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Published: January 11th 2009
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Welcome to Egypt !!!!
Part 1: Bangkok - Cairo - Alexandria
Believed that Egypt is one of desired place for every traveller. I planned this trip with my husband and we decided to visit only the lower Egypt in fear of terrorists, poor road condition, and poor standard Nile cruise (which we were wrong about this....).
We flew from Bangkok, Thailand directly to Cairo, Egypt by Egypt Air. Better than expected, the seats are huge enough to tuck yourself in at night flight. Worse than expected, the plane was a bit run down i.e. torn armchair and seating. They provided fundamental services i.e. food, drink, blanket and etc. However, they did not provide special amenities i.e. eye patch, toothpaste, socks and etc. Oh, there is no personal in-flight entertainment and movie programs weren’t updated. Flight time was round 9 - 10 hours.
Immigration: Service was poor. We arrived around 6:00 am and had to wait 1.30 hrs for VISA on arrival. Our tour leader claimed that there was a misinformation about our tour group (suggested you to have your VISA ready from your countries and ensure you have someone process for you at the Airport).
Money exchange:
You can exchange money from the Airport (see pictures). It's located in the arrival hall. We exchanged for USD 450 (2 people) and could last for 5 days (our tour include meals and entrance fees).
Cairo: We went during November; therefore, the weather was nice. It's warm in the sun light and cold at night. Cairo is beautiful more than I fist thought. On the east side, there were unfinished construction buildings and apartments which I later learned that they were actually finished buldings ('cas of the high tax. they wouldn't finished their construction. They would leave it unfinished with bricks wall). On the west, it's the land of the death. It's the cemetery; however, currently poor people leave there 'cas of cheap rental. Well, they are living with the death (about 1 mil people leave there).
My favorite part was to watching Cairo traffic. Everyone ran through the red light. No one seems to care about road regulations. Noises of the honking horns were everywhere. The bus would stop anyplace that their customers want them to stop. Bus stations were ignored. Their taxis are real classic. Most of them are about 20 years dated (see picture). Color
of taxi represents the city location. Black & White is in Cairo while yellow is for Alexandria.
Cairo - Alexandria: We were on the bus to Alex. There are fortresses with soldiers along the way after leaving Cairo. They are here to protect tourists. It’s a bit frightened at first but you will get used to 'cas there would be lots of soldiers in tourist places. Along the roadside, there would be Olive and Dates Tree. We took a road named “desert road” and arrive Alex about 2-3 hours later.
Alexandria: Surprisingly, Alex is more beautiful than I thought. The hotel that we stayed was right on the coastline. The road along the coastline is approximately 32 km long. Alex is the 2nd largent cities in Egypt with 5 mil registered population. Our tour guide said that it would be as much as 20 million people here during the summer time. It was built to commemorate of Alexander the Grate 323 BC.
It’s such a pity that the buildings are built unfinished and coastline café were old and filthy. Can’t imagine we were on the Mediterranean coastline and closed to Greece. The paradise of Mediterranean.
Alexandria
- Kom El Shaqafa: Our first visit was at the underground cemetery built by Roman and was voted for world wonder for middle age. There are 3 levels but we can only visit 2 levels ‘cas the 3rd one was filled with underground water. It’s an okay place. People who love underground things would like it. For me who has an allergy problem, it was a bit painful since the air is moist and damp (ผ้าปิดปาก is recommended). We spend around 20 minutes underground. We passed through the ช่องใส่โลงศพ which was scary. I walked very fast to get passed it quickly.
Alexandria - Pompey pillar: It’s the stone pillar that was left. There is 2 small sized sphinxes lying in front of the pillar. It’s a simple site yet it’s our first time to see real sphinx so we took loads of photo (as pictures)
Alexandria - Citadel of Quitbay: It’s an old fortress built around 300 years ago. The wall is about 2 meter thickness. (as pictures)
Alexandria - Alexandria Library: It’s once claimed to be the largest library in the world (2,000 years ago). The original was built in Cleopatra period to keep all documents
from around the world. Sadly, it was burnt down and rebuilt. New library exterior is modern with the wall filled with alphabet from around the world. Every tourist will spend time looking to find their own language. For Thais, it was a word called ผู้ given by HRH Princess. She spent about 7 hours in the library.
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