Lunar New Year Trip

My young niece was throwing tantrums when she learnt I was taking her brother to Osaka so to pacify her, I agreed to bring her to Bandung during the Chinese New Year weekend. Tickets were bought and I searched for suitable accommodation, this time using Trip Advisor as a guide.

Saturday, 9 February 2013

I met up with Akak et al at KLIA after 3 pm. I had checked in online but the boarding passes could not be issued so we collected them when we dropped off our bags. Our flight took off on time and I was dying to get some kip but the girl was too excited and kept waking me up. Grrr...

We landed at 5.30 pm and rushed to clear immigration. After getting our bags, we walked to the bus station – you turn left when you exit the terminal and keep on walking. There are a few shuttle operators who can take you to Bandung but I chose X-Trans. It cost us Rp200K (Rp105K for adults and Rp95K for children below 12). It was supposed to depart at 1845 but we were only called to board at 1900. The shuttle could fit 10 passengers only (I had imagined a coach not unlike National Express) so I guess we were lucky we got the seats. It took us slightly more than 3 hours to reach Bandung and the shuttle stopped a few times after entering Bandung to drop off passengers before rolling into the terminal at Jalan Cihampelas. We had to wait a bit before getting a cab to our hotel. We reached the hotel at close to 11 pm local time. We checked in and settled in for the night. No local stations showing Arsenal’s match against Stoke so I had to rely on my timeline to find out the score.

Sunday, 10 February 2013

We left at 0930 after breakfast and took the angkot to Trans Studio Bandung about 1.8 km away. As it was Imlek (CNY) and a weekend, the ticket cost Rp250K each – and you have to pay Rp10K for the card. We had our bags searched – outside food and drinks are not allowed – I managed to sneak in my snacks and drink but my niece didn’t manage to. So we had to leave her food at the locker outside before entering. We tried out the Marvel Superheroes 4D ride, Jelajah Adventure (where we got drenched), Dragon Riders ride, Dunia Lain ride (a ride through a haunted house), Special Effects.. we also watched the Chinese Circus from China.

We left before 4 and went to Trans Studio Mall but didn’t stay long. It started to drizzle as we were leaving. Took the angkot to Hotel Papandayan and went to the convenience store across the hotel for some food. We checked out a restaurant on the walk back to the hotel but nothing on the menu tempted us so we left. It had started raining in earnest by then (CNY is rainy season in Jakarta and Bandung) and luckily we had an umbrella with us. We got the hotel and stayed in for the rest of the day.

Monday, 11 February 2013

We left at 9 am and took a cab to Jalan Cihampelas for our shuttle back to Jakarta. We didn’t pre-book and were on the waiting list for the 10 am shuttle (if it was full, we’d have to wait for the 11 am shuttle – if it could accommodate us). The 0930 shuttle to Blok M was already full. I decided on the spur of the moment to take the 0945 shuttle to Pancoran (I had no idea where it was and asked an elderly lady who was headed there. ‘Jakarta Selatan,’ she told me). Well, I’d rather be guaranteed immediate seats than play the waiting game. So I hurriedly bought the tickets for us (Rp150K only) and off we went to board the shuttle.

The journey took only 2 hours and 20 minutes this time and from Pancoran, we took a cab to our guesthouse at Jalan Surabaya in Menteng in central Jakarta. We were caught in the lunchtime traffic but thankfully it was flowing. We reached the guesthouse about 20 minutes later and the fare cost us only Rp30K (less than the Rp200K we would have been charged from Bandung to Jalan Broga in Menteng and that was before the cab fare to the guesthouse) so I was very glad we took our chances and rode the shuttle to Pancoran.

After checking in, performing prayers and paying for our room (I also booked two rooms for an upcoming stay), we ventured out to the antique market just across the street. We walked along the street and then across Jalan Pangeran Diponegoro and took a cab to Tanah Abang market. There were fewer people than usual (was it because it was still CNY?) and quite a few stalls were closed too. We went to 5^th floor as the girl wanted to buy a maxi dress, prayer attire and a denim skirt. We only managed to get two of those; no complaints though as the clothes there were mainly for adults.

We didn’t stay long and took a bajaj to Sarinah departmental store for souvenirs - had to bargain and finally settled for Rp12K and it turned to be only a km away! Dang it. We left after about an hour and I was about to suggest taking the local bus to Plaza Indonesia when I saw the welcoming logo of Louis Vuitton from afar. The LV store is at Plaza Indonesia so we used it as a landmark and walked there. It was a pleasant stroll and reached Plaza Indonesia after 10 minutes. We didn’t stay long there but ventured across to Grand Indonesia. Dinner was had there then we went to browse the stores before taking a cab back to our guesthouse.

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

We had breakfast at 0730 then checked out at 8. The cab took a while in arriving though and we only boarded it at 0829. For some reason, the driver asked me to pay the toll fares totalling Rp11,500 (Rp7000 and Rp4500 respectively). I had never been asked to pay the toll either from the airport or getting back to the airport and was not pleased at this. He dropped us off at the wrong entrance too and we walked back and forth trying to figure out where the check-in counters were. There were many people at the airport, the majority of them about to embark on their umrah trip so it was quite crowded and didn’t help at all. We finally made it through, checked our bags through the x-ray, dropped off our bags and paid the departure tax of Rp150K each. Then we went through the immigration before emerging into the duty-free area beyond. You’d be glad to know that I didn’t spend – despite the offers at Swarovski and tempted by some turquoise and coral jewelleries.

Our flight took off on time and we landed at 1405 local time. We performed prayers at the airport and our bags were already waiting for us ;)

Hope you had a good break then too!

Walk Like An Egyptian: Observations and Thoughts

UPDATED

As mentioned before, I had postponed going to Egypt because of the attacks on tourists over the years. And just as those attacks looked to have reduced, there are the riots.

I have always wondered why the Egyptians struggle economically when they are descendants of the ancient Egyptians who built the wonderful gigantic monuments, who mastered medicine, mathematics and astronomy, who were great and skilled artists and architects and decorators. Admittedly, the ancient Egyptians were a different breed of people altogether. How could any one group of people be so disciplined and committed towards building the ancient civilisation that we now enjoy from what remain? How did they manage to carve out and build up those monuments, what skills did they possess and where did they learn how to construct their temples and pyramids? They were so gifted, intelligent and clever, inventing their own alphabets and adorning their temples with stories for us to decipher and learn from. I marvel at their wisdom, intelligence, discipline and grit. So you can understand why it’s hard for me to reconcile the Egyptians with their mighty great ancestors. I once remarked to Lin of how strange it is that the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks could be so advanced and ahead of their times, yet their descendants, the present day Egyptians and Greeks struggle. And how advanced the two countries which were most devastated in the World War II: Germany and Japan. Nevertheless, most of the Egyptians we met (when they were not dying to make money from us) were friendly and cheerful people, despite the economic hardship they face.

Cairo is a mega-huge city – well, it needs to be when it is home to some 19 million residents – so huge that it’s easily a dozen times larger than KL. It’s so huge that even with the ongoing demonstrations, we were not only caught in any but we didn’t even hear, feel or experience any (thank God) save for those we saw on TV (oh and while CNN was full of the riots, there was hardly anything on BBC leading us to wonder the truth and if there was just some propaganda). The huge scale of the city probably explains why it’s difficult for the city to keep itself clean (or rather, for the citizens to keep the city clean). We saw a lot of rubbish hills in the middle of the roads – either they don’t have any local authority to clear those rubbish or the locals produce so much rubbish that the local authority can’t keep up. It’s such a shame that a Muslim country can appear so poor and dirty and it reminded me of India (and I imagine Pakistan and Bangladesh are not any better). It’s bad enough that it’s dusty but for this we can’t blame the city, not when it is defenceless to protect itself against the pollution and dust blowing from the desert. This dust envelops the city, choking it and turning its buildings into dusty brown. And the city is near the desert so it doesn’t get the rain it needs to wash the dust off its surface. In fact, the dust and sand completely buried the ancient temples before they were discovered and it took years, even decades, to clean out those buried sites.

The Muslims there do not need prayer rooms to perform prayers. They are not conscious of performing their obligation to God in the open. We on the other hand have mosques and prayer rooms at hotels, malls and bus terminals yet some of us choose not to perform prayers...

You need to pay when using most public WC. Conditions vary.

There are many tall buildings in Cairo to cater for its ever-expanding population. Some buildings are still works-in-progress and some look to have been completed and occupied yet have structures on top as if to support expansion. Indeed, this is a common sight in other towns because Egyptians live in large families and as the family expands, so does the house – upwards instead of sideways.

Watch out for the cheating traders. One minute they would tell you an item cost X pounds and when you return back to the stall, they would claim they never said that, X pounds could buy something else but not that item and asked if you are crazy to suggest that that item would only cost X pounds. Also beware from falling for their scams. A seller may tell you he’s selling genuine papyrus bookmarks when they are actually made from banana fibre...

Egyptians love their tea (chai) black and sweet. I’m English, I drink tea, correction, I drink milk tea.

There are soo many Chinese tourists in Egypt (I don’t recall noticing them in Turkey). Too many in fact. The guides don’t like them much and I doubt the traders do either because the Chinese don’t really shop the local things (they splurge in Paris instead). They are noisy, greedy and inconsiderate. I’m sorry if this sounds racist but the majority of them are really all that and worse.

Winter is a good time to get married in Egypt. The hotel we stayed at had wedding receptions for different couples every night.

There are many crazy drivers there who drive maniacally at illegal speed limits (wait, was there even any speed limit?). They weave in and out of the traffic, squeeze closely to the next vehicle and just follow the vehicle in front. The road lines are barely discernible (if they exist in the first place) and drivers are free to form their own lane. Amazingly, we saw only one accident and that was in Alex. I don’t think it costs much to get a driving licence there and judging by the way the locals drive, I wouldn’t be surprised if one can obtain a licence within a day. It doesn’t help that the roads are bad in some areas, even on the highway linking Cairo and Alex. We suffered many headaches particularly towards the end of our visit and at times, I even felt like vomiting in the vehicle. Yes, even Wikitravel confirms this particular observation: ‘Road accidents are very common in Egypt, mainly due to poor roads, dangerous driving and non-enforcement of traffic laws.’

No matter where you dine, the food is more or less the same. The salad selection is similar (beetroot, tomatoes, potatoes, pasta, cucumber) and the soup too (we encountered the ubiquitous clear (fava?) bean soup almost everywhere). For the main dish, there’s usually pasta offered alongside rice and the usual chicken, meat, fish and vegetable dishes. I skipped dessert most of the time so I can’t tell you what’s good there.

Water at meals is not free. You need to pay for it. So what we did was to bring our own bottles of mineral water along. We brought some over with us and bought bottles of mineral water over there. it’s between 3 - 5 pounds per bottle compared to 12 pounds at the restaurant.

Egyptians love being tipped. Carry loose change.

Will I visit again? I would love to visit Cairo again and explore Coptic Cairo, the ruins in Alexandria and other temples in Luxor. But I don’t think this visit will be anytime soon.

The end

Walk Like An Egyptian: Third Step

Thursday, 31 January 2013

An ungodly start. We assembled at 5 for the 5.10 pick-up. We were going on a hot air balloon over Luxor this morning. I wanted to see the Valley of the Kings (and maybe the Valley of the Queens too if we were lucky) – even from the air would suffice. We ended up having to wait for a couple of men staying at the posh Winter Palace Hotel (it was previously the winter palace when Egypt still had a monarch). We then took a boat across the Nile to the eastern side and from there, rode another van to the take-off site.

We took off and flew over the city. We didn’t fly that high (four of us had been on hot air balloons before, in Turkey) and indeed we saw a few other balloons flying higher and further than we did. We knew that it was dependent on wind conditions and the direction of the wind; still we were disappointed that we were not able to see as much as we thought. Look, the other balloons around ours and those we rode in Turkey were also subject to the wind but don’t use it as a convenient excuse. All in all, we rode for only 30 minutes. I know because yes, I timed it all. We landed in a sugarcane farm (I still thought he was joking when he told us to get ready to land and was quite surprised when we really did because it was such a short ride and not at all worth the moolah we paid).

We stayed in the balloon basket in the sugarcane farm in the middle of nowhere until the ground ‘crew’ came to deflate the balloon. We left feeling dissatisfied and cheated. Back to the ship for breakfast and finish packing for our cruise had ended.

We left the ship at 9 and headed for Hatshepsut Temple at Deir el Bahari, a rather modern-looking temple built into a cliff face and there are three layered terraces. Most of Hatshepsut’s statues had been destroyed by her stepson Thutmose III as revenge or resentment towards her reign.

After Hatshepsut Temple, we stopped at the nearby Morssey Alabaster factory/showroom for about half an hour before continuing on to Ramesseum, the temple for Ramses II. The largest statue of the Pharaoh used to be here before it was destroyed by an earthquake. We spent slightly more than half an hour here. It was quite windy here.

We had lunch next and performed prayers at the restaurant. There’s no proper prayer room so we performed prayers in the open near the staircase.

After lunch, we drove to Karnak Temple Complex, the largest ancient religious site in Egypt (it comprises a mix of temples). Now, the complex may be huge but only the main part is open to the public. You walk along the ram-headed sphinxes avenue and enter the complex area. One famous thing here is the Hypostyle Hall with its 134 gigantic columns (no, I didn’t count and would just take Ahmed’s word for it), the twin obelisks of Hatshepsut (the unfinished obelisk which we visited previously at Aswan would have been added as the third obelisk had it not cracked), the sacred lake (dug by Thutmose III) and the monumental scarab which was built to signify good luck. We spent close to an hour here.

The last temple we visited today was the Luxor Temple with seated statues of Ramses and one of the two remaining obelisk (the other is at Place de la Concorde in Paris) at the entrance. There’s also a mosque (Mosque of Abu Haggag) built on top of the rubble that accumulated over the centuries above the court of Ramses II, the colonnade and the Court of Amenhotep. You can still see the faint traces of the Roman mural on an inner chamber. We spent close to an hour here.

After that, Ahmed led us to the nearby souk and we spent close to three hours browsing the souk (with most shopkeepers asking if I was from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan (that’s a new one!), Japan, Korea, even Singapore), stopping for a cup of chai when we were knackered while waiting for the van to bring us to dinner. We even performed prayers at a small mosque at the edge of the souk. After dinner, we went to the train station for our 2230 train back to Cairo. Fortunately the train arrived early at 2210 and we boarded and made our way to our couchettes, eager to rest our weary selves.

Friday, 1 February 2013

We were scheduled to arrive at Cairo at 0830 but only pulled up at the station after 11 am! There were delays and the train stopped a few times before continuing its journey. After getting our luggage, we set off for the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities aka Egyptian Museum. It’s home to a massive collection of Egyptian antiquities. Unfortunately, we had to leave our cameras behind so I couldn’t capture anything (and there were guards in there so I didn’t dare use my phone either).

We left at 1330 and drove to the restaurant where we had lunch on the second day. After lunch, we drove to Imam Shafie Mosque, driving through Imam Souk on the way. The sellers set up their stalls by the road (some even set theirs in the road!) and buyers jostled with vehicles like ours. There were used clothes (denim trousers, jackets, sweaters, t-shirts), carpets, dried fish, fruits and vegetables on sale. It was a fantastic sight to behold indeed, seeing buyers and sellers both determined to buy and sell even while submerged in flood water and mud. We finally reached the mosque after some wrong turns and spent about 15 minutes there.

We drove passed another section of the souk, this section selling live animals instead. There were tortoises, rabbits, pigeons, canaries, fish, even cats and dogs. After that, we drove to Asfour Crystal showroom and spent considerable time there. Even I bought a few things! It was after 6 when we left and headed back to our hotel, stopping en route to buy some nougat and then dinner.

Mohamed asked us if we still wanted to go to Alexandria the next day. He had overheard of increased riots in Cairo and feared the riots may spread to Alexandria. The tour company was prepared to offer us a trip to Saqqara instead but we had rather set our hearts upon going to Alex so we told him we wanted to stick to a day trip to Alex.

Saturday, 2 February 2013

We met up at the lobby at 0730 and set off for Alex, stopping at a rest area en route. We reached the outskirts of Alex at almost 10 but it took some time to get into the city proper. Our first stop was Abu Darda Mosque in the middle of a street. It was closed so we didn’t spend long there. Then we went to a mosque housing the tombs of Danial (not Nabi Danial) and Luqman al-Hakim. The mosque is in a dilapidated state. Next, we drove to the Citadel of Qaitbay (or Fort of Qaitbay), built on and from the ruins of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. I was slightly dismayed that we were not going to enter the citadel but cheered up when I saw the Mediterranean and the locals enjoying the sea and sun. There were some anglers there too and cats. Lots of cats! We overstayed here but for once Mohamed and the driver didn’t seem to mind.

We left and drove to Morsi Abu El Abbas Mosque, a mosque named after a Sufi saint who migrated and settled in Alex. Next was lunch (we performed prayers there) at a fine restaurant where we managed to get WiFi access. Next, we went to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern replacement to the Ancient Library of Alexandria, one of the largest libraries in the ancient world before it was burnt down by Julius Caesar. It was an impressive modern building of ten levels (according to Mohamed) with modern facilities. We spent quite some time here.

The next stop was Montazah palace and gardens where King Farouk’s palace is (the last monarch of Egypt). We strolled in the garden near the palace for a brief while before driving closer to the sea. We left the van and strolled along the waterfront, enjoying the sun and beautiful scenery. We left after 40 minutes and drove back to Cairo. Goodbye Alex ;’(

The driver drove like a lunatic on speed and that together with the horrible road conditions gave me a headache all the way. I was comforting myself and counting down time throughout. We stopped at a rest area and I was thankful to escape the vehicle. But we had to resume our journey so we reluctantly piled back into the vehicle to endure the remains of the journey.

Dinner was had at Caviar Restaurant near our hotel.

Sunday, 3 February 2013

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

We went for a late breakfast, then went to the jewellery shop at the hotel to buy bracelets for ourselves before returning to our room to finish packing. The porter came to collect our bags before 1.30 pm and we gathered at the lobby at 1.45 pm for our trip to Dandy Megamall about 7 km away. We stayed until 5.45 pm and joined the crazy rush hour. It took us double the time to travel back to the hotel. We reached the hotel at 6.30 pm and Mohamed came just after 7 to bring us to the airport (well, actually, he bade farewell to us midway; Roben, the tour company’s airport liaison replaced him then). We suffered another puke-worthy mad ride to the airport. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, folks.

We reached the airport in one piece somehow and went in immediately to check in. Roben told us the airport should be busier than it was (just like the Egyptian Museum should have been full with visitors) but the riots may have put the visitors off. Busy or not, our flight must have been full because we were assigned to rows 50 and 51. Outrageous! Having checked in, we thanked Roben and parted ways. We decided to go in immediately.

I was knackered and for the first time ever, slept even before take-off and only woke up for late dinner. The Thais in front of us seemed capable of talking non-stop and I drifted in and out of sleep to their drone of conversation.

Monday, 4 February 2013

We landed at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and transited there before continuing on to KL. The plane was noticeably emptier and the minute the door closed, I got up and walked to the front. We landed at KLIA at 5.50 pm and I rushed to the main building. Our bags didn’t take long to come out as they did in Cairo and I ran for the train with four minutes to spare and just about made it.

Reached home at 8 and done with unpacking within half an hour.

Walk Like An Egyptian: Second Step

Monday, 28 January 2013

I woke up a few times in the night and once to use the toilet. It was a good thing we didn’t share the car with any Chinese tourists; the next car was full of them and their toilets stank to high heavens. I’m not being racist – not when I’m forever mistaken as one myself - but merely stating the fact. And because I couldn’t sleep again, I decided to get up at 5 to use the toilet before performing ablutions.

Well, I got stuck this time around and was trapped in there for about 5 minutes. It was noisy and even though someone heard me from outside and vice-versa, I couldn’t make out what was said to me and I’m sure s/he couldn’t understand what I was trying to say either. I finally managed to escape after struggling with the lock and praying hard. Good thing the toilet didn’t stink too strongly.

We pulled into Aswan station at 1030 and our local guide, Ahmed, was already waiting for us. The Nubians are natives in Aswan and our guide was dark himself. He’s not a Nubian though (Nubians are darker). Aswan is Egypt’s hottest, driest city and indeed, it is one of the driest inhabited towns in the world. You can go through a year or two without rain and yet it rained that morning before we arrived.

