So sorry that after a week being back in KL that only now I find the time to blog about Egypt. I had to get my notes together (yes, I wrote notes, I am that geeky!). Whilst I was there, I wish I owned a blackberry or a palmtop, or something that could’ve made my note-taking easier. I also realised that I wanted to become a travel writer, at least someone will pay me for all everything I write down! Putting that aside, let me begin a day to day analysis of my journey, oh I do not chronicle what happened in my few hours adventure in Bahrain because there really isn’t much to chronicle about.
Day 1: Cairo
After a 2.30hr flight from Bahrain to Cairo we were met by our travel agents counterpart in Egypt. The airport is weird in the sense that it allows travel agencies reps to enter beyond the customs point, rather than meeting them outside we meet them right as we get off the plane. I’ve never seen this occur before in any other country.
Passing through the customs was relatively easy, unless you got my immigration officer. He insisted on speaking to me in Arabic although I told him I don’t understand the language. I realised he was just trying to be funny (but I felt like he was trying to be difficult!) because he spoke to the woman after me in perfect English!
Anyway, after getting our baggage from the baggage claim area we were met with our tour guide in our tour bus. You see our group had a tour manager from Malaysia, but we had a tour guide who’s a local Egyptian. We were then whisked away to the Khan el Khalili souk or bazaar. One of the oldest bazaars, I honestly have nothing much to say about it. It is very crowded and you need a purpose to go there or else you’re spoilt for choices. Also the prices are very steep as it is a touristy area so getting bargains can be quite impossible. I noticed there were lots of cats though hehehe and at parts there it smelt quite foul. Not really a place I’d like to spend a lot of time in.
Near the bazaar is the Imam Al-Hussein Mosque, quite pretty but we didn’t get to go inside because of time constraint. We also saw the exterior of the old part of Al-Azhar University and Al-Azhar mosque. Very beautiful architecture!
After the bazaar we were taken to the Egypt Museum. A very interesting place! It is divided into three parts: Old Egypt, Middle Egypt and New Egypt. Old Egypt, I can’t remember which dynasty but most of the statues depicted with a straight beard. I think it signifies that the ruler is a ruler of upper Egypt. The reason Egypt is divided into upper and lower parts is because of how the Nile has two levels, one higher than the other. The Middle Egypt period was where Nephertite came about along with the Zorastrian belief. I think the sphinx also came along during this era. At this time the statues are depicted with curved beards apparently a sign of a different artistic era, more realistic I believe was what the tour guide mentioned.
I took particular interest in New Egypt as this is the time period to which Tutankhamun belongs to. Tutankhamun is the worlds most well preserved mummy and the findings in his tomb was magnificent! He became king at the age of 9 and died at the age of 18. I got to see his mask! The falcon and the cobra marked him as the ruler of upper and lower Egypt. He married the daughter of Nephertite. Nephertite married her brother you see and so had kids who had weird bodies and so Tutankhamun too was believe to have a weird body or something like that. I thought it was cool how at his throne on his foot rest there were pictures of his enemies. So basically he stepped on his enemies, he’s in control of all of them.
We also saw the Royal Mummies Exhibition, although this required an additional ticket I must say it was worth it! There was one mummy not yet labelled that was very well intact. And another mummy said to have gone through so many battles that his body and face was distorted was also well preserved. SubhanAllah, how it’s all still kept intact. I find it as message for us to learn from the past. And one of the clear things that I got from all this was that all these pharaos were buried with their wealth apparently to keep them comfortable in the afterlife, but the fact that after millions of years later they are discovered still with all the wealth shows that you can’t take anything with you to death except your good deeds. Well that’s my humble opinion at least.
Day 2: Alexandria
Alexandria was the former capital of Egypt. It is roughly 3hrs by bus from Cairo. It was founded in 331 BC by king Alexander the Great who apparently originated from Macedonia. In 641 AD when Amr ibn Al ‘As invaded Egypt, he changed the capital to Cairo. However, it became the holiday place for the King Mohd. Ali Pasha from 1905 till the last king (before the revolution) King Farooq in 1952.
Most of the monuments in Alexandria are from the roman period, but some are from the pharaonic and greek times. The first place we visited upon arrival was the Catacomb tomb found by accident in 1900 after a donkey cart fell into a pit discovering the tomb. We walked down the main tomb housing 3 bodies (I don’t know how else to describe it!), there were 99 steps and we went through this tunnel which had wooden planks for us to walk on. The spiral staircase made the bringing down of the bodies difficult so windows were carved into the walls and the bodies were said to have been passed through these windows easing the burial process. There were niches in the wall where bodies were once placed. Very scary and claustrophobic experience, too bad photography wasn’t allowed here or else there would’ve been loads of good pictures! The tomb actually goes down further to a third floor but we couldn’t go as it was naturally flooded with water.
