Valai kappu, Seemantham & Pumsuvanam / Iyer Baby Shower

EGYPT

No more fluffy pillows, no more pure white towels and no more choices of cuisines. No more 3000 year history and no more karkade!

We are back home with a huge load of unwashed clothes and some gifts and loads of memories.

WE decided to go to Egypt for the christmas holidays and applied for the visa about a month and a half in advance. Not taking the kids along helped us in getting the visa and on 24^th midnight we left home. We flew from Nedumbassery to Dubai and boy, was I excited! It was my first flight trip after 3 years!!

The idea behind this trip had been planted in 1997 when we were going to scrap our UAE resident visa ; but it never worked out until now. A small tiff in October sealed Harish’s fate of parting with some money for the sake of OUR marriage! Afterall we have been married for 10 years +. A decade of marriage was making a decayed marriage!

At Dubai I bought a calling card and used up half the amount calling up my many friends and relatives in Dubai who help make up the hugely expatriate population. I particularly enjoyed calling up my nemesis (at school) and later my good friend who did not know about my little trip. He had a hard time recognising my voice and when he did he was all apologetic!!

We spent the 6 hours in Dubai alternatively sleeping on each others lap and listening to music. See the holiday has already started working!

My nemesis-friend surprised me at the Emirates Gate number 23. He almost made me cry. He sent us some gifts thru his cousin who works inside the airport. A perfume for me and some chocolates for my kids. I was so proud when I looked at my husband who has only 1 real friend.

CAIRO.

Reached there in the evening and thanks to the internet was aware that it was around 2°C in the night and 16 - 18°C during the day; but I DO NOT KNOW 2°C. The coldest I have been through is at some South Indian hillstation! The cold HIT me.

Another thing which stormed my senses were the dresses and smells. Beautiful people wearing lovely clothes. Even the driver was in a suit!

The next day I was dressed like a true blue tourist out to have a good time (ie) non-practical clothes.

Pyramids and Sphynx left us speechless. How could people living 3000 years ago build something so humongous , with no machines to help them – just man-power? Imagine lifting rocks weighing 1.5 tonnes to 4 tonnes. We entered the second pyramid and went down a small shaft to see what all the hulla-bulla of building these huge pyramids was all about. We saw the place where the Pharoah was layed to rest – a 6 foot crypt!

The camel ride on “Michael Jackson” was very romantic.

One interesting incident quite rampant in Egypt is ‘baksheesh’. If one has to enter a toilet , a lady/ man (depending on your gender) would offer you a tissue before you enter the vestibule and on exiting the same would ask you for money. Infact, one person whistled for Harish in the toilet and expected to be paid! THIS is very irritating and gets on the nerves.

The guides always take us to shops they choose. And the shop keepeers always offer the ‘best’ quality at the ‘cheapest’ possible price. Because Harish is very good at bargaining, we got seemingly good deals everywhere. Always BARGAIN in Egypt! (Start at around 25% of the quoted price)

We went to the Egyptian Museum and saw so many artifacts. I remember the Tutukamen’s tomb remains. The poor guy has a pure gold mask weighing just 11 kgs! Did you know in Ancient Egypt, it was acceptable if a brother and sister (Isis and her husband) or father and daughter (Ramses II) get married?

By evening I was very tired and just thinking of going on the cruise ship for dinner made me want to cry. But I went through it and watched some Japanese and my husband dance with a beautiful belly dancer whose skin was as good at close quarters as all those models in the airbrushed pics! The tanoura* man was really awe inspiring. One Japnese guy who tried to imitate him was looking sick after just ½ a minute. *Have uploaded a video of the same at picassa site.

The next day we slept late and went to a much-hyped place – Pharoanic Village. The Jamaican lady described the place best – “this is like Mickey Mouse”. Go there just to see the Naseer , Mummification and Islamic Museums. Spend about 1 – 2 hours there. Basically a total waste of $45.

At night we took the train to Aswan and at the Cairo railway station we met a family from Cochin. I was very happy to speak Malayalam. The train was almost like ours but with only 2 tiers in each coupe. The TTE checks the tickets, serves the meal and makes the bed. But like Indian trains we reached late!

At Aswan we were staying on a cruise liner – L’aube Du Nile.

