I'm back...! Again...
Ya lar... I'm back again... this time from Cambodia (3rd trip!)
Time really flies... (I hardly realized i forgot to update my blog about the Egypt trip! geez... I'm waaayyy behind...) Soooo much has happened... both good and bad and i really have no idea which route i should be taking again. (No, the route has no relation to the happenings... just that now everything's gone a bit messy again)
Ok... here goes... 10 Days Wonders of Egypt, in a nutshell.
Flight to Egypt May 01 2008
Flight QR 639 was a pleasant flight. Like my usual self... i didn't manage to get much sleep at all. Caught "August Rush". Thought it was a pretty cool movie, but somewhat musically insane though. Would have been willing to spend that bit of money at the movies despite that. Glad there was the personal entertainment system, so could catch bits of movies and things like that. There wasn't much to do at Doha airport so ended up really STONING at the seats after walking round the duty free like 3 times... Flight QR 518 frm Doha to Luxor could have been more pleasant though... It was a 3-hr flight. 1st problem was there wasn't a personal entertainment system. 2ndly, there was this bunch of grown men on board that plane from one of the middle-eastern countries. I'm not stereo-typing here. It was just an experience. This bunch of men were happily talking at the top of their voices and sharing drinks, passing their glasses of wines, juices, whatever across 2 seats... mine and Elaine's! Felt like i was sitting in a bus full of primary school kids on their FIRST excursion ever...!
Egypt Day 1 - Luxor
We went straight to the cruise hotel - Adonis immediately after we left Luxor airport. We were given a short time to rest and before we left for Karnak Temple. However, in that little bit of time, both Elaine and I finished walking round the ship. Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple were filled with many obelisks, similar carvings of anubis (God of mummification) and Horus. The 2 temples were supposed to be linked with an Avenue of Sphinxes however quite a significant number were destroyed and wat was left were the ones directly outside the temple. A couple of interesting things about Luxor Temple. A mosque was built on the Temple before they excavated the area and realized it was on the Temple. The temple has been left there, however, not too sure if it's still used for prayers. This was also the temple in which 3 layers of the wall could be seen - the original layer, a second layer with temple carvings and a 3rd layer with coloured plasters of a church. After these 2 visits, we were pretty much exhausted by the heat and the flight so we were glad to head back to the hotel for a good rest.
Egypt Day 2 - Luxor
We headed out to one of the bridges across the Nile river to take photos before we headed to the Valley of the Kings. We had the opportunity to visit only 3 tombs. One belonged to SetyII - a very nice tomb, could even see that a lot of colours were used then for drawing and painting on the carvings and still exists in colours in many parts. Next tomb was Siptah - Many parts of this tomb had already been eroded or dissolved... in fact much of this tomb was kinda gone. We got to choose which tomb we wanted to visit for the 3rd one. Elaine and I, together with a few others in the tour group headed to Thutmosis III. It was a long way UP and a long way DOWN to get to this tomb. Along the way carvings and all that were seen. However, the process of getting in was very much more exciting than wat we saw at the tomb itself. This was, i believe, one of the only tombs that was made of wood... (I think!)
Next stop - Hatshepsut temple. Basically the only temple that actually had different levels. Yep, the other temples only had ONE level - ground level. This one had 3 "storeys". Looked really good - considering it was actually built for a Lady Pharaoh. She apparently died "as a King" with all the Kingly stuff around her. Many big statues of Rameses in the "Osiris" postition.
After this temple, we headed to the Colossi of Memnon where we had some minutes to take pictures of 2 seated figures of Amenhotep. After these, we headed back to Nuah the rest of the afternoon away.
On the side - it was only today that i found out that upon zooming into the pictures i took the past 2 days, i could actually see the words! - which is really good because pictures without the words won't be too meaningful, would it? Also, the morning had been pretty cool...
Egypt Day 3 - Luxor - Edfu
Instead of setting sail on Day 2, we set sail on Day 3... Thus much of Day 3 was made up of - sun-tanning, bumming, dipping and getting out of the pool. The morning started of with an experience of watching the egyptian sunrise. Then we decided to get out of the cruise for a short morning walk. (Very short one. Walked around the little area lie 3 times really reall really slowly... while waiting for breakfast.) Stayed in my swimsuit for much of the day. The water was tremendously cold in the morning! It was a really cool day and would have been perfect for sight-seeing if not for the fact that we were setting sail @ 11am in the morning. Observed and experienced how a Lock works! Amazing... I've read about this before but i couldn't place it practically, so when i finally experienced it, it was really an eye-opener. According to our tour-guide, Hussein, the one that we passed through was a new one that opened just some days back. There used to be only ONE entry and exit point - which meant that it could take a cruise ship maybe 2 - 3 hours to pass the lock, depending on the traffic at that time. However, as there was a new entry point, a total of 4 cruises - 2 entry and 2 exit - could pass through the lock at any ONE time.
