Sunday, June 22, 2008

Day 5 - Great Temple of Ramses II

Day 5 was one damn tiring morning. We woke up ard 2+am so that we could meet at the lobby at 3+am. Jees. Never felt more seh before!

The travelling there is about 3 hours.. and due to passing through deserts etc, it was a dangerous journey. Thus, all the tourist buses were gathered in a group and travelled in police convoys. haha. There was even a security personnel on board our bus. I was too tired to feel threatened by the mp5s / ak47s. A friend who recently went Egypt in Dec told me that the best part of the trip for him was the stars in the sky.. according to him, the low pollution level enabled him to see the entire sky full of stars and even the asteroids orbiting ard the planet. Wow. Sounded really awesome. But in the midst of my dizziness, I did look out the sky once through my heavy eyelids. There wasnt much stars due to the bright lights from civilizations. Jees. The next time I opened my eyes, the sun has risen. -slaps myself!!-

I wondered to myself.. whats so big deal about this place that we need to travel so much for it? (knn.. better be zhai...)

After some walk, we begin to see snippets of it... and its a pleasant surprise.




another hot sunny day!!

a trail of people walking towards the big deal.

We could actually see Sudan on the other side! :)



Welcome to ABU SIMBEL :)
A brief background: Before Ramses II, temples are usually located within forts. Here, the confidence of Ramses II, whose reign may have lasted as many as 67 years is illustrated; these temples, probably once brightly colored, were cut into the natural rock and lapped by the Nile. After eleven centuries of oblivion, these temples were rediscovered in 1813 when Johann Ludwig Burckhardt saw by accident the upper parts of the colossal figures. In 1817, Giovanni Battista Belzoni found the entrance, partially freed from the sand. All along, these temples were often covered by shifting sands.

The facade of the Great Temple of Ramses is about 38m long and 31m high. The temple is dedicated to the most important gods of the New Kingdom, Ptah (the creator god of Memphis), Amun-Re (the great god of Thebes) and Re-Harakhte (sun god of Heliopolis), as well to the Pharoah Ramses II himself. The four colossi, statues of Ramses II (c. 1290 - 1224 BC), are more than 20m high and about 4m from ear to ear.



The colossi depict Ramses II seated with his hands on his thighs. The statue second from the left is broken, with part of its head and trunk on the ground below.

The young, handsome face is finely carved. He wears a double crown on his head and a heavy nemes flares out on both sides of his face. The line of the smiling lips is more than a meter long!!

playing with shadows


Look at this:

And look at this:
I remember getting quite pissed at him over this shot.. wtf is this? Headless statue!
nooby shot!!


The interiors of the temple was magnificent! Very well-preserved! One could appreciate the high reliefs and deep reliefs carved on the ceilings and walls for a long time. There are many rooms (or chambers? or?) with a story to tell. Sad that we dont understand a shit, and photo-taking is prohibited. With lots of time to spare, we sat in front of a huge wall and tried to make out the history behind it. Turned out pretty nonsensic. One cannot meditate or relax there due to the huge influx of tourists..

After some time, we decided to relax elsewhere instead..and get away from all that crowd! found a nice and quiet(er) place where we could enjoy the beautiful sea view.







Due to the merciless sun, we splurged on 2 NORMAL icecreams at 20 L.E. (about USD$4).

ice cream never tasted better!

*yums*



On the journey back, we watched the endless deserts past us by..


and drifted off to a nice slumber after realizing the view doesnt have significant changes.

Had our very last meal on the cruise (sobs!). Seriously, I was very worried about the food outside the cruise.. no idea what to expect! However, I was sufficiently equipped with emergency food: cup noodles and even a travel water kettle!

this is the sinner that made me fat! Ate lotsa this EVERY MEAL :X
Egyptian icing bread with their brand of butter reallly.......rockass.
I wanna eat it again :(

shots with the friendly chefs!

We packed our luggage which was already quite full.. and headed to take our overnight train to Cairo. A good 12 hour ride!

I think they must be quite amused with us.. just like we are puzzled when we see tourists taking photos at the mrt.. underground mrt somemore.. like totally no view?!





showing our new rings :)


the man and his luggage


candid shot of them excited over something

Finally, our train is here:
Our jaws dropped. It looked very CHUI. :( As it slowed to a stop, the cabin part looks much more decent.




The interior of the train isnt so bad afterall. The corridors are fine.. the rooms are a tad small but inhabitable.




The four of us chilled and chatted.. din have much chances of that.. but somehow the topics we talked about was rather sensitive.. which most of the time xue and I had no comments.. haha.. jees. It was a lil awkward actually. Thinking back, I guess I should have said something like - its very unfair to impose a common stereotype on a person.. Suddenly, I cant even remember exactly wad we discussed about.. hahaha

Dinner was like one on an airplane.. on a tray. Hehe, got to enjoy the beautiful sunset from our cabin windows while eating.




Our windows had clear view while xue's and pei's was misty.. thus they cun see the pretty sunset!! jees.

But, our cabin was as bad... the air con controller is off.. its blasting cold air man... its so cold that wearing several pieces dont help :((( PLUS, our night light is spoilt.. either damn bright.. or COMPLETE darkness :~(


Thinking back, I think... that place a bit unclean 1 leh... I had 2 nightmares which really freaked the hell out of me in the total darkness.. Then, there was this part that Ben went toilet.. I felt super uncomfortable!!! Probably some light from outside casting in moving shadows in the cabin.. plus my sensitivity was heightened.. heard little weird sounds.. scared until i froze on the spot, squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears for what felt like an eternity.. sob :(

Day 6's great.. with the pyramids and sphinx ;) stay tuned!

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posted by sebby @ 12:59 AM