The following day, we planned to go somewhat early to the Dibeen Reserve, one of the less-developed of RSCN’s nature sanctuaries, hoping to avoid the fees associated with the parks that have more facilities for visitors. I asked the hotel owner where we could get some foul, a question which …
Tag: transportation
Chariots Afire—عربات مشتعل
Getting out of Damascus ended up being rather more complicated than we had expected. The staff at our hotel had given us rather specific times—five of them, in fact—at which busses leave from the Sulmariya station on the outskirts of town to Amman. We were aiming to catch the 3pm …
R&R in Damascus—الإستراحة والإرتياح في الشام
Our day in Damascus was slow, easy and relaxing. We wandered again around the old city, visiting the palace of As`ad Pasha al-Azem, the 18th century governor of Damascus. It was bigger and more elabrate architecturally than its smaller cousin that I wrote about in Hama, but the latter had …
Intermodal—وصائل النقل المتعددة
The last several days have involved travel via a number of different modes of transportation. As I noted in my last post, the folks at the Jisr ash-Shughur train station were kind enough to store our bikes for us so that we could ride the train to Damascus to meet …
Links for April 6th through April 7th
These are my links for April 6th through April 7th: Solidarity with Ibrahim Hassan Ibrahim تضامن مع إبرهيم حسن إبرهيم – “We demand that AUC immediately assume full responsibility for the cost of all job-related injuries, including Ibrahim Hassan’s surgery and ongoing care, and enforce workplace safety protections.” West Bank: …
Links for April 3rd through April 5th
These are my links for April 3rd through April 5th: Palestinian teen in critical condition after being shot in head by Israeli forces – International Middle East Media Center – Less than lethal? The Costs of Owning a Car – Wheels Blog – NYTimes.com – Nearly $9,000/year for a car …
Trip to Upper Egypt & Sudan—رحلة إلى الصعيد و السودان
This is coming a bit late, but I wanted to get some photos up from our recent trip to Upper Egypt and the Sudan. Adrienne has a more of the story here.
Conveying the tourist—نقل السياح
A conventional industry, whether based in manufacturing or agriculture, involves organzing people to produce. Mass production relies upon all the well-known methods of recruiting and disciplining a workforce, organizing their use of time, their movement, and their arrangement in physical space, and developing systems of instruction, supervision, and management. Mass …
Gridlock on Qasr Al-Aini—زحمة موصلات في شارع قصر العيني
A couple days ago I had a horrible time getting to school on Qasr Al-Aini St., my usual route to school. The road was completely gridlocked for many blocks, and I had rather a hard time getting through the tightly packed cars. I had originally thought that it had something …
A Video of Biking in Cairo—ڤيديو ركوب دراجة في القاهرة
This was a bit of an experiment. I decided to see what would happen if I strapped my little digital camera to the shoulder of my messenger bag. Below is evidence of what happened. The video came out alright, and you can get a sense of what it’s like biking …
Motor Scooters—دراجات بموتور
Another thing i like about Cairo: the efficient use of motor scooters. I can’t tell you how many times i’ve seen a family of four packed onto a Vespa. Mother and father with kids hanging off in precarious ways, everyone all grins (well, i can only imagine the mother’s grin—she’s …
Biking in Cairo—ركوب الدراجة في القاهرة
Despite not hanging out much with people, i seem to have made something of a name for myself. And it didn’t even require carrying a doll around. I’m apparently now well-known as the guy who rides his bike to school.
Traffic in Cairo—الممور في القاهرة
I went a bit crazy for the short period when i wasn’t biking here in Cairo.