Egyptian premier of the 50’s , Nasseer, has built a multi purpose dam here with Russian collaboration basically to prevent floodings. A huge dam with a huge lake having lots of crocodiles. The people here look more like Africans than the people of Lower Nile area (ie North Egypt).*

*The Nile flows from south of Egypt to north. So Aswan in the south is part of the upper Egypt and Cairo in the north is lower Egypt. The pharoahs had 2 crowns each representing either the North or South – a red and a white crown. Lotus was the flower of lower Egypt and Papyrus of North. Therefore a pharoah would wear a dual crown with both flowers in the hands to represent unification of Egypt under his reign.

Next we went on a boat ride to the Philae temple. Stunning. This temple is the built at the place where Isis supposedly found the last chopped and dispersed part of her brother-husband. An interesting fact : The temple has been moved stone by stone, with the help of UNESCO from its old location which got submerged when the dam was built.

We shivered and went back to the sound and light show at night. The cold wind and freezing temperature really enhanced the show. I was really surprised to see our boatman in a simple Gilaba!

We had missed dinner on our boat, so there was dinner waiting for us in our room. The exact things on each persons plate – 4 buns with different fillings, 1 banana, 1 orange, some sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, some cheese, 4 olives, a drink and some chips.

The next morning we somehow got up early and dressed in multiple layers and went to see KomOmbo temple. Here we saw 3 mummified crocodiles and the guide showed us the picture of the ancient surgical instruments and the calender used. Then he asked us to go and look/find all these. (“Go straight, turn left and on wall is scissors. I wait here, Please go.”) All the people in the group located the ‘correct’ engraving at different locations!

We had a hearty breakfast and had loads of time to kill. As the ship was moving we could not get out.

After lunch, we reached Edfu. We took a horse carriage to the Temple of Horace – the falcon headed God.*

*The ancient Egyptians depicted their Gods with different heads/ different crowns for easier identification. God of Mummification – Anubis – Jackal headed. Goddess of Justice always has a feather on her crown.

There are many pleasures in life, like drinking water when very thirsty, going to the toilet ,etc. Well, at Edfu I realised for sure that Harish loves me. I heard a real loud and clear shout from nature and could not even know if I could answer it properly. Harish gave me a lot of moral support while going to the nearest lavatory located ¼ km away and some French women who did not understand me, were kind enough to allow me in first. Thankyou Harish and you strangers, merci.

Egyptians are very sure that Harish is a local until they try talking to him in Arabic. When he does not answer, they say, “ You Indian? Amitabh Bachan?”

Similarly many people thought that we were on our honeymoon! Harish loved to see the expression on their faces when he said we have been married for 10 years and we have 2 kids. I really did not want to spoil that thought in others though.

After Edfu, we reboarded our ship and in the evening I decided I needed some warming up. So I ordered a glass of red wine and Harish ordered a non-alcoholic beer. The waiter asked us only one question after he served us each our respective drinks, ‘where you from?” I do hope I have not tarnished the image of all Indian women!!

The next day we reached Luxor. Here we had the BEST guide in the entire trip – Monty , in short. We shared the cab with a American couple and first we went to see 2 statues that used to moan till they were repaired. Then we went to the workers village. This was the place where the workers used to live and from here the supervisors used to send them to work at either the Ramses temples, or at the valley of the kings or at the valley of the Queens. Here we saw 2 tombs with coloured walls representing daily life belonging to the supervisors. (Bribery excisted 3000 years ago!) Then we went to a nearby temple later converted into a church.*

*Egyptians were pagans till they converted to Christianity and only in the 6^th century AD did they convert to Islam.

Next we went to see the temple of Ramses III. This Pharaoh had added some outer walls around the temple when he won the battle against the syrians . The temple is huge and there are many columns and open courts here too. This king went against the conventional mode and built assymetrical designs (like one side of the open court had round pillars, the other side had square) and also the paintings were that of the punishments vettted on his enemies, like castration and hand chopping. The carvings in the kitchen are beautiful.

Next we visited a basalt factory and bought a cat made of phosphorous stone. It glows in the dark.

Next - Valley of the Queens. This was built in honour of Queen Hatshepsut ( say ‘Hat cheap suit” fast to catch her name!) , the only woman ruler of Egypt. She claimed the throne by saying that she was the daughter of Amun, and to prove that, there is an engraving of her drinking milk directly from the udder of the cow goddess. Her step son , from whom she had taken the throne decided that she had to be beheaded and her body chopped to pieces as she was not worthy of being reborn.*He destroyed all her pictures and carvings too.

