The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – 24 Days in Mediterranean Sea

July 31st – from Samos Island of Greece

After a long planning, I was finally on my way to Greece. On 27th, I took late evening flight and arrived via London in Athens on 28th at about 1.30pm local time.

After spending three days in Athens and its nearby areas, including one-day tour to Delfi (3-hours' away from Athens), I was again setting my foot for another tourist attraction, Samos Island last night. The 12-hour voyage ended at 8am this morning.

It is now 2.15pm local time. I toured the Island by the rented bicycle, costing me Euro 3.0 for a day. Feeling somewhat exhausted (I am so sorry for my bottom, not having endured such a long ride for quite some time), I searched for an internet bar and started writing my first email for this journey while having a short rest.

There are a lot to say and to write. I hate I am short of words to describe the beautiful scenery and stories during my journey. However, I hope I will have something visual to please you, i.e. photos and video pictures.

My short visit to Greece will end this afternoon at 5pm, which will also mark the beginning of my trip in Turkey. There will be a 5pm boat taking me from Samos Island to Kusadasi, the Turkish city 2 hours away from Samos Island.

Will write you whenever it is convenient. Internet access is not only the issue of the cost, but something hard to come by here.

August 4th, 2003 – Westernized Muslim World -from Istanbul, Turkey

My second email is now being sent out from Istanbul, where I arrived early this morning after a comfortable 12-hour bus journey from Pamukkele, a small city located in the southwest of Turkey.

After ending Greece part of my journey on 31st July, I arrived in Kusadasi on the same day following a 2-hour voyage from Greek Samos Island. Kusadasi is a beautiful, western-style harbor city, packed with numerous tourists from all over the world, mostly from Europe.

The second day after arrival in Kusadasi, I took an one-day trip to Efes. Severed as a capital city for central Asia in the mighty Roman times, Efes is still left with well-preserved architecture remains of great magnificence.

On the 2nd Aug, i.e. yesterday. I spent one day touring Pamukkele, which is mainly famous for its cotton-white mountain, although the city is also archeologically rich.

Today after arrival in Istanbul in the morning, I spent the rest of my day patrolling around the old city of Istanbul.

Istanbul is unique in the sense that it connects Asia to Europe. It is the only city in the world sitting in the two continents. This geographical feature is also well reflected in other aspects of the city, including food, architecture and religions. The West meets the East in harmony here.

Turkish people are nice and friendly. Equally welcome to me is that everything here is cheap. Tomorrow will be another day in Istanbul. I plan to go to see Istanbul University and have a boat trip to the Black Sea. Then I will finish Turkish part of my journey by taking 9.25pm flight to Jordan’s Amman.

Have to stop here now, it is about 12 mid night.

August 6 –What could you possibly expect - from Ammanof Jordan

By now, I am here in Jordan's Amman only for a day. The impression is very much mixed.

I arrived in the city very late last night at 11.30pm, after a 2-hour flight from Istanbul, which cost me as much as US$348 one-way only. Thanks to two Chinese I met on the flight, who stationed here for an engineering project, I was able to get a hike to outskirts of the city, from where I then took a taxi to downtown.

Upon my arrival in downtown, it was already after mid-night. I was truly scared, when making my way through dark and dirty streets under dim light in search for a hotel. I was tired and exhausted when finally settling down at a place which I would not be willing to call as a hotel although it is named so. At the moment I put down my luggage, I almost had a strong wish to flee away from the city in the next minute.

I must have only gone to bed after 2am when finished shower and cloth washing, but my late sleep did not help to extend my sleep to later hours the next morning, thanks to horns and street noises which commenced early in the morning.

However, I must say that my impression on Jordan may not be complete. As time goes by, I become more familiar to the surroundings and the people. Although I can not be complimentary to their hygiene conditions and the messiness of the city itself, people here are friendly. Their hospitality applies in particular to Chinese. When they know you are from China, "You are welcome to Jordan" is for sure what you will expect as a response! This is in sharp contrast to the image of the US in Arabic world. My Chinese identity serves as the best assurance of safety in this part of the world.