Aswan is rich in granite – it enabled the ancient Egyptians to build their pyramids, obelisks and sarcophaguses - and we were immediately taken to the unfinished obelisk. I could sense that the guide would be a very friendly informative chap the minute we had settled in the bus as he pointed out the river, the Elephantine Island, the Coptic Church, the military hospital and the cemetery (conveniently located diagonally across the hospital!). The unfinished obelisk is the largest known ancient obelisk in the world, claimed to be constructed by the female pharaoh Hatshepsut (she was one of only two female pharaohs; the other one being Cleopatra). It was abandoned though when cracks appeared in the granite. Granite is a hard material and only a certain stone could cut it out. We spent about 30 minutes there.

We then went to the pier where our ship was docked but not before a brief stop to enable our two colleagues to change money and buy some provisions. Our ship was called La Bohème and was supposedly an upgrade. However, we faced check-in problems and while we had our rooms assigned quickly and ready for us, we could not get in until the problems were resolved in Cairo. It wasn’t until after we had finished performing prayers (the ship manager kindly allocated a room for us to perform ablutions and prayers) that our check-in problems were resolved finally. We had a lovely comfortable five-star hotel boat room (cabin?) with a bathroom and a balcony (although it was too chilly to sit outside). We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the deck with its swimming pool and loungers and resting. Just like lunch, dinner was had on board.

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Bullet The Blue Sky

An early morning start today as we wanted to go on a trip to Abu Simbel. We left the ship at 5 and performed prayers in the van. For security reasons, we also had to travel in convoy to Abu Simbel and gathered near the unfinished obelisk before setting off for Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is 280 km from Aswan and is near to the border with Sudan. It took us 2.5 hours to get there (including an unscheduled pit-stop at a rudimentary hospital (clinic?) to use the WC). It was a good thing we stopped too for the queue for the WC at Abu Simbel was oh too long.

There are two massive rock temples at Abu Simbel: the temples of Ramesses II and Nefertari, his most beloved of many wives. The first and much larger temple features four large statues of Ramesses II in the façade in varying age. The second statues have the statues of the pharaoh and his wife. Our guide spent a lot of time at all the temples we stopped at explaining about the pharaohs, the gods they worshipped (Ra, Amun, Amun-Ra, Hathor. Then there are the other gods: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. And just as you began to grasp them, there were yet other gods like Horus, Anubis, Thoth...), the double crowns they wore (symbolising Upper and Lower Egypt), the wives of the pharaohs, how to tell between a pharaoh’s mother and his wife, how to tell between a god and a pharaoh, the scenes on any one temple reliefs, the significance of the scenes, the ankh, the scarab, the holy of holies, the cartouches and difference between a god’s cartouche and a pharaoh’s, the difference between an Egyptian temple and a Graeco-Roman temple... like I said, he’s very informative. It’s clear he loves his heritage, the history of his country and all that makes up the history and he wants to share them all with us. Oh and by the way, the Abu Simbel temples were relocated to their present sites when they were under threat of the rising Nile following the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

I’m sure the pharaohs all had this

Ahmed had told us to meet at the restaurant near the exit at 0945 but I found my colleagues at the shops instead. Shopping, what else? I bought some postcards and that was enough for me. We finally left after 10 am and drove back to our ship.

The ship was scheduled to depart Aswan at 1330 but because the Chinese group on our ship returned late, we only set off an hour later (yes, I took note of the time). I spent the afternoon in our room, resting and reading.

We docked at Kom Ombo, Ahmed’s hometown, at 5.30 pm. It was dusk when we walked up to Kom Ombo temple, a double temple built during the Ptolemaic dynasty. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek (yet another name to confuse us!) while the northern half was dedicated to the falcon god Horus. It was a pity that the night was falling fast because I would have loved to explore the temple more. We were given only 20 minutes or so before we were to meet at the nearby crocodile museum before returning to our ship.

The ship left Kom Ombo and sailed into the night.

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

♪♫ I can feel the devil walking next to me ♪♫

I dreamt I was back at boarding school for a brief while. In the next scene, I was leaving the office just before 7 pm (there was a clock in my dream!). I then went to queue at the ATM which was located up a water tank but abandoned my queue and walked along the street instead. Across the street, some boys were playing baseball. A cat came up to me and brushed against my feet and suddenly I started to jog and the cat trotted along next to me. As I passed the boys, someone said Tommy’s name - in full, no less - and I remembered thinking ‘Oh come on’. Then I entered another building and climbed up. Somehow I knew the building was haunted (so why did I enter it?) and asked a cleaning lady what time her shift ended. She looked at me to reply but was shocked by something next to me. The ghost! It was standing next to me, I could feel it. I started reciting al-Kursi and then I felt the ghost reaching out to me and grasping my left hand. I could feel her strong hold, it seemed so real. I repeated my recital twice more so loudly that I woke up myself and my mate. Phew! It was a nightmare after all. Maybe the ghosts haunting Kom Ombo or any of the two temples at Abu Simbel decided to haunt me. And of course you still have to haunt my dreams don’t you. Really, we have got to stop meeting in my dreams like this. And I hope, I hope that I still haunt your dreams, more often than you do mine, and I hope I leave you gasping awake when you get up. Every time.

Back to the present world: we had reached Edfu and I saw the town when I looked out. We headed out at 7 am and rode horse-pulled carriages to Edfu Temple. It had rained the night before and the streets were wet and muddy. Dedicated to the falcon god Horus, Edfu Temple was built in the Ptolemaic period. Our guide led us to the temple and began explaining to us about its history, about the scenes on the reliefs, the holy of holies... He even assigned roles to us to make us understand better (not sure if it worked but I really appreciated his time and effort in educating us). He then gave us free time to explore the temple.

We met at the coffee shop before riding the carriages back to our respective ship. I do hope the boy who handled our horse-carriage would receive payment as I had no small change to give him (and we were already warned not to give any money to them. But still...).

We set off for Luxor. There was no more pit-stop today until we reach Luxor. I spent the day reading and then joining the rest to see the ship go through the lock at Esna. Oh, and there were the boat vendors too along the way to the lock, chasing our ship and urging us to buy their wares. That was a nice entertainment and it reminded me of other persistent vendors in other places. 

Mohamed who’s buddy with the ship manager took us for a brief visit to the captain this afternoon. He had his young son with him as it was holiday time. The son would one day take over the ship. 

After dinner tonight, we walked across the other ships docked alongside ours to the pier and explored the area. There wasn’t much to see although I did manage to buy another bottle of cough syrup.

To be continued

Walk Like An Egyptian: First Step

I have always wanted to visit Egypt but hesitated whenever I recall the attacks on tourists. I don’t know why but the attacks against tourists in Egypt seem to stand out in my mind - and there have been quite a few over the years. I almost went in December 2011 and had even made full payment; alas, the agent cancelled the trip due to the riots back then. Finally, I could no longer ignore the calls and decided, I would go now or I never would.

My two colleagues had asked me to consider them in my trips so I thought it would be a good idea to invite them on this trip. You can go on your own to Egypt but from my observation and experience, it is more convenient to just go on a tour. Because the city is mega-huge and the transportation is still somewhat lacking (I also read that it is not normal for a single girl to be travelling alone there; you’d be stared at if you even ride the metro alone what more try to navigate the confusing streets and poor public transportation network. I also asked my mate and she readily agreed. The number of travellers increased to six finally as the two colleagues decided to bring their family members along (one husband and one daughter).

I went to the MATTA Fair back in September 2012 and after spending hours there, finally decided on a tour by a company which had departure in end-January to avail of the public holidays in between.

Friday, 25 January 2013

I took half-day leave today and left home just before 6 pm. It rained earlier and the Friday traffic was as bad as ever if not worse. I took the LRT and changed for KLIA Transit train at Bandar Tasik Selatan, cursing at the station steps. Reached KLIA at 7.30 pm and went to check in. My mate was already there. There weren’t that many people ahead of us so I was not happy when I saw we were assigned seats at row 46. Strewth!

Just before boarding, we found out about the riots starting in Cairo. Oh well.

Saturday, 26 January 2013

♪♫ Pyramid, we built this on a solid rock ♪♫

We landed at almost 6 am. I had decided to perform prayers in the plane and was glad I did so because it was a long, long wait for our bags. There was some confusion at first as to whether we needed visa on arrival (we were told by the cute chap at the check-in counter that we would need visa on arrival but our travel agent made no mention of this) so we went to buy visa stickers at USD15 each. Then we found out that the visa wasn’t necessary at all and retraced our steps back to the bank we bought it from to return it and get our USD15 back. That was confusing alright.

We were finally reunited with our bags and went out to meet our tour guide. He led us to the van we would be travelling in and told us that due to the chaos in central Cairo, our itinerary had been altered. We would visit the pyramids today and not the next day as scheduled. We dropped by our hotel en route (our hotel was near the pyramids) to unload our bags and freshen up before making our way to the pyramids. At last! I had been waiting a long time to see them.

There was already a small crowd at the pyramids and I think it would have been bigger on normal days if not for the riots. We took lots of pictures at the Great Pyramid before we went on to visit the other pyramids. The pyramids’ surface was not smooth, they were made of rectangle blocks yet from a distance they all looked smooth. We spent about two hours there even venturing down into the Pyramid of Khafre (nothing much to see in there and we were not allowed to bring in our cameras although we did use our smart phones, heh) and climbing out again. We finished with a visit to the Great Sphinx of Giza, the largest monolith statue in the world and the oldest known monumental sculpture. Alas, there was a barrier around the Sphinx so we couldn’t get close enough.

We had built an appetite by the time we were done (and the last meal we had was the early breakfast back in the flight) and after a brief visit to a perfume shop, we headed for lunch at a nearby restaurant, so near we could still see the pyramids from there. It was buffet-style and our first meal there; alas, it was nothing to shout about. After lunch, we went to a papyrus shop to see how it’s done. And while there were many fine pieces of papyrus work, we left empty-handed. We then went back to the hotel and checked in.

