LEAVING HONG KONG

STOP-OVER AT DUBAI AIRPORT

JORDAN

    Amman Downtown
    Petra
    Wadi Rum
    Aqaba

ISRAEL

    Jerusalem, Israel

EGYPT

    Cairo
    Luxor
    Aswan
    Cairo

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1 Aug. : Took Emirates Airline and Left HK to Amman

Good facilities on emirates airline, first time to use screen in front of chair. Have many TV channels - update movies, documentaries, etc., and radio channels - incl. Cantonese and mandarin songs!! For which although they are all popular Cantonese and mandarin songs but they were not sung by original singers, don't know who sang them, feel the songs a bit strange.
 

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2 Aug. Early Morning : Flight Connecting Point at Dubai Airport

While I was waiting to go on board the plane, a Chinese man came to me. Said very happy to find a Chinese person on the same plane. He was going to Jordan to set up a new factory there. He came from Macao and needed someone to help him to translate in case the immigration people at Jordan questioned him as he couldn't speak English. I said fine, my pleasure to help.

On the plane from Dubai to Amman, this man (let me call him Mr. 'm') changed his seat and sat next to me. So I learned more about him. He was forty years old. Had gone to many rarely visited places before to work, like Bengal, India, Cyprus. This time the boss sent him to Jordan to set up a garment factory - a big factory, will import labour from Mainland China to Jordan. He himself had made some money years ago and went to Mainland China to open factories by himself. He made the clothes and put on all the famous brand names like 'Levis', so it was illegal and he was finally caught by the Chinese policemen. He escaped from the catch by bribing the officers - huge amount of bribe.

He also told me he sold his Portuguese passport to others in order to gain money. When Macao returned to china rule, they have a chance to choose whether to be a Chinese or Portuguese, so Mr. M can give away his Portuguese id and sell it to another and retain his Chinese identity. He also told me the Macao government under Portuguese rule was very corrupt and there were no computer records, so it was easy to bribe the government officers and change records.

I asked him what thing made him unforgettable in his past years in these deserted countries. He then told me, in xxx (cant remember which country he told me), the people there were poor. The woman status was low and woman was 'cheap'. The local man took him to a university entrance and asked him to point any girl he liked. The girl he picked served him at his home, complete service - from showering to washing to massaging to everything, served him with nothing left to criticize.

He had two children and was divorced.

While I was listening to his story, I kept asking myself is this man a 'good' man or a 'bad' man.

I asked him, if he had money now this time, would he go back to Mainland China and do the illegal garment making again. He said yes, but this time he would separate two factories, one factory under his name for making clothes only, another factory under his girlfriend's name - he doesn't have a girlfriend yet.- For packaging and putting on illegal famous brand names, so that even if the police discovered, he could still keep his garment factory and had the packaging factory involved only. I blinked my eyes twice, didn't know how to react to his this answer.

This man knew I like travelling. He said he could give the air ticket - supposed for his family this year to visit him, offered by his company - to me this year free to let me go to vvisit Kenya - he had been Kenya and he said it was beautiful. I was surprised at his offer. He said he didn't need this ticket and could give it away to me. I said he might have found a girlfriend at that time. Anyway, I felt this offer so strange!

This Mr. M had a time took off his shoes and squatted with his feet on the chair and looked out of the window. (I had let him have my window seat because he wanted to look out of the window.) I felt so strange at his squatting. Why he needed to squat on the chair, and on the plane, and for looking out of the window only?? Did he come from Mainland China so he had a squatting habit???

Mr. m didn't seem to be a bad man, he was nice to me and offered his Jordan assistant's mobile phone to me in case I need any help in Jordan. I wouldn't use this mobile phone because I met this assistant (HK woman) at the Amman airport and she didn't seem to be a helpful person. I bargained with the taxi drivers at the airport, took my taxi and left for Amman town centre.
 

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2-3 Aug. : Amman Downtown

Amman, a dirty city, dust, mud built houses. After sunset, all men came out to the street and talked because daytime was too hot there.

One time took a taxi in Amman downtown, the taxi driver offered to take me around, I refused. He found he couldn't find any business on me, so wanted to drop me earlier than my destination - his excuse was the traffic was too busy if he dropped me at my destination. I found what he wanted to drop me didn't look that far from where I wanted to go, so I bargained a taxi fee discount from he and agreed to get off at what the taxi stopped.

As taught by a bus station man, I tried to get on a local minibus because it was cheap, but the people didn't allow me to get on because I asked them in English and they didn't understand English.

Saw how a face scarf wearing woman - traditional Muslim all cover black dress- ate in a restaurant, she simply moved up a corner of her face scarf and put the food from under the face scarf and put into mouth blindly. Interesting to me.

Stayed in a hotel which had a fan in my room. Amman was hot daytime, but in the evening it was cooler. So I actually needed to turn off the fan to sleep at night. The mosquito 'sang' to me all night, I tried to kill it, but it turned out I killed a flea. I snatched my left arm when I woke up and I found I had just killed a flea!
 

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4-5 Aug. : Petra, Jordan
 

In bus station at Amman, waiting for bus to Petra. Saw some Jordanian students waiting for a bus - for a tour, I guess. The teacher was wearing a traditional Muslim all cover black dress, but she also wore a modern backpack! And put on a pair of sports shoes!! It looked so funny to me! Made me think of the movie 'sister xxxx' (don't know the English movie name, a movie about a naughty sister, played by a u.s. black actress)

Stayed in a guesthouse. Had scolded the manager for his giving my room away to another person without my consent. I questioned him what was the respect for me while he took away my baggage from my room. He wanted me to let my room out for another group of persons because the people could then stay in two rooms door next door. Unfortunately I didn't like the room he offered to me as an alternative, so I needed him to talk to the people again. But by this time his staff had already given my room to the people. Then I asked for a discount for the rooms as a kind of 'compensation' to me. The manager finally let me stay in another better hotel for that night and let me have my same room the next day (after the group of people left). The manager gave me a good price for the room, so I accepted his offer.

Since arriving Petra about noon, already too late for seeing Petra old city. So went to a nap about 3:30pm. I had booked the guesthouse buffet for 7:30pm. Wow! When I woke up, it was already 10:30pm! Couldn't believe my eyes - how could I napped so much! I ran to the guesthouse immediately but found the dining room there was empty, even the kitchen was empty now. So I went out to another restaurant to have my dinner. Fortunately I didn't pay for the buffet yet.

Petra Old City, a beautiful old city, saw many tombs. I think one needs some imagination to see how prosperous a city once was by looking at the tombs and building relics. I walked for 9 hours that day. Very tired. Went to pizza hut immediately after leaving Petra old city. A delicious meal for me! I really needed to treat myself a good meal after such long hours of walking and climbing under heat!

At Petra old city, a local man had been following me and talking to me, telling me he lived there and could let me stay at his home next time I came. Boy! How could I believe his stupid story! I stopped and didn't move. The man waited for me for a while and found he could make no business on me and so he left.

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6 -7 Aug. : Wadi Rum, Jordan

Wadi Rum is a desert, there is one government rest house there.

First day in Wadi Rum, joined 4 French people in jeep tour looking around the rocks and desert. The driver was about 17 years old I think. He was nice to us and made tea for us several times during the day.

The jeep once couldn't move on because of a sand blockage, so a passing-by jeep helped us with all the men pushing at the back of our jeep, and it worked. The jeep ran over the sand blockage and moved on. It is very common that the jeep meets sand blockages and need all passing-by jeeps to help.

At noon, the desert was suffocating hot. The wind was hot. We took a big lunch break - 3 hours under a shadow of big rock! To avoid this noon hot.

The rocks in Wadi Rum are a bit strange to me as I don't have rocks in my picture of desert. But they stand in desert, pieces of big big rocks! I enjoyed riding in jeep and running around among these rocks. It was fun! The driver kept playing the same cassette tape on the jeep, there were two songs only in his cassette tape - two children's song! He repeated the tape for a about hundred times and he didn't seem to be tired of these two songs. I found the songs very funny- they were sung by kids- and made my jeep ride more fun too!

The manager there thought he was a clever man, talked with me about life meaning etc. Then he talked about 'Arabic one unionized country' and expected me to agree with him. I said firmly 'no, I don't agree'. He was so stupid, in reality, every country is trying to gain power, economically and politically, who cares about Arabic union? I found no interest in talking to him after I had found him so stupid in logic and common sense. He came from Sudan. He had a purpose on Asian woman I think, so I tried to stay away from the rest house the next day in Wadi rum.

2nd day in Wadi Rum, met an England couple - Patrick and Theresa, and two young people from Switzerland - Daniel and Marie. We all later became good friends. We hired a jeep for the day and spent a night on desert, open air.

