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

[LowLights]

Hehe... sorry OT a bit. You saw these watch before what, divinemoment during all our trips, remember? LOL.. ::
OK it does these: Compass, Altimeter, Barometer, Thermometer.
For extra-services: ND-filter, Lightmeter, ViewFinder... one will have to look for the Suunto M4 brand, not the Casio Protrek - this one must ask Dinosour. He is the gadget expert and he advised us on watches as well. Really good!

Good .. but Sis still wants the Rolex ;p

 

[SereneXMM]

Good .. but Sis still wants the Rolex ;p

Well said, brother!:thumbsup::vhappy:

 

[limwhow]

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The Ramadan 'Tent' dinner brought to a romantic closure this long eventful first day.
We finished the dinner cum supper at around midnight to return to the hotel, and plonked ourselves into bed for an early morning rise to gather at the lobby at 7:45am the next day.

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T R A V E L O G U E
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Day 2: Cairo - Red Pyramid & Bent Pyramid

It was going to be a day full of pyramids, pyramids and more pyramids for us.
We took a one hour bus ride to Dahshur where the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid were located, a kilometre apart from each other.
As per the history Acpical has generously provided, both these pyramids were built by the Pharaoh Sneferu of the Old Kingdom, the Bent Pyramid first, followed by the Red Pyramid. (The Red Pyramid was built in 2560 BC)

There was an interesting story that aga aga goes like this:
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Before King Sneferu built the Bent Pyramid, all the previous kings have their tombs built in a simple rectangular shape (called Mastaba) with the shafts going downwards into the chamber where the sarcophages were located. Then this King Sneferu he had a funny idea. He wanted to distinguished his tomb from the other older Kings' tomb and he imagined making his tomb a unique pyramidal shaped one.
So he got his engineers to work on it. They came up with a model, but half way through building it (The Bent Pyramid), they either (i) found that the initial angle was too steep, or (ii) as Acpical's history shown, King Sneferu died a slightly earlier death so they had to complete it; they made a last minute adjustment of the angle - resulting in the Bent Pyramid.

Anyway, King Sneferu was a little buay song about the Bent Pyramid. So before it was complete, he got his engineers to work on another pyramid, the Red Pyramid, this time round planning the angle zhun-zhun. So the Red Pyramid became the very first (official) pyramid of Egypt. Real story. No bluff one.
​

 

[limwhow]

So anyway, here is just a record shot of the Bent Pyramid, which was the first one to be built.
As we can all see here, the engineers of the Old Kingdom c*cked up the angle on this first attempt.
So the pyramid ended up like this... Hahaha...

And here was an old Egyptian ride with the Bent Pyramid in the background.
Acpical and Ageless would argue that the background was so bokeh-ed that we could have easily been in Universal Studio in Sentosa.
LOL... yah, maybe they are right. So here is a Camel in Universal Studio, Sentosa... HAhaha...

 

[SereneXMM]

Used Arabic cardboard as the foreground for The Red Pyramid.

These fellows shooting the Arabic cardboard instead of The Red Pyramid. Haha.:bsmilie:

I walked around and I saw them in an depression next to The Red Pyramid. And I just shot them.:sticktong

 

[limwhow]

Day 2: The Step Pyramid at Saqqara

A short distance away from Dahshur, around half an hour bus ride northwards, was the burial ground Saqqara.
This is the famous burial ground for the old Kingdom of Memphis.

Of so many pyramids there, the very well known one was the Step Pyramid built by King Zoser (Djoser).
There are altogether 6 steps on this pyramid.
Why 6 steps? Because there was this old Egyptian saying: 7 steps to heaven.
So they built 6 steps on this pyramid, with the believe that when the King comes back to life, he would take the 6 steps up the side of his pyramid and right on the top, his seventh and last step would be to Heaven.

Here, is an (ahem...) artistic rendition of this Step Pyramid. Haha... please don't kok kok my head. I just any how shoot one.

 

[SereneXMM]

Right after the entrance to the Step Pyramid.
So many small pillars. What are these fellows shooting?:think:

So quickly Acpical and HahaTan ran up to a high vantage point just beside the Step Pyramid. What a good angle.
Hey, Acpical and HahaTan, show your pictures from this angle leh.:bigeyes:

Siao liao lah... this shooter became like an Egyptian god. Kekeke...

 

[SereneXMM]

Just anyhow shooting with my fish eye.

An old, old, Old Kingdom Egyptian skateboard.:bsmilie:

An old, old, Old Kingdom Egyptian exhaust outlet.:sticktong

 

[limwhow]

T R A V E L O G U E


Anecdotes

Well, we have been fortunate so far up till the Step Pyramid cos we were very much the only (or one of the perhaps other groups) visiting the pyramids. In fact for the Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid, we were literally the only group there and we had the whole pyramids to ourselves an we explored them intimately, left right and centre. And for Adrian and Acpical, even inside out.
Thus, many of us did feel that the first but yet the simplest pyramid, the Red Pyramid, gave us one of the strongest and deepest impressions because of the intimacy.

