Bathroom Talk

One of the big differences between the East and the West is their opinions of the proper way to use a toilet. East of Istanbul, you will be using a squatter toilet. The bathrooms can get pretty disgusting. Take a look at these two gems, the concrete squatter coming from China and the porcelain one from Turkey.

One thing that I have not been able to come to grips with is the lack of toilet paper. Some bathrooms have a little hose that you are supposed to spray yourself clean with. In India, there is just a faucet and bucket in the stall. You are supposed to wipe with your left hand and then wash it off in the bucket. The left hand is ‘dirty’ and if you touch anybody with it or use it to eat it is extremely offensive. In Egypt many men had inch long finger nails on their left pinky finger for cleaning themselves. I try to be open minded, but this was just too much for me.

Many of my friends have really struggled with the squatters. Taylor says that his legs and ass muscles are so tight while he is trying to squat that it is physically impossible to go. I took great pleasure in heckling him from outside the stall while he was failing to get the job done. If you are on the balls of your feet, then everything gets tense. Like Fat Joe says, you gotta “Lean Back”. As long as you are on your heels, it’s all good.

Turkey and the EU

Turkey has been trying to get into the European Union for a long time. It has been a long drawn out process, as Europe is reluctant. Right now, it is unclear what will happen, and this is one of the most important issues in Turkish politics.

If Turkey was allowed into the EU, there would be an economic give and take on both sides. Europe is worried about a flood of Turks into their countries when the boarders open. Turkey will soon be the same size as Germany, and would have considerable power in the Union.
Turkey would be the first Muslim country in the union. We had an inter-port lecturer from Lebanon on the ship before we got to Turkey named professor Barghoti. He passionately believed that the only reason that Turkey is not being invited into the union is because Europe is racist. I’m sure this is part of it as countries like France, which has racist reputation, are already struggling with immigrant Muslim communities from northern Africa. One student on the ship from Spain has seen first hand in her country these large communities of Arabs that refuse to assimilate into society.

I brought up in lecture that one of the main marks against Turkey is its treatment of the Kurdish people. Professor Barghoti got really pissed off and went on a tangent about how every time Turkey meets the EU’s requirements they raise the bar again. He said, "Today it’s the Kurds, and then they will bring up the Armenians, and then the next day it will be the weather. The bottom line is that the EU is racist, and that is the only reason Turkey is not being let in." I do not agree with his position at all. Turkey has some serious human rights problems, and putting the Kurdish conflict and the Armenian genocide in the same category as weather is pretty offensive.

This is one reason that it might be good for Turkey to be in the EU. They would be held accountable and human rights violations would not fly. They are trying to clean up their act, and the situation would only improve.

Geographically, it does not make sense. It is called the European Union. It seems silly to invite middle-eastern countries to join. Who next? Azerbaijan? Russia?

Culturally it would be very significant. It would help bridge the gap between East and West, two groups of people that historically do not understand each other. I understand how sensitive Europeans are to their cultural norms. They have a certain time they eat lunch, certain routines, and they like things how they are. For them to embrace the East would be very hard. It would be a tough decision.

Turkey is an example of the secular, Muslim, minimally democratic society that America dreams for the Middle East. I think that support of Turkey’s entrance into the EU is in America’s best interest. The way I see it, the Middle East is in a tug of war between the westernization of Turkey, and the Islamic fundamentalism of Iran. America definitely would rather see the Middle East go in the direction of Turkey.

I am torn on the subject and to me the cultural consequences are the most important. This would knock down a huge barrier between these two groups of people. To me this decision reflects the trends of globalization in general. I have been exposed to some very special cultures on this trip. Even in very remote places I have almost always found some sort of export American culture and it makes me sick. Some places should be kept sacred. Turkish entrance into the EU would cause a huge flux of cultures in both directions. This spread would take away from the uniqueness that makes these different countries so special. On the other hand, this kind of mixing would also create understanding among these different groups. The lowering of barriers due to globalization has caused many different societies to become economically and culturally intertwined. As people become invested in other cultures, blind nationalism declines. The lessoning of tensions and increase in understanding are steps toward peace. As steps like this are taken, more and more people will identify as global citizens. If Turkish entrance into the EU and globalization in general is a step towards a more peaceful and tolerant world then maybe it is worth cultural losses.

