nerd alert 8-): egypt

My holiday in EGYPT...

sorry for my long hiatus. i was away for a holiday of 10 days.

21ST OF DECEMBER

we arrived in the Cairo Airport today and it was a tiring 5 hour flight. had to transit in Bahrain and board another flight to Cairo.

my first impression of Cairo was that it was dirty coz a LOT of people warned us before going there. and they were right. the poverty in the city was just so pitiful. people were living in slumps(that's what my MUM calls it to sound more POLITE) and the food was terrible. XP

rested a few hours before going to the SOUND AND LIGHT OF THE PYRAMIDS IN GIZA.

we were seated directly in front of 3 pyramids and the sphinx and it was pretty amazing. you sit there and suddenly this god-like voice starts talking and explaining things which i now can't remember. =P. they had holograms to make it more interesting and sounds to suit with them. and it was FREEZING! about 9 degrees. i was wearing 3 layers of clothes and i was still so cold. i was beginning to feel pretty sick because of the DAMN CRAZY driving of our driver and the FOOD.

later on when we were heading back to our hotel, i threw up in the van BUT luckily i had a plastic bag. i could hear the driver cursing in egyptian XD. i said sorry to the tour guide and the driver and rushed into the hotel in case they were REALLY MAD at me.

luckily my parents brought some panadol and imodium coz we were already WARNED beforehand that we were gonna get food poisoning. and there i was already sick on the first day of our trip! can you believe that?! HAIYOH.....

22ND OF DECEMBER

the next day me and jiejie weren't well. we were both down with food poisoning because we ate food in the HOTEL. tried to postpone it but our schedule was gonna be messed up. so we just went on with it.

THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA.

it was such an amazing feeling to be standing IN FRONT of the pyramids. i was all dead but i could still SEE with my own eyes that it was just right there. the pyramids were built 4000 years ago before Christ.

ONE of these weighs 1500 tonnes.

i'm TALKING about the BLOCK not that zombie

how were the pyramids built?

there are 3 theories that scientists came up with... but the real reason of HOW is still a mystery.

1) they used a crane

2) they used black magic

3) it came from outer space???

number one is quite impossible because metal as not even created at that time and even if they had wooden cranes, they would break coz those blocks are freaking HUGE and HEAVY.

number two is quite possible because they worshipped many gods and my mum, my sis and i think it makes more sense.

number three is definitely IMPOSSIBLE. don't tell me aliens came to egypt and communicated with the pharaohs. my DAD thinks this one is POSSIBLE. he said they came from meteorites...??

the guard and his pet camel. AWWWW~!

family pic in front of the well-knowned Sphinx and one of the 8 pyramids.

Something i would never ever forget.

23RD OF DECEMBER

Woke up really early in the morning. went to this place called the Pharaohnic Village.

it was pretty crappy so i think i'll skip this one =P

after 2 hours, we went to the egyptian museum and it was FULL of people. weren't allowed to take our camera in but it was one of the BEST museums i've been in. they had all the TOMBS and they were so magnificent! those days during the B.C, the egyptians treated their Kings like Gods and they had interesting beliefs. every King who died would had to be mummified with at least 52 chemicals to keep the body preserved. they believed in the AFTER-LIFE and the writings on the walls of the tombs are for their lost souls to find their bodies to be able to resurrect.

in front of the museum.

24TH OF DECEMBER (CHRISTMAS EVE)

we drove down to Alexandria. stupid tour guide. he told us it was for 2 hours but it ended up to be 5! dong dong betul.

the first place we visited was called the Roman Amphitheatre. Unlike Cairo, Alexandria has a little Roman influence because of the Julius Caesar time.

it was quite unique. the audience can only hear a person speaking from the middle of the theatre, standing on a flat round stone. it's as if the person is using a microphone, but when you step out, the audience can't hear you.

WHOA! 38DDD!!! =P

the next stop was Pompey's pillar. i can't remember why it was built, but all i know is that it was built around Julius Caesar's time.

after that, we went to the Alexandria library. it is said to be the biggest library in the world.

after taking a few snaps, we headed back to Cairo because we had to wake up EARLY to go for the NILE CRUISE.