Daniel had endless energy, he always ran away and went far and climbed, he couldn't stop moving, a wild child, I will call him. Marie was a good match for him. They were all 20 years old, young, nice. I can foresee and I wish them a bright future. When I saw Daniel the first time at the cafeteria of the Wadi rum rest house, his hair were all straight up, one of his shoes has soap bubbles. Very funny look! He had stomach problem that day, I gave my medicine to him.

Patrick had some language talent, he liked to speak and learn foreign languages. He would speak some Arabic with the local people and speak some French with Daniel and Marie. I joked with Theresa - his wife - that Patrick liked to show off his language talent. They are a nice couple. I like them very much. I tried to meet them again in Cairo later but due to some mistake on the hotel, I couldn't see them again. It is a pity. When I saw Patrick, he didn't have a hat or a cap with him, so I gave my hat away to him. I kept joking to him that the hat fits him well and very chic.

In the evening, at the tent site, we saw a group of Italian tourists there and they had a buffet there! A buffet on desert! Unimaginable! No shower nor toilets there but there was a buffet! Not only buffet dinner but also buffet breakfast! I 'stole' two eggs from the buffet breakfast the next morning because I knew the Italians wouldn't be able to take in all the eggs.

We just ate some bread and canned food and fruit juice we bought from a shop for dinner. At night, the people made a fire for us, we sat around the fire. The people also used the fire to make tea.

I can't forget the man who made the tea for us. He came from Egypt and was working in Jordan. He liked to tickle people's feet, waist etc., those possible-tickling positions. He particularly liked to play with me, played with my bag, my watch and my feet (fortunately my feet were insensitive to tickling.) He also liked to tickle Marie's feet which was Marie' s weakness, Marie looked very 'miserable' without any 'defence' capability. We all found him very 'primitive', with a child's heart.

At night, we slept on mattress under the sky. A starry sky, stars all over the sky, stars were in clouds, occasionally there were shooting stars.

In midnight, I felt very cold, I was awakened by the coldness several times during the night. At the last time of awakening, a blanket was put on my body, without any sound. I didn't see who this was. I just said 'thank you'. I really needed a blanket. As I have guessed, the man who put the blanket on my body was him - who played with me that night. I felt very touched. He couldn't speak too much English but he had an angel's heart. He gave away a ball pen to me that night when we played. The pen was just a low quality pen, but it meant a lot to me. It is always a beautiful thing that you can help people in need.
 

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8 - 9 Aug. : Aqaba, Jordan
 

Me, Patrick, Theresa, Daniel and Marie left Wadi rum and took a taxi to Aqaba, the south most city in Jordan - a border city to Egypt and Israel. On the way, the wheel of the taxi broke down and the taxi needed to change a new wheel. But the jack tool of the taxi driver was not powerful and big enough. So it took about an hour to try to find some rocks and try to get around it. Daniel helped the taxi driver. Finally they made it and put on a new wheel onto the car.

Aqaba was very hot, believe more than 40 degrees. It 'killed' me. Aqaba is famous for its Red Sea corals and diving resort.

Since Daniel and Marie stayed some days in Aqaba before. So they showed us where to drink the cheapest and tasteful fruit juices, where to take the cheapest and tasteful meals, where was the good but cheap hotel. They also showed us where to find a good diving centre and made a good bargain for us. We all found them very nice and very friendly.

I did snorkelling in Aqaba. The corals reef were just several metres from the shore. Very colourful and beautiful corals. We also saw a sea turtle. Initially the turtle didn't move. Then the dive master went into the water and patted the turtle and then it began to swim. It swam so slowly and so stupidly. I liked it very much.

At the diving centre, I met a funny Japanese guy. His English was too bad and didn't understand what the man in the diving centre said, so the diving centre man used hand signals while he spoke slowly word by word. It was funny to see this diving centre man speaking to the Japanese guy. He even gave out 8 fingers when he said the cost was 8 Jordanian dollars! The Japanese saw me and asked whether I was Japanese, when I shook my head, he was so disappointed, he must have thought a person from the same country could get him out of this situation.

Daniel and Marie always slept on roof top while they travelled. That day in Aqaba, after more than two weeks' roof top sleeping, they particularly picked up a room with air conditioning to celebrate their last night in Egypt (they were going forward to Syria). The interesting thing was that they didn't enjoy their air conditioner night too much as they were too used to the roof top open air nights. Daniel and Marie left Aqaba one day earlier than us. I really wished them a good future, energetic and young people.

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10 - 13 Aug. : Jerusalem, Israel

Aqaba in Jordan and Eilat in Israel are border cities side by side. The customs men at Jordan border were very friendly to me. When I walked across the border from Jordan to Israel, I felt a bit strange because I was the only person crossing this border at that time. At Eilat Israeli border, the young Israeli customs girls received me, the
checking was very smooth. One girl even asked me to help them to write some standard questions in Chinese for their future use with Chinese people. The questions were put forward to each person crossing the border, like, did you pack the stuff by yourself, did you carry any weapons, did you carry anything for somebody else.

At Eilat bus station, I was surprised to see so many modern Israeli young people, girls in mini skirts, bra top, high heel shoes, men with deeply jellied hair. They filled up the bus station. I didn't feel like it. I bought the bus ticket to Jerusalem. The funny thing was, you never knew which bus was your bus, you needed to look around at the bus station and kept asking the bus drivers which was your bus. So difficult to imagine the disorder here, really a contrast to the border control at Eilat border where clear signs and directions were shown everywhere.

I met a young German traveller girl on bus and thanks to her help, because she had been to Jerusalem before, she took me to take the bus and took me into the old city.

The Jerusalem old city is beautiful, with the alleys, the gates, the markets. The old city is divided into 4 quarters - Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Amenian. The Jewish quarter has some beautiful houses, the Israeli government obviously take special care of Jewish. They built Jewish centres.

The wailing wall square is a good place to spend hours sitting there and watching the people passing by.

Jerusalem is a peaceful city, you won't be able to see the religious conflicts from the outlook. You see a lot of policemen and policewomen and soldiers with their guns on street, they just pass by you and soon you will get used to this. There is security check before entering the wailing wall. Men and women are separated for prayer in wailing wall.

Jewish people have strong value on family. You can always see a family going together on street. Also, they raise lots of children. If they are rich, this wont be a problem, but the problem is some Jewish are poor.

In Armenian quarter, I visited their Armenian museum. The museum was in poor condition. I believe this was because the Armenians were poor and had no money for the museum. They started to believe in Christianity long time ago. Some fled to Israel. They suffered an ethnic massacre under ottoman and Turkish rule, 1,500,000 Armenians were killed in 1915. There was an Amenian church near the museum. The church is strange to me, it was dark and old inside, the clergy people wore black robe and chanted. One man sprayed some kind of incense while walking around. I felt the ceremony procedure was very strange and a bit mysterious.

I tried to enter the golden dome mosque several times but every time I had bad luck and couldn't meet their tourist allowed time. The mosque will allow Muslim prayers only for some specific days and for some specific time. At my last try, I begged the security guard to allow me to enter just one step into the mosque area (not the mosque itself). The guard refused, not even one step. So I left abruptly. It is never a must to see anything.

Jerusalem is an expensive place to stay.

I went to the dead sea. Really fun to float on the dead sea. But the dead sea killed my camera. When I tried to 'swim' back to the shore, the unusual water buoyancy made me lose my balance and somehow my left hand which was holding my camera in air dropped into water. Although I immediately put up my hand and my camera, it was too late. The camera didn't function afterwards. I found salt crystal inside my camera. So I threw away my camera. I bought two Fuji 'one time use' camera for my later use in my trip. Of course I didn't expect I would take any good pictures.

Went to Masada to see sunrise. Masada was a fort before at the top of a hill. The sunrise that day wasn't too good as there were clouds there. But Masada landscape itself is pretty good.

Needed to wait for the bus at 3:30 am for seeing Masada sunrise. While waiting, I saw many Israeli youths walking across the streets, shouting, singing, strolling, at 3:30 am! I think Israel, like many big cities in the world, had the juvenile and youths problems.

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14 - 16 Aug.: Cairo, Egypt>
 

Took a night bus to Cairo. The bus went through the Israeli border smoothly, but after passing the Rafah border in Egypt, things were getting slow, very slow. The bus stopped at the gate and waited for some police something, and this waiting was 6 hours long! Really didn't know what the hold up was. Although the bus was supposed to arrive Cairo early morning, it turned out to be after noon. I felt like throwing out at the end of the long bus ride because the air conditioning was not too good on the bus..

