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 =(