March 21, 22, 23, 2008 Aswan / Luxor, Egypt We arrived early Friday morning ( Good Friday - Not celebrated here in Egypt ) in Aswan from Cairo and went immediately to our ship, Ramadis I, that will take us to down the Nile River to Luxor via Edfu. This morning we took a small boat up the Nile River from Aswan to visit a local Nubian village and see the sights along the Nile near the old Aswan Dam Site. This was an interesting way to spent a few hours before checking into our room on the Ramadis I. The Nubian people of this part of Egypt were probably the most affected by the dams that were built as they lived on the river and had to be moved when the lakes were formed behind ... read more

March 18,2008 March 15 we had a travel day to Mumbai via Colombo and spent the night in Mumbai before flying today to Dubai, UAE. We arrived late evening to get a night view of this amazing “Construction Zone” . It is really unbelievable what is going on here in terms of new construction. March 16 - 18, 2008 We spent March 17 and 18 in Dubai and enjoyed a nice city tour and a relaxing afternoon at the pool one day and a visit to The Mall of The Emirates and a desert safari trip the next day. The city tour included a visit to one of the “palm tree” shaped man-made islands that are being developed for high end housing and marinas. There are three of these marina developments under construction along with several ... read more

March 10, 2008 Mt. Lavinia, Sri Lanka Today was another day on the road back to Mt. Lavinia, on the ocean, south of Colombo, with a stop at a very important Buddhist Temple and a very large golden colored statue of Buddha. We continued to work our way back to Colombo with a nice drive through the county side and small towns and villages. One short stop was made at Sigiriya to check out a very large rock outcropping that was the home to a fortress, on top, that was built by a ruler of the time to house his palace. This looked like a very complicated and difficult climb so we elected to take some photos and pass on the climb to the top. ( Mostly because we were too lazy to try ) This ... read more

March 6, 2008 NEW DELHI, India Arrived late last evening In New Delhi, the Capital of India, from Varanasi and checked into the wonderful Shangri-La Hotel. Very nice place. From initial appearances this is a very modern city. Didn’t see one cow on the way from the airport, but it was night and I think the cows go home for the night. ( really ! ) We began a city tour with a drive through New Delhi and a visit to the Jama Masjid, the largest Mosque in India ( could hold 25,000 worshippers ). This mosque was built in the mid 1600’s and was built by the Mogul Emperor Shaw Jahan. ( Yup ! The same Shaw Jahan that built the Taj Mahal to honor his wife ). Took about 5000 artisans about 12 years ... read more

March 3, 2008 KHAJURAHO, India We went this morning, with our guide for the day, to visit 2 Temple complexes in Khajuraho. These are really spectacular examples of the kind of work that was done in building these temples. These took a couple of generations each to build. Originally in this town there were 85 known temples ( 22 have survived to some degree and the most important have been very nicely restored.) We have often wondered where the country would be if more time and effort was put into living instead of building temples to the thousands of different Hindu Gods, and forts and palaces for the Emperors and Maharajas. Yup !!! All the positions of the Kama Sutra are very evident in the carvings on most of the Hindu Temples. I have began my ... read more