Delhi, Old and New

My Indian excursion can be summed up in three words : big, spicy, and loud.  The massive crowds are matched only by the sheer immensity of the historical monuments, the food is incredible, but not for the weak of stomach (and tongue, and throat, and colon) and the aforementioned crowds create driving conditions which can only be described as a 24-hour Grade-A honk-if-you're-breathing clusterfuck.  Let's begin.

DAY 1 :

Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi's biggest market

Our first day in Delhi conveniently happened to be the same day that our host, Zach (a friend from Sabrina's high school) and his roommate/co-worker were going on a tour of Old Delhi guided by another co-worker.

This charming Australian gal (known affectionately amongst her colleagues as "The Leader of the White People") has been in India for a couple years and has managed to pick-up very functional Hindi, confidently orient herself in a city of side-streets and alleys, and (most importantly) discover the best-of-the-best of Old Delhi's streets-side snack foods (la crème de la curry, if you will).  

Sabrina on a Bicycle-rickshaw

For four straight hours we hopped on and off bicycle rick-shaws to sample everything from spicy potato dishes to paneer-stuffed pancakes to Daulat ki Chaat, a dessert which takes five hours to make and most closely resembles a cloud, if clouds were made of milk and sugar and served with nuts on top.  

(not my photo)

 

As a break from stuffing our faces, we also visited a stunning Jain temple (Photography prohibited. Sorry), as well as Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India.  This mosque was completed in 1656, commisioned by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, the same man responsible for the legendary Taj Mahal (but we're getting ahead of ourselves).  

Now, most guide books will tell you to ease into the culinary nuances of a foreign culture.  Furthermore, they might tell you to avoid street vendors altogther.  However, Sabrina and I had a fantastically flavourful day with minimal consequences.  That said, we were rather sluggish upon our return home, so our first night was spent sharing the gifts of Israeli wine we had brought.  

DAY 2:

We awoke the next morning comfortably late, skipping breakfast as we were all still full from yesterday.  Another of Zach's coworkers, a local Delhi-ite (Delight?) who plays guitar in a rock band, had invited us all to his family's house for lunch.  Whenever I travel, I always enjoy living like the locals, so I was thrilled to be welcomed into their home to enjoy some spectacular South Indian cuisine with mother, father, and some extended family.  After lunch, we all relaxed out back in the sunshine, enjoying a truly vacating vacation for a couple hours, strolling through topics of music, politics, and high school.

When it was time to go, Zach took us to one of his favorite spots :

Pleasantly devoid of the usual tourist crowds, Deer Park is an expansive ground of ponds and paths, as well as a 15th century Madrasa, a great stone complex which served as a theological college.  After strolling through the park for a while, we were joined for dinner by another of Zach's friends at Park Beluchi, a nearby restaurant which is a definite contender for "best meal in India."  Not only were our stuffed kebabs delicious, but they were served on flaming swords!  No joke.  

That night was similar to the one before; incidentally, sitting bloated on Zach's couch would quickly become a theme of the whole trip.

That was our 48-hour easing in to life in Delhi, and now that we were settled, it was time for Sabrina and I to strike out on our own and be tourists... stay tuned.

Gone in 60 Seconds ...

I'm so glad I got a video of this, as it is one of the coolest things I have seen.  This is an Israeli tow-truck, and it literally just pulled up beside this car.  As with so many things, Israelis are remarkably efficient at ruining someone's day.

Back with a vengence...

