Saint Petersburg – a sudden journey

Intro

Monument in front of our hotel

It was Saturday when I realized and decided that I want to make a journey to St. Petersburg. Actually it was the 1^st day of my vacation and before that moment I didn’t even have an idea of going anywhere. It suddenly came to my head in a talk with my sister when she was trying to make me go with her to our grandparents. I’ve counted my money - it was 50,000 rubles/$1,666 and thought that it would be quite enough for a week in St. Petersburg for me and my sister.

It took me 4 days to buy railway tickets, find a proper travel agency, book a hotel and move out.

Actually we could go there by plane but we didn’t, railway was a bit cheaper and a bit reliable. The most difficult task was to buy railway tickets. August is the hottest season for tourism in Russia and if you want to have nice and inexpensive tickets I recommend you to buy them at least in 2 weeks. But we didn’t have such time. Anyway with the help of the internet and special sites we’ve managed to find proper time when some extra tickets are released and bought them.

So we have moved out.

Train - Day 1

Ekaterinburg at night

Our journey was to be started in Yekaterinburg where the train to St. Petersburg goes. So we took a mini-bus from our town and came to Yekaterinburg about 20:30. We had about 3 hours of free time in the city.

We dropped out our luggage at the railway station, it cost us 160R/$5.30. Then we had a meal at some diner for 380R/$12.60 and I bought a book to read in a train (Franz Kafka – The Castle) for 169R/$5.6.

After that we decided to take a walk around and followed down the street of Sverdlov. Night in Yekaterinburg is nice, will check St. Petersburg later.

Finally our train came. Car numeration was weird: after the 11^th car went the 22^nd, that confused us and first we didn’t find our 10^th one.

Actually the train was going from Kazakhstan to St. Petersburg so we were ready to meet a lot of Kazakhs, but they were not so many. Actually the only Kazakh I can mention was our conductor. When he was giving us our bedding he asked if we want to move to a deluxe compartment with air conditioning and TV. After that he showed a number 3 with his fingers and whispered: 3 thousand ($100). I wasn’t going to buy this, so I declined. Later I counted that it was pretty cheap because a regular price for this would be around 15,000R/$500.

Train - Day 2

Local train

I guess it would be the longest day in the whole journey. Eat, read, sleep, repeat again. Then I’m writing these words. And eat again.

First Impressions

Neva navigation

So, Saturday, the 3^rd day came. And after 3 hours of waiting we got off the train and met the city. It was warm and convenient. To my surprise subway station and the railway station shared the same building. So we just followed the signs and found ourselves at the Ladozhskaya subway station. A bit after I found that all or most of the railway stations are located with subway ones. Convenient.

Subway

The subway. It’s rather clean, understandable and comfortable. Most of the time you won’t find a free seat in the car but it’s ok, because it doesn’t take too long to wait for your destination. Locals say that the subway is the fastest transport in the city. It will take you about 40 minutes to get from one end of the city to another.

We got out of the subway and found ourselves in the city. Now our target was to find the hotel. It was hotel “Saint Petersburg” and it was 12 minutes from the subway station. That’s all we remembered. The guide with directions was deeply buried in one of our travel bags so I took my GPS navigator and turned it on. It took us about 15-20 minutes to find the right place.

Suddenly I noticed the smell of the water. That meant that we were already at the place. Our hotel is located at the embankment of Neva River. We turned around the corner and got in.

Hotel

First I’d like to tell about my expectations. I’ve read a lot of negative reviews on the internet about low-cost rooms in this hotel. In fact it wasn’t bad at all. For quite a good price (3,100R/$105 per night with 4 excursions or 2,200R/$73 without excursions) we got a two bedded room with windows looking at the yard. There was a bathroom with toilet, a TV, a table with a mirror, 2 armchairs and a wardrobe. The furniture was definitely soviet but solid.

My worst expectations were about the bathroom but they didn’t come out. Bathroom was 8 out of 10. I took away 2 points because there were not enough towel hangers. By the way I didn’t get it: why were there 3 towels per each person? So 6 towels were hanging on just 2 towel hangers.

View from our room

I think we had a good view out of the window – another high class hotel out of glass and metal 20 stories high.

One more good thing to mention about our room – we had free Wi-Fi internet. It was essential.

Internet

Business center nearby

As I have already said access to the Internet is vital when you are in unknown city and you don’t want to spend all the time in the hotel.

