December 19, 2006 by zankbennett.

Aswan:

Easy, quick Train ride to Aswan.  Easily found the nice hotel room.  They had folded a towel into a cobra snake and left that on the bed.  Apparently, someone thought this was a good idea.  I looked under the bed like 50 times making sure the cloth snake didn’t have any cold-blooded friends…

The markets in Aswan were more of the same…impossible to walk by without endless hastling.
First day in Aswan…the most impressive part of Egypt..the Karnak Temple.  Amazing pillars there.  A forest of 158 pillars, so tall and mighty greeted me just 100 metres into the temple and proved the most impressive part of the whole trip, as far as sights went.

I spent the second day exploring the west bank of the Nile and the toumbs found there, then rode a Camel over to a nearby monestary and an unfinished obelinsk.  The camel was real unhappy, so I just walked most of the way.  I felt like I was in one of those movies where the actors are stranded out in the middle of nowhere and the sand-combed dunes extend as far as sight allows.  It was beautiful.

The overnight train was easy and, on my last half-day in Cairo, wandered around a couple churches and markets I’d wanted to see…well, not really, but people told me not to miss them!  ;)  so, after begging a hotel manager to allow me to store my bag and guitar for a day…I was off on foot.  I’m still surprised I didn’t get hit by a car or that I wasn’t in a car accident.  Driving there is an art.  Truly.

Left Egypt, en route to Bangkok, Thailand.

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October 13, 2006 by zankbennett.

Posting links to the pictures here at the top…

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September 17, 2006 by zankbennett.

Mykonos! Arrived sans Kristen, friend from NYC, to Mykonos via a high-speed ferry. Janis -sp?- was waiting for us, well, in this case, me. Kristen lost her luggage and, along with her whole flight from NYC, missed her connection. And the French kept her bag to boot. I hear that Paris is a terrible connection city..note to self…
So it turns out that Janis owns the hotel where we’re staying: Hotel Omiros. He’s a young guy and very amicable. He showed me to the SICK room…sweeping sea views with an unbelievable deck that’s just perfect for taking in a sunset. It was dark when I got in, but stunning none the less.

Finally, Kristen gets in at 11 pm with no bags so we walk into town for some dinner and possibly to go out. Only the former happened, and would be the last we would see of the town of mykonos or any of the bars for that matter.

Got up the next morning and rented a scooter for me and a 4-wheeler for her…good times. We went all over that island and eventually wound up at Elias -sp?- beach. Laying there near the water was liken to standing in front of a stucco-removing sandblaster and asking if “this one goes to eleven”. It was very windy, and every so often a gust would come up and….BLAM…sand in places I didn’t even know existed yet!
Back to the hotel. Janis had asked me to play some guitar around sunset and so with a small crowd of international travelers and Janis I played and sang and we frank some great wine. The sun set and we finished a few bottles of wine. Considering it a special time, Janis brought out a bottle of wine made by his friend from grapes that grow right there at the hotel. Great stuff and soon everyone went for the pre-evening nap…a great Spanish tradition I’m embracing fully over here. Janis invited KrIsten and me to a party somewhere on the other side of the island.

We jump into his Omiros van and we’re off. We get lost like four times but alas arrived…deep into the Mykonos hilly interior. I’m pretty sure Kristen thought we were going to be abducted and so was a little concerned in the back seat. All was fine, and we were warmly welcomed at the party. Come to find out that Janis is very well known and respected on the island; he’s even running for public office. The party was great. Everyone was a Mykonos local. I’m pretty sure it was a party for a baptism. There was this DJ, Hans, who spun the best stuff I’d heard in years. He couldn’t have been a day under 60. I’ll have to post a pic soon.
Over the DJ, there was a parsschutte strung rather taughtly. It was blowing and flapping in the incessant Mykonos wind. Great scene, great people and an experience that I’m so grateful for. Mykonos is known as a party island and we had an experience that was just the opposite of the typical. No clubs, no 8€ drinks…but a great time with locals and homemade food and insane music.

We got home at around 2:30 am and argued about going into town until we fell asleep. Perfect.

Today, Sun, 17 SEP, went exploring on the scooters towards Panorma, on the north, or windward, shore. Found some great beaches, but amazingly, found the rocky, quite rugged, north shore. Picture the home of the cartoon character with the brush-helmet who kept talking about his X-14 space modulator…it was barren and windy and lonely, yet perfectly preserved in its ruggedness. The rocks were damn sharp, but we managed to avoid flats and it was a perfect exploratory end to the Mykonos portion of the trip.

I almost flipped my scotter at 40 mph coasting down this massive hill. The hill ended abruptly, the bike’s front wheel hit it and the shock bottomed out violently, and the bike bucked me so hard my feet rose above the seat in response. I never let go and pulled it. Idiot American on a scooter!

Now on Ios.
Ran (of course) to catch the ferry from Mykonos, bec Janis and I were exchanging music on my MP3 player - I’m loaded with greek goods now. I’ll be sure to pass on any gems I discover in there.

Ios is beautiful. The view from our deck (this is starting to be an unbelievable trend) is breathtaking. There are several island peaks on the near-horizon that merge together in the distance just over the vanishing pool…the floors everywhere are made of cool, translucent marble. This is unequivocally one of the nicest places I’ve stayed in my life. My part is €37/night.

Still having the time of my life. The weather is perfect. The sky is blue and clear. The water is warm and swimable and finally the winds have calmed.

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August 24, 2006 by eatfeijoada.

i got one right now!

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July 30, 2006 by zankbennett.

This posting really has nothing to do with traveling anywhere at all….but at least it fits under the “pre-travel” heading…
Some good people and a good rock and roll show at the Alibi.

-z

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July 24, 2006 by zankbennett.

Thanks to everyone for making this such a special night…can you find yourself in the picture?

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