Friday, November 28, 2008
As Above, so Below: A Night in the Desert
Be thou not proud, O man, in thy wisdom.
Discourse with the ignorant as well as the wise.
If one comes to thee full of knowledge,
listen and heed, for wisdom is all.
-- Thoth
Many are already familiar with Robert Bauval's now infamous insight that the Giza Plateau's 3 largest pyramids reflect on the ground the astral projection of the 3 stars of Orion's belt as overhead 12,500 years ago. Why, however, remains open to debate (Traditional Egytologists would contend this is merely coincidence, just like the other pertinent perfections of the G.P. are accidental surprises). I contemplated this mystery overnight in the desert with the Bedouin. The desert at night is a terrifying place except when at an outdoor tea stand. Once again being the lonely American with a group of Arabs presents its own problems, but I wanted solitude to contemplate how to best succeed in my quest and that's more or less what I got (As I explained to my friend Adel, I didn't come around the Earth to Party, plenty of that monotony in America). My first thoughts centered around Bauval's work regarding the astronomical significance of the Pyramid's construction. As the non-stop wind whispered rumors in my ear, I scribbled strange notes about how geometry must be the key to understanding the riddle. Let's start with the other significant clue linking the construction of the pyramids at the Giza Plateau to 10,500 BC, the idea that the sphinx was originally sculpted as a Lion to represent the zodiac age of LEO. In that epoch at that place, the sun would rise in the house of Leo on the spring equinox, and standing under the Great Pyramid at that time, one would see that the sphinx actually fit precisely into the constellation image. One researcher has even suggested that the astrological alignment of the Sphinx occurs as a starting place for connecting most of the cyclopean monuments Lower Egypt as a representational pieces of a huge "Star Map". This analysis led me to imagine that instead of just appearing and having Thoth hand me the keys to the Spacecraft ("Wings of the Morning"), I might have to wait for a time-lock to open a gateway, thus unlocking the "stargate" at a prophesied date. If there is a decipherable code of the heavens imprinted upon the face of the Earth, then it stands to reason that geosynchronous construction would have to symbolize the different planet by the geometry of the respective pyramids, perhaps not specifically by exact size/mass comparisons but by angles and math. The so-called Queen's pyramids or the smaller/satellite pyramids make an interesting counterexample to their bigger companions. Most are constructed of the same mind bogglingly large stones, but put together with less accuracy. In fact most appear to be all but totally destroyed by the raiders who stripped the others bare and the ravages of time in the desert. There are at least 6 recognizable smaller pyramids, and there remains the foundations for several others. Christopher Dunn assumed that these were used as a jumpstart to get the big'uns humming. But like so much in this mystery, that doesn't discount a 2 in 1 purpose that also points to the judgment day rapidly approaching.
The desert is unlike any other landscape; it is truly barren and very secretive. The wind never relents, and the sand seems like a veil moving over the land slowly over aeons of time. I couldn't sleep all night from paranoia, a restless urging, and the fucking wind that never, ever gives up. The sun rise was truly majestic, and if the camera battery hadn't died I'd be able to share it with you. Anyway, yesterday I finally got to do what I came to do: lie down in the tomb in the king's chamber (for only 40LE baksheesh, the best deal I've gotten the whole time I've been here). Pyramid power is no joke, all day today my muscles have felt like I've been through a rigorous workout. Let me describe this experience: first of all, there's a fence (in the picture with the camel) that runs around the entire plateau, so I won't be able to attempt an overnight mission any time soon. It costs 60 LE flat to enter the complex, 30 LE to enter the pyramid of Khafre (the one that retains its smooth limestone near the top) and 100 LE to enter the Great Pyramid of Khufu (the one with my name Phi/pi encoded into its design). But they only sell 300 tickets into the G.P. every day: half at dawn and half at 1pm. Naturally I didn't get to the counter at time and had to wait until one. Which was great because it gave me time to wander around freely and collect my thoughts. My first impression was great sadness, there's litter everywhere, the guards are armed with machine guns and have hard-ons for their petty authority over the kids having fun climbing up a few steps (absolutely forbidden, bleeeh), and the workforce that could be better employed to clean the place up is busy selling cheesy junk and tourist priced water (luckily I brought my own). It would be funny if it were a giant ball of twine, but the Giza Pyramids are probably the last remaining link to "Zep Tepi" or the mythological golden age (READ THESE STATS!). Anyway, the visitor to the G.P. enters through a forced entrance drilled rather recently near where first pyramid raiders penetrated the ascending passage. The first thing you notice is the ridiculous size of the cut stone, absolutely huge some pieces. The next thing you notice is the lack of oxygen and the musty scent. Then, the other tourists making a hasty retreat sweating profusely and breathing heavily. One has to crouch to make the first ascent for about 30 yards, the ramp has small steps and two-way traffic makes for a tight squeeze. Once through the gauntlet, the passage opens into the Grand Gallery, named as such because garbled walls rise nearly 20 feet and the ramp up extends about 26 degrees for something like 50 yards. Then for most tourists comes the anti-climax of the King's chamber, a sparse rectangular room of black granite in which sits the so-called sarcophagus. Once inside, people's voices reverberate eerily because of the intent of the room as a maser to concentrate the piezo-electric effect of the quartz (the crystal in most microphones) pressurized by the mass of the structure. Obviously at this point, I'm glowing like a radioactive isotope, practically giving anyone in the vicinity minor snippets of the significance of the different aspects of everything. I had worried there would be another idiot guard in the King's Chamber who would shoot me if I tried to get in the box, but mercifully the man who worked there had dealt with kooks like me before and allowed me to meditate on the far side, and lie inside the box when the tourists left. Now this may be a coincidence, but when I first lain down the lights went out momentarily. I had hoped this was when Thoth would appear, but no, evidently I am yet far too impure. Instead, I slowly made my way to the exit marvelling at every little thing on my way out. As I made my exit I felt mildly disappointed but not defeated. I remained at the plateau for a while longer, until these kids started congregating around me trying to communicate. They wanted me to sing a song, so I taught them the only one I could think of "Fuck the Police" by NWA, and they loved it and wanted me to do it over and over again. So I had to get out of there.
Now, let's discuss price...No I mean go over the main points of the argument against the prevailing notion that dynastic pharaohs built these monuments.
1. The G.P. consists of 2,300,000 blocks of stone varying from 2-30 tons, some as much as 70 tons covering over 13 acres and rising almost 450 feet. Those were either the strongest slaves who ever lived or aliens helped.
2. What autocrat would choose utility over personal gratification? Khufu's name is nowhere.
3. No corpse has ever found inside, and the grave robber theory doesn't hold water because until Al-mamoun broke into it, it would be impossible for anything other than bats and bugs to get inside through the star shafts 5 inches in diameter (that's one small tomb raider).
4. Pharaohs didn't have the technology to cut stone that precise, sure they could carve artwork, but the workmanship on the pyramid blocks reflects a methodology of an advanced means.
5. The pyramids already existed at that time as reflected in a proper translation of the literature.
6. Even modern technicians probably couldn't replicate the G.P.
7. A group of goons from PBS failed to use manpower to make a pyramid even as big as the capstone of the G.P. would have been.
8. Could the Pharaoh's harness lightening? Then they didn't build the pyramid power plant.
9. "Microscopic analysis of the coffer (sarcophagus) reveals that it was made with a fixed point drill that used hard jewel bits and a drilling force of 2 tons. The coffer was sawed out of a block of solid granite."
10. The curvature designed into the faces of the pyramid exactly matches the radius of the earth. Did the pharaohs even know that the world was round?
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Ruminations of the Traveller
O man, be sure the effects that ye bring
forth are ever causes of more perfect effects.
Know ye the future is never in fixation but
follows man's free will as it moves through
the movements of time-space toward
the goal where a new time begins.