I was spending about 15-20 minutes every morning defining directions, subway stations, places of interest and pricing. I guess it would be not a full trip without the web.

Before the trip I thought that the best way would be to buy unmetered GPRS internet from the cellular operator. That would be around $1 daily. That would have suited me fine, but I found a different option. Wi-Fi.

Our hotel “St. Petersburg” has its own free Wi-Fi hotspot but it is available only at the lobby and the restaurant. By the way I didn’t manage to connect to it, I guess some key is required and you have to ask it at the lobby.

But there was another Wi-Fi connection in our room named “default”. I guess it was from the business center nearby. It wasn’t very strong so I guess it was only available to rooms with inner yard view (cheap ones). So it was good that we didn’t take the Neva view room.

In popular cafes and restaurants there is also free Wi-Fi so you can use it while you eat.

The elevator

Elecator shaft

There are 9 elevators in the hotel. 9 elevators for a 11-stories high building. Stories numeration is also weird for me: A-B-1-2-3… We were living on the 1^st one that was actually the 3^rd from the ground.

On the second day there we were going to have breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant “Bering”. We needed to go 1 story down and we decided to use the elevator. That was a mistake. We got in with some couple and pushed our buttons: B for us and A for them. But instead of going down the elevator decided to go up. First it was the 3^rd floor then 5^th then some more. There were about 14 people in the car but it kept moving upwards. It was stopping at each floor when there were people but they didn’t manage to get in because it was full. After that it reached the A floor and everyone went out. Some of them then used the stairs to go up like us.

After that we have decided not to use the elevator at the breakfast time.

Subway

St.Petersburg subway

The subway is really nice and we spent quite a lot of time there. Before going out you usually look through the map and find required subway stations. We were living in 12 minutes to the “Ploshad Lenina” (Lenin’s Square) station.

The most impressive thing about it is the depth and the length of the escalator. I guess it took us about 3 minutes to move the right level. My sister was reading a book, I was watching over crowds of people moving in the opposite direction. I guess every fourth was reading too: books, papers, e-books and anything else. E-books are rather popular here, but I don’t want to buy one – I don’t think I can devote right amount of my spare time to reading.

While in a subway car I tried to look in other people books and try to get their titles. Most of them were rather popular and casual stuff like Murakami, Marinina, Werber, Akunin and others.

Also I would like to mention that there is a decent amount of disabled people in the subway. First I doubted if they can move through the escalator. But they did. They also can easily enter the subway car without anyone’s help. Good stuff.

Navigation here is quite simple – you can always find direction signs at the platforms and in the car. Signs are in Russian and English.

Right at the first day we bought season tickets for two weeks this saves you some money and it is very convenient – you don’t have to buy a token every time. We had 2 tickets for 20 rides each which cost us 800 rubles/$27.50. During these 7 days we used only 14 rides and 6 were left. This means that we wasted 6*20*2 = 240 rubles/$8.27. It’s ok, I don’t mind.

Food

Business center where we had a lunch

Our meals consisted of a breakfast, one big dinner and some kind of night supper at some days.

Breakfast first. It was awesome. We had a smorgasbord in the Bering restaurant. Good thing about it – you can have your meal at any time between 7:30 and 10:30 so you can sleep almost as long as you want. Usually we woke up at 8:30 and moved to the breakfast hall at 9:30. Cereal, corn, milk, ham, fried eggs, cheese, pastry and even water melons were at your table during breakfast. It’s not easy to control yourself when you have all this yummy stuff for free. Because of that our second meal was not at normal time.

We could eat from 13:00 to 20:00, so because of that, we usually had 1 big dinner and had some minor snacks at the hotel before bed to satisfy our hunger.

During this trip we’ve visited (with our check for two):

• cafeteria “La Canteen” (450R/$15, 3 times);
• sushi-bar “Fujiyama” (1200R/$40);
• café “By Avrora” (1400R/$47);
• McDonald’s (450R/$15, 2 times);
• café, “Teremok” (480R/$16);
• dinner on a bench in Peterhof (450R/$15).

As you see our average check for two was about 480R/$16 because we visited cheap places that we’d found on the Internet. Some days we went to a local supermarket and bought some snacks like soda, chips and other. It was just behind our hotel so it was rather convenient to drop in after some walk through the town.

In most cafes in the city you can find “Business Lunch” options which let you have a normal dinner for a cheaper price at workdays. Average cost for such meal for one person is about 290R/$30 that can save you about 20%-50% of a normal price of these dishes. In my local town average price for a similar meal is about 200R/$7.

And notice that this option doesn’t work at the weekend. Once we didn’t get it and had to order normal meal for 1400R/$47 for two. But it was worth it.

Fast food cafes are all over the city. The most expanded one as I think is “Teremok” network. It’s specialized in national cuisine with western way of fast serving. But I didn’t like it. Neither food nor atmosphere. Fast food cafes are always overcrowded; try to find a more peaceful place.

Places of interest

In front of the Hermitage

Our economy tour included 4 excursions and 3 free days. And we have wasted 2 excursions out of 4. We decided to manage our time ourselves.

So during this trip we have visited:

• Hermitage,
• Peterhof(with tour),
• Kronstadt (with tour),
• Oceanarium,
• Kunstkamera,
• Zoo,
• Planetarium.

I guess it was quite enough for 7 days. Just a few words about it.

Hermitage

Hermitage

Hermitage is huge. Here are my tips:

• Go to their site, find what you like and get the directions. Otherwise you can get lost inside.
• Don’t miss the map. Somewhere near the entrance in the main building you can get it. We didn’t find it at the right time and were missing it a lot.
• Get to the right queue.

  

  Line to get inside

  
  
  Queues for locals (Russian citizens) are gigantic. If you are Russian you can get the ticket for 100R/$3.3 but you have to pass through a big queue in the yard. We have spent 1 hour in it. But if you are foreigner you can buy only full ticket for 400R/$13.3 and it can be bought at the automated machine (kiosk) before the inner yard.
• You can take photos inside only if you have bought a ticket for photo for 200R/$6.6. But I didn’t meet anyone who was checking whether you have it or not. So my recommendation – don’t buy it.

Peterhof

Some palace in Peterhof

Peterhof is a park with lots of fountains, some palaces and nice looking plants. That’s it. I liked it.

• Buy/find a compass. It is one the most important thing in unknown city/place. GPS is also good but compass is a bit faster to use.
• Price for a ticket is about 200R/$3.3 (maybe more for a foreigner).
• There is a park called Alexandria next to Peterhof parks.

  

  Seems Gothic

  
  
  
  It’s just a park with a cottage house of some emperor. You can visit it for separate price.
• 
  Fountains are started at 11 a.m.

  

  Main fountain line

  
  
  
• Some fountains are really impressive.

  

  Main fountain (forget the name)

  
  
  
• Gulf of Finland is vast.

  

  Gulf of Finland in Peterhof

  
  
  
  You can find it in the southern part of the park.
• Public toilets are well hidden. There are some signs showing directions, but you cannot always find it the way you think. Keep trying.
• You can find free Wi-Fi around the park. It’s convenient.

Kronstadt

Kronstadt cannon

Kronstadt is a nearby town with parks, channels, port and marine monuments. I didn’t like the excursion, it was a bit boring and too long.

• Visit the light house at the port.

  

  Light house in Kronstadt

  
  
  
  It’s huge.
• Take a picture of the fountain.
• 
  Sit in the park eating ice-cream and taking photos of pigeons.

  

  Pigeon in Kronstadt

  
  
  
• 
  See the Gulf of Finland during the ride.

  

  Some building floating in Kronstadt

  
  

Oceanarium

Not my picture (don't know what it is)

We have missed the tour to Peter and Paul Fortress but visited the city oceanarium. Now I think that it was in vain.

• 450R/$15 for a ticket.
• Photo is for money only. Don’t try to do it without photo ticket. Keepers are everywhere and are watching you.
• The whole thing isn’t that big that I thought. We spent about 40 minutes.
• Seals are very funny.

  

  Not my seal

  
  
  
• Giant fish is gigantic.

Kunstkamera

Not my Kunstkamera

Kunstkamera is just another museum. Dummies, some regular old stuff and human freaks. That’s it. Better have some more time in Hermitage or take a walk along the Neva embankment.

• 200R/$6.6 for entrance;
• Foto is free. But forbidden at the hall with human freaks.
• It won’t take more than an hour.

Zoo

Not my Zoo

Zoo is ok. Must visit.

• 300R/$10 for entrance.
• Prepare to spend here at least 4 hours. It’s worth it.

  

  Geese in the Zoo

  
  
  
• If you are tired - find a bench in the shadow of the park and buy an ice-cream.
• Squirrels are the funniest animals here.
  
  
  Video is somewhere here.
• There is special time when some animals are fed. Don’t miss.