On each of the 3 main tomb/caskets/coffins/what ever you want to call them, you can find sculptures from Roman, Greek and Pharaonic times. The cobra, the jackal (god of mummification) and Medusa are all represented. There’s also a banquet hall next to the tombs. I found this weird because after the burial procession was done people would eat down there! Archaeologists believe it was once a banquet hall because when they discovered the place, hundreds of plates were found. The plates was said to have been left behind because it would be bad luck to bring them out of the tomb. I say it’s bad luck and gross and creepy altogether to be eating in like a tomb just after a burial procession!
We then visited Pompey pillar, another site that seemed to be in the middle of people’s backyard. Both the Catacomb tombs and Pompey’s pillar are located in very poor neighbourhoods so the sights you see may not be all to pleasing on the eye, but I find it quite remarkable how ancient historical sites are just there surrounded by overcrowded flats! About the pillar, what can I say, it’s this weird pillar from Greek times and has a sphinx at its feet. Bordering grotesque, it really is out of place.
After wards we headed for Fort Qurtayb, it used to be the place where Poseidon the god of the sea’s lighthouse and statue once sat. It was destroyed after an earthquake, excavations are taking place to try and find it as it was once one of the wonders of the ancient world. Along this fort are people selling touristy stuff, quite nice to see but impossible to bargain!
We then went to the Al-Muhshi mosque, a sufi mosque, and masyAllah very beautiful! The women’s ablution area of course was at some dodgy place but at least women are allowed to pray in the mosque. I was able to take pictures so all was good. The architecture reminds me abit of the Nasrids palace in Alhambra very pretty!
After that we went for lunch and had really good baklava! That’s all I remembered of the lunch, oh except that they had this noodle thing that looked very much like mee hoon or rice vermicelli, and it was fried, I thought that was a unique thing because it seemed very Malaysian.
Anyway, after lunch we went to Alexandria Library! The second largest library in the world next to Aelxandria University making it function as a university library as well as a tourist attraction. It was built to recapture the old library that was destroyed. Very impressive inner and outer exterior modern amidst the antiquity of the city, I could definitely live there hehehehe.
Our last stop for the day was Montazah Palace, a residence of the King Mohd Ali Pasha’s family till the revolution. Now it’s taken over by the government. It has 3 buildings within the gardens and one is turned into a hotel named Palestine. How interesting. We couldn’t go in but the garden of palm trees was beautiful with the backdrop of the Mediterranean sea!
I must say it would’ve been nice to have stayed at least a night in Alexandria because it truly is a beautiful city. Still very crowded much like Cairo but the fact that it’s a seaside city just makes up for all the hustle and bustle.
Day 3: Memphis, Sakarra, Giza
Memphis is the oldest city in Egypt, it was first called Meen Ma Far, then Memphis and now Meet Rohana meaning the city of 100 captured enemies. Saw loads of donkey carts and apparently this is the area’s taxis! There were some ancient ruins but we didn’t stop, just passed through the area.
Apparently there are like 110 pyramids all around Egypt or something (I wasn’t paying attention at this time because I was still tired, we had to wake up very early hehehe) and 8 are in Sakarra. The oldest step pyramid in the world was initiated by King Zausar (I think that’s how you spell his name). There’s a court where the walls were made out of limestone and so it was very cooling. Loads of tourists in this area and it was quite eventful because this is where I stepped on the Sahara dessert!
In Sakarra also there are many tombs, and as I’m sure you’ve read they found one more I think. We went to the tomb of king titi and king merekmu (I don’t know how to spell his name!). That’s when I learnt that there’s this underground mafia stealing ancient Egyptian artefacts and selling them to museums around the world. Our tour guide explained to us about it because there were many well cut missing chunks from the wall where certain stories were depicted. Nonetheless it was fascinating how the original colours are still maintained. Oh and the lotus flower is the sacred flower of the ancient Egyptians and supposedly symbolizes love, so whenever the wife of the king was present in the depictions the lotus flower is almost always there.
Before lunch we went to a carpet school. They train children for 3 hours a day, so when kids come back from school or something they go to the carpet school to acquire this skill to make carpets. One child works on one carpet and it may take them years to complete, depending on the size. Some carpets were made purely out of wool, or purely out of camel skin, or purely out of silk. Others have combination of wool and silk or wool and camel etc. etc.