-- Thoth
The city reeks of life and death. Flies swarm relentlessly around the trash strewn about every street, stray cats dart about stealthily, trees seem to grow from the desert, and the multitudes of people bustle about like the chaotic dance of loose debris in a windstorm. Everything in Cairo seems built of a misunderstood past that somehow survives amidst the modern transformations of Egyptian society. Tourism based upon a vanished civilization has done much to change the way of life in this town of 20 million. However, this industry (from the papyrus & knick knack dealers on every corner and the Taxis without meters to the government that claims landrights of the Giza Plateau) thrives upon the myth of a stagnant archaeology. The debate of ideas is discouraged as the so-called discovered history has become as stale and musty as a tomb. Academic disinformation has become the fountainhead of global culture. Visitors to Cairo are expected to buy shoddy imitations of priceless relics in order to perpetuate the memes of a God-King social hierarchy. Pharaohs and their obedient (and ingenious) slaves are used as the counter-example to the democracy of today, but why would the $1 US dollar bill showcase a pyramid without a capstone with an all-seeing eye? The false ideas endorsed by traditional Egyptology subconsciously affect modern peoples' perception of reality. Our collective symbology defines our understanding and thereby becomes the language of the human condition. Just as religion is a means of social order, civilization's purpose is derived from the distortion of meaning created from our forgetting of the past. Like ignorance of the meanings of the esoteric symbols that decorate money, daily living takes the form of a ritual sacrifice in which we endorse this culture with our souls.
What is history? Is it merely a long story told to explain how humanity has arrived into the present written by the victors of wars, or is it a mummified corpse awaiting rebirth? Religion definitely fits into the former. What do the major religions teach: ultimate reality or a hoax of disinformation designed to enslave the mind and conquer the spirit. Why be good for the sake of a God if not fear of punishment? And furthermore, how does such an indeterminate word (god) have such a concrete place in human relations? "Do you believe in God?" is a question of faith, not objective reality. The sad fact that a question of personal opinion has such dire consequences is illustrated by the innumerable wars of religion waged by people driven mad by an authoritative dogma that portrays nonbelievers as heretics, subhumans, and non-persons fit to be killed. Rather than a rule of logic (which would be the ONE TRUE word of God), these institutions of social control or behavioral engineering (the ethics of supposed godliness and the get-out-of-jail-free card for penitent believers) rely upon the fear of death to encourage and increase patronage. The Fear of Death is the predominant force guiding human affairs. In fact it serves as the basis for law, "for if there were no police you'd all kill each other". [Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I saw a street vendor selling handguns] What IS this world man has created? Who are we, the people, and how were we created? All other lifeforms tend to adapt to their environment, whereas we, by our own freewill and ambition, fabricate our own environments. Our homes are built of the world but not for it. Our cities seem developed to suit the wants of material desire rather than the needs of the human condition. Refuse is treated with greater respect than the least among us. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth when the rich finally pollute it all to catastrophe.
When money becomes the measure of the man, friendship becomes business. The main tactic of the junk vendors (besides lying and never giving up on a sale) is to invite the traveller into his shop for Egyptian hospitality (tea or soda), at that point you're hooked and its hard to wriggle free politely. Most dealers have limited English skills, limited by their trade, so that as the conversation becomes strained by the repetition of platitudes, the more feverish becomes the pitch to sell. Every seller can explicate the significance of their wares with the most dedicated panache, however, its all the same well-rehearsed jargon from the same flawed textbooks. Symbol literacy is reduced to a monologue of the sale with no insightful or critical interpretation. A duck means good luck, A black cat means good luck, a scarab means good luck... To Cairo, the pyramids are no mystery, they are a tourist trap. Just background to the legendary Egyptian vacation as a constant hassle to buy their themed crap. Bargaining is not an option, it is an expression of human interaction beyond language. Money is the main replacement for TRUTH as the basis for the society of humankind. Religion strives to fill that void with an institutional structure and then becomes corrupted by its own dogma, the anathema to TRUTH. Truth, of course, being the only true value in existence. But what part of history is True?