Carpets

Out in the streets I was looking for some lunch and was invited into a carpet shop. The salesmen got me tea and we discussed family and travel for a while, and then he brought out the carpets. After about 30 minutes I ended up buying a Kurdish rug for 60% of the price he wanted. I felt really good about myself, thinking that I got the better end of that deal. I’m sure that he was feeling really good about himself, because he still royally ripped me off. It was pretty amazing how people in Turkey could rip you off but leave you feeling like a champ.

Istanbul

I spent my last day walking around Istanbul by myself. Istanbul is a fascinating city and one day was not nearly enough time. This was the first western city I have been to in over two months. It was comforting and strange at the same time. The old cliché that Istanbul is the gateway between the East and West is definitely accurate. It was a bizarre thing to hear the call to prayer echoing throughout the city while restaurant patios were packed with people drinking beer. This is a truly dynamic city that is packed with amazing history.

I spent most of my time in Sultanahmet, which is ‘Old Istanbul’ built on top of the ancient Byzantine settlement. The first place I visited was the Blue Mosque. This is an amazing building with beautiful curves and six sharp minarets. The colors of the structure are wonderful.

Outside the Blue Mosque is the Hippodrome, and area that was the center of political gatherings during the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. In front of the mosque is the Obelisk of Theodosius. The large granite piece was inscribed in Cairo around 1450 BC and was moved to Constantinople in 390 AD.

Down the street from the Blue Mosque is the Aya Sophia, one of the world’s great buildings which has a fascinating history. It was built by Justinian in 537 and was the greatest church in Christendom until the conquer of Constantinople in 1453. Mehmet the Conqueror converted the amazing church into a mosque, stamping the authority of Islam. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to see Christianity fall to Islam in such a grand fashion. And then to top that, in 1934 Ataturk secularized it and made it into a state museum! One of the grandest structures of Christianity fell to Islam and then ultimately to secularism. Ataturk was a pretty ballsy guy. I can’t image that turning one of the world’s greatest mosques into a museum went over very well. This is representative of the huge transformations he was responsible for that made Turkey what it is today.

Walking into the Aya Sofia is breathtaking. The ceiling is amazingly high and there are no supports. It just seems to float above you. The pictures do not do it justice at all.

Later on I went to the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar. At the Spice Bazaar I came across ‘Turkish Viagra’ pastries. A man in a white doctor’s coat came out of the shop for the hard sell. "Make you strong for long time," he said. "How long?" I asked. "Two hours." I told him that wasn’t long enough, that I needed four hours of strength. "Eat two then." I didn’t end up buying any but I took a picture anyways.

My Experience with the Kurdish People

So far I have only written about the strange people we met, but let me assure you that the Kurds were extremely friendly to us. They were some of the warmest people I have met on the trip. I have never felt so welcomed to a place that I so obviously did not belong. The Kurds seem to have a bad name, but they are truly wonderful and gentle people. I definitely sympathize with their situation, and I think it would be great if they could have their own country some day.

Sadly, I do not think that Kurdistan will exist anytime soon. The Kurds are very peaceful, and they do not want to fight. They just want to talk in their own language, work their land, and be left alone. Having their own state is not very important to the Kurds that we met in Turkey. If they are given a country as a result of the war in Iraq, they would not be strong enough to defend it.

The PKK is ‘fighting’ for independence. They might have had some power in the 90’s, but they aren’t doing much right now. The PKK is doing more harm then good to the Kurdish cause. Their stupid random bombings don’t accomplish anything, and in the post 9/11 world, there is very little sympathy for terrorists. The PKK is ruining the name of the Kurdish people.

Similar to the situation with Islamic terrorism, the majority of Kurdish people do not condone the PKK. They do not believe in violence, and this is a false representation of them. Back in Istanbul, there was an open distain for the Kurds among many people that I talked to. One man said that if I wanted to see a disgusting part of Istanbul I should go to the district where the ‘dirty Kurds’ live. Many people refer to them as terrorists. This made me pretty sad, seeing as how nice the Kurds were to me. They were far nicer than anybody in Istanbul was. I don’t see a solution or an end to the Kurdish problem in Turkey any time soon.

Mardin

The next morning we hopped on a series of minibuses to get to Mardin. The whole bus of people almost died once in a head on collision, but other than that the three hour ride was easy. We switched buses in the town of Midyat, and on the second leg I was asked by a Kurdish man to hold his five gallon tank of gasoline.

