Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year!

...was blowing at you. Things didn't get any better at night either.  I was constantly drenched in sweats and wished that I was a walking shower.  I was glad that I covered and protected myself from the sun though.  The burning heat would have turned me into a piece of hot charcoal.  No, I wasn't in a burqa.  Any more piece of clothing on me would have killed me off.
 
Alright, enough of my whining and complaining!
 
Despite the miserable heat, our trip to Egypt and Dubai was quite memorable.  It was a mixed bag of feelings and experiences.  Ancient Egypt is marvelous, captivating, amazing, a world of wonder.  For every pyramid, temple, tomb, museum we visited, for every piece of treasure we admired, we were in awe of their enormity and grandeur, of such a great and advanced civilization that existed 3000, 4000, and almost 5000 years ago.  The Egyptian engineering and architectural innovations and ingenuity of more than 4000 years ago still mystify modern-day men.  The first pyramid, the first column, the first ceiling, the first of many things - they are all here.  The Egyptian historical, mythical and artistic expressions so detailed, so enormous that you still feel their presence thousands of years later.  We found ourselves asking the same question, "Wow!  How did they do that?" We travelled throughout Egypt - starting and ending in Cairo, cruising up the Nile from Luxor to Aswan, flying down to Abu Simbel and back to Cairo, and driving up to Alexandria in the Mediterranean Sea.  In between the site-seeings of the great monuments of Ancient Egypt, we also caught glimpses of today's Egypt - quite a contrast - a definite cultural shock.
 
From the aerial view, I could see nothing but sand, sand, sand.  Strange, almost alien, to see that everything was flat and of a sandy-brown color - No trees, no plants, no greens, no sign of life.  The desert, looking at it, gave me a sense of death.  I would certainly not want to be lost in one.
 
Walking down the plane to the awaiting open-air bus, we came face to face with the hot desert heat.  I knew then it was going to be a rough ride.
 
Driving on the streets of Cairo, one thing that hits you right away is that there is no order to anything in Egypt.  No traffic lights anywhere, no divider lanes.  Cars, bikes, horses, donkeys always seem to be stuck in traffic, trying to squeeze into any opening to advance.  There is constant honking - they call it "car music" over there.  "Crowded and hectic" was my first impression of Egypt.  People always seem to be going somewhere.  Where?
 
Looking up both sides of the streets of Cairo and throughout Egypt, you can see buildings that seem to have been built ad-hoc, facing in different directions - Tall apartment buildings next to rundown buildings, next to hills of garbage; nice villas next to unfinished redbrick buildings (families that built their own flats (apartments) and left the unfinished tops with metal bars sticking out for future generations to build themselves).  There are as many clothes hung out to dry as the number of satellites on the rooftops (very affordable since people only have to pay a one-time cost for the satellites here, no monthly service fees).  And of course, there are a lot of mosques.  Loud speakers can also be heard several times a day for the calls to prayer.  While they tolerate the relaxed dress-code of foreigners, most locals are dressed very covered - men in slacks/jeans and long-sleeved shirts or in light-colored robes, most women in long black robes and faces covered up to their noses, or with a head scarf tightly wrapped and a loose, long-sleeved shirt that extended passed the hips over the pants.  Some even wear black gloves and socks to cover their hands and feet (in super-hot 115-degree heat!).  There are not many women on the streets.  Most who work are men, occasionally there are women at airport checkpoints and bathrooms because they are required for those posts.
 
And there are police and checkpoints everywhere on the streets.  All hotels have guard gates with metal bars and sniffing dogs.  All sightseeing places also have guard gates and a long walk or drive to the actual monuments themselves.  All that leaves you to wonder, "Should I feel secure with all of this police protection?" or "Why is there such a need for so much policing?" But somehow we did feel safe and welcomed by all Egyptians.  Egyptians love American tourists, we were told; I assume for their deep pockets and generous tipping.  Oh yes, tipping.  Tipping everywhere - drivers, tour leaders, tour guides, hotel staff, cruise staff, guards, museum attendants, and bathroom attendants - everywhere!  It made me feel like I was a money tree.  We certainly did our good deeds.  One funny thing to note, despite their dislikes for the American government, American ideology, and Americans in general, our tour guide told us that if the US was to open up its borders, we would find all 70-something million Egyptians in America!  Another funny thing, when asked where we lived and we finally said, "Orange County," the tour guide's eyes became wide open as he exclaimed, "You live in THE O.C.'?"  Long live American TV!
 
From one extreme to another, Dubai is a very young, clean, and super-modern city with everything well planned out, everything new, everything oozing money.  There is construction going on everywhere.  Workers are mostly from India and Pakistan, being bused in and out of town in bluish gray buses, wearing uniformed blue clothing.  Are they workers or prisoners?  It makes you wonder.  They are trying to build the best, the tallest, the biggest of everything in this world here.  Some places in Dubai remind us of Las Vegas - a certain sense of unnaturalness, of trying too hard to create things that don't seem real, but there is definitely no denying that there is a lot of money in Dubai.
 
Although there are no sight of police, no calls to prayer, and not as many mosques as in Egypt, Dubai is a lot more conservative.  People don't smoke or drink here.  Hotels and most restaurants only serve "mocktails" (great place for rehab centers, I would think). Servers are all Asians - mostly Filipinos.  You feel like you've gone through a time machine and got taken back to colonial time.  Women are more covered, most are in burqas - granted that they are very ornate and decorated burqas.  Men wear more of the white traditional robes (dishdasha) and black egal over the head scarf (shimagh).  Yet underneath all of that covering, through their expensive and fashionable brand-name glasses, purses and jewelry, you could sense that these are people with lots of money.
 
As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words," check out some of the pictures we took of Egypt and Dubai at the link below.  It was truly one of those trips and experiences that definitely educated us and that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Throughout the years, we have travelled to many different places.  We have learned so much from those trips around the world.  But this time, there was something different.  The feeling we got once we boarded our American plane, Delta, for the flight back to the US, was something of familiarity, of reassurance.  When the plane was getting ready to take off, there was something different, something missing from those other Egyptian domestic flights.  Ah, The Prayer!  The picture of a mosque on every screen!  Oh, serenity.  Oh, freedom.  They're back!  We welcome them back!
 
So as we ring in the New Year, also let Freedom ring loud and clear!  America is truly The Beautiful!
 
Love to all,
Linh and Roman