Xiamen 29-31 July 05

Never thought that Xiamen is such a nice city. This picture was taken while we were on a ferry ride to go to Gulang Yu Island "鼓浪屿". I think the island could be a very interesting scenic spot but too bad the rain spoilt everything.

Our first scenic spot was 南普陀寺 "Nan Pu Tuo Temple". But the tour guide spoke very funny English, hence, I could not really make out what he was saying... But anyway, the view is quite nice lah... but maybe I went with the wrong crowd who was there for the wrong reason, hence, everything turned out to be just ok... but the skies grew dark here.... and it started to rain....

This was a black and white shot of one of the pavilions in the temple... I didn't quite catch what's inside... but the architecture sure is pretty : ) There's this very big stone behind this pavilion that has the word "Buddha" (佛) written by some famous caligrapher. A lot of people were trying to take pics with that stone but I gave up ...


After the temple visit, we went to a place where they sold tea. As usual, they made us drinks to sample the tea and then asked us to buy tea... I've got a colleague who actually spent RMB$1,000 on teas alone ok?

Whatever unpleasanties we experienced during the temple and Gulang Yu Island trips, it was made up by the scrumptious 15 course dinner! yum yum... We simply had to try every dish even though we were really full!

It was free and easy on the second day so my colleagues and I went shopping!!!! hehe.... luckily we stayed in a hotel near the shopping belt. We didn't even manage to get 100m out of the radius of our hotel cos we were stuck at this "Trust Mart" behind our hotel. We were stuck there for half the day. I bought 1 Adidas backpack, 1 sling bag and 3 wallets! hehe... also bought some local flavoured LAY's potato chips to try.

Lunched at this place which sells Halal 刀削面 (opened 24 hours some more) and the store owner don't look like Chinese Chinese... hehe... but the noodles are good and cheap! RMB$4 only!!!!

After that we got to the Big Malls around our hotel area... we also went to McDonald's and try their local flavoured drinks... very innovative and tastes good! After which we spent a lot of time in a bookstore and ended up buying lots of Jimmy's Illustration Books.

At night, 7 of us ventured into a seafood restaurant and ordered a 7-course dinner that only costs RMB$20 per person!! That translates into S$4!!!! for seafood!! OMG!! That's dirt cheap!!! The table behind us are very unethical. They left without paying... and they ate a lot! There were only 2 of them but their bill came up to about RMB$300+ The waitresses were quarrelling and crying behind the tables... sigh...

We also tried the 老北京烤鸭卷 at KFC... Tastes quite ok : )

Overall, the trip is quite enjoyable! (In terms of shopping & food!)

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