MAURITANIA - Noukchott (2001)

Noukchott: 13.04.2001

We landed in Mauritania today at 3.00 pm local time via Madrid and Paris, a total travel time of 18 hours (hotel-to-hotel). Bits of sleep on flights have left the brain a bit woozy.

We had expected one of our customers to pick us up from the airport, but he did not appear. We spent some time waiting for him, plunged again into Africa from Europe -- children begging for frnacs, half the arcade shops closed and a bunch of dangerous-looking drivers soliciting us continuously. Finally, we called the hotel where he had booked us and they sent a pick-up.

Noukchott is a bare city. The whole country anyway has desert clime, being the western end of Sahara and the sand was everywhere. The roads are black strips on sandy stretches, buildings (usually sand-coloured) are far between with no pretensions at architecture and vegetation is very low. The men wear a traditional flowing robe and a head-dress that covers their mouth as well and they look ready to jump on to a camel and ride into a sandstorm. People from the northern part are fair and from the southern part dark. Also there is a fair lot of Senegalese and Mali people settled here who do most of the low-skilled jobs.........

After checking into the Mercure, which was a real let-down compared to the Mercure at Muscat or elsewhere, we tried to catch either of our two major customers but they were both uncatchable. So we had a free evening, so to say. We took a taxi around the city and I found that I had seldom seen a more depressing capital city. Absolute no life. We told the taxi-driver to go to the souq. Every souq he took us to was a cluster of some 10 kirana shops. We could not see any big brand outlets, let alone supermarkets. Finally we found a modern-styled Chinese joint (from the outside) and also went and had coffee and sandwiches in a mod cafe run by a French-origin Mauritanian, which was mainly filled with high-life Mauritanians, I think. The chicken-sandwich, by the way, was exactly like those made at Tarboosh in Qurm. Anyway, I'd hate to live here. Some sprinkling of whites with families were also visible, maybe settled here for generations........

The economy of Mauritania depends on fishing and they are a major exporter to European countries. There is also a bit of iron mining and export. Recently, oil has been discovered off-shore and Mauritanians are pretty upbeat about the future economy. There's tourism as well, for those who want to travel into the Sahara.

Today's tenperature was at 20 degC with a cloudy sky -- quite pleasant. People were using the hotel pool. but a couple of days ago it was 46 degC, we were told.


Tomorrow night we go back, after having visited the market during the day. For me, four flights (Noukchott-Paris-Zurich-Dubai-Muscat), a 20-hour travel coming up.


Noukchott: 14.04.2001

Well, today's entry is a small correction statement in that we saw a bit of the posh area of Noukchott, recently developed. The area has typical villa architecture but right at the edge of town, where the rear view would be miles and miles of sand dunes.

Noticed a few interesting things here:

1. Since the soil is very sandy, wherever they want to firm it up, like the driveway into some premises, they have spread thousands of sea-shells which have packed the sand under them (there is some ground below the sand) and give the same effect as that of a gravelled area, I suppose.


2. The other interesting thing was that the urinals in our hotel toilettes in the foyer are filled to the brim with ice-cubes! Haven't yet figured out exactly why.


3. Our big customer is building a big house for himself and his family. The 2-tiered house has 19 rooms, 7 of which are bath-rooms. Full of coloured tiles, including the ceiling, and dark-tinted walls. The dado and ceiling liners are in gold and silver. The place is a mild monstrosity.


4. There are white Mauritanians (ie, quite fair) and dark Mauritanians. Plus there are lots of people from Mali and Senegal doing manual and clerical jobs. We could see that only the white or fair Mauritanians were owners - possibly they carry the blood of the French occupiers who have handed down their properties along this fair line.

LINK TO NOUKCHOTT ALBUM

CANARY ISLANDS - Las Palmas/Tenerife/Playa de Ingleis (2001)

Las Palmas: 9.04.2001

We landed here yesterday at 10.30 pm and reached the Hotel Melias by around 11.00 pm. This hotel is in the northern commercial end of the island, whereas most of the tourist beaches, so to say, are on the south side. But our rooms on the 4th floor faced the sea and the roar was a steady background music.

Today morning, on our first working day, we asked the hotel receptionist to arrange an interpreter for us, as the language spoken here was Spanish as well. We finally got Fernando, who also agreed to take us around in his car, for an additional consideration. He was a young chap below 30, a native of Mexico City, half-Spanish and half-Mexican, who had come here 1.5 years ago to do his MBA in night classes. We found later that his wife was the receptionist at our hotel, to whom Rashid had initially said that on phone Fernando did not sound very impressive, so could she look for someone else! But he finally became very enthusiastic about our selling and would sometimes do the selling himself, without waiting for Rashid to give the English input.

We went around the city fairly thoroughly during the day. Grand Canaria has a population of around 800,000 out of which 500,000 is in the capital Las Palmas. It is a small city but has all the trappings of a latest European town. The commercial areas are full of high-profile shops (including sex-shops) and the main roads are wide with walk-ways, like in Madrid. However, all the side roads are narrow and chock-full of parked cars. The amount of cars is quite high compared to the width of roads and the only way the authorities can keep the cars moving is to declare 70% of them as one-way. We would invariably find a parking space at least two blocks away and walk to our destinations. Most of the cars are European -- Volkswagen (lots of Germans here), Citroen, Renault etc -- and a bit of Japanese, mainly Toyota. But usually they are small and medium-sized cars, mostly the three-door variety, which is expected seeing the dearth of parking space on the roads. Card-paying underground parking areas are also available in spots........

This place is definitely warmer than Madrid, around 25-27 degC during the day, which would at the most go up to 28-29 degC, we were told. Still, with a cool breeze, walking around was no effort at all. Here also, roadside cafes abound, but we had lunch in a typical Spanish restaurant. Fernando recommended a menu of fish soup for starters (very nice, including molluscs) followed by a fish in mixed sauce ('charni' fish, fillet of), washed down with white wine (Spanish and very good) with bread on the side. People relax from 1.30 pm to 4.00 pm for lunch, so we also relaxed.

We went to some surrounding towns after lunch. Most of the towns are beside the sea and the highway hugs the coastline, though the beaches are few and far between in this northern part of the island where we were travelling. Even inside Las Palmas, we could catch glimpses of the beach at the end of alleys while walking down a street parallel to the coast.

We finished the day by 8.00 pm, with a lot of sunlight still left to go. There was a long esplanade or paved walkway behind our hotel bounding the beach with shops and restaurants, on which we walked for some time. The beach had lots of Europeans having their last dip and kids kicking football around. It was getting a bit chilly by now but it didn't seem to affect the goras. Even at 10.00 pm, we could see them playing around on the beach which was lit by floodlights throughout the night........

On the walkway, we had noticed a shop selling 'saris' and went to investigate. The owner was a Sindhi who had been here for 40 years and was a Spanish citizen now. He loved it here, he said; all the conveniences without the hustle. Around 2000 Indians lived here, 99% of whom were Sindhis. Otherwise people here were mostly Spanish of course, Germans, retired Brits, some Chinese and a dollop of people settled from Latin America. Very few blacks. He told us to seriously think about opening an auto shop here!

We had dinner at an 'Indian' restaurant run by Spanish folk. Mutton roll was very good and we also had chicken curry (this tasted funny) with rice. We were a bit tired, so decided to ditch the idea of hitting some night-club or other which is usually open after midnight. Tomorrow we were to go to Tenerife island by ferry-boat which would carry Fernando's car as well, since we found that it was difficult to get rent-a-cars there.

Tenerife: 10.04.2001

Today we visited the island of Tenefire, which is actually the biggest island, basically volcanic, and still having the dead volcano peak called Teide Mountain, a tourist attraction. Yesterday we had bought 3 tickets on the boat leaving at 8.30 am from a coastal town called Agaete, which was 40 mins away from Las Palmas and on the west coast, same side as Tenerife island. This would give us a shorter and cheaper crossing than going from Las Palmas, which is on the north-eastern side of Grans Canaria, all the way around.

At 8.00 am, the Agaete port was dim and chilly, with the sun waiting to rise and drive the clouds away. This was a fishing town, quite famous for its seafood restaurants. A large numbber of boats were bobbing around. Our car joined a queue of cars (one of six queues) and Fernando obtained the boarding cards........

This, incidentally, is no 'o-majhi-re' ferry. Run by Fred Olsen of Sweden, it carries 900 passengers on the upper deck and 250 cars, including loaded trucks, on the lower deck! When it finally appeared, we were staggered by the size of it! Made in catamaran style and very stable, it must have been 150-200 ft long and more than 40 ft high. We sat in the car and drove in (3 entry lanes) and drove up winding ramps directed by staff to a queued parking (ie we will drive off from here again). Then we went to the seating deck with rows and rows of aircraft-style seats (much wider cabin, of course), a restaurant and a small shopping arcade. From the time it landed, the cars inside drove out, we drove in and parked, sat upstairs and the ferry again took off -- it had taken less than 20 mins! Here, people run for carrying out routine tasks. Very very impressive.........

Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz also seemed to be built on the same lines as Las Palmas -- too much traffic and narrow side-roads. We picked up a map and yellow pages from a tourist information centre and found that our visits will take us right from north to south and from east to west. We visited four towns and had lunch at a tourist beach open-air cafe, constituting draft beer, mixed kebabs and grilled sea-perch.

