Sound And Light Show
Everybody repeats it, that this is something not to be missed. We’ve been literally taken to such show in Giza on our arrival day. Sayed, who arranged a hotel for us, met us there and dragged us to the open air theatre right in front of the Sphinx. The show itself is a poetic presentation of the history of a place. With the music, moving figures and laser effects. It was probably interesting enough if you watch it in your own pace, pre-planned, and not after 6 hours of flight and aftershock of two hours of mad Cairo driving. Needless to say, that I couldn’t concentrate properly on the storyline and only stared on the visual effects. Therefore I assume the show has been pretty much wasted on me…We made a second attempt to come to love the show – in Luxor we went to the Sound And Light show in Karnak Temple. That time I watched closely, but the effects there have been very poor. So we brought a verdict on Sound And Light shows – Worthless. And have never attended any other since.
Heliopolis Notes
In Heliopolis, Cairo, even the multi-storey houses have got not numbers, but names. I wonder how they name them – by voting among the inhabitants?..
On our first day when driving through Heliopolis, I saw a beautiful palace behind a carved iron gates with a soldier on guard. I asked Jemy if this was some government official residence or a club or something…”no, - he said – it’s a private property”…things that impressed me in Cairo – rich and poor – all live on the same street, literally next door to each other.
Public transport discrimination
We haven’t had a pleasure of trying Cairo underground, despite of positive references about it. (we just preferred to travel above the surface – to see the city) But I’ve heard that they’ve got two first carriages for women only…how bizarre – what if I’m travelling with my husband…or – else? ;-) ...another form of “discrimination” I came across – on a train to Aswan. Well, it wasn’t it really, but just thought its funny that this happened – when the meal has been served on a train, we’ve noticed that in my tray the fork was missing when in my husband’s tray everything was in order…fine I said – just an accident…then next morning the breakfast trays – and again – no forks for ladies! We laughed, of course.
Exceptions
In a country where everyone tries to make some money on you, we came across few exceptions from this general rule and how sad it is that this happened so rarely, that I found it to be worth recording!
In the temple of Edfu (while on cruise) there was enormous queue for the tickets – mostly consisted of the tour guides, buying tickets for their groups. So the process was long, loud and absolutely in no order (Egyptians proudly despise queuing) due to our cruise guide being complete asshole, when they arrived to the temple without me at first, he only bought the tickets for those with him. Naturally, when I rushed into the temple, my hb waited for me holding only one ticket. As there was no way to get to the ticket office through the mass of guides, we decided to risk and offer the ticket price to the guy on the entrance, hoping that he will take the money and let us in. what happened by the gates…the man took money at first, looked at them, looked at us, then…returned money and let us in…of course he did realised that we couldn’t get the ticket “proper way”, but such generosity was really very unusual in the tourist places…when we passed through the entrance, I looked back at this man – an old Nubian man…but he looked somewhat different from the other guards – maybe it was only my perception after the encounter, but I’ve noticed how wise his face was and how calm were his movements, when other guard’s faces were the portraits of greediness…
Elephants on Elephantine Island?
Not really. The island was named like this due to the rocks that shaped just like little elephants!
To Roof Or Not To Roof
I think, I’ve mentioned already, that Egyptians don’t like to finish their construction projects. Most of their houses are half-completed – a one or two floors are built and then the poles have been left prominently, awaiting good times to come to complete the house with at least the roof. And we saw such unfinished houses almost everywhere, even in the middle of Cairo itself. Apparently, when in Upper Egypt, the family normally builds the house, “as needed” – kids grow up, get married, family expands, more room needed – just adding walls to the next level and problem solved. The other reason – government taxes. Unfinished building is not liable for taxing, therefore, you can build the house as you like it , just leave the impression that it’s still “under construction” – you can save a lot!
More On Pyramids
For some strange reason forgot to mention in my Pyramid entry something important. Don’t know how I’ve missed it – it was in my travel notes. When I was inside the pyramid, I had a tickle in my throat and constantly coughed. Once got out of the pyramid – the tickle stopped.
And else – I can’t remember it, but I did wrote it when was inside the pyramid, so it must be true then! There are some Egyptian symbols depicted on the ceiling of the King’s Chamber, positioned in a circle…(hmmmm…now I’m thinking –was it what I really saw or was it something, that appeared to be there?) I’ve tried to do a search on the web whether there are real images in the |Kings Chamber, but couldn’t find a certain references…strange, huh?
Another observation: in Giza there are three main pyramids. It feels like the main, Great Cheops Pyramid is – for foreigners, the other two – Chephren and Menkare – for locals: no queues, but not much interesting things inside either…easier to climb too.
Reliefs
Just wanted to show you what kind of reliefs and pictures one can see in ancient temples. Some of them still preserved in colours!
Well, this is it…
31 Mar 2005 - Landing Back To Earth
"Ladies and gentlemen, our plane will be landing in the Heathrow airport of London in 20 minutes. Please fasten your seatbelts and bring the seats in vertical position..." I looked out of the window expecting to see green fields, tiny "doll" houses, roads and busy life of a ground...but as the plane descends through the layer of a puffy, unbelievably white masses of clouds, down from the sun and light of a upper atmosphere, there was another layer of a more grey in colour clouds instead of perfect views of a landscape…and then, as we passed through this one, there was – another one…while I was wondering if I can feel it like "returning home", or "finally back to my place", "home sweet home" maybe, the plane was gradually coming down, passing on its way through 5 (as I’ve managed to count) layers of a cloudy mass, each one darker then the previous top one…and it was only when the chassis actually did hit the ground, we finally saw the welcoming sings of the airport through the greyish curtain of a casual rain…I think that when I’ve lost my winter jacket somewhere on my way to Egypt in one of those flight connections, it was actually a sign for me that I might not come back…But still I did…
Once again flicking through my travel notes…Looking if I’ve forgot to transfer anything into my travelogue…Some phrases here and there…some words sometimes… a reminders, postit notes, telephones of taxi drivers and simply nice people that we met along our journey…a plan of the pyramid’s passages or layout of the shrines in a temple... some unrecognised scrabble. Will I ever need these?...When I was there, walking the ancient sands, touching the ancient walls, listen to the voices of Gods and Goddesses, feeling the breath of the ancient history, it seemed so important to preserve everything in memory. Sometimes it even felt – whatever I’ll write down, will not be enough…but I still tried…Perhaps an understanding that this could be my first and only travel to the Land of Pharaohs…I just couldn’t get enough of it…I wish in the future there will be technology, that will allow us to experience the other person’s experiences in real time. I wish, that all I’ve seen, you could see just the same…I wish I’d have enough skills to relay the real things to you. I’m so overfilled with what I’ve seen that it feels like no matter how much I’ll tell, I will still tell nothing of what I really saw there…
But I know it is not so…I know that there will be day, when I forget things that I thought I will never forget. That when the time pass, I will only remember, when look at the pictures…I will only have visual memory left, and the spiritual one will fade away…And when this happened, I might come to this place once again in a hope to catch a glimpse of that amazing land, that touched my heart in the most enchanting way…
