Here is the summary to each of the days snippit as well as my photo album if you're lost =). And if you're extra bored head to check out my videos.

Enjoy reading!

1. Egypt Day 1 - Cairo and the picture album
   
2. Egypt Day 2 - Cairo and the picture album
   
3. Egypt Day 3 - Aswan and the picture album
4. Egypt Day 4 - Aswan & Felucca and the picture album
5. Egypt Day 5 - Felucca all day and the picture album  
6. Egypt Day 6 - Luxor and the picture album 
7. Egypt Day 7 - Luxor and the picture album 
   
8. Egypt Day 8 & 9 - Cairo and the picture album
   

Yes, I'm procrastinating abit because it's the last day! We were back in Cairo and back to where we started from the first day. Checked into Cataract Hotel again and head out after a nice warm shower and quick lunch at KFC down the road. The weather was slightly more chilly (about 18 deg) than Luxor.

Coptic Church
First place we went to is the Coptic Church. This was situated through the older streets of Cairo and is dub 'floating' church as it was build on top of a Roman buidling. Coptic is a name given to the Christian Egyptians and was derived back in the times when the Egyptians in general were called Coptics by the Greek Romans. When Egypt was conquered by the Arabs and slowly converted into a muslim country, this word was then only used towards those that remained christian.



Oldest Mosque in Egypt
We were meant to go to the Mosque of Muhammad Ali but it was under maintenance so Zizo organised for another mosque instead. We had to wait for 10 minutes as there was a funeral happening so he told all of us to throw him all our questions and curiousities no matter how silly they are on the topic Muslim. He is such an absolute sweetheart. He admits that he doesn't pray everyday unlike some who does so he is rather laidback. And after going through that session, it seems like every religion are about the same.

We headed in but the ladies had to dress in robes, and we had to take our shoes off. I was quite excited as this was my first time heading in to a mosque. We sat down and discussed further about this religion. Apparently there are 5 things you have to do to reach the point of pure muslim. One being to pray 5 times a day, and then the ladies have to cover their hair and I forgot the rest hehe.


Cairo Street Stalls
It was then off to the Cairo Markets! We had lunch at the place Zizo does since we were too intimidated going on our own. Gosh, the haggling is crazy! The moment you gaze your eyes over something, in a split second someone yells or comes towards you almost immediately. In fact, even before you look at a shop, you'll be pounded with 4 or 5 people offering you things.


Egyptian Museum
No cameras were allowed here but it was just amazing to marvel at the tombs and jewellery. Apparently it takes 2 months to actually finish the museum (that's if you look and understand an item) so Zizo told us the rooms to go to in that 45 minutes.

One thing that intrigues me was the the findings from the Tomb of Tutankhamun. He died at a really young age of 19 but he's tombs and items that were left behind were all very intact. His tomb was in another tomb, in which as in a box and that box is in another box and I think there were about 7 layers covering this tomb. The one thing I can remember is that each box has a door but the door doesn't actually fit the box inside, so they must have assemble the box and the door up together.

Not forgetting we saw his mask, that is made out of 10kg worth of gold that was on display so I did stood by that display for a good 5 minutes ;)

We were back at the Hotel where we pretty much gathered together to have our final dinner before all of us went separate ways the next day. As our flight was in the evening, we did manage to get a bit of the sun (despite it being quite chilly) before heading to the airport. It was quite a mayhem at the airport and a full flight back so the trip wasn't as comfortable as when we went down but hey ho, it was a great trip throughout!

Click here for the rest of my pictures

Today was packed with a lot of places we went to, so heads up as it's a long post...you up for it? ;)


Hot Air Balloon
I t was another 4am wake up call where we had breakfast in a box for us to collect. We had to check out from our lovely room (yes, it was short lived) and met up with the person who was going to pick us up for the Hot Air Balloon. Apparently it is held at the same place no matter which company you choose.

