all things egyptian (20/12-23/12/09)

day 5

started off the traveltalk tour and saw all things touristy and egyptian. lots of sand, pyramids (the great pyramid), sphinxes (the great sphinx) and lots of myths and weird stories... like the sea giving birth to the mountain lol.

i climbed the great pyramid - not the steps... the stones... and they were huge. the ones on the base were about as tall as me... and yes i blatantly disregarded the 'no climbing' sign... just like a lot of other people haha. Seeing these things up close was pretty amazing - guess that's why people say that the ancient Egyptians must have been aliens or something
one thing that detracted from the experience were all the 'helpful' tourist touts. for example this guy that i took a picture of asked me to take a picture of him then demanded i give him $10... i gave him 1 EGP (lol. so mean rite.) but i was just so sick of people trying to take money from me in 'legal' ways.

i randomly walked to this part of the ruins in front of the great pyramid and a guy in uniform came chasing after me and wanted to show me around... no doubt trying to get more money -.-this was a tomb - haha there was a sign at the end of the corridor and i would have taken more pictures if not for that guy offering to show me around. maybe they're genuinely kind but ugh. too many $_$ people
got my postcard-type picture of the great sphinx... and a couple more crazy ones which are in yiang's camera unfortunately. then we went back to the hotel to freshen up and off to the overnight train we went. the train was horrible with non-reclining seats but zhen somehow managed to sleep through everything! oh and our poor cabin-mate had food poisoning on the train.... poor thing. at least she had her husband with her...

day 6

arrived in aswan and went off to see the high dam - which was pretty impressive but well. we were in a military zone and it didn't make for very nice pictures. and then we saw the unfinished obelisk from the tour bus window (haha.) cos it just wasn't worth the money to go in... pay 50egp to see a piece of cracked rock? no thanks. after that was the Philae temple... which required a short boat ride to and fro (it didn't have lifejackets lol) and where my camera ran out of battery ohwell.

day 7

woke up early to get to abu simbel like around 3am -.- zzzz. but well... blessed - we were the first bus on the escort so i managed to get a couple of people-less photos! and it was really really really crowded by 7am. caught a photo of transportation (ie. camels) on the way back to the cruise boat then we set sail - which took another 3 hrs of non-motion cos the boat needed repairs lol.

abu simbel's story is actually quite amazing. first the ancient egyptians carved a mountain into a temple such that sunlight hits the back of the temple two specific days a year. and then the modern day people moved the whole mountain so that the temple wouldn't flood cos of the rising water level due to the high dam. cool huh.

managed to get to Komombo just after the sun set... was a bit sick of egyptian history by then. but some of the carvings were really interesting - you can spot the interesting thing in the picture below lol. then we had a 'egyptian party' on board the cruise - which basically involved really interesting 'adult' games and ppl getting high on alcohol and doing weird things -.-"

day 8

woke up early again ugh. but in return got a horse-carriage ride to edfu temple which was probably one of the most interesting parts of the trip. for one, the carriage driver made the horse go really fast and was going 'mustafa! ferrari!' as we overtook the other carriages one by one. haha. and THEN he asked for money -.- ah well. zhen refused to wake up for this one... haha. it probably was a good decision on her part, it wasn't all that fascinating a place... though it was really grand. we then went back to the boat and continued sailing to luxor. ultimate nuaness!