Pay Toilets on Airplanes? Rynair is Considering It

Low-fare Ryanair reportedly exploring another revenue source

If Ryanair, the aggressive European low-fare carrier, wanted to A) raise travelers' hackles or B) get their name in print and on the air, they couldn't have picked a better subject than the possibility of converting their lavatories into pay toilets.

The Associated Press's widely printed story tried to make light of the situation by inserting reportorial witticisms and pithy quotes:

"When nature calls at 30,000 feet, is $1.40 a wee price to pay? Or could it
force passengers without correct change into a whole new kind of holding
pattern? The head of budget European airline Ryanair unleashed a flood of
indignation and potty humor Friday when he suggested that future passengers
might be obliged to insert a British pound coin for access to the lavatory to
get some in-flight relief.

"Airline chief Michael O'Leary suggested that installing pay toilets would
lower ticket costs and make flying, somehow, easier for all. Not even his own
aides seemed to be sure if he was serious or pursuing his penchant for making
brazen declarations to get free publicity for Ryanair....

"O'Leary spokesman Stephen McNamara said his boss often spoke tongue in
cheek - but he then defended the idea of in-flight pay toilets as part of a
logical trend. 'Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and, while
this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce
it,' McNamara said, adding, 'Passengers using train and bus stations are already
accustomed to paying to use the toilet, so why not on airplanes? Not everyone
uses the toilet on board one of our flights, but those that do could help to
reduce airfares for all passengers.'

"Analysts agreed that the man who pioneered charging passengers to
check bags, to use a check-in desk and even to use a credit or debit card to
make an online booking just might be serious about mile-high toilet
extortion....

"Not surprisingly, passengers reacted with indignation and outrage at the
prospect....'Your only choice with Ryanair, really, is not to fly Ryanair. Your
dignity goes out the window. If you have a complaint, they're not programmed to
care," said Samantha Jones, a 30-year-old Welsh woman.She discounted the practicality of a restroom rebellion. 'If you are given a choice between wetting your knickers or not wetting your knickers, you will pay whatever fee they make you pay, and Mr. O'Leary knows this well,' she said. 'Frankly, I'm surprised he's talking about letting us have a wee for a pound, not more!'

"Rochelle Turner, head of research at British consumer rights magazine Which? Holiday, said Ryanair had a well-documented practice of putting profit before the comfort of its customers" - but this one could backfire. 'Charging people to go to the toilet might result in fewer people buying overpriced drinks on board. That would serve Ryanair right...

"Noah Cole of Portland, Ore., who has flown on Ryanair, called it "unconscionable" to charge for a bathroom, and he even predicted money-changing problems. In other words, if you only have dollars, can you still euro-nate?..."

Dominica Bus Accident Injures Cruise Passengers

Celebrity Summit passengers on shore excursion injured when bus went off the road

I got an E-mail from friends who are on a short Caribbean cruise with the message, "Hi -- we are having a great time. One of the excursions in Dominica came to a bad end yesterday, but we were not involved. Just in case it made the news I want to reassure you that we are fine. Cruising is all that it is made out to be."

Of course, I immediately Googled the incident and found a USA Today report headlined, "Sixteen Cruise Ship Passengers Injured in Bus Accident on Dominica." According to the report, "The guests had signed up for the 'Caribbean Cooking Adventure' shore excursion, in which they joined local culinary experts to learn how to prepare and present traditional Caribbean dishes. The three-and-a-half hour tour concludes with a scenic drive through [the capital city of Roseau] before returning to the pier."

As I wrote recently, I felt as if I dodged the proverbial bullet in Cairo by crossing Hussein Square and visiting the Khan al-Khalili shortly before Sunday's explosion, and I "almost" dodged the bullet here too. If I had been on that ship, that's the shore excursion I would have selected.

