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Archive for July, 2007

Living to Die – Tombs of Egypt

Great Pyramid at Sunrise For the ‘best of’ Egypt Photography – click here! For all snapshots of the Valley of the Kings and the Great Pryamids – click here! One of my favorite sayings to live by is “work to live” – it’s really what I tried to follow while living and working in NYC. Quite frankly – I worked my ass of so that I could have this year + of travel…the epitome of “work to live”. There are so many people that I know who “live to work” – I’ve never really understood those people…and probably never will. However, even stranger, I have determined that the ancient Egyptian motto was “live to die”. That’s really how they lived their life…constantly thinking and preparing for the afterlife. After all, they believed that the afterlife was really where the fun was….and they were going to take everything with them that they needed…jewels, beds, clothes, pets, and wives. If I lived in this time, I think I would take my sleep sheet, my blow up travel pillow, a good hat, my camera, my laptop, and my ipod to…

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Holy Moses – Egypt’s Red Sea and Mt. Sinai!

View Egypt Photography View snapshots of the Red Sea and surrounding canyons View photos of Mt. Sinai and the Burning Bush Photo: Sawa camp on the Red Sea
The Red Sea was next on our Moses Tour. This was my favorite part in the movie…the water even looked red in the TV version – and Charleton Heston’s ability to part it was truly a special effects miracle! Woohoo…Red Sea…here I come! We crossed into the Sinai region of Egypt by ferry from Hurghada (unfortunately no one knew how to part the sea and simply drive to Sinai) then we drove way north to a little white sand camp called Sawa. I think it stood for Sand Around Whole Area…as there was no escaping the fine, white sand. This camp was remote – not necessarily because it was in the middle of nowhere, instead it had no electricity except for 4 hours of…

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The Mother of All Project Plans – Ancient Egypt

For the ‘best of’ Egypt Photography – click here! I must confess – I’m not really into ancient sites, it’s just not my thing. I was bored by Pompeii, disinterested in the Parthenon, and I skipped the Roman Forum altogether – for some reason – these places just aren’t as interesting to me as simply going and sitting in a café and people watching present day culture, or trekking to a village and meeting the locals. However – when you travel around the world, I can’t have people saying to me, ”What do you mean you didn’t go to Pompeii?!!” in shock and horror. They’d look at me as if I was an idiot. In fact – I’m not real sure if it was a good idea that I admitted to never going to the Roman Forum – but you can lecture me later on that. So when I arrived in Egypt and realized that one of the big draws to Egypt is all of the ancient temples, and sites –…

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Convoys and Hubbly Bubbly – Arriving in Egypt

For the ‘best of’ Egypt Photography – click here! For all snapshots of Abu Simbel and Aswan – click here! I mistakenly arrived in Egypt thinking that it would be very similar to Morocco. That’s like thinking that California and New York are similar…and having lived in both – I know that’s not true. Sure, the two countries are in Northern Africa, they are both suffocatingly hot, their language is Arabic (with minor differences), they have the same religion, and they even share the Sahara Desert – camels and all…but beyond that – they really aren’t the same. The difference is that Egypt is all about history – temples, tombs, relics, hieroglyphics, and royalty. Because of that, you tend to see more tourists in Egypt and it is a little more developed in general. I met up with my new Intrepid tour group in Aswan, Egypt near the southern most border of Egypt and Sudan. I had already met one member of the group – my partner in crime and fellow Casablanca/Egypt Air sufferer, Rosaline, from…

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Holy Moses – Cruising the Nile River

View Egypt Photography View snapshots of the Nile River   My only knowledge of Egypt really comes from an unlikely source – Charleton Heston. I can still remember my family all sitting around the one TV we had and watching the Ten Commandments…it was a huge event for us – we were even allowed to eat in front of the TV. The movie was cutting edge – it had amazing special effects – such as the burning bush, turning a staff into a snake, and who could ever forget the parting of the Red Sea – only to close onto the Pharaohs army…that was my favorite scene. Plus, it was a two night event – my first memory of a cliffhanger was probably the Ten Commandments. Granted – the movie is not necessarily about Egypt – but it is set around the Nile, Pharaohs, the Red Sea, and of course Mt. Sinai – all of these things were on the itinerary for my trip through Egypt –…

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Yet Another United Hiccup

Why is it that nearly every time I fly United, reps are either inappropriately rude or the flight doesn’t take off? All airlines have their issues, but it seems that with United, I’m not alone with my horror stories. If I hear one, I always ask, United? The response: oh yeah, of course. Not always, but nearly. I get it – morale is low, but how can an airlines continue stay in business with marketing and customer service departments that feel nonexistent not to mention their frequently rude service? Implement some kind of ‘customer service conduct’ guidelines folks for your staff or people will vote elsewhere. I’m starting to think about long inconvenient train rides rather than deal with the potential chaos of yet another United flight. Remember that Virgin America is coming in about a week, with Richard Branson behind its corporate culture. They, like airlines in this country used to do, put the customer first.

Elizabeth Edwards Discusses the Issues

Elizabeth Edwards did the final keynote at BlogHer in Chicago tonight. She addresses the BlogHer crowd about John Edward’s stance on women’s issues leading up to the 2008 presidential election. Following a recent battle with cancer, she looks strong, confident and healthy on the Navy Pier stage. Elizabeth raises examples of where other candidates and leaders have stood and currently stand on critical issues women care deeply about, such as healthcare, children, and war. When there’s a draft, there’s always stronger opposition she reminds us, because then everyone is potentially affected. Today, its very split. She tells a story about Ross Perot who addressed a group of people at the beginning of the Iraq war. He had asked who in the room had someone serving in the Iraq war – no one did, yet several who were ‘serving’ the tables did. It’s more likely that we would take war personally if we had someone in our lives who is serving in a war. Lisa Stone asks the room the same question and roughly 10-20% of the room raise…

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On Building Blog Traffic and SEO

BlogHer is nearly half over – my, how time flies. The morning was focused more on conceptual ideas rather than how tos and niche blogging. For example, women who have been blogging for several years talked about self-branding and self-promotion, building through online communities, and finding and following your passion. Like the last couple of years, they also had a session on Naked Bloggers – but this year, pose the question – will ‘naked’ bloggers make history? An interesting twist on this session was the decision to have a historian moderate, Laurie Kahn-Leavitt from BlueBerry Productions in Boston. Below Elise Bauer talks about tips to drive more traffic to your blog. A few suggestions to newbies and even to bloggers who have been ‘at it’ for awhile. Despite the fact that there has been controversy over ‘link love’ over the past few years, Elise still says link, link, link and leave comments on other bloggers’ sites. Other grassroot suggestions include participating in blog events, contributing to communities that you care about and participating in social networks – UGGGGGH. (all 6,000 of them??) As for site design, recommendations were…

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