{"id":398,"date":"2011-09-07T03:51:07","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T03:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucebramson.com\/2011\/09\/07\/more-travels-in-egypt-at-m-y-o-b\/"},"modified":"2011-09-07T03:51:07","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T03:51:07","slug":"more-travels-in-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/?p=398","title":{"rendered":"MORE TRAVELS IN EGYPT"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 7, 2009<\/p>\n

I am happy to report that my knee is healing rapidly. \u00a0I went to Southern California last weekend: perhaps the SoCal sun, or (more likely) the reduced number of stairs to navigate daily seemed to help, and I find I am walking almost \u201cnormally\u201d. \u00a0I think perhaps I\u2019ll recover!<\/p>\n

The trip south was to ride behind this fabulous locomotive:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They just don’t build them like this any more!<\/p>\n

We rode in this equally fabulous restored Vista-dome car:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now privately owned. The smoothest ride on the entire train.<\/p>\n

This accounts for my lack of posts for awhile! So, now back to Egypt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After about 6 months of working in Alexandria, I decided to see what was \u201cgoing on\u201d in Cairo. There certainly wasn\u2019t much \u201cgoing on\u201d in Alex! I had managed to seduce a couple\u00a0of lads there, but there was no organized gay life that I could ferret out. One of the few places in Cairo where we felt relatively safe eating the food was the Hilton Hotel. This was just back from the banks of the Nile river, and there were always a clutch of feluccas tied up there to take tourists for rides. There was a granite-block staircase down to the landing. I discovered a handy place under some bushes beside that staircase where I could entice various guys to help themselves to my services. This began a regular retreat from Alexandria each week-end: I would take the train (Hungarian diesel) after work on Friday, and return Sunday evening after \u201centertaining\u201d a good many lovely and appreciative youths. For many of them it seemed to be something \u201cnew\u201d, and perhaps it was, but the language barrier made it difficult to learn. In any case, it was not unusual for chaps to come back for more, bringing a friend or two as well. I rode the railway so often I got the pass-book that gave me favored seating:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Very useful book for using first-class trains<\/p>\n

Somewhere in my travels\u2014I did not make a note of where\u2014I snapped the picture below of the only derelict steam engine I ever saw in Egypt:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An old British engine rusting away<\/p>\n

There were many unspoiled spots on the Mediterranean Sea westward from Alexandria that were quite beautiful. One of these was Agiba:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Great swimming here, water crystal-clear<\/p>\n

Another spot was Ras el Hekma. To get there we always had to bribe the soldiers guarding a nearby microwave tower, but a pack or two of ciggies usually sufficed:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The red arrow points to Ras el Hekma<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A wonderfully protected pool, great swimming!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My friend Gary visited for a while. We went to Ras el Hekma often<\/p>\n

Further West was Marsa Matrouh. It was off-limits to us at first, but several of us crashed it and stayed overnight. Soon thereafter it was opened to all.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The red arrow points to Marsa Matrouh<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The welcome sign was welcome: it is a long drive.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Approaching the town of Marsa Matrouh<\/p>\n

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Beach at Marsa Matrouh<\/p>\n

Closer still to Alex was Sidi Abdel Rahman. It had a decent beach and both a hotel and houses to rent. However, the mosquitos were often numerous and fierce!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lovely beach. Could be “touristy” at times<\/p>\n

I read recently that this site is about to be \u201cdeveloped\u201d, which means spoiled. They\u2019ll have to solve the mosquito problem, however.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

View from the hotel<\/p>\n

Nearer to Cairo was Lake Qurun:<\/p>\n

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The red arrow points to Lake Qurun<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A favorite hunting-ground for the British<\/p>\n

The old British hotel at the Lake was a hoot! A friend and I actually stayed overnight there, but it was \u00a0badly run-down. I wonder what became of it?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Potentially a nice place.<\/p>\n

South and west of Cairo is the odd Pyramid know as Meidum.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The red arrow points to Meidum<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Presumably the steep sides resulted in collapse<\/p>\n

For more about this unusual structure, click here.<\/p>\n

Further South from Cairo is Luxor:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The red arrow points to Luxor<\/p>\n

I have many pictures taken in Luxor: here are just a few.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A portion of the Temple at Karnak<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dramatically lit at night<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The scale of these temples is astounding<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When these temples were new, the Pyramids were already 2500 years old!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rocks are heavy! How did they construct these pillars?<\/p>\n

Further still lies Aswan, about which I will have more to tell in a future page. Stay tuned!<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 7, 2009 I am happy to report that my knee is healing rapidly. \u00a0I went to Southern California last weekend: perhaps the SoCal sun, or (more likely) the reduced number of stairs to navigate daily seemed to help, and I find I am walking almost \u201cnormally\u201d. \u00a0I think perhaps I\u2019ll recover! The trip south […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}