Walk like an Egyptian

Ok cheesy song I know but when in Rome...

So I thought I better knock off a blog before I fly out tomorrow. Its a good day tomorrow - I'm Heading to Cairo where on Saturday I will start a 13 day tour of Egypt. Its going to be fascinating. I remember when I was 17 and first came to Europe - We flew over Egypt and because I was sick I had a cabin crew seat and could see out the window and see the pyramids as we flew over. I even managed to take a photo which showed the pyramids.

So tomorrow night I will fly in, I assume to be met at the airport - Haven't actually figured that out yet.. hmmm actually... No it ok - I have the address of the hotel, and I AM supposed to be met at the airport. Thats good!

Its amazing how travelling has changed me - The fact that I can seemingly be so unprepared the night before I go to a foreign country would have shocked me to no end if you had told me befor I left NZ. But instead I have discovered that, well, things have a way of working out. People will help you out, (even if you have to pay them for it in dodgy developing countries), and places do actually have those things you need that you think they wouldn't. Its just a little more challenging to find thats all.

So what am I looking forward to in Egypt? Well its not the Pyramids, nor the temples or the statues or the markets, and its definitely not the hassle and haggling! I'm looking forward to the sun. Its been straight sun there for the past three weeks! Temperatures gradually creeping up to the 20s and beyond in Cairo, with Luxor and Dahab into the mid twenties. But warm temperatures is a bonus when the hours of sun is taken into consideration. I'm really looking forward to just soaking up the sun, getting a tan and finally getting some vitamin D in me!

I want to chill out on the beach at Dahab, relax on the Felluca as we cruise up the Nile for a few days. Sleep on the bus a lot, read some good books (specifically, "The Rough Guide to Climate Change" and "A boy called Pi" - I think thats the title). Oh and I guess I'll get around to reading that Lonely Planet I have on Egypt as well.

And with a bit of Luck I will make it up to Allexandria as well.

So I haven't blogged about much lately really. The world has been an interesting place - It looks like the Axis of Evil mainstays North Korea may be thinking of giving up their reactors in exchange for some Chinese support. I think this is a good since the North is so far backward they make China look like a country more free than the air we breath.

Then there is global warming. The IPCC's climate report got a barracking in the latest New Scientist because the most recent data, while valid, was not included in models and not sufficently tested so they left it out. What was this new information? Well one thing was that Ice, be it glaciers or polar ice or whatever, actually melts faster than predicted in current models. Basically as the ice melts it cracks, this lets flowing water (warmer than the ice of course), reach the bottom of the glacier, so the bottom starts melting well before it was originally predicted.

Then there was the fact that sea temperatures have increased as far a 3 km deep in the oceans. There were other things as well, but as for the large amount of reading and research I have done on this topic lately, I've come to the conclusion that the world is seriously screwed. Sell your baches and run for the hills kind of screwed. Well, lets put it this way, I'mnot so sure i would be buying a place near the sea, not because I think it would suddenly be permanently underwater, no, that wouldn't happen for decades, but as water levels gradually increase, its the storms, more violent from the warmer weather, and the higher storm surges they will create, which will cause greater flooding. You saw it in New Orleans. Its happening now, its a lesson, what have you learned.

Well anyway, I guess climate change is my new passion and hobby. Its a fascinating subject. I just hope the world wakes up to do something about it as soon as they can. (Its my doubt that this will happen, that leads me to conclude we are all screwed). Oh well, At least I'll see the Pyramids before they are eroded away by an overflowing, flooded Nile!