Mardin is Southwest of Hasenkeyf, right on the Syrian border. It is a very charming place that is built on the top of a hill. When we arrived, we hiked up towards the top of town, and got tea next to a mosque. The view into Syria was absolutely breathtaking. It was crazy to be looking down into the Mesopotamian planes, where civilization began. I really didn’t think that I would be seeing Syria any time soon.

On our way down to find a place to stay, I stopped on a baklava shop. The man who ran the place was morbidly obese. He got completely winded leaning over to cut a piece of the pastry out of the tray. It pained me to see him struggle to wrap up it up put it in a bag. Baklava had obviously ruined this mans life, and I was glad that I would be cut off when we left from Istanbul.

After dark we headed up back up the hill. There were some ruins at the very top that we wanted to see. We wound up small passageways sandwiched between houses. When we got above the buildings, we found our way onto a dirt road that seemed to be going to the top. There turned out to be a big barbed wire fence stopping us from getting to the ruins, but we found ourselves above a pretty cool mosque. It was a little sketchy being up there in the dark, but whatever. I snapped some cool pictures before we climbed our way back down.
The next day we hopped on a flight back to Istanbul.

Drinking in Hasankeyf

After dinner, we had our 9th cup of tea with the owner of our hotel. I didn’t ever see his name in writing, but it sounded like "Mr. Shell-cat" so that is what I will call him. He loved having us there. He offered to buy us a drink, and we gladly accepted. As we were walking down the street, the power went out. Mr. Shellcat didn’t seem to mind so we didn’t worry.

He took us to a dark building off the street. We walked around the building and went in a back door. We walked into a dark smoky room that was lit by a few kerosene lamps. A man in a white coat and one other man were huddled around a furnace in the middle of the room. He stood up and got us chairs, and a few older men came in a few minutes later. It felt like we were in some kind of secret meeting. It was the kind of dark, smoky, cold atmosphere that you would expect the leaders of a revolution to meet in.

We had a few beers and the power came back on. The man in the white coat ran the ‘bar’ and got us drinks while we sat around the furnace. He also spoke English well and did most of our interpreting while we talked to everyone else. It turned out that Mr. Shellcat owned hotels in many different cities, as well as an oil company in Batman. Half of Hasankeyf was owned by him or his family. We got the impression that he was a pretty important businessman in the area. I’m sure that he didn’t make his fortune on his 30 lira-a-night Hasankeyf Motel. We talked a lot about politics while we where there. Mr. Shellcat seemed fond of Colin Powell because his policy had somehow helped his oil business. As with everywhere else in the world, George Bush got a big thumbs down.

Attention turned to the portrait of Ataturk on the wall. The white coat guy told us that in Turkey if you want to start a business you are required to display a picture of Ataturk on the wall. All of Turkey seems to love Ataturk, and everybody in the room said that he was a great man. The man in the white coat spoke four languages: English, Turkish, Kurdish, and Arabic. He was going to be joining the Turkish military and hoped to be deployed to Iraq, because he felt that he could help different people understand each other as an interpreter. He said that the Turkish military provided no monetary compensation, and that he would actually have to bring money with him.

After a few hours, the drinks were still flowing and before long everybody was drunk. Mr. Shellcat kept making ‘coocoo’ signs around his head signifying that he was inebriated. One of the older men started singing in Kurdish, and before we knew it everybody was singing and clapping. These guys were really belting it out with all their heart and soul. Mr. Shellcat proclaimed that Jeff and I should not leave the next day, and that we would stay in his Motel for free. He had already spent more than we had paid for our room on our drinks. Before we left we toasted to Hasankeyf, Ataturk, democracy, God, and Spanish women.

We stopped at Mr. Shellcat’s brother’s tailor shop; he was sewing some stuff. We had our tenth cup of tea. Mr. Shellcat whipped out his wallet and tried to get his brother to make us some suits on the spot, but he was busy with other things. This was probably for the good, because I’m sure he would’ve regretted dropping a bunch of cash in the morning.

When we were stumbling back to the hotel, I checked my watch and it was 11:30 pm. We’d had a full night of drinking and it wasn’t even midnight. I’ve stumbled through the streets of Isla Vista at 4 am many times, but getting drunk with a bunch of old Kurdish men and stumbling through Hasankeyf really took the cake.

Around Hasankeyf

Check out the bucket of sheep heads! Baaa!