Egypt Day 4 - Edfu - Kom Ombo - Aswan
Woke up to realise that our cruise was parked between 2 others. It was also, because we had to pass through another couple of cruises that i realized that I really liked the one we were staying at very much! The rest were too "hotel-like". We headed to Edfu temple for some hours before the cruise set sail more South. Another name for this temple is Temple of Horus. We rode on a horse carriage to the temple and back. The "baksheesh" thing was an experience. The driver for the horse carriage which I, together with Phoebe and her husband Abe were in, was terribly insistent on "baksheesh" which was essentially additional tips. Frankly, i hated that experience. first the driver said it was v good horse and went fast, after that volunteered to take pictures for us and then asked for baksheesh... then on the way back, he claimed that that particular horse was pregnant and could do with more food... for the mother, and the baby! Baksheesh again... i quickly got off and joined the rest. This particular horse carriage driver was "smart" in the sense that he stopped our carriage a bit further from the rest, so our tour-guide didn't know wat was happening! - so terribly sly.
We had lunch on-board the cruise while it set-sail to Kom Ombo. Interesting temple - half was dedicated to horus and the other half to Sorbek. There was a Galabiya party that night. Had some fun dancing and playing a bit of games.
Egypt Day 5 - Aswan - Abu Simbel - Aswan - Cairo
Woke up at 2.30am... (actually i wonder very much if i actually slept...) We had tea by 3 am and headed out to the bus which joined the queue for the convoy @ 4 am to head to Abu Simbel. There were 2 temples there, both cut and moved inland and uphill quite a significant distance from the original site. They were both magnificent structures, and to have moved them in by such a distance was an amazing feat. After Abu Simbel, we headed to high dam, a peace structure and then headed for lunch. Elaine and I shared a mango juice (highly recommended by Philip) not bad, very thick and sweet! Today we really felt the heat - it was scorching! We headed for the unfinished obelisk next. Oh... the heat! We took a quick tour up, took pictures and then quickly headed down to the shaded area. The structure of the unfinished obelisk was lying amidst the granite. We then moved on to take a boat ride to Philae Temple - located on an island. Can't say much about these places now cuz this day was just packed full of activity... there was hardly much time to soak everything in. After that we took a short felucca ride to nearer our cruise, picked up our luggage and "chionged" for the train - which would take us North to Cairo.
Egypt Day 6 - Cairo, El Giza
We finally arrived in Cairo, Giza station at about 8am in the morning. Boarded our bus to Zoser Hotel - where we were to stay in for the rest of our trip. Headed straight out for Memphis where I shook hands with Ramses II and the Alabaster Sphinx. :) We then headed to Sakkara where we saw the step pyramid. We then headed to the Pyramids of Giza - Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus. Magnificent structures. Each block was almost 1.5m * 1.5m * 1.5m. millions of blocks were used to make these structures. The unfortunate thing was probably the outer layer had, over many many years, been stolen as it was made of more precious stones and what is left is the squarish inner core. Nonetheless, it doesn't discount the magnificence of the amazing structure. I don't like camel rides - have i ever said that before? This was the 2nd time i was on a camel... almost fell off... almost felt like i was falling... oh well... just down the hill from the pyramids and the camels, is the great sphinx. Would have had better pictures if we could get onto the "viewing place". Unfortunately, i think that place was closed. Didn't really like the angle in which we could just watch and take pictures with the sphinx. We ventured across the street from Zoser hotel after our dinner. The shopping place was nothing bigger than the likes of Queensway shopping centre. Nonetheless, still an eye-opening experience walking in there and also trying to cross the busy streets of Cairo!
