Training in Cairo

One of the benefits of my job is the requirement that I travel quite a bit. I've been at my post in Almaty for just over two months, and I've been traveling for about four weeks already.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to our office in Cairo for some training. Not a bad gig to get to visit Cairo on the company's dime. Having been there, I can now say that seeing the Pyramids was a nice life experience, but I don't feel compelled to return. The city just isn't very tourist friendly, and I think it's because they know people will come anyway.

I've lived in Southern California, and I've been living in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for a couple of months. Both of these places are well-known for the amount of traffic and pollution they have (but LA is much better than it used to be). I don't think that together they add up to the amount of traffic and pollution that you see in Cairo. Even at 8 in the morning, it was nearly impossible to see buildings more than a few blocks away. And if you're not confident walking in traffic, you'll never cross a street in Cairo.

However, I did take a day trip to Alexandria, and it was much more pleasant. On the train up there, it was interesting to see the small farms along the Nile, some with mud houses that looked like they had been built 1000 years ago. Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to explore Alexandria, but there was an interesting castle (there's a picture in the post below) that was built more than 500 years ago, and the ruins of a Roman amphitheater.

I'm not one to say that seeing a famous landmark like the Pyramids on TV or in a movie is an acceptable substitute for seeing it in person, but my opinion may be changing. Television and movies seem to do a better job of presenting the Pyramids in a way where the viewer truly regards them with awe. In person, all the scammers bothering you take that feeling away -- along with a big chunk of your money. Visit Istanbul instead.

The Mysterious Sphinx

You know, you never see pictures of the Sphinx's butt. I have one, but this picture seemed more interesting to post.

I seem to recall some Discovery Channel TV show or something that suggested the Sphinx is actually much older -- perhaps thousands of years older -- than the Pyramids. The story said that ancient people carved an image of a lion into the stone, and a pharaoh much later did some remodeling on the lion's face.

From this angle, one can kind of see that the head of the Sphinx is disproportionately smaller than the rest of the body. Whether there is anything to this story or not, my impression was that the Sphinx was simply smaller than I expected from all the times I've seen it on TV and in movies.

Pictures from Egypt

Photos from Almaty

There's something about markets that is just inherently interesting. This shot is from the green market in Almaty. Originally, I thought that it was called the "green" market because that was where people went to buy their fruits and vegetables. In fact, you can buy pretty much anything here, and the building is painted green. A few minutes after taking this shot, we were told that the administration didn't want photos taken inside. One of my colleagues asked if there were "state secrets" in the market.

This second shot is just of a nice babushka (grandma) selling some jewelry near the main shopping district. With her umbrella, she was prepared to be there a long time.

Democracy in Kyrgyzstan

My project brought me to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, the week after elections to replace the government ousted in April.

For those of you concerned about the recent election results in the US, consider this: in Kyrgyzstan, 27 parties registered to participate in the election. There was a threshold of 5% of the total vote for a party to receive seats in parliament. Of the 27 parties, the top vote-getter won only 8% of the total. The next two parties took around 7%. This means a coalition of parties will need to agree to work together.

These pictures were taken outside the Kyrgyz "white house" where their parliament sits. The people are protesting the fact that the "winning" party supports the president that got kicked out in April. The top photo was taken on Saturday, and the lower photo was taken on Tuesday.

It's easy to take a smooth transition of power for granted, but let's hope that Kyrgyzstan can find a way. It's hard to make progress without a stable government.