Dubai Diary

Helloooo…..…Dubai Ah??? This is the first thing that comes to our heads (Tamil film buffs) when we say ‘Dubai’. Anyway, our whole idea to visit Dubai was started off by my husband. He always wanted to take a family trip abroad, so in 2014, everyone agreed and we decided to visit Dubai!!! Initially, I was a little skeptical about taking my 8 month old abroad, but after knowing that it was a family trip with almost 10-15 of us, I was a little relieved. There was no dearth of information in the web regarding places to see in and around Dubai. Since one of our cousins was living in Dubai, we did most of the planning with her help. So we charted out this elaborate plan with places to see and things to do, and headed out excitedly to fascinating Dubai!! 

For everyone’s convenience, we planned this trip during the Christmas holidays of 2014, which turned out to be a great time to be in Dubai weather wise. We had our family coming from Theni, Bangalore, London and us from Maldives. So this was in true sense a great family get together. Getting a visa to UAE was a little difficult for us. Normally for tourists, the airlines or the travel agency would arrange visas. But, since we had diplomatic passports, Sri Lankan Airlines said they could not do it. After a few enquiries, we found out that diplomatic passport holders could get tourist visas only through the U.A.E Embassy. There was no U.A.E Embassy or Consulate in Maldives, so my husband had to arrange visas through his colleague in the Embassy in Delhi. In our experience, this was probably the first time holding a diplomatic passport was a disadvantage, while visiting a country.

Once that was sorted out, all I was worried about was how we were going to spend the odd early morning transit at Colombo. Since this was the first long flight for our little one, we decided to stay at the Serendiva Transit Hotel in Colombo airport. It was very convenient for our 8-hour transit at a cost of 65USD, including meals. We even got to meet a famous Tamil director, Bharathiraja, who is coincidentally from my husband’s hometown. So we quickly jumped at the opportunity and clicked some pictures with him.

Once we were off from Colombo, we landed in Dubai around 10 pm. When we reached the airport, we walked and walked and walked to get from the terminal to the immigration. I have never travelled through such a huge and busy airport. At the immigration, all the officials at the counter were in the traditional white galabiyyah type of gown, which was a little unexpected. Since we had already got our visa, we passed through immigration and customs easily. Once we were out of the airport, there were so many people at the arrivals area that it was really difficult to find our cousin. In that entire crowd, she managed to find us and met us with a warm hug. We then loaded our luggage and headed to the apartment. We stayed in an apartment in a neighbourhood very close to Sharjah. It was a very spacious three-bedroom service apartment for our entire family to stay together. Once we settled in, we went straight to bed. Thankfully my son was very tired and did not make too much of fuss about the new place. Our family from India was supposed to reach at the same time, but their flight was delayed and the tired gang reached only at 4 am.

Our first day at Dubai started rather slowly, as everyone was still tired from the travel. We initially planned to visit IBN Battuta Mall and then Dubai Mall; instead we went directly to the most awesome Dubai Mall. Late on a Christmas morning, our entire gang of 14 took our first trip on the Dubai metro. As the train approached the station, we excitedly got into it. But the excitement lasted only for two stops. As the train drew closer and closer to the mall, there were more people getting into the metro rather than getting out. This trip turned out to be the most disturbing trip for all of us. With 4 small kids, we were all crushed to our bones, not knowing how to stand without being poked and prodded, trying hard to control the tears of my 8 month old who didn’t stop crying for the entire  journey in the metro. To our utter dismay, almost the entire crowd got off at the Dubai Mall. Once out of the train, we all just had to take a breather. It took us some time to pacify the kids after the crowd dispersed.

As we exited the metro, we were invited by the most spectacular view of the Burj Khalifa, following us every step of the way. We went past a few travelators, wondering why they had it in the first place. But then as we walked and walked, the path was just never ending. Finally when we did reach the mall, we were all too hungry to even look around, as all our eyes were looking for was the food court. We went past so many shops, which we vowed to come back; finally parking ourselves in this huge food court. Without getting too confused about what to eat, we took the safe bet and headed straight to KFC and gobbled our food. It was almost 3 pm by the time we got ready to actually explore the mall!!!

The Dubai Mall is a must see place in Dubai, with many different places to explore apart from excellent shopping. It is always my personal opinion to not visit malls, when during vacations. But  googling about the mall made me eager to go there. So our first stop was of course, the Aquarium, which was at the ground level of the mall. We reached this amazing floor to ceiling glass wall, with such beautiful fishes, stingrays and other sea creatures swimming around. It was just spectacular to see such a breath-taking sight, being in the middle of the desert. The place where we stood was cordoned off, so we couldn’t actually get closer to the glass. Since our sweet cousin was with us, she knew exactly where we could get a closer look. We went right to that spot and experienced the sights of the fish, sharks and stingrays whizz past us. It was beyond stunning!!! To experience the aquarium up close, there is also an amazing underwater tunnel and zoo attached to the aquarium costing about AED70 per person. They even have other activities, like scuba diving, shark feeding and the like. We decided to skip them, and headed over to our next stop, the Ice Rink!!!

As we were heading to the rink, we walked past the Shuk of the mall. It was really beautiful, since it looked more traditional than the rest of the mall. It even had a small fountain in the centre surrounded by a number of gold shops. Since the kids were really excited to get to the rink we just walked past all the shops without stopping. Once we got to the Ice rink, the kids ran in, while we walked up to the gallery to watch them. But unfortunately the entry to the gallery was charged, so we headed to one of the cafes surrounding the rink and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate. Once they were done, we got out of the mall for the next attraction - the fountain show. When we got there, people were already lining up around the fountain area to catch this visual treat. Yet, we managed to get a great spot and settled down, literally sitting near the railings.