So what do the Pyramids have to do with any of this? As all Encyclopedias will claim as fact, the Pyramids were built by slaves tugging 20 ton rocks up ramps in order to construct a fabulous tomb for an autocrat who claimed divine status. According to Christopher Dunn, however, the Giza pyramids were created by advanced technicians in order to create energy, like our power plants. What does it mean to have these conflicting theories about the most important monument on the face of the Earth?(absolutely nothing compares to these pyramids) It is an expression of the place in which World civilization finds itself. Dunn's case is air tight. I'd like to see mainstream Egyptologists cut granite with copper saws. If we believe that the pyramids were built by slaves for the edification of a monarch, then we subscribe to a fantasy that validates the social order already in place. If the Giza Power plant was ever rebuilt to full functional capacity, there would be no energy crisis: as long as the Earth continues to sing its song (the Shumann Resonances) all the world would enjoy free energy. Period. No more Oil companies' stranglehold on political policy, no more electric bill, no more pollution, no more nuclear waste, no more wars for diminishing resources. Historical interpretations construct the power structures of the present as sure as bloodlines of royal lineage remain on the throne. But how much of history is reality and how much is belief? A geologist named Robert Schoch has dated the Sphinx back at least an additional 3000 years from the reign of Khafre (the pharaoh who supposedly had his likeness carved as the sphinx but probably merely did some restoration work) because of vertical weathering that indicates rain damage which could only have occurred when Egypt was still wetlands. The Sphinx was carved from the bedrock. Why? This is the answer to the great riddle of the Sphinx, it was carved from the landscape to be a marker of time's passage. Thus it stands as a link to the distant past preserved only in myths such as Atlantis. The idea that a civilization more advanced than our own existed on this planet nearly 12,000 years ago seems ridiculous only because Today's science teaches evolution as a linear growth model rather than as an expression of changes caused by cataclysmic upheavals our planet is prone to in varying cycles. For instance, every 65 million years our solar system orbits the galactic center & every 65 million years there is massive extinction, and in 2012 we're due for another cosmic cataclysm. But are our lives as easy to chart as the movements of the stars? The belief in an omnipotent/omniscient God seems to indicate a necessity of fatalism (all-knowing but can't read the future?), but the heaven/hell dynamic of eternal justice requires that mankind have freewill in order to face judgment. I never liked that hypocrisy, that the creator of all things was also the final arbiter of his creation's fate. However, this is also the same dynamic exposed in the great War on Drugs exposes at the KAblog: the CIA brings the work into the country, then the police bust the mules in an endless cycle. Human reality is shaped by the belief systems substituted for a genuine quest for truth.
This way of life is doomed to destroy itself. The New World Order is western civilization's last ditch effort to structure a world government, the totalitarian empire of Alexander's dream. The myth of slavery's creation of the pyramids perpetuates a parable of social order that suggests mankind's greatest work is the glorification of its rulers for an indeterminate hereafter. But what about capitalism and the great society built by self-interested self-made men? Nonsense, where does $700 billion come from? Granted people work harder when working for themselves, and as my dad would be the first to point out, getting anybody to do anything you want requires more than offering compensation. Which is the point of historical distortion and intellectual disinformation: if people knew that better ways of life were possible by means of striving for truth, they would waste away working for their daily satisfaction. (well that seems like a bit of a stretch). But I believe that knowledge is power, and that power is best preserved endlessly seeking the truth.
brother against brother and father against son.
Then shall the ancient home of my people rise
from its place beneath the dark ocean waves.
Then shall the Age of Light be unfolded
with all men seeking the Light of the goal.
Then shall the Brothers of Light rule the people.
Banished shall be the darkness of night.
--Thoth
forth are ever causes of more perfect effects.
Know ye the future is never in fixation but
follows man's free will as it moves through
the movements of time-space toward
the goal where a new time begins.