After spending the day exploring the ruins, we made our way to the baklava shop in town. Anybody up at school can tell you how obsessed I am with the baklava that I get from the IV Deli-mart. Baklava is the best desert ever invented. The stuff sits in your stomach like a brick, but it is so worth it. During our visit in Turkey, I ate enough baklava to kill a small horse. They serve it five or six pieces at a time here, and I ate more than ten pieces each day I was in Turkey.

Next to the internet café there was a guy grilling chicken on the sidewalk. Apparently his propane tank was running low. He had started a fire on the sidewalk which he put his propane tank on top of. I guess he was trying to get more pressure in the tank by heating it up, but it had to be one of the most stupid things I have ever seen. We yelled at him to stomp his fire out, as we did not want to walk past and get blown up.

After checking our email in the internet café, the guy who ran the place talked with us. He spoke very good English. He had been married for three years, but he said he was on drugs when he got married. Since then he had slept with hundreds of women while working as a rafting guide in Antalya. He had met a woman on the internet from Laos who had flown out to see him that year. Currently she was in the United States and he didn’t trust that she was being faithful to him. He said he was getting grey hairs from worrying about it. We had our 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th glass of tea for the day while we helped him work out his women problems.

After a while, an army truck rolled up, and a Turkish military officer came in. He was a Captain. Everybody in the internet café stopped talking and our friend went to the back of the room. They were very accommodating to him, but they obviously did not want him to be there. The captain walked up to the main computer and started using it like he owned the place. He had a big gun on his hip. You could almost smell the tension in the air. Jeff broke the ice by telling the Captain that he looked like Kurt Russell. It was a stretch, but the Captain really loved it. I snapped a picture of them and then we took off.

Picnic

On our way back to town we ran across a group of older Kurdish people having a picnic. They waved for us to come over. One man spoke very little English, and our Kurdish was obviously non-existent. They gave us some really good lamb-pizza bread type stuff and some rice and salad.

One of the men had just come from Damascus in Syria, and the other had been in northern Iraq. When we told them we were from America, he claimed that he loved America. He asked if we were going to Iraq, maybe he thought we were soldiers or something. When they got up to leave, one of the men said "Welcome to Kurdistan." I thought that this was very interesting. I have heard some people refer to northern Iraq as Kurdistan. I wasn’t sure if he that’s just how he referred to the area, or if he said that because he thought Kurdistan would be a country soon. By the way he talked about America and by his demeanor I got the impression that he thought America was going to create Kurdistan. I’ve heard that recently a retired U.S. army general made some comments on the news regarding options for ending the war in Iraq. One of the options he stated was the creation of the state of Kurdistan, and he drew the boarder partially into Turkey on the map. This apparently made a lot of Kurds happy, but really pissed of Turkey. This might be why this man had hope in a future Kurdistan.

Ruins

The first thing that we checked out across the river was a tomb of a guy named Zeynel. It was built in the 15th century. It has a lawn of grass growing on the top of it. As with the other stuff that we saw, we didn’t know the whole story behind it. We got mixed reports from people in town. It will be interesting to do some more research on these sites back at home and to learn the real story.

Next to the new bridge is the Old Bridge to the city. There are two huge pillars coming out of the river. This bridge was built during Byzantine times. One guy in town said that it was destroyed by Genghis Khan. I’ll find out about that later.

While we were on this side of the river, we had a bunch of cute little Kurdish kids running around with us.

The castle up on the hill above town was absolutely amazing. This was a strategic spot that had been occupied since Byzantine times, but these ruins were Armenian. There are huge cliffs all around, and amazing ruins of a palace on top with wonderful views of the river. The ruins are extensive and it took us about half an hour to walk around them. There are tons of graveyards up there as well.

One of the really cool things about this area is that there are caves dug into the walls everywhere you go. Underneath the ruins was a whole city of cave dwellings. A man in town told us that 35 years ago there wasn’t a city in Hasankeyf, and the whole population lived in the caves. That was in 1970! It was absolutely amazing to think that so recently this whole valley of people were cave dwellers!

We had free run of these ruins all day and the only other person we saw up there was a very furry Kurdish man who was singing at the top of a cliff. At the high point of the ruins was a grassy area with an old dead tree growing out of the middle. Looking down the valley, we could see a range of dark hills. Just over those hills, about 60 miles away was Iraq. Hasankeyf was a completely different world, but you couldn’t help but look at those hills and think of all the heavy stuff going on over there. We could have made a raft and floated down the Tigris right into Iraq.