25TH OF DECEMBER

It was Christmas morning. I moved my heavy, thick cotton blankets and ran downstairs. There it was... my beautiful Christmas tree, and underneath it were presents, wrapped up in colourful wrappers. My excited eyes looked for the biggest present. I rushed to it and tore the wrappers open and found what i wanted. A PANDAAAA!!!

i woke up and looked at the clock. 6am. DARN IT! it was only a dream T.T

*clears throat* SO ANYWAY, we had to take a flight from Cairo to Aswan fr our Nile Cruise(F.Y.I, the Nile River happens to be the LONGEST river in the whole world). and then we stopped in places before our final stop in Luxor(that comes later).

our ship. =)

our ship was only going to sail the next day, so we got on a boat(which was part of our tour) to view the Elephantine Island by Felucca(which is a sail boat).

two smiling maniacs =D

we were kinda free afterwards, and were told about the beautiful scenery if we had tea time around the hills. got a taxi to take us up there, and they were right. the scenery was just one in a million.

looks like its on a postcard..

we watched the sunset and it was one of the most beautiful places i've been to. will never forget this moment.

egyptians during the B.C used to believe that the Sun was eaten and born again the next day. if you've watched the movie called THE MUMMY or THE MUMMY RETURNS, there's this bug that goes into people's bodies, right? dong dong story. NO SUCH THING. the bug was supposed to lead the Sun into the sky. nice sunset, ey? ;)

when the sun said BYEBYE to everyone =(, we headed to the Aswan museum.

the only thing that was interesting was the statue of Ramses II. Yes, the King who had 43 wives and 249 children.

MERRY CHRISTMAAASSS!

it wasn't one of those Christmases where you go out and celebrate, but it was one of those once-in-a-life-time experiences. i would choose a holiday like this over anything else!(eventhough it was quite tiring).

26TH OF DECEMBER

had our breakfast. and went to visit the high dam.

it wasn't much. just a dam to control the water around the nile river.

after that, we went to the Temple of Philae on the Philae Island by boat.

can you actually believe that egyptians carved this without using metal? i couldn't have done a better job!

in front of the temple.

beautiful carvings on the wall including that pink girl ;D

pillars of 4000 years of age

went back on the boat and back to the ship.

the ship sailed to another place, where we got off and went to the Kom-Ombo Temple.

magnificent invention : the calendar.

we had some time to look at everything but decided to go back into the ship. by the time we got to the port, it was crowded with people because the ships were stacked together... like 10 ships and only 1 entrance! it was pretty stressful because there were sooo many people. we managed to get through it and our ship was the 6th. HAIYOH. zzz

27TH OF DECEMBER

went to the Temple of Horus. Horus is one of the Gods and there is this belief of the Egyptian people. There was a mighty God who had 4 children : Osiris, Isis, Nephtis, and Seth. Osiris married Isis and Seth married Nephtis. Osiris grew up and became a powerful leader which led to Seth's jealousy. Seth killed Osiris to take over the throne and later, Osiris became the leader of the Underworld. Isis was left alone but one day, Osiris's soul came from the Underworld and somehow made Isis PREGNANT. then, she gave birth to HORUS. Horus grew up and avenged his father's death and killed Seth. HOORAY! =P

some grampa posing

HORUS!

in front of the Temple of Horus.

after the tiring day, we went shopping *cough* to get some EGYPTIAN clothing for the party.

papa look happy =D

nice bandages, dude.

we made friends on the cruise and it's really nice to get to know people. =)

my sister was pulled out from the crowd and was told to BELLY DANCE.

my mum laughed until she cried.

my dad choked on his drink.

i CRIED, LAUGHED, and CHOKED.

but she won.-_-'

danced until late at night eventhough our tour guide TOLD us we were gonna have a full day the next day. and SO VERY RIGHT he was.