-- Thoth
The city reeks of life and death. Flies swarm relentlessly around the trash strewn about every street, stray cats dart about stealthily, trees seem to grow from the desert, and the multitudes of people bustle about like the chaotic dance of loose debris in a windstorm. Everything in Cairo seems built of a misunderstood past that somehow survives amidst the modern transformations of Egyptian society. Tourism based upon a vanished civilization has done much to change the way of life in this town of 20 million. However, this industry (from the papyrus & knick knack dealers on every corner and the Taxis without meters to the government that claims landrights of the Giza Plateau) thrives upon the myth of a stagnant archaeology. The debate of ideas is discouraged as the so-called discovered history has become as stale and musty as a tomb. Academic disinformation has become the fountainhead of global culture. Visitors to Cairo are expected to buy shoddy imitations of priceless relics in order to perpetuate the memes of a God-King social hierarchy. Pharaohs and their obedient (and ingenious) slaves are used as the counter-example to the democracy of today, but why would the $1 US dollar bill showcase a pyramid without a capstone with an all-seeing eye? The false ideas endorsed by traditional Egyptology subconsciously affect modern peoples' perception of reality. Our collective symbology defines our understanding and thereby becomes the language of the human condition. Just as religion is a means of social order, civilization's purpose is derived from the distortion of meaning created from our forgetting of the past. Like ignorance of the meanings of the esoteric symbols that decorate money, daily living takes the form of a ritual sacrifice in which we endorse this culture with our souls.
What is history? Is it merely a long story told to explain how humanity has arrived into the present written by the victors of wars, or is it a mummified corpse awaiting rebirth? Religion definitely fits into the former. What do the major religions teach: ultimate reality or a hoax of disinformation designed to enslave the mind and conquer the spirit. Why be good for the sake of a God if not fear of punishment? And furthermore, how does such an indeterminate word (god) have such a concrete place in human relations? "Do you believe in God?" is a question of faith, not objective reality. The sad fact that a question of personal opinion has such dire consequences is illustrated by the innumerable wars of religion waged by people driven mad by an authoritative dogma that portrays nonbelievers as heretics, subhumans, and non-persons fit to be killed. Rather than a rule of logic (which would be the ONE TRUE word of God), these institutions of social control or behavioral engineering (the ethics of supposed godliness and the get-out-of-jail-free card for penitent believers) rely upon the fear of death to encourage and increase patronage. The Fear of Death is the predominant force guiding human affairs. In fact it serves as the basis for law, "for if there were no police you'd all kill each other". [Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I saw a street vendor selling handguns] What IS this world man has created? Who are we, the people, and how were we created? All other lifeforms tend to adapt to their environment, whereas we, by our own freewill and ambition, fabricate our own environments. Our homes are built of the world but not for it. Our cities seem developed to suit the wants of material desire rather than the needs of the human condition. Refuse is treated with greater respect than the least among us. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth when the rich finally pollute it all to catastrophe.
When money becomes the measure of the man, friendship becomes business. The main tactic of the junk vendors (besides lying and never giving up on a sale) is to invite the traveller into his shop for Egyptian hospitality (tea or soda), at that point you're hooked and its hard to wriggle free politely. Most dealers have limited English skills, limited by their trade, so that as the conversation becomes strained by the repetition of platitudes, the more feverish becomes the pitch to sell. Every seller can explicate the significance of their wares with the most dedicated panache, however, its all the same well-rehearsed jargon from the same flawed textbooks. Symbol literacy is reduced to a monologue of the sale with no insightful or critical interpretation. A duck means good luck, A black cat means good luck, a scarab means good luck... To Cairo, the pyramids are no mystery, they are a tourist trap. Just background to the legendary Egyptian vacation as a constant hassle to buy their themed crap. Bargaining is not an option, it is an expression of human interaction beyond language. Money is the main replacement for TRUTH as the basis for the society of humankind. Religion strives to fill that void with an institutional structure and then becomes corrupted by its own dogma, the anathema to TRUTH. Truth, of course, being the only true value in existence. But what part of history is True?