We reconvened for dinner – I felt like hell from the moment I got up from my rest and had to force myself to swallow - and after some discussion and haggling, agreed to pay for some optional tours in Cairo and a trip to Abu Simbel.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

We checked out after breakfast and went to the site of our first optional tour: The Pharaonic Village. We boarded a floating vessel and went around this (artificial?) island in the Nile where we had a brief introduction to some of the ancient Egyptian gods before we sailed along various scenes depicting the daily life of ancient Egyptians: the farmers, the wine producers, the blacksmiths, the fisherman, the boat makers, the glass producer... then we docked and went to visit replicas of a temple, a nobleman’s house and a peasant’s house. We also went to see a replica of the Tomb of Tutankhamun, Islamic exhibits and Nasser’s exhibit (Egypt’s second president). Then we crossed over and went to the Mummification and Anwar al Sadat (Egypt’s third president) exhibits before taking the boat back to mainland.

After lunch, we drove to the Saladin Citadel on Mokattam Hill. We performed prayers at the mosque of Muhammad Ali, an Ottoman mosque which is largely a tourist centre these days. There is no section for women but we insisted on performing prayers there nevertheless and went near a pillar to do so. You need to go to the washroom outside about 50 metres away to perform ablutions though. I don’t know why the washroom couldn’t be built within the mosque itself; Muslims can really excel at inconveniencing themselves. We spent about 1.5 hours there before heading over to Khan el-Khalili, a major souk in Cairo. We spent about 100 minutes there. I wasn’t particularly interested in many things there and was just content to snap photos of the souk.

We regrouped at 1745 and made our way to the train station for our 2000 train to Aswan. We were supposed to pick up our dinner but it wasn’t ready when we got there so we left without dinner. The train station was very crowded and we sought refuge in a small coffee shop. No, there was no waiting room. Our train arrived later than scheduled and it was a quarter to 9 pm before we finally boarded the train and made our way to our respective couchettes. We were given dinner on board – rice, vegetables, beans, fish and buns – which we ate in our couchette (there were two planks that you stick into the wall which act as trays to hold your dinner tray). There’s also a small sink with small towels and mini soaps in each couchette and on the wall near our bunks, there was a panel to control the light, temperature and music (our temperature and music knobs didn’t work). We also had reading lamps (mine didn’t work though). The conductor then came to clear our dinner and helped to make our beds. We settled in for the night ahead of us.

To be continued

Osaka: Before You Go

Airline

If you are flying from KL like us, you can fly either MAS or AirAsia. I chose to fly MAS because the fare was reasonable and besides, I could redeem my Enrich points for el niño’s ticket. You still need to pay the airport taxes though and Kansai’s tax is high because the departure tax is incorporated in the ticket.

Accommodation

I wouldn’t have minded staying at a capsule hotel but the ones I found online at first were only for males. Anyway, I reckoned it’d be awkward performing prayers if we stayed at a capsule hotel - I don’t like people staring at me when I perform prayers - not to mention that we’d definitely be staying at different levels (if there’s one for females). Not so convenient when I needed to coordinate times when el niño. So capsule hotel is out.

When I did my search, I noticed that there were less hotel rooms available by the day (it was apparently peak season). Oh, there were hotel rooms but it became necessary to focus on the possible areas to stay in. So I took out the Osaka map I picked at the previous MATTA Fair and decided the area around Osaka station looked central enough. I didn’t fancy spending too much time commuting which you would need to do if you stay at the outskirts of the city. And being the third largest city in Japan, there would be a lot of commuters meaning fuller trains and greater chance of losing el niño in the stations. A further quick search revealed that Osaka station is adjacent to Umeda station, itself a major transportation hub. OK, so Kita area it was then (the area around Osaka or Umeda stations).

Next, I looked for hotels in Kita area which provide WiFi. Most hotels provide wired Internet but I wanted WiFi. Most hotels provide breakfast at an additional cost but breakfast didn’t matter to me, not when we couldn’t eat most of what would be served anyway. So, after all these considerations, I finally booked Osaka Tokyu Inn. I was slightly discouraged by the comments given (most comments are about how small the rooms are) but as it turned out, we were extremely satisfied with the hotel. Our room was comfortably large enough for both of us and the bathroom, while compact, didn’t cause us to knock ourselves against the walls. I brought a small suitcase anyway but as it turned out, a large suitcase wouldn’t have had taken too much extra space or caused us discomfort over the space it took.

Here are some links to budget accommodation in Osaka: Osaka hostel guesthouse and Ten Hostel Osaka in Kita-ku, Osaka Guesthouse Koma and capsule hotel Asahi Plaza Shinsaibashi.

Food

Now, in Japan, it’s not easy to find restaurants that serve food that you can consider halal or kosher. I think it’s even more difficult to be a vegetarian there. You can’t simply eat ramen or udon or soba at your fancy because it may be served in meat broth or even tonkotsu (pork broth). There are some Indian restaurants but they are few and far between and you may not necessarily be able to find them when you need them. And while there are some vegetarian restaurants, again, they are few and far between and may not be available when you need them.

So, if you are on some dietary restrictions (halal or kosher or vegetarian), what you can do is go to the many convenience stores and buy your food there. And there are plenty of those convenience stores: Sunkus, FamilyMart, 7-11, Lawson, Daily Yamazaki, etc. You can buy salad, packed bento, onigiri (these may not necessarily be vegetarian as most contain seafood), or even instant noodles and you can ask at the counter for hot water for your instant noodle or microwave to heat up your food. Convenience stores in Japan provide an affordable economical, tasty and sensible alternatives even if you are not on a budget (though in Japan, of course you would inevitably be as most things are prohibitively priced!).

