in about ten hours. The trip was bizarre to say the least. I even had written instructions and tried to follow them to the letter but alas, a few things were left out.

The delays started even before travel begins. Someone in Baghdad must first verify that you have a CAC or Common Access Card, country clearance, a Letter of Authorization (LOA, at the airport they referred to them as Travel Orders) and that there is room for you in the inn, i.e. is there an empty bunk in one of the several thousand trailers or other billets in the International Zone (better known as the Green Zone)? None of this happens in parallel, all must be done in a specific sequence. When all is gathered, a seat is reserved for you on a C-130.

Two days a week, a C-130 flies from Kuwait to Baghdad, then Baghdad to Amman, then Amman back to Baghdad and finally from Baghdad back to Kuwait; all very orderly, but intentionally (for security reasons) not on any discernable time schedule.

On the afternoon before the flight, specifically between the hours of 4 and 8 pm, you are obliged to telephone (or inquire via the Internet) the transportation people and ask for the Amman to BIAP (Baghdad International AirPort) ‘show time’. I telephoned at the appointed time and was told that show time at Marka airport-– an old airport now mostly devoted to general aviation-– was “oh-nine-thirty.”

At 8:15 the following morning, a colleague drove me to the airport. On the drive, I mused that the usually brown hills had turned green as the result of a tiny bit of rain a few days earlier and thought of it as a good sign. Such is life in a desert environment.

Marka airport dates from an earlier era. The terminal looks as though it had just slipped into a hole in the ground. It is small, nearly empty, dimly lit and dreary. Other than the employees, everyone in the terminal appeared to be headed for the same flight to Baghdad.

After standing in line for an hour, I paid the departure tax, gave someone at the ticket counter (no tickets were actually issued) my luggage bag and a copy of my LOA and was checked in. One carry-on is permitted – as long as you can carry it on your lap.

After checking in, we passengers gathered in a small open area overlooking part of the runway and waited some more. A forlorn looking Duty Free shop was open as was a stand that sold cookies, sodas and such but otherwise the joint was empty.

After a rather long wait, Jordan Immigration opened a departure counter and someone called out that the immigration line was open. So, I had the dubious pleasure of yet another line in which to stand. Having completed that task, everyone re-gathered into a glassed-off waiting area and, of course, waited some more.

At 12:45 pm, a bus pulled up and after more waiting, a group of us crowded onto the bus and were taken to the plane. This being a C-130 we boarded by walking up a ramp at the back of the plane. The seats are web mesh on aluminum frames. Down each side of the plane a row of seats faces inward; down the center of the plane two rows of seats separated by web mesh faces outward. I’ve attached pictures for your amusement.

The web mesh is the seat back. For those sitting in the middle rows of seats only the mesh separates each persons back from the back of the person on the other side. The plane narrows in the middle to accommodate the wheel wells. Passengers seated in that section find themselves sharing knee space as well. Amazingly enough, several passengers seemed to sleep or toil away (play?) on laptops that were truly on their laps, despite the rather uncomfortable arrangement. When one of the air force types (shall I call him the flight attendant?) went from the front of the plane to the back, he did so by stepping carefully between the knees of the passengers from one seat edge to the next.

Some 70 of us crowded onto the plane. The toilet on the plane is a bucket behind a curtain, if anyone is desperate for relief.

Our baggage, collected on a pallet and wrapped in plastic wrap like a piece of meat at the supermarket, was fork-lifted onto the plane, the ramp raised, the door latched and off we went. The plane jerked forward from a standing position but climbed into the sky quite nicely. The flight was noisy and uncomfortable but not overly long.

At 1:54 pm, the pilot landed the plane in a spiral motion-– rather reminiscent of the time I did my pilot’s biennial with a stunt pilot as my check pilot. In this case however, the reason for landing in such an unusual way was to avoid flying over areas where the troublemakers like to shoot at low flying planes. Touchdown was rather sudden and abrupt.

Even leaving the plane is an experience. First the luggage pallet is removed – we probably could not get off the plane otherwise – then a hippy-looking chap yelled “skull caps off” and “follow me." We stumbled off the plane, in two remarkably straight lines, for some distance behind the plane. The reason was immediately obvious. The engines were still running, the noise was deafening and the wind the engines generated was incredible. We next pushed off to a tent/building where our arrival was registered.

I was instructed to call upon arrival at BIAP but told not to give any flight times, etc. over the phone (seemed strange as the flight was over) but I followed the instructions. I had to borrow a phone as my Jordanian phone did not work despite receiving a SMS message welcoming me to Iraq from Fastlink Jordan.

It is not obvious where the luggage is placed upon arrival, and given the impression I had that the bags continued to the Green Zone with the passengers, I did not go fetch my bag-- a bit of a mistake-- but that’s another story.

For most folks who arrive on a C-130, getting to the Green Zone from BIAP is via steel-plated buses called Rhinos. The color, size and hulking shape of these beasts suggest that they are well-named. Unfortunately the Rhinos do not run until the wee hours of the morning (to avoid being shot at during the daytime, when folks can be along the road without appearing suspicious). So for those of us who arrived via C-130, it’s a 6 to 10 hour additional wait.

Having time to kill, I went exploring. I found a Dining Facility (in Green Zone-speak, a DFAC) but they would not let me enter with my laptop (security has its own peculiar logic) and there was no place to store it safely. I found a PX (Post eXchange) and cluster of trailers housing a Burger King, a Subway sandwich shop, a Green Beans (a Starbucks-like coffee shop found on military bases), a jewelry shop, a barber shop, a beauty salon and a gift shop. All seemed in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by churned up and hardened mud with large river stones in place of paving. The whole business was surrounded by concrete T-walls (blast protection).

