(Pic) Catching the sunrise atop Jabal Musa aka Jabal Thursina aka Mount Sinai. 26th Aug, 2008.
Four days after returning from Egypt, I am still having dreams about the place. Cannot recall the specifics, but they are busy dreams. I met up with a fellow trip member on Tuesday, and we talked about our experiences with much enthusiasm, and lamented how our family members and co-workers just don’t get it. Best not to divulge too much information lest we’d in the end lose the feel of the whole trip; hence, the minimal reporting in this post.
In summary, the trip was a blast. It exceeded many of my expectations, which I smartly set very low. Take the airline, Egypt Air, for example. Before the trip, I never knew it exists. Even though it’s not of Emirates standard, it’s not too bad an airline. The food and the pilots were excellent, the latter evidenced during turbulence and landing. The only peculiar thing is that the people who served our food are mainly males who could be pilots on rotation judging from their outfit.
Secondly, the lodging- I was expecting a hostel with rows of bunk beds. Instead we got a fairly new apartment with 8 rooms, clean bathrooms with working washing machine and microwave oven plus baroque furniture to boot. And a decent cafetaria downstairs serving Malaysian food.
Thirdly, the Al Azhar Qiraat students who acted as our tour guides are excellent youths. The visit to their college and students' centre in Shoubra humbled me and proved that simple lifestyle can produce positive characters. We had a very memorable session with one of their sheikhs , and learnt first hand how fierce they are. No wonder the students get their lessons fast.
Finally, as mentioned in Al Baqarah 61, ….(Moses said to his people) Go to Town (Egypt), and you shall find what you want!”. True enough, many things that I wished for, I got!
Some interesting tid-bits :
1. They are more 26 million people in Cairo alone! That’s the whole of Malaysia in one city.
2. The Egyptians pronounce the letter “J” as “G”. eg. Gamal instead of Jamal.
3. They omit the letter kaf in many words, eg 'ahwa' instead of 'kahwa'.
4. The Egyptians revere the Nile River so much that they don’t bother to bring back zamzam water from Mekah.
5. Egypt is still in the state of Emergency. In certain areas, like al-Fayyoum, the police will escort every visitor, and by 5 pm, all visitors’d have to leave the area.
Notes to my roommate: Sal, I expect improvements in a particular chaunteuse’s tudung sense and styling soon, thanks for the magnesium tip and Baraka is not the best habatussauda capsule, it's the ONLY brand available.
Note to self: I want and need a new camera!
2 comments:
salam sis! wonder how long ihaven't visited this blog. my Q: what is 'kahwa'? and why do u need a new camera? anybody book your old ones? :)
kahwa is coffe in arabic. somebody commented in surprise that the camera screen is so small indicating it is outdated. No one has "booked" it but I plan to give it to my oldest nephew.
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