Now, I’m in Zamalek, Alqahirah, Egypt, a man-made island on the Nile river, and at the same time, I’m in Paris, I’m in Cape Town, I’m in Punta Arenas, I’m in Harare and I’m in central Melbourne, more precisely at the Docklands area. And, as it goes, I’m back in Zamalek, Alqahirah, and thus, here I’m at some kind of pier by the Nile river, this is, by now I must go around and find clients to get aboard the feluccas, this is, recreational boats used to transport tourists for perambulations up and down the Nile. And then, I’m Paris again, currently going up the big stairs in front of the Montmartre cathedral, and say, from the top of this emblematic staircase it is possible to see almost two quarters of all the city roofs, thus, well, tourists and tourists suckers of many types and shapes, here ere are coming, onto this podium, I mean, not only the paunchy americans and the chinese photographers, but also, the so called low-budget travelers, backpackers, night-goers of all kinds, some still attracted by that idea of Paris city of dead romantic artists, I mean, the surrealist movement finished decades ago, but, the sons of the Maghreb migrants are coming to replace it, this is, here they are, already arriving through the side alleys of this stars, inside sportive cars, like in the movies, and as they stop-by, all the doors from their cars are actually being open, and so, a huge hashish smell is arising accompanied by hip-hop beats with arabesque melodies, and then, we also see some naked legs, this is, fashionable ladies are also coming out from these cars, like in the movies, and then, white youngsters that were at the bottom of the stairs, are approaching these cars as well, and, as they approach it, they are already doing some kind of waddle, like imitating the moves of the maghrebins, And then I’m in Cape Town again, more precisely going through the Khayelitsha, a slum village that extends from the suburbs of the city itself until the dunes, by the seacoast. And at the same time, I’m in Punta Arenas, historically known as Sandy Point, the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antartica, located on the Brunswick Peninsula, a peninsula almost on the extreme southern point of the American continent. And I’m in Harare, now following aboard a minivan, along the airport road, going in the direction of the city center, and, as we advance, I’m learning about the Ndebele and the Kalanga and the Tonga and the Shangaan and the Venda, etc. And as it goes, in a while, I’m back in Melbourne, this is, now advancing along La Trobe, a street that passes over all the tracks from the Southern Cross station, a main station in this city, and so, here I am, stopped, staring at the tracks down there, and the trains coming over it. And then I’m in Cairo again, already entering a felucca, this is, some sort of recreational boat already loaded with small group of tourists me and the boys picked up in the streets and alleys around the main hotels of this Zamalek inland, I mean, hotels like the Om Kolthom, the Nile Zamalek, the New President, the Flamenco Cairo, the New Star Zamalek, the Cairo Marriott Hotel, the Nile El Gezirah, the Hilton Cairo etc. And so, already departing, the tourists seated around in wooden benches, Amon, the capitan, driving the engines there at the front, Menes and Yussef, the cadets, walking through the deck, spreading portfolios about this trip, and me, the public relations officer, answering silly questions from the tourists, this while tempestuous Arabic pop music is blasting from the cockpit, making people impatient. And thus, as it goes, at some point, an Italian couple is already asking me in bad English, how many stops we will make along this trip, and I, well, in a mix of Italian, Spanish and English, say “It depends… the first one will be already on the next Inland just five, ten minutes from here, at the Manial Al Rawdah inland, I mean, there we will visit the Prince Mohamed Ali Palace and the Umm Kulthum Museum, and then, further, on the Giza side we will visit the Pharaonic Village, a thematic park showing five thousand years of Egyptian history, and… some of the attractions of this park will be… the Tomb of Tutankhamun, the Mummification Museum, a Cleopatra's Exhibition, a Coptic exhibition and the Nubia's History Museum, and then… we will visit the Dahab Island Palace and at some point we will probably stop on this or that cafe of this or that inland to come, depending on the captain’s mood. And, as I say this, a japanese tourist asks me if there are or there are not crocodiles to see in this river to see, and “well” I say “ if you really wanna see the Nile crocodiles, you should go further south, and get on the next boat that will take you to the border with Sudan”. And as I say this, a couple of Americans are already asking “aren’t we visiting any pyramids on this trip?”, “No” I say, “there are no pyramids on the banks