I also brought over a large loaf of bread, a smaller loaf of Gardenia butterscotch bread, some instant noodles, instant porridge, instant soup and even fruits. I also packed canned tuna and anchovies but we ran out of bread by the third day and the bread loaves they sell there come in very thick slices. One slice of their bread is as thick as two slices of ours. So any one loaf contains anywhere between three to five or six slices only. And the slices are too thick for sandwich.

There are the usual Western fast food restaurants like McDonald’s of course (I didn’t notice Burger King but then again, I wasn’t looking for it) but I don’t eat McDonald's and I certainly didn’t travel to Osaka only to break my vow not to eat McDonald’s ever again.

Visa Application

Japan has imposed strict visa requirement since my last trip there and it has been in place for some years now. In addition to filling in the visa form and providing the obligatory photograph, you need to furnish a few other documents, including a letter from your bank certifying your bank account balances (to vouch for your creditworthiness and that you have sufficient money for your stay there), a letter from your employer on your company’s letterhead certifying you're an employee of good standing, a schedule of your itinerary there, and for me, because I would be travelling with my nephew, birth certificates of myself, my sister and himself to certify that he is indeed my nephew. Yes, birth certificates and not identity cards. I called the embassy a few times to confirm this and each time, I was given the same answer. For more information, check this site. You can also download the visa application and itinerary forms there.

Itinerary

As I needed to provide an itinerary for my visa application, I had to make a quick research on the places to go. I couldn’t find any travel book on Osaka at Kinokuniya (plenty on Kyoto) but there are a few sites (besides Wikitravel). I also found out about the 2-day Osaka unlimited ticket and the free entry and discounts it provide which gave me an idea of places to go.

I also found that I could make trips to Kyoto and Kobe. I looked at the bus options then the train options before I found that Hankyu Railway provides a 2-day tourist pass (and you don’t have to travel on consecutive days) at a reasonable price.

Money Matters

I changed money after budgeting for the 2-day unlimited passes, the Hankyu train fares, the limousine bus fares from the airport to the city and back, the Universal Studios tickets and meals for both of us. The exchange rate then was RM3.75 for every ¥100. I used my card to pay for our hotel stay and was delighted to find that despite using my card, the exchange was favourable, at RM3.68 for ¥100. (Note: the Japanese Yen has further depreciated since and it is now about RM3.40 for ¥100).

Others

As for other trips, I went after printing maps of the area around the hotel, finding out prayer times and nearby vegetarian restaurants (we didn’t go to any in the end), vitamin pills (including Panadol soluble for el niño - because he has difficulty swallowing pills), airport limo bus times and like I mentioned before, some food. 

I hope the above has been helpful if you’re planning a trip to Osaka specifically or another destination in Japan.

Land Of The Rising Sun: Quirky Japanese

I had been to Tokyo twice before my Osaka trip and this recent trip reinforced what I had observed before:

- A very polite society. No one raises their voice and you won’t find anyone on the train talking on their hand-phones. If they do, they usually cover the mouthpiece so as not to disturb other passengers. Japanese are uncomfortable about making others uncomfortable. No one shouts. You get large crowds at attractions like Universal Studios Japan and the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kyoto for instance but everyone queues and moves in an orderly manner. No pushing, no shoving, no queue jumping. No kids running everywhere and no parents letting their kids running everywhere they like terrorising the place down. I really wish more parents and children here are as well-behaved.

- A very clean country. No one litters. No one.

- Fascination with the cute and cuddly. Kawaii dominates the culture big time. I love it! Every girl would have a dangling bag or phone charm.

- Plastic bags are still widely in use everywhere. So much so I got the confused look when I declined them at supermarkets and convenience stores. They do recycle rigorously though. When Akak was there, she told us of the different rubbish collecting days: one day, it would be only organic waste; another it would be inorganic waste. You would have to sort out your waste accordingly.

- Creative people. Too creative at times (and no, this is not a criticism!) that they seem to be quirky. They are the ones who came up with robots. They excel at food decorating and arrangement, bonsai trees, fantastic and soothing landscapes, etc. They are also good at utilising space and inventing things to make life easier. However, I observed a lot of them still use flip phones.

- You can find squat toilets besides sit-down toilets in some bathrooms. Most sit-down toilets have integrated bidet and even warm seats. When you sit down, you can hear the sound of water flowing or you can hit the music button and some sound will come out to drown out your own sound. Ladies’ cubicles in some departmental store washrooms have a child seat in them. How thoughtful, eh! They are not big on hand towels though and some bathrooms don’t have hand dryer either.

- They like to drink cold water with their meals even in winter. I can hardly swallow it in summer (I don’t drink cold or iced water), what more in winter.

- They are big on meat. You have to be careful when you eat because some noodle dishes may be served in pork broth.

- Oh and vending machines are a ubiquitous sight everywhere. They even got me to thinking about the products sold: how do the companies know when to re-stock and how do they ensure products sold are still within their best consume-by dates.

I love the beautiful country and how the smart Japanese marry the traditional with the modern. Realistically though, I don’t think I will be back. I would love to but I don’t see that happening any time soon.