Our Egypt Vacation - Day 7 & 8 - Cairo

On day 7, we were back in Cairo; visiting the Cairo Museum, where the high light were the King Tutankhamun treasures and the Mummies. No camera was allowed inside the museum although there were plenty of handphone camera.

We also did a quick walk about in Coptic Cairo before visiting Al Azhar Mosque and Khan Al Khalili.















Somehow the kids knew that we'll be flying on the next day and posing with the arms out!

Our Egypt Vacation - Day 6 - Karnak & Luxor Temple

It was after mid-day that we checked out from the cruise boat. The kids were groaning when they heard about the next 2 places to be visited - more temples. They gladly stayed back in the van while we did a quick tour around the Karnak Temple.









After lunch, we visited the Luxor Temple. This time, the children agreed to walk around the temple and as usual it's all running around, finding secret door and some hip hop or is it kung fu dancing.

Our Egypt Vacation - Day 6 - Hot Air Ballon

Day 6 started very early for everybody,it was for a hot air ballon trip. We were on the 2nd flight and our departure point depended on where the 1st flight landed. The weather was good and there was enough visibility to see the far away area.

The flight took approximately 45 minutes and we flew over the city and landed closed to a housing area. We drove back to the cruise boat for a breakfast and checked out in the afternoon.

Sleepy faces watching the hot air ballon



Plenty of ballons



Lift off



View of the Valley of the Kings



Luxor city view



My promo shot



Landed shot



Wrapped up

Our Egypt Vacation - Day 5 - Dancer

On day 5, the cruise boat organized a show of Sufi dancing and belly dancing. The Sufi dancer was impressive with all those fast spinning moves.

Warming up



Some serious spinning



Super serious spinning



More serious spinning



Tourist from China with the belly dancer

Our Egypt Vacation - Day 5 - Temple of Hatshepsut

After Valley of the Kings, we visited the Temple of Hatshepshut, the most famous female pharaoh in Egypt.

This is also where the 1997 Luxor Massacre took place. The tourist industry went down after that terrible incident and now an armed security guard will always accompanied most of the tourist group tour.



It was a hot day and a shade was always welcomed.



Around this area, there were plenty of alabaster factory. We visited one factory and unless you know the stuff, you wouldn't know if the price quoted is reasonable or not.

Qayyum trying the manual grinding of the raw material



Manual carving



Work area



Finish product



Group photo

Our Egypt Vacation - Day 5 - Valley of the Kings

Day 5 was an early morning start to visit the Valley of the Kings.



No camera was allowed inside the tombs; the famous tomb of Tutankhamun has nothing interesting since all the items found in the tomb are now in Cairo Museum.



In total we visited 3 tombs, most of them have painted drawings along the corridor before reaching to the main room where the tomb was located.

There were still some excavation works going on in the area to search for more tombs.

Our Egypt Vacation - Day 4 - Esna Lock

Before reaching Luxor, the cruise has to past through the Esna Lock. This is where the boat went from high side to the lower side of the Nile river.



The water inside the gate being pumped out to the low side.



Cruise boat slowly being lowered down.



Another gate was also available for the cruise boat moving up from Luxor to Esna side where the process was reversed, boat floated up by pumping water inside the gate.

While the boat waited for their turn, it's an opportunity for some trade.



The guy will qoute some low price, threw their merchandise then increased their price and the haggling started.





For the kids, it was another day in the pool.





Sunset with birds - right combination for nature shot.