Pharaoh Ketanamen

So, a couple of weeks ago, I went to Cairo for a work-related conference. Before I get long-winded with my trip review, here is a link to the full album with larger pictures.

The first thing I noticed was how friendly Egyptians are. Even on the plane, I started speaking to my neighbors on either side of me as they told me what to print on my all-Arabic landing form. After telling each of them that this was my first time in Egypt, they said "Ahlan wa sahlan" and "Welcome to Egypt".

You know, you sometimes adopt stereotypes or at least have certain expectations of people, only to have them shattered after submerging yourself in their environment. Well, I'm glad to report that people that I've met in Egypt and Jordan (which I will write about shortly) are unbelievably nice and genuinely happy to have you as a guest in their country.

I stayed at a beautiful hotel right on the banks of the Nile; and let me tell you, the Nile ain't just a state of disbelief (can you get more cheesy than that?). I first arrived to Cairo at 5am, and after 8 hours of presentations and schmoozing with industry vets, I had no energy to see the sites of Cairo at all. Imagine being half-way around the world and getting room service. Lame, I know.

Luckily, I tacked a few days of vacation to my trip. First step was to move from a 5-star hotel to a lower-rung hotel in central Cairo filled with the sounds of car horns and megaphones blaring the call to prayer five times a day. I'm glad I did. It added a bit of character to my trip and there was a great bar in the hotel where I could sit down with a few beers, a sheesha and the company of the friendly staff. The hotel, called the Windsor Hotel, used to be it a British officer's club during WWII, and has apparently been in several movies including 'Around the World in 80 Days'. Here's a pic of the Barrel Bar in the hotel:


On my first day of touring around, I saw Islamic Cairo which has a lot of mosques and nearby is the Cities of the Dead, which contains thousands of tombs and houses people who cannot afford to live anywhere else.

After that, I went to see the Pyramids at Giza. Turns out that Giza is a suburb of Cairo. I know! I was thinking that they were in some far-off desert 2 or 3 hours away from the city. Anyways, my impressions of the Pyramids don't seem to match those of most people. Don't get me wrong, the sheer size and the history of when and how they were built is amazing. But it's not like they are a work of beauty like other sites that I have seen (wait until my Jordan post). I suppose the fact that there was garbage strewn around the area didn't add to the allure of the pyramids. Check out some of the pics in the slide show below.

The next day, I went to a traditional market in Islamic Cairo, followed by a night on a Nile River boat cruise. I decided to splurge and go for the fanciest cruise since it would have a belly dancer and I wanted to ensure I got to see good talent. Again, check out the pics in the slide show below, and be prepared to be taken back (not in a good way). So these belly dancers are supposed to be mesmerizing... the way they move and seduce the crowd. Call me crazy or call me jaded. I've seen too many hip-hop videos and been to too many bachelor parties in Vegas and Montreal to be mesmerized by this:

On my final day, I went to the National Museum. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, although I did manage to sneak one in with my camera phone:

So, all in all, I had a great trip to Egypt. Hopefully, next time, I will be able to stay longer and visit Alexandria, Luxor, and other areas with ancient artifacts. Next time, inshallah (God Willing).

Here is a little slide show with various pics:

Jumping off the Island

Well, I'm heading to the land of Pharaohs, Cleocaptra, and... WiMAX ??? My company is sending me off to a conference in Cairo from Monday to Wednesday. I'm taking the opportunity to spend an all-to-short 3 extra days in Cairo, where I'll check out the National Museum and make a trip out to Giza to see the Pyramids. I wish I could go for longer, but I'll wait until my post-MBA world tour.

This past week was a return to the dusty atmosphere. One of the guys at work gave me an explanation for all the dust in the air that seems reasonable enough. I guess it usually rains in Saudi Arabia an average of 3 days per year, in the winter. The rain helps to pack the sand a little bit. This year, it didn't rain at all which leads to more sand to blow across the sea and into my mouth, hair and clothes. Case in point, a couple of vehicles in from town from Saudi. That is not rust. It's sand. Glorious sand. (click on the pics. i think you get to see a clearer picture):




I finally found a liquor store. At first, I was a bit apprehensive on going in. There was no signage, except for a one sign on the door:



Pretty crazy. Now I have no problem with religious values, but it is just a completely foreign concept to have the state enforce these religious rules for the majority of the population while it caters to the infidels. But I guess foreign concepts abound in a foreign land. At least I have cold beer in my fridge. I'm happy.

Here's a couple more pictures that just seemed interesting to me. One goes to show how McD's customizes its menu to the local community. I tried the McArabia and it tasted exactly like a McChicken. The other, well, it was taken at the mall (where else?).




That's it for now. I've got a flying carpet to Egypt tomorrow evening and will be back in a week.

A Weekend of Bahrain "Culture"

As I mentioned before, weekends here are Friday and, um, Friday. Nice huh? Luckily, we were able to negotiate our standard 2 day weekends away from work.

Thursday night, a couple of our co-workers took us to a nice patio lounge at the Ritz. We were honored to have one woman with us. She instructed us to just keep following her and look like we belong there. There's an issue in Bahrain where you usually need to be with some women when you go to 'respectable' places. Bahrain is the entertainment center for Saudi men who decide to leave their morals and Koran on the mainland. They usually come here looking for alcohol, movies and, from what I gather, certain migrant workers in the "service" industry (wink wink nudge nudge). So the local establishments usually set rules which are relatively easy to get around if you're willing to drop a few dinars to have an escort for the night.

Ananda and I sat around the Ritz for a couple of hours, just chatting over a few drinks , recapping our impressions after a full work week, still amazed how much there was to talk about our new 'home'. After that, our co-workers picked us up (they were at some dinner), and we headed over to a hotel club called Z-bar. This was one of those couples-only establishments and since we had 3 guys and 1 girl, we had to leave. I overheard a group of Filipino women talking to some guys, "that will be 40 dinars". For those too lazy to go to a currency converter website, that's about $110. Not sure if that covered the whole night, or just the ability to get into the club. You know, at least they're open about the rules here. Better than the clubs back in the states where the bouncer just ignores you while he lets in a group of girls into the club that you were told was "at capacity".

We decided to leave and wound up at some bar that had a Filipino cover band. When we got in, the band was doing a rendition of Whitney Houston's "I will always love you" from the Bodyguard soundtrack. Ananda commented how he thought she was lip synching, but she was actually singing. Impressive. We all had a chance to request some songs and they did a pretty good job overall. It was definitely entertaining. I commented about how one of the female singers sounded like she didn't even know english. She was singing the songs, and had a really nice voice, but it was clear that she was just pronouncing the phonetics and not real words. Still, I was impressed.

The next day, we went to the mall. Yes, we go to malls EVERYDAY. I feel like a valley-girl.

At the food court, we ordered our food along with some water... specifically asking for tap water. Why is this a big deal? Well, it seems like it is impossible to get tap water here. So, I asked the server why we couldn't have tap water (mind you, this was probably the fifth time we had tried and failed to get tap water). Ananda's already written about this so at the risk of copyright infringement, I'll just steal the conversation from his site:

"Could we get glasses of tap water?"
*confused look*
"Oh we don't have a tap for water."
"You don't have running water? "
"No, we don't serve it for drinking."
"Why not?"
"Because you can't drink tap water."
"What do you mean? Tap water's fine."
"No no, it's salty."
"It's not salty. Have you tried it? I mean _you personally_ have you ever tried tap water here?"
"No no, I don't drink tap water, you can't drink tap water, it's salty."

So, yeah, it's all the little differences that are so amusing, and all the big differences which make us appreciative of the life we have back home.

Another example: as you all are used to, when you finish a meal at a fast food restaurant, you usually empty your tray in the garbage while putting any dishes and cutlery in a bin. We did this the other day and I noticed some people staring at us. After wondering if they were just checking out our fine selves, I realized that they were watching us doing manual labor. I commented that they must be thinking, "Look at these Indians, they just can't help themselves from cleaning garbage." Keep in mind that, as I posted earlier, Filipinos and Indians make up the majority of the menial labor workforce.

That's the weekend in a nutshell. Unfortunately, my other day off was spent at the office. I wasn't too happy about it but we got to meet with one of the company's co-founders which was very helpful in understanding the business and the company's products and strategy.

Next weekend should be (read: better be) a full weekend and I'm hoping to get out of the city and check out the beach and desert. I've made contact with a local lounge manager who's looking for a resident DJ, so hopefully I can set up a few gigs while I'm here as well. Finally, my dreams of being an international DJ are coming true!

Peace in the middle east, or, at least in Bahrain.

Working in a wonderful air conditioned office

It's Wednesday now and almost the end of the work week. Friday is the main Muslim prayer day, so our weekends will be Friday and Saturday. It might feel a bit strange but a one-day shift in my regular schedule shouldn't be a big deal.

