Yes, I've finally been to the land of the pyramids! Land of culture and ancient wonders. Another red dot on my map, and on the African continent..so that only leaves me South America to visit..haha. Actually, I'm still undecided...Egypt is more like a middle eastern country on the wrong continent...so maybe I still need to make that trip to South Africa..lol.
We accomplished a lot, starting from Cairo and sailing down south and making our way up from Aswan to Luxor and back to Cairo. I've been waiting to settle down for a few days before writing, so that my getting sick on the trip wouldn't make me write bad remarks about it. But then again, I don't think there was much to complain about, even my dad (and that's huge, coming from him), said it was well planned and we chose the right agency. Wee! One of the main things that made it so enjoyable was that we had a really great guide. Despite our initial worries about him being too young (haha..think total opposite of old post-retirement ah peks who give tours in SEA), he did a great job at every point along the trip. Drowned us with lots of info and entertained us too while we were bored..heh.
The pyramids were somehow not as enthralling as I imagined them to be. Yes they were majestic, something gigantic created with such early technology, mostly manpower. But to me, they were not more than that - structures towering into the sky. I think the Taj impressed me more. Perhaps I'm into natural wonders more. The camel ride in the desert with the pyramids in the background were worth the experience though, I'm glad I did it even though I had reservations about whether the camel would be able to take my weight lol. Our skillfull camel boy even took brilliant photos of us at a stop - no wonder he's in the business ;).
Our cruise was fantastic - true to what Ahmed said. First class cabins with first class food and service. The only complain was that on the third day we were purely sailing so there wasn't much to do - we were literally eating and sleeping. I finished my Dan Brown book in a day and was looking for something else to do. Luckily they had belly dancing to occupy us that night, something I didn't wanna miss for sure ;). The temple ruins and the wonderful scenery along the Nile were more captivating than the pyramids. My faves were Karnak and Philae Temple. Karnak because it was huge and had diverse architecture and Philae because it was on an offshore island where the terrain was lovely, the boatride there itself was a charm. There was a heavenly moment I spent with Sakura when we watched the sun set from the sundeck of the ship. The scenery was just WOW, and with the sunlight reflecting off the rocky moutains, Mashallah, it was just a sight to revel in. Who can deny God's creation when you're surrounded by such beauty. Wow.
I got sick after inhaling too much cigarrete smoke on the ship unfortunately (another reason why I love the ban in smoking in public places here...yay). It didn't help that certain people (ahem) insisted on turning on the aircon at night..so my last couple of days in Cairo were a little miserable. It started with a horrible sore throat, puking on the train back to Cairo, and a full blown asthma attack after that. I couldn't go on the last day of sightseeing in Cairo...which meant that I couldn't do shopping. Sobs. Sakura didn't have a very good experience at the bazaar either..too bad. The half day we had left before flying off..we went to visit Muhammad Ali mosque, refreshing after the half dozen ancient temples we visited.
Next destination: Greece for honeymoon. hahaha.
We accomplished a lot, starting from Cairo and sailing down south and making our way up from Aswan to Luxor and back to Cairo. I've been waiting to settle down for a few days before writing, so that my getting sick on the trip wouldn't make me write bad remarks about it. But then again, I don't think there was much to complain about, even my dad (and that's huge, coming from him), said it was well planned and we chose the right agency. Wee! One of the main things that made it so enjoyable was that we had a really great guide. Despite our initial worries about him being too young (haha..think total opposite of old post-retirement ah peks who give tours in SEA), he did a great job at every point along the trip. Drowned us with lots of info and entertained us too while we were bored..heh.
The pyramids were somehow not as enthralling as I imagined them to be. Yes they were majestic, something gigantic created with such early technology, mostly manpower. But to me, they were not more than that - structures towering into the sky. I think the Taj impressed me more. Perhaps I'm into natural wonders more. The camel ride in the desert with the pyramids in the background were worth the experience though, I'm glad I did it even though I had reservations about whether the camel would be able to take my weight lol. Our skillfull camel boy even took brilliant photos of us at a stop - no wonder he's in the business ;).
Our cruise was fantastic - true to what Ahmed said. First class cabins with first class food and service. The only complain was that on the third day we were purely sailing so there wasn't much to do - we were literally eating and sleeping. I finished my Dan Brown book in a day and was looking for something else to do. Luckily they had belly dancing to occupy us that night, something I didn't wanna miss for sure ;). The temple ruins and the wonderful scenery along the Nile were more captivating than the pyramids. My faves were Karnak and Philae Temple. Karnak because it was huge and had diverse architecture and Philae because it was on an offshore island where the terrain was lovely, the boatride there itself was a charm. There was a heavenly moment I spent with Sakura when we watched the sun set from the sundeck of the ship. The scenery was just WOW, and with the sunlight reflecting off the rocky moutains, Mashallah, it was just a sight to revel in. Who can deny God's creation when you're surrounded by such beauty. Wow.
I got sick after inhaling too much cigarrete smoke on the ship unfortunately (another reason why I love the ban in smoking in public places here...yay). It didn't help that certain people (ahem) insisted on turning on the aircon at night..so my last couple of days in Cairo were a little miserable. It started with a horrible sore throat, puking on the train back to Cairo, and a full blown asthma attack after that. I couldn't go on the last day of sightseeing in Cairo...which meant that I couldn't do shopping. Sobs. Sakura didn't have a very good experience at the bazaar either..too bad. The half day we had left before flying off..we went to visit Muhammad Ali mosque, refreshing after the half dozen ancient temples we visited.
Next destination: Greece for honeymoon. hahaha.
Egypt pics here.
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