Foray into the land of Pharaohs
Updated: Oct 28, 2018
When in Egypt, get lost in the souks and breathe the mystical air. Cruise the Nile and visit the timeless temples on its banks. Get awed by the immense expanse of the desert. Gaze in wonder at the grandeur of the Pyramids. Let the sight of mummies send goose bumps across you. Dive into the Red sea and find the corals waiting for you. Egypt is nothing like anything you have seen before.
Some Background We divided our 7-day long vacation into 2 parts:
History – Cairo and Nile Cruise
Beach – Hurghada
And here’s the day-wise breakup:
Cairo – 2 days. We landed early morning in Cairo. Spent two days exploring Cairo city and Pyramids. On Day 2, took the night flight from Cairo to Aswan, where the Nile cruise was supposed to start.
Nile Cruise – 4 days. Cruised the River Nile and visited the embankments, starting at Aswan, visiting Philae, Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo and Edfu on the way, and finally completing the cruise at
Hurghada – 1 day. Took a cab from Luxor in the evening and reached the coastal city of Hurghada in the night. Spent the next day in the sea. Left Hurghada next morning, taking a flight for Cairo and from Cairo to finally, home.
Here’s the map of our wanderings:
The desire to visit Egypt started budding in me when I read The Alchemist; the adventures of the little boy Santiago literally blew my socks off. I dreamed of Egypt hard enough to manifest it into reality.
IF ONLY LIFE WAS A FAIRYTALE!
Me and my boy took a flight from Mumbai that would take us to Cairo. A few hours later at the Cairo airport, as we stand across the luggage belt, we pass each other an expression that we both understand but refrain from putting in words. Yeah, the worst had happened – there was no luggage. After haggling in the missed/lost luggage line and communicating our issue, we took a sigh of relief – It was there, missed and delayed, but not lost. Apparently our small layover at Abu Dhabi could not accommodate for transferring the luggage on our plane. We were now required to report back at the airport in the latter part of the day to collect it. Even the cab driver was amused to see two empty handed passengers exiting the airport. Not to miss the displeased porter at the hotel who missed the opportunity of receiving a tip.
DAY 1
We rested and we cribbed. We ate and we cribbed. We washed and put back on our one and a half day old clothes and cribbed even more. We finally left the hotel and the cribbing behind and set off to explore Cairo in whatever condition life had slapped on us.
THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM AT CAIRO
Whether or not you are a history enthusiast, this giant museum is not to be missed. I have a mild interest, and I was blown away by the richness of the artefacts from the past that this museum holds. And we are not talking about the recent past, when in Egypt, we talk about everything that happened in thousands of BC, and it really gets hard to imagine. The goose bumps set in and refused to leave me even after I had left the museum.
And of course we got a call from the airport. Our beloved bags had now landed in Cairo. We grabbed them, came to hotel and quickly changed into our holiday clothes. Hours and hours spent shopping for them looked worthwhile only now.
KHAL-KHALILI!
Passing the famous Tahrir Square, the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, we finally reach the most happening area in Egypt called Khan-El-Khalili market. There is some sort of manic energy in that market and the locals seem to shout Khal-Khalili in ecstasy. I soon start resonating in those magical vibes. The faster you blend in, the more fun you start having.
We come across the El-Fishawy restaurant and the feeling gets all the more intense. If only there were words for these feelings!
They serve just the Egyptian tea and Hookah; the seats are put outside on an alley that fills up with Arabic music, smoke and fragrance. What a delight!
Later, my boy takes me on a date at Four Seasons and I am treated with delightful food. I don’t want the day to end, but it does, only to return with new hopes for me!
DAY 2 – THE PYRAMIDS DAY
THE PYRAMIDS OF DAHSHUR AND SAQQARA, THE STEP PYRAMIDS
What did the ancient Egyptians do before they made the three famous Pyramids of Giza?
They did some practice.
And the practice became evident as we reached the Pyramids of Dahshur and Saqqara fairly early in the morning. We developed an instant liking for the guy who drove us to there, some 20 miles from Cairo. This is what I like the most about travel, when we talk to people who live thousands of miles apart in a different geography, culture, climate and situation – and we discover how different yet how similar we all are.
As we got closer and closer to the Pyramids, a hypnotic feeling started taking us over. The Pyramids have that effect on you. They make you surrender.