It was a van ride, followed by a boat ride where we had free tea / coffee, and then a van ride to the spot. It was pure darkness and it got brighter when we arrived to the spot. It took about 15 mins for the balloons to be blown up and it was such an amazing sight. There were 16 of us in our basket. The pilot was a qualified instructor as he had the navy uniform on and he had a walkie talkie to keep in touch with all the other pilots who were flying that morning.



The view was breathtaking. Not only to watch the sunrise, but also to fly over half the dessert (Temple of Queen Hatshepsut) and the sugar cane vegetation farm with the River Nile in view. Just amazing. Check out the videos as it gives a better idea of the real thing.


As we were about to land, I had the most shocking event of my entire life! ;). NO words could explain how I felt, how we felt. I could still feel it sweeping over my spine, yes D proposed! Haha, and no I won't post this part as I would rather be there to tell the story.

Anyway, it was a rather unexpected landing as we landed in a farm, but thank goodness it was a bare land. We had to fly up again to get closer to the road side and was eventually hounded by the local kids who were asking for money and food. The pilot told us to ignore them. We had to take off quick as the van dropped us off to the spot where we once meet our tour group again.

Valley of the Kings
We were not allowed photos in this area as alot of tourists have been mis using them unfortunately. Anyway, a brief intro about the Valley of the Kings is that back in the days, not all Kings can afford a pyramid. So one of them was smart enough to look for a hill that looks like a pyramid and planned to plant his tomb underground. Things were done rather quietly but was then brought down from generations to generations as there were about 63 tombs found!

And there are 2 new ones just found up to today. Cool huh? We actually saw an incident where someone took a photo and there were alot of shouting and screaming followed by aggression.I think you get charged at a crazy price for each photo you take and the memory card is taken away.Quite scary.

We got some picture cards but I can't be bothered scanning them..........it's pretty much paintings on the wall hehe. You have to be there to admire the real thing.

Ceramic Factory
We pop by another place where it is a family business that sold ceramics made out of stone. There were all sorts of statues, monuments, paintings on tiles available and it was done right in front of your eyes. The presenter was hilarious. Check out the video


We didn't really buy anything since it is quite closely related to the type of theme you want your house to be. In short, it's clutter LOL.


Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (aka Hot Cheap Suit or Hot chicken Soup)
Queen Hatshepsut was the First Egyptian Queen to rule Egypt and one of the longest too. Zizo told us not to be confused with Cleopetra as she was Greek.Ah hah, gotcha! Then again Cleopetra tule Egypt much earlier. She was rather desperate when I heard the story as she begged the Priests to do whatever they can to get her the throne. And so she did it in a way that they announced the new King and changed all the statues and pictures to look like a man to begin with until the real ceremony was held...


Donkey Ride
We had a mini donkey ride for 10mins which was included in our trip. Some of us opted out of this coz apparently the donkeys were mis-treated very badly. I went for it anyway and brought a bun from breakfast to give it to it so that I don't feel bad. The bus followed us, it was quite fun. I tried to get mine to go fast but it refused hehe.


Karnak Temple
This temple is the largest temple ever. It is larger than all the 10 largest Cathedrals in Rome combined. We could only cover half of the temple as apparently it takes a couple of days to actually explore the whole place. It is HUGE and overwhelming. I couldn't stop admiring every single stone there is in that temple. Apparently people use mud to create a slope to load the bricks layer by layer.


So Zizo told us how the building was made from scratch. First the stones right to the top. And then the artist comes in to sketch, and then another to colour as they come down and dismantle the mud made slide.


We learnt abit about reading the Egyptian writing, and revised on the similar pictures we see on the other temples. Starts off with the key of life, and then the angle of people, things and animals symbol. If they face right, sentence moves to the right and vice versa.

There was a Scarab beatle statue in which if you go round 7 times and make a wish, it comes true within a year. Apparently Zizo did get replies saying that it did happen to some of the tourist he brought around!


Another amazing thing is the 2 obelixes made out of one whole stone. One was dedicated to Queen Hatshepsut and the other to her son Ramses.


