By Jessica Lee

As the revolution unfolds in Egypt, a guidebook writer normally based in Cairo observes it from an emptied-out beach resort zone before she can return to see the aftermath firsthand.

Sunset while standing on 6th of October Bridge, I watched disco-lit pleasure boats cruise upon the darkening Nile while tinny Arabic pop music rose up from the river. I strolled down Talaat Harb Street. The smell of freshly fried taamiya and charcoaled meat floated over Orabi Square. I sat down at a table and watched the men on the corner lay out their mats to pray.

“Welcome to Egypt,” the waiter said as I sipped iced hibiscus juice and the Muezzin began the call to prayer.

“Welcome to Egypt.” a man with a battered suitcase of fake Rolexes said as he approached my table to try to make a sale.

“Welcome to Egypt!” a couple of kids running past me yelled. “Welcome to Egypt. Welcome to Egypt.”

As I walked home a thousand shisha pipes scented the air with apple-perfume. Five more passersby welcomed me to Egypt. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

***

I woke up. Dazed, I sat up in my hammock and stared out at the sea. Tiny rippling waves lapped on the shore. I walked over to my friend’s hut to watch his TV. We sat silently as the powder-pink puff of the Egyptian Museum came into view. Pitched battles of sticks and stones and camels from the Pyramids charged across the nightmare screen. The reporter was standing on 6th of October Bridge. A friend in Cairo rang us crying. I mooched across the beach, shoulders slouched. One of the staff was raking the sand, erasing the remaining footprints of the last tourists to leave.

Marooned upon a stretch of white sand at my friend’s remote beach camp on the Red Sea I watched as a bland square in Cairo’s downtown became headline news. Tahrir Square’s traffic—all belching and burping out diesel and din—was nowhere to be seen. Our internet disappeared. Phone calls to friends in Cairo wouldn’t work. The sun loungers on the beach emptied as the tourists fled. Soon it was just me left. I drank the camp dry of diet coke and finished the last of the muesli.

“Now you eat like an Egyptian,” my friend said and I swapped to lemon juice and fuul.

When the phone rang it was Radio New Zealand requesting an interview.

“What’s happening? What have you seen?” the reporter asked.

“I don’t think I can help you out,” I said. “I’m in the Sinai and there’s nothing happening here.”

“Nothing at all?”

I looked out at the beach. A fisherman’s boat bobbed lazily on the sea.

“Still no sniper-fire or tanks invading the beach yet,” I replied.

Bedouin women, cloaked in their embroidered niqabs, sacks of jewellery and scarves carried upon their heads, gave up their daily patrol along the beach. I tried to ration my cigarettes. We began to run out of fresh vegetables and my friend fretted about finishing the last of the generator’s diesel fuel. Banks had shut. ATMs had bled dry. Transport to and from Cairo had been cut off. The mural of Mubarak outside the newspaper building on Ramses Street invaded my dreams.

“You see that man in the aviator shades, the one that looks like a mafia boss? Well that’s our president.” My friend Muhammad would tell tourists.

Remember Cairo from an Empty Sinai

I thought of Cairo at midnight when the city streets shrugged off their blanket of heat and the hint of a cool breeze brought everyone outside. Crowds of girls with hijabs pinned and tied in mysteriously intricate ways, fabric floating after them like peacock tails, as they walked arms-linked down the street. Families gathering together on street corners, eating tubs of koshary. I would lie in bed and be rocked to sleep by Cairo’s lullaby; somebody yelling and somebody laughing; screeching tyres and smashing glass; the dull thud of a car crash; the sound of children kicking a football against a nearby wall; and then the horns, always the horns.

Moonlight stretched its fingers through the bamboo roof of my hut and threw shadows across the web of the mosquito net. The light from my alarm clock told me it was 2am. I got up, turned on my torch, and padded across the cold sand to the bathroom. Somewhere on the beach a dog was barking. A truck rumbled across the highway, headlights briefly flashing down the road. Beyond it, the craggy silhouettes of the Sinai Mountains rose up like mythical beasts preparing to attack. The sea shimmered as the waves rolled in. I sat on the beach and had a cigarette. In the morning I watched the blackened beaux-arts facades of downtown reduced to a backdrop on the television screen.

Continue to Page 2 – Egypt Revolution

It has been a good few years since this video was recorded. Still, the sea and the sunsets on Ireland’s western shore often look much the same these days. The singer is Mary Black.

When you’re already splurging for a stay at a five-star hotel, sometimes it might make sense to splurge a little bit more.