Met a hk guy on the bus. He recognized I also came from HK by looking at my passport when I entered the Egyptian border. He said I was too tanned at that time so he thought I came from Thailand all the way on the bus. Poor me! I didn't want to be tanned.

Cairo is a dirty city, dust, dust, dust. Also, noise, noise, noise - the two things I hate most and I am scared most. The traffic is terrible. There are traffic lights but the drivers never look at them. I soon realized I need to use my wisdom to cross the streets. I couldn't follow the local people to cross the streets - some of them run really fast! And I always walk slowly. The cars never stop when the green man lights. The policemen also don't care about these. Part of the reason why Cairo is so noisy is due to the horns from the cars. The horns come from every direction. Crazy! Hawkers yell on street, drivers horn, cars rush - a crazy city!

Went to Giza to see pyramids and sphinx. They were great. Really wonder how the ancient people built them at that time.

Joined with the hk guy, two Taiwan persons in the car for Giza. On the way back to Cairo, we bought one Pepsi for each of us and took a rest at a coffee shop. Surprisingly, the waiter put 4 capped bottles of Pepsi on our table, but each bottle had different volume! The greatest and the lowest volume difference was 3 inches!! The waiter opened the bottles in front of us. I wondered why there was such volume variation. This was Pepsi, with Pepsi logo on the bottle! Where came the quality control? What had happened to these Pepsis before??? I didn't find the Pepsi I drank anything unusual, but still found this amazing.

Visited Egyptian museum at Cairo. This is a national museum. The building outlook was good, but there was no air conditioning inside! Very hot inside! The display items were good but the way of display was not in good order and I found there were still many items inside the museum without being properly taken care of.
 

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17 - 19 Aug. : Luxor, Egypt
 

Luxor has valley of kings and some royal tombs. The picture on the tombs are good.

Luxor was hot, after one morning of walking under sun, already felt headache, needed to take a nap in hotel. Went out again at sunset time.

Sunset at Luxor river Nile was beautiful. Really enjoyed it.

Lots of people along river Nile to ask you to take their felucca (flat boat on river Nile) ride. A real disturbance to me. Not only for their insistence on talking to me, but also for their speaking Japanese to me. Sometimes I simply told them I came from Egypt when they asked me 'Japanese?'.

Visited Luxor temple at sunset time, beautiful.

Visited kanark temple, very grand, huge columns, could imagine how grand the temple once it was.

Met a Japanese guy at a restaurant. He said his job was window cleaning, but he had been travelling for one year and 11 months by the time I saw him. He didn't need to work in foreign countries while he travelled. Where came all his travel money? The secret was he had a rich father! He told me he never carried a bag or anything on his body when he walked on streets, he never took a camera with him. He wore clean and neat T-shirt and trousers, not at all like other 'dirty' and 'casual' world travellers. An interesting world traveller to me.

In Egypt, 90% of population are Muslims, however, in Luxor, almost all people are Christians, and all the staff of the hotel I stayed in Luxor were Christians.
 

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20 - 22 Aug. : Aswan, Egypt
 

On the bus going from Luxor to Aswan, a local Egyptian man sat next to me. He was a teacher in Luxor but also worked in Aswan in a cafeteria, so I was told. He could speak little English. He seemed to be a nice person. On the bus, I, as usual, felt asleep. He found me asleep, asked me, pointing at his shoulder, 'do you need to sleep on it?' god! We had just chatted for 10 minutes only, just intermittent chat only, and he expected me to sleep on his shoulder?? I really had no clue it was his good gesture or some other thing or not. I just found this very funny. Of course, I refused his 'good gesture'.

Rive Nile in Aswan more beautiful than in Luxor.

Enjoyed the night walk along river Nile, feeling stars on the sky were following me. Quieter and cooler at night in Aswan.

Like Luxor, there were many felucca men looking for business from tourists. One time, a felucca man took out a Japanese letter to me and asked me to read. I told them repetitively I was Chinese and I couldn't read his letter. (the letter must say something good about him.) He didn't believe me and insisted me to read it. While he was following me, a western man suddenly appeared and shouted to him, 'leave her (i.e. me) alone'. Let me call this man 'Robinhood'. The felucca man had a short quarrel with Robinhood because of me. I think I should feel honoured that a Robinhood was so indignant for me. Although I thought I could handle this felucca man by myself easily, I still thanked my Robinhood for his help.