on the Nile, the closest pyramids to see are in Giza mainland… for that you should get off at Abbas bridge and take a minibus or a taxi there… I mean, it isn't too far, only about ten miles from this bridge I just said, and, you may go walking, as well… it’s a nice walk…” and then some British guy also says, “so this is not taking us to Luxor, I thought we were going to Luxor or Aswan, one of the guys that recruited me on the hotel told me we would go to such places…”; “no, we are not going that south, that is about five hundred miles from here, we never told you we are going to Luxor, the boys may have told you we are going to visit the Luxor gardens, here in Cairo’s metropolitan area, if you wanna take another boat to Luxor they can help you with tickets and connections…” And then some other guys from Saudi Arabia just ask a few other questions more, but, as I couldn’t understand their arab pronunciation at all, I had to call the boys, Menes and Yussef. And then, here I’m, in Paris again, by now going down the stairways on the side of the Montmartre funicular, and, as I go down, I find some rickety musicians here, playing across, busking, this is, one is playing a very untuned sort of violin and the other is just blowing on a fat tube made of cardboard, using it as some kind of didgeridoo, and as I pass by on their side, I try to sing along with them, but instantly they send me away, and, then, as I keep going down, I pass two other guys just wandering up and down this staircases, this is, they are actually picking abandoned drinks here left, one wearing a Pokémon’s t-shirt, and the other, a semi-chubby guy with shaved head and a tricky kind of smile. And yeah, as we exchange some words, I already can understand that they must be Romanians or Hungarians, something like that, and as it goes, they even want share some of their recycled drinks with me… and, as I continue, further down, almost at the bottom of this stairs, I find this girl sitting alone with some kind of cloth in front of her, actually an apron filled up with different kind of stones, some vulgar some semi-exotic, and also some pieces of broken jewelry in the middle of it”, and yeah, here I stand. And now, back in Cape Town, this is, I have walked from Monwabisi Beach to Gordon's Bay, from where we can already catch sight of a series of craggy rocks, more like crocodile tails entering the water, and further, there are this swirling breezes moving around, more like a… a flock of miniature birds, or, some sort of typhoons disappearing into the sky. And then, after the breeze has passed, there in dunes, I catch sight of some sort of a wrecked ship, stranded between the rocks and the mounds of sand, this is, from here I already can envisage that it has some kind of round windows all around, like a submarine, and the roof is actually covered with enormous sails and other sorts of junk all bouncing and tinkling together… And then, I’m back in Punta Arenas, now going through Plaza Muñoz Gamero, a small, green sallow square with the statue of Ferdinand Magellan in the middle, being Magellan, or Magallanes, or Magalhães, a Portuguese/Spanish seaman, that, it is said, the responsible he was for having planned and led the first circumnavigation of the globe, despite having perished shortly after his passage through these lands, eaten by natives of the Philippine Islands. And so, back to Harare, now walking through the city center, I pass the posh neighborhoods of Eastlea North, Newlands, Gunhill, and then I see myself on the crossroad between Churchill ave. and Borrowdale ave. where I meet a small group of chubby middle aged ladies with the Zimbabwe flag over their backs and some containers in their hands, and as the cars, mainly jeeps, stop by on this crossroad, they move to their windows offering their goods, a mix of ready male meals, american brand drinks, decoration stuff for the cars and even some cosmetics, I get to see, when I pass by on their side and they offered me something to soften my skin and make my muscles grow. And then, I’m Melbourne again, now walking along Collins Street, a major street in the central business district, a street named after Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania, David Collins, who led a group of settlers in establishing a short-lived settlement at Sullivan Bay in Sorrento. And then, I’m Alqahirah again, this is, by now we just moored on the banks of the Manial al-Rawdah inland, known in Antiquity as Babylonian Island, a small inland on the Nile river, still part of the Cairo’s old city, the so called Miṣr al-Qadīma, and thus, after we have visited the Nilometer monument, that is said to be one of the oldest structure built after the Arab conquest (20 AH/640 AD), we moved to the opposite extreme of the Island, where we went to visit the Prince Muhammad Ali Palace was built in the island's that survives in its original form, we moved