My collection flora & fauna around my house

Some birds and animals I managed to photograph around our house in Virginia.

Is this Republican Hypocracy?

Starting tomorrow the Supreme Court is going to hear arguments for & against the Affordable Healthcare Act or Obamacare. Central to the debate is the issue of individual mandates, i.e. everybody has to pay for health insurance or pay a fine.

My initial argument is that it is the right thing given we need to pay auto insurance to drive a car, so why is this different. Well it is different in that I have a choice to drive a car or not. There is not that sort of a valid choice when it comes to buying health insurance under Obamacare…except if you leave the country.  

However the Republicans argue that forcing people to do buy health insurance violates our constitution. Perhaps so though I cannot believe that the forefathers had considered health insurance in the late 1700’s. So perhaps the constitutionalists are over reaching. So what I am taking away from the Republican point of view is that it is ok for me to subsidize health costs for those who cannot afford it. That to me is fundamental socialism. So I believe that the republicans are driving a convoluted socialistic agenda while accusing President Obama of the same. What do you call that? 

Driving job creation - An open letter to the President

President Barak Obama                                                 Sep18, 2011

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20500

CC: Rep Frank Wolf, Sen Jim Webb, Sen Mark Warner, Speaker John Boehner, Rep Eric Cantor, Sen Harry Reid, Sen Mitch McConnell, Mr. Jeffrey Immelt, Press

Project Simple Reinvention

Mr. President,

While I am optimistic about the future, I am tired and frustrated as are millions of Americans about the political futility of the various plans proposed to reduce employment and kick start our economy. I do not believe they will work as neither sides appears to want to work together. So I am proposing to you Project Simple Reinvention; a simple, yet powerful plan that leverages the private sector to do what only the private sector can do…Hire Millions.

This is a simple plan to break the enormous dependency on the government to reduce unemployment. The plan is to empower the private sector to become the driver but in a targeted manner. This targeted and impactful attack on unemployment should not only reduce unemployment to 5% but create a real and sustaining demand for products and services to grow and expand our economy. The framework of the plan is;

1. Encourage some 195,000 private US companies/employers who have more than 100 employees in America to hire 6 million by October 31, 2011.
2. While on average each of the employers would need to hire 32 employees, reality is they could hire between 1-50 depending upon their size, industry, community and other criteria. The levels of employment we need by each individual employer would be minuscule compared to their overall size. This will minimize risk and costs to the employers and encouraging them to participate.  
3. This is perhaps the only place we need the government to support it and that is to provide a tax credit per newly hired employee up to 50% of their wages for the first six months or until April 30, 2012. This will help the employers offset some Q4 costs while reducing risk.

4.      Finally, participating employers should commit that they will not eliminate existing positions to make room for new employees hired as part of Project Simple Reinvention for at least 6 months.

The impact of the plan would be so powerful that I envision the following to happen:

1. It will reduce our unemployment to normal levels while boosting revenues without having to raise taxes in as little as 30 – 60 days.
2. It will generate demand and reignite ancillary industries from retail, restaurants, cars, travel and tourism.
3. The timing will be particularly impactful coming in ahead of the holiday season, ensuring more kids this holiday season will be visited by Santa Claus.

While I am convinced that this is the sort of Bazooka we need, to end the vicious business and political cycle we are in, it requires a planned and coordinated strike, one that is unprecedented in nature. Putting 6 million Americans back to work in 30 days across close to 200,000 employers will require leadership, trust and enormous resolve. All of which I believe we have. Please keep government involvement to a minimum and let the private sector do what they can.

Wish you the best and God Bless the United States of America.

Sincerely

Rohan Kulkarni
http://revrex.blogspot.com/2011/09/driving-job-creation-open-letter-to.html

Pakistanis - something to learn from?

I was reading the journal this weekend and my eye caught an article titled "Why My Father Hated India". I read it to find the usual litany of why Pakistanis hate Indians, nothing unique given it stems form a series of historic occurrences.....no different than why the Palestinians and Israelis don't get along (an understatement I realize), or the Greeks and Turks and more. People unwilling to let the past go, to live in the current and plans for the future...what a radical notion! This is the 21^st century where one would think we as humans have evolved to a point where we can transcend hate and power to something more positive with that energy….yes I recognize it is ideal talk and not practical.

But it gave me pause to think about my own thinking having evolved over the last couple of decades to a point where I now feel we should be thinking differently and drastically to help “SAVE” Pakistan. Growing up in India and going to school there, I was surrounded by an anti-Pakistani feeling. The history that was taught suggested that India fought 3 wars (many more since) and won them all. The Bollywood movies invariably had the bad guys from Pakistan, all terrorism equated to Pakistan….even when India got beat in cricket by a onetime superior Pakistan cricket team we found a way to rationalize the devil in it. When I moved to business school in the UK, I stayed in a school residence where 7 of us bunked together. My house mates where a bunch of fun loving Greeks who focused more on Ouzo than whatever it was they were there to study, a kindly Canadian and Singaporean and yes a Pakistani doctor. The good doctor was there to learn business so he could go back to Pakistan and work in hospital management to improve the condition of healthcare in his country. Given the 20 years of my anti-Pakistani mindset, I generally ignored the good doctor and one could have also felt I was rude to him. Over the next couple of months, we did bump in to each other more often as we were in the same class, same house and used the same kitchen. Long story short we got in to debates and it was not long before I learned that his school in Karachi taught him that Pakistan engaged in 3 wars with India and that they; Pakistan won them all. I was shocked and aggravated at the lies that they were being taught...the good doctor felt similarly about what we were taught in India. Then it began to dawn upon me as I spoke to him more and learnt about his life, his family and more…yes here comes the cliché….there was more in common than not. When I got past the fact that he was the big bad Pakistani, I found him to be a really good person who was more open minded than I was, taught me a few things like tolerance, the view from the other side and to cook some mean Pakistani curries. We stayed in touch for as long as he lived in the UK and then drifted apart. I hope he is doing well and has managed to make a difference in his country…god knows they need it.  When I moved to Manchester, I found that the folks of Pakistani origin where more friendly and helpful than my Indian brothers. While my thinking kept evolving based on these experiences, I leaned more and more on the fact that geographic affiliations is not a reflection of who you really are. Not all Indians are good and not all Pakistanis evil…..I imagine some of my friends of Indian origin will consider me to be a pariah and expect some stick for it, but it is not right to perpetuate a false sterotype, when stereotyping by itself is flawed. With so much information available....ignorance is not an acceptable excuse to learn more.

