Egypt photos

My tour group members: young and old, fun loving and adventurous

I enjoyed the tour very much, though a bit tiring travelling.

But the fellowship was interesting and rewarding.

Brought to you by Hong Tai Travel (good followup, detailed briefing, friendly local tour guide except fees can only pay in cash or chq, mandarin speaking egypt tour guide not very good at explaining)

One of the 7 wonders in the world: PYRAMIDS

Pizza hut , KFC popular in Egypt

Beautiful sunrise in Sahara Desert

Flower Perfume shop: where u can get real essence oil , extracted from flowers ...the oil is without alcohol or water...france perfume are made from these oil (of cos they add alcohol and branding so more expensive)

100ml @ about 30 usd

Egyptian Mint Tea: nice if u dun add too much sugar

Papyrus Paper: One of the many inventions by ancient egyptian

The Great Sphnix @ Giza:

the Pharoah head and lion's body (isnt like our merlion-lion head and fish body)

Waiting for the train at train station

My First Overnite Train Ride: small and crampy . It's IST class cabin by the way!

tiring and a new experience

The shadow of my horse carriage ride

Our tour members: Stanley and Sooling

Dont they look like Arab couple ?:)

Me dressed up like an Egyptian woman

Ms Phoon (my travel buddy)and i : our First CAMEL Ride

Camel ride was exciting and new, we sat on the camel when it was sitting down, once it stood up, our hearts nearly popped out, so sudden! the process of riding was ok, abit bumpy but manageable.the ending, the person in charge will make camel sound to tell the camel to sit down,

we got to lean back when it sat down or else we might fall off!

A diagram how they carved and painted pictures in tombs and temples.

Aswan-Philae Temple: one of the most preserved Ptolemaic temples, besides this , we visited Edfu (temple of hawk god), Kom Ombo (temple of crocodile god)

Ancient Egyptians (not the present people) believed and worshipped gods of many kinds of animals. The temple is full of pictures of cobras( protector of souls), RA(sun -god ) whom they believed is the source of everything created.

Sacred craving 象形字 (hieroglyphs)-are written and drawn on walls of temples and tombs, representing history, time and names of the past...deciphering takes reading , though simple ABCs can now be deciphered..

Abu Simbel: look familiar, watch "MUMMY RETURNS" -the movie, this is the place where they shoot

this place is famous , so optional tour :70 usd

Egyptian Cake: very sweet, not very spongy

Egyptians , like most people in middle east countries like sweet stuff, so their desserts and tea/coffee are very sweet....can get diabetes if you dun watch your diet!

The Valley of Kings: Tombs of kings, queens, prince and princesses, the nobles and the rich

get to be mummified and have individualised tombs for their afterlife

Inside cannot photograph , but i can tell u it is stuffy as you get deeper, cannot talk too much in case u get breathless...watch your head as well...

no mummys inside as those found are placed and preserved in Egyptian museum.

Karnak Temple: Statues of pharaohs

We visited quite a number of temples, Karnak temple is one of the biggest in Luxor where Greeks and Romans also left their footprints in this temple

Visit to nomadic home @Sahara Desert:

optional tour -50 usd

The little girl in charge of the camel i rode

The veiled woman in picture making "nash"- like chappati /prata (without yeast) using charcoal pan.

Muslim /Arab Women have to wrapped themselves from head to toe (10 yrs and above), until the day they marry , only husband can see them without veil.

Sahara Desert: We visited a home of nomads who stayed in the desert.

The tour guide told us the living habits of these people, food and milk from sheep, camels,water from nearby underground ...how they know where water is...ask the camels...

Camels can smell water 15m deep...!!!!

The people live and usually die in desert...marry internally ...cannot marry outside of tribe or family.As most people are muslims,the man can have 4 wives to maintain big families.

RED SEA/Hurghada : where Moses parted the famous red sea for isrealites to go thru

We had the opportunity to stay at 5* marriott hotel near Red sea.very high class...we are the few asians there...mostly are europeans

Khan al Khalily Bazaars:where u can buy soveniors at wholesale prices. Bargain is a must of cos...but the sellers are very persistent as well.

eg 10 bookmarks @2 usd, pyramid soveniors@2usd, t-shirts @4usd,dates with walnuts @ 3usd
(us dollars and egyptian pounds are used)

more photos can be found : hopefish.multiply.com

and videos of the egyptian cravings , songs and making of papyrus paper

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen." Leonardo Da Vinci