Giza, Memphis and Saqqara Egypt

We arrived back in Cairo around 11am yesterday and got checked into Marriott Cairo Hotel and Casino around 12:30. We had a dinner cruise down the Nile River last night and spent the day catching up on emails and IM'ing with friends & family. The dinner cruise was very nice and had some good entertainment (singers - not so great, belly dancer & Egyptian dancers - great).


We had an all-day tour to Giza, Memphis, and Saqqara today. Giza is only 30 minutes away from Cairo by car and is best known for the Pyramids of Giza, situated high on the desert plateau immediately to the west of the urban district. Kim and I took a camel ride through the Sahara desert to see more of the pyramids. It was truly a once in a life time experience.

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Kim and I landed in Sharm El Sheikh late Friday night and headed straight for our hotel (Sol Sharm). We planned to dive 3 days but only dove 2 days due to very windy weather and rough seas on day 2. Instead, we looked around the "old town" before leaving for Cairo Tues morning.

Sharm, as its normally called, is a well-known port and resort town at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and is popular with divers. Its a hot spot for Russian and Italian vacationers since its close to both of those countries (only about 2 hours from some parts of Italy).

The Sinai Peninsula is a remote desert mountain range. The rocky mountains are parted from the deep-blue sea by a flat desert strip. This combination of desert and sea is an incredible sight and makes you believe you are on a different planet.

We dove at both the reefs of Tiran and Ras Mohammed which are known as two of the best diving-spots in the world. It took between 1 to 1-1/2 hours to reach them from Sharm by boat.

Ras Mohammed is the name of the southern most point of the Sinai peninsula. There, the current of the Gulf of Aqaba meets the Gulf of Suez. During the summer dive season the increase of plankton in the water results in huge amounts of fish. Unfortunately, its winter now so we didnt see the huge schools of Barracudas and Sharks but saw several Murray Eels, Blue Spotted Rays, Napoleon Fish, Lion Fish, and many others.

Cairo, Egypt

Kim and I landed in Cairo this morning around 6:30am after a 10 hour direct flight from Singapore. We were lucky to get bulkhead seats which made the flight much more enjoyable. We visited the Egyptian Museum and the Khilaly Market today.

The Museum was massive and had stuff dating back ~3000 BC. Its pretty impressive looking at statues, figures, drawings, and carvings that are ~5000 years old.

The Khilaly Market was also pretty fun. The constant "Where are you from?", "I have what your looking for", "take a quick look" gets annoying fast but everyone is pedalling the warez in hopes that you buy from them.

We didnt brave the food at the market and opted for a nice, relaxing lunch outside at the Marriott. It was 75 degrees F and dry as the desert and made for a very nice day outside.

We're currently sitting at the Cairo airport waiting for our flight to Sharm El Sheikh to go diving. We'll dive for the next 3 days then return to Cairo to visit pryamids in Giza, take a tour down the Nile, and see the rest of Cairo.

Singapore Zoo

Kim and I took a trip to the Singapore Zoo this morning since our trip to Bangkok was cancelled due to anti-govt protests at the Thailand airports. That was the 2nd time we've tried to go to Thailand this year - both trips cancelled due to protests.

Entry fee was $18 SGD and zoo tour took about 3 hours. As expected, we saw tons of animals, a water show featuring penguins and sea lions and an elephant show.

The Singapore Zoo occupies 28 hectares of land on the margins of Upper Seletar Reservior within Singapore's heavily forested central catchment area. The area is also very popular with moutain bikers.

The zoo was built in 1973 and cost $9M SGD. Its operated by Wildlife Reserves Singapore which also manages the neighbouring Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park. There are about 315 species of animal in the zoo, of which some 16% are considered threatened species.

From the beginning, Singapore Zoo followed the modern trend of displaying animals in naturalistic, 'open' exhibits. It's very nice since you can get very close to the animals (see pictures below). It also houses the largest captive colony of orangutans in the world and you can see them walking above you in several different areas in the zoo.