Pakistan has many problems and would be a dissertation on its own to consider what is wrong and how to fix it. I have spoken to many about Pakistan including my own family who have some really drastic solutions….none of which I subscribe to.  However the purpose of this short blog was to share my own evolution based on interacting with people from Pakistan. I was disturbed that people in an official capacity use the word hate and their families would perpetuate that sentiment..on both sides of that border. So this is my tiny effort to spread tolerance….not love, certainly not hate….but tolerance and patience to learn the other side’s story before jumping to conclusions.

Trans Siberia & Mongolia

A link to my Trans Siberian adventure http://transsiberianandtransmongolian.blogspot.com/

Hindu weddings: An Indian puzzle unraveled or not...

Indian Hindu weddings are particularly lengthy and ritualistic that I have often wondered about the significance behind it all. I have had the privilege of attending a few Muslim, Christian and non denominational weddings and have generally been able to follow what was going and the basic gist of the rationale behind it. I call out Indian Hindu weddings as there are Hindu's elsewhere in the world and seem to practice the faith differently, especially in Indonesia, where I was shocked to find out that it was ok to were shoes in to Hindu temples....an absolute no no in India! Hindu weddings on the other hand had remained a mystery, especially with the many denominations of the religion, combined with the various regions of India and the several intricate flavors exasperating the permutations and combination's. My own wedding was a combination of multiple rituals given Saritha and I come from practitioners of different denominations of the religion from different regions of India. I found it annoying then that one had to participate in something that was a celebration for their union, but with really no understanding of it. I remained circumspect about it all while some of the elders tried to explain it to me…which is amusing in itself that most do not know the significance themselves.

So about a year ago, Saritha & I were invited to a wedding in New Jersey, a long time friend of hers. The bride’s father is a very learned individual and takes pride in sharing his knowledge with anybody who is willing to learn. At that wedding he provided all the invitees a program that also explained the various steps that were going to occur in the wedding. To provide context this was wedding of 2 individuals whose roots trace back to the south of India. I mention this as I believe the steps in weddings in other regions of India, though Hindu in religious affiliation are different.

In my quest to educate others as well as just general wonderment I reproduce those steps;

This is a very noisy event, I say noisy as they play traditional wedding music but it generally sounds like a bunch of teenagers banging away at a new set of drums with no tune. The "Kalyana Mandapa" is the stage where the ceremony will take place and is generally decked up in flowers and other decorations.

This is a fairly private affair with the family as I understand takes place prior to the rituals with the groom.

Similar to the previous "female" event, this one is all about the male.

At this time the groom has only the priest for company. The priest is essentially the master of the ceremony and provides direction to the groom on the rituals. Invariably as in my case, the groom is mindlessly following priestly instructions, without understanding the rationale or purpose, while being stared at by a large audience of strangers.....again a very unique ingredient of Indian weddings, across all religious affiliations. Strangers being acquaintances of ones parents and really distant relatives.

Strangely enough even though guests have been invited to the wedding and have all gathered it is not official until the priest actually confirms that.

In my opinion the actual wedding commences from this point forward. I also know that in many marriages in India, where the parents do the selection, this is possibly the 1st semi view of the bride for the groom...that is assuming she is not wearing veil or the partition slips from the fingers of one of the family members.

The father of the bride I understand officially relinquishes his responsibilities of his daughter. While it is clear what is going on, I still do not understand "why", e.g. Why does the groom have to accept 3 times, why not 6 or once. Is it to ensure that the father gets it and there are no doubts? There are various such rituals where it does not seem very efficient or rationale at all yet it appears to have been passed on over generations.

The even more complicated rituals start here, which is a cross between fireworks and cooking. The fireworks is if this is truly the 1st time the groom and bride are seeing each other, could really go either ways I think. The various colored rices, spices, molasses and more makes me wonder is this is cooking happiness!

As it appears to be custom in most cultures and religions, that the newly wed share something to symbolize the union. In Hindu wedding's the groom generally ties necklace that is almost always upgraded to gold at some point. Not quite clear why it is not done at the same time....I reckon it has to do to allow the wife;s input in to the design.

I guess this is more of the same, i.e. agreements with each other as well as reaching a higher power for protection and guidance. I have often wondered how we would compare the very first wedding with those now in the 21st century. Could we measure? Is there a relationship of the complexity of the ritual with the success of it? Is a grand wedding with all the trimmings vs a less grander affair have any say?

My interpretation of the special prayer to fire is that it represents danger. Since one does not to want to court danger, it is customary to assuage it...pray to it. While many parts of the ritual are not clear and I question the rationale for it, one thing is clear. The Hindu gods have a hierarchy and it is critical to understand that so the right ones are paid the right homage.

The next several steps bears down on the completion of a blessed union.. There are 2 events in particular that are very unique to Hindu weddings, one when the groom and bride walk around the fire seven times. I have heard that is because of the 7 continents,. 7 oceans and lot of things, but do not believe I have heard a true & convincing answer....but that is also true of many of the other rituals. The otheris a bit of fun and frolicking, when the groom and bride fight to get a gold ring buried in rice in an earthen pot. They have to do this with just their hands without the luxury of seeing inside the pot. I wonder what the statistics are around....more brides winning, if so were they allowed to win by the smart grooms and if it has any implications upon the marriage..

The one last ritual I have to comment is when the priest leads the bride & groom outside to show some star. It is rather strange and contrite considering a vast amount of Hindu weddings take place in the day due to when the holy hour of the holy day falls. Given that, how on earth are they ever going to see the star during the wedding. What implications does this have upon the marriage then?

That said, eere is some history to Hindu weddings',

While my intent has not be blasphemous, I have to wonder about these rituals and if the gods are truly sitting somewhere with a check list and scratching off items we do them vs. not and then rewarding us appropriately, especially since the rationale behind these actions are vague and arbitrary at best. I am sure more will be married in this manner, some may question the wisdom of sitting in a really warm area, gawked at by strangers and others may just go through the motions to ensure they dont displease the gods. But one thing is certain....this will continue to evolve...hopefully in to something more practical.

Iran: A plan to resolve the impasse

Amongst the many things that has the world excited is the situation with Iran and their illegitimate president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While many US governments have swung the pendulum of regime change vs. ignoring regimes from North Korea to Iran through Syria, Lebanon, Libya and others, one thing is almost always clear, some regimes are definitely counter productive to their own people and the world and require adjustment of some sorts. In my book Iran is certainly one of those...without the aid of any media or government spin (ours or others).

Iran's economic health is very good and given a chance to fully participate in the world's business, it will be a thriving force. In reviewing world banks data about Iran and the CIA, I found that;

• Population: 71MM (2008)
• GDP: $258B (2008) with 2.6% (2009) growth
• Unemployment: 11% in 2009
• Per capita income of $13K
• Debt: 19.4% to 7.4% of GDP (data is suspect based on source)
• CO2 emissions higher than their neighbors
• Literacy - 82% of 15yrs or older
• Low mortality of -5 of every 1000

Based on some of these data points and more as well as the assets the nation possess, it does appear that Iran has tremendous upside if its government sheds it current approach to governing its people and relationship with the world. Like Cuba, this country is ripe for significant tourism and connection with its people as soon as the climate improves.