Later I took a bus to Camp Striker (where the Rhinos pick up their passengers). The bus was accompanied by a van onto which they place any luggage that passengers are carrying (again, all in the name of security). At Striker, the waiting area is housed in a large temporary building with coffee, tea, television, and wireless internet (for a fee), etc. For those who can tolerate endless propaganda there are some couches and chairs around a couple of televisions with identical smatterings of Fox News and military pep talk pieces. There are also a few books and magazines to read.

At about 11:00 pm, the Rhino passengers queued up, identified themselves and had their names placed on a manifest and were told the number of the bus that they are to take to the Green Zone. Rhino passengers are required to have a flak jacket and helmet. Of course I did not have these items (and did not get any for several days). But I did receive a lengthy lecture on the subject. Just where, how or when I could have acquired this equipment was left out of the lecture.

The Rhinos finally arrived, an announcement was made and we we went out to meet them. The luggage was lined up in a row and sniffer dogs examined them after which the baggage and other boxes were tossed into a shipping container that sat on a flat bed trailer.

Five or six Rhinos (one purposefully empty) took us to the Green Zone. We were escorted by humvees with a pair of helicopters watching overhead. At the Green Zone, the luggage truck was unloaded, and again inspected by other sniffer dogs.

I was not told beforehand that I would be going into the Palace that morning, and thus did not get the necessary temporary badge. By the time someone came to get me, the badge person had left and my escort and I had to wait until someone of higher rank arranged for a temporary badge. The badge was needed simply to let me pass through the Palace on my way to a “Transient Hootch”, Hootch being the name given to the sleeping quarters that are trailers or modified shipping containers. It is a Vietnamese word for huts that serve as living quarters. The US military borrowed the name from the Vietnamese during the Vietnam war and have used it ever since. Once a temporary badge was issued, my escort took me to Billeting, picked up a room key and finally, at 4:00 am I crawled into bed.

So, you see the waiting is unbelievable, especially when you realize that everyone who enters or leaves the airport via this process loses a day in entering and a day in leaving. The drag on individuals and the cost to the USG must be enormous. I think the C-130 holds about 70 people. My guess is that the people cost alone easily exceeds $500,000 each trip. My logic: each trip 65 to 75 people travel to Amman and 65 to 75 from Amman plus similar numbers going through Kuwait – each person loses 16 to 24 hours in traveling this short distance-- the average fee expended for the services of these people likely exceeds $1,000 per person per day (my estimate may even be low)-- add in the cost of the C-130s, the security personnel, the Rhinos, the escorts and the number soon staggers the imagination-- all this in the name of security.

The costs go on. You cannot just change planes in Amman or Kuwait and fly on to Baghdad. Thus folks other than the military who are traveling to Iraq for the US Government must of necessity be lodged in a hotel for a day or more until such time as they can continue their journey.

I don't think the Baghdad Tourism Department is paying John McCain to do tv ads for them. I'd have to guess John McCain is insane.




UPDATE: AND AIR TRAVEL WITHIN IRAQ IS NO BOWL OF CHERRIES EITHER

Tomorrow's Washington Post carries a report from Josh Partlow, a journalist stationed in occupied Iraq, Flying Standby On Air Baqubah: Sun, Sand, Fleas. Sounds like Josh didn't have any more of a pleasant time than my friend Fred did. He was at a forward operating base north of Baghdad and wanted to fly back to lovely, historic, scenic, cosmopolitan Baghdad on a Chinook helicopter. The day started with a little sandstorm.

At 9:30 p.m. I reported to the airport lounge-- a gravel lot with one wooden bench-- to wait for my flight to Baghdad. I had a relatively clear view of the moon. How sandy could it be?

It turns out that pilots who don't want to crash also don't want to fly through sand, so we were on "weather hold." Not canceled and not subjected to some defined delay, just on hold. In this purgatory, I tried to amuse myself. This was difficult. The waiting area apparently was prime habitat for the notorious Iraqi sand flea. I'm not sure they were sand fleas. I never saw them. I just felt their tiny bites again and again and again, in places both public and private. In between swats I would look up, see the moon and remark to a fellow traveler, "How sandy could it be?"

The hours passed. At midnight I peeled off in search of food. Say what you will about the inhumanity of 15-month tours and denying soldiers beer in a desert, there is one indisputable example of military kindness: "midnight chow." After a hamburger, fries and banana milk, I felt renewed. The moon looked good. I counted a couple of stars. But the hold still held firm. Around 3 a.m. we got the word: all flights canceled.

So he was on standby for the next day-- and it was "somewhere north of 110 degrees hot." And boring. "Thursday morning, my colleague in Baghdad had to postpone his flight out of the country because I hadn't returned, and I woke up wearing the same sweat-encrusted clothes I'd worn the past three days." He fantasized about dressing up like an Iraqi and taking a taxi through the war zone, which is basically all of Iraq except, sometimes, on U.S. bases. Eventually, because he knew someone who knew someone who had a 'copter, he made it back to the Green Zone. "Just after 7 p.m., with a thick red pelt of bites and clothes that could stand on their own, I was home. In 46 hours, I had traveled 37 miles. Walking would have been faster."

Ohhhhh...I sooooo needed this. After a number of post-work drinks, I needed some food. And of course the first thing that came to my mind was a blazingly hot curry like a vindaloo from whomever was still serving it down at Boat Quay. I'm not even sure of what the name of this place was, but the spiciness of this thing totally hit the spot, especially when accentuated by those dried chili pods. Too bad that the fish in this thing was so nasty that I just let all of the protein go to waste. Note to self: next time, order the vegetarian option!