March 2008: UK and Paris

Wow.. it's been a while since I traveled. I got bogged down by life - a marriage, a promotion at work and a new spiritual journey.

For my honeymoon, I went to UK and Paris. It was a remarkable trip. I have been to London in 2002 but that was for a week and it was limited to Greater London. This time round, we went to Reading, Bath, Oxford and Cambridge. We even visited Stonehenge. And of course, the romantic city, Paris. Paris is indeed what they say - it's beautiful.. it's charming.. it's so full of magic.

And it was in Paris that I saw the obelisk that the Egyptian government gave to France. This obelisk was from the Temple of Karnak. I saw it's sisters in Luxor in 2002.

We were in Europe in March. It's supposed to be the beginning of spring. The forecast said that it will be gloomy and dark but we were very fortunate to have warm sun for most of our trip. Even though there is sun, it was still cold. On the week when we were leaving, it started snowing! Snow is just so beautiful. This is the first time we saw snow falling down from the sky and it was an experience. Unfortunately, it didn't get any thicker :P

My wife and I had a good time. It was a good 3 week break-away from work.

December 2005 - January 2006: Dallas, USA

I spent Christmas 2005 and New Year 2006 in Dallas, on a business trip. This is my second time to Dallas. I came here in Spring 2003. This time, I am spending winter in Dallas.

Before I came, my colleagues told me that it's going to be a cold winter. They had ice storm in 2004. When my manager visited Dallas in January 2005, it was below 0. So I was prepared. I came with a few winter jackets. My luggage was full.

And it turned out to be a very pleasant winter. Temperature was around 15'C to 22'C. The sun was shinning everyday. My colleagues said it is very unusual but I am happy, nevertheles. The picture on the left was taken by the swimming pool in the hotel where I stayed. Look at the clear, blue skies. Don't be fooled though as the temperature was around 18'C despite the bright sun light.

I didn't travel much in this trip. I stayed put in Dallas. Work was cruel. I clocked 10-12 hours everyday so I didn't really have the mood to go sight see. Besides, Dallas is boring. There's not much to see. Also, I couldn't bear to go to other cities alone, not without Anne.

My only activities are shopping and movies.. and work, of course. I shopped so much that I wonder how I am going to pack everything to my already full luggage. I'm worried now..

My nightly entertainment is TV, again I am glued to "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", just like 3 years ago. I did play some games: Space Rangers 2 and Civ 4 but I just prefer to lie on the bed watching TV and DVD (Friends 10). I was addicted to a reality show, Project Runaway on Bravo TV. It's a fashion designer reality TV show. Quite exciting and not many bitching found in most reality TV. So these have kept me company.

I didn't have a white Christmas nor a white New Year. I did spend Christmas on an American home, so that's a little bit different. Other than that, it's a typical day in Dallas.

I love the weather though.

Some of my thoughts are in Ringgit (Jan 06 and Dec 05), so you might want to stop there to see..

November 2005: Damai Laut, Lumut

It seems that Pangkor, Lumut and Anne has a lot in common because this month, we made another trip to Damai Laut, Lumut for a Relax and Rejuvenate vacation. We stayed at Swiss Garden Resort and I must say I am impressed! The resort is very nice. Much nicer than Club Med, Cherating. The setup, the interior design, the decoration, the staff... it was a wonderful vacation.

The picture was taken from the reception area. The reception was on a higher ground (3rd level), with some of the rooms, F&B areas, swimming pool, etc on the 1st level.

We spent 3D 2N and signed up for the relax and rejuvenate package which include a 45 minute spa and massage in the in-house Samsara Spa. We didn't do much... just lazing around the resort and relaxing and boy... time JUST FLEW BY! Before we know it, we have to check out on Friday and leave. It's a memorable vacation and I look forward to going there again.

November 2005: Seoul, South Korea

On the first week of November, my manager and I went on a business trip to Seoul, South Korea. This is the first time I am in Korea and it's autumn. Temperature was nice.. around 16 or 18 degree Celcius so it was really pleasant.

We landed in Incheon International airport around 8.30am local time and decided to take a cab to our hotel. My Korean colleagues warned me not to take the black taxi as they are extremely expensive. Heeding their advice, we decided to flag a white taxi who ran the meter. To our dismay, even that cab to the hotel cost us US$70. US%70!! Half of the money I changed for my trip went to the cab ride. That was my first taste of Korean's economy. The standard of living in this place is EXTREMELY high. McDonald's meal cost US$4 and that's the cheapest around. A typical Korean noodle in a hawker stall cost US$4. Eating in a typical restaurant, which most of my Korean colleagues eat in, cost US$7. A ham sandwich cost US$3! The picture above is a picture of a bus which was converted into a eating place. There are tables outside the bus. Customers can sit outside, or inside the bus though the interior is very cramped. It is a self service. We ordered our Udon noodles inside the bus. The noodle cost US$5. It was very tasty though and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Generally, I think Korean food agrees with me.

My colleagues brought us to one Korean restaurant called Nolboo. This is a nice restaurant in that they have traditional Korean performances on the stage. As you can see from this picture, the beautiful ladies were dancing some traditional dance. There are almost 10 performances ranging from dancing to the performers playing traditional instrument. Very nice.

Another unique thing about this restaurant is that they ushered us into this floor and gave us cushion. We sat on the cushion but there were no tables at all. My Korean colleague told me that the meals will be prepared in the kitchen. The food will be laid on the table and two waiters will bring the table to us. This is depicted in the picture. When the table came, I was surprised by the variety of food available. I think there must be like 30 dishes in 30 bowls! It's amazing. Here's another picture of the type of food available.

I couldn't even start to describe the type of food. There's raw crabs and fish. Then, there's scrambled egg and some really nice potatoes. The soup was excellent - almost as good as Thai's tom yum. There's radish and some other weird but wonderful vegetables. And guess what? They keep on refilling the food! It's such a waste. It's almost as if they wanted to stuff you until you burst!

Oh.. speaking of food, Koreans use metal chopsticks. These chopsticks were not even round. They are flat and slim. And VERY difficult to use. I mean, I use chopsticks all the time in MY and yet I feel as though I was an ang moh using chopsticks for the first time in my life! Koreans must have very good fingers.. LOL!

Koreans generally are really pleasant and nice people. They are honest, well, at least the cab drivers are. I think Malaysian cab drivers are the crookest bunch of thieves. Korean cab drivers are like saints in comparison to Malaysian cab drivers. The cars on the road are generally large cc cars. I did not see any small cars at all. All cars are Korean made. There are zero Japanese cars and I think this is due to the age-old enmity between these two countries. The subway is about the most extensive and complex I have seen.. and I thought London's Tube was complex. I have been to HK and SG MRT and the Korean's subway train is much, much wider and longer.. and faster. Malaysian's LRT is really a joke in comparison. Subway is cheap. It cost US$1. If you consider a bowl of noodle is typically US$4, US$1 for subway is really cheap. It's so small it is negligible. I bet the Korean government is just collecting the fare for collection sake.

This picture showed the beautiful autumn landscape. I like autumn. I liked the multi-coloured trees. I enjoyed the cool wind. I loved not sweating my ass off for the whole day. I enjoyed sipping hot coffee while walking under the cool autumn wind. I wished I had more autumn moments like this. Sigh...

I mentioned that I was in Seoul on business trip so I didn't really have much time to see the city. I asked my Korean colleague what I should do and they recommended a few places.

We didn't have a lot of money so we skipped taxi rides but instead opted for the subway. It was difficult to get our orientation right. The subway is very complex. There were so many lines and interchanges. The worst thing is that no one speaks English in Korea. It's really rare to find someone who could speak English. Thankfully I have this list of phrases written by my colleague whom we used to ask people aorund. I would point to a "Where is" phrase and point to the place we wanted to go in the map. From "Express Bus Terminal" station, we stopped at "Jungo Sam Kor" (something like that) station and begin our adventure. Looking for Insadon, our first stop was a challenge. The station has 7 exits and we have to figure out where is the nearest to Insadon. This picture shows Insadon, a street that sells artistic stuff like paintings, handicraft. It wasn't very impressive, probably because I am not the type who shops for artistic stuff. We breezed through this street as we wanted to head to the Geongbokgung Palace.

This is the Geongbokgung Palace. The palace is surrounded by a range of mountains. I think even Koreans believe that having a range of mountain behind an Emperor's dwelling brings good feng shui. Unfortunately, the palace tour was closed on Tuesday so we could not walk inside the palace. But I wasn't disappointed. I think when one has seen the Forbidden City, one has seen all palaces..

This is Namdaemun. It's a direct translation from 3 Mandarin phrases which meant South Big Gate. This place is like Petaling Street. They sell pirated stuff like branded clothes, bags, trinkets, etc. Very boring. There is another place called East Big Gate which sells the same thing.

Later at night, we went for a Han River cruise. It was perhaps the most disappointed river cruise I ever had. I have been on a Sydney harbour cruise. I took the Thames River cruise with Anti Ringgit. I went on a Golden Gate Bridge river cruise with rotitelur. The Han River cruise sucked so bad I think I'd rather cruise Sungai Gombak. There's nothing to see!! Seoul does not have many high rise buildings near the river bank. All you see are bridges and they are hardly impressive.

If this is what Korea has to offer, I would not want to come here for a tour.

May 2005: Pangkor Island

May 21-23, 2005:

Alpinesis, Lina, Anne and I went to Pangkor Island, Malaysia for a little getaway. It's a couples trip and we had a damn good time. I have never been to Pangkor and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality accomodation and good amenities in this island off the coast of Perak. We rented four mountain bikes and toured the whole island with our poor little legs. It was a torturous 5-hour ride. Mind you, Pangkor is not a flat piece of land. Riding uphill with these untrained legs under the hot afternoon sun were not something to joke about. Nevertheles, we enjoyed ourselves and had lots of fun.

Food (lunch + dinner) were taken in small Chinese restaurants and all of us would vouched that the dishes tasted much better than those found in Kuala Lumpur - or perhaps it was the company that matters, after all.. hehehee...

I would even ventured to say that I learned a lot of things about Anne that I like and that our relationship had grown much stronger after the trip.

The sand-work in the photo above is drawn by Anne. It's beautiful. The photo did not do it any justice. My version sucked so bad that I did not even dare put it out for people to see.. LOL..

May 2002: London

A trip down memory lane, if I may.

In May 2002, I went to London with anti-ringgit. That was where I met ST, anti-ringgit's aunt and we became very good friends.

This May, kimmikanuyi, anti-ringgit and I are planning a visit to London and Paris. kimmikanuyi has not been to London and she wanted me to plan for our trip. And this is what I am going to do in today's post. A pictorial guide on our future trip to London.. ha ha.. sort of.. with cost as we are on a very tight budget this time.

Future trip Day 1:
We could go to Buckingham Palace and the surrounding beautiful St James Park to cool ourselves down after a long flight.

Most of the places can be reached by taking the London Underground aka The Tube. The Underground Day ticket (i.e. unlimited rides for the day) cost ₤5.

London cab in the roundabout in front of Buckingham Palace

Then we could just drop by Big Ben, London Eye (₤11), Trafalgar Square and maybe shop in the famous Oxford Street (not that we can afford any of the designer labels there). We could also walk around Picadilly Circus. These are some of the must see "buildings" in London. What are their significance? Well, I don't really know. I guess this is the time where we can really tell the difference between a guided tour and a free and easy one. At any rate, we had better buy some Lonely Planet books to read up.

Big Ben. Behind me is a path that will lead to London Eye


London Eye from the same position I took the Big Ben picture.


Trafalgar Square

We could end the day in Westminster Abbey (₤6). The Abbey is a famous place because this is where the famous Kings and Queens of England are buried. It is also a place where royal coronation took place. It also serves as a place of worship every Sunday.

Westminster Abbey

At night, we can just laze around Thames River and have coffee (₤1) and my favourite roadside English hotdog with lots of mustard (₤2). Then rest.

To give an impression of cost of living in London: a latte in Starbucks cost ₤1.5. Fish & chips cost ₤5.5. McDonald's Value Meal ₤3.5. Beer = ₤0.80. Citrus bottled drink ₤1. Typical sandwich plus drink ₤3.5.

Future trip: Day 2
We could spend half day in British Museum (₤?). This museum is huge! We probably get to inspect real Rosetta Stone since we only get to see a replica in Cairo Museum. We could also find the Gaza Sphinx's beard in this museum too!

British Museum

In the afternon, we could stop by and see St Paul's Cathedral (₤0).. then rest for the rest of the evening in preparation for a musical at night. Maybe Les Miserables or Phantom of the Opera at the famous London West End in Leichester Sq? Or maybe The Lion King? That would cost around ₤40 each or less if we could get a half price.

St Paul's Cathedral

Future trip: Day 3
We could spend the morning in Madame Tussaud's Museum to see the wax figures (₤15). We could then go back to the city and see "London Bridge", actually the real name of this famous London Bridge is not called London Bridge but it is called Tower Bridge.

We'll end the day in Tower of London (₤12), a must visit place with guided tour.

One of the small castle in the Tower of London compound.

At night we could follow up with another musical (₤40).

Future trip: Day 4
I am thinking of going out of London to visit one of the famous castles as we didn't get to visit any the last time. Selena offered to take us to a small town called Bath to see a castle. Maybe we could take up her offer. So, Day 4 we'll probably spend the day out of the city in a traditional castle.

Future trip: Day 5
Buffer day in London. Maybe see Tate Museum (modern art museum ₤?). Or maybe just a relaxing day where we can drink more coffee and look cool. Maybe a Thames River cruise to the town of Greenwich to see the Royal Observatory? And one more musical?

Cruise down the Thames


Greenwich.. GMT +0

Future trip: Day 6
Another buffer day for shopping, going out lunch with ST and her mother.. or maybe I should visit cousin ML?

Future trip: Day 7 - Day 11
Go to Kensington and hope on Euro train to Paris.
I think we should spend more time in Paris. I have not been to Paris so I am not sure what we could do there. Some of the must see is of course The Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum (I think we should spend a day here), Notre Dame, that arch. Maybe a night tour of the city.. or a night trip up Eiffel Tower. Or maybe a Da Vinci Code tour.

Future trip: Day 12
Back to London and maybe fly back to MY. Post trip blues for a few months.

Egyptian blogs

I was bored and started to click on the "Next blog" on the top right and came upon this interesting blog by an Egyptian. His blog pointed to another blog which was an extremely good read about life in Egypt.

