Camel Ride at the Pyramids

Me and my Lawrence of Arabia. If you at first you dont succeed, you try again..


The two reluctant but happy participants that were forced on the camel

Father Abraham and his family

Happy and silly people on the camel

Having heard stories about camel rides, I at first declined the camel ride at the entrance of the Pyramids. Once in the area, how could we not ride on a camel in Egypt with Pyramids as the background. Furthermore, might as well do a trial ride before Mt Sinai the next day.

So , when this blue-eyed , Lawrence of Arabia look-alike asked, I agreed and there came the famous falling on the camel-guide incident. Yup, it was a great story to be told over and over again on how I fell on the camel guide. On top of that, the guide got everyone on the camel , took lovely pictures and then ripped us off with a huge bill of RM750. It was a rip-off but nevertheless, I didn't mind paying the max of RM500 and negotiated so . It was pricey but money well spent for the sheer drama and a lifetime of storytelling.

The fall was a good lesson for the next day camel ride -

a. choose a short camel

b. choose a big size camel guide

c. make sure you climb on the same side as

the camel guide so that when you fall, you can land on him......

Egypt Pt 2

Pyramids of Giza

Lunch at Giza

Museum at Cairo

Crossing the Streets of Cairo

Do not ever attempt to do this. It is extremely dangerous. On our first night, we thought of walking along Nile which was just across the street. Looks simple enough, done it millions of time but this is Cairo. There is no traffic law, some cars have no light and crossing the road is an extreme sport.

We did cross the road looking for Target the supermarket but silly me, it turned out to be Target the Limousine Hire. Turning back to meant crossing the road but wanting to buy water meant crossing another road. After the ordeal of crossing road and nearly been scammed for Pringles Chip ( the shop wanted to charge us RM32 for a canister), we headed back to the hotel for room service and hence ended our first night in Cairo

Day 2

Our first stop of the day is the much acclaimed Egyptian Museum. Again hordes of tourist and whilst it is fascinating, my brains cannot take who is king , queen and what they did to who and what. The highlight of course was to see the King's Tut's mummy which I refused to go. Our next stop was probably a lot more interesting- the Pyramids of Giza and had lunch at a restaurant with the view of the Giza. Excited and full of anticipation of the Pyramids. We finally came saw the ancient structures which mystified millions for many years....

Egypt- Pt 1

The transit hotel in Dubai

Sunset over the Nile

The view from the room

Here goes my much delayed posting on my Egypt trip. Way overdue mainly because of fatigue, plain laziness to write and anyway I had already written about my childhood dream of riding a felucca.

IN THE BEGINNING

Well, the only way to start is the beginning and the Etihad flight would be a good way. First time to the middle east and the Abu Dhabi was a 12 hours stopover. Did not fancy staying at the airport staring into space or sleeping like a refugee so decided to spend a little and booked a transit hotel. Expensive i.e US$170/room for less than 12 hours but it was worth every penny because flying in tired and in a cramped airport was what it was like.

So we flew into Cairo the next day fresh and well fed with a good Western breakfast only to reach Cairo International Airport which looked like it was like a blast into the past. Hmm the last time I walked into airport like that was in Beijing way back 15 years ago i.e the pre-Olympic days.

DAY 1

Chaotic , filled with people and loads of army personnel , it was nice to see Nora ( we called her Nora throughout the trip only to find that its' not Nora), smiling and holding a placard with our name. Welcome to Cairo and smack into the traffic. 5 to 6 lanes of cars on each side back to back . Hey, KL is a breeze. This is Cairo, dusty, noisy and so full of character. We passed Sadat's memorial and I'm instantly reminded of the conflicts that this country faced and seeing guns, military personnel , fighter jets are everyday fare. We are so blessed that in Malaysia it is peaceful . Somehow, I wasn't afraid in fact extremely intrigued and wanting to soak into every minute of this fascinating country.

We got into the much anticipated Semiramis Intercontinental beside the Nile River. Again more uniform soldiers around the hotel and the luggages all had to go through the security scanning machines. Finally, checked in after hassling the receptionist about our "platinum status" . This time, the best they did for me was a Nile view river but Ray and Chris got the Macdonald view room.

Of course, I quickly snapped pictures of the sunset over Nile. It's my first sunset of the Nile. Excited because it is everything I imagined it to be. Huge, orange but yet not perfect unlike Hawaii. The dustiness and emerging fog blurred it provided the mystic allure that I have always imagined Egypt to have.