US Airways Rescinds Beverage Charge

After the miraculous water landing of a US Airways Airbus in the frigid Hudson River on January 15 with no loss of life, people were feeling benign toward the carrier. Good feelings only go so far, however. The airline was the only major airline to charge coach passengers for non-alcoholic beverages ($1 for coffee or tea; $2 for bottled water or soft drinks). This annoyed passengers like me, who recently flew Denver-Charlotte and Charlotte-JFK.

As of March 1, these booze-free beverages will again be free. "The beverage program was distracting from the outstanding improvements in on-time performance and baggage handling U.S. Airways' 34,000 employees worked so hard to achieve last year," was the way a US Airways spokesman explained it, trying to put a good spin on a bad policy. The carrier will continue to charge for include checked baggage, certain desirable seats and the new "U.S. Airways Power-Nap Sack," which is their marketing term for a blanket and a pillow.

A Blast in the Present

Cairo explosion was no blast from the past but a current menace that I recently avoided

Just three weeks ago, while visiting Egypt during a Society of American Travel Writers Freelance Council meeting, I along with other SATWers and tourists, I plunged into the tiny "streets "of Cairo's Khan el-Khalili bazaar (below).

The narrow streets -- lanes, really -- provide abundant sights, sounds and energy, as merchants hustle to attract buyers (mainly tourists) to their tiny shops. "Hello!" "Where you from?" "Come visit my shop." "No hassle." "I make you a good price." My sense was of energy and enterprise, but not of any kind of threat.

My colleagues and I entered the bazaar from a narrow street that runs alongside the beautiful 12th-century Al Hussein Mosque (below). Like everyplace in Egypt that tourists are likely to visit or where expats live, security presence was obvious -- and there are, of course, plainclothes personnel all around too. A uniformed police officer stood at one street corner across from the mosque at one entrance into the labyrinthian market. (As you look at this photo, Khan el-Khalili is directly to the left of the mosque). I peered inside an open door to the mosque, brillitantly lit with fluorescent lights even during daylight. I would have liked to go in, but I didn't think that non-Moslems, especially a foreign woman, would be welcome there.

On another side of the mosque is the large open area with a rare square of actual green grass and towering palm trees that seem nearly as high as the imposing minarets. It is fenced off, so that no one actually walks on the grass. During the day, tour buses unload on an adjacent paved square (just behind where I stood to take this photo. In the evening, vehicles are not permitted there and traffic is kept at a distance, turning this greenspace and the blocked-off square into a kind of buffer for the mosque.

The mobility-challenged vendor below was selling some modest goods from a folding table alongside the mosque, just across from the entrance to the Khan el-Khalili market that I went into and out of.

Facing the grassy square, and therefore just steps from the mosque, a row of busy cafes (below) attracts many visitors and also Egyptians as well. On the evening of February 4 at around 7:00 p.m. (after dark), another woman and I left the bazaar, passed the mosque and the greenspace, and crossed the area where vehicles are prohibited to grab a taxi that would take us back to our hotel.

After I returned, friends who asked me about my trip and my impressions as often as not also asked whether I was nervous or afraid, and I always replied that I wasn't. I reminded them that people who go about their business at home or abroad without incident do not make headlines.

Given my recent visit, today's CNN headline, "Tourist killed, 23 others wounded in Egypt blast," and msnbc's "Explosion in Cairo Bazaar Kills 1 Injures 21," were not abstract to me, even if the news services weren't in agreement over how many people were injured. According to the report, "The explosion occurred during the height of the evening rush at 6:30 p.m. in an area of coffee shops located near the Al Hussein Mosque, one of Cairo's largest, Interior Ministry press officer Hany Abdelatif said. The bomb was left under a stone chair, a ministry statement said. An undetonated bomb was found near the mosque, which sits close to an entrance of the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, a huge market and a tourist attraction, Abdelatif said."

I am not sure exactly where the bomb went off, but I certainly had a powerful picture of the lay of the land. When I heard the news, I was sad about the tourists and locals who were victims of the blast, relieved I wasn't there to witness it and sorry that this incident might negatively impact visitation to the country that has so much worth seeing. I also immediately remembered the vendor, heavily seated next to her wheelchair, and hoped that she was unhurt.