We then had lunch at this restaurant called Albeza, very touristy to the point of cheesy because the moment we got off the bus we were greeted with Arabic music and people holding up all sorts of animals (camel, horse, goat, lion cub!) and saying Salam. In a way I liked it though, hahahaha the food was good too, had good grilled chicken although the baklava wasn’t as nice as the day before. I also touched the lion cub, was expecting softer fur but was cool nonetheless. Although my heart truly went out for it, it looked extremely lethargic and malnourished! I didn’t take a picture because we had to pay and I didn’t have any money anyways.
After lunch we finally made our way to Giza to see the famous pyramids! We didn’t go in because our tour guide advised us against it saying that there’s nothing much to see. Besides we needed an extra ticket to go in. The 3 pyramids were said to be houses of worship, acting like a temple. I found it fascinating how no cement or anything was used to make the blocks stick to each other, it was just piled on top of each other. We also got to see the sphinx and there are many theories on how the nose got chopped off. Some claim it was during the battles of Napolean, others claim it was during the battles with the Ottomans, whilst some say it was this random Muslim dude who just shot at it for no apparent reason.
Funnily enough I believe that the pyramids and the sphinx is highly overrated. I mean it’s beautiful and fascinating don’t get me wrong. Let’s just say seeing it once is enough.
After the pyramids we went to a perfume palace. We were given different scents to smell and to refresh our senses were then given coffee beans. My favourite was the lotus flower and also this scent called Aida. The thing about these scents was that it wasn’t mixed with alcohol or any other chemicals so the scents were pure and really overwhelming after a while. I loved the bottles though, but didn’t take a picture because was too caught up in the whole perfume smelling business hehehehe
Our last stop for the day was the papyrus factory. Papyrus is a plant in which they make paper from. The demonstrator showed how they made it into paper. It was very interesting. They soaked it in plain water for one week then take it out and press it with this machine to flatten it out. The colour of the paper depends on how long you soak it for which is why you get papyrus paper that can be quite brown. After the paper is made they then send it to Al-Azhar university where the students paint on them, I got the one with a picture of 3 girls awaiting for marriage! Don’t ask me why I was attracted to the picture, I just was LoL I then asked them to write my name next to the picture in hieroglyphics.
We then headed for the Giza train station where we boarded our sleeper train for Luxor. The train was one hell of an experience. We got the first class cabin and even that was quite appalling, imagine if it was economy! The bunk beds were tiny; I couldn’t even stretch my leg to the fullest! On top of that it didn’t seem safe especially the fact that the train sometimes would stop to let a camel or horse or donkey or goat or whatever animal there is to cross the track! In addition to that there was a freaky porter who took a liking to calling us “habibi” and randomly touching us supposedly in an innocent gesture. Uh-huh right. Don’t even get me started on the toilets! It was a communal bathroom, gross with no pipes whatsoever and I don’t even know where the showers were. The food was surprisingly not too bad. We were told it would be disgusting similar to bad airline food, but honestly it wasn’t yucky. Breakfast was horrible though because it was only bread and I don’t particularly like bread. Nonetheless it was an unforgettable experience.
Day 4: Luxor
Upon arrival at the Luxor train station our tour guide and tour manager saw that our luggages were safely placed in the tour bus. We then headed straight to Kings Valley. At the metal detector point the guard stopped me only to ask if I was from Egypt. Funny, I got that a lot. Oh and yes at every single historical sight they make you go through a metal detector machine. Some places have an x-ray machine where you place your bags in. I personally think it’s for show because they don’t really bother you even though the machine beeps like a million times. Maybe it’s just a formality that the antiquity services invoke upon to deter any criminals.
Kings Valley is home to around 60+ tombs, including Tutankhamun’s. Unfortunately it was closed, besides we needed an extra ticket to go in but most of the stuff was moved to the Egypt museum so wasn’t really worth it. We went to 3 tombs, Ramses, Sephita (I think that’s how it’s spelt) and Tutmosis the III. Tutmosis the III was the hardest tomb to climb, we had to go high up these steep stairs then down again. Then the lights went out because of poor wiring or something. It was less than a minute but scary nonetheless, and it happened twice! It was extremely hot though, like a sauna, but I must say was worth it because it was the most well preserved tomb I saw that day! I found it creepy and weird that there’s like these Egyptian men in traditional garb meeting you in the tomb (no guides are allowed), they sometimes give you a brief explanation or sometimes just greet you. The creepy thing is how they can stay down there and not get freaked out and also not die of heat! It kind of made me feel bad because they expect a tip from you sometimes and well I didn’t have any money with me as usual.