to Prince Mohamed Ali Palace, a palace whose construction was ordered by Mohammed Ali Tewfik, the Ottoman heir presumptive of Egypt and Sudan in the periods 1892–1899 and 1936–1952. A palace featuring a blend of various Islamic art styles, including Fatimid, Mamluk, Ottoman, Andalusian, Persian, and Levantine influences. It comprises three main structures: the Reception hall (Selamlik), a the Residence Palace (Haramlik), and the Throne Palace. Additionally, the complex includes a mosque, a hunting museum, and a clock tower, resembling the Kutubiyya mosque of Marraquech, all surrounded by gardens that host a rare collection of trees and plants, a mish-mash of gnarling banyan groves, cedar groves, palm trees, and manicured lawns… And I’m in Paris again, now advancing through the streets with my gang, this is, accompanied by the musicians I found busking on the top of the Funicular stairs, the guys that were actually picking abandoned drinks on the side benches of this stairs, and that girl that was selling stones at the bottom of these same stairs. Thus, together we go up the Blvd Marguerite de Rochechouart, and the Blvd de la Chappelle, passing in front of a series of sex-shops, bakeries, barbers etc. with their roller shutters pushed down, shutters graffitied with different kind of tags saying things like “Awa Hype”; “Banana Hypoo” “Sex, Crocodiles & Hipnosis”; “Je ne sais pas quoi”; “Vive la fièvre jaune”; “Haute couture made in Bamako”; “Le Bon Shit”; etc, and then, as we reach the Barbès Rochechouart metro entrance, there are piles of mushy fruits and other stuff piled on the sidewalks, under the rail tracks, and so, as we pass by it, Nadja is already producing a couple of plastic bags and there she goes, rummaging through those fruit piles, choosing the best ones, this is, filling her plastic bags, and then, further, still under those same rail tracks, there are also other piles of different stuff, things like, broken furniture, plastic wares, miscellaneous trash, and even some lacy underwear on the top of it, and so, there they go, the boys now, already picking up some of this underwear, blowing on them, making the species flow around, and then, even dressing it on the top of their clothes while following each other. AndI’m in Cape Town again, I have reached that wrecked kind of ship thing and managed to meet some dwellers. Names like Luan, Mieke, Amahle, David, Michael and Annika have come into the air. And, it looks, they are all into some sort of radical recycling environmentalism. Plus, they say that the submarine, this wrecked kind of ship into a hostel converted, is a project by some of the ex-residents of the Johannesburg Cape Town favelas, plus some outsiders, from the savanna, and as it goes they give me the invitation to get in. So, here we go now, already advancing through the cracks of light coming off the gaps between the sails on the ceiling, cracks of light that are actually producing drawings on the skin of our semi-nude bodies, as we advance. And so, while moving around, I can see those wavy wooden walls, covered with what we can call as fauvist paintings, and also I take a look at some black and white photos by the rack, of what I think to be figures of old pirates, males and females with thin mustaches and strange beards… and now walking over to look closer some of those faces, staring at the photo of a black woman with a thin mustache and a minuscule captain hat laying a bit on the side… and then, while looking at that, someone explains me that “here on the ground floor it’s where our rooms are, this is, the residents’ rooms… and there, on the first floor it’s the communal area where there are also some rooms for guests…” and so, up we go, already advancing through some spiral stairs. And then I’m in Punta Arenas again, still here by the Ferdinand Magellan statue, this is, I just met some people from croatian offspring and by now, they tell me that the fathers of the fathers of their grandfathers frt came here to settle on the so called “Tierra del Fuego”, that is the southern province of South America itself, this is, they came here attracted by "the gold fever", after the discovery of gold on the island of Lenox. And then I’m in Harare again, actually going up the Borrowdale ave., the main road crossing, Borrowdale, a rich residential suburb in the northeast part of Harare. And as I follow on the road side of this avenue, I see many brand new villas, and others still in construction, and also a bunch of outdoors announcing a range of cosmetic products, building companies, sunglasses, toilet furniture, and bank loans that will give you free medical care for you and for your pets. And then, back to the Collins Street, in Melbourne, a street that goes across all this central part of the city, therefore, by now, I’m actually passing in front of the Café Eurasia, where I see a lady in a knee-length skirt actually massaging