Tenerife is also a well-known resort island, although we could not visit the tourist spots, which included a jungle theme park, the extinct volcano and off-the-coast points for wind-surfing and diving. These islands are an European attraction practically all the year round as the climate is always pleasant, daylight hours are long, and prices are cheap compared to the coastal spots on the Med. A lot of couples in the above-50 age-bracket could be seen toasting their bones in the warm sunshine.......

We returned to Agaete by ferry once again and then drove back to reach the hotel by 9.30 pm. It had been a long driving day for Fernando also, although he never complained. Today he had brought his wife's Citroen, a relatively new car, because he was trying to sell his 15 year old BMW and didn't want to clock up too high a mileage. A good chap, with very good English. By now, he was practically selling for us. In fact, when Rashid asked him to follow up with a couple of potential customers after we went back, he balked a little, saying that to be a selling agent (which he didn't really mind), we would need a different sort of arrangement! Anyway, after his MBA (one more year), he wanted to work here a little more for experience (maybe two years) and then go back to Mexico City and open a 'Tourism Consultancy'. He already has a printing press back there run by his sister. Quite enterprising.

Today we discovered that day-after-tomorrow (ie 12/4) everything will be closed here because from that day onward, 'Holy Week' (Easter) starts. So we lost one clear working day; a holiday sort of shoved down our throats! So we decided that tomorrow evening we will change our hotel to one in the south side of the island, which has all the tourist beaches. 'Playa de Ingleis' beach especially is very well-known. Since this was the tourist season, we anyway booked two rooms in a hotel associated to the one we were staying in now.

Since we were both very tired, we ordered sandwiches through room service and slept off.

Las Palmas: 11.04.2001

Today morning we checked out of our hotel in las Palmas by around 10.30 am and loaded our luggage on to Fernando's car. We worked during the morning, visiting the southern side customer last. After that we went to inspect the hotel we had booked by phone. It was an excellent hotel but at one end of the beach, quite private without any public action, which was not our cup of tea at all. So we drove down to the Playa de Ingleis and my, what a scene! It was a fairground, the beachfront chock-full of cafes and shops and the beach, as far as the eye could see, a forest of reclining seats and red-and-black golf umbrellas. People were sunbathing by the gallon (in terms of suntan lotion consumed)........

We took a walk along the shops and restaurants, jostling through the crowds, had some beer, bought some T-shirts and decided that the earlier hotel, 5-star or not, was a non-starter. However, it seemd doubtful whether we would get rooms anywhere near the beach. We tried our luck in the nearest big hotel (2700 rooms), which also would have been fully booked, were it not for 2 single rooms that had become available due to last-minute cancellations. We did a rugby-tackle into the rooms! Tourists had been walking almost a mile to get to this beach and here we were, hardly a couple of minutes away. Phew!

We checked in and parked our bags and promptly changed into T-shirt, shorts and sandals. Till now, in our formal office-wear, we had appeared to be unbalanced people or waitors! We sat in one of the many beach-side cafes, drinking draft beer and watching the activities on the beach. People were totally committed to enjoying themselves, although crowd-level was quite high. Rows and rows of horizontal bodies, on deck-chairs or mats/towels on the sand, bodies glistening with lotion, eyes shut against the sun, praying to God that their skins will tan and not simply blister.

By the time we finished lunch and released Fernando, it was 6.00 pm, but still sunny. Rashid went and took a dip in the sea. I could see him immersing himself six inches at a time and realised that the water was cold. I didn't go in........

In the meanwhile, couples were getting generally entwined on the beach, sort of warmingup to a night of action. Least bothered, as usual, regarding others around. Nonetheless, they would claim their particular sun-chair, or lay their mat/towel on an available strip of sand and then expect that nobody should violate that space.

We returned to our rooms at 9.00 pm and finished off half-a-bottle of scotch while watching BBC. All other channels seemed to be in Spanish or German. We went down for dinner to one of the cafes. For lunch we had had a typical Spanish dish called 'paella', basically yellow rice mixed with vegetables, fish and chicken (their version of biriyani).For dinner Rashid had a kebab while I had a steak in pepper sauce. Even their sauces are hardly spicy, let alone food. I thought Spanish cooking would be spicy -- or is it Mexican I am thinking about?

The biggest dinner crowd was at an open-air restaurant with a live band, with a couple of girls belting out popular numbers in Spanish. But most of the tourist crowd would have preferred a dinner indoor, I think, what with children falling asleep and couples not wanting to disrupt proceedings.

One thing was for sure. We were the only brown-skins in the whole circus!

Playa de Ingleis: 12.04.2001

Being a holiday (!!), we stirred around 9.00 am. Breakfast at this hotel was a huge spread and although I had resolved to have a light breakfast, I ended up having sausages and bacon and cold cuts to my heart's content.

We prepared to hit the beach and started a long walk, aiming towards the end of Playa de Ingleis beach and on to the adjoining Mas Palmas beach, a goodish 4 km away. The beach was already heavily crowded with all sun-chairs anlready booked and masses of people walking along the beach in both directions. Inside the melee, people were managing to build sand-castles and play beach football and raquetball. They groups were mostly families on a holiday. We were told later that in this crowd, Spaniards were more as the Easter holidays were longer in Spain. In any case, the airfare from Germany to here was the same as from Madrid to here (which is a domestic flight) -- around $ 160/- only. No wonder European tourists find this a cheap destination.

As usual the amount of skin on display would have covered Calcutta, I think. Around the middle stretch between Playa de Ingleis beach and Mas Palmas beach is the nudist area. This meant that nudists were restricted to this area, but that area was open to all. People without a stitch on were walking around quite casually, amongst normally dressed people too! For them, it's perhaps an expression of freedom; they don't think of it as odd. As a matter of fact, we saw as many old couples amongst the nudists as young people. There were nudist families building sand castles and bathing in the sea together. I wanted to take Rashid's picture against this background but he did not want to be committed to paper. Then he finally agreed to click me, stood facing another direction, then suddenly twisted around and took my snap, like a sharpshooter! God knows whether he got me at all........

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We were pretty tired after the 4-hour walk and took dips in the sea in turn, since there was no place to leave our stuff. Eaven at 2.00 pm, the water was coldish but quite refreshing after some time. A lot of water-sports were going on -- speedboats, towing, para-sailing etc. I enquired with the sports operator regarding the para-sailing (something I had long wanted to do but but missed in both Sun City and Mauritius) and found it was around $40/- for a 10-min air-borne time. Once in a lifetime, I thought, and forked up. He fitted me out with a life-jacket and called up the speedboat to send a rubber dinghy across. The dinghy (speed-raft which goes bumpity-bump over the waves at top speed) took me out to the speedboat and I got in. A German boy was about to go up, watched admiringly by his two sisters. While he was up, the helper fitted a harness onto me, which was a set of two slings below my thighs.

There is a small platform at the back of the boat on which the flier lands and takes off from. The parachute is attached to the boat with rope that is wound on a winch mounted at the forward end of the platform. After the flier is fitted to the harness, with the rope fully wound up and the parachute very close to the boat, the flier is clipped on, the boat picks up speed and the winch slowly pays out the rope, like feeding string to a kite (it is also called para-kiting) till the whole length of 250 metres is released. The view from the top is breathtakingly beautiful and the sight of the small boat down below, holding your lifeline so to speak, gives a very peculiar feeling. Just the sun and the orange parachute above, the blue sea all around and a long white beach at one edge.

The boatmen once slowed down the boat and the parachute dropped down till my legs and backside were skimming the water. Then it speeded up again and I was whisked up high once more. Finally the winch slowly pulled the rope in so that I gradually came close to the boat slowly from the air and did a feathertouch landing. A superb experience.

We had lunch after this (Rashid - sardines and rice, which he did not like; I - grilled breast of chicken), sent off an e-mail and went up to our rooms to try and sleep for a couple of hours since our flight was at 3.00 am and would not allow much sleep........

We did a final wandering around at 9.00 pm and enetered a bar for an hour. By 11.00 pm we retrned to the hotel to have a sandwich but discovered that they close their kitchen by 9.30 pm. We were kindly advised to go down to the beachfront and have dinner there, like all other decent tourists. Anyway, since our taxi was expected at midnight, we shelved our dinner plans for the airport.

LINK TO CANARY ISLANDS ALBUM

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SPAIN - Madrid (2001)

Madrid: 8.04.2001

This time around the touring load was lower -- just two countries, Canary Islands and Mauritius -- and we would be through in 8 days. But the routing was pretty convoluted: Muscat - Zurich - Madrid - Grand Canary, and each of the following legs equally wobbly! However, the silver lining was that we had around 8 hours of free time ar Madrid and would be able to take a peek at the same city.

I had boarded the Zurich flight from Muscat at midnight. The same flight, stopping at Dubai, picked up my colleague Rashid. Swissair seems to be a good airline; good plane and staff. In any case, I am never able to sleep much on flights. My co-passengers were practically all white, mostly Swiss and some Germans. My neighbour was a German who had come to troubleshoot for a firm in Muscat that had bought his machinery. In the end, he has not been paid for his visit, so he was quite unhappy. On top of that, he had left his coat in the departure lounge. Temperature in Zurich was said to be 4 degC and he had to go on to Stuttgart by train, so he was a fairly tense man overall.