  

  Real lion in the Zoo

  
  
  
• Don’t feed the animals. Even squirrels.

Planetarium

Some crawler

Right after the zoo we decided to visit planetarium. What a shame of us. Don’t do it unless you are a 7 year old boy.

• 300R/$10 for entrance.
• It’s very outdated and soviet.
• The special effects are also soviet.
• During it we were even watching two cuts from some BBC documentary with very bad dubbed sound.

Final

Hotel St. Petersburg in the back

Now I’m back home and writing all these words down. We have left this nice city and I wish not for long. I think I’ll visit it again in short time and maybe even stay here for more than a week.

It was really cool to be there, thanks.

Russian Pyrokinesis Debunked - eng subs - p5 of 5

Video by Edip Yuksel
Lasers, chemicals and spirits of nature are mixed up for the ultimate show.

To activate subs click on CC button at the bottom of the video.

Russian Pyrokinesis Debunked - eng subs - p4 of 5

Video by Edip Yuksel
Lasers, chemicals and spirits of nature are mixed up for the ultimate show.

To activate subs click on CC button at the bottom of the video.
Next part will be available by the weekend or sooner.

Russian Pyrokinesis Debunked - eng subs - p3 of 5

Video by Edip Yuksel

Lasers, chemicals and spirits of nature are mixed up for the ultimate show.

To activate subs click on CC button at the bottom of the video.

Next part will be available by the weekend or sooner.

Russian Pyrokinesis Debunked - eng subs - p2 of 5

Video by Edip Yuksel
Lasers, chemicals and spirits of nature are mixed up for the ultimate show.

To activate subs click on CC button at the bottom of the video.
Next part will be available by the weekend or so.

Russian Pyrokinesis Debunked - eng subs - p1 of 5

Video by Edip Yuksel
Lasers, chemicals and spirits of nature are mixed up for the ultimate show.

Next part will be available by the weekend or sooner.

Russian Pyrokinesis Revealed

Original article: "My Normal and Paranormal Adventures in Kazakhstan" by Edip Yuksel, 2009

The Extraordinary Deeds of Psychokinetic, Telekinetic or Pyrokinetic Energy!

Besides Hadith and Sunna, there was another hoax I had to deal with. I was hearing from my hosts about a Russian guy with paranormal powers. According to many eye-witness testimonies, he was burning holes in things with sheer mental concentration. As a rational monotheist, as a critical thinker, I did not hesitate to reject the claims to be 99.9 percent a hoax. They laughed at me. They had in the past taken extreme skeptics who did not give even a 0.1 percent chance. One of their recent guests was a philosophy professor from Moscow University, who had become a total believer in pyrokinesis. They wanted to take me to a session so that I could witness the paranormal event. I could not pass up the offer.


During the nine days in Almaty, I met three Kazaks who shared the name Serik (from Arabic Sherik, that is Partner or Friend). This Serik was educated in the United States and was a successful businessman and financial advisor. He was in his early thirties. He had two Mercedes cars, one driven by his private driver. He enjoyed trying to scare me by accelerating his new Mercedes G Wagon in Almaty's narrow streets. The Russian guy lived on the fifth floor of a dilapidated apartment building. The door had multiple locks on it. Upon our entry, he gave an envelope to the Russian who called himself Alexander. Later, I learned that he had popped-up 2,000 dollars for the half-an-hour session. Alexander was a skinny man in his forties. He had a very serious demeanor and all-business attitude. I noticed that before leading me to a chair across from him, he rushed to sit at a chair in front of a little desk with a circular top. He started talking in Russian about his talents of collecting energy from nature and focusing on things he wanted to burn. Serik was a fluent translator and experienced disciple. Alexander was claiming connections with Russian military.


Alexander then produced an inflated little balloon and put it between my right hand and his left hand. I was expecting some kind of laser hidden somewhere, but nothing appeared suspicious; he wore a simple shirt with short sleeves. He was talking about the special energy he had that would not pop the balloon. The balloon stayed suspended between his palm and my palm for about thirty seconds. He was making low humming noises. I started feeling warmth in the middle of my palm. Then the heat increased and I felt as if there was a ball of fire in my palm. I had to let the balloon fall. It was a very unusual experience. I had in the past studied hypnosis and participated in hypnotic sessions, but this had nothing to do with it. I was not even informed beforehand that I would feel heat inside my palm. But, I was open to every scientific and "normal" explanation before believing that all my lost socks were indeed stolen by Martian visitors. Unfortunately, I knew that for many people Martian thieves were the first explanation for the disappearing socks phenomenon!


