Exotic Egypt
a land of 6000 years of history, Egypt is possibly the most diverse country in terms of history and culture.. the pharohs, the greeks, the romans, the ottomans, the british.. it was part of almost every reign known during the period of their power.. and because of this richness in history comes the wonders of this ancient land..i have only written after a long time for me to be objective to this country.. it was undeniably an extraordinary experience for me, both pleasant and unpleasant, because of the people, place and the unexpected happenings.. again an unexpected and exotic tourist location, yet it never fails to amaze me..
the trip started out in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.. on the very first day we saw the Great Pyramids of Giza, traveled down to Memphis to see the second largest sphinx in the country, saw the oldest step pyramids, took the camel ride and saw the great sphinx guarding the 3 pyramids.. and i thought my trip to Egypt was all over.. I thought i saw it all in just one day and started to wonder what the other 9 days meant.. yet i was not disappointed because there is so much more to the country then just the pyramids..
the second day we traveled to alexandria, the port area which oversees the mediterranean ocean.. a beautiful blue sparkling under the bright sunlight, it was also the site of one of the ancient wonders of the world, the alexander lighthouse.. standing there now was a citadel built using the stones from the lighthouse which was destroyed during an earthquake.. i loved the city and saw the influence trade and port had on a place as compared to the inner lands.. alexandria was indeed a more modern and open city in relativity..
the egyptian museum.. one of the must visits because it houses the most valuable of relics from the pharoh periods.. it tells the story of the ancient civilisation, the culture, life and death.. it is also home to the treasures in the tomb of tutankaman, excavated in almost original states.. and of course there is a mummy room, which has the remains of mummys which are preserved amazingly well.. one very interesting trivia is the fact that egyptians boycotted the show "The Mummy" because of the far from factual interpretations of egyptian history.. and the flesh eating beetle in the show which i find the most fearful is actually a symbol of good luck in ancient times..
Flying from Cairo to Luxor was an early morning thing, of which interesting/appaling incidents on board the plane occurred.. nonetheless i was excited about Luxor, because it houses 25% of articfacts from ancient history.. it is the city capital during those periods, unlike popular belief that Giza or Cairo was once the major center of the empires.. Karnack and Luxor temples were just amazing.. it was like ang kor wat but an egyptian version.. of course less extensive and impressive in terms of size, but its art and architecture considering the times in which it was built was indeed an important factor for the awe.. i once questioned because i wasn't all that impressed with the great Pyramids to understand why people think it's built by aliens.. i decided to put the Great wall of China in comparison.. yet i didn't realise that by doing so, I was comparing 2 things in 2 different ages separated by almost 2000 years.. just like comparing technology now versus that of during the great Wall period.. now that indeed put things into perspective.. and the amazing thing is that colours were already in use and still preserved!!
The valley of the kings, a very nice name for the almost desert area in which housed the tombs of great Pharohs of the past.. we visited 3 tombs of which one of the most elaborate ones required us to weave up and down climbing stairs within the caves.. a sacorphagos within which a gold, a wood then the mummy lies.. of which no mummy really remains after excavation because they have all been moved to the museums.. but looking at the vast lands of yellow sand.. it amazes me how the ancient people found the place.. and it amazes me more how people of today found the tombs of so many years ago..
four days on a nile river cruise was a lot more pleasant than i initally expected.. moving upstream to Aswan from Luxor.. one full day was spent doing nothing.. except playing cards and mahjong (yes mahjong) on the deck of the ship.. not too noisy, but a very serene feeling if you just sit by the side and look at the banks of the nile.. its unique because you see mountains, the sahara desert.. then you see green and you treasure them so much more.. the sky is cloudless and the sun shines all the time.. passing the lock is interesting and it did occupy our time for a while.. because of the aswan high dam, ships crossing will come to a point where the water levels differ, therefore they would have to queue to get into a lock of which will close, pump water in to raise the water level, then let the ship move off into the new area enclosed by the dam.. it was indeed a long wait.. yet it was a never before experience..
and then it was followed by many temples and many bazaars.. and many more temples again.. and of course the crazy attempt to wake up in the morning at 3am to drive 4 hours there and another 4 hours back to see this place known as abu simbel.. a very reluctant 4 of us decided finally to make the trip there to see the wonders of this temple built by ramses II, one of the greatest pharohs in the 18 or 19th dynasty, put on par with the great Pyramids and ang kor wat by one of our guide books.. well i did manage to catch the sunrise upon the sahara desert.. which was a sight rendering about 20 shots on my camaera.. it was really beautiful.. abu simbel didn't quite disappoint me.. built near a lake so peaceful and having astromy knowledge so amazing.. the most sacred of places in the temple is the statue of 3 gods with ramses himself, and only on 2 dates of the whole year, one which is his bday and another his coronation date would sun shine upon 3 of the statues, leaving the god of the dark literally in darkness.. and the building was just magnificent that it awes..
my egypt trip was extrordinary because there were so many ups and downs in the trip.. and it was one of the trips i barely had time to rest at all.. disco nights on board the ship.. gala baya party which totally amused me yet at the back of my mind i knew that the next day i had to be awake by 2.30am.. i was never sleeping after 5am for the whole 10 days in the country.. i think i lived as if i was still back in singapore considering there was a time difference of 6 hours.. and i even wake up before 9am singapore time sometimes in egypt.. and i asked finally the tour guide once.. do egyptians ever sleep? and his answer with a grin.. no.
i felt many things of the trip.. some i can't wait to forget.. the anger and the fear.. some i wish to forget yet i wish to hold on at the same time.. the many wrong things.. and some i just don't ever want to let go of.. the feeling of being special and the wonderful memories.. the many new things.. and the many new people..
rebec inspired @ 6:44 PM
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