Relatively, Jordan is much more liberal when compared with many other Arabic countries when it comes to religions and the code of dressings/behavior for women. Despite so, however, it still caught me by a big surprise when seeing 3X DVD discs on sale along streets. I even encountered a cinema where several 3X films mostly featuring Turkish 3x stars are on a show. This kind of things is absolutely unimaginable in most of the Arabic world.

Today I toured Amman city (not much to see though) and also Jarash (one hour away by bus from Amman, famous for the site of Roman remains). Tomorrow, I will head for Petra, the visit to which is a must, according to people who have been there.

I feel happy that I will leave Amman tomorrow. One day is more than enough here, not for the people's hospitality but for the scenery and surroundings.

Well, there is much to write and say, but I must stop now. Since I arrived in Jordan last night, I only had one light meal so far, as the way Arabic food is cooked makes me feel very uncomfortable about hygiene condition. I want myself to stay healthy throughout my trip, the way to do so here is to eat as much fruit as possible in lieu of meat/rice. This strategy does not work well, as I am very hungry now and need to find something with substance to fill up my crying stomach. I will go and get some fried food after exiting internet.

August 7th –The True Land of Wonder - from Petra of Jordan

My 2nd day in Jordan started from a 3-hour bus journey from Amman to Petra. I got up at 7am this morning and quickly packed everything up in time to put myself in a taxi to Wahadat Bus Station for 8am bus. I was there at the station just before 8am but the bus did not leave till when it was eventually fully seated at 9.15am.

The 3-hour desert-crossing journey is an exciting experience. Occasionally, I can spot a few trees standing firm, lonely but relentlessly, adding much needed sense of life to boundaryless land of sand.

At about 12.30pm, the bus finally reached Petra, the city built along ridges of a mountain. "Small is beautiful" may not apply universally but certainly fit well in case of Petra when comparing it with Amman. Petra is much smaller in size but prettier and cleaner.

The whole city is reliant on tourism industry and people there all make their livings on the miracle works left over by people thousands of years ago.

Petra is number one tourist attraction in Jordan, a visit to the city is a must for people touring the Mideast. The ancient city, built in the 1st century AD, stretches over 3kms at mountains at an altitude of nearly 1000meters above the sea level. The well-preserved architectures, cave tombs, monuments and city gates were all perfectly built in harmony with natural shapes of mountains, over plateau or along cliffs, making it hard not to be amazed by intelligence and power of ancient humanbeing.

The whole visit is a very strenuous one, as it involves repeated climbing, but it certainly worth the efforts. It took me 4 hours on my inward journey and another 2 outward. Many visitors would choose to spend two days here, just for Petra. However, this is not the style for efficient people like me!

By now, my journey is half completed. There are still 12 days ahead before my scheduled return on 19th August. On one hand, I am a bit home sick, on the other, I am still very much looking forward to new things to see and the new places scheduled to visit.

So much for today! I am very much afraid that all my writings are lost due to malfunction of computer or any unexpected problems with internet connection here. So will not write for too long.

Tomorrow I am heading for Aqqab, a coastal city bordering Egypt and Israel.

August 10 - from Cairo– Israeland Egyptin my eyes

I am now in Cairo, sitting in front of the hotel computer. There are a lot worth writing on what happened over the past two days in Israel and Egypt.

August 7 was spent in Aqaba, a beautiful coastal city in Jordan. In the Red Sea, I had my first swimming in the trip. As the transportation hub in the Mideast, Aqaba borders Saudi in the south, Egypt in the southwest and Israel in the west.

The next day I entered Israel city Eilat with intention to stay for just a few hours before heading for Egypt from Eilat on the same day.

It was almost hassle free on Jordan side when crossing Anava checking point. At this point of time, I had not yet realized ahead awaiting me is the strictest security procedures in the world.

When getting myself to border gate on Israel side, I was asked by a beautiful but cold-faced Israel girl to show my passport. The information about me was communicated via headphone to her colleagues in a building about 20m away from the gate. 10 min later, she directed me to another girl who just stepped out from the security control building. In the building, I was first asked numerous questions by a male officer. Two people standing alongside the officer witnessed the questioning process, which took almost 20 minutes and had covered any area you can possibly think of.