Met a young German guy Stefan at the river side. I told him I don't want to be tanned and don't like freckles. At that time I already had three freckles on my face due to long time exposure to strong sun. On the contrary, he liked to be tanned and found freckles cute. I said this was cultural difference. He said tanned skin can make good contrast with gold bracelets and gold jewellery. There were many gold shops in Aswan, while we passed by these gold shops, I told him my hands are tanned. But he said he wouldn't buy me any gold. Stefan is a nice person, he taught me how to differentiate a satellite from a plane on a night sky. He tried to explain to me why we could see satellite, but his theory on sun, moon and satellite were too complicated to me, I just nodded but didn't understand what he said. We had different opinions about sandals and shoes too. I wore sandals and he wore shoes. He said he wanted to buy sandals to walk on sand - lots of sand in Egypt - because the sand could come out from the sandal and wouldn't accumulate in shoes. I said he should need shoes to walk on sand because he would need to walk under strong sun and the hot sand would scotch his feet if in sandals. Unfortunately, he didn't believe my words too much, which was my personal valuable experience. We later met an older German man (let me call him 'Ali Baba'). We joked a lot and I enjoyed the time with them.

Stefan, Ali Ba Ba and me had a 3.5 hour felucca ride on river Nile. There was breeze, peace, I enjoyed the ride very much. Also liked to play with the water of Nile with my hand. River Nile water was cool.

Little boys, 5-7 years old, riding in small boats, holding one cardboard paper at each hand and used as paddle, they could sing songs in any languages. They sang before the tourist felucca and asked for money. When a boy rode to me, asking me which country I came from, I said, 'Hong Kong, china'. He immediately sang a Japanese song to me. I didn't pay him any money in the end.

One night at restaurant, the restaurant had an extension part on river Nile. Two couples of bride and groom went into the restaurant. There were songs and drums and high tune screaming sound from a woman accompanied the walking of the brides and the grooms. Strong beat songs and drums. The 'floating' restaurant shook with the songs and drums, very fun.

Visited Nubian museum in the evening. A recently built museum. The way of display and the design of the museum is a lot more organized than Egyptian museum in Cairo. The display items are good. The Nubian museum has a garden and some manmade Muslim design. Walking in the garden at night was enjoyable.

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Took the morning train 5 am from Aswan to Cairo. When leaving for the train station, at 4:30am I surprisingly found some restaurants still open and there were local people playing chess outside the restaurants, at 4:30 am!

On the train going from Aswan to Cairo, an old local Egyptian man sat next to me (let me call him 'godfather' because he spoke with a bit rough sound). Godfather didn't know English. I handed him some biscuits and he didn't take it. He had a leather business case with him. He took a cucumber from his case and handed it to me. I thanked him but didn't take it. A while after finishing his cucumber, he opened his case again, this time I looked into his case. Wow! Half space of his business leather case was occupied by a transparent plastic bag and inside the bag there were cucumbers, tomatoes and green peppers. He took out one big cucumber and handed it to me, this time I took it and thanked him. I was hungry at that time. He then offered me the green pepper and tomato but I didn't take them. After finishing the cucumber, I put up my thumb and told him 'good', he understood my meaning and also put up his thumb. He was a nice man.

Ali Ba Ba took the same train as me, but since he was in 2nd class and I was in first class, we didn't meet each other on the train. However, we met again on the underground metro platform near the Cairo train station. He carried a silver metal colour trunk, a small trunk only. He said that was all he carried no matter how long he travelled and where he travelled. The trunk could be used as a stool also when one needed to sit. Ali BA BA was a nice person, he spoke English in the same tune as he spoke his mother language - German. We separated in Cairo downtown and I wished him good luck.

Called up a hotel and left a message to the manager that my England friends Patrick and Theresa might come to ask him where I was and I told the manager of the hotel I was staying. The next morning, I got a call from this manager, he said he felt embarrassed and sorry because he left my message to his staff and when Patrick came to their hotel, their staff didn't pass my message to Patrick. While Patrick left his hotel name to their hotel, his staff didn't tell him (the manager) immediately. When he called Patrick's hotel, he was told Patrick and Theresa already checked out. He felt very sorry for his staff's mistake and said this could give very bad reputation to his hotel and for the mistake of his staff, he already punished him by deducting half of his salary. I was surprised at his punishment to his staff (if it were true), what could one do when the mistake had already been made and the opportunity was passed? I said this was very unfortunate and I understood what he said and I appreciated his help. I didn't know what else to say. When I hanged up the phone, I couldn't help 'shit'. I really liked to meet Patrick and Theresa again. Patrick would leave for Israel after Egypt and I had particularly kept Jerusalem's maps for his use. Anyway, I hoped Patrick had not thrown away my hat which I gave him in Jordan.