Turning 45

I finally celebrated my 45th birthday in PD with my closest friends and family. I couldn't ask for more. It was beautiful weather and for as far I can remember , I dont ever recall seeing such a beautiful sunset in PD . So often , I climbed mountains, flew thousands of miles just to catch a sunset and here in this once sleepy town,right here in my very own backyard was a beautiful sunset.
As we gathered around enjoying the loveliest cool breeze ( yes in hot Malaysia) sipping champagne, enjoying the lovely setting , indeed I have plenty to be thankful for. To top it all, it was a lovely full moon that night.
And therefore, as I post this , I am indeed very blessed and loved by the Almighty. I am reminded that without our Lord, I am nothing. I cannot complain and should always remember of his gracious LOVE.

A felucca ride on the Nile

Clarissa and me ....

Me and the kids on the felucca

Pretty feluccas at Aswan. Loverly....

It's funny sometimes how you take a holiday which is suppose to mean a break , a rest , but after the holiday, you feel more drained, exhausted and needing another holiday.

Egypt was one such "holiday". It was filled with adventure and I enjoyed myself tremendously as I was fulfilling my dream of sailing down the Nile in a felucca. This felucca ride experience was injected of course by Hollywood.ie. The Spy Who Loved Me, btw the only decent James Bond Roger Moore ever made. Of course, this romantic notion of sailing down in a felucca was inspired by the scene which Mr Moore had with Barbara Bach. I've held that dream for a long time , in fact since I was 14 . I was in boarding school then and I saw that movie during one of the Sundays my parents came to visit. In order to prolong the visit in this remote, sleepy town called Kuala Pilah, they took me for a movie. I felt guilty about going then because it was the exams the next day and I really should be going but I missed them a lot and I wanted to prolong the visit , too. Watching the movie though was the best thing I did. I remembered coming back extremely happy, singing that beautiful melody, the Spy Who Loved Me and an aspiration to go on the felucca. Actually, much , much happier and really for the first time, didnt even feel guilty about skipping study time ( yeah, yeah I was a boring mugger!!!)

Since then, Egypt has always been the "See Naples and Die " . For that, I wanted to keep it off my visit list as far as I could . I finally did it recently. The verdict - enjoyable, picturesque, extremely relaxing . One of the highlights of the trips.

I can't help but feel sad though. It has been for a long time its been the peak of my everest and like what I've learned in so many different everest in my life . Now what ? Is that all ? And of course like all many, young romantic illusions, that magical moment is gone. Anyway, now nearly 30 years later, weathered by life experiences, I need to find another " See Naples and Die". Hollywood please ???

Aman Rimba - Janda Baik

and a lovely walk after breakfast so that we can eat some more

Nice kampung nasi lemak with nescafe for breakfast

Chris first drive

More karaoke king, queen and a mighty princess

Karaoke kings and queens of the night

Father and son bonding

Really lepaking

A weekend of nature, lovely walk, river swim complete with natural jacuzzi, wonderful fresh food so sumptiously cook, cool refreshing mountain air , noise pollution caused by karaoke kings and queens that sang off key, beautiful wild life especially the butterflies and lovely company from a group of mighty old friends...

Fancy a walk in the jungle in the middle of KL

Chris trying to figure out if he should have the
bangers and mashers or the fish and chips at the
Magnificent Fish and Chips

A for effort in trying to get us a decent place to trek and
enjoy the jungle

A lovely rainforest right in the middle of KL

The three trekkers figuring where they are

The trek up to KL Tower

Our Malaysian signages are terrible. I was trying to locate the Bukit Nenas Reserve because I was told that the there is a nice little jungle trek there. We followed some signages that led us all the way up to St Johns and Convent Bukit Nenas only to have the sign disappear and so went up KL Tower and ask the guard. We were told we could actually access the trek from KL Tower, so we parked the car at the foot and walked up. We then walked down a jungle trail until we came to the information office. Then we walked up again and whilst it was quite a nice little walk, the hordes of mosquitoes swarmed and attack everytime we stopped.

Saw a beaufiful glass beetle but my close-up photography skills still sucks... and I didnt get to take the picture. Was too tired to walk to the canopy bridge so left that for another day.

We headed to the Magnificent Fish and Chips opposite Frangipani and tucked in with the best Fish and Chips in town.

Pizza, Spaghetti vs local food

The crunchy, nutty tiramisu to die for

The old vs the young

Sam, Chris (wrapped up in PSP world ) and Selia

These days, the younger generation are fed with a diet of spaghetti, pizzas and my nieces and kids are no different. While my kids are okay with Chinese food , my nieces favours the west.

And so finding a restaurant that serves good Western and Asian food is a must when the family gets together for that special treat. Early this year, for CNY, we went to La Risotto and my mum ended up eating bread and water only. So I found Alexis and we were there with kids giving the thumbs up to the pizza and the spaghetti and my mum to its delicious mee siam. As for me , I am a sucker for its wonderful, nutty, crunchy tiramisu.

i

My Little Cuties

Daphne's cutie

My favourite cutie

We just wrapped up the shoot for SiManja Huggies yesterday and these are pictures of some the cute little babies

Avril Lavigne Concert - The spirit is Willing but the Flesh is weak

Finally, the happy teenager, the kid brother and the over-age
rocker !

