Egypt Fiasco
- Thread starter Zorba
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Leaving for home tomorrow AM. Performed a double here in Sweden, which I guess makes me an INTERNATIONAL DANCE STAR!!! - whatever... 
The trip to Sweden from Egypt was brutal, and I'm only recovering now. Last nite's performance was held together by adrenaline and Coca-Cola!
The trip to Sweden from Egypt was brutal, and I'm only recovering now. Last nite's performance was held together by adrenaline and Coca-Cola!
I'd have to find the pics, but the electrical panel servicing equipment I installed was horrifying. Power and ground were run how you'd expect. An 8ga stranded ground wire was lagged on the busbar, run through an open hole in the block wall an wrapped around an exposed water pipe outside. The neutrals were run to the panel and all taped together hanging in free space. We were using power converters and needed that neutral circuit. Before discovering the issue, we kept getting bit by the server rack frame. Placed the DMM leads on the frame and Earth, it read 70VDC. As my customer said to me, we are a nation of masons not electricians, lol.
First temple we saw - a small one dedicated to the Mighty Isis - a Goddess so important that even the Christians acknowledge Her, although most of them don't know it!
Well, we're home. Goddess help us. The flight from Stockholm to Reykjavik was OK, but Reykjavik to Orlando was the flight from Hell. Mainly because we both got rip-roaring head colds from breathing cold air at nite in Sweden, plus we're both coughing up Egyptian dust. Bad cough, sore throat, etc. But the worst of it was the children who were - of FUCKING course - directly across the aisle from me. A babbler and a shrieker. Then we got to Orlando and had to sit on the tarmac for half an hour. Then we finally got to the gate and had to wait again while the idiots unloaded their overseas bags from the thrice damned overhead bins (Ye Gods, I wish they'd just do away with those). Got into the terminal, the new Orlando international terminal C. I'm NOT impressed. My tenant is a TSA officer and has told me about the many problems with that terminal, which includes no backup generators. What he didn't tell me about were the damned ramps. Wife and I were both sick, exhausted, and pretty beat up from that horrid flight, and we had to walk up what felt like a half mile of ramps. No people movers, no escalators, no elevators. We had to stop and rest a couple of times...
Oh, and I had to pay $7 for a "Smarte Carte", which were free in Sweden and Egypt. Welcome to the USA!
Oh, and I had to pay $7 for a "Smarte Carte", which were free in Sweden and Egypt. Welcome to the USA!
When I'm "over there", I'm always reminded of just how regimented our lives are here. OTOH, Egypt is pretty much a police state.
Ran into a Brit on the airplane coming home. He just could NOT comprehend how I got around Cairo et al without Uber. These smartphone people are so addled by same that they cannot comprehend any other way of doing things - much like the insurance adjuster who wanted me to use a PHOOOOOONNE to upload pictures to their website several years back. "No, you don't need a smartphone for that either." The phone didn't leave his hand for even one second during the entire 8+ hour flight.
And I actually managed to do the entire trip without a smartphone at all - which will be shocking to some here on this forum...
And I actually managed to do the entire trip without a smartphone at all - which will be shocking to some here on this forum...
Ran into a Brit on the airplane coming home. He just could NOT comprehend how I got around Cairo et al without Uber. These smartphone people are so addled by same that they cannot comprehend any other way of doing things - much like the insurance adjuster who wanted me to use a PHOOOOOONNE to upload pictures to their website several years back. "No, you don't need a smartphone for that either." The phone didn't leave his hand for even one second during the entire 8+ hour flight.
And I actually managed to do the entire trip without a smartphone at all - which will be shocking to some here on this forum...
"How do you know where you're going without a phone?"
More random crap to share since I can't go to sleep.
I had never thought of 2FA via a text or call was a bad thing - and its not until it is. I couldn't access several online accounts because they wanted to do phone based 2FA, and my phone wasn't working - they didn't know anything about my wife's phone number, and her phone suddenly stopped working too. So I've come to the realization that the oft-ballyhooed criticism of PHOOOOOONNEs being a "single point failure", also applies to ANY phone. I couldn't access PayPal, Home Depot, or anything Google. I'm going to try to get any/all phones out of the verification loop - just NOT reliable enough. I'll use email verification and YubiKey (which is actually the most secure) where I can, and bitch at companies who don't offer one or the other. Yea, I know, "Good luck with that".
There was a nifty self check-in kiosk at the Stockholm airport. Let's you print your boarding pass and your luggage tags, and drop off your checked baggage all at the same place. Tech is wonderful until it isn't. I must have fat fingered my passport number when I made that flight reservation, as it wouldn't recognize my passport as being associated with that flight - so I had to go the counter anyway. That was OK, I wanted to switch our seats around, the airline guy was MOST helpful.
The Egyptians have airport style X-ray machines at the entry of all the major archeological sites. But they also apparently think that if one security checkpoint is a good thing (tm), two or even three must be better! Their tickets are high tech too, you scan a "barcode" on your ticket and the turnstile unlocks. The all new "Grand Museum" only sells tix through their website, you can NOT buy them any other way. Now I always have a laptop with me, but I also cry foul. The Egyptians are dirt poor, many of them have no online access at all. At least it doesn't require a PHOOOOONNE.
On the road to/from Siwa, you have to go through 3 military checkpoints as Siwa itself is about 8-1/2 miles from the Libyan border. That's fine, and their rifles were pretty cool, but the checkpoint nearest to Siwa closes to outbound (Cairo bound) traffic at 10 AM! If you don't get there before 10, you're stuck in Siwa for another day! It does appear that salt trucks are exempt as I saw plenty of them outbound in the afternoon when we drove down there.