This other blog was written by a lady whom I thought was an excellent writer. She's a Canadian and have been staying in Egypt for the past 20+ years. She describes life in Cairo, life as a Muslim, life in the country side and, fortunately, did not venture much into politics and war (unlike most of the blogs I found). It's a delight to read this blog. I would say that her blog is as entertaining as the stories told by Mido except hers are story of current affairs in Egypt, not historical.

I have spent the whole Saturday afternoon reading this and if you are bored and wanted to know more about life in Egypt, click on:

http://miloflamingo.blogspot.com/
"Egypt isn't what it appears to be in the media...but that's no real surprise, since not much is. I moved here in the late 80's from Toronto, Canada, with my Canadian/Egyptian husband, my son and my daughter. The children adapted quickly and we decided that this country was a good place to live. Now I wouldn't change my home for anything."

Experience sharing

Recently, I have been reading up other people's experience of their trip to Egypt. To my surprise, many of them had different Egyptologists and tour guides at different city (Cairo, Aswan and Luxor). Take a look here.

I'd rather had the same guide all the way from start to end :)

Day 8: "Habibi, this may be the last time I call you habibi."

Oct 23

In the morning, the group decided to collect some tip for Mido, "in appreciation for your excellent story telling and guide. - From Malaysian friends"

1. The Citadel and Mohammad Ali Mosque

Mohammad Ali Mosque. Made out of alabaster (marble) so it is sometimes known as the alabaster mosque.

There are palaces inside the Citadel. One of them was burnt and abandoned. Mohammad Ali was very smart. Instead of building a palace he built a mosque. People can't burnt mosque which is a sacred building. So he built an alabaster mosque under his name and it stayed till today.

There was a courtyard inside the mosque. This is where all social activities are performed. The other part, the "inner chamber" are only used for prayers. In the courtyard, there's this thing that was used to clean the hands, arms, legs, face and head before prayer. From the courtyard, we could see the clock tower that was given by the French in exchange for the obelisk from Luxor Temple.

Underneath this huge courtyard is a big water tank. As the mosque is built on a higher ground, water needs to be pumped up and store in the tank. Water is pumped from River Nile via an aqueduct.

Inside the mosque, we saw the tomb of Mohammad Ali. Mido said the tomb was placed inside the mosque so that when people pray, they are also praying to ask God to bless Mohammad Ali. However, he "sort-of" implied that Mohammad Ali was never a good king.


The prayer hall of Mohammad Ali Mosque. It was here that Mido told us about Islam.

We all sat in a circle.

He mentioned that each mosque has a niche. This niche marks where Mecca is and where a Muslim have to face when they pray. All you have to do when going into the mosque is to look around for the niche and you can start praying.

The mosque is built to project the "prayer lead"'s voice. The lead will stand in front of 10,000 people (the capacity of this mosque!) and will start asking people to pray. Mido demonstarted the effect by shouting "Allah is great". That caught a lot of people's attention.

Why take off shoes in mosque.. because of the way ze bray. By putting ze heads on the floor. So if ze have shoes, there will be dirt on the carpet. It's not nice to pray like that.

Explained why women and men had to bray separately. Asked Kim to stand in front then bend.. how to concentrate and bray to God with this attractive woman in front of you? He said that it is out of respect for women. In this mosque, women prayed on the second floor. Other smaller mosques - women pray behind the men.

Since we are in the mosque, he would like to talk to us about Islam.

5 laws of Islam:
If you follow all these 5 laws, you will be a good Muslim

1. believe in God

2. bray to God 5 times a day
- why bray (so that you won't do bad things like stealing and killing because you know you will face God in the next few hours)
- how we bray (Mido demonstrated how he prays. He said it's like an exercise, 5 times a day). I wonder why he's um.. not as fit as he should be.. ha ha.. Also, he said that you don't neccessary have to do the "exercise" if the situation does not permit. You can just say your silent prayers.

3. fast for God during Ramahdan
- why - so that you know how it feels like to be hungry and to be lonely (as you cannot make love too). What's worse is that even with money, you cannot buy food. After Ramahdan, when a beggar ask you for money to buy food, you will help.

Islam - it's between you and God. Who's the person who is going to judge you. Your God. Not your fellow friends. So why have excuses like
not fasting because of travel and medical? Your God knows the truth.

4. give alms to the poor - 2.5% of savings (i.e. additional money you have after taking care of basic need). You can start by helping out to relatives/friends/neighbours (a way to prevent crime too). After this is done, if you want to, you can give to a collection to help other people. If only the other rich Arab neighbouring countries are doing the same thing.

5. pilgrimage/haj - the only rule that God will forgive if you are not able to fulfill because He understands that it is difficult for someone from a far away land to come to Mecca to perform pilgrimage. A Muslim must work hard and earn money from his two hands for his pilgrimage. He should not "inherit the money from his parents or rich wife" or borrow from bank.

What he said in the mosque was an eye opener for me as I didn't know the liberal side of Islam. I have always pictured it to be really strict and by the book. Perhaps it's just me, being ignorance.

As we exit the mosque, we saw a view of Cairo city as we are at a higher level. It's breathtaking!!