This basic information about Iran in mind, let us understand what the true issues are that drive us to act against it;

1. Nuclear proliferation and the opaque stance of the government - This to me is a serious issue and is exacerbated in the new world we live in where Islamic fundamentalism is perpetuating unprecedented terrorism. This is particularly concerning since Iran's stated driver for their Nuclear program is a the anhiliation of the Zionist state of Israel. That is very unnerving, if I were to live next to the threat.

2. Iran is in violation of the IAEA security standards.

3. Human right violations against its own people - No government should be allowed to treat its people poorly. On that scale and how one would define "poorly", many countries starting with China would stand out. While there are global human rights organization, they are without teeth. The only way for Iranian's to be better treated and given a fair chance of competition with the rest of the world is to have a leadership that is willing to join the world community and open itself up to change.

4. While development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes such as energy generation, medical use is something that should be encouraged, however in the case of Iran, it has been deceitful in its claims of not enriching uranium. It has gone back and forth on its true intention and certainly hidden its development sites from IAEA which raises the level of mis-trust.

So lets talk solution then. Plenty of options that I have heard over the last couple of years that I have weighed upon and think one of those has merits. It has merits only if executed appropriately even if that is stating the obvious. Lets just review the options the world community has to force Iran to change its way;

1. Military action: Iran is a large country with targets spread all over its geography. Last count there were 10 nuclear installations, most of them well underground making them even more difficult to access. A look at the adjoining map gives you an indication to how spread out the installations are. This obviously is not the super secret or latest, which I am sure would be wider and deeper. In addition Iran's military power is not to be sneezed at and would take significant effort and cost to overcome for a US led coalition. Air only incursions as an approach to minimize human life have been analyzed and shed due to the depth of the nuclear installations that even our bunker busters that were used in Afghanistan will be useless. Military experts have essentially agreed to the fact that invasion of Iran is a more costly and fool-hardy approach to resolving this crisis. Further....who really has the money without completely bankrupting themselves, considering any coalition would mean 80% US and 20% other, we are already thinly stretched to venture another adventure.

2. Diplomacy: One of the tenets of diplomacy is a level of trust parties bring to the table. Considering that is an item that has eroded since the Shah was booted out in the 70's and currently is negative, it is unlikely discussions will go forward. The various interlocutors on Iran's behalf are themselves not sure about Iran's intent making it awkward for them to make a case. Iran has had several opportunities to come to the table especially from the start of President Obama's term when he famously quoted at his inguration speech, "...are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us" as well as eloquent Cairo university speech have clearly not encouraged Iran. Even the efforts of our partners in the EU have not received much hope. While diplomacy is certainly a window keep ajar, our next option is really the key to make the needle move.

3. Sanctions: Historically speaking sanctions are toothless dud's. However if it were to be enforced, in the case of Iran it could yield spectacular results long term while in the short term will hurt its population, a sad collateral damage. To emphasize this let us consider the map here for a moment;

• We own the eastern boundary directly or indirectly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. That said there are a few tactical challenges here but given the terrain of the region and the people's unflinching loyalty to a quick buck. The red lines indicate a tentative relationship with the nations owning those boundaries.
  
• In the south our naval prowess combined with already existing presence in the straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia gives us tremendous influence in the area.
• In the West, our new friends in Iraq and historical enemies of Iran will ensure we will continue to own that border for this purpose.
• In the North Western side, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan are all US allies who want to be part of the NATO or are large US aid recipients. Time to call in those chits. In addition we have bases in the area with strong relationships and hence the green lines.
  
• In the north, the Caspian sea with the help of the Russians, will again be in our column.
• Lastly on the North Eastern side, Turkmenistan is a country we are most likely going to have a base in sooner or later. Right now we have an agreement for the NATO to be a supplier and transit point. We can assume we will have sufficient influence to enforce sanctions from there too.

So the approach to sanctions against Iran would need to be a complete seize of all routes, land, air and water in to the country. Allowing nothing to go in or come out. There are obviously implications to it that are more tactical than strategic. As a result we will be able to ride them out and bend Iran back in the direction of the right.

Let us consider the implications so there is clarity on what they are and how we can mitigate them;

1. Immediate inflation in the country as traders hoard and government rations. This could hurt the majority of the population that is considered lower middle class. However it could also trigger the final assault on a unpopular regime and potentially change it for the better. One can hope.

2. Trade partners will hurt, specifically China, Russia and Dubai. This could be telling to the global financial markets but again I have to think it is temporary as the overall exposure to Iran has been limited for many years for both the EU and US.

3. Oil, most folks would think would be the largest impact. There is more myth than reality here. Reason being there are doubts about the reliability of official OPEC reserves estimates, which are not provided with any form of audit or verification that meet external reporting standards. Further a system of country production quotas was introduced in the 1980s, partly based on reserves levels, and there has been dramatic increases in reported reserves among OPEC producers. While there is no doubt Iran has the 3rd largest known reserves in the world and hence it the 3rd largest producer, with sanctions, OPEC can increase production through its other member states. Bottomline we wont miss Iran's oil for a while....however OPEC has to sign up to ensure oil prices and futures do not sky rocket while ensuring production levels match current levels. I think it can be made possible.

4. There may be a surge of terrorist activities by sympathetic groups to Iran such as the Hezbollah. There is not specific mitigation than what most governments are already engaged in.

It is necessary to help Iran change its mind when the US, Russia and other countries are taking definite steps to reduce nuclear arsenal. Infact it is President Obama's vision to see a world without nuclear weapons. In such a futuristic environment, fortified by the fact that we should be expending resources on human progress not on ways to destroy it. Iran with its intrinsic assets and potential should direct those energies to improve their peoples stock, take a leadership role to help with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, reduce its support of the Hezbollah and terrorism for what ever reasons and join the world's community. We could do with more peace.

So bottomline, I say we need to squeeze Iran...I think 30-90day's from a disciplined and enforced seize from the day it starts should be able to get Iran to;
1. Open the doors to IAEA for a thorough investigation
2. Shutting down of all enrichment plants
3. Change their stance on Israel

This could lead to Iran re-joining of the world community and more one day (hope).

***

The economics of working from home – a proletariat perspective

Over the weekend my buddy and I were chatting about the impacts of working from home and thought I should look at it a little more deeply and paint it from my perspective. Obviously more and more companies are buying in to the “Work @ Home” concept to essentially cut costs and get more productivity.

