- The following continues my serialization of Chapter 6 from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity. This section on Cairo, Egypt is so long that I will split it into several parts:
My Message from Purgatory, Also Known as Cairo
This section consists of a series of e-mails I sent to colleagues as a stop on an around the world trip.
Dear Friends:
The overall world trip itself has been fantastic, with the only unusual portion being our current stop: Cairo. The trip started in Tokyo on August 15, 2000, then, Frankfurt, Hannover (for the Expo), Marlburg, Edinburgh, Athens, Delos, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, Kusadasi, Istanbul and Cairo. We hope to eventually get to Munich, Wash. D.C., Orlando, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Honolulu (September 26, 2000).
We are now more than halfway through our world odyssey, and, as we seem to be trapped in a kind of purgatory, I thought this would be good time to communicate with our friends, while summarizing the current technical essence of my trip for the University of Hawaii. Much of the following many of you will find boring, but, if you harbor any thoughts of someday seeing the pyramids in Egypt, you might at least want to refer to that portion of the message, for Cairo has been a distinct surprise for us.
Our first stop was Tokyo, where we met with Hiro Nakahara and Toshitsugu Sakou, ending the evening with Yoko and Toshi at an Italian restaurant in Ebesu. We left the next morning for Frankfurt, and, over a couple of days, first took in the Hannover Expo, and followed with a stop in Marlburg. No matter what you have read, Expo 2000 was very impressive, and featured most of the world, except for the USA. While Outer Mongolia and various countries at war had decent exhibits, for our nation, only companies had a presence. We had lunch at Horst Senger's home in Marlburg with Shigetoh Miyachi, and formed a Japan/European/U.S. "emeritus" advisory team on the photo-bio production of everything from hydrogen to global climate remediation. Professor Miyachi is the grand old man of biotechnology from the University of Tokyo and Professor Senger is his equivalent in Germany.
In Edinburgh, we were joined by Yayoi and Takeo Kondo, and met with Grant Burgess and Phil Wright to plan for a major international marine biotech gathering to be held at Heriot-Watt University in August of next year. We added a session on the biotechnology of next generation fisheries. Andrew Sprague earlier this year received his PhD from HWU, and obtained an offer from St. Andrews University to stimulate the commercialization of biotechnology. He had spent some time at HNEI in our Marine Bioresources Laboratory, and is leading the search for marine algae colors for the pearl project. As he is a world class surfer, he is torn between teaching Prince Andrew/picking up golf, or becoming a pearl entrepreneur in Hawaii.
As Professor Kondo is a specialist in marine recreation, we accompanied him on one of his official duties, and flew to Athens to board the Crown Odyssey for a cruise to Istanbul. To say that I had more than my fill of ruins is a mild understatement. Acropolis, Delphi, Santorini, Ephesus...we saw it all. Our biggest accomplishment is that Pearl and I walked from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, to the Grand Bazaar, on to the Spice Market…then back to the Intercontinental Hotel. At 95 degrees F, completely across a hilly city, that was a major achievement.
As using your computer to retrieve e-mail from your room on the ship cost $350/hour, and their internet room cost about $50/hour, we fortunately could find on each Greek Island internet cafes, which only charge about $4/hour, and some even had free coffee. You might consider getting a HOTMAIL address, which is the cheapest way to communicate on international travel.
(Next: Section B, which will begin with:
PEARL AND I THEN FLEW TO CAIRO. This is where it gets bizarre.)
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The Dow Jones Industrials edged up 10 to 10,416, and world markets were mixed, although the Japan Nikkei jumped up 79 to 9241. Gold increased $4/toz to $1229 and crude oil slipped under $75/barrel, then snuck back above again.
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