Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Giza Gazing!


Another interesting day started off with a visit to the famous pyramids at Giza.

Of course they were magnificent, but i seemed to be rushing through the sights of this great monument. Such brilliance, yet come to think of it, this entire area was secluded as a cemetery in the ancient times! They seemed to be obsessed with the thought of life after death...these Pharoahs!


As it ought to be, i got hassled by salesmen on the site, and was made to buy some worthless trash at some exorbidant rates, but i have to agree that egyptian sales men have mastered the art of push selling!


Also I visted the burial chambers inside one of the large pyramids, but the route to get there was this 3ft X 3ft tunnel, which got me very claustrophobic! Post this, I saw the Sphinx which was a huge disapointment.....it was like small broken down monument, not really worth all the hype.


The highlight of the day however was my visit to the perfume factory, where i was treated to a wide array of concentrated perfumes...quite exotic i should say!


Later on I also visited a Papyrus shop, where i got my self a couple of neat soveniers for family back home.


After all this, I had a very insightful meeting with the minstry which rounded off a very egyptian day for me at Cairo!


Thought for the day: 1 Wonder down...6 to go!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Clueless in Cairo!


Well well.....Iam in cairo, and not in my wildest dreams would i have imagined being here like 6 months ago. Iam Here on a business trip which has been reasonably successful so far.

Iam back from a long hiatus for finally i do have some inspiration now! My visit here has been interesting from the moment I landed here. Firstly, I dont understand arabic and noone here understands english!! So currently iam learning the art of sign language and body language to get a simple thing like a loaf of bread!

Cairo is one of the most polluted cities I know, and one of the very strange things here is, everyone seems to own a car!.....and Egypt is not one of the richest countries i know....it is similar to india in many ways.

Yesterday I visited the Cairo museum and the highlight was visiting the Room of the mummies! That was a scary but interesting tour. Iam now looking forward to visiting the pyramids and the local market Khan el Khalili.....old style market place here.

This is my first visit to africa, and so far it has been an interesting visit, even though i have been greeted with some very very cold weather. More to come and Iam looking forward to my third trip back to india later this month too!

More later.
Arabic word for the day: Ezayk : How are you?