As a sheer blessing, the complex is a quaint place and there was no one in sight, just the immense expanse of the desert as far as our vision afforded us. Brilliant! We had the entire pyramid to us. We needed to climb the pyramid and reach a certain height before starting to get inside. As I saw the entrance of it, I let out a huge laugh and my heart started thumping as well. Mixed emotions are what these kinds of places give you.
It was a rather narrow tunnel leading to darkness and it’s the happiness and gratitude (for being able to witness such places) that you feel at these moments that you want to dive into anything that lies ahead.
For us, the end of the scary tunnel meant we were entirely inside the pyramid, into an even darker spot and it was nothing like I had ever imagined the inside of a Pyramid would be. We climbed a staircase (the only thing we could see) that led us to a huge chamber where a tomb was placed. Everything became clear. The pyramid existed to guard the tomb of the Pharaoh, and the precious things that were placed beside them to be carried in to the afterlife. A pyramid comes into existence when people cease to exist.
I left the place but a portion of my heart remained there. Still thinking, still wondering. The Egyptians have remarkably made their dead memorable even to the civilization thriving thousands of years later.
We then traced back and reached the Step pyramids, existing for the same purpose but built in an interesting way. As the name goes, the faces of the pyramid were not flat, but looked like a staircase. Though under restoration, they looked majestic.
We came across an inverted pyramid, and marvelled at the thoughtfulness the ancients possessed. As if I was not impressed already! Their land still holds so many secrets, so many things still not known to this era that the excavation is a continuous activity. Witnessing excavation in action was unique and I was growing tired of getting amazed.
Our driver took us to a nearby village for lunch and we reached a farmhouse serving Egyptian food. I sat across the furnace with the lady of the house and saw her tricks with the dough. How she amazingly swivelled the dough in the air and put it into the furnace, and how beautifully it turned into mouth watering bread. The aroma of freshness that spreads in the air is a memory that waters my mouth until now.
The authentic lunch turned out to be an expensive affair, nevertheless we enjoyed our meal and an additional vegetarian curry (made on request) and fresh mango juices.
THE GREAT PYRAMIDS OF GIZA AND SPHINX
The world knows Egypt from Pyramids. Pyramids and Egypt have fairly grown synonymous. And it was finally the time to visit the trio that pulls people from faraway lands and overwhelms them. By this time, we had known about the tales of Pharaohs, the mega-structures called Pyramids that celebrated their life and death, the tomb robbers who always eyed on the wealth buried deep down under – all of them as we drove the dreamy countryside roads back to the city outskirts where the Giza complex exists.
While the pyramids we visited earlier were rather secluded, the pyramids at Giza came off as a complete shock. It’s not the crowds that I complain about, for it’s the dreamy people like us who gather at a place and constitute a crowd. Funnily enough, every tourist calls the remaining bunch of tourists a crowd. But it was the chaos that commercialization of a place brings in. In a place like this where one needs to be left alone to appreciate the beauty, the grandeur and feel the vibe, we were constantly being distracted for photos, horse-rides, key chains and what not! We decided to ignore and climbed up far far away to get the signature view of all three marvels in a row. And when we did, the sun had started to set. Couldn’t have asked for anything more beautiful. As if the creators of these Pyramids knew that they needed to erect something inerasable, something that would stand the test of time, something the world is going to gaze at in bewilderment even after thousands of years, and that precisely gave them the motivation to build something of this magnitude.
It got darker and we started walking down the ramp of the complex, leaving the silhouette of the Sphinx behind us.
INTRIGUED AT THE PAPYRUS FACTORY
Let people tell you that the Papyrus factories are useless, uninteresting and are made to plunder the visitors – and ignore them all. I mean, who will run a business in loss and demonstrate every visitor for free, how their world-famous papyrus was made!! They will of course have some very beautiful papyrus creations by local artists donning their walls and it’s easy to get lured into buying them. But you must, if you can and as long as the price looks reasonable. Anyway, nobody forces anybody to buy them; you can still watch the small demonstration which is sheer brilliance and come out without buying anything. But don’t be bogged down by the people who ask you to never visit such places. For me, it was pure fun. And I brought home a papyrus painting that adorns my wall now as a memory of a place so unique.
In the night we took a flight from Cairo to Aswan to set sail across the length of Egypt, starting at bottom and all the way up till we hit Luxor.
The next leg of adventure awaited us and Aswan welcomed us with open arms.
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