After a fantastically unproductive few weeks in Canada, during which practicing was replaced by drinking, and exercising by eating, I have returned safe and sound to the Middle East.  In an attempt to reel in the Christmas slack,  my first week back has played host to great leaps forward in my musically educational adventure across the sea.
The catalyst to all this recent success can be attributed to one man : Eddie Gomez.  This Puerto-Rican born, New York raised bassist is credited as one of the visionaries of the instrument, spending eleven years in the Bill Evans trio and playing with essentially every major jazz artist since. 
As luck might have it (and for those of you who know me well, luck often DOES have it) Eddie was flown in by the Rimon School of Music (an affiliate of Berklee College, located just north of Tel Aviv) for a week of concerts and workshops, all open to the public.  Being the public myself, I drove up to the school everyday and soaked up the vast experience and knowledge this delightfully easy-going man was offering.
Besides attending workshops by a master of the instrument, my mere presence on Rimon's campus proved to be of great benefit.  In three days, I shook hands with a bass teacher I've been trying to track down for a month, realized it wasn't geographically feasible to take regular lessons with him, and almost immediately found another teacher, based in Tel Aviv, who seemed very willing and even pleased to teach me.  Furthermore, this new teacher rather resembles one of my composition professors from university, who was a great inspiration to me during my time there.  I tend to believe, or at least take pleasure in, little coincidences such as this, and I'm very excited to start lessons.
My final achievement is one not only of musical benefit, but also of personal growth.  A young pianist of great talent had been playing during all of Eddie Gomez's clinics and such, and on the last day, I mustered up the courage to introduce myself and get his email for future jamming purposes.  Despite my outward comfort and confidence, I am prone to bouts of timidity, something I will have to get over if I plan on dropping in and out of various music scenes around the world.  Further mustering led me to ask Mr. Gomez if he would have time for a lesson, which sadly he did not.  However, I got his email as well, and if I'm ever in New York (which I very likely will be in the next few years), he said he would gladly give me a lesson then.  Come to think of it, that alone is as good a reason as any to go to New York.
All in all, my plan to drop everything and fly across the world is seeming less and less insane by the day, and my prospects for the next few months have me teeming with excitement.  I've tracked down a few open mics and jam sessions around the city, which is another big step towards actually playing with people.  The first is this Monday at Tel Aviv's Shablul Jazz Club, so wish me luck!

Music aside (though it's never that far aside), Sabrina and I are furiously reading up in preparation for our next great adventure : INDIA!  Yes, faithful blogdience, the girl and I are heading to the land of elephants, curry, and yoga for a week and a half.  Rest assured, there will be plenty of photos, and thanks to some cunning thievery of my mother's Christmas present, videos as well!

Thanks to everyone who made my trip back to Canada so wonderful, and my deepest apologies to those people I did not see due to scheduling, traffic, and inclement weather.

Cheers,
- Dony

O TENNENBAUM

I´ currently waiting in Franfurt Airport for my delayed flight.  We were already rerrouted to Liepzig on the way here while Frankfurt was shut down.  Now that I´m here, the only word to describe it is clusterfuck.  Everyone´s stressed, noone knows what to do or where to go, and I´m finding it to be an amazing social experiment.  Me, I listen to music while waiting in lines that go on forever and might not be the right line anyways, and this keeps me calm.  Then there are those who you can tell are stressed, but have acknowledged that the situation is out of their control, and are satisfied to occasionally shake their heads and sigh.  then there are those that feel they  are in some special scenario and deserve special treatment and have decided that speaking loudly and gesturing is the best way to get it.
There does seem to be a certain undisputed etiquette, mostly concering babies.  If you want special treatment at a hectic airport, grab a kid, stick him in a stroller, and watch the seas of people part before you and the near-murderous faces of airport staff brighten as they open a previoiusly unseen door and guide you through.  Babies is the way to go.  Me, I listen to music.

The only real casualty of my trip thus far is since I was late getting to Franfurt, I was unable to check the duty free items which I had purchased in Tel Aviv.  This meant they were confiscated and thrown out at my next security check.  The officer seeemed genuinely apologetic, knowing she was making a tense situation worse, but I´m not one to blame those who have as little control of the situation as myself.  More than the wasted money, which was by no means a fortune,  these gifts were for my Aunt and Uncle on my mother´s side, who are notoriously difficult to shop for, and I really thought I had gotten them something dandy.  Now the quesetion that plagues my mind, as I spend time blogging and not flying due to the delays, is whether or not I would have had time to check those forsaken goods, so that they might one day bring Christmas joy to picky foodies everywhere.  I guess we´ll never know.

The next plague ridden question is whether or not I have time for a beer or five before my flight. 
And with that, a very happy holidays to all, and the next time your stuck in an airport and want to throttle the next person that calls you sir, you can always cheer up by finding a smiling baby... then stay close and look like family.

Cheers,
Dony

PS (TheDonyShow accepts no liabilty for typeos or spelling mistakes, because german keyboards are wierd)

Egypt Pt. 2

And now for the thrilling conclusion ...

As aforementioned, the next two days were not as historically thrilling as the first, but they were certainly not without there fascinating finds.  On Saturday, we took a three hour trip to Alexandria, which turned out to be a four and a half hour trip due to two factors :
First, the highway was shut down due to the same typical fog experience at Giza
and Secondly, the Egyptian police implemeneted a traffic management technique in which two patrol cars block the highway and drive one kilometer every five minutes ... I have yet to understand how this is efficicient, but my recent experience has given me faith in Egyptian logic and engineering.  Furthermore, Sabrina and I were passed out in the back of a van, so what do we care.
Finally we reach Alexandria and the first sight of the day : The Roman Amphitheatre!