Hasankeyf

Hasankeyf had one place to stay, the Hasankeyf Motel. The Motel was right on the Tigris (!) River and we had an awesome view from our room. The hotel cost us each about nine bucks a night. My only complaints were the hundreds of empty spider egg sacks on the ceiling and that it was freezing cold with no heater. It was so cold that I slept with my shoes on, and didn’t take them off for three days and two nights! Call me gross but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Hasankeyf was a wonderful place. It is a very small town with amazing ruins right up the hill. In the front of town there were a couple of cafes that were packed all day long. Men sat there drinking tea and playing cards. I don’t know if they were unemployed or if they were farmers that were in the off-season. The people of Hasankeyf don’t have a whole lot, but everyone was dressed very well. Most people were wearing nice coats and pants and a lot of people had nice suits. I didn’t see any poor people, and I also hardly saw any women the whole time we were there. The sun sets around 4:30 pm and by 6 the whole town is closed up. There is a single minaret in the middle of town that sounds the call to prayer. There is a huge stork’s nest on the top of it.

All day and all night Turkish military was blowing through town in big tanks. Trucks full of soldiers would roll through with huge mounted guns pointing in all directions. It really was ridiculous. Maybe if the military wasn’t waving guns in everyone’s face there wouldn’t be as much conflict.

Hasankeyf is slated to be underwater in a few years under the GAP project. The Turkish government is building a large dam on the Tigris River that will flood this whole valley. This will displace around 40 Kurdish villages and submerge this valley which is extremely rich in Kurdish history. A man we talked to explained that in Hasankeyf they are no longer allowed to build any new houses with electricity. They have been waiting for a few years to be kicked out, and he was still hoping that they wouldn’t. It would be a huge tragedy if this happened. This is just another instance of the Turkish government trying to screw their Kurdish population. This is a terrible thing to do; I hope that they are somehow prevented from going through with it. I’ve known about this situation for a while, and I really wanted to travel through this area knowing it might be gone soon. It was kind of bittersweet seeing such an amazing place that might be destroyed.

Batman

The ship cleared at 10 am the day we landed in Istanbul, we were at Ataturk Airport at 11, and we were on a plane to Batman at 12. Nothing in the last two months of traveling has gone this smooth. I took this as a sign that we were meant to go.

I was also stoked that we were able to catch a flight straight to Batman, as most of the flights from Istanbul to Southeastern Anatolia head to Diyarbakir. Diyarbakir is the only place that made me nervous. This was the stronghold of the PKK during the all of the fighting in the 90’s, and there was a terrorist attack there in September that killed a dozen people. One thing I’ve learned on this trip is that these ‘dangerous’ places are usually fine when you actually go there, but that’s how it worked out.

Jeff and I wanted to go to Batman first for three reasons:
1) Why wouldn’t you go to a place called Batman?
2) Batman was the perfect place to start our exploration of Kurdish Turkey.
3) Batman has had an epidemic of female suicide in recent years. In the last six years, 165 women have committed or attempted suicide. Just this year 36 women have killed themselves. This was the basis for Orhan Pamuk’s novel "Snow" which we had read in literature class, so we wanted to actually go there.

The weather in Batman was chilly but sunny, much nicer than Istanbul. The first person that we met in Batman was a Turkish police man named Ahmed who was on our plane. He offered to help us get to the city center in Batman. "People like you, very strange in Batman city," he told us. Being obsessed with the ‘plain-clothes’ policemen that we had read about, we asked if he was one. It turned out that Ahmed drives a panzer tank in the hills and fights terrorists. "Kurdish terrorists?" I asked. "Yes, you are so correct!" he replied excitedly as if he had finally been understood by somebody. The airport was one room with a single desk. Ahmed told us to wait a second and went over to the desk, where he was issued a huge handgun and a bag of bullets. He stuffed the gun in his belt and said, "OK, we go now." Jeff smiled at me; we were definitely rollin’ with the right guy.

We hopped in a dolmus, which is the mini-bus transportation that is everywhere in this part of Turkey. After a few blocks we passed a tank which was the same kind that Ahmed drives. There is a healthy amount of B.O. in Turkey and we got used to it pretty quick in those small vans. There was some kind of miscommunication, and Ahmed hopped out and said goodbye. We got out in what we were told was the city center.

Walking through Batman, we got a lot of blank stares, but didn’t feel too uncomfortable. Absolutely nobody spoke English, and we could tell that they don’t see a lot of people like us in this area. We didn’t see very many women, and the ones we saw were bundled up tight. After a while, one brave kid came up to us and within a minute we had every kid in Batman walking around with us.