*addition:
- someone asked why green is the colour of Islam (in the mosque, ladies who wear sleeveless shirt were given a green robe). No specific reason except that green represent trees, plants and oasis in heaven.

2. Back to Egyptian Museum
Saw mummies!

3. Alexander the Great story
Told us story on how Alexander (from Greece) attacked Persia. The tactics was to come to Egypt first, then move to Persia from Egypt. If he attacked Persia from the North, his flank is exposed because Persia has a lot of allies. But if he crossed the sea to Egypt and came from South, he is not exposed.

Is Alexander the Great homosexual? (Chloe's question) In Mido's opinion, no because:
1. He has a lot of warriors under him. Tough men fighting for him. If he's homosexual, they will not be his followers.

2. Records on a lover that he had.
Mido said that the reason why he was branded homosexual is because he never married.

4. Lunch
After lunch, we boarded the bus. Mido came up and gave a farewell speech.

5. Going back to Malaysia... :'(

Day 7: Cairo, THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA!

Oct 22

We had some misunderstanding with the Sheraton hotel staff. Breakfast was included but they did not allow us into the restaurant because we are not from the Hong Kong tour. Some how, some where, we were registered as Hong Kong group (NO WONDER our rooms were nicer than the our first night). Blessings in disguise? Definitely! Anyway, once we started quoting our room number, all is cleared and we finally get to have a good breakfast.

Learned something from HZ.. don't sit near corners. The waiters always want you to sit near corners so they don't have to serve you.

After breakfast, to my horror, I realized that I have forgotten to bring the battery to my camera. It's still charging upstairs. Of all day to forget a camera! Flew all the way up 18th floor to get the battery. Phew.

1. The Pyramids of Giza
- Told us about how pyramids were made. Contrary to popular beliefs, workers were not slaves. They were compensated and put in a camp with their families. In fact, the camp even have medical facilities eg they found proof that one worker had his arm (or finger?) crushed and operations were performed to attach it back.

Made using smooth limestone rock (average weight of each rock is around 2.5 tonnes!) piled on top of each other. Take out the air by creating a vaccumn using egg white. The tomb was made of granite from where? (Aswan). There were many layers of ceiling above the tomb to create cushion. The mummy is the priority! Everything else does not matter. Zero pressure.

Started as a Bench -> Stepped Pyramid (Zojer is the King, architech is Imotep (spell?)) -> Bent Pyramid. Learned from Bent Pyramid so the architect used a new angle, 51.51 degree and built the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

Talked about the Pharoah's granite chamber (trivia: where did the granite chamber come from?) and how there were many layers of roof to even out the pressure. The top most roof is shaped like an inverted V and using modern tools to measure the roof, there are zero pressure on it! How the Ancient Egyptians achieved such technological marvel is still a mystery.

There was also a "Queen's Chamber" (so named by books) but in actual fact, it is not for the Queen. The Pyramid is only for the Pharoah. This chamber was the original chamber for the Pharoah but was abandoned because the architect thinks that it could not withstand the weight of the pyramid.

We were told not to attempt to circle the Great Pyramid as it will take a very long time to walk a complete circle.

A. Stopped at The Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khufu

Mido said you can't fit the Great Pyramid into your camera. Sure enough.. even though I am standing at the bus stop, my puny camera could not take the whole Pyramid. I have got to try, right?

Surprisingly, we were welcomed by this cool breeze at around 8+am. I asked habibi how did the thieves know where the entrance is? After all, there are 4 sides to the pyramids. He stood straight and with two hands pointed North. He said the entrance has to face North. Why? I don't remember :( So the thieves already know it is North. It's just that they are lucky to drill into the existing chamber. Otherwise, they would have continued drilling and found nothing. If you bring a compass and stand here, you will see that it is not exactly North. The reason is Ancient Egyptian does not use magnetic North but follow the North star.

B. Boarded bus .. stopped at Paranomic view where we rode camels

This is taken from the paranomic area. Now, we could fit all 3 pyramids. As you can see, it is not clear because of dust or "early morning dew"

In the bus, we were told that people believe that the Pyramid has some sort of magnetic aura:
- this important lady (who? Some minister?) has leukemia and when she visited Egypt, she was told of the power of the pyramids. She spent a week there and was healed.
- meat in pyramid and meat outside. The one in pyramid was preserved
- a shaving blade. Inside the pyramid, it became as though brand new

At the paranomic view, after the camel and the photo sessions:
- where he told us about the galaxy story:
When asked if the pyramids are in a straight line, as per book, he said it is not - it's a curve and he drew on the dirt about this theory that the 3 pyramids with Nile and Mediterrenean is a formation that exist in the other galaxy. Mido said it is an attempt by people to become famous, so they have all these weird theories. When asked if it is made by spacemen educating Egyptians, he cited the Bent Pyramid as an example of a pyramid built wrong. I said maybe it is a learning curve and the Bent Pyramid is just a failed project and he mentioned abt ???

