Holy Land Tour: Day-2 (Sunday 26-10-2008)Cairo(Visit to Pyramids,Hanging Church,Abu Serga Church and Khan-El-khalil Bazaar)

"SHIPS OF THE DESERT" and the Pyramids of Giza:- One of my best photographs popular on travel sites.

As usual, woke up at approximately 0500hrs, had a shower and just lazed around in the room watching T.V mostly all local Arabic programmes with "C.N.N" being one of the few International channels.Later Stephen and myself dressed and went for breakfast on the 2nd floor, good and delicious "5-Star food " compared to the normal "Budget Food" i have on my "Solo Backpacker Tours", but so also are the "Tour Charges"! After a sumptuous breakfast, boarded the bus ,also getting more acquainted with my fellow pilgrims/tourists and realizing that Mumbai is a small place in social networking, someone knowing someone else, although meeting for the first time.Mariano.Remedios.Fernandes and his wife Mathilda.Fernandes lived near Portuguese church close to my residence in Mumbai, besides ,he was a professional photographer and clicked the maximum photo's on tour also making a personal video-tape which he later distributed to us in Mumbai. Mosiac Tour Manager Nicola.Phillips and room-mate Stephen .Lewis also clicked up-teen photos which were later distributed and some of these photo's with the majority being mine are featured on these blogs of the "Holy Land Tour.(Egypt,Israel,Jordan)".

Road to the "PYRAMIDS OF GIZA COMPLEX".

The bus ride from hotel Maadi to the pyramids gave us a tour of Cairo city and realized that the "Maadi area" of Cairo was a posh locality with modern skyscrapers and broad paved roads running parallel to the Nile river akin to Mumbai's swank sea-facing localities, plush and clean, compared to the crowded and dirty streets in downtown old Cairo city. The approach locality near the pyramids resembled a sea of incomplete concrete buildings akin to the infamous 28 year old incomplete building opposite my house in Prabhadevi in Mumbai.On inquiries with guide Waleed i was informed that these incomplete concrete buildings were occupied by "Squatters" since their builders had either gone bankrupt or unable to complete their buildings due to the "Global Financial Meltdown" , hence a source of "Free Housing" to some of Cairo's poor and corrupt, akin to the infamous "Graveyard housing locality".
The approach to the "Cheops pyramid" reminded me of the "Taj Mahal" in Agra, something to be personally seen rather than read or viewed through the media.

SPHINX AND THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA

As usual, all of us went camera crazy and i also took a video-clip.We removed a group photograph with the pyramids as the background, memories to cherish for a life-time.The Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza have still maintained their mystique inspite of crass commercialization akin to the Taj Mahal, real wonders of the World. Climbed the step stones of Cheops up to the entrance to the "Funerary chamber" but didn't enter inside due to the "Group tour time constraint" as well as the exorbitant charges for just creeping through a tunnel to view an empty chamber inside the pyramid, something common in my shipping days of "Tank inspections" and "Bilge pipe tracings"! The "Funerary room treasures" and all "Mummies" are kept in the "Cairo Museum" which we had visited earlier and so we just strolled around the Pyramid complex, a huge area, and some of us took the famous "Pyramids camel ride" with photographs as memories for posterity.One of the photographs that i clicked of the camels with the Pyramids in the background is one of my best photos and had gone viral on "Internet Sites".

"Mounted Camel Guard" at the Pyramid of Giza complex.

A pyramid Bedouin arab guide, one of the numerous that sell their talents to tourists removed an excellent photograph of myself touching the "Cheops pyramid tip", a classic display of "Subject positioning" and not "camera or computer gimmickry" as most people might think if they view this particular photo. The same Bedouin also removed a photo of Stephen and myself against the backdrop of the pyramids proving the fact that "familiarity of terrain" is more important than being either a "world class photographer" or owning the "world's costliest camera"! I have posted these photos in this blog and i am sure that even the best photographers would get confused about its "origin", camera,computer graphics or superimposition? Later visited the "Hanging Church" and the "Abu Serga Church" in Cairo and an abandoned Jewish Synagogue, well preserved buildings, now a source of tourism income. Honestly, my internet self- study of all these religious sites prior to the tour made me competent enough to become a local guide, besides, study of history is my passion, hence the habit of maintaining "Diaries" prior to invention of "Internet Blogs".
Later attended a private mass at the "St Francis Church" in Cairo and then began our journey back to the world famous "Khan El Khalil Bazaar" founded in 1382 once called the "Turkish Bazaar" of Cairo, one of the oldest and largest markets in the Middle-East. Strolled through its narrow shopping alleyways, typical of "Middle-east Bazaars" and finally myself and Stephen had a "Shisha(hookah)" in one of the Bazaars numerous "Coffee Shops on the main street close to the historic Husseini Mosque.Having been a "World city tourist name-dropper" the habit of comparing International city's with city's in India has been a habit and honestly, the 650 year old "Khan El Khalil " bazaar of Cairo is an amalgam of "Muhammad Ali/Bhendi Bazaar/Chor Bazaar and Crawford market" localities of Mumbai.
After touring the "Khan El Khalil" locality of Cairo we next visited a "
Perfume manufacturing Factory" and given a demonstration of the manufacture of various perfumes and "Attars" with some couples and Stephen purchasing some of these perfumes.
Reached Maadi hotel at approx 2015 hrs, a frustrating journey through peak "Cairo traffic jams" and after a quick dinner a few of us proceeded by the bus to the "Pyramids of Giza" to view the spectacular "Sound and Light show".
The "Pyramids and Sphinx sound and light show" cost us each US $'s 30 and began at 2130 hrs on a chill Cairo moonless night, a beautiful historical tour in sound and light of the Pharaohs and construction of the pyramids.Got back to the hotel at approx 2230hrs after the show and crashed to a sound sleep in bed, a hectic day and night of continuous walking and touring.

In "Bedouin Headgear" at Pyramid of Giza. This photo was taken by a local Bedouin using "Camera Angle" to get this amazing photo.A common tourist attraction at the pyramids of Giza.