Egypt Day 7
We went to the Museum in the morning. Nice place! If only we had more than that 1 hour we were given to walk around on our own...! Saw the mummies... the ones that had plastic eyeballs attached to the skull looked terribly alive...! For a moment there, i thought it blinked... shudders. Lunch was at... Hard rock Cafe Cairo! Buffet again...!?!? hmmm.... buffet seems to be like the only kind of meals we have here... Following that we went to the Citadel of Salah Eldin and the Alabaster Mosque of Mohd Ali... (I have trouble remembering the names) then we headed to the Khan Al Khalili market... a lot of haggering of prices here...almost feel bad for cutting prices this low... but i guess that's the way things are over there. We caught the Sound and Light Show this evening. Wasn't quite amazed by it though... but probably because i was blocked for quite a bit of the show. I should have moved to another seat earlier in the show!
Egypt Day 8 Cairo - Alexandria - Cairo
Travel North to Alexandria today. Cool weather actually especially up North. Visited mosques and mosques... The Roman Amphitheatre, the Catacombs, the Pompey's Pillars and King Faruk's Palace were among the more notable places we visited. Then i realized, maybe my next destination should be Greece. I absolutely love the Roman and the Grecian carvings and structures at the amphitheatre! It was a really cool place... When we entered Alexandria, I didn't manage to catch the greek letters at the toll gate. So on the way back i was eagerly looking out for the letters so i could take a picture of it!
Egypt Day 9 - Cairo - Doha - SG
Last day in Egypt. We went to the Pharoanic Village in the morning. Interesting stuff there - we had a little boat ride that brought us through different aspects of the life of an ancient egyptian... We then saw make-believe houses and all. After that, we went for lunch before heading to the Coptic Church. We visited the hanging church, otherwise known as the coptic church of the Holy Virgin Mary. I even managed to take photos of the Crypt that Mary, Joseph and Jesus were hiding in when they were supposed to flee Egypt! This church dates back to the 2nd Century and many parts of its design shows the infusion of islamic culture and designs within the church walls. I found this extremely fascinating. Just before we headed to the airport, we were driven to a huge shopping mall - much like our Takashimaya - for a bit of last minute shopping and idling. I had an ice-cream there. Bought some hibiscus too... (was kinda hooked on the drink throughout the trip - hee hee) Then it was 2 flights, back to SG. Caught another couple of shows on the way back. But i think i watched them somewhere before - see i can't even remember wat i watched already... ;)
Ya lar... I'm back again... this time from Cambodia (3rd trip!)
Time really flies... (I hardly realized i forgot to update my blog about the Egypt trip! geez... I'm waaayyy behind...) Soooo much has happened... both good and bad and i really have no idea which route i should be taking again. (No, the route has no relation to the happenings... just that now everything's gone a bit messy again)
Ok... here goes... 10 Days Wonders of Egypt, in a nutshell.
Flight to Egypt May 01 2008
Flight QR 639 was a pleasant flight. Like my usual self... i didn't manage to get much sleep at all. Caught "August Rush". Thought it was a pretty cool movie, but somewhat musically insane though. Would have been willing to spend that bit of money at the movies despite that. Glad there was the personal entertainment system, so could catch bits of movies and things like that. There wasn't much to do at Doha airport so ended up really STONING at the seats after walking round the duty free like 3 times... Flight QR 518 frm Doha to Luxor could have been more pleasant though... It was a 3-hr flight. 1st problem was there wasn't a personal entertainment system. 2ndly, there was this bunch of grown men on board that plane from one of the middle-eastern countries. I'm not stereo-typing here. It was just an experience. This bunch of men were happily talking at the top of their voices and sharing drinks, passing their glasses of wines, juices, whatever across 2 seats... mine and Elaine's! Felt like i was sitting in a bus full of primary school kids on their FIRST excursion ever...!
Egypt Day 1 - Luxor
We went straight to the cruise hotel - Adonis immediately after we left Luxor airport. We were given a short time to rest and before we left for Karnak Temple. However, in that little bit of time, both Elaine and I finished walking round the ship. Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple were filled with many obelisks, similar carvings of anubis (God of mummification) and Horus. The 2 temples were supposed to be linked with an Avenue of Sphinxes however quite a significant number were destroyed and wat was left were the ones directly outside the temple. A couple of interesting things about Luxor Temple. A mosque was built on the Temple before they excavated the area and realized it was on the Temple. The temple has been left there, however, not too sure if it's still used for prayers. This was also the temple in which 3 layers of the wall could be seen - the original layer, a second layer with temple carvings and a 3rd layer with coloured plasters of a church. After these 2 visits, we were pretty much exhausted by the heat and the flight so we were glad to head back to the hotel for a good rest.