I started working from home more often than not over the last 6 months when I don’t travel and it has been a revelation. For many years I believed that the notion of working at home was one of the biggest scams perpetuated by the proletariat in corporate America. So much so that I discouraged my team from working from home and those that had to on occasion, I tolerated with a lot of effort. All this has changed for me now that I seem to have begun to enjoy working at home and believe I have become a lot more productive. That said I do want to look at it broadly and objectively from an employee perspective and see what’s in it, if at all for us.

Lets start by looking at the tangible aspects of working from home. At a minimum, the costs of going to a work place every day of the week; Monday to Friday is;

Lunch	$ 40.00
Transportation (Gas, Tolls, Parking, Metro)	$ 50.00
Dry Cleaning/Laundry	$ 10.00
Total	$100.00

Now I am sure different folks have different spending pattern’s such as Starbucks, cigarettes etc etc but this to me captures the basics of a weeks expenditures.

Calculating the costs of working from home, I come up with the following;

Incremental Electricity	$ 15.00
Incremental Heating/Cooling	$ 15.00
Lunch	$ 20.00
Total	$ 50.00

So clearly the cost of working from home is half that of working from home.

Lets look at the intangibles of working from home as often these could lead us one way or the other;

Upsides -

1. More time to exercise
   
2. More time to spend with the kids and families
   
3. Less pollution of the environment
   
4. Less stress of driving through rush hour traffic
5. Getting to eat more healthy since you have control of what's in your pantry
   
6. Lesser work politics….so I hope :~)

Downsides -

1. If there is a non-working spouse at home with kids…forget it
2. No excuse to not exercise
3. Potential to oversleep in; i.e. waking 2 mins before a meeting and pretending to be tired due to being overworked
4. Lower propensity to make friends at the work place

Now some of the pre-requisites for working from home in my opinion are;

• Tremendous discipline to getting your work done; forget about trying to work on your couch or in your pajama’s….wont work long term.
  
• Your work ethic has to be crisp and above any level of debate.
  
• Differentiate work time from home time.

If you can not manage that, working from home is not something you should be attempting since you will get in to trouble….guaranteed!

So what next you ask? My foggy crystal indicates that;

• More and more people will start working from home at the pleasure of their employers. One of those few win wins for employee and employers. It will never be 100% since some people are more productive in a business environment; they require the daily live/non phone interactions with their colleagues or require more supervision.
• Work at home in the right context will work for all levels of people up and down the corporate ladder.
• There will be new legal issues that will be dealt with, for instance, if I trip and fall @ home while working, who is liable?
• With more and more work from home scenario’s and a growing imbalance of businesses to real estate ratio’s we are definitely on the cusp of a commercial real estate bubble ready to pop.

So those of you who work from home….I am happy to be part of this new virtual neighborhood…lets catch up for coffee sometime :~)

Green Planet....who are we kidding?

I stopped by at the local Harris Teeter to pick up some milk this morning and noticed for the 1st time they have parking spaces reserved for “Green” cars….those new fangled low emission, high priced, partial non fossil fueled vehicles. The spots are marked by a green squares on the 1st parking spots across the parking lot, save a few for the handicap, which are required by law. So at 1st I was very amused…amused by the Harris Teeter’s contribution to greening the planet by this gesture. Then I started getting pissed because now I felt discriminated. All of a sudden my 2003 BMW is not good enough to be parked in the 1st spot though it is empty….that if you have a green car, you deserve to walk less? & what if I park in the green spot…can my car be towed away?....just too many questions 1st thing in the morning is not quite the way I like to start. Nevertheless, I got to ponder about it some more and realized that this quest of trying to “green” the planet is fundamentally flawed and will not really get us anywhere

No not cynicism, but a carefully thought through (all of 10 mins in the quiet of my car as I drove home) logic supports my argument;

1. The worlds population is growing at about 1.8%, so we are 6.8B today and clearly growing. More people means more production of goods, products, food grains and so on. More of this needs more energy and despite all hullabaloo, we are not getting away from fossil fuels….simply because there is no viable alternative (Viable = cost effective, mass produced, politically supported etc). More use of fossil fuels means more pollution.

2. Cows emit a massive amount of methane through belching, with a lesser amount through flatulence. Statistics vary regarding how much methane the average dairy cow expels. Some experts say 100 liters to 200 liters a day (or about 26 gallons to about 53 gallons), while others say it's up to 500 liters (about 132 gallons) a day. In any case, that's a lot of methane, an amount comparable to the pollution produced by a car in a day.With growing populations, we will need more meat to feed all these people, which means more belching cows. Here is a statistic; for 6Billion people we have 1.5 Billion cows in the world.

3. We are unable to grow organic food for the growing masses, which takes us on the path of all the hybrids that come with their own set of challenges including fertilizer poisoning, land unfit for cultivation after a few cycles and so on.

4. People in fast growing economies like India, China, Mexico, Brazil with teeming populations have no “real” plans to contract and reduce pollutions while the western 1st world has lost the moral high ground to advise others on reducing their carbon foot print…why most of our states will not even reward folks for wanting to go down the righteous path of solar, wind energy paths. I did a check on getting my house total energized by solar. The cost of that and the savings I would get by weaning myself of the traditional energy source would take me about 35 years to pay off…..i may be dead by then!

There is not a critical mass around the world that I can perceive now or peering in to the future, where by people are making the effort to reduce their carbon foot print. What all this is doing is creating another opportunity for those big bankers to sell and buy carbon options….boy think about buying selling hot air and making money…with no value being created.

So while I can rant some more I feel ridiculed by Harris Teeter’s idea of a green parking spot….what the hell are they thinking about. If they truly want to make a mark, how about a new non fossil fueled energy source to power their operations. Yes make a statement that really matters, not paint a stupid green box.

My niece

I have had the most wonderful experience of spending a little less than a month with my 16 month niece, my baby sisters baby….where did the time go!!!. While as any child that age is like a sponge, just absorbing everything all the time and mirroring all that is learnt at the same time, makes it very entertaining. Any person who has had the opportunity to spend any time with a child can validate that when the crying and pooping is taken out, these midget creatures are quite entertaining. Now in the case of my niece who I must admit, I really adore and love very dearly, and I have over the last several decades have spent time with little children…my baby sister, baby nephews and other assorted kids that I know something about babies ....but never have I seen a kid quite like my niece when she is cranky. I was so convinced that she was the devil child that I actually hunted her head for the 666 mark that I recalled from the movie Omen and no I did not find it thankfully. When she got cranky, she would cry at a frequency that felt like some one had poked through my eyes, crawled up in to my brains and was frying some nasty recipe. We (my mom, my sister, my wife…all my wise women) speculated about the cause in the hope that we could attack the monster hurting our little baby. We thought it could be because she was missing her dad who was on an extended oversees trip, may be she was teething, may be it was the new environment, may be….may be….but no matter what, every so often she would sink in to those moods that her mom threatening her of the quintessential lion in the basement or a few smacks on her diaper wrapped hinny would not help. When she was in a good mood, which was mostly the way she was, she was waddling around my house destroying furniture, fixtures, living those ever so cute hand prints on anything that would reflect, playing with Tupperware, paper or anything garbage happily.….learning to say new words. Thanks to her I have an expanded vocabulary that includes Mumum = Food, Ninni = Water, Babeeeee = Saritha, Nimmy = Any snack, Diapy = Diaper….and she ate non stop and pooped non stop too from amount of diapers that we saw go in to the garbage. When she liked me she would show that by crawling all over and biting my nose with her toothless mouth. What a treat to watch a 16 month old manipulate a houseful older people….from utter joy to complete despondency. She could pit us against each other and make us do what she wanted….how does a 16 month old do that? How does the mind work like that? Why can we not use her against Osama’s evil people?