When we landed at Zurich at 6.30 am, it was just dawn. The sky was overcast, it was drizzling and the temperature was actually 4 degC. My friend gave one last shiver and ran out of the exit.

We freshened up here and boarded the flight to Madrid at 8.30 am. I was trying to send home an e-mail from a free internet kiosk, but the hotmail box had expired and by the time I realised that and created a new one, it was time to go.........

We landed at Madrid at 10.30 am with a bracing 14 degC. From the air the countryside looked beautiful, like a painted scene. The fields, mostly polygons, are separated by white roads are either uniformly green or dusty white. The ploughing or hoeing marks on the green fields look exactly like brush-strokes on canvas.

The day was very sunny and the air slightly chilly -- an excellent combination. Our continuing flight to Canary would be in the domestic sector, so we went out through immigration and decided to leave our bags in the cloak-room. The cloakroom girl was very helpful in suggesting that the best course of action for us would be to take the bus to the centre of the city (Columbus Square) and maybe walk around the place and have lunch somewhere. So we took the bus, a huge spanking new luxury coach with luggage racks and all, better than any taxi that we could have imagined, and got dropped at Columbus Square........

Madrid is a city where the old architecture is still preserved well and also in use. Columbus Square has a huge pillar with the statue of Columbus on top and a couple of massive stone blocks with writings commemorating the discovery of America. The avenues are wide, lined with flowers and trees, and the pedestrian walking areas (pavements and promenades) are very generously allotted. Shops line the streets but were closed on account of it being a Sunday. From the main road, small side-roads (all one-way) lead off at regular inetervals, lined by tall old-fashioned buildings with huge doors and small wrought-iron railing verandahs. It's very quiet in the side streets and with very few people around today, it seemed quite possible that suddenly a Spanish gentlemen dressed in all his finery will just walk around the corner!

There were some museums -- historical and art -- within walking distance but we decided that we had no time to spend inside buildings. Each place deserves a couple of hours and in a city with 50-60 art galleries and 20 odd museums, we might as well not try. We were wondering what to do in this time available (very few people speak English, so getting local advice was next to impossible!) when we suddenly saw a double-decker with an open top, driving slowly along, the upper deck occupied by a few passengers gazing around. Bingo! This was the thing for us -- see the main sights in the city in a short time, on a sunny day with a cool breeze blowing.

It took some half-an-hour to work out where the nearest stop was ("Por favor, no comprehendo" all over the place), which was the other side of the Square. Traffic here is very organised and jaywalkers are likely to get run over. Three-lane high-speed roads, pedestrian crossings with go-no-go -- all the shine of a European capital. So we worked our way around the square to the bus stop and boarded the top of an open-top double-decker. This fleet of buses keep going around on a fixed route with stops. We did not want to get down, but people would usually get off at some place they wanted to see and again get onto another such bus that came along, on the same ticket and any time during the day. A good system.
On a Sunday morning at 1.00 pm, the bus stop was not crowded. Here the sun rises at 8.00 am and sets at 9.00 pm, so lunch is usually at around 3.00 pm. We could see that all the roadside cafes with tables and chairs spread out in the sun were still waiting for customers to come and order their coffee or tortilla or whatever. Anyway we got on paying 1600 pesos ($8/-) per head and sat high up, enjoying the breeze. We had been handed a city map with marked stops and there were headphones with every seat through which a guide's voice, matched with the movement of the bus, was available in the language of your choice. We passed the National Library, art museums, churches, the Royal Palace, Botanical Gardens and some more ten sites I have lost track of. Beautiful architecture, not only at these points, but at the street-corners and roundabouts, in arches and doorways, in pillars and water-spouts. Very very impressive. And a very clean city.
We went hunting for lunch for something typically Spanish, but were finally scared off, even from the relatively harmless 'paella' (which is a rice dish with vegetable garnishing and either chicken or shrimps on top). Finally we dived into a 'safe' Chinese joint. However, the chow-mein was like pasta and the shrimps were with shells and the tastes definitely onion-and-garlic-ish. Not much Chinese about the place apart from the waiter, who was also Madrid-born in all likelihood.

By this time (in fact while we were on the bus-top itself), we could see the 'Sunday-enjoyer' crowds on the streets, which seemed to include everybody. The roadside cafes were full of warbling couples, families were pushing prams around on the sunny sidewalks, young twosomes were smooching on benches and children were skateboarding all over the place. We also found people asleep in public parks and one girl stretched out on a sunlit bench, mildly snoring away. Making out on the grassy slopes also seemed to be quite common and a universally accepted thing. Clearly it was a h-o-l-i-d-a-y and these people were not the ones to spend it at home.

Madrid is as hep as any European metro in dress and style. However, the favourite of women with good figures (which seemd to be most of them) seemd to be skin-tight nylon tights and short tops, or fairly mini skirts. Very colourful dressing too. Full of the joy of life. A lot of men pierce their ears. Some piratical blood, maybe.

By 4.30 pm, we ran out of steam. The first-level sightseeing was over, and there was not enough time (nor energy) to get into museums and palaces. We vaguely remembered that there was a flight somewhere around 5.00 pm to Canary, which, if caught, will gain us 3 hours. We caught a bus back to the airport, collected our luggage, huffed and puffed through miles (literally!) of corridors and found the flight trundling to the runway. Anyway, we spent 3 hours unwinding in the business class lounge, to find which it took us half-an-hour in the first place.

I made a quick call home, found that booze was free in the business class lounge and organised a glass of Irish whiskey while setting out to catch up on my journal.

LINK TO MADRID ALBUM

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MOZAMBIQUE - Maputo (2000)

Maputo: 24.10.2000

We reached this picturesque place yesterday afternoon, around 3.00 pm. It was a long trip from Cairo which we left by the 10.00 pm flight. From Cairo to Nairobi and then to Johannesburg from where we hopped to Maputo. For Ravi, both the airports of Nairobi and Jo'burg were new and Jo'burg especially is a very jazzy airport, full of duty-free shops, stocking the best quality material, be it knick-knacks, designer clothing, music or diamonds. We went around quickly and identified things to be picked up at leisure on the way back, when we'd have a 4-hr break at Jo'burg.

Yesterday afternoon we were too tired to hit the market and comb for customers. However, the sight of the place was quite rejuvinating. It was a Portugese city at one time, a tourist resort by profession, and the settlers had obviously left an inheritence of smiling indolence and a laid-back attitude towards life in general. One could see the shadow of Goa in every nook and cranny. Our Hotel Cardoso was located by the side of a bay and the view from the open-air restaurant in the backyard of the hotel was quite spectacular. So while Ravi took a nap, I sat there and washed the sun down with a couple of beers.........

We took a walk around in the evening, although the hotel people said that it was not very safe after dark, and negotiated with a taxi for the driving around tomorrow. Then we took off for a ride on the same cab. Like most tourist places, this place also shuts down early and at six-thirty most of the shops were closed. We saw a few open restaurants but decided to have dinner at the hotel. So we picked up some provisions (like a few beers) and came back. By eight we were through with our recreation and were ready for dinner. There could not be a more extreme contrast after the night-life at Cairo! But we did not mind, as it had been quite strenuous.

Today we took off at 8.30 am and by around 4.00 pm we were through with meeting customers. The city seemed fairly big (after all Mozambique is a biggish country) but most of the big consumer shops were in a single locality. In the course of our wanderings, we managed to take in a few sights like a beautiful cathedral, a house made of steel and the Municipal building. But the best of the lot was lunch at a small cafe, where we had fried red-fish and rice, accompanied by a couple of shots of Amrula. It is a cream liquior and quite nice. The cafe was decorated with a number of woodwork carvings and paintings typical of Maputo. There was a huge pinning-board where clients seemed to have stuck small sketches which they had drawn while waiting for their order to be served! Ravi, a music fan, picked up a couple of cassettes of traditional Mozambique music from the music vendors squatting outside, with the help of one of the ladies in the cafe.........

We had asked the driver Isaac to take us to someplace where we could buy some cheap artifacts. He took us to the artists' display house, which was a small cottage located right by the sea -- it was a beautiful spot. We bought some small stuff (because by now we were worried about the spending, especially with Jo'burg still to go) and came back to the hotel.

Apart from us, all the guests at the hotel seemd to be goras, either on business or for pleasure (mostly). They were really enjoying themselves and were quite loud and boisterous at the dinner-tables. For the second night in succession, we went for dinner by 9.00 pm. One of the customers we had tried to meet landed up just then. He turned out to be a Bengali working for a company there for the last two years -- fairly young, maybe around 26. In Maputo there are 10-12 Bengali families and they do have get-togethers at puja-times, although it is on a very small scale. I wrote a 'Best Diwali wishes' for the association on a paper and gave him.

Maputo: 25.10.2000

We left Maputo by the 6.30 am flight to Jo'burg. As expected of a laid-back place, although we (as well as other passengers) had all arrived by 5.00 am, there was no sign of the staff till about 5.20 am!

We spent a lot of time (and a lot of money) at Jo'burg and finished off all our purchases there itself, including Amrula, leaving nothing (hopefully) for Nairobi airport. Ravi had his eye on a four-foot high wooden giraffe, which he finally decided was too unweildly and went for an ostrich egg instead. This, of course, leaving aside the sundry other purchases. I picked up an unusual picture of African figures made out of a collage of butterfly wings!
......