Egypt Day 2 - Luxor
We headed out to one of the bridges across the Nile river to take photos before we headed to the Valley of the Kings. We had the opportunity to visit only 3 tombs. One belonged to SetyII - a very nice tomb, could even see that a lot of colours were used then for drawing and painting on the carvings and still exists in colours in many parts. Next tomb was Siptah - Many parts of this tomb had already been eroded or dissolved... in fact much of this tomb was kinda gone. We got to choose which tomb we wanted to visit for the 3rd one. Elaine and I, together with a few others in the tour group headed to Thutmosis III. It was a long way UP and a long way DOWN to get to this tomb. Along the way carvings and all that were seen. However, the process of getting in was very much more exciting than wat we saw at the tomb itself. This was, i believe, one of the only tombs that was made of wood... (I think!)
Next stop - Hatshepsut temple. Basically the only temple that actually had different levels. Yep, the other temples only had ONE level - ground level. This one had 3 "storeys". Looked really good - considering it was actually built for a Lady Pharaoh. She apparently died "as a King" with all the Kingly stuff around her. Many big statues of Rameses in the "Osiris" postition.
After this temple, we headed to the Colossi of Memnon where we had some minutes to take pictures of 2 seated figures of Amenhotep. After these, we headed back to Nuah the rest of the afternoon away.
On the side - it was only today that i found out that upon zooming into the pictures i took the past 2 days, i could actually see the words! - which is really good because pictures without the words won't be too meaningful, would it? Also, the morning had been pretty cool...
Egypt Day 3 - Luxor - Edfu
Instead of setting sail on Day 2, we set sail on Day 3... Thus much of Day 3 was made up of - sun-tanning, bumming, dipping and getting out of the pool. The morning started of with an experience of watching the egyptian sunrise. Then we decided to get out of the cruise for a short morning walk. (Very short one. Walked around the little area lie 3 times really reall really slowly... while waiting for breakfast.) Stayed in my swimsuit for much of the day. The water was tremendously cold in the morning! It was a really cool day and would have been perfect for sight-seeing if not for the fact that we were setting sail @ 11am in the morning. Observed and experienced how a Lock works! Amazing... I've read about this before but i couldn't place it practically, so when i finally experienced it, it was really an eye-opener. According to our tour-guide, Hussein, the one that we passed through was a new one that opened just some days back. There used to be only ONE entry and exit point - which meant that it could take a cruise ship maybe 2 - 3 hours to pass the lock, depending on the traffic at that time. However, as there was a new entry point, a total of 4 cruises - 2 entry and 2 exit - could pass through the lock at any ONE time.
Egypt Day 4 - Edfu - Kom Ombo - Aswan
Woke up to realise that our cruise was parked between 2 others. It was also, because we had to pass through another couple of cruises that i realized that I really liked the one we were staying at very much! The rest were too "hotel-like". We headed to Edfu temple for some hours before the cruise set sail more South. Another name for this temple is Temple of Horus. We rode on a horse carriage to the temple and back. The "baksheesh" thing was an experience. The driver for the horse carriage which I, together with Phoebe and her husband Abe were in, was terribly insistent on "baksheesh" which was essentially additional tips. Frankly, i hated that experience. first the driver said it was v good horse and went fast, after that volunteered to take pictures for us and then asked for baksheesh... then on the way back, he claimed that that particular horse was pregnant and could do with more food... for the mother, and the baby! Baksheesh again... i quickly got off and joined the rest. This particular horse carriage driver was "smart" in the sense that he stopped our carriage a bit further from the rest, so our tour-guide didn't know wat was happening! - so terribly sly.
We had lunch on-board the cruise while it set-sail to Kom Ombo. Interesting temple - half was dedicated to horus and the other half to Sorbek. There was a Galabiya party that night. Had some fun dancing and playing a bit of games.
