Our Wonderful Trip to Egypt
I have always felt a pull to visit Egypt to experience the history. So, i along with my college friends decided to plan a trip to Egypt. We made a plan for 7 days trip so that we can enjoy well there. We made our reservations from Delhi to Cairo and we were very eager to learn everything we could about Egypt. We started our journey towards Egypt as our flight was at 6'0 clock in the morning. We all gathered on airport and then soon we were in plane and everybody was so excited to go there. During landing we crane our necks to see any glimpse of the pyramids from the air through the small cabin window, but the sight was too limited. We have to wait. It was a wonderful view on the way to our destination. Finally we reached there and we get off the plane. It takes approx 10 hrs to reach there. The sun was slowly sinking. Everywhere beyond structures, cars, buses, people scurrying back and forth, I saw reddish sand and rocks. We hired a taxi.
Day -1
Then suddenly we all got surprised by the wake up alarm at 4:30 pm. It was because we were in a Moslem country. First prayer was at this 'ungodly' hour and it blasts from the minarete across the street directly into our hotel room and sleep at night was needed during this trip where every day was so filled with new impressions and experiences of a kind you never dreamy that you would survive to witness. Our first look outside the hotel this first of mornings revealed a Mama Bast tending her kittens on the little roof made of reed shading the neighbour´s garden house. We took that too as a good sign.
Day-2
We begun our journey to Cairo and stay for a few nights, visiting Sakkara and Giza. In Sakkara, we saw King Djoser´s Step Pyramid, its structure is awesome. I was feeling like, I am watching 3D movie.
Sakkara
In Giza, they are too big, really, the pyramids. You simply can´t grasp them, these giant structures, the rocks are immense when you stand beside them, and sadly the structures are crumbling in places. We saw The peculiar, modernistic building which houses the Solar Boat. The solar boat was buried in pieces in a pit by the pyramid. We had clicked many pics there, two out of those pasted below.
Solarboat in Giza
Sphinx in Giza
Day-3
Then together with the tour we got on a night train to Luxor and arrived in the early morning. There we made an early morning visit to Karnak before it got too hot. Luxor is quite warm already at 7. 30 in the morning and we get a reminder that we are over ten hours train ride south of Cairo, where the temperature had called for sweaters the night before. Karnak - another unfathomable place. It is far too big to cover in one visit so we decided on going back later. Unfortunately time wasn´t enough for that, so there´s one more thing I have to go back to Egypt for. There are also areas tourists aren´t allowed into. This visit together with the group wasn´t too bad though. We stayed for quite a while and we frequently drifted off from the others into the veritable forest of mighty columns in the Hypo style Hall. I worked my camera into collapse due to heat and possible drifting grains of fine sand, for once I spotted the still colored car touches up under the ceiling, there was just no stopping me. I should have closed the lid in between every shot but there was just no way of any in-between shots at all in that place. . Then we came back to hotel in a cab and were deciding for the next day and we decided to go to Kom Ombo.
Luxor
Day-4
Next day we sighted Kom Ombo which is magnificently located close by the river. We went ashore before the group did their visit, which enabled us to have a nice tour of the temple in relative peace and quiet. Most places we went to were horribly crowded by tour groups. I don´t understand why they have to cram all groups into a place at once. I wish they would change opening hours from 8 morning to 4 evening into earlier mornings, keep closed during the hottest hours and then open again around 4 evening and stay open at night at that time the temperature is a bit more comfortable.
Kom ombo
Day-5
During the following night we passed Edfu, passed the quarries and the speos of Horemheb at Gebel el-Silsleh and arrived at Aswan in the morning. We visited the Nubian Museum, a really lovely place, and in the evening we went to see the Sound & Light show at Philae, which was something to remember! We make a deal with an owner of a small boat. He takes us out to Philae and waited for a couple of hours, and then drives us back again for 20 Egyptian pounds each. It was really very beautiful. Something that made you so happy. There is nothing more pleasant and wonderful than slowly sailing on the Nile, watching the banks glide by. You get a good opportunity to rest and collect energy for the next sight.
Then we returned to our hotel.
Night view of temple in Philae
Nile
Day-6
Next morning the group went up 3. 30 am to go by bus to Aswan. We however slept until 6 am - wow - and returned to Philae to stroll around for a couple of hours. It opens at 8 am and amazingly enough, when we reached Shellal where the boats take you across to the island, there was a Japanese group already arriving from the island. Wonder how they had arranged that? Do I have to mention that the island was full of people already when we arrived shortly after eight.
We stayed yet another day in Aswan, which is a very nice place, before the boat turned back towards Luxor again. On the way back we stopped at Edfu this time and went by minibus to the Edfu temple.
Edfu temple
Once back in Luxor, we visited the Valley of the Kings and Deir el Medina, Morea bout that later too. The next day we parted from the group, they went to the Red Sea and we stayed in Luxor to return to the VoK and to Deir el Bahari.
DeirelBahri View
Day-7
We went by sleeper train back to Cairo and took another day at the Egyptian Museum. We spend our full day in Cairo Museum . Among the marvels we saw was the Narmer Palette, so much bigger than I had imagined. It is a miracle that it has survived for so long undamaged except for one small chip on the front side. It is displayed at the bottom floor, in a simple glass case in an almost offhand way. There is nothing to really call the attention to its importance for Egyptian history, you have to know what it is forehand or it will just remain another beautiful object with no particular significance. After that we visited Royal Mummy Room. There in the Royal Mummy Room they are laid out in glass cases. We become humbled and thoughtful. I´m only mentioning a few of the other things we saw, it really says very little to repeat it without any photographs, and cameras were not allowed into the museum. We saw the wonderful little models from the tomb of Meketre of boats, herding and counting of cattle, shops for weaving, brewing of beer, carpentry, and the armies of soldiers found in the tomb of Mesehti. We went through a room filled from top to bottom with wonderful little statues of all the deities, they seemed to yell at me to stop and discover, but at that point we had to move on. After that we came back to our hotels and had our meals and discussed about the various things in museum. It was a wounder full experience.
After that there was just a bit of time left to rest and try to get into the mood of going back home. And 8th day we were on d way back to our homes.
It was so amazing and I was thrilled far beyond expectations. We took nearly 1000 photos, I wanted to bring all of Egypt back with me. So many wonderful sights, the kindness and helpfulness of practically everyone we encountered, all the contrasts of this rich and poor country, the vast differences from what we are used to. It all melts into unforgettable impressions in your mind. If there is only one journey you can do in your life - Egypt - Kemet is the place to go.