Well one thing she helped me validate is that my life is so much better off without an adorable dwarf like her…I love her because of who she is and more so because I know I can hand her to mommy when I am done playing with her. Also hoping that when she is a grown woman and ready to have a baby of her own, she reads her old uncles blog and realizes what a rascal baby she was but we still loved her….and yes her baby is welcome in my house too!!!

Egypt & Jordan - A trip to treasure

Every trip is an adventure and so Saritha and I set of on another one this November to Egypt and Jordan. 10 planes,14 days, 9 stops, a million laughs and a world of excitement.

November 3
JFK from Dulles International on board Jetblue. These folks can teach those idiots who run United, Delta and American….talk about service back in America. Kudos Jetblue! A 5 hour wait for our red eye on Royal Jordanian through Amman, Jordan to Cairo Egypt. If anybody ever has to catch a flight from JFK’s Terminal 4 and want to grab a bite/drink @ the Bar Avion…Don’t! They are not nice to say the least….I know folks in NY tend to be rude and abrupt, but I would expect better treatment of patrons at a restaurant. The lady playing hostess should find a different line of work. The Royal Jordanian service is excellent, wonderful attitude of the onboard crew…again I would get them to tutor those idiots who run United, Delta and American. 12hours later we are in Amman’s Queen Alia Airport. Saritha manages to finagle our way in to the business lounge to wait another 4 hours for our flight to Egypt. The allure of “free” beer, snacks in a business lounge in an airport always makes me thirsty and hungry…even after 12 hour flights. An hour & half plane ride later we land at Cairo’s International Airport on Nov 4 about 10pm local. No jetways here but an old rickety bus that drags our tired behinds to the terminal. We proceed to the visa counter, where we pay $15/visa sticker to a bored official who barely looks at our passports while continuing to smoke. I know we are in for some fun in this country. Quick immigration and of to collect our baggage….this is where it hits us smack in the face. The Egyptians love their “bakshish”(tips), they will not fart in the wind with out someone paying them bakshish. One kind lady in our group is harassed at the baggage carousel where the porter wont let her collect her bags with out tips….so after some drama and our local baby sitter getting involved we are hustled to our bus for the ride to our hotel. We drive though the Heliopolis suburb of Cairo, that is clearly affluent, home to their army, president and other assorted rich folks. Also located here is the home of the founder/builder Baron Empain of this neighborhood built in the shape of a Hindu temple for his Indian bride. Let me caveat something here…every story we heard is apparently a “theory” and after 14 days on this adventure, I am convinced no body really knows much about Egypt, short of some speculation, some intelligent, but mostly fantasy. As an example all my research indicates that Baron Empain did not have an Indian bride but was fascinated by the temples in Cambodia and Orissa, India…so really who knows what possessed the Belgian to build a house in the shape of a Hindu Temple in Cairo at the turn of the last century….more theories are welcome. The Cairo Sheraton where we stayed is on the Nile and we had a wonderful view of the water and the streets.

November 5 - Alexandria (pictures)
6am breakfast of the local fare, I particularly enjoyed the fetter, a fava bean dish that is cooked for several hours and eaten with Pita. Yogurt is particularly important to immunize your tummy to the local cuisine. The tea here though was Lipton, actually tasted very good. We head to Alexandria after breakfast, the city that is supposed to have been commissioned by Alexander the Great to be his capital, but one he never goes to see due to his death. Alexandria is about 220KM northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean sea. The drive is pleasant with our guide Ahmed, who was recently married (2weeks) and is blissful of the world. Very smart kid with a great attitude and lot of passion for his history. He keeps his commentary alive about the history of Egypt from the pharaoh’s until the current time for Saritha and I, as I keep my ears in the car and my eyes on the scenery…mostly desert, but some vegetation on the north-north east that is part of the Nile delta. He however won’t say anything negative about Hosni Mubarak, their president and has an interesting definition of democracy…”Its democracy if you can vote”. I still think people disappear if they speak ill about their president in Egypt. Alexandria while the 2nd capital of Egypt, is a typical 3rd world city with the contradiction of poverty and affluence residing side by side. We see a lot of people just sitting around drinking tea and smoking….just like I imagined. Our 1st visit is to Kom-El_Shuqafa, catacombs. This necropolis was discovered by a wayward donkey after years of excavation had failed in 1900’s. It was considered a wonder of the middle ages, a place to hide bodies so the Christians did not mess with it, oh so morbid. We then head on to Amud El Sawari (Pompei’s pillar) and the current ruins reside on the original acropolis and was part of a temple. The last stop is the Roman theater also called Kom al-Dikka. Not a lot to write about the ruins here, but suffice to say we were about to see a lot of ruins, both Egyptian and Roman. Those of you wondering about the famous ancient wonder of the world, the Lighthouse of Alexandria…well it disappeared 3,000 thousand years ago by way of an earthquake. Well nobody told me about it and I was going to get into a fist cuff with our travel agent about it since it was not on my itinerary!!! Well that done, lunch at Aethonos, a typical tourist lunch place where the food was just about palatable washed down with the local brew Stella that was barely cold. We stop by the new library which is the 2nd largest in the world near the site of the ancient library that was burned down by Julius Caesar in one of his battles to control Egypt….the real cause is not definitive. Sight seeing done, we head back to Cairo. One of the world problems I am very keen on seeing solved is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, simply because I do not understand how as a people with more similarities than differences they are unwilling to forget the past and look forward and live together (United States of Palestine & Israel). So I ask Ahmed what he thinks and if the problem will be resolved, since all Arabs think they have a stake. I was disappointed that Ahmed did not see an end in sight. If a young man like Ahmed still prefers to look back, feels his brothers in Palestine are being hurt, the problem continues to self-propel itself. But more about that another time. We return to Cairo and face its traffic for the 1st time. It is bad, it is worse than any I have seen in LA, NY, DC, Manila, Jakarta or even Bangalore….they drive all over, honk and it is a true circus. The trip that took less than 3 hrs in the morning took well over 4 hrs to get back.