Egypt Day 5 - Aswan - Abu Simbel - Aswan - Cairo
Woke up at 2.30am... (actually i wonder very much if i actually slept...) We had tea by 3 am and headed out to the bus which joined the queue for the convoy @ 4 am to head to Abu Simbel. There were 2 temples there, both cut and moved inland and uphill quite a significant distance from the original site. They were both magnificent structures, and to have moved them in by such a distance was an amazing feat. After Abu Simbel, we headed to high dam, a peace structure and then headed for lunch. Elaine and I shared a mango juice (highly recommended by Philip) not bad, very thick and sweet! Today we really felt the heat - it was scorching! We headed for the unfinished obelisk next. Oh... the heat! We took a quick tour up, took pictures and then quickly headed down to the shaded area. The structure of the unfinished obelisk was lying amidst the granite. We then moved on to take a boat ride to Philae Temple - located on an island. Can't say much about these places now cuz this day was just packed full of activity... there was hardly much time to soak everything in. After that we took a short felucca ride to nearer our cruise, picked up our luggage and "chionged" for the train - which would take us North to Cairo.
Egypt Day 6 - Cairo, El Giza
We finally arrived in Cairo, Giza station at about 8am in the morning. Boarded our bus to Zoser Hotel - where we were to stay in for the rest of our trip. Headed straight out for Memphis where I shook hands with Ramses II and the Alabaster Sphinx. :) We then headed to Sakkara where we saw the step pyramid. We then headed to the Pyramids of Giza - Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus. Magnificent structures. Each block was almost 1.5m * 1.5m * 1.5m. millions of blocks were used to make these structures. The unfortunate thing was probably the outer layer had, over many many years, been stolen as it was made of more precious stones and what is left is the squarish inner core. Nonetheless, it doesn't discount the magnificence of the amazing structure. I don't like camel rides - have i ever said that before? This was the 2nd time i was on a camel... almost fell off... almost felt like i was falling... oh well... just down the hill from the pyramids and the camels, is the great sphinx. Would have had better pictures if we could get onto the "viewing place". Unfortunately, i think that place was closed. Didn't really like the angle in which we could just watch and take pictures with the sphinx. We ventured across the street from Zoser hotel after our dinner. The shopping place was nothing bigger than the likes of Queensway shopping centre. Nonetheless, still an eye-opening experience walking in there and also trying to cross the busy streets of Cairo!
Egypt Day 7
We went to the Museum in the morning. Nice place! If only we had more than that 1 hour we were given to walk around on our own...! Saw the mummies... the ones that had plastic eyeballs attached to the skull looked terribly alive...! For a moment there, i thought it blinked... shudders. Lunch was at... Hard rock Cafe Cairo! Buffet again...!?!? hmmm.... buffet seems to be like the only kind of meals we have here... Following that we went to the Citadel of Salah Eldin and the Alabaster Mosque of Mohd Ali... (I have trouble remembering the names) then we headed to the Khan Al Khalili market... a lot of haggering of prices here...almost feel bad for cutting prices this low... but i guess that's the way things are over there. We caught the Sound and Light Show this evening. Wasn't quite amazed by it though... but probably because i was blocked for quite a bit of the show. I should have moved to another seat earlier in the show!
Egypt Day 8 Cairo - Alexandria - Cairo
Travel North to Alexandria today. Cool weather actually especially up North. Visited mosques and mosques... The Roman Amphitheatre, the Catacombs, the Pompey's Pillars and King Faruk's Palace were among the more notable places we visited. Then i realized, maybe my next destination should be Greece. I absolutely love the Roman and the Grecian carvings and structures at the amphitheatre! It was a really cool place... When we entered Alexandria, I didn't manage to catch the greek letters at the toll gate. So on the way back i was eagerly looking out for the letters so i could take a picture of it!
Egypt Day 9 - Cairo - Doha - SG
Last day in Egypt. We went to the Pharoanic Village in the morning. Interesting stuff there - we had a little boat ride that brought us through different aspects of the life of an ancient egyptian... We then saw make-believe houses and all. After that, we went for lunch before heading to the Coptic Church. We visited the hanging church, otherwise known as the coptic church of the Holy Virgin Mary. I even managed to take photos of the Crypt that Mary, Joseph and Jesus were hiding in when they were supposed to flee Egypt! This church dates back to the 2nd Century and many parts of its design shows the infusion of islamic culture and designs within the church walls. I found this extremely fascinating. Just before we headed to the airport, we were driven to a huge shopping mall - much like our Takashimaya - for a bit of last minute shopping and idling. I had an ice-cream there. Bought some hibiscus too... (was kinda hooked on the drink throughout the trip - hee hee) Then it was 2 flights, back to SG. Caught another couple of shows on the way back. But i think i watched them somewhere before - see i can't even remember wat i watched already... ;)
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