Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Pyramid, Sphinx and lovely companions

I was full of excitement and anticipation when I knew I was about to go to Cairo, Egypt.

A whole new place to explore... and a chance to visit one of the world's wonder :)

Tareek, our guide and driver, has been waiting for us at the hotel when we arrived. After some arrangements, we decided that we'd head out the next morning (we reached the hotel at 12midnite haha).

Our first day tour included The Pyramids in Giza, Sphinx, Bazaar and the Sound and Light show.

He dropped us off at the Egyptian Papyrus Museum on our way to the magical Pyramids. The staff showed us how to make paper from papyrus plant and he declared that Egypt was the original country to produce paper (our of Papyrus I suppose). The word 'paper' comes from Papyrus plant too... the same goes for papier in French/Dutch/Polish/Slovak, papel in Spanish or Portuguese or popierius in Lithuanian and so on.

Paper in the making!

After this, we headed straight to Giza. We took the camel/horse ride to travel around the desert. We paid L.E50 for entrance to the pyramid area, L.E40 to visit the tombs, L.E40 for the ride excluding tips. In total, we spent L.E160 (ard USD32,-) for the pyramid.

Nice of us in action (4 pilots, 4 cabin crew and a wife)

We were still far away from the pyramids. It was not even 1/3 of the journey -__-''

Trust me... this camel ride would be my first and LAST one.

Scary like bomb! esp. when it's going up and down *ughhhhh

Finally... we reached the smaller pyramid.

In total there are 9 pyramids in Giza, and these are not the first pyramid built.

R.U.I.N.S

The pyramids were built with different stones

Girls in action :)

The camel ride was an experience...

but once is enough, for me!

Supposedly, the tombs are not open for visitors.

So, we 'trespassed' hee....

Aye...

To get into the tomb, we have to pass through the space behind the two rocks

Love e rocks!

That's the coffin. It's empty already.

The mummy has been transferred to the Egyptian Museum

Next stop: the Sphinx

Can you find it?

This time round, we have had enough of going ups and downs with the camel.

We were freaked out...so we decided just to take pics on the camel still

The whole desert-trip took us 2.5hours *phew. We were treated to a cold drink when we reached the stop. The staff again introduced us to their '100% essence perfume collection'. From lotus flower to Secret of the Night (which the girls put it on 7 parts of the body...and he claimed the men will be as wild as a tiger *muahahaha

Haven't had a proper lunch, we all went berserck for food. Tareek later dropped us at the Bazaar and we had a taste of local food.

Al Azhar mosque :)

They say pigeon stuffed with rice is a MUST try.

So, Eunice and I shared this one.

A bit tasteless for our tongue

Hookah...sisha...anyone?

More souvenirs

The trick is to bargain 80% of the price *hooo* or so we claim

After the Bazaar, we went back to the pyramid to catch the Sound and Light show where there is nice lighting show on the pyramids while they explain the history. The night was quite chilly and I did not bring my jacket at all. So, I could not concentrate much on the whole thing... I only wished it'd end soon.

Tix price: L.E75 for Sound and Light show. Otherwise, you can go to the KFC/Pizza Hut roof-top, order a pizza and watch it for free :)

It was indeed a tiring day for all of us. But the four of us braced the next day with a trip to The Village where they present us with the life of an Egyptian, museums and the history.

Unfortunately, IMHO, I think the place is not too well-oraganized and maintained. We didn't really feel the enthusiasm and motivation of the staff there in introducing us to their 'culture and lifestyle'. So... we got bored and soon we started counting down to the time when we could go back to the hotel. Sad huh!

Tix price: L.E158 for a package (excl yacht ride and lunch).

Aphy, Dee and Darren as lizards on the wall

The King's possessions

A replica of the gold coffin

The mummification process

The 'heart' of a body is kept inside this chamber and will be guided by the 'head'

A giant choco bar.... yummy

Are you twins?

Yeah... we were invited by a Life PPS passenger for a dinner at a Japanese Fusion restaurant.

The chef in action (salmon, chix, beef, prawn, calamari and delicious fried banana & ice cream dessert)

Some of us were here....

Some of them went for a dinner cruise cum belly-dancing performance *wooo

It was our In-Flight Supervisor's last flight. He's retiring and we all had a great bonding and farewell party too. I love this team...from the cabin crew to the tech crew... they're crazy and fun to be with. Dang... I can even tease my Chief hahaha

Hopefully all my flights could just be like this... superb crew! 10-hr flight seems like a couple hours only hahaha

Labels: ArOund The WoRld, HaPpiNesS