P.S. Please see this story from the New York Times.

An Oscar Connection with Texas

James Dean and Giant memorialized in historic hotel in West Texas

OK, friends, this post might seem like a bit of a stretch, but stay with me. On the morning of the Academy Awards, as I read today's USA Weekend, my recent visit to Marfa, Texas, came to mind. And here's the reason. Columnist Lorrie Lynch who does the "Who's News" page wrote, "Like James Dean, who died in a 1955 car crash at the age of 24 after completing his work on Giant, Heath Ledger, who died at 28 after finishing The Dark Knight, will be remembered as a talented actor lost too young."

Last fall, I was briefly in Marfa, where Giant (starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and, of course, James Dean) was filmed more than half a century ago. I went into the gorgeously restored Spanish-style Paisano Hotel to take peak, and just off the lobby (below) a small room was dedicated to the film that brought so much star power to this small town in West Texas. I didn't take a photo of that display of movie memorabilia, but if I had thought I might ever write a blog post about it, I would have. In any case, if you find yourself in West Texas, Marfa, which has become a notable modern art center, is worth a visit, and when you are in town, be sure to stay at, eat at or at least look into the Paisano and, if you are an old-movie fan, pay hommage to Giant and its stars.

Images of Egypt: On the Streets of Alexandria

Scenes of everyday Alexandria and its people

Alexandria's streets come across as collage of cultures, architectural styles and creatures and their conveyances (humans, cars, buses, trucks, taxis, streetcars, carriages, horses, donkeys and cats). There is, at once, an old worldliness and a developing worldliness that imbues the city with a rich cultural texture. The city is long and skinny (a bit like Manhattan Island), stretching for 12 east-west miles along the Mediterranean cost and measures just a couple of north-south miles.

The most elegant section is near the Eastern Harbor, with a vibrant commercial district, residential areas and lovely old villas. Despite its seawall and crumbling sidewalks, the Corniche remains an elegant arc along the waterfront. The Western Harbor is the commercial port and more industrial area. A peninsula that sticks up into the Mediterranean separates the Eastern and Western Harbors is punctuated by an old fortress. The city's relief valves is its long coast, where the Mediterranean presents a limitless horizon and a blue-domed sky. Here are some random images of the city's streetscape.

Images of Egypt: Alexandria's Antiquities

Egypt's second city is captivating and gives off a somewhat cosmopolitan air

While Cairo is a river city shaped by the Nile, Alexandria is a coastal city impacted by the Mediterreanean. It is often called Egypt's "most European" city. No wonder. Instead of a pharonic past that stretches back thousands of years, this "new" city was founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great. Egypt's second-larged city has experienced periods of prosperity and decline. Later it was the capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt, the setting for l'affaire d'Antony and Cleopatra and a key port on Africa's northern coast.

After the Roman Empire, it was part of the Ottoman Empire, and still later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was under the French and English control -- or at least strong influence. Many downtown buildings and villas reflect a distinct European influence, with Greeks, Italians and Jews also woven into the Alexandrian fabric. Even though most foreigners left in the nationalistic 1950s and most local women now seem to choose to cover their heads, Alexandria still presents a cosmopolitan face -- perhaps because of its architectural legacy.

The Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, once stood guard on a harbor island, now connected to the mainland. The lighthouse itself was destroyed by the 14th century by a sries of earthquakes. Archeological divers have discovered pieces of it in the water, and an underwater museum is planned. The remarkable Alexandria Library (Biblioteca Alexandrina) is a wonder of the modern information age, a contemporary architectural landmark and an important cultural institution is a surprising attraction in ancient Egypt.

Today, many visitors are day-trippers from cruise ships that dock in the Eastern Harbor -- with never enough time even to touch on the city's many museums A(lexandria National Museum, Graeco-Roman Museum, Cafavy Museum, Fine Arts Museum, Mahmoud Said Museum and Royal Jewellry Museum), let alone stroll along the Corniche or languish at a cafe and watch the Alexandrian world go by.