There was one more temple in which we all decided to pass as this is a much smaller temple. It was Zizo's idea really and we were amazed on how open and honest he is in letting us know that we may be put off because we have already seen a huge magnificent temple. This temple however is connected to the Karnak Temple.

We went back to the hotel early afternoon and in time to dip into the pool and sun bathe abit before we had our last meal and left for the overnight train back to Cairo, this time armed and more prepared. I pretty much over the moon and in Cloud 9 through the trip...

Head this way to the photo album and videos. Videos aren't quite complete as I have already max out the limit for this week =(

Goodness, this is so challenging writing about our trip! Imagine if I took a whole month off traveling. I so need to bring a laptop if I do! So helpful to write notes down during this trip hehe. If not I'd get lazy :P

Back to our wonderful journey story...we had to wake up at 6am to leave on schedule for our next trip. The moment we woke up we had cooked breakfast and was already on the shore. We left a nice tip to the wonderful crew and left in a van with our luggages on the rooftop. While unloading and reloading, we saw 2 herd of cows swam pass the Nile. It was such a cool site!

Kom Mombo Temple aka Crocodile Temple
The next Temple stop we went to is the Kom Mombo (Crocodile) Temple. I find this temple to be most interesting and by far the prettiest one I've seen compared to the others. This temple is actually divided into 2 where one is dedicated to God Horus and the other to God of Crocodile.

We learnt about new different symbols on walls as well as the Egyptian Calendar which was quite interesting too. Apparently there are 10days in a week, 3 weeks in a month and 12 months in a year. That makes 360 days. The 5 days are actually dedicated to the 5 Gods : Osiris, Isis, Horus, Seth and his Wife. This is quite spot on to our recent calendar. Amazing. Oh and there are actually 3 seasons to the Egyptians: Flooding, Seeding and Ploughing.

And with this temple, the Egyptologist found out that the priests was actually more powerful than the kings as when the barrier came down, there was a secret passage found which routed to the opening. So it was concluded that these priests were acting God when the Pharoahs seek them for help. So movie like isn't it? ;)

Edfu Temple
The next stop is the Temple of Edfu in which we saw an 8 minute introductory documentary about this temple. Our Zizo joked saying it saves him the efforts of explaining. Funny though that it was a National Geographic show lol.


This temple is solely dedicated to God of Horus and is perhaps the most preserved temple and the 2nd largest in Egypt and only Pharaohs and Priests are allowed inside. Every New Years eve, the priest would take the Golden Falcon Statue right through the spiral staircase up to the roof top. Reason why it's spiral is because they mimc the way a Falcon flies off. Interesting. It felt like a 3D effect when I walked up the stairs as the walls had pictures of the priests carrying the statue up over and over again.



Once at the top, the sun would shine on this statue and it would shower rays over the land. This somewhat depicts the unison of God Ra (the sun) combined with God Horus to overlook the Egyptian land. There was also large carvings on the wall of the story of how God of Horus defeated Seth.



Luxor City - Hotel check in



It was then an hour before we finally check into the best hotel ever in our trip. Stegeinberger. And wouldn't you know, we were one of the few people who had an ensuite!


It wasn't back to reality but reality with a pamper bite. I don't know how we got it but I'm not complaining. We had the rest of the day of free time before we head out to an Irish Pub at night.

And something else magical (I like to use this word, it's so cheezy haha) happened. We booked our Hot Air balloon separately to our tour because we found a cheaper price online. And so we contacted the person. I can't believe such luck, his office was opposite the hotel! OMFG. And this was done online over the phone. So we headed there to sort out the payments and schedule before we went to get a late lunch.

Lunch was absolute yummy as it was at Maxime, where Zizo recommended. Food portions were huge and delicious and price was reasonable (5GP for a reasonably high steak and chips dish, yum)


Went out to 'celebrate' or get together with the other people as we split up since some were doing the cruise and overland to exchange stories at an Irish pub that didn't really sell Irish Beers. Zizo also brought in a guy who makes original Kartush pendants (your name in Hebrew) at really good price so both of us got one each, as our souvenier gift :). It was only 8GP hehe. Headed back early for another 4am start.

We slept really early as it got so cold so everyone quickly jumped into their sleeping bag. I had my bag over my head as it got colder during the night. Was woken up quite early in the morning as the sun rose.



Our breakfast was excellent. Can't complain when you have 'bed and breakfast' lol. They cooked sausages and eggs for us and we had lovely tea. After looking for a bush, we set sail and was off again for the next 6 hours.


Some of us were sunbathing, some of us snap photos, most were reading while I pretty much was admiring the view and was thinking about nothing at all. Shear bliss. We docked again just after lunch to a place close to a village. A few of us saw kids on a donkey chasing a puppy around the bush and it was a funny sight. Our tour guide tried to feed the fish near our boat too but apparently they don't come to surface, so he tried to use his legs but was not really successful.


We sailed for another hour before we stopped in the evening. This time, we were quite in the open with not much bushes around so it got really cold even when the fire was going. But it was quite fun as the Nubians took their drums out again and sang around the fire place.


There was candlelight dinner again before most of us head to bed quickly and snuggled. The crew set sail in the middle of the night while we slept as our schedule was tight.

Here are more pictures and check out the videos.

 Abu Simbel
 T'was an early start (4am) as we opted to go to Abu Simbel temple, whereby there is a convoy which is a mass movement of vans and buses altogether heading in at one time of the day. If we missed the time, we miss the entire trip. Talk about great security!

We had to wake up early to get a head start as the journey took 3 hours. Wouldn't you know as we arrived, we were the first! And so we had a security guard on board (with a gun, o.O). We had our breakfast in the bus but saw the sunrise on the way as we drove pass what I would think it would be a dessert.


Zizo told us not to look left as we head around the temple, so that when we actually see it, we would be overwhelmed. Hehe. Ramses II was the King who built this temple and the 4 statues shows him from young to old. Inside the temple, it had 4 sacred statues: God of Darkness (Seth), Ramses II, God of Underworld (Osiris) and his wife God of Love (Isis).


An amazing thing about this temple is that twice a year, the sun would shine into the temple and 'lit' the 3 statues except for the God of Darkness. This was done on the 20th on two months (I forgot).

Oh and I forgot to mention another couple of things to spot in a temple

• If you're lost, look up and you'll see a bird spreading it's wings. The head faces into the temple, so the exit is on the opposite way.
• As you go into the temple, the ceiling drops.
  

This temple was also under water as the dam was build so the World Organisation made the effort to gather a few countries to disassemble the temple precisely to another place. When I mean precisely, it's to the final decimel number. But after the movement was done, the dates of where the sun shines into changed. This really proves how impressive the Egyptians were back in the days.

Next to this temple is Ramses's wife, Queen Nefertari


By noon, we had to board the bus to leave. Again, we were the first =). We head to our next place: The High Dam.

High Dam
This Dam was recently built and caused trouble to the Nubians, as it flooded their entire village and culture. So there is still a resentment to the Prime Minister that made the decision. But because of this dam, Lake Nasser was born (in which it flooded the lands of Philae and Abu Simbel temple).


We headed back to our hotel where we had one final shower before heading to our Felucca boat in which we'll be spending 2 nights in a traditional Egypt boat.

Felucca
Name: The tower
Journey: 39km through the River Nile
Our luggages were packed under the boat. It was a boat with a small kitchen, a bed for 18 people and pillows. We slept in sleeping bags.

There was no shower nor toilet on the boat...but an amazing experience!! A couple of us were abit too adventurous and started drinking before we set sail. So we had to force a stop to drop them off so that they can find a bush.

Our meals were quite simple: mainly pita bread served with sorted veges, potatoes and some meat. It was amazing as we saw endless flock of birds flying over the River Nile and enjoying the lovely warm breeze. We are not allowed to sail at night, so we dock at the river bank after the sun set. A few of us collected branches to create a fireplace to keep warm as temperature dropped to 8 or 9 degC.