Shalom!

I am back in the Asian continent! Well, okay, I have been in the Asian continent for the last 9 days. 11 days ago, I was on the African continent, since part of the country of Egypt was located on the edge of the African continent, and next to the Asian continent. It was a tiring, whirlwind 11 days trip to the Middle East, but it was really eventful and worth it. You are warned that this entry might be an extremely loooooong one.

Let me start with how this whole trip started. First of all, this trip was never planned for this year. NEVER. My mother and I know that we will visit Israel eventually. Yes, eventually. But we never thought it would be this year! The real plan was to do a pilgrimage to Lourdes for the 150th anniversary of the apparitions and Fatima (in Portugal). But the plan didn't work out, with airplane tickets being fully booked all over the place, and mother getting stressed all over the small things. Thus, I prayed to the Lord that what will be, will be. If Plan A doesn't work, maybe He already has Plan B unbeknownst to us. And He did! Somehow, the trip to the Holy Land would perfectly fit into my family's schedule. And also, since the trip wouldn't really cause any major administrative glitches (eg visas), we decided to go for the trip... after much pushing from my part (and in turn from my mom too). I realised that pushing people can really be a mentally draining process when the person you pushes refused to budge. Thankfully, for this case, the outcome was really rewarding :)

My trip started in Egypt... and what a way to start the trip. We arrived at Egypt at 3 am in the morning O_O, got 2 hours of sleep, and started the Cairo city tour at 8 am. I am amazed that I survived that day, considering how much sleep I usually require per day. Anyway, the first place we visited is the Giza pyramids (hello Giza in Japan!), which is surprisingly located very close to a developed area (the Giza district, in Cairo duh). The Sphinx was located near the Giza pyramids area as well, and sadly, the Sphinx was not as big as I had imagined it to be!

Giza pyramids with a road in Giza district at the foreground.

Sphinx on the left, with pyramids on the background.

Besides the pyramids, in Cairo, some of the places that I visited included the Nile River and the Egyptian museum, which is filled with Egyptian artefacts, including mummies and the Tutankhamun tomb (which is, to this day, the only intact Pharaoh's tomb ever found. No photos were allowed to be taken in the Cairo museum, so here is a picture of the Tutankhamun mask from Wikipedia.

Tutankhamun mask

A Cairo Street

The view from a ferry of Cairo, with Nile River on the foreground.

I was really surprised over how Cairo seems to be dated, with its old architecture and cars. I felt like I was in the 1970s or something O_O Time seemed to in this place.

Cairo's Taxi (meter system is not used)

The Volkswagen Van is a popular public transport mode. (Look out for the next Little Miss Sunshines! :D)

Something that I found really interesting in Cairo was the housing. Generally, the housing looks like this:

Up close

From afar

Yes, most of the houses are squarish, made of bricks, unplastered and unfinished at the top. Here is the explanation: since in Egypt the man is allowed to have a few wives, when a man has a new wife, he will add another floor to the house, which explains the steel frames being left on the roof of the houses. If the house is plastered, it may add complication to the addition of the new storeys. Alas, the unplastered look.

Egyptians seems to have the culture of hanging out, with cafes often being seen by the streets, and the traffic jam still being bad at like 10 pm O_O The travel guide told us that most people went out with their family or their friends after work, which explained the traffic jam at such late hours.

I noticed that majority of the women in Cairo covered themselves fully up, albeit mostly in modern ways. Of course the belly dancers don't cover themselves fully up. I learnt that to be a professional belly dancer in Egypt, you must take a test with the Egyptian government, and earn a license to work.

Okay I shall end this entry here (or else it's never gonna end!). Next up: St Catherine in Egypt.. and Israel.

Cheers.