Good Morning Africa!

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It's 946pm over here.. which is 246am singapore time now.. so i may not be typing very coherently.. whatever.. just type whatever...

The SQ flight is alright.. read the Egypt guide and slept the most of the dubai flight, except when they served food.. there's this egyptian guy sitting next to me on the plane.. wow.. what a powerful BO he has.. i was thinking, suey liao... must tahan for many hours... but after some time, cannot smell already.. maybe my nose got used to it.. whatever.. as long as no smell perceived..

Arrived in Dubai at about 330am dubai time, +2 for Singapore time.. first time in dubai, and definitely won't be the last.. plane took off.. oh, i was watching the banquet on the in-flight movies on the way to dubai... Ye4 yan4.. super boring show.. but did a good job in putting me o sleep.. managed to finish the movie from dubai to cairo.. with a few snoozes in between..

The dubai-cairo flight was pretty emotional.. so much anticipation.. so much yearning to be in this continent.. at about 5am local time.. the sun finally caught up with us, and revealed all the sandy-clayey terrain of the middle east.. always loved sunrises on the plane.. flew over the red sea.. and then captain announced landing soon.. A brand new day..

plane landed about 610am.. filled up the immigration form.. stood in line to clear immigration.. Clearing immigration was pretty interesting.. the officer took my passport, look at me.. didn't stamp the entry stamp.. and barked "you, sit down!", pointed to a corner, and placed my passport in one corner.. i was thinking, oh shit.. what's happening.. i asked him if anything's the problem, and he just continued to point to that corner.. so i waited at the side.. and watched.. the guy behind me went thru with no problems! so why was i asked to sit in one korner? .. then i realized i'm not the only one.. others are gradually asked to accompany me.. and they are as confused as me.. there were 2 malaysian, 2 chinese, and other arabic-looking people... so we just sat there dunno what's going to happen next..

after about 10minutes.. we were called up one by one.. they'd call "Malaysian!" and the malaysians went to one officer... after some time... "Indonesian".. and i went over.. turned out that we had to explain the reasons why we are going to egypt etc.. basically an interview with the officer.. and when he's satisfied.. then he'll give the permission to another officer to chop the passport.. maybe a lot of illegal indonesian workers in egypt..

Collected my backpack, and started walking out of the airport.. expectedly, lots of people came up and said "cheap taxi.. cheap taxi..." .. "how much?".. "very cheap, US$20".. woah.. compare that to a bus ride that will cost only 2 LE (1USD=6LE) so i told them "i taking bus.. ". they replied "no bus, no bus".. yah right.. everyone takes US$20 taxi to come airport to work everyday..

so Lonely Planet said to cross the carpark and the bus stop is there.. so i shook off the over-zealous drivers.. crossed the carpark.. oh shit, construction site.. hrm.. really no bus.. the SQ crew went off in a minibus.. shit man.. cannot shun4 bian4 offer me a ride is it? hehe.. some drivers caught up with me and told me bus very far away.. 3km.. at airport 1.. this is airport 2.. then i realized.. oh new terminal.. "no bus go airport 1.. cheap taxi to airport 1... US$3!" ... no, dun want to take taxi.. so i backtracked to the airport.. and voila.. found a free shuttle service to terminal 1.. !@#$%... no bus.. yah right again..

There is a bus terminal across the car park from Terminal 1.. Quite a few services run there, but i only know that No 356 brings you to Midan Tahrir.. the Tahrir Square at down town.. By the time i got onto the bus, it was already close to 8am.. Uneventful jouney to downtown, just enjoying the new sights, sound and smell.. After about an hour's ride, the bus arrived at the bus terminal behind the egyptian museum.. near Midan Tahrir..

Checked into this Dahab Hostel.. pretty cool, on the rooftop of a 6-storey office building.. 20LE for a single room, 25LE for double.. shared bath.. clean, friendly..

