Edfu Temple

The morning we arrived by cruise to Edfu, we took a horse carriage ride to Edfu Temple, approximately 3 km away. The poor horse was kinda skinny, and i really pitied the horse having to pull the three of us, plus the minder.

Edfu Temple, or the Temple of Horus is the largest and best preserved Ptolemaic temple in Egypt. It even has its roof intact. This truly imposing temple took 25 years to build and the two pylons at the entrance is 36 m high, decorated with scenes of Ptolemy XII defeating his enemies in front of Hathor and Horus.

Here i am, leaning cheekily on the granite statue of falcon god Horus.

Our tourguide jokingly said that ancient Egyptians came up with the 3D concept thousands of years ago. This wall is a perfect example.

On the long stretch of wall within a corridor, the story of Set, Osiris, Isis and Horus are carved. This story is really compelling and full of drama. You can find the story on Google or Wikipedia if you're interested.

羅志祥 獨一無二

New Song!!!! I love it~~

Animaniacs - Nations of the World

Sentosa Megazip!

After our family day activities, we've planned to take part in the Megazip Adventure in the middle of Sentosa. This is strictly for those who do not have a known heart condition...Here we were, after putting on the safety harness.

We had to climb about 4-5 storey of a high tower located near Imbiah. The aim was to fly all the way down to Siloso Beach. There are other adventure activities on offer here, but we were pressed for time, so we only participated in Megazip.

This is what it looks like. Your end target is the little island off Siloso Beach. Heavier people will travel faster while light people travel slowly. The minimum weight allowable was 35 kg, so i barely made it. I got stuck about 5 metres from the end point because i was too light, and they had to throw a rope to tow me to the end point, because the rope towards the end got more horizontal.

Thumbs up, after the experience.

Kom Ombo Temple During Nightfall

Since we woke up at 2.30 am the night before, we spent the afternoon sleeping in the boat while we sailed from Aswan to Kom Ombo. We reached Kom Ombo at about 6 pm and had an excursion by walking for about 10 minutes to Kom Ombo Temple. It was an altogether different experience visiting a site which was lighted up at night.

This whole temple is built in a symmetrical fashion, due to it being built to worship two gods - Falcon god Haroeris ( Horus the Elder on the left) and local crocodile god Sobek ( on the right).

There are several interesting items in this temple which must be experienced : (1) a carving on the wall which showed that ancient Egyptians invented many medical devices such as the sponge, saw, scalpel etc.

(2) An outdoor bath tub which was frequented by Cleopatra. She used to have goat milk's bath in this particular bath.

(3) A Nilometer - a sort of well which was used to measure the degree of flood from the River Nile. This was very important for the agriculture sector, particularly.

(4) An ancient calendar, carved on the wall.

Dawn Excursion to Abu Simbel & Morning in Aswan

Of all places in Egypt, this was my number one 'must-go' when we chose our package - Ramses II @ Abu Simbel. This place is protected pretty closely, and so all tour groups must travel in a police convoy at 4 am. We woke up at 2.30 am in our cruise in Aswan, then met with the police convoy at 4 am and drove to Abu Simbel via Sahara Desert. We witnessed a beautiful sunrise in the bus and arrived at Ramses II early morning. This stunning structure was built to honour Ramses II. The four statues are King Ramses II at various stages in his life. The second statue was destroyed in an earthquake in 27 BC.

Adjacent to Ramses II's temple is the Temple of Hathor, built to honour Ramses II's favourite wife, Nefertari. Compared to Ramses II, this temple is much more modest in size. Both temples disallowed photo taking within, to minimise crowding and expedite movement.

After several hours there, we went back and visited the Aswan High Dam, which was built to generate electricity. However, the construction of this dam has caused flooding to many ancient buildings, and UNESCO has painstakingly moved them to higher grounds in order to preserve the history of Egypt.

This is the Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan. The obelisk has been carved out on the granite, but upon detachment, they found a flaw/crack and the obelisk was abandoned. Had it been completed, it would've been the largest in Egypt ( 1068 tonnes or 1068000 kg).

If you can't imagine how high it could've been, you can compare it to my height. Just the pyramid top alone is already my height!

Later, we travelled back to our cruise boat for lunch. Our tour group had arranged for a felucca to bring us back to the boat. A felucca is like a sailboat, and River Nile is packed with them.

Road Runner Opening Theme

Family Day @ Resort World, Sentosa

After about 2 months of organizing, our company's annual Family Day finally materialised. We woke up early, headed off to the beach in Sentosa ( Pahlawan Beach). Children were immersed in their age group colouring contests, while adults and teenagers participated in our Treasure Hunt. When everything was over, everybody sat on the beach to have lunch. There were some hiccups with the hotel keys retrieving process and the families were made to wait for about an hour at the beach :(

Croda's Recreational Committee 10/11. Each annual RC is tasked to organise Family Day and Annual Dinner & Dance. Coming up next for us : D&D!

Tze Ching's parents and sister was over for a weekend visit. I tagged along with them for an excursion around Sentosa. Look! It's the (in)famous Merlion!!

For singles/married without children status staff were given a one-night stay at Hard Rock Hotel. I was lucky i received a corner room. I had huge space, with a walk out corridor and a 270 deg window view of Universal Studios ( i could see the fireworks at night!), as well as Vivocity.

