Lol.

CNN reports:

I was there, so check out my Streetparade Pictures.

Some hotels have it but it’s out of order.

Others offer it for a daily fee.

Yet others only count the online time.

The best however provide it for free – isn’t that how it should be?

The hassle – not to speak of the cost – of an accounting system? Making guests pay for a whole 24 hour-day when all they might need is a few minutes of online time per day, every day? All that for the paltry amount “earned” for the hotel?

Look at it from another side – providing Wifi is virtually free for a hotel. Broadband will already be available, as will a wireless router. Slap on an access key and you’re done. Change the access key once a month if you must. But that’s all that’s needed. Do we need Wifi in all the rooms? No, having it just in the lobby or at the bar or courtyard is good enough.

No maintenance, no costs. And endless goodwill from the hotel guests using it.

I WILL remember the hotels with free Wifi.

Here’s something very untypical of Cuba (well, the way of life and food, anyway): Playa Esmeralda, Guardalavaca. We splurged on a night of all-inclusive luxury, hehe! If you’ve been in the “real” Cuba for a few days you have to pinch yourself that the food buffets are real!

Most of these images are film-scans, so their quality will not match up to more recent digital images.

The dome of the Sultan Ali Mosque

If you in any way like to travel independantly, Cairo is a must-see!

Being one of the largest cities on Earth, it can be overwhelming. There is smelly, reckless, congested traffic galore, an unending stream of bustling people in it’s streets, world-class historic monuments to be seen everywhere, Babylonian street scenes which may not have looked much different a thousand years ago, and sounds, smells, sights and tastes to drive your senses into overload.

And Cairo is safe! Almost totally, amazingly, deliciously safe. Day and night. Unbelievable.

Cairo gets a bad rap from guidebooks and travelers for it’s pushy hawkers and lacking service industry. I came prepared for the worst but this turned out to be completely unnecessary. Caireans have a quick smile, a sense of humour, are very friendly and polite (but can get hot-headed astoundingly quickly if provoked) and the hawkers while present are not overly pushy.

We lodged at the Talisman Hotel (which is actually one almost unmarked story in a large old office building) at Talat Harb, smack dab in the middle of downtown Cairo. The shopping streets below are clogged with people, as are the streets with cars, as are the shops with goods. A beehive of activity! The only quiet hours seemed to be early morning, when the shops hadn’t yet opened for business.

Fridays are something special, when religion completely takes over daily life. Sermons are listened to everywhere, either live, blaring out into the streets from mosque loudspeakers or via radio. Cab drivers listen to the sermons while on business and it seems most cars have a Koran on display in them somewhere. Praying people are on the streets everywhere. I have not seen religion so take over daily life anywhere else.

Actually just huge piles of stone blocks, I did not expect the pyramids to impress me as much as they did.

The first peek was on landing, when the pilot announced “Pyramids on left”. While their symmetry is impressive from the air, their awesomeness truly struck me at ground level. The precisely straight slopes, their sheer size and the colossal weather-worn stone blocks need to be seen to be believed. The tunnels to the burial chambers may be somewhat dark, low and a bit hot, and you should go into at least one tomb just for the experience, but untimately they’re just a added experience. The main spectacle is the outside.

Cairo can be well discovered on your own, with the help of a detailed guidebook such as Lonely Planet’s “Egypt”. We did take a private guide along for Sakkara, Dashur and Memphis but that was not necessary and was – in hindsight – somewhat detrimental to the experience. Taxis are aplenty and cheap, and if you choose just the ones with the black and white checkered stripes which have meters, you can avoid getting overcharged as on the meterless ones. The metro is fast, efficient and cheap and the city, being as safe as it is, is a delight to walk around as well.

Stay tuned for the full picture travelogue soon.

There are loads of image sets in the pipeline which I haven’t gotten around to post yet:

• Brazil from 2006 is probably the oldest, which covers Ouro Preto, Belo Horizonte, Iguazu Falls and Rio de Janeiro.
• England from the Spring of 2007 is next which bases around London and branches down for a Southern road trip.
• There’s Croatia from Autumn 2007 as well, of which I’ve posted some pictures but the travelogue is hardly complete yet.
• 2008 sports a Southeast Asia cruise, starting from Hong Kong to Borneo, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, China and back.
• Cairo from November 2009 is pretty recent.
• Cuba from December 2009 is the last trip, starting from Havana, then  covering Eastern Cuba from Holguin.