Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Lebanon is a horrible place

I took a little flight from central Asia to Egypt to see what I could do about getting some Canadians home from Lebanon... I tried to charter an entire Egyptian cruiseship, but they wouldn't let me. Apparently people had already made reservations and they couldn't be broken! Ahhh well.. So I chartered the largest ship I could find -- a big bad RORO barge that could hold 200 cars and 500 people. I set sail from Port Said (which is about 160km from Cairo) with a helecopter chartered for me flying Canadian flags, incase there was some trouble in Lebanon.. Unfortunately the whole damn ship sank on the way and the crew and I barely made it to the helecopter.. Apparently someone left the car loading door open, but amazingly enough we made it almost all the way to Lebanon without it sinking (or without anyone noticing it was open).. I guess that's what happens when you have 3 crew members on a ship that normally carries 100. I've currently sought shelter in Rhodes at the Atrium Palace Hotel.. This was the only hotel I could pay them extra to 'lose' other people's reservations.. Apparently it's high-tourist season here and all the hotels were booked. Well I'm not a tourist!! I'm trying to save people.. Tomorrow I'm going to hire a team of experts to help me find some of the remains of the Collossus of Rhodes (while I wait for another ferry to sink, which is enroute from Turkey..)