Midan Saad Laghloul
Statue of of nationalist leader for whom the waterfront square was named

Memorial to the Soldiers (and/or Sailors)
Located at the Eastern Harbor

"Pompey's Pillar"

Misnamed remnant of the 3rd-century B.C. Temple of Serapis

Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa
Three-level tomb complex dug to about 115 feet

Roman Amphitheater (Dom al-Dikka)

Second century, discovered in 1965 under a Napoleonic fort

Alexandria National Museum
Opened in 2003 within an Italianate villa that was built in 1929

Fort Qaitby
15th century, built on the site of the Pharos Lighthouse

Alexandria Library

Opened in 2002 with resources from fragile ancient manuscripts to fast computers

Head of Alexander the Great

Sillhouetted against a sunset sky; located in plaza of the namesake Alexandria Library

Egypt's Factory Stores: Rip-Off or Real?

The cynical visitor eyes souvenirs in Egypt

I have no delusions that the acres of small reproduction pyramids, sphinxes, Nefertiti heads, cats, lions and assorted other examples of Egyptiana peddled aggressively at every tourist attraction in the country actually were made in Egypt -- and I suspect that all but the most naive tourist knows that this souvenir schlock is made elsewhere. "Elsewhere" is most likely China.

The "factories" and "demonstrations" that end virtually every motorcoach tour day are presented as if all fine handicrafts are made right there. Because tour guides get a commission on sales whenever they deliver a busload of tourists, we were forced to visit the papyrus demonstration in a modern shopping center in Alexandria, a carpet school in Saqqara and an alabaster factory near the Valley of the Kings. Mercifully, we dodged the perfume-factory bullet.

The carpet weaving school is billed as a place where young girls are taught weaving. We saw men sitting at a handful of looms in the basement of the carpet factory in Saqqara without a girl or woman in sight. Upstairs was a room filled with carpets. It was not the only carpet factory in Saqqara either. In the so-called alabaster factory near Luxor, three barefoot men sat outdoors on mats and chipped away at alabaster, demonstrating various stages in the process of crafting something out of the raw stone. Inside was a large sales room whose walls were lined with objets d'alabastre. I saw chess sets shamlessly labeled "Made in Pakistan." I bought a little alabaster cat anyway, just as a souvenir of the day.

Souvenir Stand Near the Pyramids and Sphinx (Giza)

Stall in the Khan al-Khalili Market (Cairo)

Souvenir Stand at The Citadel (Alexandria)

Papyrus Making (Alexandria)

Owner or manager stopped me from taking any more photos

Carpet Weaving School (Saqqara)

Alabaster Factory Near the Valley of Kings (Luxor)

Images of Egypt: Upper Nile Valley Antiquities

Legendary temples and tombs draw hordes of visitors, scholars and archaeologists from around the globe

Egypt is a country of stone and sand, bisected by the green ribbon of the fertile Nile Valley. While the famous pyramids and the Great Sphinx are in Giza just outside of Cairo, the famous temples and tombs are hundreds of miles upstream along the river between Aswan and Luxor. Abu Simbel, south of the High Dam at Aswan, was rescued from obliteration under Nile Lake waters by UNESCO in the 1960s. Downstream from (that is, north of) the High Dam are numerous sites, including the incomparable Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

The history, legends, chronology of the kings and their dynasties, and other information are available elsewhere, so please just enjoy a sampling of images from my recent trip -- experiences I shared with thousands of other visitors from all over the world.

Abu Simbel

Kom Ombo near Aswan

Edfu Temple

Luxor Temple

Temple of Hatshepsut

Colossi of Memnon

The Valley of the Kings

Limited permission to photograph in the exquisitely painted tombs that are tunneled into mountains on the west side of the Nile; as elsewhere excavations are ongoing

Karnak Temple at Luxor

Farewell to the Upper Nile Valley