C. Boarded.. stopped at Menkaure to climb down Pyramid
Mido said that people used to say that size of the third pyramid proved that the economy during Menkaure 's reign must have been affected by all these spending by his father (Khafre) and grandfather (Khufu). That's why his pyramid is the smallest. He said that is not true because unlike the two pyramids, this one is made mostly of granite and if you remember, granite is shipped all the way from Aswan. That only show the immense wealth of Menkaure.

D. Boarded the bus again and stopped at Sphinx and the Valley Temple

We are standing at the Valley Temple. This is a nice picture of the Sphinx with Pyramid of Khafre as the backdrop. Notice how this pyramid still retains its original smooth marble surface (at the tip of the Pyramid)

The Sphinx is made out of one huge rock. The area of the Sphinx is actually a mountain of limestone - the source of the materials to build the pyramids. After the pyramids were built, there was still this huge rock. The Pharoah asked the people to cut it down. But then one of the architects did an amazing thing. Instead of destroying the rock, he shaped it into the face of the Pharoah (to signify?) and the body of the lion (to signify strength). The Sphinx is actually made out of one huge rock. Later attempt by the Egyptian government to restore the Sphinx has caused worse erosion. That's why you can see many lines on the body due to restoration attempt (ze used rocks and cement)

In the Valley Temple, he talked about the mummification process
5 important things to preserve to guarantee a second life:
1. body
2. heart
3. face
4. name
5. spirit - lavendar & lotus flower

They cut a 5cm (?) on the appendix to take out the blood and inner parts. As for the brains, it was taken out from the nose and then wine were poured into the head to clear out everything. A single tissue would have destroyed the mummy.

We were shown this rectangle hole that was surrounded by a low cage. Mido said that this hole, like the hole in Luxor Temple, was used to store/hide the statues of the Gods from the Romans (or was it Christians?) when they attacked Egypt. These days, tourists started to stand back and throw coins into this hole, hoping that their wishes will come true. At the end of each day, it's the guards and the cleaners who climbed down and collected all these money... and made their wishes come true... ka ka ka.. so, habibi, yalla, yalla...

From Valley Temple we walked into this place where we could take a closer look at the Sphinx, which was on our right. Here, we were told that the Sphinx's nose was destroyed by Napoleon's cannon because Napoleon wanted to bring his civilised world to Egypt. Mido said "shame of you, Frenchman, for destroying civilisation itself."

The Sphinx used to have a beard (just like Hatshepsut) but the beard has fallen off and is now in British Museum.


This paranomic view was taken from the restaurant where we had lunch. I had to stitched a few pictures to come out with this. It's an awesome view of the 3 pyramids and the Sphinx.

LUNCH!

2. Perfume factory

3. Egyptian Museum
We saw:
- the black slab for mummification
- started with 2nd floor

- King Tutankhamun collection
a. we were shown all the "coffins" (I don't rememeber what it is called) that is used to house the main sarchophagus. These boxes are put inside one another. Again, protection of the mummy is the ultimate goal so putting them inside one box after the other will provide very good protection. These coffins were made of wood but coloured with gold. There were 8 of them (including the sarchophagus). The sarchophagus and the famous King Tut's mask is inside a special room. Sarchophagus is made of pure gold.

b. we were shown 3 beds of King Tutankhamun. One bed has leopard (or was it lionness) on the handle and legs. One has hippotamus. And the third one has (??)
According to Mido (his opinion) it is not an actual bed in his real life because it is so uncomfortable. It's probably a bed for his 2nd life.

c. we were also shown King Tut's throne. The relief in the throne is interesting. There was his wife putting perfume and massaging him. The Queen did not wear slipper to show that she's not the same status (??) as King Tut, who has slippers, of course. The decoration behind the throne has, I think, a falcon spreading his wings - again as protection.

- inside King Tutankhamun's room, I saw the famous mask. It was amazing. All made of gold! Very beautiful. There's a lot of relief on the back of the mask which I was told are symbols of protection. I saw the sarchophagus too. Again, solid gold! Was there a sceptre?

- a picture showing the journey of a Goddess (?) to the 2nd life. Her heart has to be weighed on a scale against a feather but a God is the one who ultimately influence the scale.
- near the landing of the staircase - a picture/relief on something - even more test of faith as a Goddess has to go through many trials?
- Nerfetiti's uncomplete bust
- Khufu's statue - he has the biggest pyramid but the smallest statue
- Coffin of a queen made of alabaster. Put a torch on it and can see through.
- Two statues depicting a man-warrior and his wife. Mido said the wife is the most beautiful statue they ever had.. look at the eyes.. bronze, coloured gems with a bronze nail for pupil.
- Statue of Rameses II .. not standing straight but with left foot in front.. so it won't fall. The same statue is well built - if you want to be reborn, you would want to be reborn as a fit person with muscles

4. The story of Cleopatra
Someone asked about Cleopatra and this prompted Mido to tell us a story of Cleopatra. Mido said that he thinks Cleopatra is a "I don't know how to say this but she's a hooker."

