"The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms."
The highlight of this museum got to be the Mummies. It was impressive and I have never seen anything like that before. Fortunately, photography is not allowed in the Museum. I just felt that the Egyptian should stop exploring or digging, as they do not have the resources to preserve the antiques.
The irony was that the Pharaohs used all the resources in their kingdom to build and protect the tomb as well as their bodies in seclusion and secrecy. The grand tombs were supposed to be sacred and private. Yet, the Pharaohs were displayed in their rawest form in-front of us. People could just looked at them, passing casual remarks about their heights, features, sizes etc... The Pharaohs wanted seclusion in eternity, yet, they are now displayed in public for long time (as long as the Museum wasn't burnt down).
One of the marble Coffin for the Pharaohs was put outside the Museum subjected to the weather conditions. It was such as waste to see such treasure not being treasured by the Egyptians. They have too many this kinda treasures. They should stop digging and exploring.
One of the Statues outside the Museum.
The janitor in the Museum asked me to pay 1LE for the use of toilet. I told him "No!", as I paid for the museum entrance fee & there was no signboard outside the toilet requesting for 1LE. When I was walking out of the washroom, the janitor asked another tourist for 1LE, and I told the tourist not to pay him. The corruption was too sickening.
Colonial style building @ downtown Cairo
Met a local guy on the street, and then we decided to have lunch and Sheesha together.
=)
Security was stepped up after the bombing during New Year Eve outside the Coptic Church in Alexandria.
Con-man Restaurant
In the afternoon, our guide brought us to this lunch place supposedly cheap as it was serving local people. We saw no local people and the price was tourist price (5 times higher than local price). We were upset with our guide for being dishonest, and sticked to our principle and decided not to eat there.
Our local friend promised to bring us to a local nightclub and brought us to this location besides this restaurant. He told us that the owner of the nightclub and this restaurant was the same person - our impression formed immediately. Is our local friend trying to rip us off???
Anyway, we paid 50LE (US$8.60, S$11) each for "entrance" fee. So we still have no idea if we have been ripped off. And, the experience of driving from Cairo to this unknown location was quite scary, as we totally have no idea where we were - no other buildings, no taxi on the road (only trucks)... & no tourist!
Restaurant turned into Nightclub @ 11pm.
The hostesses came in with head covered just like any conservative Egyptian ladies. Once they entered, they took off their head-dress to show their coloured hairs, and outer clothings to show their body-hugging clothes. They would go around the tables and danced "sexily".There weren't any bodily contact, but they were dancing "sexily" with the local men. These hostesses could be taken out at a price.
I did not enjoy the place - everything seemed to be wrong for me - wrong music, wrong dances, wrong sizes & ages (the hostesses were abit old and rounded). But definitely, an interesting experience and I was glad to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment