Monday, November 07, 2005
yayy i'm back! (: haha. my hols were great fun! hee. it was very cool. (: haha. and no. egypt was not really as hot as i expected. in fact, it was pretty cold at night. and there were many stars at night too! cos the sky was so nice and clear. haha. it was practically cloudless.
lol and coincidentally we were the last group to book the flight there. and they had run out of economy class seats. so we were upgraded to business class! yayy! the service there rox! but what i like best is that the seats can arrange itself into a bed. (: yayy so i slept for the whole journey there. except for mealtimes of course. the food rocked too! (: hee.
okay. i shall start from day 1. nothing much really. after landing in luxor, [the previous capital of the new kingdom] we checked into our hotel. it was one of the movenpick resorts. yayy and it was on this place called crocodile island. (: and nope there weren't any crocs there. anyway. the hotel was in the form of a large chalet. whee. it was really beautiful! (x
day 2. first day of actual sightseeing! we visited the valley of the kings on the west bank of the nile! it was seriously very beautiful, with all the gorges and valleys. there are 64 pharoahs' tombs there! but so sad. they didn't allow any photography inside the tombs. boohoo. the inside of the tombs were nice too! there were many hieroglyphs carved on the walls. but many of them had already been eroded and defaced over time. yeah but it still looked gorgeous.
next: temple of hatshepsut. it was built in a really nice place with rock terraces and cliffs in the background. lol. and the walls had nice hieroglyphics too! haha but actually for all the temples and tombs i visited, they all had hieroglyphics on the walls.
then we went to see the colossi of memnon. it was basically just this little place with 2 large statues of a pharaoh. whee they were really large! and they were both sitting down. imagine if they were standing up. they'd be colossal! [whoops i just realised that statues can't stand. haha]
next was the karnak temple. omg it was simply wonderful! it was super huge with many pylons and a large hypostyle hall with over 120 giant columns. wow. and there was this large sacred lake too! whee. and there was a mosque and a chapel in the compound too!
at night we checked into this deluxe cruise called renaissance. (: it was quite nice. especially the sundeck. (: it had a nice view of the surroundings. the cabin rooms were a little squeezy though because of the extra bed.
day 3. we visited the luxor temple! it was quite like a typical egyptian temple with pylons and columns and hieroglyhs on the walls. heh after that we returned to the cruise which started sailing towards edfu. lol i slept in the cabin for the rest of day since we couldn't go anywhere else. anyway i was having a flu. some idiot spread it to me on the plane. grrr.
there was a really cool event at night though: the crossing of the esna lock. (: lol it was pretty late at night . we all observed from the sundeck. whee. and you could actually see the water level rising inside the lock. [we were supposed to travel from lower waters to higher waters] how memorable!
day 4. temple of horus! haha. again, it was very nice. the pylons of the temple had carvings of horus with his wife hathor, along with the pharoah bartholemy. hee i like egyptian gods and goddesses! especially anubis and bastet[bastet is a really cute cat goddess] and horus and isis and hathor. yayy! and i luv egyptian mythology too! heh i used to read it a lot. (x
then we sailed to kom ombo to visit the temple of sobek[crocodile god] and haroeris[hawk god]. we saw a mummified croc! so cool right. there was a sacred lake too but it was all dried up. heh.
at night there was this fun event called 'egyptian night' on board the cruise. hee. i dressed up in a galapia! it's this egyptian costume with the head scarf. (: my dad dressed up in some kind of sheikh looking outfit. and my mom wore an egyptian head scarf! (: whee.
anyway. egyptian night was super fun! there were a lot of games and music! for hte first game, they would play the music for a while and we would all have to dance. then when the music stopped, the person would call out a number and the people would have to quickly form a group with that number. haha.
then there was this pass the parcel game too. but haha it was more like pass the bottle actually. yayy i won that game! (: and my prize was a free drink at the bar. haha the bartender gave me hibiscus cocktail. whee it was yummy! me likes hibiscus drink. heh.
next game was a mummification game. (: lol it was really amusing watching the participants trying to mummify the person using toilet paper. hoho.
ohh and the room service people were very humourous too. after egyptian night ended, we returned to our cabins. haha i was really amused by what happened next. my mom opened the door and screamed really loudly. haha so i peered around her and saw this lifesize crocodile on the floor. haha okay it wasn't a real croc, just one made up of blankets and towels. and there was a toilet roll to keep its mouth open. haha. anyway. there was this room service guy who was watching us and he laughed at our reaction. haha.
such amusing people. they always do things like that. they made a lotus flower and two swans in the shape of a heart too! haha and then they also made a little man out of towel and then hung him up in the doorway of the cabin. goodness. this time it was me who screamed. and again, the chamberman laughed at my reaction. haha everytime they do something scary, they love hanging around to watch your reaction when you open the door. haha it's quite funny really. xD
day 5. whee we went to see the granite quarries and the unfinished obelisk at aswan. it was kinda rocky there. my shoes started to split. ): but it had a nice view. (: then we went to aswan high dam and lake nasser. (: lake nasser is really really huge. it looks more like a sea than a lake actually. yeppz. very cool.
next place: abu simbel. we had to fly there on egpyt air. goodness. that place is almost like a desert. nothing but sand and sand and sand. haha. but anyhow. it was a nice place. the temple of ramses II was carved in rock and it was facing lake nasser! nice view. and nice breeze too. woot. the only sad thing was that we didn't go in the morning at sunrise, when the sunlight will supposedly shine through the door of the temple. but anyway. even at noontime, it was still quite nice. the four statues at the entrance of the temple are really huge and beautiful, although one of the statues has already been defaced. the temple built for his wife, nefertari, was nice too! although it was much smaller than his.
hee then we went to the temple of isis on angelica island. okay it used to be on philae island, but it got flooded and so it was rebuilt on angelica island. whee. it looks somewhat like horus temple too. just that the figures were not of horus, but of isis. (: whee!
ooh then we sat on a felucca and cruised down the nile! yayy! very scenic. and breezy. haha. and then there were some very cute little boys floating along in their little makeshift sampans and singing some kind of funny mustafa song. so cute! and then they clung to our felucca so that they wouldn't have to paddle along themselves. haha. so unique. their boats were super tiny. and their oars were tiny too! they only used bottles and tabletennis bats as oars. goodness.
oh i forgot to mention that there are some very pro sea peddlers. they sell their stuff on their little boats on the nile. hee and they have perfect aim! they throw the stuff upwards onto the sundeck of the ships, which were five storeys high! and they always land on the deck! (: so amazing. and they can catch the money that people on board the cruise throw down too! WOW!
haha anyway we sang some kind of funny song on the felucca. lol. some kind of nubian song. lol.
and we were on the felucca for 1 hour too! (: whee.
day 6. boohoo. we left the cruise for cairo! so early in the morning. and we flew to cairo, on egypt air again. after landing, we visited cairo museum. goodness. that place is like so old. but it was quite beeg. and the monuments there were quite nice too! there were some animal mummies and there was this live mummy there too. and some sarcophagi. and some statues. but the best thing was still the room with tutankhamon's treasures! there was his mask, and his jewellery and his 3 layered-coffin. whee. but the place was so squeezy. and the people kept pushing each other too. and the stupid tourists kept shoving people aside so they could get to the front. my mom told one of them off. YAYY!
ooh then in the afternoon we went to the pyramids of giza! whee! that was the only thing i really liked about cairo. i preferred the other parts of egypt. but anyway. they were really huge! cheops' pyramid was the biggest, followed by chephren, and then mycerinus. whee. but i like chephren's pyramid the best! it still had some limestone covering left at the peak. the other 2 pyramids were quite eroded already. oh and guess what? the pyramids could change colour according to the direction the sun shone in. one minute they were sand-coloured, and the next minute they were grey. cool right.