My first couple of days were spent getting to know the people in the office and trying to narrow down exactly what I'll be focusing on. I haven't been terribly jet-lagged, but I always tend to fade around 3pm every day. Finally, on Wednesday, I was able to get in the groove at work and keep my energy level up.

For the last couple of days, Ananda and I have gone to a nearby mall to eat lunch. It's kind of our time to get away from the office and reflect on the fact that we're in a COMPLETELY foreign land. This isn't like going to Europe. Everything is different. We've commented on our reactions to seeing (or not seeing) half the female population who are fully robed in their 'jilbabs'. Some women are robed with a head scarf, while others have their heads completely covered except their eyes. Even more extreme are the women whose heads are completely covered. I saw one woman who obviously couldn't see past here veil and bang right into a wall (just kidding). It's pretty interesting to see some younger women who have eye make-up, or who are wearing tight-fitting 'jilbabs' so you can see their figure. I realized I've settled in when I saw one woman wearing a tight outfit and thought, "damn, she's smokin!"

Yesterday, we were given a tour of the construction site that our company is building in Bahrain. I can't talk too much about it, but this is the first site being built. Other sites will be in Saudi Arabia and then part of my job is to win deals to build in a few African countries that are growing right now. It was good to see in person the "product" that our company makes, but it is a few months from being up and running.

Malls are a big deal here. There are 3 malls within a five minute drive of my office. The one we've been going to is apparently a 2nd-tier mall, but it's got a Tag Heuer store and some other high-end retail stores. Another mall is supposedly a 1st-tier mall and I'm sure it's out of this world. I've also checked out a Walmart-style superstore that is pretty upscale, followed by a Kmart-style store. Both carry similar products but the upscale one has a lot of ex-pats that are "knowledge workers" and mostly european. The lower-end one seemed to cater to a lot of the working class, most of whom are South Indian and Filipino. Migrants from these countries make up the bulk of the working class and there is a ton of construction going on. I don't know how they can work in the heat all day.

So, as I mentioned before, my weekend will start tomorrow evening. I'm going to check out a lounge or club. They have a small but mature nightlife scene here from what I can tell. I'm planning on contacting some of the local DJs here to see if I can get a few gigs. With so many euros here, the house music scene is pretty developed. I think Hed Kandi (who does a lot of house compilation CD's) has a monthly here and Fred Everything (Canadian house DJ on OM records) was here just a couple of weeks ago. At some point, I'll try out the local hookah flavors as well. The third Sloanie, Nishi, will be arriving on Friday so we'll probably save some of the partying for then as well.

That's about it for now. Here are a few more pics, showing my office. As you can see, my desk is a bit of a mess. Didn't take too long ;-p

My first blog. I feel socially networked.

Well, I'm here in Bahrain now and I've decided to start a blog to record the various aspects of life in the middle east, my experiences at work and at play, and any other things that come to mind. Please bear with me. I've have never had a diary and never been one to take pictures, much less write something to be consumed by the public.

As we got ready to land in Bahrain, the pilot announced the weather conditions. It was something to the effect of, "... we'll be landing in Bahrain in 20 minutes. The temperature is 31oC. Due to prevalent winds throughout the gulf region, visibility is limited due to blowing sand." Sand?!?! Middle East, here I come.

When I arrived, I waited for my luggage. I found one suitcase after 10 minutes and waiting another 15 minutes for my second suitcase to arrive. When the conveyor stopped, I looked around and didn't see anything resembling my suitcase. I asked if there was any luggage, and the worker said 'no'. I kept looking around and decided to check on a few bags that had been taken off the belt by a worker. And then I saw it, my brand new suitcase (I bought it less than a week ago!) wrapped in duct tape. Lesson to the wise... DO NOT buy American Tourister luggage. Big mistake.

I went through the exit and looked for the driver that was supposed to pick me up. No luck. I circled through the hallways at the airport, passing a Starbucks and a Dairy Queen. I decided to use the payphone to call a co-worker and lo and behold, I see my classmate Patrick, who I thought was supposed to be in Dubai. After a brief conversation, I found my driver, and headed to my apartment complex, where my classmate and co-worker Ananda and another Julissa, a Sloan'06, were waiting for me to go for dinner. We went for to a patio restaurant where several ex-pats were smoking hookahs and watching Germany vs. Poland (Euro2008) on a projection screen.

After dinner, we went back to the apartment. My apartment is pretty nice. 1 bedroom + 2 bathrooms + kitchen + living room on the 7th floor. Here are some pics:






So, After a relatively smooth trip aside from my damaged luggage, I wound down and went to bed.

I'll write about my first day of work in another blog.