Merchants were hilarious. Bought a very cool papyrus, and while the guy was putting it into a transport tube, the other guy (jokingly) asked if I'd take two camels for my wife. Well, are they young camels? Throw in a goat and we have a deal - but you really don't want her. She spits like a camel and bites too! Hilarity ensued...
I'm used to the street vendors and shop hawkers in Greece. They are a LOT more aggressive here. Can't walk 5 feet without at least one offer of a taxi, "buy this", "Come into my shop", etc. With that said, the Egyptian people are most gracious, I think I like them better than the Greeks - and I love the Greeks!
When we re-entered the US, after going through customs and Passport control, they release you through a series of doors that open ahead of you and close behind. 1 double doored gate, and several sliding doors. Most here probably aren't old enough to understand the reference, but the theme to "Get Smart' immediately started playing in my head...
I had never thought of 2FA via a text or call was a bad thing - and its not until it is. I couldn't access several online accounts because they wanted to do phone based 2FA, and my phone wasn't working - they didn't know anything about my wife's phone number, and her phone suddenly stopped working too. So I've come to the realization that the oft-ballyhooed criticism of PHOOOOOONNEs being a "single point failure", also applies to ANY phone. I couldn't access PayPal, Home Depot, or anything Google. I'm going to try to get any/all phones out of the verification loop - just NOT reliable enough. I'll use email verification and YubiKey (which is actually the most secure) where I can, and bitch at companies who don't offer one or the other. Yea, I know, "Good luck with that".
There was a nifty self check-in kiosk at the Stockholm airport. Let's you print your boarding pass and your luggage tags, and drop off your checked baggage all at the same place. Tech is wonderful until it isn't. I must have fat fingered my passport number when I made that flight reservation, as it wouldn't recognize my passport as being associated with that flight - so I had to go the counter anyway. That was OK, I wanted to switch our seats around, the airline guy was MOST helpful.
The Egyptians have airport style X-ray machines at the entry of all the major archeological sites. But they also apparently think that if one security checkpoint is a good thing (tm), two or even three must be better! Their tickets are high tech too, you scan a "barcode" on your ticket and the turnstile unlocks. The all new "Grand Museum" only sells tix through their website, you can NOT buy them any other way. Now I always have a laptop with me, but I also cry foul. The Egyptians are dirt poor, many of them have no online access at all. At least it doesn't require a PHOOOOONNE.
On the road to/from Siwa, you have to go through 3 military checkpoints as Siwa itself is about 8-1/2 miles from the Libyan border. That's fine, and their rifles were pretty cool, but the checkpoint nearest to Siwa closes to outbound (Cairo bound) traffic at 10 AM! If you don't get there before 10, you're stuck in Siwa for another day! It does appear that salt trucks are exempt as I saw plenty of them outbound in the afternoon when we drove down there.
Merchants were hilarious. Bought a very cool papyrus, and while the guy was putting it into a transport tube, the other guy (jokingly) asked if I'd take two camels for my wife. Well, are they young camels? Throw in a goat and we have a deal - but you really don't want her. She spits like a camel and bites too! Hilarity ensued...
I'm used to the street vendors and shop hawkers in Greece. They are a LOT more aggressive here. Can't walk 5 feet without at least one offer of a taxi, "buy this", "Come into my shop", etc. With that said, the Egyptian people are most gracious, I think I like them better than the Greeks - and I love the Greeks!
When we re-entered the US, after going through customs and Passport control, they release you through a series of doors that open ahead of you and close behind. 1 double doored gate, and several sliding doors. Most here probably aren't old enough to understand the reference, but the theme to "Get Smart' immediately started playing in my head...
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It was certainly "interesting" - in both good and bad ways. I'm recovering from the headcold that came on in Sweden, but still hacking up Egyptian dust. Wife is a lot worse, if she doesn't show improvement by tomorrow AM, I'm dragging her ass to the clinic.
I wasn't able to access PayPal "over there" because they wanted to 2FA me through a text or a voice call - they didn't offer the usual email option. As soon as I get home, the email option is back. Idiots. Fucking idiots.
Ok, got all the pix sucked out of my cameras and the wife's PHOOOOOONNE. Starting to look through them now, over 1,200 of them and a couple of short videos of Sahara wheeling. Thought I'd share this one now:
This is one of the famed "Twirling Dervishes". They wear these super heavy twirling skirts that they can do all kinds of marvelous things with - more pix will be forthcoming. The most amazing thing to my eye is that they can come to an instant FULL STOP without drama. The one time I tried that many years ago, I almost took out several dance sisters before I had the sense to drop to the floor to end it!
This is one of the famed "Twirling Dervishes". They wear these super heavy twirling skirts that they can do all kinds of marvelous things with - more pix will be forthcoming. The most amazing thing to my eye is that they can come to an instant FULL STOP without drama. The one time I tried that many years ago, I almost took out several dance sisters before I had the sense to drop to the floor to end it!
Ok, here's the video everyone's been waiting for - just a brief video grab I did during our "desert safari" at Siwa.
This was in the courtyard of our hotel in Luxor - which one of you pervs was already here?
The Twirling Dervish, AKA a Tannoura dancer, was up to date in the 21st century when he suddenly turned on LED lites! Keep in mind, he was twirling pretty fast and it went on for about half an hour! He really liked that I was playing finger cymbals when he made his way through the audience...
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