.Nairobi was a short transit and I boarded the Muscat flight while Ravi went off to Dubai. On 24th itself I had learnt that 26th was a holiday instead of 25th as was announced earlier, so I was getting a well-deserved rest for 2 days. There's a Diwali party at home tonight, so life's full of action.

Reached home finally at 1.30 am.

LINK TO MAPUTO ALBUM

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EGYPT - Cairo (2000)

Cairo: 16.10.2000

It's a great feeling landing in one of the richest cities in terms of cultural heritage. The Cairo we see on film is typically very busy streets with small shops at every corner and all Egyptians out to gyp you in every bargain. There IS an old souq like that of course, but as we drove to Sheraton from the airport at 9.00am in the morning, we passed through a huge modern city, chock-a-block with tall buildings and umpteen flyovers. It seemed almost like Mumbai without the jostling crowds! I was very impressed. Khartoum was definitely a small village before this. In fact, when I told one of our customers about this observation, he was shocked that I could even make the comparison: "Johannesburg, okay," he said. "But Khartoum! La, la..."

During the day, meeting customers and travelling through the streets, the city came through almost like home. The spread of regular shops and hawkers, the 'bindaas' people walking on the streets, the Calcutta-style driving -- all encouraged us to just take a walk in the streets, soaking in the bright sun and enjoying the 24-27 degC weather at this time of the year.

Cairo has a population of around 15 million, with maybe another 2 million floating (Egypt is 65 million). So it's a metro all right. Commuting modes include cars, buses, subways and trams! Yes trams -- I was thrilled to see them. There are ferries for crossing the Nile in a comfortable manner as well. The river flows right through the city and looks much more beautiful than it did at Khartoum. We have a good view of it from the 19th floor of our hotel and at night the lights on the river, as well as over the rest of Cairo, sparkle like diamonds at a candle-lit dinner. There are around ten bridges crossing the Nile and we crossed the water many times during the day.

Egyptians are in general a friendly, garrulous and 'drama-baaz' lot. But the city itself is very safe and tourist-friendly. There is a lot of European influence and people are dressed in the heights of fashion. This is one African country where there is money to spend and, as our customer said, shades of Jo'burg are there in the hotels and shopping plazas.

We worked throughout the day till 6 pm. Here people work 11.00 am to 10.00 pm in general, and only after around 9.00 pm, the evening is said to start. We went for dinner to an Italian restaurant decorated with wood-panelling, old pistols, anchors, ship's wheel and so on. The food was superb and in spite of this being the first day of the week, it was full. We left at 11.30 pm and there was not much of diminishing of cars on the road. We went to the university campus, which is huge, for some pictures, and got dropped after 12.00 pm.

Cairo/Alexandria: 17.10.2000

Quite a long working day today.

Planning time is very difficult here. To start with, people come to office between 10.00-12.00, and if we land up somewhere in between, we have to wait for an hour or so. Then there is no hurrying the business discussionl. After all the enquiries about families and weather, there will be at least an hour spent on how bad the business scene is, how regressive the economic policies and custom rules, how unscrupulous the competitors, how stingy the customers, and how ignorant suppliers like us to all these vagaries. If we are able to deal with three customers to there satisfaction, that is a very efficient day. Most days we are skipping lunch, or having something like pastries, and on all days dinner is outside. Time taken to complete meetings is also extended by the heavy Cairo traffic, the spread of the city, and consequently the considerable time that it takes to go from one place to another.

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Today we planned to go to Alexandria, a port on the Mediterranean, around 3 hours away by rail. We thought we'd leave by 2 pm and reach by 5 pm, still giving us an hour of daylight to let us see this beautiful city, after which we would meet our customers for 2 hours, leave by 8.00 pm, and be back at Cairo by 11.00 pm latest. But as usual, our morning customers delayed us so much that we could reach Alexandria only after dark and had to meet our customer immediately, a meeting that carried on to dinner and finished at 11.30 pm. The fleeting impression I had of Alexandria was that of a laid back city with a mixture of the modern and the ancient with the latest cars vying with horse-drawn carriages and trams (again!). In fact, here the trams criss-cross the city, unlike in Cairo where it is only in the suburbs and they are very long with three bogies.

We had gone to Alexandria by train, which was in this case a very well-maintained AC chair-car. Both the Cairo and Alexandria stations are quite big. The countryside is very much like 'graam bangla' -- green fields, cows, cottages. The tenement buildings near the stations have the typical semi-dilapidated look with clothing hanging outside.

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The days are passing quite fast and there is hardly any time for sight-seeing. We have reserved Sunday for the famous Cairo museum and the Pyramids of Giza. Plus the souq has to be visited to buy some take-aways. Hopefully, at least these will come through.

I forgot to mention the dinner at Alexandria. This port city is famous for sea-food and our customer took us for dinner to a roadside 'dhaba' sort of place which is his favourite sea-food joint. We chose the fish we wanted from a pile of iced fish and had a super dinner of grilled fish, lobsters (a heaped plate) and squid 'pakoras' (another heaped plate). I was having squid for the first time and quite liked it in the fried form.

Cairo: 18.10.2000

We had lunch at a small supermarket today and I tried out a chicken tawouk, which is grilled chicken fillets -- an Egyptian dish. It was served with rice. Excellent!

Today's highlight was a visit to the souq 'Khan-el-Khalili'. It's an amazing place - a maze of shops of all shapes and sizes, selling take-aways, jewelry, clothes, not only for tourists but for local Egyptians as well. But obviously the major focus is tourists. The place comes alive mainly at night, when the narrow passages are thronged with people and shop-keepers try to pull you into their shops! There are a number of stonework and silver shops, from one of which Ravi bought a lapis lazuli stone. Both this as well as the turquoise are very popular here among ornament-makers. I bought some hand-paintings on papyrus (which is far better than commercial prints on banana paper), negotiated down from 15 pounds to 7 pounds per piece! I also bought a ladies dress called 'galebia' -- a full-length cotton dress with beautiful papyrus work.

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In the narrow passages of the souq, people have set up restaurants and placed small tea-tables -- nothing but a big metal plate on a stand with a couple of small stools -- where people were generally sitting, having 'chai' or turkish coffee, and smoking sweet-smelling tobacco from 'sheesh', which is structurally same as the Indian 'albola'. The passage was so crowded that it was difficult to take a picture.

We had dinner in the souq at a small joint, five people squeezed into one corner, and were served Egyptian traditional food in a traditional way. The traditional food was mainly vegetarian -- kuboos with beans preparation, brinjal fry, egg-bhujiya, and crunchy veg chops (filafils). These were accompanied by some white chutneys with herbs which were very tasty (Egyptian cooking is not at all spicy; they prefer herbs). The kuboos is kept on the table and everybody takes food from the common plates.

We came out of the gullis to a courtyard outside at around 12.00 in the night. There were about a hundred small tables and chairs set up by the teashops. People were arriving all the time, often with big families, and immediately more tables and chairs would appear, spreading outward. Waiter-boys would come up puffing a sheesh to get it going and place it near the smoker. There would a number of small peddlers selling tissue ( a form of begging), plus serious peddlers with ornaments, carpets, stuffed animals etc would be moving around. A woman would suddenly appear, holding a small pot with burning coals and aromatic crystals (the pot hanging from a wire in her hand) and whirl the pot so near your face that you'll feel like ducking. If no 'baksheesh', she'll to drop the pot between your legs!

The best part was the number of singers going around with banjos and drums, who would sit at your table and sing for money. Between 12.00 and 1.30, while we were there, our companions called three sets of singers (the first solo with a violin-type instrument and the other two as pairs). They have very good voices and the tune & beat are very catchy.

The souq is open through the night. There is a very big mosque next to it and people often do their 4.00 am prayers and then leave, or come for prayers and stay on. It's literally vibrating with life all night through.

Cairo/Tanta: 19.10.2000

This morning I spent a couple of hours at the Egyptian museum. The collection is great, very well-preserved, and catalogued. One can see items and statues right from the Old Kingdom (around 2500 BC) to the latest Greco-Roman (100 BC). The whole place would take around 5-6 hours to see properly. I could not see the Mummy Room, but spent an hour with Tutankhamen, where almost a whole floor has been devoted to items found from his tomb as well as the coffins and body jewellery. The jewellery, mostly in gold with inlaid precious stones and coloured in various hues (red and blue being the favourite), show very fine craftsmanship. The handles of two knives found in his chamber have engravings that have to be seen to be believed! I saw the famous mask or head-covering of Tut that was laid over the head and shoulders of the mummy and weighed a solid 11 kg! The Egyptians apparently did not believe in 'Rest in peace'. Two of the three coffins were also there (the outer wooden one with the mummy inside is still in the tomb), with the inner one made of solid gold.

When I went through the Old and Middle Kingdom section (Tut is actually New Kingdom - the last king or pharaoh), I also found very good work in wood. They were also famous for working on stone monolith (single piece) statues and there are some that are twenty feet high.

There was quite a crowd in the museum today (mostly Europeans) with the tourist season just starting. Guides taking the groups around were shouting at the tops of their voices and I could simultaneously hear lectures in English, German, french, Spanish (I think) and Arabic. One or two guides had accosted me outside but I had politely declined. Cost apart, I did not have enough time for lectures and stories, having only 2 hours to walk through the place. In fact, with a guide it would have been far more enjoyable as the amount of myths, beliefs and traditions or folklore attached to the exhibits is quite a lot and beyond the scope of the small tags attached to the exhibits.

