17th Dec –

A relaxed day. Of course we took our time to get up and get ready and it was noon by the time we went out. With the help of lonely planet we landed at a nice place called as ‘La Cheesa’. It had small wooden chairs and old décor. We had very good breakfast there and the highlight was olive patty!

We again attempted to walk to Khan-el-khalili and finally changed direction to go to Ramses Hilton which had the Mobaco showroom from where we wanted to buy some cloths of Egyptian cotton. It took us time to realise that Mobaco is a part of other brand and so we could not see the Mobaco name on the shop. Anyway that wasn’t much of help we still could not find much in the shop and things were almost of the same cost as you might find in any of the London shop. So we thought of taking a break from searching cotton and went to American University and to visit its bookshop. It publishes the books of Naguib Mahfouz. I had read the first part of Cairo trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz and was searching for the remaining two which I found in the bookshop. Also we picked up a book by the same author on the revolutionary Egyptian king Akhenaten and another one called Harafish considered as one of his best books.

It was the time to go back and get fresh before going for the dinner on Nile cruise. We were given a taxi from king tut hostel to go for the cruise. The driver who also served as a kind of body guard stayed with us throughout the cruise! It was amazing place to see the belly dancing and the Sufi dance, while having good food. We had seen the belly dancing in London but it is a must to see in Cairo. We still wanted to watch the Sufi dance performed by a group in old Cairo but sadly it was on specific days in a week on which we were not in Cairo. Apart from the belly dancing the cruise was like any other river/dinner cruise.

16th Dec-


We set out for Alexandria on a train from Cairo; it’s around 3 hour’s journey. We reached there at 11 am. Alexandria is a city founded by Alexander but he never lived to see it. He died in India and then was buried in Alexandria. Though his tomb is still not found. Alexander was fascinated by Egyptian process of making tomb and he wanted same thing for him so was buried in the city he founded. There are lots of things in Alexandria which are still yet to be discovered.

In the ancient times this was a city with marble walls; it is right at the intersection of Mediterranean and Red sea. Alexandria has had quite lot ups and downs in history; in fact until recently it was quite neglected. But the discovery of catacombs and roman amphitheatre put it back on focus. It is the most cosmopolitan city in Egypt with evident signs of French influence on its architecture and its café culture.

We wanted to see the Greco Roman Museum, Catacombs and the Roman amphitheatre. After reaching the Greco Roman Museum we discovered that it is closed for renovation so we decided to go to Alexandria Museum instead. After long walk using a map we reached the Alexandria Museum. Things found during excavation in Alexandria and from the Mediterranean were on display. It was small but very well kept museum.

After the Museum visit it was time to visit some French café and thankfully after short walk we found café Rostary. It was very relaxing old place. After a lunch of salad, sandwich and coffee we were refreshed to go to catacombs.

The Catacombs in Alexandria are so called because the design was very similar to the Christian Catacombs in Rome. Most likely it was a private tomb, later converted to a public cemetery. It consists of 3 levels cut into the rock, a staircase, a rotunda, the triclinium or banquette hall, a vestibule, an antechamber and the burial chamber with three recesses in it; in each recess there is a sarcophagus. Some walls still has the carvings intact and gives an impression how beautiful it would have been.



It was almost 4 pm by the time we finished at Catacombs and the Ruins of Roman amphitheatre at Kom-al-Dikka closes at 5 so we took a taxi to Kom-al-Dikka and headed first towards the villa of birds within the amphitheatre. The villa is the remains of Roman villa which has beautiful mosaics of birds. These mosaics are restored and are in very good condition. The roman amphitheatre was also restored and some parts of it are still amazingly left intact. The evening light that day made the pictures look just perfect.

We still had 2 hours for the train to Cairo. So we went to the nearby Corniche on the side of Mediterranean. After spending some time there we walked back to the train station.

This site does not do justification to the photo quality here is the link for better viewing, view as slideshow

http://anu-anand.smugmug.com/gallery/4809355_Ct4kZ#285847443_YChsg

15th Dec

We were going to see the world famous pyramids. As we drove towards Saqqara we met our guide, Nasir on the way. He taught us some basics of Arabic like shukran (thank you), aiwa (yes or ok), laa (no).

The idea of building pyramids did not come to the pharaohs all of a sudden. They wanted to build their tomb for their afterlife. So they started with something called Mastaba which is just a rectangular construction to keep the mummy and their belongings, which was a failure as robbers located them and looted the things in it. So the next step was stepped pyramid which is still present in Saqqara near Cairo and it was the first pyramid. The stepped pyramid at Saqqara does look like pyramid at his early part of evolution. But this too was robbed and the stones used for its construction were not finished. So the next step was the pyramids at Memphis. Memphis was city founded by Menes who united kingdoms of Egypt during the old kingdom. The pyramids there are called as Red pyramid, bent pyramid.

It was lunch time by the time we finished seeing Saqqara so Nasir took us to an traditional Egyptian restaurant which looked quite authentic and the food was very good. We liked the Maze in the Egyptian food which is collection of salad, bread, and houmous - made from aubergine.

We then went to a shop to see the papyrus paintings and finally got one called as final judgement where Anubis and Thoth, the Egyptian gods judge whether the king should be sent to heaven or hell.

The next stop was Giza. Khufu built the pyramid at Giza. The stones here are better finished and quite large, the weight of each stone is 3-15 ton. His son made another pyramid near him which is Pyramid of Khafre this is slightly smaller than Khufu’s pyramid, as a sign of respect to his father. The pyramid of Menkaure built by Menkaure, who was Khafre’s successor, is half of Pyramid of Khafre. It is been said that Khafre built the Sphinx as well. Seeing the pyramids at the first is shocking as it is just opposite the suburb Giza, a densely populated one at that, and the Sahara desert is spread behind it. We decided to take the sunset camel /horse ride behind pyramids and so Nasir took us to a place which was full of stables. There are some touristy things in Egypt which you can’t escape and it’s worth doing. I decided to go on horse and Anand was happy to go on camel. It was very nice to see these wonders at sunset. Anand got some of his best photos there. While coming back the guys who were with us hinted us to give them tip. People ask tips for anything you could think of, which is sometimes very annoying. But it’s best to get used to it and keep enough change with you. Nasir again wanted to take us to souvenir shopping which we politely refused and decided to stay for the sound and light show. The only reason to see these kinds of shows is to take snaps of pyramids at light; otherwise the show is same as any other sound and light show with dramatic story telling. We were so tired at the end of the day that we had some snacks and coffee for dinner and slept.

14th Dec 2007

Our first day in Cairo- We reached Cairo at 3 am and were met at the airport by our cab driver, a chubby guy who did not speak English and so we just smiled and then some more at each other as an introduction. We had a nice ride to Cairo downtown with him. Cairo looked like any other Asian city at that time. After reaching King Tut hostel the only thing we could think of was to drop those bags and hit the bed. We started our day late at 12 with the typical Egyptian breakfast of bread, cheese, jam, boiled egg and coffee. Then we set out to walk to Khan el Khalili market, but lost our way and ended into some wholesale market so we decided to take a taxi to Egyptian Museum. And here starts the haggle. This is one thing about Egypt when you travel there on your own; you start and end your day with a haggle. There are so many tourists coming to the country for more than a century but people still do not speak English well. Also everyone remotely related to tourism industry tries to cheat you. But being an Indian still gave us some advantage since we are kind of used to this.

Just near the Museum we met a guy who asked the typical question which everyone asks in Egypt ‘Where you from’ we answered him ‘India’ and then he says what we would hear almost every time there after ‘India! Amitabh Bacchan!!’ followed by the second typical line ‘Welcome to Egypt’. He told us that since its Friday, the museum will open at 2 for foreigners and right now it’s only open for local people. He suggests that we see another museum meanwhile and takes us to see a demo of how to make papyrus. After a while we realise that he was trying to sell us papyrus. We manage to escape from there and find our way to the Museum. The Egyptian Museum is something which overwhelms everyone, it is said that if you decide to look at each artefact there for even one minute, it will take you years to see the entire museum. This even though only the 1/3rd collection is on display and the rest 2/3rd will be put on display after the new museum is ready, sometime in 2009. We referred the Lonely Planet guide to decide on the galleries that we had to visit and then relied on the English descriptions at the display site turning down the numerous guides who tried to convince us that we were making a big mistake by not taking a guided tour. This decision did not serve us any badly and from there on Lonely Planet became our dependable companion for the rest of the trip. In the museum, King Tut’s collection, (which is unbelievably huge) rules the roost. Here is a king who died when he was 19 years old and his tomb had gilt covered carved sarcophagi which fit into each other like those Russian dolls, jewellery, and articles of daily usage including furniture, chariots and other means of war. All this was relatively untouched since his tomb was found below another king’s tomb, thus making it difficult for centuries of thieves to find. There were other kings who were more influential and lived more than Tut but their treasure was looted long ago and we will never see that. But looking at Tut’s treasure we can just imagine the magnitude of treasure stored in the tombs of these kings. All said and done this was best museum I saw till now.

We then decided to go to Alfy Bey, a restaurant known for its good Egyptian food. After a taxi ride to a wrong place but still somewhere near the restaurant we managed to find it using a map. The waiter there was surprised to learn that we did not want to eat meat. We finally ordered some mezze (starters), soup and the only vegetarian option available in menu, Dolma. The food, which turned out to be quite delicious, arrived and then the waiter discovered that a piece of meat was in my Dolma, which he proceeded to remove swiftly with nonchalance and looked at me with a triumphant face. His actions performed in any other situation might have offended you, but here we could not help laughing at his prompt action. We tried to find our way back to King Tut hostel and were surprised to see that the street looked so different at night when all shops were open. Shops in Cairo are open even after 1 am and it was pleasant surprise after seeing the UK shops closing at 6 pm. We went to buy a jumper for Anand and committed a faux pas. There are no coins in Egypt, 50 pilastres which ordinarily would be used as coins (100 pilastres make a 1 Egyptian pound), are used in the form of paper money. The jumper was for 50 Egyptian pounds and since we did not know that there are no coins, I was trying to give the shop owner 50 pilastres instead of 50 pounds since both of them have 50 written in English and we did not notice the difference. All the customers and workers in the shop were laughing at us while the shop owner was trying to tell us that he wants 50 pounds and not pilastres. Finally we realised the mistake and looked at both the notes to see the difference. After going back to our hostel, we booked a taxi and the guide to go to pyramids the next day.