Egyptian museum & Bahariya Desert

Day 3 – Egyptian Museum
The lonely planet claims that you need 2 days to do the museum and we did it in 45mins! The boys said that they were completely overwhelmed and there was too much to take in, so asked to go for a long lunch instead. There was tons in the museum and it would have been very interesting had we had a guide with us. We focused our attention in the Tutankamum rooms. The mask of death was the must see item. It was amazing what these guys had in their tombs with them. It reminds me of our Taoist traditions a little. They go to the Netherlands or the underworld after they die and they bury with them things they need to help them in the after-life; including statues of servants and overseers (365 servants for everyday of the year and 36 overseers for each block of 10 days (I think)). Mathieu was of course super excited about quite a lot of the stuff as he studied it in school last yr. It was cool to see the jars in which they kept the organs and the different mummies. The mummies of the pharaohs were kept in a special area that cost another 100 EP entrance fee so we decided to give it a miss. I will probably have to come back to see it another time. The rest of the day was spent at Fafela restaurant and hanging out at the hotel........




















Day -4, 5, 6 Bahariya Oasis
Karim, the hotel owner, organized this trip for us and came along with us. The boys were of course thrilled and he was good company if not for the smoking and the incessant Egyptian music. He claimed to have given us a special rate at 300USD but we found the same at a travel agency down the road and this was before any bargaining and with private car transfers instead of the pubic bus. Knowing that it wasn’t the best deal, the boys still wanted to go with Karim as they felt that he was a friend. I guess service is still more important than price.

Anyway, the 5hr bus trip to the oasis was uneventful except for Stephan having the runs and us having to stop the coach numerous times.

We stayed at Bahir Sahara Camp the 1st day. It was charmingly rustic and we would have liked to have stayed a few more days if not for the gazillion flies and the primitive bathroom. The flies came out in swarms and literally covered the food. The boys of course could not eat and Nic was only too clear about how disgusting flies where and how they spat out poison on our food so that it would make the food ingestible for them (and this would cause food poisoning).








Boys making targets for target practice at the Oasis














The temperature is so hot that it is difficult to do much. We still had an eventful afternoon climbing sand mountains, swimming in hot springs (Only Mat got in the water. The rest of us where too hot and too grossed out by the mould in the cement tank to swim!), visiting the salt water lake etc…. It would have been nice to have a geologist with us to explain how all these amazing things are formed.
We saw mountains of crystal, sand corals (guess it must have been the sea before), white desert of chalk formations, black desert of volcanic deposits etc…….. It really was wonderful. I am ashamed to say that we were not very environmentally friendly as we took some stones with us when we left. (The Egyptians encouraged us to take a souvenir…. But I know, it is no excuse!)


"Kryptonite" mountain according to the boys!!
















Making sand angels (angels have not started flapping their wings in photo yet...) and drawings........ amazing what we can do!!!








I was ill the night we camped out in the white desert. I had such a bad cold that I took a flu tablet and crashed out, missing the glorious sun-set and the starry moon-lit night. I did make the sunrise though and this was spectacular. Somewhere in my drug induced sleep, I re-call the kids freaking out over the foxes that we were circling our camp-site waiting to eat our dinner scraps. The way back was rather tedious with 4 hrs in a 4x4 to get out of the desert followed by the 5 hr ride back to Cairo. This time, we did not have the luxury of the coach but had to take a micro-bus. We were packed like sardines and I had Stephan on my lap throughtout the trip. There was some disgusting odor in the bus that made us all want to puke and to top it off, we were stopped at the police check-point and not allowed to cross because tourist are not allowed on micro-buses. Someone paid some bachess after a good 15mins of raised voices…….. and we were allowed to leave.



Travel around Egypt is very restricted with police check-points in almost every town. We have to write a declaration that we do not require police escort to go from place to place if not, we would have to pay for the police to be with us. The worst scam is the tourist police that are supposed to be there to protect us but are in fact colluding with the tour guides and companies so that they have a cut of the pie too.