Hard Rock Hotel is a cool hotel, with a rock star theme. It makes you feel like you're in Hollywood or something. They even name the room amenities creatively, for example 'Crowning Glory' was actually the shower cap etc.

For my colleagues with children, they had a stay at Festive Hotel just adjacent to Hard Rock Hotel. I actually like this hotel more, cos it's so vibrant, colourful and family-oriented.

The room could accomodate a big family. It comes with a loft bed children could play with, and a pull-out sofa.

We also had time to fool around with the candy mascots outside candylicious.

Candylicious is like a huge Willy Wonka chocolate factory. They don't allow photography inside, but it's such a happy place. Everybody went ga-ga over the variety of candies and chocolates within.

The whole Resort World Sentosa is a comforting place to be, especially when you're in no hurry to go home :)

River Nile Cruise

Part of our Egypt trip includes 4 days 3 nights on a River Nile Cruise. Many tourists who joined vacation packages in Egypt will embark on this journey which sails from north to south or the other way. Our journey started from Aswan from the southmost point, going up towards, Kom Ombo, then to Edfu, Esna and finally Luxor. It is easier this way, for the ancient temples/ruins are mostly situated at the banks of River Nile.

The bedroom is actually quite spacious, if not for the fact that three of us shared a room. Once they put the extra bed in, we hardly had anywhere to open 3 trolley bags.

Each ship has about 50 rooms which has windows opening up to a riverview. It was therapeutic to be able to see out of the window as we sailed.

The greeneries along the Nile bank kept on changing as we sailed on.

At times, we would sit at the upper deck, especially to admire the sunset, and enjoying a complimentary coffee. The coffee they serve in Egypt differs largely from what i'm used to. It's all watery thin and ultra sweet! Ugh....~

我不是你想像那麼勇敢

My friend sings this songs every time i join in to listen to her KTV sessions. This is a magnificent song, with a superb MV and strong vocals. A very good package, for a Taiwanese song.

Philae Temple, Aswan

Upon arriving in the town of Aswan via a domestic flight, we took a boat ride to the island of Agilika, to visit Philae Temple. This photo was taken in the boat, we approached the island from the back, and circling towards its entrance.

Philae Temple was a worshipping place for ancient Egyptians, for cult Isis. The door is the entrance to the temple of Isis, the main building of Philae Temple.

In its courtyard are multitudes of pillars.

Philae Temple was one of the historical sites which drowned under River Nile's water due to the construction of the Aswan Dam. UNESCO collected funds all over the world to move it to its current location, by cutting off piece by piece of the old temple. This picture shows the old site of the temple ( the place where the poles are jutting out of the water).

This imposing building at the side of Philae Temple is the Kiosk of Trajan, a graceful 14-columned building which has scenes of the Roman empire burning incense in front of Osiris and Isis.

Alexandria Part 2

After lunch, we had a stop at Pompey's Pillar in Alexandria. This pillar was made from red Aswan granite, is 27m tall erected in 297 AD. This pillar was named Pompey's pillar even though it was dedicated to Roman emperor Diocletian. This was because the ancient travelers believed that Roman Emperor Pompey, who was murdered, was in fact buried at this site.

Later, we visited the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, which looked like something out of a movie set/computer game. No cameras were allowed inside, so i took photos from the web instead. This necropolis consists of a series of Alexandrian tombs, statues and archaeological object. This picture here shows the main tomb area. Anubis, God of the Underworld, is shown as a Roman legionary with dragon's tail. On the other side below heads of Medusa, are carved two giant serpents wearing the double crown of Egypt.

A circular staircase, which was often used to transport deceased bodies down the middle of it, leads down into the tombs that were tunneled into the bedrock. One of the more gruesome features of the catacombs is the so called Hall of Caracalla. According to tradition, this is a mass burial chamber for the humans and animals massacred by order of the Emperor Caracalla.

The back alleys of Alexandria seem very poor and dirty, as compared to their main street which is well-maintained.

21 Jump Street Opening Theme

Wow! A very young Johnny Depp!

PS Cafe @ Palais Renaissance

The only previous time i've dined at PS cafe was at their Dempsey branch, for dinner. This time, we braced ourselves for a heavy brunch at PS cafe at Palais Renaissance, just opposite David Gan's very pretentious hair saloon, Passion.

They've decorated the cafe so tastefully, we couldn't help but snap a few photos. We were there quite early, so we had quite a bit of privacy.

A nice, frothy cup of cappuccino to warm our bodies up for the wonderful weekend!

Some of us preferred milky latte instead :)
Both were just as satisfying.

We ordered one PS Big Bacon & Eggs : it came with 2 eggs, served with herbed toast, crisped bacon, char-grilled chorizo, oven-dried tomato and rocket pesto roasted mushroom.

What is a breakfast without pancakes? ( at least that's my philosophy, i miss mum's pancakes). PS cafe serves a stack of banana and caraway pancakes with caramelized bananas, butter and organic honey.

Lastly, a PS Breakfast Stack - tomato coddled egg on homemade zucchini and parmesan bread with roasted portabello and chargrilled asparagus, dressed with hollandaise and rocket.

After our meal, we were all stuffed and happy, but never go back again, cos it was expensive!!!