SGTrekker 8D7N Wonders of Egypt Photography Tour (28 Aug-04 Sep 2011)

[limwhow]

Hitting the Street running in Cairo...

"Everyone please look after your luggage properly. Don't let anyone else take your luggage. Follow us tightly." instructed Adrian at Cairo Airport.
​

Our lovely bus was already waiting for us outside.

... waiting to spring us all a very pleasant surprise!
My goodness! Are all Egyptian male guides so good looking?!!!
When I first saw him in the suit... I was REALLY *BLUR* (Huh...?! Where got so handsome guide wearing suit one lah..! My goodness!)
Here is Mohammed Lotfy (also called Lotfy) our secondary guide... he ended up being our model for a few locations.. LOL..

This Horizon Pyramid Hotel is really good.

And we dumped our luggage, took a shower and flew down to the lobby... all in full gear... some in fuller gears than others.. Haha...

And we all jumped up the bus and travelled 10 metres to the money changer next door, de-bussed and walked up to change some Egyptian Pounds (LE). The current exchange rate was US$1 = LE 5.945.
Here, our handsome Lotfy was enjoying so much undivided attention from the cameras until ageless literally had to wave some of his money in the air to bring some notice back. LOL...

 

[SereneXMM]

I am very delighted with the great time both Adrian and Melvin provided for us in Egypt. Not forgetting your tour guides both in Cairo and Luxor. They are superbly professional, entertaining, so accommodating, very knowledgeable and joy to tour with.

We were very impressed with their knowledge of Egyptology, the history, customs and ideology of the people; And the driver, he's so calm and friendly. You have an excellent tour agent.

Adrian and Melvin, you've made our trip an outstanding success and a most memorable experience. Especially Adrian, you went out of your way to make sure that all our wishes, both expressed and implied, were fulfilled; and it allowed us to be carefree and fancy-free with your reliability and our well-founded confidence that you would take care of everything.

SHUKRAN, and congratulations on your professional and kind excellent services.

Here's my share:
My newbie shots with M9.

Our lovely, lovely couple. Ready to go...

Getting ready to go.

Our Pharaoh acpical, 'chiong ah'...

 

[shunjie84]

But we found it interesting as we could even see ladies lying down on the floor sleeping and resting.
And for the first time for quite a few of us, we saw so many Middle-Eastern people in their classic attire in and out of the airport and along the streets of Cairo.
It was really a very interesting experience.

definitely agree with this...

 

[wkcheah]

Fantastic sillouette at the desert.
More! more!

 

[tecnica]

now, this is interesting.

 

[SgTrekker]

Hey Weehow, Serene, and everyone else, thank you for your kind words. We didn't do much actually since you guys are really fun and easy to travel with.

Anyway patience everyone, the first post was put up at the airport in Cairo and its a 6 hr difference between Egypt and Singapore... can tell everyone's visibly shacked out, especially since SQ had over 100 channels of entertainment on Krisflyer, none of us had a good rest coming back

But I'm sure my travel mates will blow you away with their photos (although most of the M photos will be a little blur) hahhaa!

 

[limwhow]

Welcome home!!! Looking forward to see awesome works for your guys... Can't wait...

Thanks papin, on behalf of all my teammates! Hey, it's lovely to have you up here, brother!

definitely agree with this...

Haha... that is a good one, shunjie84! You actually captured them.
When I first started I dare not, for the fear of offending them, shoot them up close...

Fantastic sillouette at the desert.
More! more!

Hey, buddy! Nice to have you here, wkcheah!
That silhouette was truly remarkable, wasn't it?!

now, this is interesting.

Haha.. thanks tecnica, on behalf of all my mates!

Hey Weehow, Serene, and everyone else, thank you for your kind words. We didn't do much actually since you guys are really fun and easy to travel with.

Anyway patience everyone, the first post was put up at the airport in Cairo and its a 6 hr difference between Egypt and Singapore... can tell everyone's visibly shacked out, especially since SQ had over 100 channels of entertainment on Krisflyer, none of us had a good rest coming back

But I'm sure my travel mates will blow you away with their photos (although most of the M photos will be a little blur) hahhaa!

Wait until LowLights hears this... WAhahaha...
And hey, where is that ageless yah? Ageless, quickly come in and help this leh!!!
Hahaha... but jokes aside... I am a total M newbie lah.. So many of my shots are really OOF, or motion-blurred... or whatever lah... LOL..!