A fascinating aspect of life in Cairo. 90% of the housing is not painted with bars sticking out, looking unfinished. Apparently the property tax is applicable to only finished dwellings, so the creative Caironess prefer to keep the outside of their dwellings unfinished so they do not have to pay taxes. Wonder if that would fly here state side……….

November 6 - Giza and Cairo (pictures)
This is the big day…the day of the Pyramids. Saritha and I finish breakfast and wander across the Nile. The Nile that flows through Cairo is fairly thin but thickly polluted. We see families living in boats and on the filth of the shores, it is rather sad spectacle. Back to the hotel to catch our tour bus to see the great pyramids of Giza. The 30 minute drive is uneventful but for the drone of our guide who claims to be an Egyptologist. My 1st view of the pyramids is from inside the bus as we take a turn and boy I was quite thrilled. We drive on to the park that houses the great pyramid of Giza also called the Pyramid of Khufu’ and the pyramid of Cheops, the two Pharaohs of the 4th dynasty. We stop by at a spot past the pyramids to take in the panoramic views as well as the standard touristy pictures. Then come the standard camels for the tourists to ride. These were nasty smelly camels, that spit at me…..that was that with us riding them. We drive the 1/2mile back to the pyramid and get a chance to crawl in to the Khufu’ pyramid. It really is a tunnel 3.5 by 3.5meter wide and some 75 feet long that allows 2 way traffic, those going in to the tomb and those crawling out at the same time. I chicken out after about 15 steps, but my brave Saritha soldiers on. The only consolation for me was that the tomb is a bare room and so I did not miss anything. More pictures and then a short drive to the Sphinx. To me the Sphinx was not as large as I expected but nevertheless quite the construction. The Sphinx is the protector of this necropolis of current Giza, which is on the west bank of the Nile. What I gathered is that all necropolis is on the west of the Nile where the sun sets and the acropolis or city of the living on the east bank where the sun rises. More pictures of the Sphinx, more theories of why the nose is missing from blaming Napolean’s bombs to Christians or Moslems, can’t remember which exactly, but were/are opposed to any sort of idol worship and defaced the Sphinx to dissuade the citizens from worshipping the Sphinx. On the tour bus to a jewellery stop for those who want to buy a Khartush, a flat pendent with your name written in hieroglyphics. Then we go to On the Run by Exxon Mobil….apparently it is a cool place to eat for the locals, yeah and no ham sandwiches. Then Saritha and I peel of on our own to go check out Cairo. 1st stop is the Citadel that was constructed by Saladin (Salāḥ ad-Dīn) in the 12 century AD to protect the city from the crusaders. The citadel now houses a couple of mosques including the famous Mohamed Ali mosque that looks identical to the blue mosque in Istanbul minus 2 minarets. The citadel also gave us some spectacular views of the city through the dusty haze of the afternoon. Out in the distance we could see the great pyramids, but just barely. Getting in to the citadel was quite the challenge as we went on a Friday it was crowed. We had to fight the locals to buy our tickets that were higher since we are foreigners and the signs were in Arabic, then the metal detector failed, so the crowd became even more antsy with a lot of pushing and showing. Then we spot another foreign tour group getting in and we snuck in to that group and made our way in. Egypt has a federal organization called Tourism and Antiquities whose mission as I understand is to protect their treasures while making the sights tourist friendly. While generally speaking they have done ok, there is plenty more for these folks to do. We then catch a rattle trap that makes for a local cab, negotiate a lousy rate for me and drive to the Egyptian museum. One of the advantages to be of Indian origin when traveling overseas from the states is that you are less likely looked as an ATM and that you’re a pain in the ass negotiator, so the local hawkers leave you alone since you are not worth the pain to them to sell. It was apparent again here in Egypt that this theory holds true. Our cab drops of on the other side of a 6 lane main street, which means 12 vehicles pass at the same time in all directions in Cairo. It was an adventure crossing the road…..& the cab man suddenly forgot to speak his broken English when I asked that he deposit us across the street. I think there is a hell only for cabbies somewhere. The Egyptian museum should be taken over by the Smithsonian in my opinion. The treasures are poorly maintained, catching dust and very badly displayed. The entrance to the museum is 35 Egyptian pounds (LE), however if you want to see the royal mummies, you have to shell another 100 local monies. At $1= LE 5.5, it is not a lot, but I find it strange that they would scam tourists this way. In any case we wanted to see it all, so we go to the 2nd floor mummy display area, buy our tickets and go in to see the mummies. I think for 5 thousand years, those dead guys looked well preserved. I counted 13 mummies, including the famous Pharaoh Ramses II, his kids, III and IV as well as other assorted pharaohs. There was one queen in the lot, queen Hatshepsut who married her 5 year old nephew and went to war with him later. The museum holds all the treasures from King Tutankhamun’s tomb including his famous mask. That mask is something else. Since the museum won’t allow pictures, I had to check in my camera before I got in and hence no pictures of the mummies or the mask. The museum has 100’s of sarcophagi and coffins, it is amazing. It is amazing that the Egyptians spent so much time thinking about their after life, it is morbid. There is no evidence of anything they did or built for their people or their life’s in their current times, just tombs, temples and more tombs. We cab it back to the hotel to meet our new friends Noel and Midge from Toronto for dinner. We head to a restaurant that is supposed to serve local cuisine called Felfela. We allow our waiter to order food for us since it is all Egyptian. The mezza is pretty good, but the main course was let us say interesting. Egypt has 2 beer’s Stella and Sakkarra. They are both good and generally come in 500ml bottles, I liked that very much….the size that is. I could look Saritha in the eye and say I only had 2 beers….I don’t think she caught on to that. The Egyptians are really greedy about their tips, despite adding 12% to the check, our waiter friend seemed to want more. When we requested he take a picture, he refused….what a guy!!!