Mind you, guiding is a serious profession here and all guides have to study history, geography and archeology for anywhere between two to four years, appear for an examination held by the Ministry of Culture, and only then obtain the licence for a guide or a tour operator. So what they tell you, whether on a museum tour or in front of the pyramids, has quite a lot of depth and they are willing to tell much more than the standard package if you have the interest and the time. They are quite proud of their 5000 year heritage and find Indians quite the 'brother' on that count.

That afternoon we had lunch with a client at his house in Tanta where we had intended to conduct some business but it ended as a purely social affair. We had lunch at 5.00 pm and the tea and coffee and "something else please?" carried on till 8.00 pm. We were supposed to meet somebody else at 7.00 pm and had to keep on ringing him up and telling him that we were still held up. Egyptians have absolutely no idea of the value of time. Whenever we would tell these chappies please drop us back at the hotel, we were already late by an hour, they would get very concerned and say "Yes, yes, we will go now!", but physically nothing would move! In fact, we just about got back, had a bath, poured a peg - and our next guest landed up at 9.00 pm. We made him sit with us while we cheered ourselves up - young chap of 26, doesn't drink, chain-smokes, Lebanese by birth, born in Cairo, but has no official nationality and no passport. He's very sentimental about the lack of belongingness and has decided to become a millionnaire instead! Owns a yacht, goes fishing on the Red Sea and hunts deer in the desert. Extremely street-smart. At midnight we went to a roadside fast-food joint and had a bun-sandwich of chicken-liver. Ravi and Hesham had sandwiches of 'gambhari' (shrimp) which is extremely popular here. Must be cheap. Went to sleep at 1.30 am.

Cairo: 20.10.2000

Today, while going to a customer's place, we took a ride on Cairo's metro or subway. It's five years old but very impressive in terms of size of stations, cleanliness and frequency of trains, which is almost one in two minutes. Today was Friday, a holiday for offices and for a lot of shops, but there was still a fair number of people travelling. Cheap too, at Rs 5/- a ticket.

We had gone to Hesham's shop and had a pizza lunch there. In the afternoon he took me to Khan-el-Khalili once again and I bought some knick-knacks. We returned to the hotel at 7.30 pm sharp, since the customer who took us for lunch yesterday wanted to take us out for dinner again (big show-off!). We reached the poolside restaurant directly at Hotel Semiramis but our host landed up only at 9.30 pm. Held up by traffic apparently. Possibly true in this case, because today and tomorrow the Arab summit meetings were being held in Cairo. I tell you, something like this happens on many of my tours. In Mauritius, it was Vajpayee's visit, in Arusha it was the Burundi peace accord, and now this!

Anyway, this evening was one of the most peaceful evenings we had had till now -- no drinking and wrapped up by 11.30 pm. There was one lady beltings out famous Arabic and Egyptian numbers and our hosts seemed quite entertained. In the end, one of the hosts sang an Arabic song (with translation) and Ravi sang some Hindi songs for them (at the table, not at the mike). They all liked the meaning of the lyrics.

Tonight had actually been slated as belly-dancing night, but because a senior brother with his son also decided to attend the dinner, they decided to keep it a sober affair.

Tomorrow we have to go to Tanta, where these guys are based, for actual order-discussion, which will of course be followed by lunch. Tanta is 1.5 hours away.

Cairo: 21.10.2000

We were in Tanta from 2.00 pm to 8.00 pm. We were, as usual supposed to meet Hesham at 7.00 pm, so we had pleaded with the Tanta chappies to drop us back by 5.00 pm, which would give us 2 hours time to catch our breath. What bloody breath! Marathon runners breathe oxygen in easy-chairs compared to us.

Hesham landed up at the hotel by 9.30 pm. Tonight was 'falooka night'. A falooka is a small sailboat with a canopy and some benches to sit on. An uncle and a friend of Hesham's also joined us with a bagful of beer! That 2-hour falooka ride up and down the Nile was really beautiful. The Nile flows slowly enough and the breeze is stiff enough (also chilly) to enable upstream sailing quite fast. The city lights on the riverbanks, barely 200 yards away, give enough illumination without disturbing the beauty of the dark river. The sky was perfectly clear. Lying on the small deck in front, with my sight soaring upward past the majestically taut sail, I could see Cassiopia flying amongst the millions of dotted star. Pharaohs must have sailed down the Nile like this -- maybe not in falookas -- but enjoying the clear and balmy air.

We gave some gin-mixture to the Egyptian helmsman, a young lad of twenty, and he promptly named himself Captain Cocktail and started acrobatics sitting on the tiller. He would sail the boat quite close to the riverbank and then turn quickly, tilting the boat like a motorbike, to our conternation and his great delight.

We told Hesham that we wanted to bring our families for a Nile Cruise and he promised to get the info for us.

Cairo: 22.10.2000

Today was Sunday and I had targetted to see the pyramids and the sphinx at least on a guided tour. I talked to a tour operator, whose number I had picked up yesterday, and told her that I wanted a car and a guide in half-an-hour for a 4-5 hours sightseeing of the ruins of Memphis, the Saqqara pyramid and the Giza pyramids with Sphinx. She told me that a one-day notice was needed to organise this and why don't I take it tomorrow.

I explained to her that I was here only for today and could she help out? After some hunting around 'outside', she finally sent me a small coach with driver and English-speaking guide and we were off around 11.30 am to see the ruins of Memphis, the Saqqara pyramid and the pyramids of Giza. Since I was alone in the coach, this would cost me $70/-. Well, this might be my once-in-a-lifetime visit to Egypt, so I didn't argue.

This portion of the Nile settlement is what is called the Old Kingdom, and this is where pyramid-building first commenced. The later dynasties of Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom (ending with Tut-Ankh-Amen) moved upstream to Upper Egypt, to Luxol and Aswan, for example. The capital of the Old Kingdom was Memphis, on the west bank of the Nile. The Egyptians had a very well-developed philosophy of death and resurrection, which is why they used to bury their dead with his favourite wordly possessions to help him cross the river of death to meet Osiris for the Judgement, after which the soul will come back to the body again. The west bank of the Nile was reserved for the dead and all cities were usually on the east bank. Memphis was an exception and was built on the west bank to provide a natural protection against Syrian invaders from the north-east side of Egypt. However, a major flood in the Nile is said to have submerged the city which was later discovered through the finding of a lot of coins which showed the presence of a major trading area. Most of the architecture had been destroyed in silt-submersion and a few of the excavations have been preserved in an open-air Memphis museum at the site. These include a 'stile' or tablet with inscriptions on 'Rules for visitors' to the city, an alabaster sphinx whose period is not known as it carries no cartouche or royal seal, a stone sarcophagus or coffin, and various small statues. However the most impressive statues are two ten-feet high ones of Ramses II, as well as a massive unfinished statue of his, that are carved from lime stone and carry a fair degree of detail of the dress of that period. Ramses II was said to be a very vain man and after he became king, he destroyed the statues of all earlier kings of Memphis. Moreover his statues are always quite muscular and the standard false beard attached to his face was straight instead of curved, indicating he had ordered all these made while he was alive. In the horizontal big statue, which, if the legs were finished, would have been around 30ft high, the carving details are very good indeed, including nails on fingers.

After Memphis, we visited the Saqqara Step pyramid nearby, which was built for the tomb of King Djoser and was the first proper pyramid attempted in Egypt. Till then, be it king or nobleman, they had their burial chambers deep under the ground and had on top a flat structure made of mud-bricks or inferior limestone called 'mastaba' or a bench. The same had been the case for Djoser, when the innovative architect Imhotep came to his court and decided that the structure needs to be taller since it could not be seen beyond the walls of the Great Court, on the north side of which the tomb was located. So he kept extending the base layers and raising the structure with limestone bricks till he was satisfied with its height, and the first pyramid was born, reaching a height of 62 metres. This pyramid had elaborate inner passages and chambers which have now collapsed.

Imhotep also experimented with the first free-standing pillars of Egypt, the structure of which was copied from the structure of the papyrus stem. These pillars are found in the entrance passage to the great court. But his knowledge of pillars was so shaky (joke unintended) that each pillar was attached by a low strong wall to walls of the chamber.

This is the start of the season and I found bus-loads of European tourists everywhere with their guides giving very loud lectures. I think that together with their other papers, the guides must have been tested for their lung-power as well!

Today was a very clear day. From the Saqqara site, we could see the 'bent pyramid' as well as the Giza pyramids very faintly in the distance. This view of all the three sets of pyramids together, showing the evolution of pyramids through the Old Kingdom, is usually difficult to see.

From Saqqara, we proceeded to Giza, the site of the three famous pyramids and of the Sphinx. I have found that in all these cases of visiting historical structures, they are suddenly upon us without giving any hint of their hugeness. I mean, I knew that the pyramids were big, but the cars unload you almost at the foot of the biggest pyramid and you get a crick in the neck suddenly looking up a height of 140 metres! This consisits of around 200 layers of limestone blocks, each block weighing anywhere between 2.5 to 15 tonnes. Here I am talking of the biggest pyramid, that of Khafu. The other two pyramids, that of Khafra and Memkaura, are smaller. All the blocks are now bare but there was a smooth coating initially which has now been weathered away.