28TH OF DECEMBER

just reached Luxor. the EXHAUSTING journey begins here. it was a FULL DAY schedule and my feet were already hurting =(

THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS

the place were all the Kings were buried. except for one Queen. i'm pretty sure most of you are familiar with Queen Hatshepsut; had the most powerful reign in Egypt as a Queen.

the tombs were UNDERNEATH all this pile of rocks and sand. we weren't allowed to take any photos in the tombs because the flash will oxidize the colourful carved drawings in the tombs. it was pretty amazing that those people actually made an effort to carve EVERYTHING in such detail.

outside the TOMB of King Tut-Ankh-Amun. this tomb is very famous because the King mysteriously died at the age of 18 and was the son of the beautiful Queen Nefertiti. There were many stories of this tomb; it was said to be cursed. During the times when it was first discovered, many archeologists were CURSED and they all died one by one aged between 35 to 48. There was one archeologist who was interviewed and was asked if he was going to be cursed and he simply replied "I have visited many tombs and mummies... But nothing has ever happened to me," He died the next day.

We had to pay extra 80 bux each to enter his tomb but we told ourselves that we had to coz we came all the way. the entrance was pretty simple. his mummy was there on the left and his tomb purely made out of GOLD was on the right. his mummy was kinda short, probably because he was mummified with 52 chemicals. his whole body was black but his toes were still visible. it was freaky because you think about all those dumb movies.

next stop : Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. jiejie didn't come because she was sick and my mum stayed back with her. went with dad. They said that Queen Hatshepsut dressed as a man. maybe physically she was a woman, and mentally a man. But she was married to a weak King and had 3 daughters. nothing much though. didn't go inside coz it was closed.

HELLO, FRIEND!

and right after that, we went to the Karnak Temple. It was HUGE!

there's this stone-thing with the bug on top of it. they said that if you walked around it for 7 times, you would get good luck forever! so me and my sis WALKED AROUND IT for 7 times. like come on lah. wanna try right? you never know that it might really work. =P

the entrance of the Karnak Temple.

the Karnak Temple was filled with 134 pillars.

later, we went to the Temple of Luxor which is very near to the Karnak Temple. they are still trying to find if there is a passageway.

the entrance.

after awhile, after going to soooo many temples, you just get so bored of it. you realise that everything looks the same. like OMG i'm such a typical teenager. but seriously lor! it's the same thing. i still appreciated how much those slaves went through to built this and that and how the managed to carve everything.

the statue of Ramses II.

Pharoahs those days were afraid that their names were going to get vandalised, so they wanted their names to be carved very deeply in the stones.

King Tut and his wife.

I had so much fun looking at everything with my own eyes. with the help of my specs =P

but the history in egypt is incomparable. had to check in the hotel the next day, coz we already reached our destination and the ship stops here. the people on the ship were so ncie and friendly, we were like a family. it was hard to say goodbye but i had fun on the ship =)

29TH OF DECEMBER

checked out of the ship. waved our final goodbye.=(

checked in to the Sofitel Old Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor.

OMG CAN I EAT THAT?!

our tour guide said someone special was staying in the same hotel we were staying in.

WHO?!

ORLANDO BLOOM?

TOM CRUISE?

BRAD PITT????

WHOOOOOOO?!??!?!?!

TONY BLAIR?!

omg. i can't believe it. but his son is sooooo h-h-h-hhhhaaaawwwtt!!!!! =P

but the fact that he was staying in the same hotel was quite annoying. we had to be checked by security a LOT of times.

and FINALLY! we went into our rooms to zzz.

YAY! *jumps on bed and hits head*

took the carriage to the SO-CALLED SOUQ. stupid carriage rider tricked us! he brought us to some shop to get some business from his friend who OWNS the shop so that this guy can get some money if we bought anything. hey buddy, we ain't DUMB okay?! we know what and WHERE the Souq is. then he dropped us off in some place full of some shops and we were supposed to return to the carridge after that. well, we ditch that sakai. =P good for you lah HOR! TRICK US.