A Story that is not the same

Day 1 - The Beginning of Beginnings.

We all met up at Terminal 3's Popeyes. The boyfriends were there too to send the girlfriends off. It was a feeling of anticipation... of not knowing what lies ahead.

How would Egypt be like? How hot would it be? What will I feel when I look at the pyramids? What assortment of poses do I have for pics? blah blah. never ending questions.

We took a last few pics b4 the goodbyes.







had a short briefing as to what to expect at the transit airport,



When taking off, I was surprised at myself. I would usually be panicky and scared when the plane is taking off, instead, I was smiling and enjoyed the feeling of inertia forcing me back onto the seat. Becos of my bad dream of a plane crashing a few days b4 the trip, Ben and I joined hands in prayer for the flight and the entire trip.

wanted to watch shows... there are so many great in-flight shows!! BUT.. my heavy eye lid wouldnt allow.

However, ard 2am, I just so happened to wake up and look out of the window and BOY, THE SIGHT was.. pure amazing. I have never seen SO MANY STARS before.. it just fills the entire sky in all sorts of patterns / formations. I was shocked by the beauty.. but my eye lids couldnt stay open still. Poked Ben up to see.. and when i turned back to look at him, he already K.O.

and we got to watch the sunrise too. sweet! :)


As we slowly descended, the landscape changed drastically. In middle East, it looks yellow and sandy and barren. How different from what I see normally!

Endless grey flats.



There are many friends going to France and Germany for GSS (global summer studies - 1 to 2 modules abroad) on the same flight! So cool! They saw their friends who were going to France. And I saw my hall 10 friend going to Germany. Just so qiao!

We gotta take a coach from the plane to the airport.

and suddenly, we became the minority. in the middle of middle east. seriously, I never heard of the country Qatar. When the guide told us that we're just beside Saudi Arabia, I was like "woah, hot zone". He seem to took it as hot as in perspiring hot. I meant it as.. HOT as in... fighting, terrorism, war, etc.




as we walked ard the airport, it was overwhelmingly MALE. Moreover, they looked at us with their eyes fixed on us. When the ang mohs walk ard, their eyes are fixed on them too. There was this unspoken tension in the air.

The tour guide later told us that middle east culture is that woman must walk behind man. Maybe thats why they were looking at us.. becos we walk on par! Also, we learnt that married women must cover face, and man there can have 4 wives.

We took a small plane to transit to Luxor airport.

Nearing Luxor, we could see endless deserts. Maybe its Sahara desert?

The airport was nice and quiet. Not much people in sight.







At this part of Egypt, its quieter. Pace of life is slower, with lesser automobiles, and more of donkeys and horses as modes of transport. It was interesting to whiz pass them, but it would be more interesting to be in their pace. The whole trip felt rushed and couldnt really feel the Egyptians' way of life.




The very first place we went is: Karnak Temple
A brief backgrd: The temple of Karnak was known as Ipet-isut (Most select of places) by the ancient Egyptians. It is a city of temples built over 2000 years. For the largely uneducated ancient Egyptian population, this could only have been the place of the Gods. It is the mother of all religious buildings, the largest ever made and a place of pilgrimage for nearly 4000 years. It covers about 200 acres - 1.5km by 0.8km.

So, as the beginning of religious holyplaces, it seemed appropriate that we began here too. My little history pilgrimage.



It was indeed huge and SPECTACULAR. how to say. you gotta see it for yourself.

Our local guide, Ibrahim, explained the rich history and the previous glory of the place to us. Having a phD in Egyptology, he was a good teacher in explaining Egypt to us. However, his accent was a lil hard to decipher at times...making me drift off manyatimes.













walking in, the columns are MASSIVE. and endless.
The Hypostyle hall at 54,000 square feet with its 134 columns is sitll the largest room of any religious buildingin the world.






Ibrahim explained the drawings on the columns to us. But we're not very good students I guess. We roughly had the main idea then.. thou i finally understood now, with more time to digest.
In short (i think), there are 3 ways of reading the scripts on walls. Top to down, right to left and left to right. Whereever the animals/characters are facing, means its the direction to read from. Facing left means read from left to right. The order is first character last. If 1, 2, 3, read it as 2, 3, 1. Something liddat. HAHA.












Right outside the temple, we met the first sellers in Egypt. Ben bought 8 papyrus paintings for USD20, supposedly discounted. Walking on, we got stalked by another.. throwing us offers. As we rejected him and walked on, he kept dropping his prices. He even threw the 16 papyrus into Ben's arms, 16 for USD5. wtf! cheated.

Back in the coach, XM couldnt take the heat anymore and decided to cover up as much as she can from the scorching sun. with socks over her arms.


We had mac for lunch. Its pretty ex there, more ex than SG. :(


The burgers there are as big as our faces! LOL?! XM and I could barely finish sharing one. Its crazily too much. -_-"

The modern town of Luxor is the site of the famous city of Thebes, the city of a hundred gates. It was the capital of Egupt from the 12th dynasty (1991 BC) and reached its zenith during the New Kingdom.

The temple of Luxor is close to the Nile River and parallel with the riverbank. King Amenhotep III who reigned in 1390 - 53 BC built this beautiful temple and dedicated it to Amon-Re, king of the gods.

This temple has been in almost continuous use as a place of worship right up to the present day. Towards the rear is a granite shrine dedicated to Alexander the great; during the Christian era the temple's hypostyle hall was converted into a Christian church; the remains of another Coptic church can be seen to the west; the mosque of Sufi Shaykh Yusuf Abu al-Hajjaj was built over it.




Min, the God of fertility and sexuality, shown as a human male with erect penis. I briefly remember the story that Ibrahim told us.. something like.. he keep having sex with a lot of women.. impregnating them. So the King tried to stop him by cutting away one arm and one leg, thinking he cant have sex after that. HOWEVER, he still managed to get up (using his dick as a leg?) and continue making girls pregnant. Cant remember how this story ended. But its damn amusing!!













There was a huge variety of food, yippee! Generally, out of 20 dishes, I eat about 4 of them.. so i couldnt be slimmer after the trip as i thought. Instead, I ate more than usual (must be the sun and the walking) plus... helpings of rich desert after every meal.

Their staple food is mainly rice, potatoes, spices, funny veg (that we've never heard before, and cant make out how to spell from their pronounciation), beef, chicken, lamb.

Then, it was back into the rooms to rest for the night.

It had been a darn long day, and we K.O. soon after, cos we gotta get up real early for our hotair balloon the following day. =D

Labels: egypt

posted by sebby @ 8:15 PM