Dinner in the hotel I stayed. The cook was called George. He was a trainee dentist in daytime and a cook in the hotel in the evening. He made a big meal for me, with soup, salad, chicken, beans, dessert. He served the dishes to me in person. He kept asking me whether the food was good. I could see he was expecting me to praise him. So I said 'good' whenever he asked me about each dish. However, in fact, the French fries (or the chicken?) Had strange taste and the dessert (custard) was too sweet, I didn't finish them and told him I was full, which was also true. I didn't really want to break his heart by telling him the problems of the food. He looked a nice person.

In the morning, when having breakfast at the hotel, saw a westerner coming to have breakfast. I recognized his 'Tasco' carry bag - I met him before, in this same hotel, at this same breakfast time, about a week ago when I was first time in Cairo and in this hotel. His name was john, with white beard, an English man, always had his 'Tasco' carry bag with him. He was doing a computer model on translating the ancient Egyptian words on the tomb pictures into English and Arabic. He hoped while people walking along the tombs, they could hear the words in English and Arabic. He had a wish that he could help the Egyptian people, after all, the western countries had stolen a lot of Egyptian valuables into their country already and it was a good thing that he could do something for the Egyptians. He further explained a lot about his plans and his models. I didn't understand too much what he said. But I didn't want to frustrate him so I kept nodding my head. He was an interesting man, he stayed in Egypt for months already for his research. He put his money into a soap wrap paper - his 'soap purse'. He could always trace money by following the soap smell. He kept teasing himself that he was mad. I knew he wasn't, I wished him good luck.

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At Cairo airport, after check-in, the airline people instructed me to fill in some form and then go to the counter 'passenger service' to have some stamp chopped. I followed his instructions and passed my passport and all the documents to the 'passenger service' people who took the form I completed and made a stamp on something. I then went to 'passport control' counters. There were several 'passport control' counters and behind each counter there was a long queue. I queued for more than half hour, but when it came to my turn, the customs man told me to skip the counter and pass through. What happened was that the so called 'passenger service' already did the passport control for me and already stamped the departure chop on my passport. I guess this was a privilege to single foreign females. But why they called this 'passenger service'? Couldn't they give a more reasonable counter name so that I would understand it and wouldn't waste my only chance of enjoying a single woman privilege? Really a pity I couldn't take this golden opportunity to enjoy woman privilege.

On the plane going from Cairo to Dubai - the connecting point to HK, an Egyptian sat next to me. He was a statistics professor in united emirates of Arab. He got his degree in USA so he could speak very good English. I saw him having written some xyz formulas on an airline magazine, but he didn't take the magazine away with him. I wondered why he needed to write them on the airline magazine, couldn't he find another paper to write on?

I asked him is it because the Egyptian government is corrupt that make Egypt so poor. He said yes. He also told me if an Egyptian wants to take a large amount money from his bank, the bank would told him to come back in a few days because the bank didn't have cash money. The money were gone for some illegal purposes. Hence the Egyptian people didn't put their money in banks but put at home. How miserable! On the other hand, Egypt has some luck in the sense they have tourism and river Nile for irrigation and farming, otherwise they will be like those extreme poor African countries.

When the plane landed safely in Dubai airport, I was surprised that the whole plane
passengers clapped their hands including the professor next to me. He explained to me the reason was due to the gulf air crash before the day. The gulf air flying from Cairo to Bahrain tried to land twice but didn't succeed. When it tried to land for the third time, the whole plane crashed into sea and killed all the passengers on the plane. He said this was a headline in all TV and newspapers. I didn't understand Arabic, how could I possibly know what was said on TV and newspapers. I said I felt myself very lucky because I did book that gulf air flight before but I dint take the flight because their connecting time is too long so I spent a few hundreds more HK dollar and took another airline - emirates. Professor said he also found himself lucky because gulf air had offered him a free business class ticket but because he was too busy so he didn't go to take it. Later when I read the gulf newspaper (in English) on the plane, whiling I was reading the death name list, I felt my name could be on it if I wasn't lucky. I think I won't take gulf air anymore in future even though it is cheap.