Our good friend zho-pai-hang-cheng, gave this mule owner a big fat 50 Egyptian pounds (S$12) of baksheesh for taking his picture.
No wonder this model so darn happy. After that he came running to every one of us asking: "Same same, same same that man. 50 pounds. 50 pounds." and I had to do the same (bo bian leh...) and told the others to quickly shoot and run away otherwise they will all get ambushed until they all pay up 50 pounds each!
Wah... imagine, if everyone pays up, he will be S$120 richer in half an hour. I will take his job, man!

Anyway to thank him, our good Egyptian Baksheeshy fellow gave our good rich friend a ride of a lifetime...

 

[vngks]

6. and here is a portrait shot of the baksheeshy model and his mule:

7. and he took me to this special peephole with more baksheesh:

 

[SK1968]

For extra-services: ND-filter, Lightmeter, ViewFinder... one will have to look for the Suunto M4 brand, not the Casio Protrek - this one must ask Dinosour. He is the gadget expert and he advised us on watches as well. Really good!

:bigeyes: got this type of function ?? :thumbsup: divinemoment, super duper value for money...buy buy buy ! :bsmilie:

 

[limwhow]

6. and here is a portrait shot of the baksheeshy model and his mule:

Lovely capture of this smiley man.
I certainly think the baksheesh is worth it, seeing the enthusiasm with which he goes about doing his job as a model.
But next time let's bargain with him down to the more usual 5 Egyptian pounds instead. Hahahaha...!

7. and he took me to this special peephole with more baksheesh:

Now, this is worth the extra baksheesh you paid, vngks!
It's nice!

 

[limwhow]

T R A V E L O G U E

Day 2: The Great Pyramids of Giza and The Sphinx

Now of course this being a pyramid day, what better way to end off the visits to the pyramids than with a big bang - right at the doorstep of Cairo~ The Great Pyramids and The Sphinx.
So far, through the day we have been remarkably fortunate because in those pyramids that we visited, we were the sole visitors there, or the most there were just another couple of other tourists. We were all counting our blessings in this aspects. Perhaps it was a low season. Or perhaps the recent Revolution has had an impact upon Egypt's tour industry such that visitor numbers have dropped drastically.

Now as we made our way to the grandest and most famous pyramid(s), our minds wandered off to how things would be here.
And we saw, again, trees after trees after trees and greenery after greenery after greenery.
My goodness, this is totally unbelievable! I thought there was no trees in Egypt!
And I was proven wrong time and again, and reminded time and again by my teammates and teased for not bringing my IR camera!
Shucks!
Here is a picture by SereneXMM showing the date trees in Egypt.

There were three famous great pyramids - one grandfather, one father and one son. Or something to the effect of that.
My mind was too stifled by the hot air that I couldn't remember what the guide was saying.
For this, our good friend Acpical's expertise would be needed. Acpical, trouble you to fill us in on this. Can?

 

[SereneXMM]

It was very hot but very dry. We arrived at the entrance of the Great Pyramids. Here all our equipment has to go through X ray machines. So troublesome. And there was many touts forcing T-shirts and handicrafts down our hands. We had to quickly walk through the entrance and up our bus again to escape them.

The entrance

While waiting for the rest to pass through the X ray security check machine, we started shooting each other.
You shoot me, I shoot you. :bsmilie:

Our tour guides took us to a vantage point to see the three pyramids.
Finally here there were more tourists. Melvin happily jumped onto the mount and we shot him.

 

[SereneXMM]

Adrian and Melvin said let's quickly board the bus because time is short, and we will take you guys down to the pyramid where the camel and the camel riders are, to give us time and good lights to shoot the pyramid as background.

So we left the tourists up there and drove down onto the road just before the pyramids.

SgTrekker has gotten the local Egyptian guides to arrange for a couple of camel riders with three rides to pose for us.
Here are my humble shots.

After taking these shots, I realise that there are clouds in Egypt! Yay! My favourite clouds! :vhappy:

 

[SereneXMM]

The other camel rider with the Ang Moh grandfather is really zee-siao! :bigeyes:

He posed in all funny position and even stood onto the camel. Buay tahan him ah! :sticktong

"Wei, what are you doing? Are you crazy? come down quickly!"

 

[SereneXMM]

I really shoot until I was blur already and I didn't have any more lingam to shoot.
But the group members are really active and they kept chasing after the camels to shoot and shoot! :thumbsup:
After the camel shot with the Great Pyramid background, the guides took us to the Sphinx. Here there was really many tourist finally liao.
Here is just a record shot from me.

 

[ClemC]

SGTrekker and I completed the circuit early and decided to enter the Red Pyramid. No cameras were allowed. A snapshot but I am the only one to have this picture! Presenting the burial chamber in the pyramid, taken by my phone.

Interesting.. Wonder when they implemented the NO CAMERA Policy ... the Burial Chamber.. Acpical - I do believe you.. hehehhehee.. (not like this whow... hehhehee)

 

[lydialee]

Serene - very nice shots you got here...:thumbsup:

The other camel rider with the Ang Moh grandfather is really zee-siao! :bigeyes:

He posed in all funny position and even stood onto the camel. Buay tahan him ah! :sticktong

"Wei, what are you doing? Are you crazy? come down quickly!"

 

[ClemC]

Serene - very nice shots you got here...:thumbsup:

Agreed with lydialee.. SereneXMM - those two shots are NICE...:thumbsup: