It was hot! Between 41-45 degrees Celsius. The road to Khartoum gave us no problems. Near the city we noticed that Khartoum had expanded tremendously compared to 1995 when Helma was here the last time. Nice buildings, big offices etc. And they have traffic lights with counting signals, so you know exactly when to be prepared. And the road was busy. We met our friend Ahmed Fahal who drove us to a hotel in Amarat, Kazar Hotel. Nice with air co, TV and good Internet connectivity.
Here we were settled for the coming days. Ed disappeared to see all his colleagues and went from one meeting into the other. Helma did the laundry and supervised homework with the boys and as treat they had fast Internet. In the afternoons we drove around the city to see the Nile, Omdurman and find a place to eat, which was not hard at all because fast food is now very common in Khartoum. We had a swim at the international Club, which had not changed compared to 1991 when we visited it during our MSF days. From our hotel window there was a good view on the airstrip in the middle of the town. Bart has become an excellent spotter.
On Wednesday the boys celebrated their birthday, with a swim, nice food at the Chinese restaurant and ice cream at an ice cream parlour. The next day we were invited by prof El Hassan and had a very enjoyable time with his family in a Turkish restaurant. Other people celebrated a birthday party. There was so much noise that they gave us also a piece of the birthday cake as compensation. That was a good idea because now the boys had their birthday cake also. On Friday we were invited at our good friend Ahmed Fahal´s house. At that time there was a haboub, a sandstorm and some rain! Rain in June is very exceptional. But of course this comes along with power cuts. So we had a late, but very nice Sudanese meal in the garden. It was cool due to the earlier rain. The next day we went to Omdurman to visit Salah Ibrahim (another old friend) and his family. We showed them our blog. The boys played football on the top floor of the house with the other children. After our brunch we had a look in Omdurman souk, the market which was still excellent to visit. We saw the tomb of the Maghdi and the Kalifa´s house, the last part of the Omdurman city wall and went looking for the camel market. Unfortunately they had moved, but what we saw reminded us of the Sudan from the nineties.
The next day we went to Shendi and the pyramids of Meroë.
Here we were settled for the coming days. Ed disappeared to see all his colleagues and went from one meeting into the other. Helma did the laundry and supervised homework with the boys and as treat they had fast Internet. In the afternoons we drove around the city to see the Nile, Omdurman and find a place to eat, which was not hard at all because fast food is now very common in Khartoum. We had a swim at the international Club, which had not changed compared to 1991 when we visited it during our MSF days. From our hotel window there was a good view on the airstrip in the middle of the town. Bart has become an excellent spotter.
On Wednesday the boys celebrated their birthday, with a swim, nice food at the Chinese restaurant and ice cream at an ice cream parlour. The next day we were invited by prof El Hassan and had a very enjoyable time with his family in a Turkish restaurant. Other people celebrated a birthday party. There was so much noise that they gave us also a piece of the birthday cake as compensation. That was a good idea because now the boys had their birthday cake also. On Friday we were invited at our good friend Ahmed Fahal´s house. At that time there was a haboub, a sandstorm and some rain! Rain in June is very exceptional. But of course this comes along with power cuts. So we had a late, but very nice Sudanese meal in the garden. It was cool due to the earlier rain. The next day we went to Omdurman to visit Salah Ibrahim (another old friend) and his family. We showed them our blog. The boys played football on the top floor of the house with the other children. After our brunch we had a look in Omdurman souk, the market which was still excellent to visit. We saw the tomb of the Maghdi and the Kalifa´s house, the last part of the Omdurman city wall and went looking for the camel market. Unfortunately they had moved, but what we saw reminded us of the Sudan from the nineties.
The next day we went to Shendi and the pyramids of Meroë.
Lekker slapen in Kassab
6 comments:
Hello
Wow still sounds amazing and you've got so much excitement still ahead of you. We're all loving keeping up with you on your journey. with love JBJA xxx
hallo zijlstra,
Op weg naar Aswan alweer dat gaat goed. Veel reisplezier en kijkplezier.
Wij kijken met plezier naar de foto"s
groetjes ma, nel en frits
Een 2e bericht
frits
hij doet het
frits
ik heb een nieuw email adres aangemaakt met live en daarmee lukt het dus wel berichten te verzenden
frits
hallo zijlstars reizigers, we kunnen alles goed volgen en genieten van de fotos en verslagen kunnen jullie kennelijk niet bereiken whatever goede reis verder Frans en anton,.
Post a Comment