At exactly 6pm the fountains started, giving us a splendour show of water and music. With the Burj Khalifa as a background we enjoyed the fountain show, which ended with everyone’s favourite Jai Ho!! The show ended quite soon as compared to what I had expected. Once we were done with the show, we headed back to the mall to take the metro back home. On our way we decided to do some shopping although we were really tired. The word shopping, gave us a little extra energy I guess. This would also give us some time to avoid the peak hour traffic at the metro. As expected, we had no hassles on the way back home. Enroute, we stopped at Saravana Bhavan where one of our cousins from London met us. We all had crispy dosas and tiredly got back home.

The next day, we headed out early to Ferrari World near Abu Dhabi. This is yet another must-watch in UAE, recommended in so many travel websites and forums. And we had a few car-crazy men in the group; so we decided to visit the place. We hired a small van and left Dubai around 9 am. Despite the excellent roads, the drive to  Ferrari World was nearly 2-hours from Dubai due to the traffic. We had a great time in the van, chatting away and playing songs. The Ferrari world is this massive structure, located on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Apart from this, the island also has Yas Mall and Yas Waterworld. We missed the water theme park, as we had time only for one of the attractions. The Ferrari World gives you a grand welcome with its gigantic red colour arches that covers the entire amusement park. As we enter the park, we saw these flamboyant red arches and a display of the engines, cars and what not. My knowledge on cars was not enough to match all the displays. Our cousin had already purchased the tickets online for AED 250 per person, so we managed to jump the long winding queue at the counters.

We entered the park, and headed straight to the Formula Rossa, the rollercoaster, which was the main attraction of the park. Since this was a must-do attraction in the park, we decided to finish it first. There were a number of F1 related activities all along the way, which we promised ourselves to visit later. In our entire group, only 6 of us had the courage to go for ride in the world’s fastest rollercoaster (that’s what they claim). I was petrified seeing the speed at which the ride was going. But I had decided not to miss  my very first experience on a rollercoaster. As we got closer to the ride, my heart beat faster and louder. We were asked to remove any accessories that could fall off, given plastic goggles to cover our eyes and made to sit on the seats. The moment it moved, I just shut my eyes and screamed my guts out. Every time I opened my eyes, it was even scarier. The website claims that the roller coaster goes at 250 km/h in just 5 secs. I think it went faster than that. Oh my god..what an experience it was. We were all literally shaking when we got out. It was bloody brilliant!! An experience of a lifetime I can say!!!

We then explored the rest of the park, had lunch at Il Podio, and continued on enjoying various attractions. Our next stop was at Tyre Twist. We had a great time in this traditional family teacup themed ride. We enjoyed this ride a lot while the kids were riding their Ferraris on the junior GT challenge, which had a miniature street course including traffic signs, stoplights and roads with lane dividers. The kids had good time bumping each other as we watched them from the gallery. While we wanted to finish all other rides, we missed out on certain very good ones as it had too much waiting time. One thing I missed was the Karting. I was really excited about it, but we had to take slots, which were not within our time window. In the meantime, a few of us got to see the RED show, which was an amazing acrobatic show. We then went to this exciting ride called Speed of Magic. It was a 4-D ride, featuring a 3-D movie, including temperature, light and motion. We were made to wear 3D glasses and got onto the ride. Although it seemed more kiddish, we had a good time in this ride. We got to go on more rides in the evening, as the crowd was less. So just before leaving the park, we quickly went for many rides, sometimes twice too. Ferrari World had so many rides that we couldn't finish all the rides in a day. Overall, it was a day well spent at Ferrari world, which we finished with an unexpected fountain show at the mall. Famished, we got into the van and headed back to Dubai. It was a quiet ride back home, as most of us were fast asleep. Once we got home, we ordered some food and went straight to bed.

The next day we hired a van, and headed to the massive Burj Khalifa. On our way we drove through the highways, looking at all the beautiful buildings of Dubai. It was truly a spectacle.  The entrance to the Burj Khalifa was again through the Dubai Mall. We had to be there by 10 am. So we rushed to the counter, collected our tickets for a cost of 125AED and made our way to the 125^th floor of the highest tower in the world. The path to the elevators was nicely decked up with information regarding the building, its construction and pictures, models of the building at every stage and more such statistics.

We finally reached the elevators, which took us to the observation deck on the 125^th floor. The topmost point that is accessible to the public is the 148^th floor, which includes luxury lounges even. Once we entered the observation deck, we were awe struck by the view of Dubai’s skyline. Thanks to the clear sunny day, we had a really spectacular view of the vast desert from a height of 456 m above ground. On one side, we could see the winding highways and the amazing skyline of Dubai. We did not have any time limit to stay up at the observation deck, so we spent almost an hour taking photographs and enjoying the 360-degree view of Dubai. They even had a small souvenir shop at this level. Finally when we decided to leave, we were caught in yet-another-long-queue to get back to the ground. It took us more than 20 min to get back on the elevators.

Back on the ground, we left to our next stop, the Creek Park in Downtown Dubai. On our way to the park, we stopped at Burj Al Arab, the famous hotel which is housed in a sail shaped building. All we wanted were photographs in front of the building, which turned out to be quite a busy tourist spot. Right next to this hotel, is the Wild Wadi water themed park, which had good reviews, but we did not have the time to visit. As we were on the way to the park, we ordered food at our favourite Saravana Bhavan and made a picnic out of our visit to the park. The Creek park of Dubai was very beautiful with various activities for kids like bicycle ride, play area and even a cable car. We found a good shady spot and settled to have our lunch. Once we had our lunch, all the kids decided to go the play area, which gave us sometime to just laze around and chat. We took a walk around this huge park, which had a small promenade along the Dubai Creek. We even got to see a few seaplanes land in the creek. Also, there was an area, where some people were feeding some birds. It was really spectacular to see all the birds flying around trying to catch the food thrown at them. It was a nice place to sit and relax, in the early hours of the evening. The Creek Park also housed the Dolphinarium, for which we had bought tickets for about 100AED. We roamed around the park for some more time, and reached the Dolphinarium for the 6 pm show. 

The Dolphinarium had a number of shows, which included a bird show and also a dolphin feeding show. But we stuck to the traditional Dolphin and Seal show, which was most fascinating. Once the show started, we were a little let down, as they had some kind of magic cum acrobatic show. We were expecting the animals and not some sad acrobatic show. But once the dolphins came, we had fun. It was a really great show, which was enjoyed not only by the kids, but also by the adults too!! We had a great time watching the seals jump through hoops and the dolphin wave and impress the crowd. Our cousin had ensured we had the best seats in the hall. It was a good one-hour show, which we did not want to end. Once the show was over, we headed back home. Since we had some time, some of us even went to Sharjah for some souvenir shopping. That night we ordered Pizza in our apartment and spent some nice time, chatting away.

The next day was very relaxed, since the only program was the Desert Safari. We planned to stay in the desert overnight so we had to leave only around 3 pm, after lunch. Dubai is known for its gold shuk and everyone was interested in buying gold. Since I was not very keen, I stayed back with the kids while the rest of them went gold shopping. We decided to take the kids to the nearby mall, which had a good indoor play area. As the day passed, we felt too lazy and just stayed home, packed for the desert safari and entertained the kids. Once everyone was back from shopping, we quickly had our lunch and left to the much awaited Desert Safari.

We went straight to the pickup point for the safari and excitedly waited for the 4X4 vehicles that were supposed to pick us up. Once the two land cruisers were there, we were awed by the size of the cars. We were told that these vehicles would take us to the desert after which we will be transferred to SUVs, in which we would do the dune bashing and reach the Bedouin camp in the middle of the desert. We were very thrilled, as we planned to stay the night in the desert. This activity is something any one who travels to Dubai must do. 

We finally reached the desert around 4.30 pm where there were 20-30 white SUV’s doing the rounds taking everybody for the exciting dune bashing. Since small children are not allowed in dune bashing, me along with a few others decided not to take the dune bashing. We took some pictures here and there and were waiting patiently for our turn, which never came. It was almost 5.30pm and still we were not being picked up. We started to get really upset, as we had to reach the camp by 6pm. So the time window for dune bashing was closing very fast. Then we realised that this was a common thing happening there, where they take you late in order to reduce the time for bashing. After many quarrels, one SUV stopped for us, and he was too impatient as we were getting into the car, taking only a few of our family. The rest of us who did not want dune bashing were left behind, not knowing if we will even get to see where the rest of the family went. This was really upsetting for me, as it was just we ladies with a small kid, standing in the desert. We had half a mind to just go back home. Finally another car came to pick us up. Then the horror started. The driver had to rush to the camp before sunset, as it was getting late. I kept telling him the entire time to go slow, but he wouldn’t listen. This almost got me to tears, since I had read that dune bashing is not good for infants, and I did not want him to go fast. This was the worst experience I had, that once I reached the camp, I did not want to even take part in any activity. So I stayed at the table, which we had difficulty getting, while the others tried out some activities, like ATV riding and camel riding with whatever little time they had.

The entire family was very furious with the organisers, who did not take any responsibility for what had happened in the evening. As the sun was setting, we tried to enjoy what was left of the night. It was a nice setup; where floor level tables surrounded the centre stage, and the outer periphery had a number of different stalls like mehendi, costume photography etc. Once it had become dark, the centre stage lit up, and there were a number of shows that we enjoyed. They even had audience participation for one of the dances, where my husband volunteered, just to cheer me up.  So as the shows continued, I took this chance to take a walk around the place, and thought of getting some mehendi done, but the queue was way too long. Guess the queues are never short in Dubai. As the show was half way, we were informed that the buffet was open and were told to fill our plates. In the next few minutes, the entire crowd was at the buffet counter. It was a maddening crowd, which had made two queues for men and women. Seeing the number of people, we were worried if we will even get food. So all of us ladies, planned on taking each dish in a plate, so that we can cover everything in a single trip. The food was typically Indian, so we didn’t have any problem with that. As we were having dinner, they started the much awaited belly dance show, which everyone enjoyed. Once dinner and the show were over, around 9 pm, the entire crowd suddenly vanished. In the flash of an eye, we were the only ones left sitting in the desert.

With the desert camp in the background

This was the most enjoyable part of the desert safari. We had the entire place to ourselves. We could feel the night getting colder and younger. The organizers had set up a closed tent, for the ladies and kids and another open tent for the men. They set up sleeping bags for all of us and even a campfire. As the kids went to sleep, we sat around the campfire, dancing to latest songs and having loads of fun under the starry night. This was what we really wanted, and we were all happy that at least this part of our night went without any hiccup. It was a quality family night spent in the lap of nature. It was beyond stunning to breathe the desert air and stare into the numerous stars above our head. We all went to bed around 2 am, all huddled together in our tents. The next day, most of them planned to get up early, to witness the sunrise.

It was really beautiful and inspiring to see the sunrise in the vast stretches of wonderful barren desert. Since we did not have a good session of dune bashing the previous day, the organisers tried compensating by giving us another go at it. So on our way back from the camp, one group went on their way with the kids, and the rest of us got what we missed out the previous evening. I had some experience of dune bashing in Israel, but nothing compared to this really awesome fun. The more we screamed, the more our driver was enthused to continue. By the end of our desert safari, we got all that we wanted - a breath-taking experience of spending a night out in the desert and the exciting dune-bashing. So what can I say; despite our disappointments in the beginning, everything was worthwhile in the end.

On our last day with the entire family, we were back early to our apartment, where we packed up and immediately left to the wonderful Atlantis hotel in the Palm Islands. We had booked tickets at the water park in Atlantis, and were very excited to try out the awesome rides. That day, we hired a car and drove through the most beautiful Jumeirah neighbourhood to reach Atlantis. As we went past the entrance of the hotel, we could see quite a bit of crowd. We headed to the parking, which was quite far from the hotel. A shuttle bus dropped us off at the hotel where we could see the real maddening crowd. As we entered the ticketing area, we were just shocked to see the number of people waiting outside. We were confident that we wouldn’t take too much time since we had already made the booking online. But we waited for more than an hour in this crowded lobby with everyone sitting on the floor here and there. Apparently it doesn’t matter if you have booked your tickets in advance, it was the Christmas-new year holidays and the whole world seemed to be there. Finally when we did get inside, it was almost 1pm. So one of us took the map and planned out what we were to do.

None of us thought about lunch, as the water park closed at 6pm, and all the rides had long queues. So we headed first to the kids  pool area, where this amazing pool with slides and water barrels was enough for my little one to have a great time. We found some place for our luggage and directly headed into the heated kids pool. I enjoyed watching my baby walk around the pool. Most of the others took the map and headed out to the awesome slides, which had rave reviews online. Since all our bags were in the kid’s pool area, I did not budge much. Me and another sister of mine played in the kid’s slides on and off and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Since it was too crowded, I didn’t bother others to take care of my son, and waited for my husband to finish and relieve me.

In the mean time, we had some pizza for lunch, tried putting my baby to sleep, but who would when there is so many people having fun around. Around 5-ish, my husband came over and sent me to enjoy the rides. As my sister and I went around the park, we could find only a couple of slides, which didn’t have long queues. So we enjoyed them and finished with the river ride, which started off with a bang and ended with us leisurely floating around the park in a small river. I quite enjoyed that ride, by which time; announcements were going off about the park closing. So we quickly headed back and started changing and packing up our stuff. I could have enjoyed the park better, had we had the time. I think it was too big a park for us to get the most of it in half a day, especially with a small baby in our arms. The best way to enjoy the park was to arrive early before people start queueing up in the morning. Bit I was happy with what little I could do, and really enjoyed the fact that my son had a great time. Famished, we got back home and went straight to bed.

The next day was our travel day. We had our flight in the night, but most of the others were to catch their flights in the afternoon. So all of us got busy packing our stuff, since the check out time was 11am. We quickly left to our cousin’s place, dropped our bags there and headed to a mall. This time, we just had enough time to have our lunch and bid goodbye to our family as all of them rushed to the airport. Throughout this time, my son started showing signs of a cough and a cold. By the time we finished lunch he had gotten quite warm. So after everyone left, the first thing we did was searched for a pharmacy and gave him some medicine. Once he was taken care of, we headed out for some shopping. We were very interested in buying souvenirs since this was something we didn’t even think of until then. Unfortunately this mall, was not the touristy kind, and didn’t have any type of souvenir shops. So we just did a little bit of shopping, bought something for our cousin in Dubai, who made everything possible and headed back home by around 5pm. By this time, my son was terribly sick and had none of the energy he had the previous day. So we gave him something to eat and headed to the airport hoping he will sleep on the way.

On reaching the airport, everything went off smoothly, but once we finished our boarding formalities, my son got really cranky and wouldn’t stop crying. In a crowded gate, we had to push through the entire crowd to get on to the flight. Since it was a night flight both of us were really tired, but having a sick baby was not easy. We didn’t get even a minute of sleep throughout our journey from Dubai to Colombo. He finally slept on the flight from Colombo-Male, which was just an hour. We too got some rest in this short flight back home.

Dubai's skyline as seen from Burj Khalifa

To sum up my experience, I would say Dubai is a wonderful place with umpteen things to do for any age group. But what everyone fails to tell and we experienced was the crowd, the queues and the hype. Maybe we just picked the wrong season. I think the websites makes us expect more than what we see. But overall, Dubai is a great vacation spot, a dreamy oasis in a sprawling desert.

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Our Journey around the Nile!!

Pre-script: We had been making plans to visit Egypt since 2010. But we travelled to almost all neighboring countries of Israel – Jordan, Turkey, Greece – minus the elusive Egypt. So, we made a sudden plan to visit Egypt during the Passover holidays in March 2013. Since we had heard a lot about the places to see from our friends and family, we did not delve much into the smaller details of things. Unlike Greece, I did not take any part in trying to get info about various places to see. My husband planned the whole thing along with his friend, who at that time was living in Cairo. All we did was decide the days and we were off.

EGYPT..The name of the place reminds you of the Pyramids and of course “The Mummy”. What you expect and what you see in this historically enchanting country are miles apart.

 TGIF, Sharm al Sheikh

We did not take the usual route of flying to Cairo. We decided to travel by road most of the way. Since Israel shares a land border (Taba border crossing) with Egypt, we took the less expensive and more adventurous route of crossing over the border and driving through Sinai. We spent more time travelling, but cost wise, I think we saved quite a lot. We took a 5 hour bus ride from Tel Aviv to Eilat, stayed overnight and crossed over to Egypt early in the morning. The 3-hour drive from the Taba border to Sharm El Sheikh was an exciting one. Hearing all the stories of kidnapping in the Sinai Peninsula, really kept us alert throughout our journey.  We could see a vehicle cross by very rarely, and driving through an entire desert was quite an experience. Most of the resorts along the Red Sea in Taba looked deserted and empty. I have heard a lot about the resorts in Sharm Al Sheikh, but seeing them was really shocking. Imagine walking through a desert and seeing an oasis, that’s how it felt. The best part of this was this oasis was American. The streets opposite the resorts were filled with top American outlets like TGIF, McDonalds, KFC, StarBucks and even Hard Rock Café. We were searching for an Egyptian restaurant but couldn’t, so we settled for TGIF. We then took a flight from Sharm al Sheikh Airport to Cairo.

Since I did some basic reading about Taxis, we knew where to book a taxi before leaving the airport. As the books described we were surrounded by taxi drivers just outside the airport. Since we pre-booked our taxi, we didn’t go through the grind of shooing off the mob surrounding us. On our way to our friend’s house, the first thing we noticed about Cairo was the traffic. It was almost 9pm, but the traffic did not seem to be moving at all. And of course, the noise, honking and all the things you find on Indian roads too. So it seemed like we were home. Ha ha!!! So by the time we reached our friend’s place, it was almost 11pm. He lived in this great neighborhood, Zamelek, where we found some of the good restaurants in Cairo. The best part of it all was that his home was overlooking the river Nile. We were famished with all the travelling, so we had a quick dinner and went right to bed.

Gallery

Early the next morning, we were off to see the Pyramids of Giza. As we headed out into the city, the first thing we noticed was a blanket of dust covering the city’s skyline. We were told that this is a very common occurrence in Cairo. We did not worry much about it until we reached the Pyramids. That was where we witnessed our first sand storm, on our first day in Egypt!! The sand hitting our car made a small crackling sound, which made me a little scared to get out of our car. The only saving fact was that it was not continuous but only at certain pockets around the Pyramids. We courageously got out of the car and met up with our guide, Hameed who was an archaeologist at the site. The place we stood at was the Great Pyramid, which was the highest pyramid there. Almost 3000 years old, this massive structure towering above us was about 139m high with several million blocks, the largest one weighing almost 80 tonnes. It was built by Pharaoh Khufu. For all who have seen the Mummy, all these words would be very familiar. There were several passages inside the pyramid, but only one passage was open to the public. Looking at the weather outside, we headed straight to explore the passage within the pyramid. They charge about 100 EGP per person to go into the pyramids. As we walked into the pyramids, we saw a crudely carved out passage at first. Once inside, we had to go up a ramp which was only about 4 ft height, so we had to bend and walk through this to enter another ramp which was called the gallery. This was an amazing room which had the floor and roof almost parallel throughout the ramp. All this led us to the The King's Chamber. The only thing remaining in the room, was an empty-broken sarcophagus. Most people I spoke to regarding this place, discouraged me from going, but I think it was a wonderful experience to see what the inside of the Pyramid looked like. I really enjoyed this experience, maybe not recommended for the claustrophobic, but definitely a must see.

We then drove through the entire Pyramid complex, looking at the other two pyramids, which were around. The next pyramid was about 136 m high with the top part of the pyramid still intact with the original limestone outer layer. From a distance, this pyramid looked taller than the great Pyramid, but this was because the 2^nd pyramid is on highest ground. Altogether the entire pyramid complex had 9 Pyramids, only 3 can be seen clearly. We went to a spot where we could get a panoramic view of all the Pyramids. This was where we found it hardest to stand still as the stand storm had picked up speed. If you see the pictures, you can see that it was the worst hair day for me (I forgot to get a scarf). That day I understood why all the women here wore scarfsJ. We then visited the Great Sphinx of Giza, which was at the north end of the Giza complex.  The face of the Sphinx is said to be that of Pharaoh Khafra. The temple complex which housed the Sphinx was used for mummification.

Once we finished the Pyramids, we decided to see the famous Egyptian Museum, which everyone talks about. Before that we decided to have lunch. Our driver took us to this wonderful boat restaurant called Pasha, where we had our first Egyptian Meal. The problem in Cairo is that wherever we need to go, we needed to give ourselves at least an hour for travel. That’s how bad the traffic was. So by the time we finished lunch it was 3pm, and the museum was to close at 4.30pm.  We heard that we need a minimum of 2 hours to see the museum. So we decided to go to the Citadel instead. On our way to the Citadel, I saw some of the most amazing mosques all around Old Cairo. This reminded me of our trip to Istanbul, where I had last seen these many mosques. But compared to Istanbul, these mosques were much more beautiful in design.

The Citadel and the Alabastar Mosque was this superb mosque overlooking Old Cairo. We rushed into the mosque before it closed, to see a wonderful structure with 365 lights for the 365 days of the year. This mosque was made entirely of Alabastar stone and was built in a Turkish style, evident from the spike like minarets. This mosque looked very similar to the Blue Mosque at Istanbul. We did not spend much time here, as it was closing time. When we left the mosque, it was almost 5.30 pm and the only place which was open at that time was the Khan e-Khalili Market, which was our next stop.

Shopping ticked!

Our experience in this market was great unlike what I have heard about the harassment by the shop keepers. We were told not to listen to the shopkeepers and just get into a shop only if we needed to buy anything, and that’s exactly what we did. So we bought quite a few souvenirs and gifts for our friends and family. We found this amazing shop with great Papyrus paintings and we ended up buying quite a lot from it. The entire market was a typical tourist market. We spent almost 2 hours at this market and had a handful of souvenirs. We then had dinner at KFC, which we found at every nook and corner in Cairo, and then headed back home. We went to bed early, as we had an early morning flight to catch to Aswan the next day.

The next day started as early as 3am, as we had a flight to catch to Aswan at 5am. We reached Aswan at 6am and took a taxi to our cruise. That was our first experience with bargaining. We had a taxi driver who was very courteous to tell us about Aswan’s history, pointing out to various landmarks. He even gave us the liberty to decide how much we need to pay him. This was until we handed him the money and he felt it was not enough. That was the only thing unpleasant about that day as the bargaining went on for quite a while and we were late for our guided tour. Once it passed, we checked into our amazing cruise.

Inside the cruise

We had booked 3 nights at the Senosta Moon Goddess cruise, which had a wonderful ambience. This was our first experience living on a boat, and both of us were excited!!! As we entered our room, we had the most exquisite view of the Nile from our own private balcony. Compared to noisy Cairo, it was super silent and serene. Once we settled in, we were asked to be ready by 8am for our guided tour of the Philae temple and high dam of Aswan. After a quick breakfast we met with our guide Hameed at the reception, along with another family, who coincidentally were also from the Diplomatic Service :)

Aswan, a small tourist city along the banks of the Nile has a large population of Nubians, who our guide said as having much more darker skin than any Egyptian. Aswan also had many granite quarries, which is the source of most of the Obelisks, we would see in Luxor. Our first stop was the High Dam of Aswan. It is this massive structure across the River Nile. With Lake Nasseer on one side, the High Dam constructed over a period of 10 years, has benefitted the Egyptian farmers in terms of controlling flooding and providing irrigation facilities. I did not find the dam very impressive as they deem it to be. After taking some photographs, we were off to see the Philae Temple. On our way to the Philae temple, we stopped at the unfinished Obelisk. This place was basically a granite quarry with an unfinished obelisk, which if finished would have measured 120ft.  It wasn’t the most pleasurable experience walking around a granite quarry in the scorching heat.

Enroute Philae temple

We then took a small boat from Aswan to go to the Philae Temple. This was where you see the actual appearance of the Nubians. They did seem very different from an average Egyptian. The approach to the temple was just spectacular. Since this was our first visit to a Temple, I was all ears when the guide told us about it. This is the temple of the goddess Isis, wife of Osiris & mother of Horus (falcon headed god). These characters are very commonly spoken of in most of the temples we saw. Basically, Osiris was murdered by his brother Seth and dismembered all over Egypt. Isis collected the fragments and gave birth to Horus. When Horus grows old, he takes his revenge on Uncle Seth.

When the High Dam was built, a lot of temples were threatened of the rising water levels. So this temple, originally on Philae Island, was shifted to Agilkia Island where we stood. The original island can even now be seen from here. As we entered, we saw a huge courtyard, with Roman pillars on either side, this lead to a smaller courtyard and then the temple inside. This was my first glimpse of an ancient Egyptian temple, and I was just stunned at the sheer size of it. As we entered we see carvings on all the walls. Seeing all these in movies, and seeing it for real was really exciting. The outer walls had carvings which were carved inward while the inner temple walls had carvings which projected outward. This was evident in almost any temple we visited. In the inner temple walls the most common carvings we saw, were that of the pharaoh’s offering perfumes, flowers etc to the gods. 

At the entrance of the temple, we saw two falcons, which symbolize protection. This seemed very similar to our Indian temples. As we went in, I was amazed at the carvings which were engraved from the ceiling to the floor. Imagine the workmanship, which went into it creating such massive wall engravings. It was just breathtaking. We had almost an hour to roam the entire temple and take our pictures. Once we were out, our boatman was waiting for us to take us back to the mainland of Aswan. Our touring for the day was done. We returned to our cruise, and were welcomed with warm hand towels to wipe our dusty faces. This was one thing I did not like about Egypt. Anytime, we go out, there was a layer of dust sticking to your face.

Anyway, we were back to our lovely room, cruising along the Nile, to our next stop, the famous temple of Kom Ombo. This is a grand temple along the banks of the Nile, is unique in the sense that the southern part of the temple is dedicated to Sobek- the Crocodile god while the northern part of the temple is dedicated to the Falcon headed god- Horus. One of the many offerings made to the gods

were of course crocodiles and these mummified crocodiles were even displayed in a creepy Crocodile Museum in the temple premises. This was one the first places, where we actually saw colored carvings retained on the temple walls. Another interesting part of the temple was the calendar where the numbers are in hieroglyphics and even the seasons can be clearly seen. It was almost 6pm by the time we finished our tour. We were back on the cruise for a good night’s rest heading to the town of Edfu.

Inside Edfu temple  

The next day we stopped at Edfu, a small town located 60km north of Aswan which housed the 2^nd largest temple in Egypt, the Temple of Horus. We took a horse cart through the town of Edfu to reach the temple premises. On the way we even crossed a small train track which was used to transfer sugarcane from the fields. Once we reached the temple, I was awe struck at the massive size and beauty of the structure. The temples were just getting bigger and bigger J It was not surprising for me to hear that that it took 180 years to build this temple, and another 22 years to be excavated from under the sand.  Once we enter the temple complex we saw this 35m high wall which forms the outer wall of the temple. This wall is 8 floors high and also house 2 staircases within the walls. On enetering the main courtyard, we saw a courtyard of roman pillars all around, which was mainly used by the common people. Another unique feature of this temple was the pyramidal style of architecture. As you enter the sanctum of the temple, the roof come down, which is evident from the size of the pillars as we walk into the temple. The color of the inscriptions in this temple seemed to be intact on the top of the columns. The next room of columns houses the perfume room, with inscriptions of the formula used for various perfumes and also the approach to the staircases. As you enter the sanctum, we find a 150 tonne  niche of the throne of Pharaoh Horus made entirely of red granite. As we come out, all along the inner side of the outer wall has the inscriptions of the entire war of Horus and Seth. This temple reminded me a lot of some of the ancient temples we find in India. I was thoroughly amazed by its beauty and structural brilliance.

