5 Know Safety No pain

Loved the way this saying's been put..

Location: UAE

0 Cairo Rihlas V

Cairo Rihlas V

9th November:

I'm on the plane now, on my way back to London. In a way I'm glad to be going back. Cairo was too noisy. The car drivers are really impatient and they would make use of their horns constantly. Their roads make Digo Road - One of Mombasa's busiest roads look like child's play! Crossing the roads was another big hassle and the Zebra Crossing is just a decorative ornament for the road. But well you learn to get used to it.. lol.

In the last 2 days I visited the Khan el Khalili Market twice. I enjoyed it more each time.
'Spend your money here' 'Just looking no buying here' 'India ya bakistan?' 'babyrus for 10 pound' were few of the phrases I heard.

I had a good time, learnt quite abit and well I'm now glad to be going back to London:)

Picture Gallery

Rihla means travel, made famous after Ibn Battuta's Narratives called Rihla. I liked the sound of Rihlas.. and so I chose to call my Visit: Cairo Rihlas

0 Cairo Rihlas IV

Cairo Rihlas IV

6th November:

Today was well let's say exhausting. lol. I find Shopping an ardent task, it's really not my thing. The market was called khan el khalili. Its a shopping maze with narrow alleys running around everywhere.

The shops had good touristy stuff. Items made of papyrus, egyptian footrests, sheesha pipes ...As we walked around many kept shouting 'India ya Bakistan?' And we either ignore or reply hind, occasionally Kenya but this means explaining how we came to be Kenyans. To them its really confusing that we're Kenyans.

Anyways in some narrow alley outside a shop some man asked us the above question, and well as usual the reply was 'hind'. But this man had Kenyan features. You could tell. And so my dad asked him where he was from. His reply well...put a smile to our faces, yes he was Kenyan. lol.We conversed with him in Swahili for a while. I like Swahili, it's a good language. So anyways this man's a student at some university there and he was studying linguistics. He mentioned that Moody Awori (The vice president of Kenya) was there a week back. His shop was a mix of Egyptian and Kenyan curious. I recognised some Kenyan key chains and masks.

Near the market is the Imam Hussein Mosque.

0 Cairo Rihlas III

Cairo Rihlas III

5th November:

Today was good. I enjoyed it more possibly because there was less walking involved.So I went to the Egyptian Museum which is located near tahrir (liberation) square. There just too much history to absorb and currently I'm trying to write this in the midst of tooo many facts buzzing through my my mind.The museum did not permit cameras inside, but that did not stop others from taking videos and photos from their phones :)

So anyways I saw the statue of Queen Hatshesput (she married her half brother thutmose II) and bore a child Thutmose III, who is known as the napoleon of Egypt)

In 1925 the tomb of Hetepheres was discovered, and on display were her alabaster sarcophagus, baldachin, bed (made with gold and papyrus), headrest(looked really uncomfortable), jewellery box and carrying chair.

Saw ancient wall drawings of Amenhotep IV who later took the name Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti worshiping Aten.

There was great queuing in the room for Tutankhamen. His golden mask, sacrcophagous, jewellery and all were visible

And lastly saw the mummies! :D They had some 12 mummies, those that I can remember included seti, Queen Hatshesput, her wet nurse, and Ramsis II.

Later we visited the citadel of Saladdin. In the 14th Century they built a mosque within its premises, which is now known as the Muhammad Ali mosque. In 1811 Muhammed Ali called the leaders of the Mameluks for a feast to his citadel. When all the leaders had arrived, he ordered his men to shoot them. Very few out of the 470 men survived.

At night I went for the sound & light show. We sat at a point where all the 3 pyramids and the sphinx were visible. Images and lasers were then projected on the 2nd pyramid with stories being recalled.

1 Cairo Rihlas II

Cairo Rihlas II

4th November:

[Outside the tomb]

We first visited the tomb of Mereruka in sakkara. It's the largest tomb in Sakkara. Cameras were not allowed here. The walls were filled with drawings on all over describing the daily life, dances, punishments and other..

Next we saw the step pyramids of king zoser, It was one of the first pyramids that the Egyptians built.

In Memphis which was the capital of Ancient Egypt more than 5000 years ago we saw limesone statue of ramses II :

alabaster sphinx

and a statue of some pharoah

This pharoah was alive when its statue was made as its left leg is forward.


Our guide then took us to Siwa perfumes who dealt with flower extracts. I was suprised to learn that they exported their essences to major companies like estee lauder, calvin klein, channel, D&G etc. These companies would mix 20% of the essence with 80% alcohol.To recognise true essence add a drop of essence to water and it will sink to the bottom before mixing in.. Students of chemistry will probably know better.I got myself Golden wattel (said to help in concentration) and Ramsses (the Egyptian equvalent to l-eu de issey).




And lastly we went to see the 3 pyramids and the sphinx. They were all massive. Each pyramid had sooo many million stones and each stone weighed about 2 tonnes. The stones came from Aswan by the Nile, they were then raised by ramps. Our guide mentioned that the location of pyramids was chosen according to some stars.

0 Cairo Rihlas I

Cairo Rihlas

3rd November:

So I left for Cairo today from Heathrow airport. The flight was good, and the food even better :) Some lady mentioned that on Egypt Air's website the baggage allowance was 20kg, but at check-in she was told 40kg. The reason..well Egyptians would otherwise have carried 60kg if 40 was the limit. lol..

I was barely 7 kg :D

0 Mr Bean goes to the Mosque

Source: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lZLCmxfufI0