Went back out almost immediately to get my Letter of Recommendation from the Indonesian Embassy... pretty hard to find.. no road signs, and i dun have a good map.. so basically just asked whoever in the Garden City area "Embassy Indonesia?" and they'll reply eager in Arabic.. dunno what they said, just followed where they pointed.. eventually found the indo embassy.. went in, and woah.. to get the letter must pay US$15.. what to do? ok loh.. the ibu there asked me to fill in some forms, all in indonesian.. guess what? i can actually understand and fill in those forms! haha.. not bad man.. after waiting for half an hour, ibu asked me to come back at 2pm, cos bapak not around.. oh shit, that means one day delay for my Sudan visa, cos they only acept apps in the morning.. So i decided to go buy my train ticket to Luxor first while waiting for the letter of recommendation which is required to get your Sudan visa..

OH.. i've more or less planned out my itinerary for the next 4-5 weeks.. target is to be in Nairobbery, Kenya in 5 weeks' time.. only have 90 days for this trip.. so that means only 1 week in Egypt =( well that's ok, next time when you guys visit me, we can tour egypt together and cover those areas i can't manage to go..

So I'll spend 2 nights in Cairo, 3rd night on train to Luxor, 2 nights in Luxor, then go to Aswan and then spend another 2 nights there.. hopefully i can get the ferry ticket from Aswan to Wadi Halfa (if not must wait 1 whole week for the next ferry!).. not much time at all.. and no time to visit Sinai or the Siwa oasis... also can't see the Suez canal, or go see the mediterranean or red sea.. well, next time then..

Went back to indo embassy at 130pm.. letter is ready! but wait, the name on it is spelt Juan Phoea.. notified the ibu.. ibu asked me to wait.. wait wait wait.. fell asleep at the embassy.. then somebody tapped on my shoulder, oh, ibu calling me.. what? it's 230pm! took freaking 1hr to correct the typo.. collected the letter.. oh no! my name is now Jouan Phoea! i'm not going to wait another hour for the type correction!! but ok lah.. this time round, they took only 5mins to correct it.. phew!

Spent the rest of the afternoon touring Coptic Cairo, basically the Christian sites of Cairo.. 5pm.. decided to go see pyramid in the evening light.. reached there, missed the sunset.. want to go for the light and sound show, realized i'm on the wrong side of the pyramids.. show on the other side.. what the heck... go back already lah.. anyway was planning to spend whole of wednesday at the pyramids.. so took a bus back to hostel.. rested a bit.. and went for dinner..

oh food.. actually i didn't know what i are for lunch and dinner today.. basically just went into some local restaurant.. whatever they give me, i take.. haha.. lunch was some macaroni thing, 2.5LE... dinner was some rice-spaghettic-macaronni with some nuts, bak chor, and tomato sauce.. mix them up and stuff them into your mouth.. 3LE...

ok.. wah.. type a lot already.. sibeh loh soh.. haha.. maybe first day, first update.. so still very on... sorry if i've bored you .. 😊

ok.. me going to sleep now.. tomorrow morning still must go early early to Sudan embassy..

oh.. and photos are still in my camera.. will add them to the various posts later when i manage to download them to the comps.. watch out for them..

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Photos

Dubai Airport
A bit brochure quality hor? hehe..

Antique Lift (?) at Dahab Hotel
Pretty cool.. taking this lift up and down.. Not so antique in cairo..

Outside my room, on the roof..
The leftmost door leads to my room...

Church of St Serguis in Coptic Cairo
Where Christ stopped by when he was here.. a long time ago...

First Glimpse of the Pyramids of Giza
Taken at the highway leading to Giza..

Men at the Coptic Cairo Metro
These guys came and chatted me up while I was taking some photos from the station.. nice people.. nice smiles too!

My Deluxe Double Room
They ran out of Singles..

Comments

[mel]

Egypt
i go visit you in DXB, and we go dive at red sea off Dahab!!!

[Chivalry]

Zhun bo?
actually... i dun mind doing another trip back here.. let's have a group excursion to egypt!! Go to Siwa oasis.. Sinai... South to Abu Simbel.. but i think will need 2.5 to 3 weeks.. Start planning your leaves!