Last weekend I spent two nights celebrating in a massive cabana at the posh Four Seasons Bangkok on Rajdamri Road. It was a great experience, and somewhat of an odd one, too, since I live just down the street in Pratunam, and have often walked by the hotel during early-evening walks to Lumpini Park, then found myself playing the role of a well-heeled North American tourist in my own neighborhood… though I’m afraid my flip-flops and camoflauge shorts may have outed me as a fraud in the well-heeled department.

During our stay we used Four Seasons’ “Executive Package”, an upgrade available for all guest rooms (for an extra 2,000 baht per night, as of July 2011) that includes business-friendly amenities such as use of an executive board room for 1 hour, in-room Internet access, unlimited garment pressing, and free calls to land lines in Bangkok. We had no use for any of those things, but a few food & drink luxuries came in quite handy.

The Executive package also includes an impressive buffet breakfast served at the first-floor Madison restaurant, which all guests have access to, or at the seventh-floor Executive Club, which all guests do not have access to. Though the lavish spread at the Madison included a few more options than the one upstairs, it was much more crowded than the Club: crowded as in kids, and crowded as in nearly every table there and at Aqua, the adjacent patio bar, was taken on Sunday morning.

Other people are just a fact of hotel life, but in contrast, we had the entire Club to ourselves on Saturday. There’s something to be said for enjoying fresh coffee, ready-made omelettes, buttery croissants, heaping plates of fresh fruit, and the morning edition of the Bangkok Post in peace and quiet.

Another bonus: the Club offers a buffet of light hors d’oeuvres from 5:30 – 8pm daily. Better bonus: unlimited, help-yourself beer (bottles of Asahi, Heineken, and Singha), wine (red and white), and liquor (whiskey, vodka, gin, rum, etc.), which means one could theoretically eat and drink their fill without paying another dime in or outside of the hotel.

Additionally, since the Club is technically private and for paying members only, alcohol can still be legally served during those times when sales are restricted elsewhere in the city, such as on Buddhist holidays or, in our case, national elections: all city bars and restaurants were dry from 6pm Saturday until midnight Sunday that weekend. Something to keep in mind if a potential stay at the Four Seasons happens to coincide with such an event.

Is the Executive Package worth it?

A visit to Bangkok can be as affordable as you want it to be, so if the Package’s main appeal is the food and drink, it’s probably not worth the extra expense: there’s tons of incredible food and cheap drinks nearby.

However, business travelers (especially those with expense accounts) on a short working trip could find this to be a good value: along with the other practical services, inclusive breakfast, snacks, and drinks are certainly convenient, and depending on how much you consume, this is potentially more cost-effective than going ad hoc at the hotel’s bars and restaurants. The peace and quiet factor for breakfast and evening cocktails is also worth considering, particularly if you’re arriving after a long flight or on a romantic getaway.

Rates and more information about the Executive Package can be found at the official Four Seasons Bangkok website.

Note: I’m neither an executive with a business expenses account, nor a well-heeled North American tourist. As is common in the travel industry, some services were provided as a compliment for the purpose of experiencing them and potentially covering them. While that has not influenced this piece, I (along with Perceptive Travel) believe in full disclosure.

Executive Club photo taken by author

A young George Washington spent time in Winchester, Virginia as a surveyor for the building of Fort Loudoun, and you can visit the modest log cabin where he lived and conducted business.

Bet he had to duck through the low doorway entrance, too. He was a tall guy.

Buying land nearby enabled Washington to represent the area years later in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and he also commanded troops from here during the French and Indian War.

One little modest cabin….and the launch of the first leader of a nation.

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Looking for some great travel stories?

Then check out this month’s edition of Perceptive Travel webzine.

Read Jessica Lee’s Notes from a Revolution in Egypt for a first hand account of witnessing the recent uprising in Egypt. Although based in Cairo, Jessica was in Sinai when the revolution began and so had to watch the events unfold on television, all the while fielding calls from news stations about what was happening and worrying about friends caught in the ‘war’ zone.

In Out of Smyrna Gloria DeVidas Kirchheimer writes about returning to her ancestral homeland on the coast of Turkey.

And in The Dreams of Man in Stone and Concrete, PT editor  Tim Leffel is in Mexico exploring abandoned structures built by men full of big dreams and plenty of money.

Plus, as usual, there is the monthly  World Music reviews and travel book reveiws guaranteed to make to you want to head for to the nearest bookstore or record shop.

This month’s giveaway is a pair of ultra-comfy Yoga Mat or Beer Cozy flip-flops from Sanuk. These come in a variety of styles for men and women, so we’ll match up whoever wins with the perfect pair for summer.

To find out how to enter, you’ll have to watch your inbox for our newsletter or follow us on Facebook.

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