15-24 July Egypt Trip

I had never imagine being able to go to Egypt. When I was young, I was really fascinated by Egyptian history. The myths about the gods... the mummies... the pyramids... Its a land filled with mysteries... I finally went there on 15th July!! and boy was I glad I made the choice!

The trip is very fulfilling : ) I got to know more about Egyptian history and culture.

We had to take a transit flight at Doha to go to Luxor. The flight from Changi Airport to Doha took us about 7 and a half hours. We reached Doha Airport around 10am+ (we are 5 hours ahead of time....) and by the time we finally reached Luxor, it was already about 3pm+.

Our local tour guide was Mustafa, who had a Degree in Archaeology and Egyptology. Our first stop was Karnak Temple. At Karnak Temple, one local Egyptian stood beside me when I was taking a photo. After that, he came after me asking for TIPS! I was really furious! Firstly, I didn't ask him to be in the photo with me! Secondly, I should be the one asking him to give me $$$ cos I took a picture for him! Alas! I deleted that pic from my digicam and quickly ran off to visit other sites. When I bumped into him at another site, he still remembered me and asked me for tips! How annoying! That's where we learnt our lesson not to take photos with strange local Egyptians...

Karnak Temple is really BIG! As this is the very first temple visit, we were in awe... I still couldn't believe I landed in Egypt...

After Karnak Temple, we visited Luxor Temple. This is smaller compared to Karnak Temple, but this is the place where we can see Rameses II's ego at work. Rameses II removed the cartouche from the statues which he deemed beautiful and carved his own name onto those! Aiyoh... how can he do that? But anyway, most of the statues in Luxor Temple bore his cartouche...

Our first night was spent at Joille Ville Movenpick Luxor Resort. This is really a haven!!! River Nile is just behind us! and the setting is really cool I felt that I was in Bali more than Egypt!! haha.... food was good : )

One of our tour mates lost her luggage... but the luggage managed to find her when we were on the Nile Cruise...

Visited Hatshepsut Temple, Colossi of Mem Non and Valley of the Kings on the next day. After which we're supposed to go to the Cruise for the night. We had an optional tour - horse carriage ride around the city : )

Had an enjoyable time on the Cruise. Had pleasant surprises when we returned to our cabin and found that there were 'towel origami' on our bed waiting for us! We were so touched we left a note and some tips for whoever who did those. The waiters in the restaurant are pretty cool, showing off lots of tricks, and at the same time, played IQ games with us : )

Visited more temples along the Cruise - Temple of Horus in Edfu, Kom Ombo Temple, Philae Temple, Abu Simbel Temple & The temple for Nefertari... Very interesting carvings on the walls.....

Also visited a Nubian Village and took my first camel ride! My camel was galloping!! Oh boy!

From Aswan, we took an overnight train to go to Cairo. Cairo's streets are really busy! We visited the Pyramids and even went into 1 of them! Phew! Damn stuffy! but its not really that narrow as I've expected : )

We also visited the Egyptian Museum and Old Cairo whereby we visited Coptic Churches and Mosques, plus the famous Khan Al Khalili market.

10 days passed by just like that..... I really had very fond memories of Egypt and when the tomb of the labourers are open, I might just go back to take a look. It has evidence of blueprint in building a pyramid!! WOW!!! And I've yet to visit Alexandria!!!!

If time permits, I shall do a day-by-day entry into my blog... but that's the synopsis for now!

Have been very busy at work lately.... Damn sianzzzzzzzzzzz