Thursday, May 01, 2008

Exotic Enigmatic Egypt! Part 2

My PC is running though not 100% "well" :o). So my post will be short and sweet, I just hope the photos load up without any hiccups later. Click on the highlighted words to read more about the place I went to. So, where were we??? Oh yeah, Egypt!
View From Hotel Balcony
Now this is the view from my hotel balcony. The tent in the upper left hand corner is where we had our breakfast everyday.
Breakfast
Lovely, eh? It was nice dining here but sad to say that it seems Egyptian food doesn't have much variety. Can you believe that we had the same type of breakfast for four days? Omelette, pancake, pasta, sausage, porridge, pita bread etc. etc. Uh, forgettable stuff really though of course I enjoyed it only for the first two days. By the third and fourth, I, WMW, for the first time in my life, ate to live rather than live to eat! LOL...
Closed Pool
As for swimming, I never got a chance to as the only free time I had was in the morning before we left for the day's programme and I was always greeted by this sign. Anyway, I didn't bring my swimsuit ;o).

After breakfast, off we went to see The Great Pyramid at Giza! I was excited about coming to this place as this is one of the Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World. It was really surreal being there and I felt like I was in some National Geographic documentary.
Pyramid at Giza

Souvenirs & Tourists
Of course, you get to see a lot of little stalls selling souvenirs. At certain areas, there are really a lot tourists and it became quite difficult to get a nice shot as they get in the way. It was basically the same problem at most tourist spots. Here, the tourists look like they are for sale along with the souvenirs in the foreground, hahaha! Mmm...French, German, Italian, which one??? Eh, I think not 'cos they seem a bit too old for me :o).
Pyramid & Sphinx
Kahfre's Pyramid, the second largest and The Great Sphinx. Look at how tiny we are compared to the size of them! The photos don't do justice to the feeling one gets being there in person.
Tourism Police - The Great Pyramids
You find armed police everywhere here. There is even one on each of our buses, accompanying us in and out of places. To feel safe or to worry about the fact that there's danger lurking, hence the presence of them everywhere??? Uhhh, let's try not think about what happened on November 17, 1997.

Soon, it was time for lunch and we were taken to El Hati Restaurant. It was so dimly lit inside, I felt like I was eating inside a cove, considering that it was daytime! Hahaha....Look at how we sat, all in a row and the tables were low. And this group is only from one of the four buses and groups had different time schedule as the restaurant just couldn't accommodate all of us.
Lunch!
And what can you see on the table? More Pita Bread and dips! Hahaha....We are given a bottle of mineral water each during every meal time (and two on the bus).
Blurry meal
Here's a blur shot of what I had, lamb kofta with some beef cubes. The meat was on the dry side but I love the rice yet again. I have no idea how they cook it though this time, it seems that they added some dark sauce to it and it was as fragrant as ever.


To be continued...


19 comments:

A Mature Student said...

I'm don't mind the food. A lot of cummin?

ai wei said...

great great great! as though i m reading a documentary with magnificient pics!

Precious Pea said...

Good shots! Wahh...the only sphinx I visited is at Sunway! LOL! Do you get to go inside?

Unknown said...

you keep mentioning pita bread.
although you are sick of eating it, it seems to make me wanna try some of it. LOL

New Kid on the Blog said...

Was the weather as hot as M'sia??? I can't wait for another update from you.

Anonymous said...

I so need to visit the Great Sphinx before she loses any more parts of her face! :P

Ahh, I hope we can expect more and more of Egypt from you, dear? It'd be almost like having a holiday without having to go there ourselves! LOL.

HairyBerry said...

a majestic sight to behold..and yes, we are so tiny compare to them wonderful ancient structures...so tempted to go lar!

what's next? nile river? waiting, waiting... :D

Anonymous said...

Waaaaaaaaaaa~~~~
Such a majestic structure!

Anonymous said...

Been a silent reader and appreciator of your blog for a while now. Wonderful stuff here:) Someday you should publish a book, your writing style has a lot of maturity and depth in it.


All the best

daphne said...

ooo.. more pita huh. the lamb kofta looks pretty good though.

~Christine~Leng said...

A real pyramid and sphinx!! I'm very amazed :)
haha.. pita breads and more mineral water.
Lots of water intake eh?;P

Beachlover said...

Great vacation ,eh?.I really enjoy looking at your photo.Wish I'm there now!lol!.

sc said...

the shot of the pyramid is just magnificent! wished i'm there too!

Ethan W. said...

I like the pic of the lone guard against the large pyramids. Really got a nice contrast (or some other fancy word which I cannot think of as of yet)!

Anonymous said...

just envious of you!!- mrs. pitt

wmw said...

clockwise : Not really....you sure or not? If eat that everyday also okay? :o)

ai wei : Go there in person...must go at least once in our lifetime.

Precious Pea : Thanks! One can go it, but the guide told us that it's really hot and stuffy in there and inside not as beautiful as other places, so we didn't go in.

keropok man : Hahaha...and have you? :o)

NKOTB : It was definitely hotter, about 46 degrees!!! But it was windy, so not humid hot like Malaysia.

kenny : Yes, have you been there before? If not, like I said, a must in our lifetime.

Nic : Have to select pics... ;O)

Jason : Yes, it's really a sight to behold.

Mita : Thanks for the compliment.

daphne : Hahahaha...and more coming!

wonda4 said...

Those days there were no police escort. Years ago when my sisters went to Egypt to ride the camels with the rest of the family after attending my niece's wedding, they were deliberately left behind. The camel guides extorted money from my sisters.

Anonymous said...

Oops, that was me(wonda) using my gmail a/c

wmw said...

Wonda : Haha...I was wondering who was that! Oh yes, we were informed not to go for those rides as that can happen.