*Pharoahs believe in rebirth and fill their tombs with all the wordly goods which they would need in after life. According to Monty (our guide), servants were not buried. Just some statues called shupthi and ushupthi. The king was mummified with all organs removed, except his heart; as the heart was weighed against the feather of justice in heaven. The walls of all tombs are painted with pictures of the journey of the kings to his afterlife and the different obstacles he might face on his way there.

Next we went to the Valley of the Kings. The kings were very afraid of tomb robbers and wanted to hide away their mummies from prying eyes. So one wise king built a tomb here in the mountains and asked it to be kept a secret. 67 tombs have been discovered here so far. We visited 3. Some are not open, some are newly discovered, some are too deep in the mountains. But frankly it is hard to imagine the work put in by the workers to carve the tombs in the mountains. The paintings on the walls and roof are worth seeing. Some tombs were used by the Christians while escaping the Romans, therefore they have left some Crosses and other Graffiti on the walls.

After Lunch we went to see Karnak temple. Here is the world famous Oblisk. This was a simple temple but each king wanted to leave a mark on it , so the temple is now a very huge complex. As it had been buried in the sand for many years, there are many graffities left behind by old explorers/travellers (eg. “GORDON 1828”). The French are restoring the temple now, and only 2 oblisks of the original 6 now stand.

Remember the stepson and hot-chicken-soup? Well, he wanted to obliterate all things which would remind people of her, so he covered one oblisk built by her 2/3s up and carved his name on the surrounding stones.

Towards the end of the tour of Karnak temple is a huge pond. This was the place where the priest had to cleanse himself before entering the temple. Near this pond is a giant beetle (Scarpa) on a pedestal. If anyone wants their wishes granted, they have to just go round it 7 times! This beetle is the sign of goodluck.*

*Ancient Egyptians believed that Ra (sungod) journeyed from morning to evening. At night he got swallowed by Goddess Nitti and in the morning she delivers him and the beetle is said to assist her in this.

Luxor temple by night is very beautiful. This has been built in honor of Ramses II. He lived till 92 , ruled for 60 years and had 50+ wives and 250+ children. Every man’s dream! The first thing that you see from outside are two huge statues sitting at the entrance and then a huge mosque right in the middle of the temple! It seems, the temple was buried in the ground, and the christian missionaries first built a church and the mosque got built later on , on top of the church! The mosque is still functional and its entrance used to be from inside the temple, but now it has been changed. The Mosque almost stands on stilts!!

We said bye to Monty and went back damn tired to our room on the boat to pack, as we were flying to Cairo, then to India early next day.

At Cairo, we went to see the Citadel. A huge 900 year old mosque and the palace of Ibrahim Pasha. The police and army museums were a waste of time. The twin mosques near the Citadel were HUGE. The drawings on the roof of each mosque were exceptional and the stained glasses allowed the light to play games.

We went to see the Coptic Church. Egypt has about 15 million Christians. The palm under which Mother Mary supposedly rested is still there. The trail taken by the holy family is also depicted. The Jewish synagogue near the Church is not used as a place of worship after all the Jews shifted to Israel.

For lunch we had authentic Egyptian food from a local restaurant. And when I say local, I mean local. The food – koshery – was exceptional and VEGETARIAN!! It was served with tomato sauce. Tasted yum!!

Next we thought we would beat the tourist track and went to Khan-el-khalelei. Not much. Just a place where they fleece the tourists.

Our flight to Bombay was at 7.30 and we did need to take a break, so we checked in early and kept quiet.

India – Aamchi Mumbai. I have always been there for marriages of his cousins and quite frankly don’t like the place, the crowd, the sights and the sounds. Harish decided it was time to change my opinion and thus we decided to spend new year there. The first thing I did after landing – removed my jacket and the 2 pullovers! The heat never felt so good!!

The hotel where we stayed, the food that we ate and the sleep that we had…..excellent. It was the well-needed rest after the hectic holiday!

It was the first time I danced my way into the new year. Frankly, I am not very impressed, but I don’t know if I would like it if I did it more. But I am really impressed at the way the ladies carry themselves. If my eyes popped out looking at the dresses, imagine Harish’s plight!!

We were back in Cochin before we knew it and Egypt seemed a dream. My parents dropped my kids back and the girls seemed to look different somehow! Opening the suitcases to take out the gifts, seeing the smiles on their faces upon seeing the stupid head-dress and the chocolates we bought for them was great.

The next day school started and I was back to my routine. The only thing reminding me of the holiday was the rustiness when I cooked and the lovely photos! Memories to cherish forever!!