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"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
Cultural Cuba: an arts tourist’s notebook
http://seattletimes.com/html/thearts/2022845443_cubaartsscenexml.html#.UvhTV0dFOmY.twitter
"For the people who live there, the upheavals in the Middle East have been disastrous. But for travelers they have also placed many of the region’s great archaeological sites out of bounds, leaving big blanks in the atlas of cultural tours."
Georgia and Armenia: a spiritual journey
http://buff.ly/M0yWOl
Real People #23: This woman claimed to be 94-years-old, but she was still going strong, dancing and weaving baskets. Must be the beautiful surroundings on an island on Lake Bunyonyi.
As 2013 is coming to an end, I figured it’s a good idea to list my favorite moments on the road this year. It wasn’t an easy list to make, but here’s my best effort, in no particular order. And I have to say that the outcome makes me feel very grateful: what a fantastic year.
1. Having a long moment alone inside the great pyramid of Giza. And I really mean alone. Even the guide went outside to give me a moment. Such tangible, mysterious energy. (I visited Egypt right after President Morsi was ousted. Interesting times but worked out well for me: there were no tourists around and yet all was peaceful.)
2. Attending Roger Waters’ The Wall concert in Istanbul and seeing how he incorporated the recent demonstrations there to the show. The audience’s reaction was as worth seeing as the concert.
3. OK this one was pure luck: I happened to arrive in Lalibela, Ethiopia, during the colorful and fascinating timkat festival, which is the Ethiopian Orthodox church’s Epiphany celebration. I even got to join in some of the dancing.
4. Being invited to share a Ramadan dinner with a Nubian family in Aswan, Egypt. Such incredible hospitality and excellent, spicy Nubian dishes.
5. Sleeping in a safari tent on the banks of River Nile in the Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda and being woken up by a roaring hippo in the middle of the night. It seemed to be right next to our tent! A little scary, I have to admit, but also memorable.
6. Waking up in the beautiful Rooms Hotel in Kazbegi, Georgia and seeing the majestic Caucasus Mountains the first thing in the morning from the balcony. I’m a sucker for mountains and this was a top-notch view.
7. A lovely day cycling and having a Turkish mezze picnic with a friend at Princes’ Islands just outside of Istanbul. A perfect summer day.
8. After two hours of hiking in a national park forest in Uganda, witnessing chimpanzees in their natural environment. And trying to get our photographer friend to leave (it was as hard as finding the chimps)!
9. Getting to try khat for the first time with my guide and his friends at their home in Harar, Ethiopia. Fun times! (You really shouldn’t go to Harar and not do it: it’s such a part of their daily lives and khat is exported all over the world from there. Just be warned it takes at least 2 hours to chew the leaves to reach the desired effect.)
10. Visiting the vineyards of Pheasant’s Tears boutique winery in Sighnaghi, Georgia, followed by a multi course, organic dinner with wine pairing. An incredibly tasty evening.
Happy holidays everyone and have an exciting year of 2014, filled with joyous and unforgettable moments both at home and on the road!
Real People #21: We met this woman while visiting a Sufi center with a friend in Harar. It’s the first time I had ever seen a female Sufi and she told our guide if we wanted to watch the ceremony we had to chew khat, the region’s favorite, all natural stimulant.
Ever since I had visited Baku in Azerbaijan, I had been dreaming about going to Yazd in Central Iran, to learn more about Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Iran and Azerbaijan before the advent of Islam, probably more than 8000 years old. Nowadays a lot of higher educated Iranians claim to be Zoroastrian, mostly as an antidote to the strict Islamic rules. The official amount of Zoroastrians is only about 25000 in Iran, mainly in Tehran and Yazd, the major city in the desert of central Iran where most of the shrines are.
Yazd is a mud brick city with a maze of little alleys and gorgeous mosques, surrounded by a vast desert. One thing I learned from a German guide, while visiting the fire temple in Yazd was that Zoroastrianism deeply influenced Judaism, Christianity and Islam. When Cyrus The Great, the most important king in Iranian history, liberated the Jews from Babylon in the 6th century BC, he brought them to Persia. There they learned about Zoroastrianism and its concepts of heaven and hell, which they incorporated into Judaism. So if you really want to escape hell, you’d better opt for yet another belief system…
In the back the Towers of Silence, in front a water reservoir with badgirs or windtowers for cooling
Nowadays the Jewish community in Iran is very small, mainly in Tehran and Esfahan, but they have been in the country for about 2500 years. We met a Jewish mother with her daughter while searching for a Zurkhaneh in Esfahan. She turned out to be the only person around having heard of this place, hidden in a basement behind a small door in a back alley.
Zurkhaneh is the ancient form of gymnastics, practiced for over 2000 years and through history influenced by Mithraism, Sufism and sacred masonry. In more recent centuries, it got adjusted to the Islamic framework. I had first heard on my second week in Iran while being in a teahouse in the center of Esfahan. My attention was drawn old photographs on the while picturing amazing looking strong men with moustaches. But nowadays young Iranians consider the Zurkhaneh old fashioned and the gorgeous men from before have died a long time ago. Their photographs have become collectors items for vintage lovers.
This didn’t stop us from trying to find a place in one of the back alleys of Esfahan. Once arrived, it turned out that none of the practitioners showed up, so we had to become the performers. We clearly still needed a lot of practice. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a gym with life drumming sessions? Anyone? We got a second change to watch it a few days later in Yazd, but sadly enough the place got invaded by retired tourist groups from Russia and Germany, arriving late and leaving early like a hoard of buffaloes. Tourism for sure has a positive influence on the preservation of old traditions, but this had become a bit pathetic. I hope there comes a real revival of this.
The youtube video gives a good idea of the real thing, just skip the first 2 minutes of explanation.
Real People #18: The “hyena man” feeds wild spotted hyenas every night at sundown in Harar, Ethiopia. His family started the tradition in the 60s to divert the hyenas’ attention from their livestock.
Real People #17: These women invited me to their home and showed me how to roast coffee beans before grinding them. Freshest coffee I’ve ever had. They were also into chewing khat, a plant that’s considered a stimulant and which most people in Harar chew for about two hours at lunch break (it takes a lot of chewing to achieve the desired effect).
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