So what do the Pyramids have to do with any of this? As all Encyclopedias will claim as fact, the Pyramids were built by slaves tugging 20 ton rocks up ramps in order to construct a fabulous tomb for an autocrat who claimed divine status. According to Christopher Dunn, however, the Giza pyramids were created by advanced technicians in order to create energy, like our power plants. What does it mean to have these conflicting theories about the most important monument on the face of the Earth?(absolutely nothing compares to these pyramids) It is an expression of the place in which World civilization finds itself. Dunn's case is air tight. I'd like to see mainstream Egyptologists cut granite with copper saws. If we believe that the pyramids were built by slaves for the edification of a monarch, then we subscribe to a fantasy that validates the social order already in place. If the Giza Power plant was ever rebuilt to full functional capacity, there would be no energy crisis: as long as the Earth continues to sing its song (the Shumann Resonances) all the world would enjoy free energy. Period. No more Oil companies' stranglehold on political policy, no more electric bill, no more pollution, no more nuclear waste, no more wars for diminishing resources. Historical interpretations construct the power structures of the present as sure as bloodlines of royal lineage remain on the throne. But how much of history is reality and how much is belief? A geologist named Robert Schoch has dated the Sphinx back at least an additional 3000 years from the reign of Khafre (the pharaoh who supposedly had his likeness carved as the sphinx but probably merely did some restoration work) because of vertical weathering that indicates rain damage which could only have occurred when Egypt was still wetlands. The Sphinx was carved from the bedrock. Why? This is the answer to the great riddle of the Sphinx, it was carved from the landscape to be a marker of time's passage. Thus it stands as a link to the distant past preserved only in myths such as Atlantis. The idea that a civilization more advanced than our own existed on this planet nearly 12,000 years ago seems ridiculous only because Today's science teaches evolution as a linear growth model rather than as an expression of changes caused by cataclysmic upheavals our planet is prone to in varying cycles. For instance, every 65 million years our solar system orbits the galactic center & every 65 million years there is massive extinction, and in 2012 we're due for another cosmic cataclysm. But are our lives as easy to chart as the movements of the stars? The belief in an omnipotent/omniscient God seems to indicate a necessity of fatalism (all-knowing but can't read the future?), but the heaven/hell dynamic of eternal justice requires that mankind have freewill in order to face judgment. I never liked that hypocrisy, that the creator of all things was also the final arbiter of his creation's fate. However, this is also the same dynamic exposed in the great War on Drugs exposes at the KAblog: the CIA brings the work into the country, then the police bust the mules in an endless cycle. Human reality is shaped by the belief systems substituted for a genuine quest for truth.
This way of life is doomed to destroy itself. The New World Order is western civilization's last ditch effort to structure a world government, the totalitarian empire of Alexander's dream. The myth of slavery's creation of the pyramids perpetuates a parable of social order that suggests mankind's greatest work is the glorification of its rulers for an indeterminate hereafter. But what about capitalism and the great society built by self-interested self-made men? Nonsense, where does $700 billion come from? Granted people work harder when working for themselves, and as my dad would be the first to point out, getting anybody to do anything you want requires more than offering compensation. Which is the point of historical distortion and intellectual disinformation: if people knew that better ways of life were possible by means of striving for truth, they would waste away working for their daily satisfaction. (well that seems like a bit of a stretch). But I believe that knowledge is power, and that power is best preserved endlessly seeking the truth.
When man again shall conquer the ocean and fly
in the air on wings like the birds;
when he has learned to harness the lightning,
then shall the time of warfare begin.
Great shall the battle be twixt the forces,
great the warfare of darkness and Light.
Nation shall rise against nation
using the dark forces to shatter the Earth. [H.A.A.R.P.]
Weapons of force shall wipe out the Earth-man
until half of the races of men shall be gone.