November 7 - Luxor (pictures)
We wakeup @ 4am to get to the airport to catch a 7am to Luxor an hour or so south of Cairo. Since they did not seat Saritha and I together, we went back to get different seats and got new boarding cards with new gate information…the rest of the group where heading to an unused gate and potential sat there forever. Saritha saves the day! The visibility is poor in Cairo and delays our plane until 8.30am. We land at Luxor which is on the east bank of the Nile, the city of the living. We take a short ride by coach to our boat, the Tamar Henna, that we will be on for the next 4 nights as we cruise the Nile. The boat is good and our digs are plenty nice as well with a little balcony. In typical Egyptian fashion and is true since we got to Egypt the check in process is complicated and inefficient….they keep up to that low standard as we sit around on the boat. Lunch is on the boat and then we head to the Luxor temple. This temple was built by a series of Pharoahs from Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III. The main part of the temple - the colonnade and the sun court were built by Amenhotep III, and a later addition by Rameses II. Now I do caution, none of this is definitive, but a best guess from all the Egyptologists. This temple is filmed in the “Mummy Returns” with all those wonderful giant columns. The temple complex is quiet large and it takes us over 2 hours to get through it. Next stop is the Karnak Temple. The Karnak temple is smaller in size to the Luxor temple and is connected by the avenue of the sphinx. They have excavated about 200 odd sphinx’s but there are plenty more to go before the avenue is opened up. Well preserved temple with some odd ball theories about it. On the way back to the boat we stop at a papyrus place to learn how papyrus is created and how Egyptians believe it is they who invented paper and not the Chinese.

November 8 - Valley of the Kings (pictures)
We wake up on the Nile, lovely feeling that. Post breakfast we travel to the Valley of the Kings. This is where several generations of Pharaohs have been entombed in tombs carved in to the walls of the mountains. The tomb entrances are typically through hallways any where from 40 feet to more than 100 feet, with a lot of decorations that include colorful carvings in the wall. No pictures are allowed here in the valley because it would increase the crowding of tourists but also the flashes could harm the colors. We see the tombs of Ramses III and IV/V which are spectacular with the decorations, such a pity no cameras were allowed. The tomb of King Tut is here as well with his mummy but we decide to skip based on the fact that the tomb is really bare, something about the tomb being built for a high priest but since King Tut died young, it was repurposed. His mummy is there though in the original sarcophagus. On the other side of the valley of the kings is the temple of queen Hatshepsut, which where we drive to. The temple is remarkable both in its construction but also the level to which it has been preserved. The temple, specifically the upper tier is carved in to the mountain and the 2 other lower tiers built on it. MY 1ST view of the temple was in the foreground of the peak of the valley of the king and looked like a brown version of the Dalai Lama’s palace in Lhasa, Tibet. Visit done we return to our boat for lunch while sailing the Nile. The Nile is exactly as I imagine, very calm waters, with palm trees dotting the banks, the poor villagers making a living out of their little farms, children and farm animals in the waters. Post lunch our guide takes time to talk to us about life in Egypt as an Egyptian. I heard a proud Egyptian’s propaganda of how wonderful living in Egypt is and women have all the freedom’s of the world and that CNN reports all BS!....I see the worlds people making a beeline to this utopia. As the evening wears on we close upon a couple of river locks that will take us from lower Nile to upper Nile, we are surrounded by water bound hawkers who throw plastic wrapped scarfs and shawls 50 feet high to us standing on the upper deck of our boat in order get us to buy their wares. Another fascinating day in Egypt on the Nile.

November 9 - Edfu & Kom Ombo (pictures)
Today is our 1st relax scheduled day of the tour, just 2 temples one before lunch and one after and mostly sailing up the river (Nile is the only river that flows south to north in the world) to Aswan, where lies the famous High Dam. The first temple of the day is to Edfu. As with any temple in Egypt we get a long explanation of what the Egyptologist think it could have been built for. This one is for Ptolemy II’s coronation while depicting his fight with his uncle, who murdered his father. A replica of the boat used in the fight is in sanctuary. The walls show carvings of the fight and also what looks like a pig. Our guide would not admit that those were pigs but rather hippo’s. Not sure 5K years ago if Hippo’s waded the waters of Nile or not, but surely he did not want to admit pigs lived in a muslim land even during the pagan worshiping ancient Egyptians…oh well. Back to the boat for some more sailing to Kom Ombo, another temple on the bank of the Nile. This is in the context of Egyptian temples, a modern temple that took 450 years to complete but was ruined in a large earth quake in 14AD. More columns, ruins and hieroglyphics. The temple looks nice in the twilight of the dusk and I have some pictures to prove it. Oh one very interesting discovery Noel and I make….we see a stone breast for the 1st time on a temple carving. Still wondering about that.

November 10 - Abu Simbel (pictures)
Early morning we catch an Egypt Air plane to Abu Simbel from Aswan. The 1 hour plane ride over desert Egypt resembles the grand canyon from the air, except it looks more brown. The Abu Simbel temple is about 200 meters upland from its original location, which is submerged under Lake Nasser. The original temple was broken in to 17 thousand pieces and then rebuilt at its current location. The main temple for King Ramses II is essentially carved in to the side of the mountain and has a grand look to it with 4 large sitting King Ramses statues greeting you. A 2nd temple about 100 feet to its right pays homage to the cow goddess through queen Nefertari. The temples are both on the banks of the giant man made lake of lake Nasser. We spend about 90 minutes on the grounds of Abu Simbel before catching our plane back to Aswan for lunch. Post lunch we get a couple of Felucca’s (local sail boats) on the Nile of Aswan for little gander around the Elephantine island. Any interaction with Egyptians as a tourist always ends in them trying to sell you something and so it is repeated on our felucca. At a landing location close to downtown Aswan we get back on land and walk to the local souk (market) for some shopping. Our guide leads the way as we make our way through the many local streets, interesting sights all through with typical Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds and other symbols of American capitalism every where….the hypocrisy of hating America but liking everything about continues to baffle me. The Aswan souk is remarkably quiet, nothing like the Khan El Khalili market in Cairo. The Egyptian hawkers have learnt that western tourists do not like to be hassled while shopping so, their new tag line is “Hassle free shopping”, all this while they pester you to buy. Saritha and I go a little overboard at the local spice store and buy more spices than we really need. Once we are done shopping we head back to the boat by way of a local cab, now that was an interesting trip. This is another cab that is held together by duct tape and smells strongly of gas and he goes weaving in & out of traffic made up of other crazy cabs like him, horse carts and more. It was relief to see our boat and to be back on it for dinner and a belly dance show. As the night winds through I wonder about this oldest civilization and how little they have accomplished despite having a head start. What gives Egypt?

