Alexandria - Cairo

Day1 - 21/12/07

Me, Somas, Palani and Satish boarded the train from Ipswich to catch the flight to Egypt. Our Journey to reach Alexandria, Egypt was not as expected .We were informed about the fog in Frankfurt and the delay about an hour. Our thinking at that moment was to catch the transit flight from Frankfurt to Alexandria for which we had only 2 hours transit time. Everything went fine and we reached Alexandria after an hour delay on 22nd morning 3.00A.M.

Day2 - 22/12/07

Pyramid was our dream for the time we booked tickets to Egypt. Around 7.00 A.M all of us boarded the train to Cairo on First class AC costing us only 4 GBP :-). As we were tried we went to our hotel and refreshed ourselves with a shower and usual Egyptian Breakfast with Wheat bread and Boiled Egg. Then we hired a car to explore Cairo starting from Memphis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis%2C_Egypt

After visiting Ramses II statue at Memphis we didn't remember his name until.....Keep an eye :-). After a 10 minute ride we reached Saqqara, the step pyramid built before the world famous Giza pyramid. Before visiting the Saqqara we visited the museum of Imhotep, the designer who built the Saqqara pyramid for the King Djoser. An hour and half was spent here enjoying the views of Saqqara from Different Locations and the desert regions around the pyramid. Of course we enjoyed our usual Photo shoot like every other person in Saqqara.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_pyramid

After which we headed to the Giza pyramid. Our car driver introduced us to a local tourist guide who can assist us in entering Giza pyramid after the official closing times of Giza with a huge amount to pay :-). We had an argument between us deciding whether to take this tour since it was already 5.30 P.M and was dark which will be difficult to view the monuments and mainly for taking pictures. At last we agreed to give it a try and boarded the local transport..Any guesses...Yes two of us took a ride on Horse and the other two on Camel. The guide took us to the pyramid and the Sphinx on the Sahara desert.

Though the guide explained about the monuments, we were dissatisfied with the fact that we could not take pictures properly during night time. But we enjoyed the horse an camel ride which we were not used to before. After the tour we were present for the sound and light show to witness the Pyramid and Sphinx in different colours. After the whole day trip we wanted to have a nice food and entered the Felfela the famous chain restaurant in Egypt. Here we spent nearly two hours enjoying our food. After which we reached our hotel for a short sleep at 11.30 P.M.

Luxor

Day3 - 23/12/07

After the short sleep we woke up at 2.15 A.M and headed to the Cairo international airport where we boarded the flight to Luxor. Our hotel people were waiting for our pickup as agreed earlier. As usual we took rest for an hour and refreshed with a shower but with a small change without a breakfast. Our tourist guide was waiting with an Air-conditioned mini van for us. We stopped in a shop nearby to finish our breakfast with biscuits and chocolates in order to save time. We headed toward the Valley of Kings, the burial place of Kings where the mummies and the treasure were protected after kings death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_Of_The_Kings

After visiting the tombs of three kings and wondering about the treasure we finished our usual photo shoot and headed to the next tourist spot, Hatshepsut temple. This temple was built by the only Queen who ruled Egypt, Hatshepsut. Our guide explained the story of Hatshepsut which surprised us with their practices for ruling a kingdom. We spent an hour in this historical temple followed by our photo shoot and headed to a local shop where they make the souvenir with Alabaster stone which was used to build the top layer of the Pyramid Khufu(Giza). Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals: gypsum (a hydrous sulfate of calcium) and calcite (a carbonate of calcium) The former is the alabaster of the present day; the latter is generally the alabaster of the ancients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut

It was midnoon and we were in need of some food to continue the tour, We stopped at KFC, ordered Takeaway and reached Nile river. We sailed on Felucca where we finished our takeaway sailing on the Nile river. After a satisfying meal, we enjoyed the ride on the Felucca yet again finished the ride with Photo shoot. After this we headed toward the largest temple on Earth( as we were informed) about 62 Hectares, the Karnark Temples built by Ramses II. hmm....the name looks familiar oh we might have heard it in Valley of the kings....After taking pictures inside/outside the temple and visiting the temple we could not forget the name RAMSES II, the greatest king of Egypt who ruled 67 years and built almost all the temple in Egypt, the same name which we didn't even remember the previous day. The huge and unimaginable sized pillars inside the temple left us thinking about the masterpiece of Ramses II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnak_Temple

After visiting this beautiful temple we were taken to the Luxor temple, which was yet again built by RAMSES II. The time we reached the temple was around 5.30 P.M and was getting darker but the flash lights in the temple exhibited this temple as another wonder. We finished our photo shoot and once again kept wondering about RAMSES II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_temple

We finished the Luxor tour with Luxor temple and rushed to our hotel to head to Aswan our next spot. We flew to Aswan on the same night and reached Aswan at around 11.30 P.M with an hour delay.

