Category: Africa & Middle East

Jan

5

A New Top 10 List? Ethical Destinations

Posted by Larry Habegger

Spud Hilton reported in the San Francisco Chronicle the other day a new spin on the top 10 lists we always see at this time of year. Not the best beaches or golf courses or hot cities for the new year, but the Developing World’s 10 Best Ethical Destinations.

The list was compiled by Jeff Greenwald and Christy Hoover at EthicalTraveler.org, a nonprofit organization (part of the Earth Island Institute) that urges travelers to spend their travel dollars in ways that protect human rights and minimize impacts on the environment. They acknowledge that no country on the list is perfect (what country off the list is?) but they found lots of hope and inspiration in many places. Continue reading »

Leave a Comment | Filed Under Adventure Travel, Africa & Middle East, Argentina, Chile, Europe, Feature, Ghana, South America, Suriname

Jul

11

Ghana Welcomes the Obama Family

Posted by Darya Mead

The Obama family has landed in Ghana, the first independent sub Saharan country and the ancestral home of many African Americans. A democratic and peaceful country, Ghana is sitting on a lot of oil and certainly is a strategic visit for Obama on many levels. Ghana has been dubbed the Gateway to Africa and the presidential family visit is placing Ghana in the tourism spotlight. Currently, Ghana is third in West Africa tourism arrivals. Senegal is considered the most developed tourism destination in West Africa. Nigeria is second. Many Blacks in the Diaspora have made pilgrimages to Ghana’s Castles, which served as transit points for the shipment of their ancestors to the then new world. The President plans to visit the castle which symbolizes so much to so many. If you want to learn more about Ghana, check out Triporati’s Ghana destination page which is our featured destination this week to coincide with the Presidential visit.

Leave a Comment | Filed Under Africa & Middle East, Ghana

Feb

17

The Pyramids! The Pyramids!

Posted by Larry Habegger

Most of us have seen so many photographs of the Pyramids of Giza that we may feel we know them and don’t expect any surprises when we actually see the gargantuan tombs in person. I certainly didn’t expect to have much of a reaction when I saw them on my first trip to Egypt earlier this month.

In fact, seeing the Egyptian Pyramids wasn’t even my top priority when I arrived. I wanted to see Cairo, the fabled markets and crowded streets and the legendary River Nile. Even a visit to the Red Sea ranked pretty high on my list. I figured the pyramids would be another stop on my tourist path, granted an awesome stop, but I hadn’t given them much thought beyond that. Continue reading »

5 Comments | Filed Under Africa & Middle East, Archaeology, Cairo, Egypt, Feature, Travel

Feb

9

Mohammed’s Shirt

Posted by Larry Habegger

I saw him moments after descending from the bus before boarding the boat for the Temple of Philae in Aswan. It wasn’t the white stubble of his beard and close cropped gray hair that caught me. It wasn’t his erect posture in the flowing galibeyah gown or his flashing eyes or the smooth texture of his brown skin. It was the white cotton shirt in his hands.

Simple embroidery decorated the shirt pocket. A buttonless slit ran from near the pocket to the collarless neckline. Cut like a t-shirt but elegant in its whiteness in the desert sun, the shirt flapped like a flag in his brown fingers. Continue reading »

Leave a Comment | Filed Under Africa & Middle East, Egypt, Feature, Markets, Travel, shopping

Feb

8

Sharm el-Sheikh’s Old Market Spices

Posted by Larry Habegger

It’s impossible to resist the lure of spice markets. The vibrant colors, the sculpted displays, the strange and exotic nature of the herbs in baskets always draw me in.

The gnarled, web-like fists of Rosa Santa Maria mystified me.

“It’s good for luck, and smells good in the home,” one shopkeeper said.

The overflowing barrels of dark red whorls?

“Hibiscus.” Continue reading »

3 Comments | Filed Under Africa & Middle East, Egypt, Markets

Feb

5

The Souvenir Sellers of Sharm el-Sheikh

Posted by Larry Habegger

In just about any tourist town the local markets sell trinkets, and one of the great mysteries of the modern world, perhaps even of the ancient world, is how so many shops can survive or hope to survive selling the same merchandise.

“Alabaster” pyramids, “jeweled” boxes, stylized cats, hookahs, sand paintings in vases, papyrus paintings, decorative plates, pharaohs’ busts, cotton head scarves and belly-dancing wraps, the list goes on and on. Almost every shop sells the same merchandise and their only hope for business is to befriend visitors without being pushy. Continue reading »

1 Comment | Filed Under Africa & Middle East, Egypt

Feb

5

Burning Bush at the Old Market, Sharm el-Sheikh

Posted by Larry Habegger

On his 40-year tour of the neighborhood many millennia ago, Moses passed this way and found a burning bush at the base of a mountain and heard the voice of God. I sat on the terrace of El Mawardy Café and saw my own burning bush atop the hill at the end of town. I don’t think I heard the voice of God but I did hear the Muslim call to prayer, the laughter of children getting a treat a few tables away, the honking of a car horn.

Maybe the voice of God was speaking quietly, because my friends and I were sitting across the street from where a terrorist bomb exploded in 2005, destroying an entire row of shops and killing many people. The shops have been rebuilt, the neighborhood is friendly, especially in the evening when the shadows soften the harsh sun and the lights of shops cast a festive glow over the streets. A crescent moon and resplendent Venus added to the spell. Continue reading »

Leave a Comment | Filed Under Egypt, Travel

Feb

3

Felucca, Anyone?

Posted by Larry Habegger

“Felucca man, you want boat? Half hour, here—” the man rasped and gestured down a gangway as my friend Clark and I strolled along the Nile in central Cairo. He was about the fifth person to encourage us to take a boat ride, and of course it’s something we intend to do, for how can you come to Cairo and not ride a felucca? But we weren’t ready then, we just wanted to walk, take in the sights and sounds of the legendary river before heading off to dinner.

Cairo’s traffic roared by, then slowed to a crawl, all accompanied by the blares, beeps, honks, and screeches of a thousand car horns and the periodic wail of music from the boats moored to the riverbank. Even in February the sun had the intensity to scorch my face; traffic fumes reminded me that despite the breeze off the water this is a congested, challenging city. Continue reading »

Leave a Comment | Filed Under Africa & Middle East, Cairo, Egypt

Feb

3

Cairo Concerto

Posted by Larry Habegger

I returned from a short walk around the neighborhood on my first day in Cairo and was drawn toward the bar and restaurant in the open lobby of the Intercontinental Citystars. I wasn’t hungry or interested in a drink, I simply felt like wandering and seeing what was there.

Then the sound of music, energetic strings and the fast rhythms of a tabla pulled me on. It sounded live, so I poked my head around a corner looking for the source. Sure enough, tucked into a corner of the lobby that opened onto the restaurant a quartet of women dressed in headscarves were playing. One strummed a 12-stringed lute-like instrument called an oud, another plucked a flat zither-like instrument, a third bowed a cello, the fourth beat a tabla. Continue reading »

Leave a Comment | Filed Under Cairo, Egypt, Music

Feb

3

Cairo Roundabout

Posted by Larry Habegger

How do you know when you’ve reached the tourist district? My first clue on my recent arrival in Cairo was the first sign I saw in English after miles of Arabic. In huge letters across the top floor of a shop were the words, “Carpet City.” Next door proclaimed itself “Fair House.” Both, I’m ashamed to admit, struck me as funny because they matched my preconceptions about Cairo: 1) we’d be hustled for carpets; 2) those hustlers would be certain to offer us a “fair” price. Continue reading »

Leave a Comment | Filed Under Africa & Middle East, Cairo, Egypt

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