Excuse me sir, your hands are very cold

Some guys rocking beards look crazy cool (see King Leonidas), others look dignified and wise (see Freud)...
I look ridiculous, menacing and ridiculous, hell forget cool, I would be happy with just looking jolly (see Santa).

Menacing and Ridiculous are NOT the first 2 things one wishes to pop, when carrying a passport that reads... "Hello my name is Sheik Riad al bin Rahman al Mustapha bin Bacchus" and a ticket to Egypt.

Ask me how many "random" body cavity searches I have been subject to?
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy having my prostate tickled as much as the next guy, just as long as it is my lovely wife, or a trained medical professional with soft hands, doing the tickling.
Something must be done!
But a simple shave won't cut it (hee hee, I am so freakin punny)...
Why? because I am also cha cha chia-Riad... with a 10 hour flight, I will go from baby's bum to bearded weirdo by the second drink cart.
No, this calls for more drastic action... this called for applying an entire, new non threatening look.

Here's hoping blonds really do have more fun!!!

Backpacker Chic

My mom harrassed, err asked me, "Why are you backpacking? Don't you make enough money to stay in a hotel?" Of course, I don't make enough money (but that is an entirely separate blog)...

Backpacking is a metaphor, it represents a different way to travel.
The Marriot Madrid is pretty much the same as the Marriot Milwaukee, the Chilis on the Champs Eylsees still serves hot wings and Euro Disneyland is just as creepy as the real one.
Backpacking means staying at a guest house in a dorm style room, forcing you to share space with the goofy Aussie. It means taking a local bus and sitting next to a goat. It means praying and pointing to that thing on the menu, is actually chicken...
So we are backpacking, not because we can't afford a real trip, but because backpacking IS a real trip.

Since we're no longer 19 years old and trying to figure out a new major for university... we will not be wearing a Che t-shirt, hemp pajama pants, birkenstocks and playing hackie sack.
We also choose to shy away from the "I blew 100s of bucks at REI, trying way to hard to look travelled" look.

Our style is going to say old world and sophisticated... start with good boots, heavy pants, lots of layers, button down shirts, sweaters and a thick pea coat.
We want to rock a party in London, as well as a tent at the Bahariyya Oasis.

Yes, I fully appreciate that this next section represents not a gentle pat, but a bear hug of an embrace of my metrosexuality...
A little taste of Heather's look...

A little taste of Riad, I am going for Indiana Jones just leaving the library...

And of course, the boot used by the French Foreign Legion, galvinzed rubber soles, canvas upper, molded for comfort, durability and style...

And lastly, I don't think I need to describe these, other than to say, where can't these be worn?

Good problem to have

So how does one "kill time" before meeting up in Cairo?
We turned Heather loose on the "problem"... and again, my Julie McCoy planned the shit out of it...
After some serious debate on which specific European cities to visit, we narrowed it down to London, Paris and Madrid.
London... because we would like to drop off our engagement present to Will & Kate in person.
Paris... because if you like amazing food and cooking (as we do), this is the Holy Land.
Madrid... because I though tapas was Spanish for topless and I want to go to a topless bar with Heather.

Roughly 5 days in each city, travelling overnight in between by train or bus.
Could we have squeezed in more cities? Of course, but we prefer a more relaxed pace.
We would rather spend a day chilling in a pub, playing darts with the locals vs. driving by the Coliseum, just to say we saw it in real life.

Designed for Cuteness

Random aside #1... We have a boston terrier named Lulu who just turned 3.
She was literally designed and built in a laboratory by a team of CareBears, using cupcakes, sprinkels of rainbow and unicorn tail, expressly for the purpose of being the cutetess freakin thing, in the whole entire world.

Be very careful, the power of these photos can melt even the most cynical and hardened heart....

Can you really just eat one chip?

There we were in the Borders bookstore, sitting in the Travel section, Lonely Planets and Frommers Guides strewn everywhere, planning the big adventure to Egypt, when we started thinking... if we are going overseas, lets just go BIG.
2 weeks, come on... that is travelling for babies, 3 weeks, weak... 4 weeks, please... more more.
Looking at the calendar, does anything of consequence ever happen between the Thanksgiving and New Years? the occasional football game, maybe a little shopping, uncomfortable corporate Holiday party where the loser from accounting gets wasted and dry humps an ice sculpture?... nothing that can't be missed.

We decided, lets take off right after Thanksgiving and stay until the New Year, 5 glorious weeks on the road. We knew we were to meet our friends in Egypt in mid December, so we have about 2 1/2 weeks to kill...

Jersey is english for exotic and interesting...

Originally, the plan had been to visit the Isle of Jersey, but our friends who live there said... as exotic and interesting as a place called Jersey sounds, it really isn't.
With ready access to Europe, they have already visited the UK and France a few times... they wanted exotic and interesting... Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs, the Nile, Valleys of the Kings.


Heather quickly took charge and came up with a great itenarary.
Start off in Cairo, visiting Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, Old Cairo, museums, downtown, Garlic and Onion Market (yum..)
Travel to Sinai to hike up Mt Sinai and visit St. Katherine's Monastery
Travel down the Nile to Luxor visiting Temples of Karnak and Valley of the Kings

Continue down the Nile to Aswan in a felucca.
Travel into the Great Western Sahara visiting a series of Oasisessss

Of course, with all this chatter about travel, is 2 weeks enough???

Please come and visit us!!!

Two good friends of ours (Helen & Ryan) from SoCal got married a few years ago.
For their honeymoon, they both quit their jobs and hit the road... backpacking for over 6 months through Europe and Asia.
Upon returning, the travel itch still needed to be scratched, so they started looking for work overseas.
Ryan landed a job as a project manager on the tiny Isle of Jersey, a international banking hub due to some interesting tax laws, with the Royal Bank of Canada.
So off they went... and what happens when good friends move to someplace afar... the "please come and visit us" chorus starts.

This past summer, while back in SoCal for a wedding, we started seriously talking.
Heather and I decided, if we can make it through this spot of trouble we were in... we would take them up on the offer and head overseas for a visit.

This is a great photo of Helen and Ryan (first 2 on the left), along with us and a few other friends...

Who are these two clowns?

My name is Riad Bacchus and I love to cook... so over the next few weeks, I am going to cook my way through the Julia Child Mastering the Art of French cooking cookbook.
Umm err... wait a second... really? Well according to my lovely and much smarter and well read wife, this has been done already.. hmm so what to do?

In about a week, we are leaving for a trip... so in preparation for my travel based ramblings, I am going to start rambling right now.
We are going to learn about who we are? what am I wearing? where are we going and why? does my ass look fat in these jeans? So please grab a hold of the person next to you, close your eyes, and come along with us on this journey.

A little about your pilots for this flight...
Riad and Heather are a happy, fun loving couple living in Southern California.
We have been married for a few years, love cheese and Star Trek (actually only I love Star Trek).
A few years ago we spent a month back packing our way through Argentina.
Ten years ago, I spent a year backpacking around the world.
Needless to say, we're fans of travelling, especially on the rougher side... backpacking, hostels, and knife fights.