Unearthed in the early sixties, the "Ampitheatre," dated to the 2nd century A.D.,  may not have been an theater at all.  It's proximity to the ancient Roman street is an unlikely location for theatrical performance, but would be ideal for the openly democratic Senate of ancient Rome.  Whatever the function,  the presenter (whether actor or politician, but really, what's the difference) was given an ingeninous advantage.  At a marked point in the middle of the circle, the acoustic resonance off the pillars is such that one's voice fills the area with an almost eerie fulness.
The rest of the sight was an ancient university (the bottom left corner of the photo).  As well as the classrooms, the excavation also revealed a written syllabus of some of the course material.

After a quick lunch at Mo'men, the Shwarma  equivalent of McDonald's, it was on to the Library of Alexandria, which is built on the location of the most significant ancient library in history, constructed some 2300 years ago.  The new building embraces a more modernist aesthetic than the first.

               Note : this is NOT my photo, as I have not yet mastered unaided flight
In accordance with ancient Egyptian sun worship, the main building represents the sun, while the dome on the right (which holds an Omni-max style cinema, and is in fact a full sphere in a large hole) represents the orbiting Earth.
Another fascinating architectural point (not properly represented in this photo) is that each window in the "sun" has a slatted awning, which mimics the human eyelash, and prevents too much direct sunlight from penetrating the reading and research area of the library.





 Inside, as well as a beautiful library, is several art exhibits, including one of modern Egyptian art, which I found to be fascinating in it's combination of traditional and modern styles.













After the library, we hopped back in the van and headed back to Cairo, napping much of the way.

Day 3 :
Our last day in Egypt was to be spent in Cairo, where there is no shortage of touristic time-killing.

First we visited Coptic Cairo.  The Coptics are a Christian sect of Egyptian origin (of which our guide is a member) and have some beautiful churches in old Egypt, the most famous of which is the hanging church.  Dating back to the thrid century A.D., the church is almost entirely suspended above an ancient fortress gateway. 

            The floor of the church

After seeing a little more of Coptic Cairo, we headed to one of the true treasures of Egypt, the Cairo Museum.  Tragically, cameras are not permitted inside the museum, so you will have to take me at my word.  The museum is massive, and as we only had a couple hours inside, we focused on two exhibits.  

The first was that of King Tutankhamun (Tut to his friends), the young prince, crowned at age 9, who was evidently murdered by his chief adviser at the age of nineteen (the same age at which he no longer legally required a chief adviser).  The museum is full of the artifacts found in his tomb (famously discovered by the British Howard Carter in 1922).  Here we learned of the Ancient Egyptian ritual of entombing the royal mummy in a lavishly decorated sarcophagus, which was then put in a slightly larger sarcophagus (equally lavish) which was then put in a larger still sarcophagus (ditto).  The three sarcophagi were then put in a big box (lavish, gold, jewels, what have you) which was placed in a bigger box (more gold, more jewels) which, finally, was put in the biggest box of all (and therefore, the MOST lavish!).  It's like a Russian doll, except the smallest doll is an embalmed corpse.

Speaking of embalmed corpses, for an additional 100 Egyptian Pounds (which is less than twenty bucks) we got to tour the mummy room!  Can you guess what's in the mummy room?  It was awesome ... and freaky ... and awesome.  Here's some more photos I didn't take :

After shaking off the willies, we left the museum and headed to our last "must-see" sight :  The Souk, Cairo's marketplace.  As I have already experienced in Tel Aviv, the marketplace is where I feel the most middle-eastern.  The streets are narrow and crowded and everyone is yelling in either a completely foreign language or something that resembles English, but not quite.  




After helping us haggle with the locals, our guide led us down several small alleyways, ultimately sitting us down at a cafe and treating us to Turkish coffee and Shisha.  The perfect ending to a wonderful trip, this is one of the few photos I got of Wassim, my favorite part of Egypt :

I hope you enjoyed my Egyptian adventure.  I'm heading back to Canada in a couple weeks, but I'm nearing completion on a couple music videos which I hope to post before I leave.
Furthermore, Sabrina and I are leaving for a ten-day excursion to India in the new year, so stay tuned.

From all of us here at TheDonyShow, I wish you good friends, good health, and good night!

Egypt!

