I have always wanted to visit Egypt and i finally got the company and the chance to go, This time was with G, my friend from sec sch. As Egypt isn't a very safe place at the beginning of the year when there were bombing there at that time, we decided to follow the tour. This would be more of a photo blog...
The moment we alighted from Cairo Airpiort, we met with our Egypt guide Ahmed and proceeded to the Egyptian museum. Near the museum was the building that was bombed earlier in 2011.
Next, the place i always wanted to visit. The Pyramids. This is the first time i rode a camel and it was scary!!! The camel would bend its legs for you to climb up and the moment it stood up, you will feel really tall. However, i do not feel really safe on one, one of our tour mates keep screaming non stop too. After that, we got up really early to board a domestic flight to Aswan.
We went to visit the High Dam site in Aswan. The whole scene looked just calm and peaceful here.
I think ancient people are very smart, they can actually build such tall temples that can stand and last thousands of years!
We decided to walk around the nearby towns or Aswan. The things the shops sell are something that i seldom see in Singapore, from this...which looks like the hooka pipe for people to smoke shisha to interesting spices and handmade hats and baskets. We see shopkeepers selling bread and putting them on the floor and people rushing to buy the bread.After the walk at the old and new tourist market in Aswan, we head back to our ship when the sun sets
The next day, we went on a boat again. Today, we saw this boy on just a wooden plank and swam to our boat and he started to sing, seeing if the people on board would give him some money. Along the way, we see deserts. We reached the Nubian village. And we visited the school in the village. The school looks run down with wooden tables and the teacher is tall and fierce! He taught us how to read alpabets in arabic.
After that we visited a house of the villagers and he actually had such pets in his house.
I think the Nubian villagers seemed quite happy and the kids gladly pose for photos after we offered them chocolates and sweets. The little kid up on the left is the photo i like most! At night, we went to the cruise ship to enjoy some performance.
The next day, we had a good rest in the morning and waited to join with the rest of the tour mates to Komombo temple. This temple seemed very majestic and the view around it is nice.
After that, we cruise further down the nile river and make our way to the Edfu temple in the evening. Aswan seemed like a very poor village with children selling bottled mineral water and asking me for my pen as i walked along the streets.
We went on a hot air balloon early in the morning the next day and had a exciting view of the land of Luxor. We went to so many temples till i had forgotten which is which.
This is one of the few green fields that i can find there. Most of the land is brown. We went to Karnak temple, the valley of the kings, Colossi of Memnon, Queen Hatshepsut Temple and the Luxor Temple.
Here is the Karnak temple and this temple is really big. Last but not least, towards sun set, we went to the Luxor temple. At night, we took a domestic flight, Egypt air, and flew to Sharm El Sheikh.
After having a good rest in the resort hotel in Sharm El Sheikh, we woke up fresh and started exploring the hotel resort the next day. This resort is one of the most accessible in the Sharm El Sheilh peninsula. After which we made a trip to Noama Bay. We went with this couple - an uncle and his wife in their 50s, and two teachers. I had funny experiences, a shop keeper asking the uncle to marry me,( thinking that i am their daughter) to offer how many camels for my hand... (I guess its a joke but its funny lo) You know what, its good to be young and when you just smile smile and ask for more discounts, they will give you...(especially with the male shopkeepers). Some even give you freebies. Some tried to flirt with you by saying sweet things like " Oh you are so beautiful!" However I remembered this Nubian guy, who gives very good discounts for his tshirts, and he does not try anything funny, very down to earth and honest shopkeeper. His shop is in this building and on basement 1.
The next day, we departed to go to St Catherine for our ultimate and physical challenge, that is to climb Mount Sinai. The Moses Mountain is 2285metres high. We had a simple stay in the hotel which was cold, slept for awhile before we make our way to the mountain at 2am. The road there is dark and we depended on each others headlights.
We managed to reach the top in 4 hours and got a magnificent view of the sunset. It is fortunate we have stop stations along the way for hikers to keep away from the cold and to get some beverages. Coming down is not so simple as it seems, i had to depend much on my walking stick as the ground was sandy and slippery, the older folks took the camel though for a fee. Finally we reach to take a photo that, we conquered Mount Sinai.
We went to the St Catherine's monastery in the afternoon. It is the world oldest Christian monastery that is still in use.
We went on the this jeep to the deserts, from the black desert to the white desert. Look at how smooth the sand is. We also went for some sand dunes adventure with our driver going down the slope at a fast speed.
On the last second day, we went back to Cairo and had some shopping at the bazaar. I did not smoke shi sha, i only posed with it! On the last night, we went back to our hotel Movenpick, had a last photo with our tour guide and that was the end of our memorable Egypt tour.
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