WARNING: these posts have not yet been proof-read. It’s difficult to find decently priced internet connections here. The actual posting time of these entries is April 22, in Jerusalem – in the Olive Tree hotel… with free WiFi!

2005.04.11

*Pilgrimage Day 2*

Day 2

What a busy day!

We woke up at about 6:30am, took a shower then went down for breakfast. The food was surprisingly good. Usually, breakfasts are something you don’t look forward to, no matter where you are. In this case however, they really had some tasty stuff!

Memphis

We left at 8:00am and went to Memphis, which is supposed to be the oldest city in the Egypt (world?). It is said to be the only city that remains from “old kingdom” of Egypt. We went to some mini-museum where a humongous statue of Ramses II (who is said to be the Ramses of the Exodus.) is located.

Saqqara

We then went to Saqqara – where the stepped pyramid is located. The step pyramid is technically the first pyramid – a prototype if you will. This is also where I was swindled by some idiot Camel-dude. It’s so hard to know what to do when people are taking your hand and dragging you to their Camels. The only way to stop them is to actually be rude and tell them to let go of you (because they really won’t). In any case, I wasn’t just prepared to say “hey fucker, let go of my hand or I’ll beat the shit out of you” yet, so I ended up riding his damn Camel and forced to pay. The payment was haggled down to the “normal rate,” but considering I didn’t even want to get in the blasted animal, it should’ve been for free.

TRIVIA: There is what is considered to be the “first pyramid,” and the “first true pyramid.” The latter being the first pyramid whose angle of construction has been perfected (probably from the first, stepped pyramid)

Carpets and Giza

Next stop was Giza, where the Great Pyramid was. Before that however, we made a quick stop on some carpet-making facility, where we saw the process involved in making such carpets by hand, pretty amazing stuff. There’s nothing much to say about the pyramids in Giza: you’ve seen one triangle, you’ve seen them all, but there were nice creative photo opportunities there, so it was all good.

Did I mention that the Great Sphynx was also in Giza? Well, it is – and that’s all I have to say about that. We had a buffet lunch in an open-air restaurant; overlooking the Sphynx and pyramids. The eggplant, fish filet, chicken, and lamb “schawarma” were great. My only advice is to not order mango juice. Once you’re used to Philippine mangoes in general, the others just seem awful compared to ours.

Old Cairo

We then continued to Old Cairo, which, according to our guide, is considered to be the most holy city in the world (I dunno what she thought about other holy places and frankly didn’t want to troll on it).

The Church of St. Sergius (Abu Serga) contains the crypt in which the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph, and J-bird) supposedly stayed/hid, when King Herod ordered all the first-borns to be killed – I think that account is known as the Flight from/to/of Egypt.

The synagogue of Ben Ezra is important because this is where Moses supposedly knelt and prayed… leaving marks on the ground (which remained there through the passage of time), they erected the synangogue as a memorial I guess. It was turned into a Church when the Islams came in (they apparently were giving the land to the people, and the Christians called shotgun on that synagogue)… then sold back, for lack of finances – and converted yet again, back to a Synagogue. Ah yes, even then… money made the world go round

The Egyptian Museum

We then proceeded to the Egyptian Museum where we took a look at a bunch of dead people, their stuff, and tombs. King Tutankhamun obviously was the highlight. One thing I’ve realized is that the people in the olden days were really small The throne was really low, and some statues that were supposed to be life sized (to scale), suggests that King Tut was small and skinny. I’m guessing he was nowhere near 5-feet, and thin (as in “poor street kid” thin). It was a shame that photography wasn’t allowed in the museum, but you can’t have it all.

Of course other Pharaohs and Queens were seen there, nothing really worth remembering though. I did learn something cool: to know if the ruler was of Southern or Northern roots by just looking at their headgear. Northern rulers have the cool looking crowns (flat top with wings at the back going up). Southern had that bishop-looking (as in from the game of chess) headgear which looked to me like a serious case of hydrocephalus. Take note, that these two types of crowns are not to be confused with the Pharaoh’s headress – which is what you see commonly (Sphinx, etc. That cobra looking thing)

After the museum, we went to the worst Chinese restaurant we’ve ever set foot on. The food had absolutely no taste whatsoever, which totally destroyed our argument that “you can never go wrong with Chinese food when in other contries” – WRONG! The most flavorful (or simply “flavorful”) stuff we had were the soft-drinks we ordered.

So it was a pretty lousy way to end what is considered to be a very enriching day, but then this is a pilgrimage, who are we to be expecting spectacular feasts. But still… hehehehe

And so ends day 2. Tomorrow, we fly to another place and continue the pilgrimage on The Love Boat, I mean, a cruise ship… on our way to Luxor.