5. Papyrus Institute
My favourite art in the "pa-pa-ya-rus" institute is the blue Egyptian calendar. According to Mido, this calendar is real and is in display in museum.

6. Khan Al-Khalili Bazaar
This area used to be capital. Mido brought us here to feel the atmosphere esp during Ramadan when you can see people eating on the streets.. eating everywhere. If we were to come tomorrow (Saturday) you won't see so many people. Ramahdan and esp if it is Friday, people like to bring their family here to just feel the atmosphere (not to shop).

7. Dinner at Chinese Restaurant and back to Sheraton
We met Mido's two sons, 8 and 4 years old in the restaurant. Cute little guys!

On our way back to the hotel, I remember he mentioned something about a Jew synanogue and how there's not many Jewish in Egypt anymore.

Day 6: Luxor to Cairo

Oct 21

We were flying to Cairo at 11am.


Luxor Temple, day time. The mosque is shown here, within the temple compound (see post below for more detail)

Spent the morning walking the streets of Luxor. It was very peaceful.
We saw and went into Winter Palace. According to HZ, Agatha Christie, the author who wrote mysteries novel, stayed here while she was writing this book called "Death on the Nile."

I wish I am in the train group so I could spend more time in Luxor. In fact, we saw many kwai los renting bicycle and cycling around town. Now, that would be REALLY interesting.

Reached Cairo.

Went for lunch at this restaurant called Soiree. Unfortunately the restaurant was packed so we went to another place called Fish Boat. Food sucks though.

Free and easy. We wanted to visit Cairo Tower but were too exhausted to walk towards it.

Dinner - Chinese Restaurant. It's so red it looks like a brothel to me more than a restaurant.

After dinner, we asked Mohammad if he could dropped us in Hilton Rameses. According to HZ who asked someone in Sheraton, Hilton Rameses is one of the biggest shopping centers in Cairo.

We took taxi back to Sheraton. It's not too far. Having nothing to do, I tried to learn how to read license plate number :)

Day 5: Luxor! Ancient Thebes! I love this awesome place!

Oct 20
Cruise started moving @ 12 am. Reach Luxor in the morning (??)

I woke up in the morning. It was already bright but I reckon the sun is not up yet. I wanted to catch the sun rise. Went up to the deck and Kim, Ching Yee and few girls are already up. We saw the cruise approaching Luxor. Luxor was on our right where the sun was rising. On our left i.e. west bank we could see a mountain and we presumed that is the Valley of the Kings. Upon close scrutiny, we could see two hot air balloons.

1. Valley of the Kings

View of the mountain that surrounds the Valley of the Kings. We'll be going there later in the morning.

The bus took us to the Valley of the King, across the Nile via a bridge. As we reach the Valley, Mido started telling us about the valley. In order to hide the tomb, ze have to sepalate the temple from ze tombs. In Ancient Egyptian time, if you remember all the temples we have seen, ze temples and ze tombs are side by side. In order to protect the tomb, ze sepalate the temple by building the temple in the west side of the Nile and the tomb in the east side of Nile. This way, ze Valley is safe. As you can see, every where in the valley looks the same. There have been tourist who were lost. That was the time before these roads are built.
He also said that most Egyptologist considered King Tutankhamun as Zero King. Yet, his tomb with 4 rooms were filled with treasures. Imagine Kings like Ramesses II who had 92 rooms in his . How much treasures there were! All stolen!

Cameras are not allowed in the tomb and he don't suggest us taking pictures as it was too poorly lit anyway. He said we can always buy postcards - there are people selling postcards 10 pieces for USD$1? We reached the stop area for busses and have to take a smaller train-like bus to the tomb.

We went inside 3 tombs:
1. KV 1: Rameses VII. Here he explained at the entrance, in front of a map, the layout of the tomb. He's not allowed to speak inside the tomb as it will be very noisy if all the tour guides started talking.
2. KV 6: Rameses IX.
3. KV 9: Rameses V/VI. This tomb has a sarcophagus.

I asked Mido why some of the relief depicted people standing upside down? Why some stand sideways? He said it was because the ancient people, ze dunno how the second life looked like. It could be like this or that. So they just use their imagination and drew how ze think second life looked like.

2. Queen Hatshepsut Temple

Hatshepsut Temple from a distance

Across the mountain, 5 minute drive from Valley of the King is this magnificient temple build at the foot of the mountain. This temple is pronounced as hot-chick-soup. He told us a story about the Queen and the step son, a famous King who, in order to erase all memory of his evil step mother, expanded Egypt's empire on all direction of the compass. See CY's video, when it is ready, that is..


Closer look at Hatshepsut. It's still quite a long walk. The picture does not do this Temple (in fact, all of Egypt) any justice. One has to go there to appreciate Egypt's majesty.