Sabrina and I had planned a trip to Egypt some time ago, and we were to stay with her colleague in Cairo whilst touring around the major sites.  As fate would have it, while we were planning our trip, this same friend was planning a conference in Cairo which Sabrina was then called on to attend.  Conveniently, the conference ended the day before our planned arrival.  So, Sabrina went off on Monday, and I joined her at the hotel Wednesday, and then we moved into his place Friday.  As the conference ended Thursday, I had one day to tour around by myself, which turned out to be... well, utterly useless.  Apparently I suck at playing tourist, as I spent one hour looking for the Arabian Music Institute, and failed, and then spent another hour waiting in a restaurant for lunch, which due to a language barrier, I had apparently never ordered.  That said, I did get one fantastic photo which sums up a staple of the Egyptian diet : pita!

 I've been told that this is such a necessary food, particularly for the lower class, that is in fact subsidized by the government, and sold for a penny.  Apparently they tried to raise it to two pennies, at which point there were riots in the street.  At any extent, I would gladly pay two pennies just to watch this guy ride around all day.  Particularly given the fact that Egyptian traffic is generally terrifying.  Lanes are simply suggestions, there are very few traffic lights, and everyone always has the right of way, as long as they are honking loud enough.


After my entirely unsuccessful day, Sabrina and I had a lovely early dinner at the hotel, and then joined her colleague and her colleague's husband (who is an Egyptian native) at a traditional Arabian music concert, which I thouroughly enjoyed, and hope to investigate further.  This same colleague's husband conveniently has a friend who is a registered tour guide.  His name is Wassim, and he proved to be the highlight of the trip, as he was our personal guide for three days.  He has studied Egyptology for several years, and is incredibly well informed. Furthermore, he is the nicest, funniest man in the greater Cairo area.
Over drinks in the lobby, we planned our weekend day by day, and agreed on a meeting time, which was early by necessity.  You have to get up early if you want to go INSIDE the Great Pyramid!

Day 1 : The Pyramids of Giza!
Due to body heat and perspiration, the Egyptian authorities only let 250 people inside the pyramid each morning in the winter and 150 people in the summer, so first come, first serve. Thankfully we got tickets, and made it up the 153m ramp inside a hot stuffy tunnel, eventually popping out in a room which is utterly ... plain.  While certainly worth the experience of being inside a pyramid, it's by no means visually spectacular.  It's a stone room, with an empty stone box (in which once lay an ex-pharoah), and that's it.  However, still worth the climb.
The only catch to arriving so early is that Egypt suffers from very foggy mornings at this time of year, so it took a bit of walking around before we got a good shot, but here it is!
The Great pyramid was built for the King Khufu, and also on site are the smaller pyramids for his son and grandson.  I didn't realize this, but pyramids were actually a common tomb or monument for kings, and there are more than 100 across Egypt. 

After the pyramids, it was just a short jaunt to Egypt's second most famous site, The Sphinx!  Once again, there are many sphinxes... sphinxi?... sphinxeses? all over Egypt, but there's one REALLY BIG ONE!









On the same site as The Sphinx is the Valley Temple, where the ancient Egyptians performed the extensive rituals involved in guaranteeing the deceased passage into the afterlife.  This was an excellent opportunity to observe some ingenious Egyptian engineering :

  

As Egypt is prone to earthquakes (or at least was 4000 years ago), certain measures were taken to ensure that structures created solely of stacked blocks didn't topple

Separate layers have occasional shifts, to prevent sliding

in a tremor.

Corners are made of one stone, not two meeting

The next stop was Sakkara, a necropolis from the third dynasty designed by the great Egyptian engineer, Imhotep.

This site includes the supposed "Step Pyramid", which our guide ensured us is in fact NOT a pyramid, just a tomb made of steps.  If it were a pyramid, it would be the oldest ever, but it's not.

Also at Sakkara is evidence of another interesting ancient Egyptian ritual.  They believe that life on earth was only temporary and should be spent working, while the afterlife was eternal and a time of leisure.  As such, one royal burial practice was the recreation of a King's palace. While the original palace would be made of mud bricks, the recreation had to be stone, representing the temporary and eternal dichotomy.





After Sakkara we had one more stop, Memphis, which is in fact the city for which Sakkara was the necropolis aka. cemetery.

Along with a variety of ancient relics, Sakkara hosts a massive sculpture of Ramses II, who we quickly learned was quite fond of himself, as there are many statues of him built during his life.  We know they were built while he was alive, because the straight beard indicates that the subject was alive at the time of the carving, while a beard curving out indicates posthumous sculpting.











So, that was day one, which was probably the most exciting in terms of "Holy crap I never thought I would actually be here!"

I'll post the next two days in the next two days... seems appropriate.