We took our horse cart back to our cruise and bid goodbye to our wonderful guide and we were

At Esna locks

off to Luxor. The rest of the day was spent entirely in the cruise. They had arranged for a yummy barbeque lunch on the deck. As we entered Esna, we had just finished lunch. And we witnessed the moving of our boats through the Esna locks to move from the Lower Nile to Upper Nile, which was really interesting. How meticulously they move the huge cruise boats through the locks in an almost unnoticeable manner were fascinating. They brought the cruise within the lock, closed both sides of the locks. Allowed the water to stream out, and once the levels were the same, they opened the locks and we got out. The best part of all this were the vendors on small boats, rowing so close to our ship, desperately trying to sell their bed sheets and table cloths. They would throw them overboard and ask us to buy it. It was an interesting sales strategy. Since we were in the lean season, we did not take much time to cross the locks. After crossing the locks, we had the entire evening to laze around in our room, watching TV and sleeping. This was most relaxing for my husband ;-) !!!!

Early the next day, we headed to the Valley of Kings and Valley of Queens in Luxor. These are tombs of various kings and queens located on the west side of the River Nile. It is believed that these tombs were made on the western side as the sun sets on the west. As we enter the Valley of Kings, the most disappointing part of it was that no photography was allowed. These tombs were located in the desert, with small vehicles taking us to the main spot.  The Valley of Kings has about 62 tombs dug into the hills at various points in the desert of which only 10 are open to public.  It is believed that workers start to build the tombs of kings, once they assume the throne. Once the kings die, all their belongings are brought to the tomb along with their mummified bodies.  The Tomb of Tuttenkhamum is very small and incomplete as he ruled for only 10 years. The deepest tomb in the valley of kings was that of Queen Hatpetshut, which was about 122 m deep. Nothing prepared us for the kind of carvings we saw within these tombs. The clarity and colors of the carvings were intact like as though they were painted just yesterday. Now I could imagine how all the temples we had seen earlier would have actually looked like. Since the tombs were so well preserved, we could see all the carvings in color. We saw about 3 tombs and were famished by the end of it. The heat was unbearable.

The Valley of Queens houses about 10 tombs of which 3 were open to public. These tombs were smaller than the tombs of the kings. This valley also housed the tombs of the royal children too. The main difference between these tombs and the tombs in the Valley of Kings was that in these tombs there were no carvings but everything was just hand painted.  Not being able to take photographs here was the most disappointing thing. Nowhere else in our trip did we see the carvings so well preserved in their true colors.

Once out of the desert, we were back on the road to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Hot chicken soup- that’s how our guide made us remember the name). This temple is also located on the western side of the Nile, with the amazing mountainous landscape as its backdrop. I really liked this temple,  This temple was a great structure, built on three levels with rooms on either side of the grand staircase, that we see as we enter the temple complex.  As we entered the third level, we saw the statues of the Queen on either side of the entrance. We saw that the queen wore male clothes and even had a beard. The valley of kings is right behind this temple. In the top most level of the temple, there was a half finished tunnel, which was being built to go directly to the valley of kings.

as it was very different from the other temples. This temple is dedicated to the only woman who ruled Egypt as a Pharaoh. It is believed that she made up a story that she was the daughter of the Sun God, sent her stepson to school and took over the throne. We saw that most of the kartoushes of the queen were destroyed, believed to be removed by her stepson.

Columns of Karnak Temple

On finishing this temple, we were taken back to the cruise where the first thing we did was get into the swimming pool. Phew..it was a hot hot day and being in the desert the entire day got to our heads. After a cool swim, we relaxed a bit and were again off to see one of the largest temples in Egypt in the city of Luxor. We travelled through the city to reach one of the major tourist attractions in Egypt - the Karnak Temple, which was on the eastern side of river Nile. This temple did not have much of a grand façade like some of the other temples we visited. When I first entered I was surprised to hear that it was the largest temple, as there was not much remaining of the main temple walls. As we entered the complex, we are greeted by a number of sphinxes on either side of the entrance. This complex has 5 temples in a land area of 65 acres taking 1200 years to build. The entrance courtyard had the temple of Ramses on one side and a statue of king Ramses and his favourite wife Nefretari. Leaving all this behind, we then entered the Great hall of columns. When I saw this hall, I was awe struck.  Nothing can prepare you for the sheer size of these columns. I loved this place having about 134 columns in whole. This was the best place in the Karnak temple. The pics will tell you the grandeur of these columns. Most of the inscriptions on these columns were depicting offerings made by King Ramses to the gods. On exiting this column hall, we saw two huge obelisks. Since this temple does not have a roof or outer walls all intact, we couldn’t see the grandeur of it. But the size like they say is really huge. It took us quite some time to see the entire complex, which was partly in ruins.

King Tuttenkhamun & his Queen :)

We then went to the Luxor temple which has the most fascinating row of sphinxes facing each other, inviting us to enter the temple premises. It is believed that this road connects the Luxor temple to the Karnak temple. As we entered the temple, there were a number of idols of King Ramses all around the first courtyard. Followed by a long pathway leading to another courtyard of magnificent pillars, which is the court of Amonhotep III. This then led us to the sanctum of the temple which is the Birth Shrine of Amenhotep III. This temple was situated right at the bank of the river Nile. Once we were done we were escorted back to our cruise. Generally, the cruises were full and the evenings in the cruise were fun with various shows like belly dancing etc. But since the political turmoil erupted in Egypt, tourism had suffered. All along the way, our tourist guides kept complaining about it and how they were suffering due to the significant drop in tourists. We also suffered as we had very few co-passengers and hence the evenings were not so enjoyable without much company. I only hoped that normalcy should return to this beautiful country sooner.