The ever useful binoculars
That's how tiny she is from where we were
The kids including Chris singing to Avril's songs

Avril, finally started her concert at 9.10 pm, more than an hour later that what was advertised.

The drenched rats at the concert

When my daughter agreed to go with me to the Osmonds Concert and enjoy "my music", I decided to go with her to enjoy "her music".So when Avril Lavigne was in town, the whole family went. The family had to experience a rock concert together. Anyway, its the kids first rock concert and probably the only time they will allow mum and dad to chaperone.

Confession, I have never been to a rock concert and the last time I went to Stadium Merdeka was for Michael Jackson and that seems eons ago. So, I was entering virgin territory and what the heck, I said I would be more open to trying new experiences.... So, I got home early and got ready to go. My daughter looked at me and said "Mum you look like you're going for a country concert", I was wearing a nice long skirt you see with a peasant collared blouse, feeling very feminine. Since this business of turning forty few years back, I have this tendency not to really care about fitting in..

Ha, this time we remembered to bring the binoculars which gave Chris so much joy as he was pretending to be in some kind of espionage game in his own little world.

Anyway, traffic wasn't so bad and we managed to park our car in this valley that turned into a giant car-park opposite the stadium. Then the sky started turning the dark, and we quickly whisked out four umbrellas from over age rocker's car ( what's he doing with so many umbrellas in the car???) only to be told that we cannot bring it into the stadium.

True enough, it started to rain, I was excited , yeah rain, a rock concert, if only I was twenty years younger, I would have bought entrance tickets to the centre field and dance bare feet. The thing is 20 years ago, I couldnt afford the centrestage... That's the irony of life.

Oh well, so here I was at a rock concert, dressed as if I was going to watch Marie Osmond with my kids and then reality hit- the seats are actually hard slabs of concrete with rough, coarse gravelled surface that prickled my soft but fleshy bum. I did not expect this. Now I regretted not wearing the good old durable jeans.

Yeah so we were given raincoats in different colours and there I was in this yellow raincoat , sitting on extremely uncomfortable concrete without any back rest !!!! I was feeling kinda sick now, you know like when you feel a fever coming up and after half hour of no back support -my neck and back was beginning to ache.

An hour later and I gave up being feminine and ladylike, wrapped my skirt around my ankle and tied a knot so that I could just sit cross-legged on the one level lower and rest my back against the panel. What a relief to my aching back.

Well, the very talented Avril finally arrived and as she belted her songs starting with Girlfriend , the crowd roared and the whole stadium was standing and rocking with her. She is very talented and the performance was great but as sang her last song " Skater Boy", all I could think of was " Thank God ", now I can go home and rest my poor back.

The Eye and The Twin Towers from Lake Titiwangsa

My favourite pictures !!!

The Eye and the many different colours on Merdeka eve . Somehow, despite the my aching body after the Avril Lavigne concert the night before and a late night with the usual Aisec kaki's for Swee Ai's birthday, I was inspired to take the pictures of the Eye and the Twin Tower from Tasik Titiwangsa . I have been meaning to do so but somehow just never got around doing it and since I got the new Nikon P80, I wanted to try the night landscape pix.Aiya, the kids didnt want to go as they were sleepy but somehow I just wanted to do it - perhaps thanks to the belacan overdose during dinner that kept me perky and wide awake, I went by myself . I'm glad I did because the pictures were great.

The fireworks were a disappointment though. The KLCC firework were extremely low and I didnt get any good shots. I was actually walking away when the Dataran Merdeka fireworks started and them my battery went flat.... As I was desperatly trying to load , I thought I was going to miss all the fireworks but finally got everything working. Taking the fireworks was not easy though - as there was a lag time between pressing the button and capturing the picture and I still do not know how to use the continous mode......Aiya.

Today, I AM HAPPY because I just read in the papers that the EYE is being dismantled on Thursday and last Sat night was probably the only and most beautiful time to take the picture. I would have missed this photo opportunity if I had not gone that night.

Aman Rimba

My ex- boss Sabri has this lovely private resort at Janda Baik . He's added a pool and a lovely bungalow across the pond. We visited him last weekend and he and his lovely wife Wati as usual fed us and we indulged again despite our heavy meal at Bukit Tinggi earlier on.

The kids jumped into the stream and splashed about and swam. The stream is relatively clear and quite sandy so is nice for swimming unlike the stream in ChiangMai which was quite stony and therefore slippery. Chris declares it his favourite stream and wants to buy it ( with what my dear?) .I was my usual sedentary mode, did not want to jump it , so fiddled with my new toy, trying to capture a good shot of the water spider. Failed miserably....Then tried chasing the dragonfly - the action mode is slow so tak bolehlah. Give up....