Meditation in the morning was glorious (but V V cold) Yes, finally a meal without any flies.......





Flower corals -> fossified corals........ beautiful!

Nic had his nose in his book (Eragon) ALL the time!!! I really love the fact that he loves to read but not to the point of being anti-social..........

Us in the Cold Spring (Cold = 38 degrees which was still quite disgusting, but cooler than the 45 degrees air temperature!!!)

Egypt - Day 2 Fagnoon Art school and Saqarra

Having breakfast and doing homework in the common room at the guest house

The boys woke up at 5.30am as we are still completely jet-lagged. After a simple breakfast at the hotel followed by 1 hour of homework (The 2 older boys are working on French and handwriting skills and Stephan is still trying to get his 1,2,and 3s right!) , we headed out on our little adventure. The taxis in cairo are really in a bad state; Old Peugeot 405s without air-conditioning or seat-belts!

The 1st stop was to Fagnoon Art school which is a great place for children. The boys did pottery and some sand paint art-work. We were covered in mud after that but it was super-fun. Think we will be giving away some pottery to our new friends in Cairo since there is no way I am lugging those things around Egypt.

Tired and without lunch, we decided to attack Saqarra pyramids. There is much more to see here than at the Giza pyramids. Saqarra pyramid, the 1st pyramid, was built for the pharaoh Zoser by chief architect Imhothep. It is in fact the 1st ever stone structure and was built in step form. (we keep debating whether it is 5 or 6 steps. The books say 6 but Niv counted 5!) The area around was extremely interesting. We went into a few of the tombs and actually descended into the Pyramid of Teti. The kids took quite a lot of coaxing before they agreed to go in though……. I do not know what those chickens expected to find in there!! The heliography and inscriptions on the walls were beautiful but I was too cheap skate to pay for a guide so we have no idea what was on them…….. (nah, I wasn't cheap, but the kids were being a pain and we pretty much ran through everything because they were tired and hungry.) Guess I'll have to do some post-visit reads to find out more.

The most spectacular of all the tombs was that of Mereku, son-in-law and most senior of Teti's overseers. There was even an intact statue of Mereku in one of the chambers!

Day ended with shwarmas, falafel, pizzas and sheesha downstairs. ( We have eaten in the same place 3 times in a row!!!)

Egypt - Day 1 Pyramid of Giza & Sphinx

Boys and I arrived safely in Cairo and have already spent an eventful day at the Giza pyramids. We are staying at the Bedouin hotel which is really a family run guest house with 6 rooms. We were all really apprehensive when we 1st walked down the tiny alley up those broken down stairs in that dilapidated building, but once we are upstairs, it really feels like home. The owners, staff and fellow-guests at the hotel are super cool with the kids and they are running around from room to room as if it was their home. The hotel is clean, with wifi and ensuite shower & toilet. What more do we need?

The visit to Giza was a real rip-off though. I trusted hotel owner, Karim, who said he would take us to good stables so that we could get camels & horses to visit the pyramids. The stables, animals and guide were great but we paid more than twice the going rate. I was furious at 1st but managed to put everything in perspective. It was my fault for not verifying the price before leaving and it was a great 1st lesson. Richard & Janice warned me to be careful and this was a very good reminder!

The pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx were altogether not as impressive as we had anticipated. There are a total of 9 pyramids : the largest being Kheops (aka Khufu), followed by those of his son, Khephren and his grandson, Macerinus. There are 6 smaller pyramids for the wives and sisters of Kheops and Macerinus. Kheops looks smaller than Khephren as the top of Kheops was shot-off by Napoleon Bonaparte and Khephren is situated on higher ground. The 1st layer of stones of the pyramids have all been removed already, except for the tip of Khephren. These beautiful stones from Aswan (granite, limestone and alabaster) were taken by Mohammed Ali (Turk that came to invade Egypt and was the 1st king of Egypt) who used it to build the Mohammed Ali mosque and citadel. Did you know that no one knows how the pyramids were built as the kings killed everyone that worked on the pyramids after they were completed. There are therefore 100s of thousands of dead builders near the pyramids. The Sphinx (face of a man, hair of a woman and body of a lion) was built to protect the pyramids. The original name of the Sphinx is Amon-Ra meaning sun-god as it faces the east. We all thought the Sphinx was puny, but when we were told it was chiseled out of 1 solid piece of rock, we were slightly more impressed!! Well, the sphinx is nose-less as napoleon took his nose off and brought it to France and the Brits came and carted off his beard and it is now at the British museum. Haha. Are you impressed with all this knowledge?

