A Blast in the Present

Cairo explosion was no blast from the past but a current menace that I recently avoided

Just three weeks ago, while visiting Egypt during a Society of American Travel Writers Freelance Council meeting, I along with other SATWers and tourists, plunged into the tiny "streets "of Cairo's Khan el-Khalili bazaar (below). Tourist-oriented as it has become, classic Middle Eastern market is endlessly fascinating. And endless streams of visitors flood into the labyrinth.

The narrow streets -- lanes, really -- provide abundant sights, sounds and energy, as merchants hustle to attract buyers (mainly tourists) to their tiny shops. "Hello!" "Where you from?" "Come visit my shop." "No hassle." "I make you a good price." My sense was of energy and enterprise, but not of any kind of threat.

My colleagues and I entered the bazaar from a narrow street that runs alongside the beautiful 12th-century Al Hussein Mosque (below). Like everyplace in Egypt that tourists are likely to visit or where expats live, security presence was obvious -- and there are, of course, plainclothes personnel all around too. A uniformed police officer stood at one street corner across from the mosque at one entrance into the labyrinthian market. (As you look at this photo, Khan el-Khalili is directly to the left of the mosque). I peered inside an open door to the mosque, brillitantly lit with fluorescent lights even during daylight. I would have liked to go in, but I didn't think that non-Moslems, especially a foreign woman, would be welcome there.

On another side of the mosque is the large open area with a rare square of actual green grass and towering palm trees that seem nearly as high as the imposing minarets. It is fenced off, so that no one actually walks on the grass. During the day, tour buses unload on an adjacent paved square (just behind where I stood to take this photo. In the evening, vehicles are not permitted there and traffic is kept at a distance, turning this greenspace and the blocked-off square into a kind of buffer for the mosque.

The mobility-challenged vendor below was selling some modest goods from a folding table alongside the mosque, just across from the entrance to the Khan el-Khalili market that I went into and out of.

Facing the grassy square, and therefore just steps from the mosque, a row of busy cafes (below) attracts many visitors and also Egyptians as well. On the evening of February 4 at around 7:00 p.m. (after dark), another woman and I left the bazaar, passed the mosque and the greenspace, and crossed the area where vehicles are prohibited to grab a taxi that would take us back to our hotel.

After I returned, friends who asked me about my trip and my impressions as often as not also asked whether I was nervous or afraid, and I always replied that I wasn't. I reminded them that people who go about their business at home or abroad without incident do not make headlines.

Given my recent visit, today's CNN headline, "Tourist killed, 23 others wounded in Egypt blast," and msnbc's "Explosion in Cairo Bazaar Kills 1 Injures 21," were not abstract to me, even if the news services weren't in agreement over how many people were injured. According to the report, "The explosion occurred during the height of the evening rush at 6:30 p.m. in an area of coffee shops located near the Al Hussein Mosque, one of Cairo's largest, Interior Ministry press officer Hany Abdelatif said. The bomb was left under a stone chair, a ministry statement said. An undetonated bomb was found near the mosque, which sits close to an entrance of the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, a huge market and a tourist attraction, Abdelatif said."

I am not sure exactly where the bomb went off, but I certainly had a powerful picture of the lay of the land. When I heard the news, I was sad about the tourists and locals who were victims of the blast, relieved I wasn't there to witness it and sorry that this incident might negatively impact visitation to the country that has so much worth seeing. I also immediately remembered the vendor, heavily seated next to her wheelchair, and hoped that she was unhurt.

P.S. Please see this story from the New York Times.

Get Connected at Puerto Vallarta Resort

Luxury boutique hotel helps guests connect the 21st-century way

A lot of people are intending to get savvy or savvier about social media -- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. -- but never get around to it. Casa Velas near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico now helps guests get a handle on 21st-century communications at with three free social media workshops a week. It's the newest inclusion at this all-inclusive, adults-only, AAA Four Diamond Casa Velas Hotel Boutique (not Boutique Hotel, but Hotel Boutique). The Monday, Wednesday and Friday workshops take only an hour, enough for such basics as creating a Facebook profile, adding friends, uploading photos and utilizing “Like” pages; getting on Twitter, following and Tweeting; and also creating videos and uploading them to YouTube.

Pierre Bonin, Casa Velas managing director believes his property to be Mexico's first to offer social media workshops, free at that. Of course, the property benefits when has introduced guests share their vacation experiences, photos and videos with family and friends, but Casa Velas’ social media program was also requested. Velas Resorts surveyed 300 guests in Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit and the Rivera Maya. Seventy percent of respondents, aged 18 to 64, expressed serious interest in social media. The majority wanted to share vacation photos, videos and trip experiences with friends and family on Facebook. The plan is to add such workshops to other Velas Resorts.

