{"id":278,"date":"2005-04-13T15:06:50","date_gmt":"2005-04-13T07:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/http:\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/archives\/2005\/04\/2005_04_13_1506.php"},"modified":"2005-04-13T15:06:50","modified_gmt":"2005-04-13T07:06:50","slug":"egypt-day-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/04\/13\/egypt-day-03","title":{"rendered":"Egypt: day 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

2005.04.12<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a>\n*Pilgrimage Day 3*\n<\/center>\n\n

Day 3<\/h1>\n

The Liberty<\/h2>\n

Stupid cruiser rooms don’t have enough available AC outlets! Right now, I’m by the door of our room, forced to use the only<\/em> outlet provision (aside from the Television and Refrigirator, which are conveniently located behind<\/em> an extremely heavy desk)<\/p>\n

Day 3 started when we woke up practically the same time we left from Manila (Egypt time, of course) to Aswan<\/em> – for a connecting flight to Abu Simbel.<\/em> We had to wait a couple of hours in between – where we spent time visiting some dam\/dike. I forget the name, and frankly I don’t think any one of us really gave a shit since we were too groggy to appreciate anything that early in the morning. The dam however, is significant because it controlled the flow of the Nile,<\/em> which allows Egypt to “develop” barren parts by irrigation. The dam was also the boundary between the Nile and the biggest man made<\/em> lake behind it… a byproduct if you will. After that, we then went back to the airport for our flight to Abu Simbel.<\/p>\n

Abu Simbel<\/h2>\n

Abu Simbel is a cool place to be in… in fact, it’s one of the coolest places to be in so far<\/em> (it’s just day 3 after all). This is where the temples that were carved out of the hillsides are located. I believe that the temples were of Ramses II, and his wife Nefertari. You know, I could be wrong totally, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that those temples really kicked arse from the outside (the inside wasn’t that special since it was mostly art\/hieroglyphics on the wall).<\/p>\n

It should be mentioned that twice a year, the Pharaoh’s temple can be illuminated by the sun’s rays penetrating through the entrance up to the innermost chamber, which suggests a strategic angle of construction with relation to geography.<\/p>\n

We then returned to the airport, and back to Aswan… and straight to the Liberty,<\/em> the cruise ship we’re staying in at the moment. We were supposed to go sailing this afternoon but thank goodness the guides realized how tired everyone was, and just scrapped all activities for the rest of the day… until the night came.<\/p>\n

Back at the Liberty<\/h2>\n

After dinner, we had a showcase of belly-dancing et all. I’d like to call it the “freakshow” since We got this fat-ish belly-dancer (which I guess is forgivable since you can’t really appreciate a belly-dance from someone with a washboard stomach), an Egyptian “Ita,” which would’ve been the best photographed subject, if only I wasn’t called to the stage to participate in the dancing. And lastly this spinning man – who did nothing but spin. His routine was cute and all, but I guess most of the challenge there is to walk straight (and not puke) afterwards. The photos of him can be appreciated by photographers since he was a constantly spinning subject – so you get to start being really friendly with your camera’s limitations (shutter lag, etc. etc.)<\/p>\n

Smokin’<\/h2>\n

The highlight of this trip was one that wasn’t included in the itinerary at all. Our tour guide Sally, took us out on an impromptu gimmick to do some stuff Egyptians usually do to kill time. We went to some Shawarma<\/em> place and learned to smoke Shieshas.<\/em> A Shiesha<\/em> is a “water pipe.” It basically does what a nicotine filter does to a cigarette, but more efficiently. You can see the contraption in the picture above, the smoke that you suck in is said to be [ironically] “clean” smoke you could put into your lungs – plus it comes in flavors!<\/p>\n

I first tried smoking when I was grade 5 in La Salle. Like drinking, I never got into the habit of both of them to this day – but using the Shiesha was a nice experience. In fact, it is an experience I can take home with me to Manila. This is also where I learned how to make smoke rings (in an extremely short time, might I add) I don’t know why it was easy for me to get into the “zone” that fast. Probably because I’ve already smoked before, or maybe that Shiesha really<\/em> had clean smoke.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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! 2005.04.12 *Pilgrimage Day 3*<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[52,380],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-abu-simbel","tag-egypt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}