Early next day, we took a flight back to Cairo from Luxor. The first thing on our list, was to see the Egyptian museum. So we had a quick bite at Pizza Hut and were off to the museum. The museum was this neat orange building with a huge queue waiting to get in. We had been told that it was easy to get a guide in the museum premises itself. Once we surrendered our cameras and got our tickets, we were on the lookout for a guide. We could find just one and we went with him. As we entered the museum we had very high expectations as this was a must see place in Cairo. But once we were inside, we were not that happy. Since we had been to all the temples, we had an idea about the various names that the guide was throwing at us. I mean the sheer volume of things in the museum was just amazing. But we felt that the museum was not organized very well and we were very dependent on the guide to understand what each artefact represented. The most amazing room in the museum is the Mummies room, where I could not believe how well preserved the mummies were. And of course the things from the tomb of Tuttenkhamun were something, which need a special mention. On the whole, we had just a mediocre experience in the museum. We either had a bad guide or very high expectations. But it took us almost 2-3 hours to finish the entire museum.

Skyline from Cairo Tower

We then walked along the Nile, looking at all the colorful feluccas and reached our taxi. Since we were very close to the famous Tahrir square, we were very excited to see the state of the place at that time. We could still see some protesters settled in tents in the square. On our way back to Zamelek, we stopped at the Cairo tower. This was a tall tower, from which we could get an amazing view of the city. We paid 70 pounds per head which I felt was a little expensive. Once on the top floor, they have restaurants, a viewing platform and a number of couples thronged the place for their selfies. We really loved the panoramic view of Cairo. Getting back to our friend’s place, we had a wonderful dinner at a traditional Egyptian restaurant right at the water’s edge.

Next day, we were off to Alexandria. It was little less than 3 hour drive from Cairo city. We picked Alexandria as it was one of the larger cities closer to Cairo. We reached around 11 am and directly visited the Roman theatre, which was typically an amphitheater in ruins. Alexandria was a crowded city with trams plying on the roads, with crowded small streets. We felt like it was similar to Cairo in many ways. Once we were done with the theatre, we stopped for lunch at this beautiful restaurant along the water’s edge. We could see the entire beach area of Alexandria from this restaurant. We then visited this beautiful fortress overlooking the Mediterranean, The Citadel of Quaitbay. This citadel was built in 1480 on the exact site of the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Citadel was this massive fortress, with a great view of the Mediterranean. We spent almost 2 hours at the citadel. My husband checked about scuba diving option as most of the ancient town of Alexandria was submerged under water, but we were unlucky as most of the dive centers close by noon.

Library of Alexandria

Our next stop was the most amazing structure in Alexandria, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. As we entered the building, we could see that the premises was brimming with students. We surrendered our belongings at the entrance and got our tickets. Once inside, we were given a private tour of the library, free of charge. It is believed that the original library held the largest collection of manuscripts in the world until it burned down in the 3rd century. The dramatic new library, resembling an angled discus or a great sundial, was designed by a Norwegian architect completed in 2002. The Library has a lot of religious significance because of its original role as a temple and its collection of many religious manuscripts. They have a number of permanent exhibitions housed in the library.  The inside of the library was a modern structure with a glass wall which is the source of natural light entering the reading hall. We were just awe struck looking at this hall.  The outer wall of the library has inscriptions of all the ancient languages of the world, including Tamil. Our overall experience in Alexandria was saved by the magnificent Bibliotheca.

Tamil inscription in Bibliotheca

We got stuck in traffic on our way back to Cairo as there were some protests (which were very common in Egypt now) going on in some villages outside Cairo. Our driver starting went off the main road into the small roads inside the villages. We got a bit worried as he was stopping every now and then to enquire about the way from local villagers. The last thing we wanted was to get lost in the middle of the night in no-man’s land. On top of it, we had a morning flight to catch from Cairo. My husband called his friend to check about the situation and he assured that there was nothing to worry. But our discomfort only eased when our driver finally brought us to the main road leading to Cairo. We reached our friend’s house past mid-night and settled into bad.

Next morning, we bid adieu to our gracious host and set-off to Cairo airport. We traced our route, went to Sharm al Sheikh to Taba crossing. This time fatigue overtook our vigil and both of us had a good long sleep during the driver through Sinai. We reached the Taba crossing by 4:30pm and crossed over to Eilat. Since our bus was only in the night, my husband went for a swim in the Red Sea. We had dinner and went to the Eilat bus station. When the bus was on the outskirts of Eilat, I could see the Taba Mountains on the left and all fond memories of a wonderful trip to Egypt flashed quickly. As the light inside the bus was fading, I was saying good-bye not only to this ancient country loaded with history, culture and civilization, but also to the lovely Red-sea city of Eilat. I suddenly realized that we would be leaving Israel in a couple of months. My heart became heavy and I had a sleepless night during the 5-hour drive to Tel Aviv.

Post-script: This blog/post is long overdue. But after we moved to the Maldives in June-July 2013, I conceived Ahaan. Then came the busy period of being pampered by everyone in the family – both during pregnancy and after childbirth. After his birth, Ahaan gave me unlimited happiness and very limited free time. So I am glad that I was able to complete this post after two long years. My apologies if the flow was not smooth; after all the blog was composed during the short breaks my little darling gave me :D

More photos from the Egypt trip

Inside the Great Pyramid of Giza

 

At the Temple of Kom Ombo

 

Outside Temple of Edfu

At Temple of Queen Hatshepsut