I was not paying much attention to what was he telling me through Serik. I was carefully watching like James Randi who had exposed Uri Geller, the notorious Israeli fraudster. Alexander moved to his second show. He opened his hand and let me feel it. It was colder than usual. He then pressed against my right hand palm and started doing the same thing: concentrating and humming. I heard a puff sound and felt a burning pain in the back of my hand between my thumb and index finger. I tried not to overreact. I wanted to take the picture of him, but I respected his wish not to be photographed.


Then, Alexander showed me several plastic cups and placed them on the floor next to my feet. He went all the way into another room which was connected to his office. He sat on a chair about 20 feet away. He started humming and I noticed the plastic cup starting to melt from the side facing him. Within a few seconds he carved a hole in the plastic cup. He did a few similar burnings and poking holes in plastic. Noticing that he was burning and poking holes on the same straight line, I grabbed a cup and put it on the floor at another location and asked him to burn it there. He grabbed it and located it somewhere else in an animated fashion and rapid talking. He made me sit on another chair and from behind started concentrating on the cup. He excitedly claimed that he burned it by sending his energy through my eyeglasses or eyes. I then took a dollar bill from my wallet and put it on his desk and asked him to burn a hole in it. He put it inside his palm and pointed his right hand's index finger accompanied with exaggerated concentration and bragging words about his powers. He did poke a little whole in the American dollar that had already been turned to doughnut by the "robber banks", Wall Street and corporate thieves who stole billions of taxpayers dollars during their recent heist in American history.


I asked Alexander a few questions about the source of his powers. He talked about his veins, about a special diet of 400 gram of vegetables and 40 gram of nuts, about earth, water, fire, air and ether. Long live Empedocles! I had already witnessed so many red flags that when he started to diagnose my potential health problems and missing the ones I already had, I tried my best to endure his insults to my intelligence. I also wondered about his knowledge about the Randy Foundation, which has been offering 1 million dollars for anyone that could prove paranormal powers. I asked him to go there and claim the money. He made up an excuse: he had a contract with the military for four more months and he would not be able to go out during this period. When I left his office, I was impressed by his talents and showmanship, yet I was sure that he was using some devices to create the burning effect. I suspected two things: laser engravers and chemicals that could have delayed the burning effect.


The following day I asked Serik to take me there so that I expose the hoax. I recorded my encounter with the fraudster. To make my job easy, Serik arranged this session with Alexander for Aidar, the journalist. At the door, I entered his office with a camcorder. I demanded him to apologize for three things: for insulting my intelligence, for burning my hand and for defrauding thousands of dollars from my friends. I added that he had to give back all the money he received from them. He appeared to be composed and cool. Serik was doing very well in translating our conversation. At a point, I grabbed a plastic cup and put it by the entrance door and challenged him to perform his powers there. He accepted with a condition: he would do it only with the presence of Aidar, the new "recruit." I had no choice but to accept since I had no clear idea what his trick was about and the two of my friends were not sure about my allegations. Serik and I got out and he locked the door behind us. Taking advantage of this period, I decided to climb to the attic from the opening. I climbed the metal stairs on the wall and pushed the square door all the way pulling myself to the attic. It was dark and dirty. I looked for wires and vertically installed laser engravers in the ceiling of his office room. I was disappointed, nothing was there. I came down and asked Serik to call Aidar and learn what was going on. We had to wait a few more minutes. When the door opened I entered, Aidar put his arms on my shoulder with his head down, "Let's get out of here; he is real. I am hundred percent sure, he is genuine." I could not believe my eyes and ears. Aidar appeared pale and shaken. He was very scared. There was big hole on his nylon windbreaker on the right side of his chest. He had not responded to my challenge by poking hole in the cup by the door. Instead, he had chosen to have a new recruit. He had chosen offence. I asked him whether he was injected with some kind of medication. I could not explain his betrayal of me through normal circumstances.


