EGYPT TRIP SPONSORED BY AMERICAN-EGYPTIAN GROUP
By Bob Van Leer

  (NEW YORK, N.Y., Saturday, Oct. 16, 1999) - This evening we saw the musical "Miss Saigon", on Broadway and it was well worth seeing. The story of an American soldier who, unknown to himself, fathered a child by a Vietnamese girl and the aftermath when he finds out about the child later, after returning to the U.S. and marrying. It's a tear-jerker as well as good entertainment.

  I arrived in New York this evening and met up with Jim Kelly, publisher of the Hood River News.

  Tomorrow he and I and two other newspaper people, Peter Wagner of Sheldon, Iowa and Matt Paxton, Lexington, Virginia, are catching an 11:00 p.m. Egypt Air flight to Cairo for a 10-day tour of Egypt.

EGYPT AIR FLIGHT TAKES US 5,595 MILES TO CAIRO, EGYPT
 By Bob Van Leer

 (CAIRO, EGYPT, Oct. 18, 1999) - Yesterday morning Jim Kelly, Hood River, and I toured around New York, with a boat drive by of the Statue of Liberty and a couple hour stop to look over Ellis Island, now a national park, where millions of immigrants were processed to enter the United States and start new lives.

  In the evening we picked up our bags we left at the Salisbury Hotel and headed out to John F. Kennedy Airport. It is time to start on our trip to Africa. At JFK we met up with Matt Paxton and Peter Wagner, the other two journalists on this tour, and Ahmed A. Maguid, an Egyptian who is to be our host on this 10-day briefing tour of Egypt. Meguid's day job is financial officer for the American Egyptian Cooperation Foundation (AECF), the sponsor of this tour.

   We boarded an Air Egypt Boeing 777 at 11:00 p.m. for a non-stop flight to Cairo. The route took us north past Newfoundland and across the Atlantic. We crossed into France south of Paris and turned south right past Rome.

EGYPTIAN MUSEUM TREASURES FROM TOMBS OF PHARAOHS
By Bob Van Leer

  (CAIRO, EGYPT, Oct. 20, 1999) - Today was another day mostly for sightseeing. We spent the morning at the Egyptian Museum across the street from our hotel, the Nile Hilton.

  The museum, built in 1902, houses an incredible number of artifacts, some on display but others in storage due to space limitations.

  The star of the collection is the artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamen, the only royal tomb discovered unplundered. And the star of this is Tut's gold death mask. Tut was just under 20 when he died after reigning for only six years and was buried in 1352 B.C. The more than five thousand items recovered from his tomb invites speculation as to what might have been included in the tombs of more powerful kings whose tombs were looted.

   Tut's coffin is of solid gold and weights 110 kilograms (a kilogram is 2.2 pounds). This coffin was encased in two gold covered coffins. These, in turn, were enclosed in four gold covered boxes each of progressively larger sizes until the last was the size of a truck shipping container.

TAKE FLIGHT TO LUXOR TO SEE THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS
By Bob Van Leer

  (CAIRO, EGYPT, Saturday, Oct. 23, 1999) - The last two days were a whirlwind tour of ancient Egypt. We put in a day of sightseeing at Cairo Thursday and then flew 317 miles upriver to Luxor to see the Valley of the Kings Friday and then returned to Cairo on a 1:00 a.m. flight.

  We started Thursday for a visit to the old Arab quarter which looks like the setting for an old movie. Streets are narrow and crooked, lined with shops and stalls and alive with people.

  Later we went to the Mohammed Ali Mosque, built in 1836 and a copy of the St. Sofia in Istanbul. The mosque is 55 meters high, about 170 feet, and the same distance wide. It is called the Alabaster Mosque because everything up to 30 meters high, inside and out, is faced with alabaster.

   We were able to move freely inside the mosque, the only requirement was to take off our shoes. Our guide said the mosque is closed only Thursday afternoon for religious services. Dress requirements are minimal but there was a rack of green robes for women whose clothing was too skimpy - no shorts.

AL-AHRAM IS ONE OF LARGEST NEWSPAPERS IN THE WORLD
By Bob Van Leer

  (CAIRO, EGYPT, Sunday, Oct. 24, 1999) - This morning our party of four U.S. journalists toured the offices of Al-Abram, the largest newspaper in Cairo and one of the largest in the world.

  It has a daily circulation of 1.3 million and a Friday circulation of 1.5 million. We could think of only three newspapers in the U.S. (Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times) that have a circulation over a million.

  And it is not just a newspaper but a publishing and advertising conglomerate employing 12,000 world wide.

PEOPLE TO PEOPLE PEACE WITH ISRAEL CANNOT BE DECREED
By Bob Van Leer

  (CAIRO, EGYPT, Monday, Oct. 24, 1999) - Our party of four journalists from the United States met Sunday afternoon with Nabil Osman, chairman of the Egyptian State Information Service.

  There is more to his title than meets the eye, because the elevator can't stop on his office floor without his permission.

  Osman said on peace between Egypt and Israel that there are two levels. One is ideological peace and that is in place. The peace treaty between the two countries was signed 20 years ago and there has not been a single violation. Borders are open with free movement.

   But people to people peace cannot be decreed. It cannot happen unless the situation changes drastically.

  He said there is tension, a denial of Palestinian rights by Israel and Palestinian areas are under occupation. Not many Egyptians go to Israel. They can't afford it and don't like the political climate. Osman said, "I won't be a witness to the destruction of Palestinian homes".

  Egyptians are willing to give Israel's new prime minister, Ehud Barak, enough time to come up with policies for peace. He said former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu "poisoned the climate". He said the U.S. has suffered by having a double standard toward Israel.

TOURISM RECOVERS AFTER 1997 SHOOTING AT DEIR EL-BARI
By Bob Van Leer

  (GOLD BEACH, OR, Saturday, Oct. 30, 1999) - Our last day in Egypt was Monday, Oct. 29 and we were taken to the Ministry of Tourism for an interview with its director, Dr. Mamdouh El Beltagui.

  On the way to the ministry we stopped at a monument built at the site President Anwar Sadat was assassinated Oct. 6, 1981. Sadat made peace with Israel and his reward was bullets by his own troops. Sadat was reviewing a parade when several soldiers broke ranks and shot him.

   Beltagui said tourism makes up 7-11% of Egypt's gross domestic product, with the higher figure adding in indirect effects.

  Tourism suffered in 1998 after the machine-gunning of tourists at Luxor in 1997, but he said this year tourism has recovered and is expected to reach 4.5 million visitors.

  Only about 136,000 of these are from the U.S. which is one of the reasons we were invited to the country. Beltagui invited suggestions on how to make the $1.5 million Egypt spends on advertising in the U.S. more effective. One suggestion is air service to Egypt is not very competitive, not enough carriers. Another suggestion is to where Egypt spends its tourism advertising money. None of us have seen it.