Adventures with Julia

July 31, 2016 – Khartoum, Sudan

Our trip from Dubai to Khartoum went smoothly until we arrived at the Khartoum airport. Even though Khartoum is the capital of Sudan, there is no taxiway. Our pilot had to back taxi on the runway and the plane came to a stop a good distance from the terminal. Several busses pulled up and we got on the one marked VIP Lounge, as advised by our travel agent, Absolute Travel. We went to a lounge with only a few people present and sat there with our new guide, Abdelmoneim, for over 2 hours while our papers and bags were sorted out. Although there were plans to update the airport several years ago, it had not been done. There is no efficient method to offload the bags or go through each persons papers and passports. This was our initial experience of Sudan under Field Marshal Omer Al Bashir’s 27 year old dictatorship. According to Abdel, Bashir has done nothing to help the country since his successful coup in 1989. Abdel was 21 when Bashir took over. He remembers better conditions and a period of democracy from 1985-89. He does not like Bashir, but believes that even if Bashir died today, there is so much entrenched cronyism and corruption that the new ruler will be no improvement. Even though the US continues to impose sanctions, only the population gets hurt.

We soon begin to discovered the depth of Abdel’s comments. The roads in the city are narrow and full of pot holes. There are way too many cars for the existing infrastructure and trash is everywhere as no one picks it up. Fortunately, our hotel, the Corinthia, is privately owned and seems to function reasonably well. Our room is clean and pleasant, if a bit stark and modernistic. We had a late dinner in our hotel overlooking the Blue Nile River in flood stage, which is normal for this time of the year. Then to bed.

Today, Sunday, I went to a nearby church, St Mathew’s Cathedral, for what I thought was the English Mass at 8am only to learn the English Mass is the next one immediately following the 8am service. So I went back to the hotel and had breakfast with Mark and headed out again at 9am. Got there in time to have communion with the 8am group and listen to some wonderful harmonic singing. There were about 100 people in attendance. After they left, a few people trickled in and the English service began. This time the singing was all male voices with rich baritone harmonies. Lovely. However, I was disappointed by the speech of the lectors and the priest. I could understand only a few words, not enough to get the gist of the readings. The homily, as far as I could tell, was about putting Jesus first in your life, rather than money. The main difference in this service from ours is the offertory. We send a basket around for people to make a donation. Here the basket is put on a chair at the foot of the altar and people go up at random to put money in it. This way everyone can see who is giving and who is not.

After church, I went back to the hotel and changed out of my long skirt and long sleeved blouse into pants and a shot sleeved blouse. The temp was climbing and the air sticky.

Abdel and our driver, Martada, drove us a short distance to the National Museum, which contains the reconstructed remains of Egyptian temples relocated from areas now flooded by Lake Nassar. We were able to see three temples dating between 1500Bc to 1070BC in protective shelters on the museum grounds. Very much like the temples and carvings we have seen in Egypt. Some still had their coloring intact. When we tried to go inside to see the more precious artifacts, we were stopped, because the power line had been cut while some work is being done. It may or may not open any time soon. Abdel says we will try again when we return to Khartoum in a few days. Inshallah! as they say here.

We drove to the confluence of the White and Blue Nile Rivers at the tip of Tutti Island.

Due to the high water level, we could not go for a planned boat ride, but we could see where and how the two rivers merge. We found three men fishing for Nile perch. They seemed happy they had caught a small one. We could just make out the difference in color of the two rivers. The Blue is filled with brown silt and the White with sand.

Driving around town and through the densely populated narrow, potholed, dirt streets of the village on Tutti Island would have been painful if we had needed to get anywhere timely. As it was we were content to watch the sights and people moving about, while Martada picked our way along in our air conditioned Toyota SUV.

Lunch was a boring affair in one of those tourist stops guides use to insure their guest do not get sick. We don’t complain because we surely don’t want to get sick. We stopped at the Khartoum Mall, a rather sorry affair with dirty doors and sparse stores, but it was air conditioned and had a store that sells prepaid phone cards, which Mark wanted to buy so we could make calls home.

In mid afternoon, we were dropped off at the Corinthia to relax the rest of the day. As it is so hot out, the streets are smelly and noisy, and the city is not particularly appealing even though we are right on the Blue Nile, we are happy to stay in the room, nap a bit and write this missive.

As a point of reflection, the people we have encountered are friendly, helpful and pleasant. One Ethiopian gentleman told us he has homes here, Dubai and Addis Abba and this is the city where he feels most safe and comfortable. We have seen no trouble or police force. With all the traffic, drivers are generally patient with each other. The concern I had about coming to this country has evaporated. Like most everywhere we go in the world, people here want to get along and be happy.

Dinner was at a Lebanese restaurant called Assasa.  Pretty good food.  As liquor is forbidden in Sudan, we are exploring different drinks.  Last night we had a non-alcoholic beer that was quite tasty.  Tonight we had a lemon mint drink that was very satisfying.

Now I hope to get a photo or two added and this post sent.  Hope it works.  THe WiFi here is slow compared to Dubai, but probably better then we will have the next several days.

Dubai City Map

I am looking out at the Persian gulf from our hotel’s breakfast restaurant just to the left of the Burj Al Arab Hotel on this map.  It is lovely, but just too hot to want to be on the beach. Yesterday was also very hot. We managed a full day of touring around Dubai from inside our car and in buildings. No one is outdoors more than absolutely necessary. The temp got up to 113F.

Scene from the car on the main road through the city.

We drove all over the city, and visited several of Dubai’s landmarks. First was the man made Palm Island. Looks like a palm from the air, but driving through it there was no sense of palm at all, just lots of buildings, large and larger. It is where many of the ultra rich have houses.

We also stopped at the most expensive hotel in the world, the Burj Al Arab, where the rooms are $2500 and up. We shopped in the largest grocery store I have been in including Wall Mart.     Mark bought a new electric tooth brush as his died on arrival. We walked hours the worlds largest shopping mall, with about 1100 stores and hugs spaces to walk around in. The mall included an ice skating rink and a walk under, around, over and through aquarium complete with a fish zoo and a glass bottom boat ride. That was very interesting. In another, slightly smaller mall, we visited the only indoor ski area in the world and actually saw people skiing on the man made ski slopes, with snow covered trees.

To see the desert, we drove 20 minutes out of town. The city is so built up there is no sand for miles. Once out in the desert the sand began to form rolling hills. Our guide said the sand hills just get larger as you drive further. Enough.

View from top of Burj Khalifa

Back to the city, we went up to the 148th floor of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. There are a few more office floors above our landing. The world’s first, and maybe only, Armani hotel occupies the bottom floors, followed by many floors of apartments and then offices. There are 3 viewing levels, of which 148 is the highest. The ride in the elevator was most interesting. It lasts only 75 seconds and travels at 2 floors per second with no sound or sense of motion. A second elevator ride takes you from the 125th floor to the 148th. Once at the top, the glass walls totally contain you so there is no fear of falling or being blown around. We stayed up there a long time enjoying the view all around. We were told the Burj Khalifa was built in only 7 years and was fully rented in 48 hours from when it became available.

There was a water show at the base of the building, just like the one at the Bellagio in Los Vegas. We saw one of the shows from the top, where it was not very impressive. Later, we saw another water show from the ground and liked it better.

Water show in front of Burj Khalifa

Did not get back to the hotel until 7:30. After a shower and change, we took a buggy (translate golf cart) ride to a seafood restaurant on the hotel grounds. It was out on the water, but again too hot to eat outdoors. Nice food, but very expensive.

Now we are at the Dubai airport and I want to get this post sent.  Will send more text when I can.