 

[LowLights]

Blur Blur one ?

 

[tecnica]

Haha.. thanks tecnica, on behalf of all my mates!

more pics please~?

 

[lydialee]

Adrian & Melvin - the first two shots truly fantastic...:thumbsup:

waiting here for more pictures to come. Welcome back everyone.

Wee How - as usual, following your story .. like I am travelling too

 

[shunjie84]

Our hotel is not called horizons pyramids hotel for nothing. From the window, we can actually see the pyramids at a dist away. But what is interesting is that the people are very active at night. 2am and there are still many people hanging around out in the streets.

 

[limwhow]

Our hotel is not called horizons pyramids hotel for nothing. From the window, we can actually see the pyramids at a dist away. But what is interesting is that the people are very active at night. 2am and there are still many people hanging around out in the streets.

You are right, shunjie84.
I think it is also partly because Ramadan was drawing near on these few nights.
And that is why we had such a great time.

 

[limwhow]

T R A V E L O G U E

Sultan Hassan Mosque

So there we were, touched down and all ready to hit our first sight - the Sultan Hassan Mosque.
As Acpical is still sleeping, the history of Egypt will come a little later.
But we will go on with some brief introduction.
Cairo is a really gigantic city. Its West bank (of the River Nile) and Giza holds a population of 12 million and the East bank holds 8 million. In the days of the old pharaoh, the buildings of residence were built in the East bank as the sun rises from the East and where the sun sets in the West bank, the tombs and pyramids for the dead were located.

However, in more modern times, the religious structures, i.e. churches and the mosques, were built in the East bank.
Very much like during the days of the Pharaohs where each Pharaoh built himself a Pyramid, each of the newer Kings during the Greek-Roman periods and the Islamic periods built himself a church or a mosque.

The Sultan Hassan Mosque was built in the 14th century. It was of such a massive architectural undertaking by the then sultan, that people have called this the forth 'pyramid' of Egypt, in reference to its majesty as that of a pyramid of old.

There were two things that I realised on this first day in Egypt:

1. Egypt has lots of trees, foliage and greenery. Thus, for goodness sake, anyone who has an Infrared camera, please bring it along. :bsmilie:
2. When we first arrived in a new destination, sometimes it takes a while to attain inspiration, also known as ling'gan 灵感. (aka lingam, in SgTrekker's Egyptian terminology.. LOL )
   And true to that fact, myself and SereneXMM were walking around with no lingam.

Anyway, here is my first shot... with little lingam.. and with the highlights blown. This shot does this magnificent mosque no justice.
The rest will have to come from my fellow teammates.

 

[divinemoment]

White Desert Chicken Silhoutte by Singapore Trekker, on Flickr

This is stunning. But I counted only 11 "chickens"

 

[divinemoment]

Whow,

How come your post #18,19 and 21 photo not availiable in Flickr? Or is it my computer ?

 

[SereneXMM]

We arrived at the Sultan Hassan mosque and we were immediately awed by the massive structure.

With the midday sun shining high above us, the looming architecture seems even more majestic.

I love sunburst. And here, the midday sun presents me an opportunity to shoot a sunburst with the mosque in the foreground.

 

[Canto]

wah!! welcome home...
nice coverage Limwhow, Serene and Friends!!

Awaiting for more images from your trip.

 

[SereneXMM]

wah!! welcome home...
nice coverage Limwhow, Serene and Friends!!

Awaiting for more images from your trip.

Thank you Canto for your welcome home! Still recovering from jet lag...:faint:

 

[SereneXMM]

Our good mate studying the entrance to the mosque up close.

We were all enthralled by the interior of the Sultan Hassan Mosque. But the high contrast was giving us some difficulty in exposure. My shot here had the highlights blown out at the far end. But I had no choice.

The central fountain in the open courtyard of the mosque is where the people purify themselves by washing their faces, limbs and feet before they start praying.

 

[SereneXMM]

AlexK and wife were so captivated by the praying man that they couldn't find a better position than what was shown here to shoot a great portrait of him.. LOL...

I caught sight of this Qu'ran flipping its pages in the wind. It is a peaceful and serene atmosphere in in huge mosque.

This is the entrance.

The interior of the prayer hall of Sultan Hassan mosque.
The acoustic here was very good because when the man prayed, we could hear the amplification of his voice with beautiful reverberations!

Our Tripod man, vngks, and HahaTan, in Sultan Hassan Mosque.