her ankle, and as she does that, her glasses actually fall on the floor, and then, there I go, this is, after the entrance to the Melbourne SkyHigh Apartments, I pass the Daniel's Donuts shop, the Breadtops bakery, the Miss Siam Thai ice creams, the Adoria Jewels, the Rockit Barber Shop, the Pulo Pool Parlour, the Mercedes me Store Melbourne and finally the M.J. Bale, a men's clothing store, just on the side of the InterContinental hotel, actually a building with some sort of neo-gothic architecture, and so, here I stay, watching the people getting in and getting out of this hotel. Back in El Cairo, still aboard this recreational felucca, after passing on the side of the Jazīrat al Qurşāyah, we disembark on the Giza bank this time, in front of the entrance to the Pharaonic Village, some sort of Disneyland made in Egypt, a thematic park showing five thousand years of Egyptian history, composed by a Mummification Museum, a Cleopatra's Exhibition, the Nubia's History Museum, and so on. And then I’m in Paris again, still accompanied by my gang, we pass the surroundings of the two big rail stations, Gare du Nord and Gare du Lest, where some other homeless guys dwell during the night, we go across the Saint Martin canal, where we recycle some more stuff, and then we go down the Boulevard de la Villette carrying a lot of bags, some furniture items, and, as we go, we have to make a lot of stops here and there for resting and for rearranging the position of the staff we are actually carrying on our backs. And then I’m in Cape Town again, at the top deck of that wrecked ship converted into a hostel, under the tinkling sails, I got to Know James and Magda, he from Australia and she from Ireland, both well traveled. And as it goes, he is already telling me that “I have traveled the world in order to watch, discover, and experiment peculiar sorts of rocks” and she “I have traveled the world in order to watch peculiar sorts of flora”. So, he is, let’s say, a do-it-yourself petrologist, and she, a do-it-yourself botanist, let’s put it like that. So, they would recount their stories about traveling the world. Just now, James begins by saying that “I ended up here because I wanted to see the Karoo area, where many kinds of crystals like the garnet, the topaz, the tourmaline, the rose quartz, or the aquamarine can be found. And she would follow “here I came to wander through the Bushveld areas and look for particular kinds of aloes and mesembryanthemums… plus the Crassulas, a genus of succulent, and the euphorbias, the stapelias, the desert ephemerals and of course, the different kinds of proteas…”, and by its turn, James is already enumerating the places where he has seen some spectacular rock and mineral formations worldwide, places like the “Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, the Moeraki Boulders in New Zealand, the White Desert of Egypt, the Reed Flute Cave in the Guangxi Province of China, the inlets of the “Mono Lake” of California or the Devil Towers of Wyoming, also in the United States”. Then, he tells us about the “Cave of the Crystals” in Naica, Mexico and the “Door To Hell” in Turkmenistan; the “Chocolate Hills” in Philippines; the “Salar de Uyuni” in Bolivia; the “Stone Forest” in China; the “Fairy Chimneys” in Turkey; the “Jeita Grotto” in Lebanon; the “Yellowstone'' also in the United States; the “Eye of the Sahara” in Mauritania; the “World of Ice Giants” in Austria, the “Babene” in Romania, etc. And so, after hearing all these names, she doesn't make it for less, and there she goes, also listing places she has been only to watch some miraculous flora. Starting with the “Corpse Flowers” in Indonesia; the “Dragon Arum'' in Creta and other Greek islands: the “Giant Water Lily” in the Amazonian forest of Brazil. The “Elephant-Foot Yam” that can be found in Papua New Guinea, Australia and Madagascar; the “Welwitschia Mirabilis” one of her favorite plants, that can be found in West Africa, mainly Namibia and Angola; the “Marble Queen” from Sri Lanka, and the “Nepenthes”, a carnivorous plant from Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia that looks just like a pitcher, also called monkey cups coz monkeys often drink their stored water. And then she tells us about the Cape Sundew, that can actually be found here in South Africa, “it has strap-like leaves” she says, “tentacles that capture glistening dewdrops which entices insects… a hardy carnivorous plant, used to treat a range of ailments, everything from warts and sunburn to tuberculosis, coughs, and syphilis.” And then, she comes with the “Hammer Orchid, scientific name Drakaea, a kind of orchid that also can be found in my hometown in south-west Australia… but here, in this precious country, is one of strangest flowers I have heard about… common named “African Starfish Flower” or “Stapelia Lepida”, that is a big pink flower with a foul smell” she says, “so much foul