It was not yet the end of nightmare. The questioning was then followed by a thorough body and luggage check. My entire luggage was completely unbundled and searched item by item. My body was touched from the top to the bottom, and from the front to the back. No where else had I gone through security control of such, not even in the US right after the "9.11".

Followed by a 40-min security check was passport control. Again, many questions were asked, but by a different officer. I was then told to wait until further notice. The whole process that day took me about 1 hour 30 min just on Israel checking point.

Everyone, not just me, has to go through such tough procedures, which are designed to prevent terrorists from entering the country. My recent travel in the Mideast clearly shows that the deeply-rooted mistrusts between Israel and Arabic world are still as deep as ocean and few people believe the peace map will really bring about much needed peace to the troubled region. As a small state being surrounded by hostile Arabic countries, Israel is probably the country with the greatest sense of insecurity in the world.

The feeling when entering Israel from Jordan was very much similar to the one I had when crossing the US border from St. Diego to Mexican Tuwana. Borders divide people on the two sides of border into two different worlds. Israel is a highly developed and sophisticated nation. You can easily believe you were in the US when in Israel, except for multilingual signposts along roads and over buildings.

It is a pity that I could not have time to go to the holy city Jerusalem, although it is merely a 4-hour bus journey from Eilat. In the later afternoon on the same day, I entered Taba in Egypt, boarding the bus to Cairo.

Very late into evening, the 6-hour bus journey finally came to an end. I was eventually here in Cairo, the city full of numerous ancient wonders, the city I have dreamed of coming for a visit ever since I was a child. Upon arrival, I was welcome and embraced by a taxi driver at the bus station, who was among the many trying to offer me a taxi ride. He took me to a downtown hotel, where I was entertained by another business promotion. The hotel did not waste a second to promote me a package tour tailed to my schedule. I happily accepted the offer and sealed the deal with the hotel manager at a price 10% below what was initially quoted, but only realized the next day when travelling with other members of the group that I was being ripped off. I ended up with overpaying him by a big margin in comparison with the fair market price. Egypt is the best place to practice how to be a cheater and also the place to learn how to prevent from being deceived as it would not take too long before you can experience all the tricks Egyptian people are applying.

I visited Pyramids yesterday. There were many to see during the rest of my 9-day adjourn in Egypt. As to my feeling so far in Egypt, I have to say it is mixed with many things good and bad and some ugly. I would probably need to triple my write-up if I were to detail all in this email. Let me reserve it for the next time.

August 14 – The Good, the bad and the ugly - from Luxor, Egypt

It has been 4 days since my last email on August 10th. In my previous email, I summarized my impressions on Egypt as a complex combination of something good, bad and ugly.

It goes without saying that long history, rich culture and spectacular ancient remains are what attract people around the world, being major elements that are good about the country. In addition, everything here is very cheap, though I have not benefited much from its cheapness given huge premium I paid for my tour package. US$100 is a big money and can go a long way here.

To me, however, what are bad about Egypt outnumber what are good about it. Cairo is the largest city in Africa and in the Mideast, with 17mn people cramped in the highly polluted capital. The population of 5mn cars in the city is a big number but is mostly comprised of something you could only find in Hollywood films in 1940s. You will be amazed how those rusty steel parts, which otherwise should have found their better destinations in smelters, are still put together and operate as a vehicle. I am sure that there are no emission controls whatsoever in Egypt. Air in Cairo is so polluted that concentration of exhausts, sulfur dioxide in the air could well exceed that of oxygen. I find myself hard to breath when walking along Cairo streets.

Although the city is not short of traffic police, the city's traffic is not ruled by traffic laws, but by personal will of individual drivers. It is almost a life-risking exercise to take a taxi or in the efforts to cross roads, as cars are tailing each other, running fast as if they were in a driving contest at a distance of just 2-3 meters between each other.

My view on Cairo may sound biased, impartial with some prejustice and certain exaggerations, but in fact all I am telling you is nothing but truth.