the sphinx rocked too! it was really impressive. (x but poor thing. most of the face was quite eroded. the false beard had fallen off already. ): oh haha. i collected some sand from there... *looks meaningfully at joyce*
yayy next we had a camel ride. it was very scary at first...getting up onto the camel and all that. i screamed many many times. and so did my mom. haha but we got used to it after a while. and at least we were riding on a smooth road so it wasn't really very bumpy or anything. (; whee. but the camels were quite gross. there were many flies on their faces! ewww. they must be very dirty. ):
haha at night we went to the sound and light show at the pyramids. it's something like the musical fountain at sentosa with the laser beams and sound efects. hee. it was beautiful! the sphinx and the pyramids were all lighted up! and there was this narrative about the history of egyptian civilisation. cool! and pretty informative too! (:
our hotel in cairo was nice too. again it was one of the movenpick resorts. and it had this lovely view of the pyramids. (x whee. ohh and the cakes and ice cream were yummy too! haha. well duh. they were all movenpick stuff. (: yayy.
day 7. the citadel of saladin. erm well it was quite nice too. and then we went to the mosque built by mohammed ali. it was huge! and the decor was nice too! haha. just that i had to take off my shoes. and the marble floor was super cold.
then we went to saqqara to see the step pyramid of zoser I. it's the oldest pyramid in the world! lol. it was as nice as the great pyramids of giza too! just that it was different in the sense that it had 5 steps. uh huh. oh we went to memphis too! it was the capital of the old kingdom! basically we just went in to see the great statue of ramses II. it was lying down on the floor. ahaha.
next: shopping at the largest bazaar in cairo: Khan al Khalili. it wasn't as great as i expected. it was not big at all, plus it was fly-infested! yucks! and the streets were all strewn with rubbish and decomposed food and whatnot. ): boohoo. and the people there are really rude too! yepps. they keep pestering you to buy from their shop, and even follow you when you refuse to buy from their shop. and they always yell "one dollar one dollar" and when you finally enter their shop, it turns out that the stuff there are all more than one dollar.
day 8. alexandria! whee. it took about 3 hrs to drive from cairo to alexandria. i slept on the bus! yayy. haha. the climate there was even nicer than the rest of egypt. lol. it was cooler. (x we went to the catacombs! it was quite deep underground. and the groundwater entered the catacombs. again, no photography allowed. so sad.
then we went to pompey's pillar. haha. it was this large granite pillar. oooh and then we visited alexandria museum. (: quite small, but much newer and nicer than cairo museum. hee. ooh and we had a sea food lunch too! woot. the squids were yummy. and so was the fish. but it was kinda salty too.
then we went to the lighthouse. which was on the coast of the mediterranean sea! whee. the ocean breeze there is really strong. and so is the sea smell. very salty. haha. i like the mediterranean sea! it was sooo blue! (: whee yayy.
day 9. haha it was a free day so we went shopping at carrefour. yes can you believe it? they have carrefour there. anyway. i found my barbie doll! okay it wasn't really barbie. it was a barbie-like doll called fulla. and it was dressed in the arabic costume. all black with a headscarf.
we bought some beans too! they call it foul. haha. i luv egyptian beans! and dates! and guavas! haha basically all the egyptian food. especially the dessert! omg! they were yummilicious! especially the guava pie and banana pie! and peppermint pudding! whee!
then we departed for singapore. boohoo. i didn't really want to come back cos the place was so nice. haha. but i'm always like that anyway. especially for longer holidays. lol. just like one of our friends in the tour group. :D lol.
ooh and i found a pretty pair of ankh earrings at cairo airport! (: yayy! i like the ankh. it's this thing that's also known as the key of life in egypt. heh. ooh and my mom bought me a cartouche with my name written in hieroglyphics too! hee it's very cute. (:
lala. ohh and i watched fantastic four on the plane back home. it was quite nice. (: the food was disgusting though. it tasted weird. and yucky. ah well. okie then. that's the end.
haha gotta go now. byebye (:
