[Egypt Day 4] Valley of the Kings - Hatchebsut Temple - Memnon Colossi - City tour

We woke up in Luxor this morning. As we opted not to join the hot air balloon ride, we had the luxury of waking up at 7.30am instead of 4.30am. Had breakfast aboard the ship before going out for our day tour.

Today's destinations were Valley of Kings, Hatchebsut Temple and Memnon Colossi.

We took a chartered bus for 25 minutes to reach the Valley of Kings. This place was chosen to be burial ground for kings as the top most mountain was naturally shaped like a pyramid. There were a total of 62 tombs in this valley. Here, we were entitled to visit 3 tombs - whichever they felt like opening up on that day. For Tutankhamun's tomb, additional ticket of LE100 was needed. We visited tombs of Ramses IV, Ramses III and Ramses I. Ramses III's was closed last week so we were lucky to be able to go in, to see all the 3000 year old drawings and carvings on the walls. Ramses I's was very steep, going in deep into the ground, and there's not much to see inside. Weather was hot with glaring sun and limited shades. The rock mountains and the clear blue sky were amazing, too bad cameras were not allowed in the complex.

Queen Hatchebsut Temple was the only 3-storey temple in Egypt. During her reign the Queen disguised herself as a man and told story that she was the son of God Amon so that the people accepted her. The third terrace was found destroyed and restored back later on.



Memnon Colossi was just two 20m high statues depicting Amenhotep III with cracks on them, now happily used by the pigeons for their sanctuary. Before reconstruction, it was reported that there was whistling sound coming out from the statues.



Then we're back to the ship for lunch, another international buffet spread. Although it was said to be a 3-day cruise, in actual fact the ship only sailed for one day, from Aswan to Luxor. We went out to see a few nearby local stalls but didn't feel like going in as the vendors were quite aggressive in selling their stuff. Had a cozy tea break at the ship's lounge.

In the evening we went out again for city tour by horse carriage. It's meant for us to catch a glimpse of locals' way of life, as we went pass houses, local wet market that sold vegetables, spices, clothes, meat, etc. Spices were really colorful, and veggie was really huge especially the cabbage. We made a stop at a roadside coffee shop for drink and shisha. I tried a few sips of the shisha, could taste the apple flavor but I didn't really inhale that much.

[Egypt Day 3] Felucca ride - Sobek Temple at Kom Ombo - Horus Temple at Edfu - Esna Lock - Luxor

Woke up quite early today to have breakfast at 7pm and then it's time for our felucca ride! Felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat commonly found in Nile River. For about 40 of us, we occupied 2 feluccas, each operated by a Nubian sailor. The ride took about 1 hour, going back and forth around where the cruise ship docked. The wind was quite strong, but the ride's smooth and enjoyable. It's calming and more definitely more pleasant than riding a motorboat.



We were busy taking photos during the first half of the ride, and on the second half they made us sing, clap and dance along with the sailors - a Nubian song which meant "Welcome". And they also took the opportunity to display some handmade jewelries and wooden toys in the middle of the boat. At LE15 each, only 1 necklace and a wooden snake were sold.



After the felucca ride we went back to the cruise ship and the cruise started. We had our free time and spent it by reading novels at the sun deck while munching chips, soaking in the charming Nile vista.



Around noon the ship reached Kom Ombo. According to our guide, Kom Ombo used to have about 50 gold mines which were now empty. The area was now famous for sugar cane and eggplants. We visited the Sobek temple, listened to the explanations on some stone carvings like how the ancient people recorded their offerings to the gods, their depictions of medical instruments, their hieroglyphic symbols, images of gods, etc. There was a small pond made of stone, apparently it was something like bathing pool for Queen Cleopatra, used to be filled with milk. She liked to fly to Kom Ombo to escape the cold months.



The ship set sail again at 1.40pm while we were having our lunch aboard. It was another round of international buffet with cream soup, pasta, stewed beef, chicken with onion, creamy fish, buttered rice, salad, bread and dessert. There was a simple tea break at 4pm at the sundeck.

At 5.30pm the ship reached Edfu where we went down to visit Edfu temple, the only temple we visited during night time. It gave different feeling, with the gigantic walls, statues and columns. The temple was dedicated to God Horus, god of falcon. There were 2 falcon statues guiding both the outer and inner entrance of the temple. The temple facade was 40m high, and the walls were still intact, except for some carvings that were destroyed by the Christian refugees. It was found covered in sand caused by sand storm which occurred every April in Egypt.



After dinner on the cruise ship there was Galabeia party at the ship's lounge. According to those who went, they had fun by playing some ice breaker games and did some dancing. Too bad, we were to lazy to go out from our cozy cabin. So we lazed around and then forced ourselves to brave the chilling wind at the sun deck at about midnight when the ship passed by The Lock of Esna.



A lock is built as a way for ships to navigate between rivers of different water levels. It contains a chamber whose water level can be adjusted. For our ship that travelled from Aswan to Luxor, the water level was lowered down. My estimation was about 5-6 meters lower. So the ship went into the chamber, gates were closed, water was drained from the chamber by opening a valve, the exit gate opened and the ship sailed out to the lower canal. It's quite interesting.

The ship reached Luxor very early in the morning.

[Egypt day 2] Abu Simbel - Aswan High Dam - Unfinished Obelisk - Radamis II - Philae Temple - Perfume Factory - Radamis II

Woke up at 1.30am and packed our stuff. Our flight to Aswan was on Egypt Air at 4.35am. Caught a glimpse of beautiful sunrise on the plane, before reaching Aswan international airport at 6am, 16 Celcius. We immediately walked to departure terminal and checked in for flight to Abu Simbel at 06.55am. This flight took only 30 minutes.

Upon arrival at Abu Simbel, we boarded a chartered bus. It's 7 minutes to reach the temple of Abu Simbel. It is located next to lake Nasser, a nice shimmering blue lake. The main temple's facade was 30m high, with 4 Ramses II statues that were 20m high each. It was relocated in 1964, 65m higher and 200m back from the river, by cutting the stone into vertical blocks. The process took 4 years to complete. The temple itself was built in 15 years by Ramses II who ruled for 64 years. The 4 huge statues on the facade depicted Ramses II in different ages.



Ramses II also built a smaller temple beside the main one, for his most beloved queen Nefertari. On Nefertari's temple facade there were 6 statues, only 2 depicted Nefertari and the other 4 depicted Ramses II himself. Inside each temple there were pillars, statues, small chambers, and writings/paintings all over.



The magnificent thing about Abu Simbel temple was, every 22nd Feb and 22nd Oct, the sun ray would set on the face of the 3rd statue in the last chamber, which was Ramses II's statue.

Then we're back to Aswan with another flight at 10.45am.

In Aswan, we visited the High Dam which was located between Nile river and Nasser lake. It was built to prevent flood in Egypt as well as to generate electricity.



Next stop was the Unfinished Obelisk which was still lying on the granite quarries. Made of granite, its carving process was stopped because there was a crack appeared in the middle part. It was interesting to learn how they made an obelisk from granite and then put it up in a standing position, thousands of years ago.



After a super long day, we had our lunch at the cruise ship, Radamis II. It was a medium-sized cruise ship, consisted of 5 decks and 90 rooms, all with river Nile view. Equivalent to a 5 star hotel, it had a small swimming pool, a few gym equipments, sun deck, very small library, a few terminals with outrageous internet rate, lounge, restaurant, massage rooms, ice cream corner, jewelry shop and souvenir shop. It's not as luxurious as Superstar series but it was not bad at all. We got a room at deck 4, the highest desk for cabins.



In the afternoon we went to the temple of Philae located in Philae island in the Nile River. To get there, we went by bus first and transferred to a motorboat from a nearby jetty. The temple was dedicated to goddess Isis, goddess of magic. The temple complex was big with interesting stories. During Catholic persecution era the temple was used as their hiding place, which explained the altar, symbol of the cross at some walls and the destroyed carvings of the ancient Egyptians' gods and goddesses.

[Egypt Day 1] Giza Pyramids - Sphinx - Flower Cotton Shop - Hard Rock Cafe - Egyptian Museum - Le Meridien Pyramids - El Saayad Restaurant

Touched down at Dubai at 1.45am local time, too bad we were not allowed to disembark during the 1 hr transit. SQ flight this time round did not offer very exciting movie selections as I've watched most of the interesting ones. In the end I only watched Julie & Julia, which did not make me sleepy as I thought it would :D

After flying 5,133 miles, we arrived at Cairo International Airport at 05.18am local time. Upon landing, the plane crawled slowly waiting for a vacant gate. We went down, exchanged some USD to Egyptian Pound (LE), passed the immigration, collected our luggage. And today's tour started right from the airport.

At 7am, Cairo was cold and foggy. As today's the feast of Eid Al-Adh'ha, the streets were really empty and jam-free as people went for prayers and gatherings. Cairo was just like another old city, with policemen watching all around. Only big junctions had traffic lights, the rest did not have at all or were not in operation. For really big junctions, on top of traffic lights they also installed a count down timer to indicate how many more seconds the light would be green or red.



Our first destination was Giza Pyramids. The first pyramid we visited was originally 147m high but lost 10m of its top-most peak. So the highest now was the second pyramid, standing proudly at 143m. The third one was only 70m, surrounded by 3 much smaller pyramids for the 3 king's wives. We only viewed this wonder of the ancient world from outside, since going in needed extra ticket and according to our local guide, the inside did not have anything worth seeing. Pyramids were usually built once a king was crowned, in order to be completed when the king died. Most of them was robbed due to the treasures buried with the mummies.



We also rode camels on the pyramids' area. Camels looked cute and innocent but smelly and our rides were bumpy. At first it was quite scary as camels are much taller compared to horses, but after a while we got used to it, as we got more scared of the camel's owner instead. Apparently they all did the same thing: they guided the camels to quite a distance, offered nicely to take our pictures using our cameras and then asked for money for tips. They even asked for more when they felt the money's not enough. We could always reject the request, of course, but who would dare to refuse while sitting vulnerably on the camels, with the risk of not getting down as one piece?



Next was the Great Sphnix of Giza. Sphnix was depicted with lion body and human head to combine the strength of lion and the thinking capacity of human beings. It was meant to guard the pyramids.



We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, located at the basement of Grand Hyatt Cairo. It was a buffet of Mediterranean and European food - salad, soup, main courses and dessert.

Last sightseeing for the day was the Egyptian Museum, housing numerous collections of ancient antiquities. It was not as new, as big and as grand as its counterparts like Paris' Louvre and London's British Museum, but yet they did not allow visitors to bring cameras in. A few artifacts were highlighted to us. According to our guide, all artifacts displayed in the museum were original, except for Rosetta stone - the original was in British Museum. Upper floor housed mostly treasures found in King Tutankhamun's tomb - the only tomb found intact as it was built farther below another tomb.



For the night we rested at Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel. We had a short stay as we had to wake up early in the next morning.

Finally, it's our Egypt trip.. I was so excited!

We reached Changi airport early enough to have snack at McDonald's before meeting the tour guide. This was our first time joining a full board tour, as we did not dare to go on our own. It's a totally different experience from going on our own - everything was taken care of, we just needed to concentrate on having a good time and enjoying ourselves. We got to meet fellow travelers too.

After check-in, we took sky train to T3. Enjoyed the christmas decoration and explored Butterfly Garden - it's quite unique but there's no butterfly in sight.. it might look better at day time. We managed to find one geocache in the garden :) it's an easy find as the hints are very clear. Nothing much inside, though.. only a piece of crumpled paper for log hidden under a fake stone.

The flight took off at 10.40pm.

.. and I'm off to another foreign land, the last continent on my list.


destination: CAI

yah, yah, I know it's just a job, but still...

*sigh*


so disappointed. tired of it.

with only 4 days left, it's time to make full use of some vouchers that I have.


had lunch at bakerzin tampines 1 this afternoon. ordered pork chop with potatoes and linguini with bratwurst balsamico. the linguini was nice albeit giving oily after taste in my mouth. had a complimentary warm chocolate for dessert. yummy as usual.




bought a striped scarf from g2000, also using one of the voucher. I decided not to use the 20% discount at body shop though.. it's not good for my wallet :p

thank God the singing went smoothly for today's wedding, including for the beauty of the earth which was sung as march-in song, with the organ covering up some piano parts :p and now I can enjoy singing ave verum corpus as well, much better compared to the first time learning it - it was like a never-ending song then.


with that, I guess I concluded my singing contribution in friends' weddings.

can't believe it took me about 2 hours to reach St. Mary's from my office. terrible, terrible traffic jam. arrived there famished and in need of toilet visit.. :s


had our last choir practice before the big day this saturday. at first it just was not right. the balance, the blend, the dynamics, the tempo, the accompaniment, even the chords! lower the mics' sensitivity and you can hear close to nothing; make it more sensitive and you can hear all individual voices. sigh. the dilemma of St.Mary's sound system.


but after a few rounds, it gradually became better.. or so we thought, haha..

could not wake up as late as I wished. so I had a lazy morning instead, made banana smoothie while surfing the net before the day started.


had a rushed lunch at mcD before meeting friends and going to SFA church for friends' wedding service, followed by tea reception.


watched 2012 at tampines mall, followed by belated birthday dinner treat. thank you! *you know who you are* :)

it's beginning to look A LOT like christmas.. a tropical christmas, that is. and with APEC 2009, all the more reason for the country to dress up even prettier.


at bugis junction:



at central:




at ION orchard:




after meeting a few friends for dimsum dinner at geylang lor 27, we purposely went to orchard road to enjoy the christmas light up. the more crowded the street, the better it was =p


the blue color theme from tanglin road..




was finally changed to gold at orchard road - scotts road junction..




tangs was bathed in gold..

today's lunch: steamed rice with beef rendang and sambel goreng
today's dinner: gemblong, risoles, pisang goreng, singkong goreng and kolak pisang


yum!

I sort of missed a hearty warm bowl of pho, so we went to pho house at suntec for dinner. since we did not have plenty of time, we just went straight to the point: pho bo and pho ga.


service was friendly and efficient. the place was empty as well, which we liked.


food-wise.. their pho was quite decent. but they definitely had put in some local flavors in the menu, as they had broken rice with satay chicken/tofu/fish, fried chicken wings, etc. they put fried shallots in the chicken pho. the beef pho was really dark in color, unlike the clear soup base which we had in pho24 last time. the white noodles were super chewy. portion was huge, I could not finish the whole bowl, ended up wasting some beef slices.


all in all, it was alright but of course it's not as nice as compared to having pho in viet nam :)




rushed to esplanade right after dinner, to watch vienna boys' choir concert. when we reached the underpass between citylink and esplanade, there was announcement reminding everyone holding tickets to the concert, that it would start in a few minutes' time. wow! we managed to get there on time, but then the concert started a little late.


they performed quite a number of classical songs, especially in the first half. after 20 mins intermission, it was more enjoyable as they sang some popular songs from Queen and ABBA. some simple choreography made the concert more entertaining too.

omg.
the big three-oh.


but never mind. business as usual.
I was going through my blog's archives, and realized somehow I did not normally write lengthy postings on 3rd november. so, here goes, one lengthy posting on 3rd november on... stuff.


took one day leave today, clearing my deepavali off-in-lieu. woke up late, and stayed in bed till even later. turned on my mac, turned on my handphone. guess who was the first person who called me today?


it's a salesman from a bank, offering me their insurance plan. a pinoy with philippine english and singlish slangs. but to give him credit, he noticed my birth date and said happy birthday to me. for that, I allowed him to send me his insurance brochures, after I refused to enroll right there and then through phone =)


enjoyed a late and lazy lunch at north border bar & grill, rochester park.




tempted initially to order their 3-course set meal, but decided to go for the 2-course instead, as we planned to go for chocolate warm cake for tea break later on the day.


wise decision. portion was huge I was already 60% full after my starter. we had nachos with salsa as well, which came with the sets. for starters it was grilled beef salad and creamy mushroom ragout. I loved the salad - dressing and beef slices were given generously, rested on bed of greens sprinkled with cheese. for mains it was crispy skinned salmon and braised beef cheeks. I struggled to finish my salmon piece, leaving the baby potatoes untouched.




service was great. attentive, on time and polite. we did not notice the waiters anywhere near us, but they always appeared at the right time, clearing away plates and bringing the next courses.


got a complimentary warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream too.. complete with happy birthday song played on ;) inside it was gooey chocolate sauce.. just the way I liked it. yummy! with that, the plan for cake on tea break was immediately canceled.


the two birthday cakes I got today.. heart-shaped chocolate moose and warm chocolate cake. coincidentally both had a single pink candle.




passed by this colorful bougenville plant along carpenter road. a single plant with white, yellow, purple and red flowers. pretty!