On our way back to the bus, he pointed to us a group of people above Hatshepsut temple and said that these people walked all the way across the mountain from the Valley of the King. It's extremely hot in these weather and people are still doing it? Why? "Because of adventure". I asked about the hot air ballon and he said that the ballon will take you up (for an hour?) and just stay there. It does not move. And it cost USD$200! So why do people do it? He shrugged "ze thinks it is an adventure."

3. Alabaster factory
Me and CY bought a pyramid each. Who said I didn't spend :P
HZ bought a statue of Isis using our negotiation technique. Back in Malaysia, that statue broke in half.
Kim held a plate and it shattered in her arm.
So much for quality product.

4. Karnak Temple

Main pylons of Karnak Temple. Karnak has so many additions over the years that there are a couple of pylons before leading to the Great Hypostyle Hall.
- biggest temple in Egypt
- talked abt the row of rams leading towards the pylons
- if you notice, the reliefs are dugged much deeper here in order to prove???
- talked abt hypostyle hall, 134 columns.. one row of columns are higher than the other row too allow light to come in. The columns are huge. According to HZ/Kim, 10 of them tried to hug the column with arms outstretched - and they could barely circled it.
- talked abt the obelisks (Hatshepsut's?)
- talked abt the biggest giant scarab in Egypt - how if you circle it a few times, your wishes (love related) will come true.. people touched the scarab until the marks are rubbed off.
- talk abt the lake where the priests cleanse themselves before prayers.


Ahead is the Great Hypostyle Hall. The statue to the left is one of the many statues of Rameses II and his wife (the small figurine at the base).

5. Quick lunch because we are very late!

6. Tea time and sunset at Luxor.

7. Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple at night. To recognize Luxor Temple: It has one sitting statue of Ramses and (supposedly) 2 standing statues at each side of the pylon. There's also one obelisk in the entrance.

Fascinating story telling here because we visited this site in the evening and the air was cool and comfortable.

Story of Ramses II - Mido told us the story by drawing on the sand with his leg, just outside the pylons. Ramses II prayed to God for strength. He said that he's fighting in His name. Please grant him the strength and courage to win or he'll never believe Him again. With total conviction, Ramses II went into the enemy city alone and won the battle. He felt "proud" and inscribed his name in every relief in the temple to tell the world of his conquest in everything.

Luxor Temple is the temple with two standing statues on Ramses II and one sitting statue on each side of the pylons. Also, there should be two obelisks but one of them was given to France in exchange for a clock tower (now in Mohammad Ali Mosque). Mido complained that that obelisk brought lots of tourist to France instead of Egypt.

There is also a mosque in Luxor Temple. The reason is that when the built the mosque, they didn't know that there is an entire temple complex beside it as it was buried in the sand. Only 200 (or 300?) years later they discovered the huge temple complex. By then, the mosque is already a way of life for the Muslims and in Egypt, any building older than 200 years is considered a historical site and cannot be demolished. That is why you can see the mosque in Luxor temple.


Ramses II also liked the statue of King Tutankhamum & wife very much that he put his name on it (Mido called it "recycled") and also built an exact replica.

During ?? AD, the Christians were hunted by Romans and they hid in the temple. They converted the inner temple to a Christian worship area. Ze can't bray to God and
look at the reliefs of all the other Gods, so ze covered it with ?. As you can see here, the ? has peeled off revealing the older reliefs. This ? preserved the reliefs.

How Alexander inscribed his name on one wall of the shrine in the temple to show that he is also a Pharoah of Egypt.

Also saw the first relief with penis - habibi said it depicted "sax" in the ancient times.

9. Karnak Temple Sound & Light
We did not tell Mido that we would be going to Karnak tonight - I asked him in the cruise if he knew whether the Sound & Light will be opened during Ramahdan and he said yes, he thought they would be. I said that we might be going for a visit tonight. After Luxor Temple, I wanted to inform him that we will definitely be going but I couldn't find him in the said obelisk. We were pressing for time, as we had like 10 minutes before the show starts, so we left. We felt guilty of course, as we should have informed our guide where we were going - it's the only responsible thing to do, after all. Later I learned that he waited for us in Luxor Temple. I am sorry about that.

The Sound & Light at Karnak Temple is um, nice. We started at the entrance of the temple. The pylons were lit up. There was a few narrators speaking from some hidden speakers telling us the story of the temple's construction and its history. When the story ends, we moved through the ram sphinxes and into the second pylon. Here we stopped. Certain part of the temple were lit up and another narrator told us story.

I hate to say this but the narrators were boring. These narrators were Englishmen/women and though the accent is clear, the presentation style was too poetic and too, um, classroom-lecture like. After 20 minutes, we were lost and bored and we missed Mido's story telling style.

10. Belly Dancing
There was this odd dance by this guy. He kept on turning around and around and around. It's a wonder that he didn't fell off the stage. Nice performance.

Then came the mock up horse who likes to kiss people's forehead. That's a lame performance. Mido said the horse was not part of any traditional Egyptian dance/culture.

The highlight - belly dancing.. but but.. while she's good, I don't see no belly!! :(