The kids screamed and laughed and made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I didn’t want to have a whole lot of attention. They understood that we were from America. They clapped and jumped and yelled and then started chanting "Ameerica, Boosh" while waving their middle fingers and making farting noises with their mouths. So Mr. President, I don’t know if you are reading my blog, but if you are, the youth of Batman doesn’t like you a whole lot.

One thing that we did learn is that oil had been discovered in Batman in the 50’s. Before that, Batman was a small town similar to the other places we would see. The oil had caused the new urban sprawl. Money had come in, and with it came stores pushing secular western culture. This is where the women in Batman are caught in the middle. Their older generation is rooted firmly in traditional religious values, but they want to embrace the new culture that they see on television and in town. They are subjected to a lot of shame by their families. There are suggestions that a large number of the suicides are forced or are actually murders.

You wouldn’t guess that these things are happening just by walking through, but Batman is a pretty depressing place for some reason. We didn’t feel too compelled to stay the night, so we hopped on a bus to Hasankeyf as the sun was setting.

The bus ride to Hasankeyf snaked down into the Tigris river valley. We talked to a few young guys on the bus that had a newspaper with them. One pointed to a picture of Saddam and made a fake noose around his neck and stuck his tongue out. "Very very bad" he said as he pointed to the picture. He also pointed to a picture of Bush on the next page and repeated "Very very bad." It occurred to me that he probably had family or friends in the Kurdish region of Iraq who were terrorized or killed during Saddam’s regime. To me, Saddam just seemed like a mythical bad guy in a far away place. But here, less then 100 miles from the Iraqi border, to these people he was very real.

Background on the Kurdish Conflict

Turkey is a secular country that is 99% Muslim. About 20% of the population of Turkey is made of Kurdish people, who reside in the southeastern region. Kurds are also settled in the regions of northern Iraq, northern Syria, and eastern Iran. They look similar to Turks, but have a different language and culture.

Turkey refuses to acknowledge its Kurdish population. They do not have a ‘Kurdish’ option on their census, and they refer to them as ‘Mountain Turks.’ For a while the Kurdish language and Kurdish holidays were illegal, although this is no longer the case. Many Kurds speak Kurdish as their first language, and cannot even speak Turkish.

A Kurdish separatist group exists known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). During the 1990’s there was intense fighting between Turkey and the PKK that was on the order of a civil war. This reached a peak in ’91 when tons of Kurds fled into Turkey from northern Iraq after the Gulf War. This fighting raged until the former leader of the PKK was captured in 1999. Since then, the majority of the PKK has been pushed back into Iraq, where they are much less active than they were in the 90’s. They did however announce an end to their ceasefire in 2004.

Iraq is divided between three groups of people: Sunni Arab Muslims, Shiite Arab Muslims, and Kurds. The boundary of Iraq was drawn arbitrarily to include three groups of people who should not be together. Saddam’s reign of terror was the only thing that kept the country under control and prevented civil war. This is why America is having such a hard time creating a stable democratic state. If we were to leave the situation right now, Iraq would erupt into a civil war. The option of dividing Iraq into three independent states is strongly opposed by Turkey. They are worried that the creation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq would encourage their own Kurdish population to revolt and break off. Understandably Turkey does not want to lose land, but do they really have the right to hold onto this group of people that they oppress?

After leaving Turkey our ship was heading to Europe, so this was my last chance to get in deep. The Kurdish conflict was one of the issues that I had been following before I left for this trip, and I was really excited to go to the region and see it for myself. It looked like I was going to go it alone, but the night before we docked in Istanbul I got my journalist buddy Jeff to come. As it would work out we wouldn’t see a single other westerner for four days and this would turn out to be one of the richest experiences of my trip.

What's in the pack?

I know that everybody is dying to know what I carry in my pack. This is what came out of it when I got back from my 6-day trip in Egypt.

Clothes: Shoes, 1 pair pants, belt, 5 pair socks, 5 pair underwear, 3 T-shirts, thermal long sleeve, fleece, jacket, swim shorts(cause you never know), and a beanie

Toiletries: Deodorant, toothbrush/paste, J&J head-to-toe soap, Neosporin, hand sanitizer (essential), toilet paper (even more essential), bug repellant, Malaria pills, travel towel

Other Stuff: Watch, Guidebook, pocketknife, flashlight, journal, sunglasses, money belt, passport, local currency, credit cards

Notice that I had exactly one Egyptian pound left when I stepped off the bus in Alexandria. That is equivalent to 17 cents. If that isn’t perfect planning then I don’t know what is.