I've never been to Puerto Vallarta in general let alone to the Casa Velas in particular, but the resort looks appealing. It is a member of The Leading Small Hotels of the World and appears to be a hideaway rather than a high-action place. It is closer to Puerto Vallarta Airport (five minutes) than to P.V's popular downtown area (15 minutes), filled with, art galleries, shops, restaurants, nightspots and seaside malecon. The hotel has 80 suites (some with private pools and Jacuzzis), large pool, richly landscaped grounds, golf privileges at a couple of nearby courses, a small spa and Emiliano, an a la carte fine-dining restaurant serving Mexican and international cuisine.

From now through December 23, rates start at $240 per person per night, based on double occupancy, including dining at Emiliano, private beach club, premium international liquor brands, 24-hour in-suite service, in-suite minibar, private roundtrip airport transportation and all taxes and gratuities. I don't know where rates that "start at" $240 PP/DO might end. I'm not pretending that $480 per day for a couple is a cheap vacation, but it certainly seems to present a good value for those who want a luxury getaway. And have you priced the hourly rate of an Internet tutor? Reservations, 866-529-8813. RCI members, RCI Members, 800-835-2778.

An Oscar Connection with Texas

James Dean and Giant memorialized in historic hotel in West Texas

OK, friends, this post might seem like a bit of a stretch, but stay with me. On the morning of the Academy Awards, as I read today's USA Weekend, my recent visit to Marfa, Texas, came to mind. And here's the reason. Columnist Lorrie Lynch who does the "Who's News" page wrote, "Like James Dean, who died in a 1955 car crash at the age of 24 after completing his work on Giant, Heath Ledger, who died at 28 after finishing The Dark Knight, will be remembered as a talented actor lost too young."

Last fall, I was briefly in Marfa, where Giant (starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and, of course, James Dean) was filmed more than half a century ago. I went into the gorgeously restored Spanish-style Paisano Hotel to take peak, and just off the lobby (below) a small room was dedicated to the film that brought so much star power to this small town in West Texas. I didn't take a photo of that display of movie memorabilia, but if I had thought I might ever write a blog post about it, I would have. In any case, if you find yourself in West Texas, Marfa, which has become a notable modern art center, is worth a visit, and when you are in town, be sure to stay at, eat at or at least look into the Paisano and, if you are an old-movie fan, pay hommage to Giant and its stars.

Royal Gorge Train a Real Treat

Vintage train cars ride the rails through a deep canyon carved by the Arkansas River

There's a lot of history to the rail line through an Arkansas River canyon northwest of Cañon City. In the 1870s, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe fought a literally and figurative turf war over which line would build a line along the river. The battle reached the Supreme Court, and the Denver and Rio Grande won. At one time, the busy line connected Pueblo's magnificent railroad terminal, Salida and Leadville's high-elevation station and eentually beyond to Minturn. Now, the Royal Gorge Route train uses a relatively few miles of trackage to take tourists through the Arkansas River's most dramatic canyon, but it does so in vintage style.

Coach class, open-air cars where passengers stand and swivel for ever-changing views, Vista Dome cars with lunch, dinner or wine dinner service, murder mystery trains, rail/raft packages combining a train ride upstream and a raft trip back downriver, Santa Express trains and even the opportunity to ride in the cab with the engineer are Royal Gorge options. The rail company commissioned Idaho artist Ward Hooper to create a special, limited edition poster (above left) in a retro style to match the cars and recently hired Donald Burns as executive chef. We took what amounted to a twilight "hors d'oeuvre train" to introduce both the graphic artist and the culinary artist to the media.

Among other credentials, Burns was corporate chef for the luxurious American Orient Express, and he has brought his culinary touch to the Royal Gorge route. The excellent small plates served to the media are not on the regular menu, but the route and the scenery are the same, no matter which class of service. A cute little depot with ticket office and extensive gift shop is the train's home port.

The train pulls our of the station and heads westward, paralleling the river, and soon passes the outskirts of Cañon City. The Arkansas is running really fast these days from high-country snowmelt. Even the flatwater was high, lapping over its customary banks. Our tablemates are Pueblo locals whose son works for a raft company. He told them that the swift current had been turning their "family float" trip into a fast float . 

Soon the valley closes in and the train enters the area of rock slopes and later steep cliffs, pinching down the river into raging whitewater. Authorities are warning even experienced rafters and kayakers off many Colorado rivers until they calm down, but looking down from the train was both exciting and disquieting, because running water like this can be really dangerous.  