November 11 - Aswan (pictures)
Today we head back north to Cairo, but before that there are 3 stops to make in the Aswan area. The first is the location of the unfinished obelisk. Now there are 2 theories about this, the first is that there was a workers strike and they up and left and the second is that due to the structure of the granite, the obelisk could not be raised and so was left unfinished. Either ways I do not understand the concept of an obelisk. Next stop is to the island temple of Philae. We get on a boat to get to the temple and YES!!! the boat man sure as you can be tried selling more jewellery and assorted crap to us and Saritha almost fell prey to it. The Philae temple is typical of Egyptian temples and we are templed out this point….so while we learn this is one of 18 temples like Abu Simbal to have been relocated due to the creation of lake Nasser and other random theories about the temple, we are looking to move on. So of to the High Dam of Aswan the was responsible for Lake Nasser where pictures are not allowed, but they dont really care. 2 hour plane ride from Aswan returns us to Cairo. The airport hotel drive is close to as long as it took to get to Cairo from Aswan. By the time we get to the hotel we are cooked!. However Saritha and I are itching for the local fare and some of our new friends tell us about Taaza, a hole in the wall near the Sheraton we are at that serves some real good food. Saritha and I decide to head there. As we are crossing the street, my peripheral vision picks up a well dressed Egyptian crossing the street opposite us and doing a double take to return back to the side of the street we are on and strike a conversation with me….yes, his father has a store behind the gas station and he would really like us to go see it….right! I shooo him off and walk about ½ mile to the Taaza, where a kind waiter decides that we may need an English menu after all. Once we order, we settle to wait. A lady in her 40’s walks in with her kid and is looking to find a spot to sit, so I offer to make space for her. So in return for my kindness she decides she needs to talk to me. Her 1st question is if I am a Nubian!!!....Nubian’s are Egyptian/Sudanese people in the current times, you are particularly dark with curly hair….none of which I am, but Saritha thinks this hysterical. So I tell the Egyptian lady I am “Ameriki”, ah! She says something in Arabic which I think means ATM, because next thing she wants me to buy her and her little brat dinner. 10 minutes of this nonsense, we get our food and we are out of there. Now just as we are crossing the street, Saritha and I notice a boy playing on the other side of the street, but looking at us he crosses in a jiffy and he has tears streaming down his face and he wants money. In 30 minutes we see a very sad face of Egyptian life of deception….man, woman and child, it did not matter.

November 12 - Amman (pictures)
We checkout of our hotels and on to the coach for our ride to the airport and on to Amman, Jordan. Fairly uneventful ride to the airport, quick security, if that is what the Egyptian likes to call it, immigration and on to duty free…where thanks to Bo my wonderfully eclectic friend we find that they are selling beer for $1/can….so Noel and I hustle over and buy them all, though not much was left thanks to Bo in the 1st place. 3 hour later we are in Amman and driving south on the desert highway to Wadi Musa (Petra). This was not before I had to hit the ATM in the airport to get some Jordanian Dinar (JD), which by the way equals about $0.70/ 1 JD…very hard to think of the green back lower than any other, but even more so in Jordan whose GDP of $31B is less than that of lowest GDP states like MT, ND, ME etc. The desert highway is just that, tarmac through the heart of the Jordanian desert. We stop a rest place that also sells dead sea products and all of a sudden I had a very happy wife. We reach Wadi Musa, the little town outside the famous Petra park and check in to our resort of Beit Zaman that is really a restored ancient village. Very nice setting in the middle of the valley and the sun going down while watching the olive trees in the far.

November 13 - Petra (pictures)
The grand day of playing Indian Jones is here…I am back in my Arab garb, ready for any adventure. Our guide Rabee very kindly helps tie my …….correctly and then we head in to the park. Petra he claims was along the silk route and was used by the merchants to rest before they headed of to Istanbul. I am not convinced since this area is particularly inhospitable and is filled with tombs like it would be a necropolis. So more theories and hypothesis as we walk through the gorge. The colors of the rock and facades that have been carved in to the side of the mountains is just wonderful…well worth the visit and then some more. We walk ½ mile to the dam and the beginning of the “Siq”, the actual gorge where the Romans carved water channels in the walls of the gorge. ½ mile through the gorge and some indescribable scenes later, we come to a small opening (yes play this music while you read this part...) we come upon the awesome site of the treasury. The treasury is the tomb of a Nabataean king and the rumor was that there was treasury in the façade that now stands destroyed and one can see bullet marks left by the Bedouins and other rogues. This famous site is best seen and less written about. We stop and take more pictures than I have of any vista and then walk further on to see other facades and the amphitheater. It is all very breathtaking and I must say the Jordanians have maintained well. On the way back, I walk but Saritha gets on a horse for the trudge back. Petra done we drive back to Amman where we spend the night. Saritha had heard of another hole in the wall setup in Amman called Reem that is famous for its lamb wraps and has attracted the royal family. So we decide that for dinner, but before we know the entire group of about 15-20 has congregated in Bo’s room and we are ordering for wraps while Megan orders cup cakes. We head out to pick up the 20 wraps that we ordered, wait a while watching this operation. The lamb is on a vertical rotating spit slowly being cooked, one guys shaves the meet, another opens a pita puts hummus, tomatoes, onions and a bunch of meat on it while the 3rd wraps it. A wrap takes 30 seconds to make and $2.50 each with the cab fare. While this was fascinating, I was left wondering what was so special since it was a little to dry for me.

November 14 - Jerash & Amman (pictures)
Our penultimate day in Jordan has us going north for an hour to Jerash from Amman (Philadelphia in the Roman times), one of the Decapolis (10 cities) of the Roman period. Jerash’s claim to fame is that it is the best preserved ruins outside of Rome and I must agree with that though I have not seen all of the Roman ruins. Jerash’s “cardo maximus” or main street is remarkably well preserved where one can see the chariot wheel markings, however the “Decumanus Maximus”, the east west street not so much. The amphitheater is really in a good shape too and I climbed it all the way up to get some fascinating views. This is also a city supposedly visited by Jesus Christ. There are more columns, fountains, temples, and gates…lets not forget those admirable Roman gates. Lunch is delicious and very Jordanian and then we drive back to Amman for more sights. The first one here is the citadel where one gets a chance to see Amman being built on 7 hills, a so wonderful panoramic view. We then drive down through the city to another amphitheater that is about good looking as the one in Jerash. We also get some time to shop in downtown Amman, where remarkable none of the shop keepers bother us, in fact their tactic is to ignore us. At one shop where we checking out the typical arab tops women wear…I asked after the price, the shop keeper told me “that is not important” and proceeded to show the garment to Saritha, very smooth I thought. The last nights dinner is with our new wonderful friends Betty and Bud at an Iraqi restaurant names Zad El Khair. Apparently this is the best Iraqi food outside of Iraq. Since Saritha chose the fish, a carp from the Jordan river we went to choose it. The chef once we chose the fish, so non challantly picked it out of the tank and dropped it on the floor….talk humane fishing! That aside I must say the food, their hospitality and the ambience was a wonderful way to wrap our vacation.

November 15
Time to bid Good Bye to Egypt and Jordan. I stop to think how different these two Arab neighbors are, one so pleasant the other so chaotic. Both with such enriching histories, so much turmoil but yet so much potential. I wish the people and these lands much peace and prosperity and despite minor challenges, recommend a visit to all my friends. Those altruistic thoughts done, on to a 12hour plane ride from Queen Alia to JFK…….with thoughts of the next adventure on top of the mind and a screaming kid in the background.