9 days are not enough...heck 9 years would not be enough!

Ok im more or less getting my sleep pattern back to normal….now on to the story-telling..where do I freakin start…I kept a journal while I was there…I found writing a travel journal was the greatest souvenir while I was in Vietnam…so hopefully I’ll be disciplined enough to keep writing…and blessed enough to keep traveling…

In a nutshell, what I really really enjoyed on my 9 day trip to egypt:

- being awed by awesome-ness of the pyramids (crawled inside but nothing much there, mummies were moved to the museum)
- being awed by the awesomeness of the sphinx
- reaching the peak of mt Sinai
- watching the sunrise from the peak of mt Sinai
- picking seashells on the beach by the red sea
- standing on a spot which separates Asia and Africa at the Suez canal
- having the constant view of the Mediterranean beach on the bus ride in Alexandria

- street kebabs (cheap and delishh)
- cheese(!) for every meal
- arab music (I fell in love with the richly melodic fluctuating voice and hypnotizing beats of arab music)
- watching arab mtv in the hotel room (which also had Britney spears and eminem and usher…weeeee)
- watching arab HBO with English movies

- bargaining at the bazaar (although it sux coz we were only given an hour and a half to shop there)
- cute Egyptian men (I enjoyed the sight of them only..muahah)
- the river Nile cruise
- the performances on the river Nile cruise – belly dancing, singing and this guy who just doesn’t stop spinning while balancing stuff on his head
- the food for the first few days (coz they just served the saaaame stuff at every restaurant after that, it got to the point of feeling pukey…and there were no chilli sauce!)
- smoking sheesha (not! Muahah…I’d love to try it but it’d be frowned upon by the men unless we bought our own sheesha thingy but my mom wasn’t cool with it..)
- the police escort and bodyguard at fayoum which made me feel like a supastar
- the in-flight entertainment and extra seats for me to lie on on the pleasant flight home
- Dramamines …which made the long flights and long bus rides tolerable…otherwise, “pukey” would be my middle name.
- Learning so much history and being able to be near it and touch it.
- Just being blown away and awed altogether by the country, the architectures, the culture, the history and everything else.

What I Didn’t enjoy:

- the mosquitoes in the hotel in Sinai (beautiful view of the mountains and desert but the mosquitoes!)
- rude arab stewardesses
- being stared at in mosques for not covering my head
- the disorganized way of purchasing food in shops in the city (you have to tell the cashier what you want first, pay for it, then go somewhere else and get it..even for ice-creams!)
- very very crowded city
- shopping in the city/ language barriers – it’s like earthling speaking to an alien as my mom bargains with the salesgirl with a pen and a notepad)
- The scorching heat in cairo city (even the desert was not as scorching with the occasional very cool breeze)
- The incident of the drum that’s made of clay that we bought for very cheap which fell and broke when the bus hits a bump. Grrr..
- The repetitive “variety” of food in every different restaurants
- Brinjals(!) in their lasagnas and pizzas..yuck

So ya…that’s in a nutshell…and my trip was more or less in a nutshell...there's just soooo much to see and learn really..we joked about how the egyptian students probably had to learn their country's history every year of their school life..whereas in singapore..its just stamford raffles, japanese occupation, racial riots, PAP..thats bout it..hahah..boriiiing…so ya...i’ll tell ya the story of my first ever mountain hike/climb later…that’s all for now!