Random Thoughts About Egypt

Women in Egypt are completely bundled up. Most have long sleeves and a scarf rapped around their head, covering their hair and their neck. There were even a few of the Afghanistan style veils where you can’t even see their eyes. In Cairo only there were some women that weren’t covering their hair, and this seemed to be accepted. We had an Egyptian inter-port student that got in the ship in India, and he explained how Egyptians think about it. He said that by covering themselves, women are respecting themselves. He then went on to say that if a woman respects herself that she deserves to be respected, and if she doesn’t respect herself that she doesn’t deserve to be respected.

Homosexuality is illegal in Egypt, and our inter-port student would get furious if gays were mentioned. He would get very angry and claim that homosexuals don’t actually exist. I don’t want to make him out to be a bad guy, just to show the attitude about women and gays in Egypt.
Cairo is a crazy place, and like New York it never sleeps. I read somewhere that living in Cairo is the equivalent of smoking 9 cigarettes a day, and I believe it. It was very polluted and the streets were clogged all day.

The food was super good, but pretty hard on the stomach. Our last lunch in Cairo, we were able to get ten falafel sandwiches and tea for about $1.75. If you eat at the right places and sleep in a cheep hostel, you could comfortably live in Egypt on less than ten dollars a day. Toward the end of our trip we were getting pretty confident in our stomachs and were even drinking tap water. This was a bad decision, and we both paid for it for about four days after we got back.

I was able to pick up a lot of Arabic, and towards the end I was stringing together some pretty good sentences and picking up a lot of what people were saying. The biggest hit was when I would roll into some place and announce “Ana mish minh henna!” which means “I am not from here!” People would laugh hysterically at this every time.

Before coming to Egypt, I had this picture in my head of a bunch of hostile Arab men that would hate us as Americans. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Egyptians were so friendly to us. It didn’t matter at all if we were white, American, Christian, or whatever. They don’t hate the West, and we were completely comfortable telling people where we were from. The military was pretty intense, but they were just there to protect us.

Recent terrorist activities had greatly shaped how I viewed Egypt before I got there. When we were traveling there, it was hard to believe that these extremists even exist. Egyptians, Muslims, and the rest of the Middle East are not a bunch of terrorists! A terrorist attack would be just as shocking and horrifying to them as it would be to us. These Islamic fundamentalists are a small group of people that attack western establishments, but most of all they are against secularism. They want to establish an Islamic state governed under religious law. They take a different interpretation of the Koran, and use violence to achieve their goals. The majority of Muslims are peaceful people who want absolutely nothing to do with terrorism or violence.

I spent a lot of time standing on the bridge in Dahab that had been bombed in April trying to imagine what it must have been like. There are memorials, but I couldn’t picture it. We were welcomed so warmly that it is hard to imagine that this kind of hate exists there. Bombings and violence seemed so foreign to the places I visited in Egypt. The main point that I am trying to make is that these extremists seem just as scary to Arabs as they do to us, and it is ludicrous to lump Arabs, Muslims, or the whole Middle East in the category of “terrorists.” Unfortunately, this is what most of America does.

Alexandria

The afternoon bus to Alexandria took about 3 ½ hours. When we got there, we went straight to the library to meet the girls. They showed us around Alexandria, and we went shopping and they bought us dinner before we had to be back on the ship.

While we were eating dinner, Emy asked us what we thought about Islam. She went on to tell us that there is a book in the Koran that says if somebody attacks you that you must attack them back to remain strong. She said that what happened on 9/11 was wrong because the people in the towers had done nothing to attack Islam, but that Israel was an attack on Islam and that she felt it was right to kill the Israelis. This blew me away to hear such a sweet young girl justify killing people based on her religion. Even in Egypt, which is officially a secular state, the mentality is very religious. In America decisions are not made for religious reasons, and this is just a completely different way of thinking. This is one of the main things about the Middle East that westerners fail to understand.

If you are in Egypt, never attempt to hug a woman! When we were getting in the cab to leave for the ship, out of habit I went to give Emy a goodbye hug. She startled and jumped back about 10 feet. Even the cab driver started yelling “Why you do, American!” In Egypt shaking hands is the closest that you will get to a girl who you don’t intend to marry, so keep your distance!