After trekking the valley we then went to Queen Hatshapesut’s (sp.?) temple. Nothing much to see, although some adventurous tourists climb beyond the temple to trek to Kings Valley, quite nuts if I do say so myself but if you got gallons of water with you why not eh? From the temple there’s a view of a Christian monastery in the distance and I must say that’s prettier than the temple hehehe my crappy camera couldn’t zoom in though to capture it.
Exhausted and very much dehydrated we made a stop at an alabaster factory. Quite an entertaining stop because we were greeted with a sort of play/musical song thing. The guy who sold the stuff was just simply funny picking particularly on my family even singling us out to say goodbye as we were leaving, the embarrassment! Got to nice pyramids as souvenirs though, worth it and he also gave us complimentary alabaster rock and necklace.
We had lunch on our cruise and so we checked in our stuff and got our room. Very nice room, like your typical 4 star hotel room. Lunch was pretty ok, mixture of Arabic and western cuisine so I could actually eat! Hehehe you see I’m not a fan of Arab food, I like hummus and chick peas and pickled olives and baklava but it stops there. So western food was just what I was looking for tee hee
After lunch we headed out to Karnak temple. Known for it’s corridor of 100+ pillars and its two granite obelisk it was quite a remarkable site. There is also a beetle statue that is said if you go around it 7 times (hmm similar to going around the Ka’bah isn’t it?) it will bring you good luck. None in my family belief such things so although some people do it for fun we couldn’t be bothered.
After the Karnak temple we went to Luxor temple. We reached there just as the sun was setting, so it was really beautiful. The temple seemed to be a place where both Christianity and Islam had left an imprint of the religion. First the memluk mosque, built by accident because at the time the whole place was covered with sand. When the Muslims discovered there was a temple there they just let it be and it actually left quite a magical sight because the door seems to be leading into thin air! Within the temple you also find a Christian praying niche and plastered walls that remarkably acted as a protection to the original temple walls. I found this so fascinating. Also before entering the temple there is a whole row of sphinx lining the entrance and at night it just created this magical and mystical ambience. It was a very fulfilling day in Luxor.
Day 5: Esna Lock, Esna Market, Edfu
I never knew that the river Nile is actually two levels until my uncle who went to Egypt last year was explaining to me the experience he had whilst on a cruise, possibly similar to mine. We were informed that at around 2a.m our cruise will be going into the higher part of the river so we had to pass through the Esna Lock like other cruise ships. To see what all the hype is about, I along with my family asked the reception to give us a wake up call when we would pass through the Lock. At 1.30a.m the wake up call came, I grabbed my hoodie and headed for the sun deck. It was freezing I tell u, I wished I brought my socks!
The lock is like a canal passageway. It’s like a dam. There are two gates. The ship enters and the gate closes. Then they open the front gate slowly letting the water seep in slowly. It took roughly 15-30mins for the ship to rise at the same water level as the other side. My explanation really doesn’t do the engineering works of this lock justice so please feel free to Google Esna Lock. It is a must see, I’ve never been through such an experience and I wish I had brought my camera, unfortunately I was too sleepy to even remember the camera and even if I did bring the camera the night mode is crappy so I wouldn’t have captured it all anyways.
Our cruise stopped in Esna for a while. We disembarked to go to the market. Just a street filled with shops selling typical touristy things. Nothing really struck me as wow so I didn’t get anything. Again it was quite pricey because they usually expect cruise ship passengers to come by. There was a temple ruins at the end of the street though but we didn’t go in. Wasn’t anything spectacular yet I wish I took my camera to capture it, I guess because it was so empty that I felt this urge to document such a rarity.
We began sailing again at around 11a.m I believe and our destination was Edfu. In Edfu we went to the Edfu temple. We got there via horse-carriage. The guy wanted a tip but I didn’t understand what he was saying so I just nodded. My bad because on the way back to the ship he was demanding for it from me and I had no money so I couldn’t give him any but luckily he didn’t harass us. I felt kind of bad more so for the horse but then our tour guide had already tipped him so I didn’t feel too bad.
Anyway, the temple was quite interesting. The famous depiction being that of the creation of earth. Lots of gods marrying each other and giving birth to one another, didn’t really register in my head. What was interesting was how Isis took the form of a bird. She was married to this other dude can’t remember his name but then god Set(h.?) wanted to marry her so he killed her original husband and chopped his pieces up scattering them all over the world. Isis then took the shape of a bird and gathered all the pieces together and then slept on top of her original husband giving birth to god Horus who then kills Set(h.?). Quite a remarkable story eh? Scientifically impossible I’m certain. Oh and the pillars in the temple were kept well intact so we could see the papyrus tree, lotus flower and palm tree that they are supposed to symbolise. Very unique and by night the place is quite beautiful especially since it was a full moon.