The pyramids had been subject to marauder's attacks. Mamoon of Syria had apparently tried to break into the biggest pyramid and accidentally discovered the passage. He had cleaned out everything except a 2-inch high statue! The inner passages and chambers were open to visitors, but the day's quota was already full, much to my relief. The idea of walking half-bent along a passage 150 metres long in order to reach an empty burial chamber did not appeal to me much.

The guide was giving me a lecture on the pyramids -- the Egyptian version. As per him, neither did ETs build the pyramids, nor were slaves employed under inhuman conditions. Every year, for around 3 months, the Nile would flood all the surrounding land and work in the fields would be at a standstill. During those times, the Pharaohs would ask the peasants to help build the pyramids, which they would willingly do. This way the Pharaoh would reduce discontent and the people would also have some income. This is also the reason why it took so long to build the pyramids.

The other interesting fact I learnt was that to get the blocks up, pulled on wooden sledges with the ground lubricated with milk, a huge ramp had been built around the pyramid. Apparently, building this ramp took as much effort as building the pyramid itself.

I had always imagined the pyramids and sphinx to be somewhere in the middle of the desert, to be reached by camels and all. In fact, till around 20 years ago, it was like that. But gradually the city has grown to within 200 yards of the structures. When I saw the sphinx, I was quite shocked to see the sphinx gazing upon a row of houses barely 100 yards away. I am sure he can see into all the bedrooms! This being the start of the tourist season, the place was already crowded with busloads of tourists elbowing each other around the statues and temples. There was a place called 'Panorama Point' from where all three pyramids can be phographed in one shot and the area resembled 'rather mela' more than anything else. There was a fair mixture of white, black and yellow skin-colours........

On the way back, we stopped at the Papyrus Institute and saw a demonstration of how paper is made from papyrus. Papyrus is still made nowadays for making artistic drawings for tourists, and the peeled-off skins are used for weaving baskets etc. The place also had a good display of drawings on papyrus. The quality was very good but the price was also very steep. the guides must be getting a commission out of every sale made to customers brought in by them.

I was finally back by 4.30 pm and quite tired. We left the hotel by 7.00 pm and Hesham picked us up. Ravi wanted to buy some Egyptian crackers for the coming Diwali at home and Hesham took us to a market where they were selling crackers and sparklers in the open. To our amusement, we found half the stuff was from Sivakasi! The crackers they make in Egypt are a bit different because they do not have wicks. We went to have dinner at a fast-food joint and even then, managed to reach the airport by 8.00 pm, two hours before departure time. Ravi said he had never been this early to the airport in Cairo before this.

It's a long journey ahead. We will reach Nairobi tomorrow morning at 6.00 am, and then go on to Johannesburg, from where we will jump to Maputo, reaching at 2.30 am. Ooof!

LINK TO EGYPT ALBUM

SUDAN - Khartoum (2000)

Khartoum: 14.10.2000

Sitting in Room 713 of the Hilton at night 9.30 pm. It's been a long day. We reached here at 1.30 at night and managed to catch some sleep till 7.00 am. Then it was up and away to a working day.

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Throughout the day, Sudan emerged in a typical pattern of a big and potentially rich African country still waiting to awaken. The country is rich in agriculture and petroleum. It rains here 9 months in a year at some places and the Nile flows right through, irrigating the fertile plains. Sudan should be in a position to export foodstuff, and they do export fruit as well as livestock, but the people do not get to eat in the villages. Sudan is ravaged by civil war that drains away tremendous amount of money. The North has been fighting the South ever since the British left these colonies 45 years ago. They say that the Brits left this hatred as a legacy, as they had left communal hatred among Indians as a legacy, for them to fight and destroy each other after the rulers departed.

.In the last ten years in particular, apparently a lot of national money has been piped out and all development is at a standstill. The Sudanese dinar, that used to buy USD 2.50, now sells 250 to the dollar! In the last one year, with oil exploration having taken off, some money is again evident in the market.

.Khartoum could have been a beautiful city, but it seems to have given up half way through. Both the White Nile and the Blue Nile join at Khartoum and there is a sizeable waterfront. The stretch of corniche is extremely pleasant to walk along but there are hardly any tourist-oriented waterfront activity -- like restaurants, boat-rides, or simple secluded spots for for people to just sit and enjoy the evening. Very few people actually sit there..........

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We saw some beautiful structures like the St Thomas's Church that is more than 100 years old, and the President's Palace (the road actually runs through the grounds but photography is banned). The 'downtown' area is a crowded couple of square kilometers of upmarket shops, with too many people dawdling with nothing to do. Most of the roads are plain dusty tarmac roads, reminding me strongly of a mining town like Asansol.

The Sudanese are good-looking, dignified and generally well-educated. A large number of them go to India to study and they are fairly Indian-friendly. They mostly speak Arabic, so I was mostly smiling politely today.

.Oh yes, Sudan is a dry country -- booze is banned! What a waste of lovely riverside breeze.

Khartoum: 15.10.2000

Today we took a look at the confluence of the two Niles. The White Nile looks reddish, but the Blue Nile is definitely bluer, because when we looked at the point where the two Niles met and carried on as one, the line of separation carried on for as far as I could see..

Today we saw a bit of the upmarket localities -- villas and bungalows set in small gardens and looking quite prosperous. But the roads, rather the road-sides, are not at all well-maintained and are simply piles of the red dust that pervades this part of Africa. Apparently, there is no functioning municipal corporation at all! But there is a lot of construction activity going on and the oil exploration revenue, if managed well, should bring in a much-needed dollop of government spending into the economy..

At Khartoum, there is not much to see except the riverside, the palace and a few architectures of British times. The university has a sprawling campus -- typical brownstone. We did not get time to visit the souq at all, neither yesterday nor today. Yesrteday evening, in fact, I went down in all enthusiasm to splash around in the Hilton swimming pool. It was an open-air circular pool, around 20 m in diameter, with a maximum depth of 1.5 m. The water was cold and so full of chlorine that my eyes started burning in 5 mins. My Sudanese companions did not seem to mind. After 10 mins I gave up and returned to my room, having changed in the shivering open air. It's very very hot in summer, but right now the breeze is nice and cool..

I'd forgotten to mention the taxis here. They are mostly Toyotas, but a more dilapidated set of cars I've not seen elsewhere (even the Ladas of Addis come a close second). There's not a single one later than 1980 and they proudly display their year of manufacture by putting some sticker like '78 Corolla' on the body, like we'd put 'EFI'. Perhaps it helps them to find spares!.

On both the days that we were here, one of our big customers, Mawia, had taken us out for lunch. Lunch here is around 4.00-5.00 pm, so today I skipped dinner totally and drank some orange-carrot juice. Anyway, tomorrow we had to get up before 3.30 am to catch our flight to Cairo.

LINK TO SUDAN ALBUM

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TANZANIA - Daressalaam/Arusha/Mwanza (2000)

Dar es Salaam: 24.08.2000

One full day of travel yesterday. We left Addis by the 1.00 pm flight. As a parting shot, Sheraton Addis sent us to the airport in a black stretch limo, so we got down there feeling like Clinton and Gore!

We had a 5-hour stopover at Nairobi, Kenya, although we could not get out of the airport. Fairly large in number, these shops -- seemd like private contract and not govt-owned. On the way back as well, we have a 3-4 hour stop at Nairobi, so may pick up some souvenir knick-knacks at the time.

We landed at Dar at 10.00 pm and discovered that one of our customers was the pilot flying the plane! We reached the Sheraton at 11.00 pm, quite tired with the sitting around. This Sheraton, owned by a local minister, is not as luxurious as the Addis Sheraton, which is a 7-star. Getting quite snooty, aren't we?!

Today we visited customers in the morning. Here the shops (ie, our customers) close at 4.30 pm, so it's a short working day. While taking a break for lunch, we walked around the city, but essentially, by 5.00 pm, we were free, except for a dinner appointment.

Dar-es-Salaam is a very comfortable city to live in and to visit. Tanzania is a well governed country and quite developed in infrastructure. The city is quite safe to walk around in and the people quite friendly. The general layout, buildings, condition of roads, the general demeanour of people is very very reminiscent of an Indian city. My colleague, Easwar, kept on saying:"Just like Madras, no?" at regular inetervals. There are many Indians living here for ages; there are Indian streets (eg, Indira Gandhi street), and Swahili, the African national language, has a strong Gujrati content, I'm told. But most of the people here speak English, so communication is absolutely no problem. We used to catch taxis to go around in...........

Both Kenya and Tanzania have a fair amount of industrialisation, apart from safari tourism of course, which seems to be becoming more and more popular in Tanzania nowadays.

In the evening, we took a walk down to the port-side. The Arabian Sea is fairly blue here. We also went to a sea-side restaurant called 'Slipaway' located on a sort of pier and watched the sunset while sipping beer ('Tusker' beer from Kenya, winner of 15 gold medals and the best beer I have tasted yet). The area in which the restaurant is located is on a sort of land strip with a bay on one side and the Arabian Sea on the other. With a few restaurants and a couple of hotels scattered around the place, it seems to be a popular getaway.

One of our customers were supposed to take us out for dinner, but he phoned at 7.00 pm and said that he and his family had to attend a funeral! I don't know how such a thing could come upon them suddenly, sort of. Anyway, he was sending his son's close friend, Mr Kenil, to take us out for dinner. Mr Kenil arrived at 8.00 pm and we drove out of the Sheraton. We asked what he does for a living and he said he was the manager in an Indian restaurant called 'The Alcove', where he was taking us for dinner. We had had lunch there a few hours ago! We said no scene, we wanted to go to Hotel Sea Cliff (which is on the same peninsula where Slipaway is located). He was taken aback but promptly agreed. This hotel has a restaurant right on the sea with the wind blowing like anything (I had my new jacket on thank God!). The whole gathering of guests (jam-packed mind you) seemed to be totally white, except for us pore blacks. There was a Mr Mark belting out old numbers like 'Fernando' and people were generally freaking out. I saw quite a few thin-strap-gown-clad ladies wishing they had worn their fur-coats instead! It was practically like a gora club. We had fish-and-chips and beer. In spite of the crowd, quite a nice environ.

Talking to Kenil, we learnt that Tanganaika was a German colony at one time. Cannot make out much German (or Dutch) influence yet.

Dar es Salaam: 25.08.2000

Another working day. After lunch at the Alcove, where we found Kenil presiding, I bought some T-shirts and knick-knacks from the pavement outside. For the T-shirts, two vendors bargained between themselves and reduced prices to half!.

One of our major customers took us out in the evening, first to Slipaway again for a beer, then to Barbecue Village, an outdoor Indian joint, for dinner. Being Friday, it was fairly crowded -- almost like a wedding feast -- with children running around the paths and and slides, generally raising hell. It took us around 45 mins to get served, but food was excellent. I had a 'lobster thermidor' with chips. The lobster, shelled and deep in sauce, was served in a large oyster-shell! Mr Naushad's family had lived there for over 100 years, when Dar was just a small port with deep jungle all around, infested with wildlife. Now wildlife is found only in national parks.

Arusha: 26.08.2000

We had an early-morning flight from Dar to Kilimanjaro and landed at 7.30 am. Arusha was a 30 min drive. We had managed to obtain bookings in New Arusha Hotel (with the help of our customer Mr Ashiq Nanabhai) for only one day and night. Because of the Burundi peace agreement meeting on 28/8 to which many African heads of state including Mandela as well as Clinton were coming, availability of rooms was next to impossible. Tomorrow, being Sunday, we will go to visit the Tarangire National Park and spend the night at a lodge and come back on 28/8 to catch our afternoon flight.
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The reason why an international event, to broker a peace agreement between the warring factions of the tribes Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi, is being held in Arusha in Tanzania is that Arusha has been appointed an international peace court for this region (The Hague is the original place). But it seems whatever are the peace terms they are going to impose on Burundi, they are not going to be happy about it and more violence will follow the meeting.
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Arusha is the safari centre of Tanzania. Some of the parks like Serengeti can, of course, be accessed from Kenya as well. Basically there are five parks that people visit in Tanzania -- Arusha, Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti (Serengeti is called Masi Mara as it crosses into Kenya). Arusha park is the smallest and closest. The most impressive are Ngorongo and Serengeti. Ngorongoro is actually an extinct volcanic crater which is a natural wildlife sanctuary including tribes living there. At first we thought we will go there, but it is a 5-hour drive over very rough roads -- very difficult to visit and return the same day. Serengeti, the other famous park, with mile after mile of rolling grasslands, is even farther away. So Mr Ashiq made arrangements for visiting Tarangire, where a lot of wildlife migration is going on right now and viewing animals will be easy..

Today evening he took us to the Gymkhana Club for drinks followed by dinner in an Indian restaurant. The Gymkhana Club seems to be majorly hung up on golf with the names of members who have won in championships put up on plaques. We had the local "Kilimajaro" beer, which is also quite good. The Indian restaurant was an open-air one, and they put ovens near us to help us keep warm!

Arusha: 27.08.2000

Today's highlight was our visit to Tarangire Park.

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As I said earlier, our customer Mr Ashiq had suggested Tarangire as it was easier to reach. The other parks Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti have to be reached after travelling on rough roads for more than 3 hours (in case of Ngorongoro). Tarangire is easier to reach from Arusha and this Aug-Oct is said to be season time since the animals migrate to Tarangire in order to drink from the Tarangire river which runs through the park.
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Mr Ashiq and his friend Mr Rajesh picked us up in a safari Land Rover (driven by a safari guide) around 10.30 am from the New Arusha Hotel, from where we checked out at that time itself. We will spend the night at a lodge outside town. We drove there first and dropped our luggage. Mr Ashiq had packed a picnic lunch but -- we still had to buy beer!

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We spent the next 45 mins in Arusha itself hunting for beer. Finally we headed out and bought beer along the way at a small 'snake park'.
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Yesterday, incidentally, we had visited a few places that I forgot to mention. One was this 'snake park' that had around 20 varieties of snakes and alligators/crocs found in Africa. We had also visited two very big souvenir/artefact shops. One of them, called the 'Cultural Heritage', had an especially good collection of wood-carved figures in ebony as well as other knick-knacks, but the pricing was clearly aimed at the rich-rich gora tourist! But definitely a place worth seeing. The owner had even put up artificial masai village models with clay figures doing various activities.........

We reached the entrance to the park around 12.30 pm. Our hosts purchased the entry tickets, telling us to strictly remain out of sight and not to open our mouths. This was because tickets for local Tanzanians (like them) were only $1.50, whereas for foreign tourists (like us), they were $20.00. We entered the park and drove along the narrow winding safari paths beaten out of so many wheels. The vegetation inside is typically African of course, this being a natural ecology -- wide plains, either bare or covered with foot-high yellow grass, dotted with shrubs. In places a few tall trees and an occasional baobab (the famous tree of Africa) would pop out of the landscape. Visibility was very good.

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On entering the park, the driver had raised a portion of the roof, which swings up as a horizontal section supported by pipes. We're supposed to stand inside with our heads sticking out, look around and take pictures. I'd just stood up and taken a look out when the piece of roof above suddenly crashed down onto my head! Possibly it was not fixed properly. It felt like an elephant had dropped on me from a baobab tree! Luckily the piece was padded and didn't hurt my head, but my neck and back had caught the strain terribly. During the day, the pain gradually went down, but I'm sure I'll not be able to turn my head tomorrow morning.
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However, the action started immediately. One wart-hog crossed our path and stood looking at us. A hundred yards down, we saw a large herd of wildebeeste, with a few zebras as well, walking across. Seeing our vehicle, they jumped away in both directions, raising a cloud of dust. Some distance down the slope, by the Tarangire river, we saw a few elephants, but they were too far away. We drove along some distance and saw a herd of zebras crossing our path. A group of antelopes were gambolling about. Suddenly one aggressive male started chasing away all the other males, wanting to keep the whole female herd to itself. We were able to take photos of all these. We had just about seen giraffes and elephants far away when we reached the picnic spot, which is actually at the edge of a high cliff that overlooks a large stretch of riverbank below. A large number of safari vehicles had already parked there, having lunch and taking pictures of the scene below. We also took out our lunch-basket and finished our picnic lunch. There were a large number of monkeys and baboons around and one of them actually came up to us and snatched food from one of our plates.

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In the sceneray below we could see two herds of elephants, perhaps ten in number, resting and feeding. The safari trail passes close to them and a couple of vehicles had reached there and parked close to them, photographing the animals. A couple of tuskers suddenly started a mild fight between them and started moving towards the jeep, which backed away slowly. After one of the elephants gave up, the other one turned its attention to the jeep, flapping its ears and trumpeting. Luckily, after some time it got bored of the fun and moved off.

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We finished our picnic lunch and carried on down the winding safari trail. We came down to the thin river snaking through the valley, which was very green at the bottom (Incidentally, the Tarangire Park is located in the Rift Valley and the same valley apparently carries on through Africa and finally becomes the Red Sea). This Tarangire river is never dry, which is why, as dry season starts (which is now), animals migrate into Tarangire and it is full season time for visitors as well..

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As we crossed the river on to the other bank, we came upon the herd of elephants we had seen from above. There were tuskers, females and baby elephants generally standing around. We also found a couple of lone ones feeding (Later in the trail, we found more elephants that crossed the path very close to us). We carried on further, looking out over the top of the vehicle and jolting and swinging with the trail's undulations, when we almost ran into three giraffes feeding. They halted and literally looked down their noses at us. One of them had very dark patches instead of the normal brown ones and we were told by the guide that this was a 'masai giraffe', only found in Tarangire..

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We travelled in the park for another hour and saw more herds of zebras and antelopes, as well as three water bucks. We also saw a very small deer, said to be fully-grown, with some local name I forgot. We also saw birds like the guiniea-fowl and hornbills, plus a number of bright blue birds I couldn't recognise. We also saw an ostrich grazing.
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In the last half hour, we were driving slowly along a portion of the park where, we had been told when entering the park, a lioness had been seen today -- that too on a tree! As it is lions and lionesses are a rare sight in Tarangire apparently. They are found in much larger numbers in Serengeti, and to a ceratin extent Ngorongoro. But only in Tarangire could the rare climbing lioness be found. Over half-an-hour we had no luck, and had all but given up hope when our guide stopped the car and simply said: "Simba." To the right, around 30 yards away, a lioness sat on a rock. It took us some time to spot her, so well did she blend with the bushes. We anyway took a long-shot photograph and moved on, planning to come back in ten minutes to see if she came any closer. Around 100 yards down the trail, Ashiq pointed out a tree with a sloping tree-trunk just beside the trail and said that a lioness will find it easy to climb such a tree. However, the tree was empty and we drove on for ten more minutes, took a turn and came back. When we were passing the tree again, our guide once again said:"Simba." And there, standing on a branch at a distance of only 20 ft from us, was her royal majesty!

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She looked at us gravely for some time, then changed branches and lay down with two hind legs and her tail hanging in mid-air. She gave us a photo-session for around 10 mins, after which we said goodbye to her and drove off. Ashiq and Rajesh said this was the first time they had seen a lion or a lioness in Tarangire, let alone on a tree! Beginner's luck for us, I'm sure.

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We left the park after this, having seen everything except the jaguar (there are no rhinos in Tarangire). It was an exceptionally fruitful safari for Tarangire and I'd used up two rolls of film! Back in Arusha, we had tea at Ashiq's house, caught up on e-mail (Panna's father had suffered a stroke. He was a bit better, but she must be in tension), took a bath at the lodge and went out for some beer. We went to a place which was a small room with a bar and a Dev Anand film was running on Sony TV. Only Asian crowd in the place and people seemed to be determined drinkers on a Sunday. We met a few gemstone dealers (Tanzania is a major exporter of precious and semi-precious stones; a blue Tanzanite stone is found only near Arusha). Everyone seemed to know everybody and our Ashiq seemed to be quite the local dada. At around 11.00 pm, we went for dinner at 'chicken-on-a-bonnet' -- nothing but Mumbai's 'Bare Miya', ie half-chickens on open grills by the roadside with naan and salad. It was quite cold and the ovens were a welcome relief!.

We were dropped at the 'Moviara Coffee Plantation and Lodge' at midnight and groped our way to Cottage 12. The premises were so deadly quiet that it took me over an hour to fall asleep. Easwar's snoring didn't help.

Mwanza: 28.08.2000

Today is Panna's birthday. I had tried calling her from Arusha with no luck. In the morning, the lodge premises looked very beautiful, ideal for European holiday-makers (the bathings stalls had only curtains!).

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We were picked up at 9.30 and went to our customer's office. On the way we could see roads thronged by security people and schoolchildren in uniform, all waiting to say "Karibu" to Clinton and Mandela in particular. In one more hour, road blocks would start.
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From Ashiq's office we discovered that our Mwanza flight has been preponed to 12.30 pm instead of 4.00 pm and we had to leave almost immediately. On the way, we had to stop 3-4 times to allow arriving heads of state to pass by to the city. We caught our flight with only minutes to spare.
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Mwanza, where we landed around 1.30 pm, lies just beside Lake Victoria, said to be the second-largest lake in the world and lying in the countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. To reach Mwanza from Arusha, we in fact flew over Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti. Serengeti is just 2 hours from Mwanza. Our customer Bakir said only yesterday he had been hunting in Serengeti and bagged some nine animals (antelopes, waterbucks and wildebeeste). Tomorrow some friends were going hunting on a full-day trip. Did we want to join them? We were sorely tempted, but tomorrow being the only proper working day available to us in Mwanza, regetfully declined. Conscience can be a terrible thing!
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Mwanza is a mining town, not a tourist town at all. It is quite dusty, since apart from a few streets in the centre of the town, all the other roads are ungraded rough roads. A small town with very few places to go to or see, most of which we managed to see in the afternoon. Took a few shots of the sunset on the lake as well. Bakir treated me to a roadside preparation 'mishkake' prepared by Africans that are beef meatballs and fatballs in a super-tasty gravy which is very low on masala. Poor fellow Bakir was practically at a loss as to how to entertain guys who refused to go hunting deer!......

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I asked him whether Mwanza was a safe city so he related how one morning he opened his roadside window and found blacks beating up an Asian on the opposite footpath. Nobody was coming to help - "So I took out my gun and went bang, bang at them and they ran away." Bakir owns two hunting rifles and a pistol ("for safety at night") and is going to buy a Magnum 375 for buffalo. He's only 28, mind you!
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We had dinner at a lakeside restaurant. We had returned to the hotel for an hour or so in the interim. Bakir is a staunch Muslim and in a roundabout way he had told us that he cannot even sit at a table with drinkers. We had taken the hint and before going out for dinner, had polished off a couple of pegs of Bacardi rum that I had been lugging around since Dubai. Consequently, the magical atmosphere of the seaside restaurant Sea Rock had been infinitely enhanced! Bakir diffidently suggested that we can try 'ogale' and curry, which is the standard afternoon meal for Africans in Tanzania. Ogale is made out of millet, heavily boiled and drained, so that it becomes a solid lump like supertight halwa without oil. It can be pinched or cut into small pieces, dipped in curry, which is a tasty gravy with or without solid meat inside, and eaten. The Africans roll a small ball, make a hole with their thumb, dip it in curry and eat it one morsel at a time. It was quite palatable with a tasty chicken curry, actually. Bakir said that when in the bush, he prefers this ogale, whereas his African friends prefer rice!......

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Bakir's family is very rich and he personally is very fond of hunting. He had bought one Land Cruiser pick-up and converted it to an open hunting car, which he says is the only one in Mwanza. Otherwise they normally shoot through windows which is difficult, he says, because you can view only one side. In a chase, especially, an open car is the only way. He buys permits for hunting only soft game, i.e. antelopes, deer etc. He has not hunted a buffalo since he doesn't have a gun yet. But buffalo is dangerous, he says, since, if you do not kill him with the first shot, "his blood becomes hot and he cannot feel any other shot. He will charge like a blind man." But even hunting deer can be thrilling if, like in the earlier days, you chase the deer. Nowadays, "too much deer". You can park close by and pow, pow -- two are down. There is one mad friend of his with a Nissan Patrol, who still chases antelopes at 120 kmph over rough grounds of Serengeti and will not shoot till he is at 10 ft distance. If the game turns, he will also take that turn at 120 speed, almost throwing everyone out.

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What do you do with the killed animals, I asked him. He said they strip the carcass on the ground, throw away the intestines and cut the body into 5 pieces -- four legs and chest. Then they put it into a gunny-bag ("your Toyota gunny-bag!"), and stow it at the back and go for the next animal. The Africans also take the heart and the tongue ("which they say is very sweet -- I don't know."). If they are staying overnight in the open, they cook some of the game meat, although they always carry some food in case no game is shot that day. "It's great fun," he said. "We don't sleep the whole night. Just sit and joke and come back in the morning at 10.00 am." This time, that is after the hunting two days ago, he'd asked one of his friends working in a fishery factory to pack the game meat into insulated packets. We found him distributing them to friends all over town. He offered us as well, but since we had a flight route with two changes and long breaks, we declined, being sure they will spoil.

Mwanza: 29.08.2000

Today was mostly a working day. The hotel where we are staying has a restaurant where the Indian cooking is very good. In fact, in Mwanza there are a lot of Indians.

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I had asked Bakir, when he was talking of his hunting trips, how much does it cost for a safari into Serengati. He said that the fuel itself is around $100 per day, if hunting, so a normal drive, including car charges, will be around the same. Entry is $25 per head per day. If a lodge room for two is taken, it costs $100 in season, maybe $50 off-season. People who undertake a week's safari through Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Manyara into Arusha, end up spending around $1000 per head.

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We went to view the sunset from a plot of land Bakir has bought. The path up was very rough, but as we climbed to the top of the small hill, we saw beautiful houses with gorgeous views of the lake. There were huge boulders all around and we were told that they have to break a lot of boulders to get a flat foundation for a house. One unique villa has a boulder in the middle of the living room! The location is so good that the builder asks which room needs the lake sunrise view and which needs the lake sunset view!........

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Bakir took us to Hotel Tilapia for dinner (incidentally, 'tilapia' is a very typical sea-fish here, which we tried yesterday as fish-and-chips, but it did not seem like the Indian tilapia). This hotel has a Japanese restaurant and we were treated to a full ten-course meal! It was great cooking and was done right in front of us. In fact, the table is actually a massive hot-plate with 2-foot wooden extrusions on two sides on which diners are served food, course by course, with the chef telling with which of the sauces it is supposed to be eaten. In fact, we took a break after 5 courses then continued again, ending after one hour of eating. Bakir said usually they eat for over two hours, with 3-4 breaks and so there is no overloading. The dishes were as follows and they are charged to you whether you eat them or not:.

1. Salad
2. Potato pancake (with onion sauce please)
3. Fried prawn (with soya sauce please)
4. Fish fillet (with peanut sauce please)
5. Diced chicken (--do--)
6. Fried beef (--do--)
7. Fried rice
8. Fried vegetables (we didn't take)
9. Sweets (we didn't take)
10. Fruit salad

Since they are all cooked with very little oil they are not heavy at all. After dinner, Bakir took us on a ride over very rough roads, which settled our stomachs excellently.

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Tomorrow noon we fly off to Nairobi where we have to wait till midnight to catch our connection to Dubai. At Dubai, we sleep on chairs till 8.00 am on 31st to catch our Muscat flight. No further exciting things are in the offing, I suppose, so here I end my diary for this tour.

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