The railroad could collect tickets at the boarding gate, airline-style, but it retains the traditional flavor with a uniformed conductor checking them on the train. He's probably making sure that coach ticket holders haven't upgraded themselves into the dome card, but he does so subtly and with a broad smile.

Artifacts along the banks include remaining sections of redwood pipe that once brought gravity-fed water to thirsty Cañon City.

We stopped for quite some time at the narrowest part of the canyon, with the Royal Gorge Bridge -- the world's high suspension bridge -- resembling nothing more substantial than a tightrope a thousand feet above the water surface.

As the train returned to Cañon City, the setting sun slotted into the canyon and made the water glow with reflected evening light.  

 

Royal Gorge Route, 401 Water Street, Cañon City; 888-RAILS-4U or 719-276-4000.

Celebration Time at Bent's Fort

The Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site celebrates its 50th Anniversary as a unit of the National Park System

The original Bent's Fort, an abobe landmark on the Santa Fe Trail near the present town of La Junta, was built in the 1840s, and for 16 years was the only permanent settlement between Missouri and what was then Mexico (now New Mexico). A monument was erected in 1912 to mark the site, the fort itself was reconstructed for the US Bicentennial in 1976 and it was designated as the Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site half a century ago.

This was a weekend of re-enactments, programs from leading historians, stagecoach rides, a trapper’s camp and a movie retrospective and more. The historians told the story of the fort and its establishment as a national park. Presenters included Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, great-grandson of President Dwight Eisenhower who signed the bill establishing the park; Cathy Smith, award-winning costume designer for “Dances With Wolves,” “Geronimo” and “Buffalo Gals;” Mark Gardner, author, historian and musician from Cascade, Colorado; Lawrence Hart, Cheyenne Peace Chief and Executive Director of the Cheyenne Cultural Center in Clinton, Oklahoma; and Dr. David Sandoval, specialist in the history of the Southwest from Colorado State University at Pueblo.

My husband and I visited the fort a couple of years ago (click here for my report), and if this had not been the Saturday of my neigborhood's annual, I would have wanted to be at Bent's Old Fort  this weekend to, especially on Saturday evening, for a 50th Anniversary Banquet and an authentic 1840s fandango with music and dance instruction by Dr. Lorenzo Trujillo and the Southwest Musicians.

The party might be over, but the fascination of Bent's Old Fort continues with wonderful interpretative activities all summer long. If you're traveling through southern Colorado, don't miss it. Bent's Old Fort is 70 miles from Pueblo, 8 miles from La Junta and 15 miles from Las Animas. The official address is 35110 Highway 194 East, La Junta, CO 81050-9523; 719-383-5010.

Images of Egypt: On the Streets of Alexandria

Scenes of everyday Alexandria and its people

Alexandria's streets come across as collage of cultures, architectural styles and creatures and their conveyances (humans, cars, buses, trucks, taxis, streetcars, carriages, horses, donkeys and cats). There is, at once, an old worldliness and a developing worldliness that imbues the city with a rich cultural texture. The city is long and skinny (a bit like Manhattan Island), stretching for 12 east-west miles along the Mediterranean cost and measures just a couple of north-south miles.

The most elegant section is near the Eastern Harbor, with a vibrant commercial district, residential areas and lovely old villas. Despite its seawall and crumbling sidewalks, the Corniche remains an elegant arc along the waterfront. The Western Harbor is the commercial port and more industrial area. A peninsula that sticks up into the Mediterranean separates the Eastern and Western Harbors is punctuated by an old fortress. The city's relief valves is its long coast, where the Mediterranean presents a limitless horizon and a blue-domed sky. Here are some random images of the city's streetscape.

Delta Dropping Its Reward Ticket Redemption Fee

An airline fee rollback of any kind is good news for travelers

I just recently committed 30,000 OnePass miles and a $500 redemption fee to upgrade from a middle seat near the tail end of the plane for a business/first seat on Continental. It's a long flight -- from Newark to the Middle East after getting to Denver International Airport, flying to Newark and waiting for four hours before taking off again. I'm waitlisted for an upgrade on my return trip. If I get it, the cost will be 30,000 miles and $350. Why? Because my eastbound itinerary is on a weekend, while westbouond is not.

Therefore, I can only cheer at the news that Delta has canned the redemption fees for Sky Miles tickets if redeemed less than three weeks before a flight -- on domestic flights at any rate.The Wall Street Journal's airline column, "The Middle Seat," compared the number of miles redeemed on its loyalty program with that of other carriers.  I don't know what their international policy is/was. I just know that this is the first word I've heard in quite some time about an airline lifting rather than imposing a fee for anything.

Let's hope Delta starts a trend.