Then shall come forth the Sons of the Morning
and give their edict to the children of men, saying:
O men, cease from thy striving against thy brother.
Only thus can ye come to the Light.
Cease from thy unbelief, O my brother,
and follow the path and know ye are right.
brother against brother and father against son.
Then shall the ancient home of my people rise
from its place beneath the dark ocean waves.
Then shall the Age of Light be unfolded
with all men seeking the Light of the goal.
Then shall the Brothers of Light rule the people.
Banished shall be the darkness of night.
--Thoth
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Arrival
Deep are the mysteries around thee,
hidden the secrets of Old.
Search through the KEYS of my WISDOM.
Surely shall ye find the way.
The gateway to power is secret,
but he who attains shall receive.
Look to the LIGHT! O my brother.
Open and ye shall receive.
Press on through the valley of darkness.
Overcome the dweller of night.
Keep ever thine eyes of the LIGHT-PLANE,
and thou shalt be One with the LIGHT.
-- Thoth,
While it was difficult not to miss my flight and remain in uplifting Amsterdam, I did sleep my way to Cairo yesterday morning, finally arriving at 4AM. I like my hostel ($33 for 7 days) and the neighborhood (downtown on Tahrir Square). After a brief nap impeded by my over-excited mind, I decided to roam around a little. The city is busy, dizzying chaotic business personified by their cab drivers. They are all over the road driving all manner of decomposing jalopies. I knew I found the right cabbie this morning when he smacked a brand new toyota cab backing out and argued the other cabbie down while driving away. Luckily he only charged me 5 LE, whereas my camel ride around the Giza Plateau was 300LE. This city is an ancient tourist trap, most are minor hustlers who see every non-egyptian as a mark, which is about 99% of the businesses in this city. One thing you can't get away from without a friendly local are Tourist Prices. Capitalism has got nothing on Cairo. There are doughboy military police everywhere, the one's in black operate as "Tourism Police" but I think most of them collect bribes from the junk peddlars and thus allow them to operate with impunity. Which wouldn't be such a problem if they weren't so agravatingly tenacious in seeking baksheesh or whatever is in your pocket. Anyway I'm just tired now.
I did visit the pyramids and sphinx and have many pictures to share once I finish downloading this Olympus program. Much more to come...
hidden the secrets of Old.
Search through the KEYS of my WISDOM.
Surely shall ye find the way.
The gateway to power is secret,
but he who attains shall receive.
Look to the LIGHT! O my brother.
Open and ye shall receive.
Press on through the valley of darkness.
Overcome the dweller of night.
Keep ever thine eyes of the LIGHT-PLANE,
and thou shalt be One with the LIGHT.
-- Thoth,
While it was difficult not to miss my flight and remain in uplifting Amsterdam, I did sleep my way to Cairo yesterday morning, finally arriving at 4AM. I like my hostel ($33 for 7 days) and the neighborhood (downtown on Tahrir Square). After a brief nap impeded by my over-excited mind, I decided to roam around a little. The city is busy, dizzying chaotic business personified by their cab drivers. They are all over the road driving all manner of decomposing jalopies. I knew I found the right cabbie this morning when he smacked a brand new toyota cab backing out and argued the other cabbie down while driving away. Luckily he only charged me 5 LE, whereas my camel ride around the Giza Plateau was 300LE. This city is an ancient tourist trap, most are minor hustlers who see every non-egyptian as a mark, which is about 99% of the businesses in this city. One thing you can't get away from without a friendly local are Tourist Prices. Capitalism has got nothing on Cairo. There are doughboy military police everywhere, the one's in black operate as "Tourism Police" but I think most of them collect bribes from the junk peddlars and thus allow them to operate with impunity. Which wouldn't be such a problem if they weren't so agravatingly tenacious in seeking baksheesh or whatever is in your pocket. Anyway I'm just tired now.
I did visit the pyramids and sphinx and have many pictures to share once I finish downloading this Olympus program. Much more to come...
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