smell that it’s known locally as carrion flower, this is, it smells like rotting meat, and also has a coloration and hairs that actually look like a decaying animal… also called toad plant, or starfish cactus, although it is not related to cacti at all, and unfortunately, this is a threatened species that has been compromised to degraded habitats, and a prey for the collectors of eccentricities… plus, the Zulus has been using it as a remedy for hysteria...”; “and do you think that it works?” James asks. “Some kind of reaction it may cause” she says, “coz it has been used in Swaziland by sorcerers as a poison for killing… and so, it’s said that the habitat of this plant is in the east part of the country, close to Eswatini and the border with Mozambique, and I wanna go there… And then I’m in Punta Arenas again, still talking with this people from croatian offspring, I’m telling them about my trip through the Balkan area, this is, how I was arrested in south Serbia, because I had a stamp from the Kosovar republic in my passport, they they would tell me that I should not have that stamp in my passport, coz that country doesn't actually exist. And so, back to Harare, again at Borrowdale, here wandering through some occupied gardens in the middle of some posh European style buildings, where there are people squatting in informal settlements, living in small houses made of bulrush, with whom I stay. And then, I’m in Melbourne again, this is, after following along the Collins Street, I have just reached the Fitzroy Gardens, some public gardens located on the southeastern edge of the city centre district, and so, while wandering under some Bunya Bunya Pine trees, I get to know Krishna and Malee, he is Chinese, she is Thai, and as it goes, after a small conversion about Thai and Hindi cinema, they are already inviting me to accompany them to their small restaurante, located on the next neighbourhood, just after this park. what I accept. And then, I’m in Cairo again, now mooring at the Maadi Island, this is, once more, a thing made for the tourists, thus, on this island there are three sections, being the first, a rural section, which is predominantly popular, with carts of beans, koshary, and restaurants with open ovens on the front.. The second section is Italian, and it serves all Italian dishes, including sweets, meals and drinks, and is characterized by green spaces in the style of the Italian countryside, I mean, there are a couple of nerium oleanders here, a shrub commonly known as rosebay, a thing typically associated with Italy, but, in fact, I got to know, in the Sinai desert this plant is widely used in traditional Bedouin medicine to treat… and then there is the third section in this island, I mean, the Chinese section, designed on the basis of the Chinese style, with a bunch of restaurants displaying various Chinese and Asian dishes, chinese traditional music being played in the middle of the plastic gardens. And so, as the gardens melt, by now, I’m back in Paris, still with my gang, this is, by now we are actually entering a narrow building in the Belleville neighborhood, and so, as we go up the stairs, we are actually carrying all those bags and furniture items that we are bringing from the streets, and so, while we do it, we are actually producing some inevitable noises as our stuff beats against the surrounding walls or against the hand-rails, and so, as it goes, we can then hear some voices, this is, some individuals inside their flats are actually protesting because of those noises we are producing, but as seen as we reach the top floor, these voices extinguish. Back to False Bay, Cape Town, as I get out of the submarine, I meet a group of guys that have just arrived in a convoy of caravans and big trucks, mainly Germans accompanied by some African ladies. So, as I get in touch with some of them, I get to know that they came driving all the way from Europe until here, and more I get to know that, they brought big sound-systems with them all the way, and so, along their journey they have been throwing free rave parties here and there, “in the outskirts of big cities, in the prairies, in the desert and in the savanna” one says. Plus, they say that have crossed “all middle east from Turkey until Egypt”, and once in Cairo they “have participated in the development of the so-called new wave of Shaabi music, also referred as Electro Shaabi or Mahraganat…” and then they came to Ethiopia, “where we have also participated in the “Ethiopiyawi Scene”, and we have made some good friends up there, one is here, his name Abai, he plays the krar, a kind of bowl-shaped lyre and the washint, a long flute similar to the middle eastern Ney”. And so, as it goes, other German guy continues saying that, “after Ethiopia the caravan followed to Somalia, where some members from the the caravan got sick, nevertheless, the trip continued through Kenya and Uganda, where