Alexander was now working on Serik, perhaps his best disciple. I had to interrupt. I searched under the desk. I saw sticky stuff under it. I thought they were the secret chemicals he was using; but they were most likely gum pieces as he claimed. Then, I opened the little door under the desk. There I noticed a pedal, exactly as a I had predicted. When Serik and Aidar saw it, they were shocked. But, this would not last long. Alexander pointed at a little camera on the corner of the wall and claimed that the pedal is for the camera; he was recording the sessions secretly. I did not buy his explanation. I immediately jumped over the seat by the wall and pulled off the device that looked like a small camera. I suspected it to be a laser, disguised inside a camera cover. But, after a brief inspection I was disappointed in myself. I was wrong in my accusation; indeed it was a camera. But, I was still not convinced that the pedal was for the camera. I suspected a clever cover up. If someone discovered the pedal, then Alexander has a convincing explanation for it. I felt the urge to discover the devises he was using. I had promised Aslbek and others that I would surely expose the hoax and now I was nowhere near close to it. The attic had not produced any clue, nor the pedal hidden under his desk.


I sat down on the chair and held the balloon in my hand and challenged him to do his trick there. He appeared to accept my challenge. But after a brief moment of concentration, he started telling Serik that he had accumulated too much energy and could blow my hand off. I did not swallow his bluff. I challenged him to blow my hand off and while at it he should also blow my head off. I started timing him, using my watch. I told him that he had only five minutes to unveil his tricks and apologize for his three crimes; otherwise I would call the American embassy and ask them to send police here to ransack his office. He was not giving up. He was trying to influence Serik to ask me to give up. I would not. I informed him about the few minutes left for him to avoid the police.


When the five minutes finished I asked Serik to call the US embassy. I was going to tell them that a Russian crook had defrauded me, an American citizen, and I needed police to come to the address. Serik did not respond to me. Losing my patience, I decided to use some force. I charged the desk which was attached to the floor, and kicked it hard, breaking the jar and spreading some knickknacks to the floor. From the bottom of the table, a bundle of white cables were exposed. They were curving back to the room in the back. Following the lead of the wires, I went to the other room where he had his bed. At that point I heard Serik telling me that he confessed his trick. He was using chemicals. I knew that he was still trying to hide his real trick. So, I continued my search. Behind the bed there was a section covered with blankets. When I removed the blankets an electronic devise comprising of two big boxes was exposed. My friends were in shock. They never expected such a professional set up. The devices, according to Alexander, were generating microwaves. He also mentioned using chemicals in combination. I did not pay much attention to his explanations, since I never trusted him. I am not yet sure exactly how it worked, but either he was filling the room with microwaves which would activate the chemical that he would secretly attach to things. Most likely, he was sticking the chemical to the back of our hands with his thump when he was shaking our hands. In fact, the location where he burned our hands was exactly corresponding to where the tip of his thump would land. It would be difficult to explain why he was not able to produce the same effect when I challenged him in different locations. Perhaps, he would not have chance to obtain extra chemicals and attach it under scrutiny. I am not sure. Considering all the locations that he performed his tricks, they were on a straight line across his bed room. Regardless of the details, it was now clear that he was using a high tech device to create the burning effect on his subjects.


I recorded his apology. He apologized for insulting the intelligence of a philosopher, for burning my hand and for defrauding my friends. Later I felt compassion for him and gave him a heart-to-heart advice. I kept my word and did not call police on him. Serik took the envelope containing several thousand dollars. Then, he asked for all the money previously given to him by him and his friends. He told him that he was stashing his money somewhere else. Serik's chauffeur took them; he retrieved about ten thousands dollars.


Two days later, Aslbek wanted Abu Eesa to experience the same show. He was curious about his reaction. I went with Abu Eesa pretending being there for the first time. We recorded his experience and reaction. He was acting like a scientist, but a very gullible one. He appeared to be trusting every word of explanation given by Alexander. Alexander was using natural terminology to explain his powers, but he was also mixing the word spirit with them. Abu Eesa was eager to explain his powers with Jinnies or ghosts. So, he was trying to hear more about the spirit part. I asked Abu Eesa a few short questions so that he could elaborate on his jinnies theories. I reminded him about the paintings containing Christian figures and symbols. He was convinced that it was jinny power. Before leaving Abu Eesa invited Alexander to read the Quran. It was refreshing to hear Abu Eesa promoting the Quran. I could not stop myself interjecting: "Brother Abu Eesa, you are peddling Bukhari to us, but I see that you are advising the Quran to outsiders. Why don't you ask him to read Bukhari?" I am sure; Abu Eesa knew that no sound person would accept Islam by starting from Bukhari. None would have any respect or sympathy for the fictional Muhammad depicted by Bukhari. For converts, Bukhari would be inserted into the scene afterwards to distort the message of the Quran!

Edip's picasa album from his journey

Idiot Test