Egyptian Museum

In the morning we checked out the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Ancient Egypt is quite possibly the coolest thing ever. The highlight was definitely seeing the mummies.
They had about twenty mummies that had been removed from their tombs. Some of the big names they had were King Ramses II, III, IV, V, and IX. There was also one Queen who had here pet baboon mummified and buried with her. Even though their arms were all twisted up and their faces were all contorted, they seemed very peaceful. It was pretty crazy looking at these guys that had lived thousands of years ago and to think of how much power they had in their time. Unfortunately no photos were allowed in the museum.

Coptic Cairo and Islamic Cairo/City of the Dead

Religion has possibly been the biggest theme of this whole trip. Before coming on the trip, the aspect of religion in the places I was going to visit never even crossed my mind. From Buddhism in Burma, Hinduism in India, and Islam in Egypt, I have been exposed to and learned a lot about the major religions around the world.

In California, religion is something that people just do on Sundays and is very separate from the rest of their lives. Religion is hardly ever talked about, and people cringe when religion is brought up in conversation. This is completely opposite in many of the countries I have traveled to. In Egypt, India, and Burma, people wear their religion on their sleeve. Even taxi drivers would ask us right up front what religion we believe in. The call to prayer plays five times a day all over Egypt. In Cairo, many men have scars on their foreheads from years of carpet burn while praying. The level to which people live their lives for their religion is so different from what I am used to, and is one of the most amazing things I have discovered about people on the other side of the world. The devotion to religion in these countries has left a big impression on me.

In Cairo we visited the Coptic area. Copts are a sect of Christians who were the majority in Egypt before the arrival of Islam. Currently about six percent of Egypt is Coptic Christian. We visited the Monastery and Church of St. George. While we were there, some Egyptians wanted to have their picture taken with us. They were Coptic and they all had a cross tattoo on the inside of their right wrist. This was the same tattoo that our driver Tony had inside his right wrist. Being a minority in Egypt, we figured that they were really excited to see some white protestant Christian looking people visiting their Church. When we were in the basement of this church looking at old artifacts, the call to prayer came on. When the call to prayer plays, it comes from all directions and really lights up the city. Standing in the basement of this amazing church and hearing the call to prayer echo through the halls, I could feel the tension between these Christians and the Islamic world they live in. This was the first time that I have seen Christianity as a small minority. Although the whole Coptic area is blocked off and guarded by military, it is still pretty amazing that Christians can live here as peacefully as they do.

Next we went to Islamic Cairo, which is a fascinating section of the city that is home to more than 800 Islamic monuments. Minarets dot the skyline in every direction. We first went to the Citadel which was home to Egypt’s rulers for over 700 years. It also contains Mosque of Mohammed Ali within its walls. We had an amazing view of Cairo from up there, and could see out to the pyramids. While we were there, we met two Egyptian girls named Emy and Asmaa. It turned out that they were from Alexandria, where we were going the next day, and we made plans to meet up with them in the afternoon.

The City of the Dead is a very conservative area of Islamic Cairo that is home to many Islamic cemeteries. This area is very poor and many people live among the cemeteries. This is definitely the most intimidating place in Cairo, and it feels like stepping back into time, into a completely different world. We went into a 700 year old mosque, and were able to climb to the top of one of the minarets. It took us a long time to make our way up the dark spiral staircases, but the view at the top was amazing. This place has not changed for many centuries, and looking from the top, it really does feel like a ‘City of the Dead.’

The Pyramids

No trip to Egypt would be complete without visiting the pyramids, and we headed straight for them our first morning in Cairo. Our first stop was the step pyramid of Saqqara. This pyramid is 5000 years old. It is amazing to think that for 5000 years, day and night, this building has been sitting there in the desert. We went around the back side of it, and were easily able to get up the first step. We though that we would be able to climb the whole thing, but there were guards on the other side that were armed with machine guns. “Think about it,” Dustin said, “Those guys stand out here all day with loaded guns that they never get to shoot. I would jump at the chance to pick two Americans off the top of the pyramid.” He was right, so we headed back down. This pyramid has an aura about it that is pretty amazing.

Next we headed to Giza. These are the pyramids you see in pictures, where the Sphinx is. We rode around the area on horses, and Dustin almost fell off the side at a full gallop. It is hard to imagine how these huge structures were built. I know that these pharaohs had hundreds of thousands of slaves at their disposal, but these structures are an amazing accomplishment, and are hard to believe even when you are looking right at them.