Thursday 16 December 2010

Egypt Trip (Episode 7)

Day 7 Abu Simbel (11 Nov 2010)
Abu Simbel Temples
We have to wake up at 2am to depart to Abu Simbel in the middle of the night, it is said that we need to follow the time where the police convey start their journey, because there will be police at the front and back of the long convoy to control the traffic and to provide help if accident happens in the long stretch of desert road without any phone coverage.

Anyway, it is worth the traveling, Abu Simbel turns out of to be the most interesting and impressive temple we have visited in Egypt. It consists of two temples built by Ramses II as a lasting monument for him and his wife Nerfatari. The temples were relocated from under water to its current location. Relocated? Yes, bits by bits, pieces by pieces in the 1960s.

No photos allowed in the temples, but is is one of the most complete and well preserved temple with all the statues and drawing on the wall, as though they were just painted few years ago.

The sunlight will go through all the way to the Holy of the Holies, where they have 4 statues, 3 gods and Ramses. There are only 2 days in a year where the sun rise shine on the face of Ramses first instead of the 3 gods, that is during his birthday and his coronation day. It lasted 28 minutes on 28 February and 28 October respectively and millions of tourists will crowd the temple to witness it.

High Dam
Visit the High Dam, one of the three largest dams in the world. From the top, we can gaze across Nasser Lake the huge reservoir created when the High Dam was built. Nothing fantastic..

Aswan Market
We have a few hours before dinner, so we decided to explore the neighborhood, and thank God we found the bazaar by following some ang moh along the way, hehe. Lots of stuff we bought, scarf, hibiscus flower, magnets, water for reasonable price.
The bazaar is very long and if you miss one particular shop, chances are you can’t find it again because most of them are selling the same stuff at various prices. The sales people are all very aggressive, once you show interest they won’t let you go. They also use trick like “Hey, you promise to come back..” At first we really ponder, and after a few times we knows ..Apalah

Belly Dance Show
Isis is right when she said belly dance on the cruise is of low quality, not professional. Jon couldn’t wait until 10pm and went to sleep early, so I went to the lounge alone and watched. They have 3 performances:
1) Belly dance: Everybody knows belly dance, shake head, shake bust, shake butt, shake shake shake, but the performer is lousy lo..
2) Tahtib (Stick dance): A men demonstrating the martial art using a wooden stick, hit here hit there, a bit like kung fu style.
3) Tanoura (Whirling Dervish): A men wearing long, large skirts who turn and turn nonstop for 10-15 minutes, tak pening kah?




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