Egypt is still a very backward county. China, though still has a long long way to go before becoming a real world power, is far superior in almost every aspect. Apart from Cairo, other places I have been to, including Aswan and Luxor, should be more appropriately called as towns, dirty and shabby, rather than cities. It is said Alexandria is a much better, clearer city. Let's wait and see whether I will endorse such judgement. I will be there in my last day in Egypt.

Egypt is the largest country in the Mideast. That, unfortunately in my opinion, only applies in political terms, simply due to its sheer size of population and territory. Economically and militarily, Egypt is easily dwarfed by its small but mighty neighbor Israel.

Poor economic status here is partly a result of harsh natural conditions (96% land as desert, plus hot weather). More importantly, it relates to people's lack of access to education and inborn nature of laziness of the people in the Mideast.

Endowed with magnificent ancient remains, Egypt is relying on tourism as the key source of hard currencies and employment (the second most important hard currency earner being Suez Cannel). Without those, Egypt has limited to offer to the rest of the world.

What are ugly about Egypt root in its poor economic conditions. With an average monthly income in Cairo at only 200-400 Egyptian pounds (or Rmb260-520), civilized way of living is beyond the reach to majority of Egyptian. That is why, everywhere you go, you will for sure be annoyed by people either begging for petty cash or offering you goods forcefully that you have no interests in acquiring. No tourist falls short of stories of being cheated one way or another.

It would be wrong if you are expecting any free service or help here. Any help, however tiny like asking for a direction, will be followed by a tipping request. In many cases, "help" is offered proactively without your prior consent. For example, there are always people standing at entrances to tourist attractions, offering you to photo with him. Then tips are expected! Things like those are so annoying that not only dilute people's enthusiasm about Egypt but also test limits of tourists' temper.

Corruption and backwardness often come as a twin. There is no exception in Egypt. I hate corruption, as such is also very rampant in China too. I saw many occasions where tourist police demanded from street hawkers and negotiated with them for a fee to "buy" permission to sell souvenirs to tourists.

So far, there seems to be only one thing in common about Egyptian, i.e. they are all subscribed to one principal, i.e. "money pursuit", regardless of means. There is nothing wrong to worship money, but means are what it matters.

Contrary to people in Jordan, Egyptian are not so friendly to Chinese. In fact, there is an element of hostility. Many Egyptian people, when knowing that I am from China, said to me that now everything in Egypt is made in China. This seems to be a true statement, as I see even most of religious souvenirs pertinent to Egypt are in fact made in China, let alone clothes, watches and something within their affordability. On one hand, Chinese products have special appealing to Egyptian, whose pockets are not deep enough to be brand conscious. Chinese products are their natural "value-for-money" choices. On the other hand, they dislike loss of domestic jobs and markets at the expense of local products. A kind of dilemma, isn’t it?

Much has been said about my impressions on Egypt. Now I 'd like to devote some space to my tour. So far, I've been to Cairo (Egyptian Museum, pyramids, sakkara, citadel, etc), Aswan (new dam, Abu Simbel, Phiale Temple). I am now in Luxor, after a 2-day sailing on a 5-star cruise. I will stay here for today and tomorrow. Tomorrow night, I will be on my way back to Cairo by night train for a visit to Alexandria.

By the time I am heading home on 19th, I should have been to all major sites indispensable to visit in Egypt. On my way back, I will stop over in London for a day, revisiting some places I used to be quite familiar with, including Chelsea Cloisters, where I lived for a year while in London back in 1994.

Although Egypt is a poor county and cheap in most of things, internet is an exception owning to unsophisticated communication system. It is not only expensive (Rmb13 per hour in an internet bar), but quality of connection is too bad to allow you finish anything in one go. A day ago, I was trying to access internet while the cruise ashored a city between Luxor and Aswan, but I tried hard for more than a half hour. Eventually I had to give up as the line was repeatedly disconnected before I finished typing more than two words.

I am now in a tiny internet bar in Luxor, choked in an unconditioned room under a temperature of 41 centigrade. Please do not mind if I stop here.

August 16- With love from Cairo, Egypt

I thought my previous email would be the last one for this trip, but I am impulsed to write another one, a short one though. I have just returned to Cairo by a 10-hour night train from Luxor.