Abu Simbel - Aswan

Day4 - 24/12/07

We went to our hotel around 00.00 A.M to take a short rest until 02.00 A.M :-( .We started the trip to Abu Simbel in a private mini van at around 3.00 A.M. We had a surprise waiting for us which was not so pleasing. Our van started well but stopped within five minutes of the start behind a long line of other vehicles. Without knowing the reason, we were informed that all the vehicles need to start at the same time. We were not sure of the reason until we were informed about two military vans will be guarding us until our destination. After which we didn't want to know the reason :-). The journey was around three hours, we could not even see a single residence on our way till our destination except few checkposts. We reached Abusimbel Temple Yet again built by RAMSES II which was not a surprise at least this time. This temple was relocated from its original place around 100m to save it from drowning. Adjacent to this temple is temple of Neferatti, wife of RAMSES II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_simbel

After reaching SAFELY to Aswan after an exciting trip to Abu Simbel, we wanted to explore Aswan. We started with the unfinished Obelisk and then followed by Aswan Dam. We had a chance to see the fantastic view of the Nile River from the top of Aswan Dam, one of the famous dam in Egypt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_High_Dam

After visting the Dam we headed to Philae temple. We bought the tickets to this temple and went inside to see Nile river in front of us. Then we were asked for more money to travel to the Philae temple by a boat which was tricky to take advantage of tourists. We spent an hour visiting Philae temple and the fantastic view from the top of this temple followed by photo shoot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae

After visiting Philae, we reached our hotel and rushed to the train station to catch our train to Cairo. We bought few biscuits and chocolates though we would be provided with food in our sleeping trains to be safe. But to our surprise, the food was good for most of us. We had a nice sleep on the train after few short sleeps on the previous days.

Cairo

Day5 - 25/12/07

Forgot to mention, We were welcomed by all the Egyptians everywhere with two words " India, Welcome" and " Bakshis". Bakshis , the word we heard the most after RAMSES II meaning TIPS.

We hired a taxi from Cairo railway station to our Hotel the same we drove to the Pyramids which we missed to see in the Sunlight. We reached our hotel and refreshed ourselves and headed to Giza Pyramid. As usual the Taxi driver took us to a tour guide to show us the Pyramid and Sphinx. We again paid a huge amount for the tour to which we used Horse and Camel for transport.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza

We enjoyed the ride as well as the views of Pyramids and sphinx for around 2 to 3 hours. We finished our photo shoot for which the trip was planned originally to Egypt :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx

After a satisfying visit to Giza pyramids and Sphinx our next and last target was to visit the Mummies in Egyptian Museum. We stopped at KFC for our short lunch and reached the Egyptian museum. We paid Fifty EGP per person to enter the museum and spent around half an hour in search of the mummies.

Egyptian Museum

We got a chance to see the treasures taken from the Tutankamum Tomb, Valley of the Kings. Finally we came to know that we had to pay hundred more EGP per person to see the royal mummies. After paying it we entered the much awaited royal mummies room where we saw the mummies of few Kings and Queens and for our surprise we saw the mummy of RAMSES II who had become our companion for our entire trip:-). Only thing which worried us was we were not allowed to take any photos inside the Egyptian museum as well as the Royal mummies room :-(

After that We boarded the train from Cairo to Alexandria to catch our Flight. We reached the airport at 10.PM and were not allowed inside the airport and was asked to wait in the hotel, Single building near Airport. On 26th Morning 3.00 A.M we boarded the flight to London and reached at around 9.00 A.M. We hired a cab from London to Ipswich reached at around 12.00 P.M with unforgettable memories from Egypt.