we have also stopped for a while, collaboration with the local Nyabinghi drummers, and then we have crossed into Rwanda and Burundi where one of the members of the caravan got kidnapped but once more, we continued… following in the direction of the congo river, we roamed west, and arrived in Brazzaville, the capital of the Congo Republique, and Kinshasa that is the capital of Democratic Republic of the Congo and then, between this two countries, we got into some political problems, things related with visas etc, and while we managed to sort the issue, we arranged with a group of dancers to travel with us further, and so, here they are…” the guy says while nodding to that group of dark skin girls now by the entrance of the submarine hostel, socializing with the locals. And then, I’m in Punta Arenas again, now walking along Avenida Independencia just passing on the side of the Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme Statue, that was the Chilean independence leader who freed Chile from Spanish rule, actually a wealthy landowner of Basque-Spanish and Irish ancestry, I instantly got to know. Back in Harare, here I stay, on the side of some small houses made of bulrush, with whom I stay, under a Mtukutu tree, here eating monkey bread and drinking Kachasu, also known as tototo or nipa, a kind of local alcoholic spirit, this while speaking with some Goffals, I mean, persons of mixed race: Shona, Ndebele, Bemba, Fengu, British, Afrikaner, Cape Coloured, Cape Malay, Portuguese, Greek, Goan, and even Indian descent. And then I’m in Melbourne again, Richmond area, this is, I’m actually inside this small restaurant owned by this Hindi Man and this Thai woman that rescued me at the Fitzroy Gardens, and so, by now, while she cuts some phak kat khao, some sort of chinese cabbages, and he prepares the Kashmiri pulao, a traditional Kashmiri rice dish that includes ghee, fried almonds, cashews and raisins, we are actually talking about Richard Parker, the bengal tiger portrayed in the movie Life of Pi. And, as it goes, I'm back in Cairo, but, by now, I’m no more woking for that recreational boat transporting tourists up and down the Nile, this is, by now, I’m at the Qarafa, also called City of the Dead, or Cairo Necropolis, on the Mokattam Hills, an area that is composed by a series of vast Islamic-era necropolises and cemeteries, plus some parcels of slums in the middle of these cemeteries, and so, as I dwell around here, I get to know that, since the old times, many people came from the rural lands of Egypt to exercise functions here, functions as tomb keepening, sculptors of mausoleums, gardening, and then this rural workers would also bring their families and so, slums would grow, and, other activities would come up, as, the multi task petty thief, conveyors of many kinds, repairs of small contraptions, sharpeners, bread makers, women selling flowers and plants with spiritual properties, astrologers selling pots of strange smokes, etc… And I’m in Paris again, already inside this flat in the Bellville neighborhood, a flat filled with various pieces of trash brought up from the streets, this is, there a lot of broken pieces of furniture leaning against the walls, piles of books, old machinery, etc, and in the middle of this items there are also some guys stretched on carpets, some sleeping, some dozing, some drinking tea, guys from Asian and Asian nationalities, I get to understand, as it goes, I get to know Hugo, the only French here, actually the renter of this flat, and as it goes he is already explaining to me, that “all this guys you see here are illegals, I help them, this is, they pain me no rent, and they help me, I mean, they bring me all this products from the streets, sometimes not from the streets, and so, I have a van, everyday we pack our van, and we go and sell some of those items on occasion markets around the city, and thus, if you wanna stay with us, tomorrow, you should help us loading the van, are you ok with that?”; “Oui, oui, I’m very Ok with that!” I say. And then, I’m in Cape Town again, swimming on the needles sea now, and I'm in Punta Arenas, this is, I have passed Av. Independencia and Av. Pdte. Salvador Allende Gossens, and I’m now entering the Magallanes Nacional Reserve, and at the same time I’m in Harare, still here on the side of some bulrush made houses, this is, someone is telling me about the achievements of Shaka kaSenzangakhona, also known as Shaka Zulu, and to finish it, I’m back in Melbourne, Richmond area again, still inside this restaurant owned by this Hindi Man and this Thai woman, now trying the food they have prepared for me, and so, as I taste it, we are actually talking about Preta, some hungry ghosts of the Buddhist tradition that have become part of the Thai and Hindi folklore, some kind of ghost with many small mouths but an endless appetite.
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