At 10.30pm yesterday, I was picked up by travel agency staff to head for train station. In a taxi, the Egyptian explained to me that train tickets at present were hard to obtain but he still managed to get me a ticket, however, not with Cairo as the destination. The destination on the ticket is a city 3 hour away from Cairo. He apologized for that and handed over to me 30 Egyptian pounds as the money used to purchase on train for the remaining section to Cairo. In this way, I could still stay on the train through to Cairo.

After all those explanations and apologies, he begged me not to reveal the situation to the travel agency in Cairo, to which I have paid for my whole Egypt trip as a package. He said he did not want to lose the job, the means he relies on to feed his wife and 2 children. I was very much sympathetic with him, who looked so sincere, honest and innocent. I promised to him that I would for sure keep it a secret from his company.

Soon after I boarded the train at 11pm, I asked conductor to issue me a ticket for the remaining section till Cairo. By the time when I was asked to pay 52 Egyptian pounds, I then realized that the whole thing might be a trick. Although I ended up with paying additional 22 pounds apart from what I have already paid for my package, I will still want to keep my promise, not to report the case to the travel agency to put the guy's job in danger. His job far outweighs a small amount of my money. However, obviously, I can not like the feeling of being deceived. I thought by then I had learned enough not to be cheated, but the fact is that I underestimated their intelligence.

While I was cheated money over the train ticket, I saved an Egyptian from financial losses. I went to MISR Bank yesterday afternoon to encash my travelers' check. The bank staff gave me 50% more Egyptian pounds than he should. When I found out his mistake, I returned all excess amounts to him. He then realized that he had mistakenly taken my US$ travelers' check to be in Sterling pounds. He was very grateful to me. Of course, there is a reason for him to be grateful. The error could mean that the poor man could otherwise work for one month for nothing.

Worth mentioning about my tour yesterday is my visit to the Valley of Kings and Queens, which housed tombs of many Egyptian kings throughout 18-20th dynasty (or 12-13th century BC). Luxor was the Egyptian capital, the economic and political center during those periods. For this reason, many kings chose Luxor as a place to rest after their death. Among 62 tombs in total, tourists are allowed to visit 3 of them at present with the others being still in the process of excavation or in restorations. When visiting Tomb of Ramses IV, everyone's interests were arisen by the guide's explanations on a part of well paintings. The paintings were about lovemaking process between the God and the Goddess before and after sex, with the God lying down and being served by several Goddesses surround him. I was very much amused and surprised, not only by the vivid descriptions and pictures themselves but also by much more tolerant, liberal and open attitude towards sex by ancient Egyptian than those contemporary. In other occasions, such as Luxor Temple, wall carvings there carried a lot of pictures about male organ, penis, in a very exaggerated way. Unfortunately tourists are prohibited from taking photos or video pictures on most of those sites.

I think sexual pleasure was probably a luxury for ordinary people. It was only the game preserved for the privileged few that time. For ordinary people, male or female, their minds must have been fully occupied by the practical needs to find enough food to feed and adequate materials to cloth and a place to shelter, and must have faced endless challengers in tackling with flood, starving, and alike.

With the presence of those pictures, I pampered my imaginations and allowed them to go wild. I was wondering if there are any differences at all between loving making in ancient days and now. At least one thing I can be sure about is that sexual equality is an irreversible trend nowadays. Coupled with a greater financial independence, much improved access to education, fairer employment practices, women nowadays are playing a more proactive role in sex. In the past, female’s role was more of a passive one and her own rights were not respected. In essence, however, women are in no difference from men. They need to love as much as to be loved!

Including today, I will have two more days to kill in Egypt. Today is a free day, I will wonder around in the city in the afternoon, may go to cinema to see an Egyptian film even though I do not understand the language. Tomorrow will be a trip to Alexandria. Then early on 18th my flight will take me home (with a stopover in London).

The more I traveled the more objective comparisons I can draw, the more I feel in love with my country, China. Our motherland is not just with what my fellow citizens of China should be proud of for its past, and its present, but also far more importantly for its great, unlimited potentials, for its prosperous future.

Let me make this email to be truly the last one of this trip.