Club Med Bintan

There is no way I can come up with a spiritual explanation for this trip, so I am not even going to try. The extended vesak Day long weekend in Bintan was nevertheless brilliant! The boys and I were there with 3 other families: the Teongs, Wongs and Sims. This is the 1st time in 6 years we have all been away together. We used to do a couple of trips a year with the group (pre-divorce days when we were still the “Pros”): Our kids were all about the same age and we used to golf and mahjong together so the 4 couple thing was perfect.

I was a little apprehensive at 1st since I would be the only single mum on this trip and wasn’t sure how it would feel being one wheel short. The group made be feel completely at ease though and everything happened naturally. I am glad that I am now able to reach this new milestone where I can comfortably embrace single parenthood and hang-out with normal families without reservations.

There were 11 children and 7 adults on the trip and it was just amazing fun. There was group-time playing pool captains ball / volley ball; there was alone-time spent reading and working on my swim drills; there was girlie-time sipping margaritas on the beach; there was adventure-time on the swinging trapeze, kayaking and sailing…. And we were only there for 4 days believe it or not!!!
mat on the flying trapeze

The only bad thing about the trip was Nic’s little drama over a Jelly-fish bite. There were colonies of jelly-fish in the sea which brings to question : "How wise is it to actually be swimming in Jelly-fish infested waters?" Well, after much debate, we came to the conclusion that we should not live in fear. Let’s take the analogy of mosquitoes for instance. There are mosquitoes everywhere and mosquito bites are bloody itchy, they scar and worse yet, mosquitoes carry dangerous diseases like Malaria and Dengue. Does this mean that we should not go out? No, we just need to take the necessary pre-cautions and be ready to live with the consequences when something does happen. Well, the same for swimming in the sea. Jelly-fish were not going to scar is away from swimming in the sea! We can wear full-body suits (or at least swim shirts), have vinegar on hand, be prepared to pee on ourselves and eventually have a telephone number to call a doctor if the reaction gets too bad!!! Nic, BL, Tzen Wei and Sebastien were all stung and they all lived to tell the story. Nic being the drama queen that he is completely over-reacted though, He started screaming about not being able to breath and his lips hurting. I, of course, freaked out and called in the docter that was going to give him a anti-venom jab and since Nic is afraid of jabs, he refused the injection. Anyway, the super-drama meant he had to stay in and miss dinner and breakfast to have some quiet reflection time.

Nic's jelly-fish sting

The kids had a great discussion regarding punishment following this incidence. Most of the kids have experienced THE CANE, and were discussing where and how it hurt most. (Butt, hands, legs??? Over or under clothes?? ) Well, it appears that the most painful is where there is no flesh so the palm of the hands definitely works better than the butt!!! Tzen Wei’s response to all this was the classic though: “I am not afraid of the cane, my mother’s words are the most painful……” What a well-trained kid!!! I am still trying to find the best way to discipline. I hate using the cane because I do not think it actually works, and I fear that I am only venting my own anger. I feel that reflection time is important so Stephan is generally made to stand in a corner and the boys are either made to run 5km around a track or write a discussion paper about what they did wrong and how it should not happen again. I do not like to associate running with punishment so this punishment is dished out quite sparingly. I am not sure they are reflecting on the right thing on their run anyways. The discussion paper works but I fear that they are not putting enough thought into it as the quality of the work is generally very mediocre. Stephan’s time-out in the corner most definitely doesn’t work as he just plays with himself and apologizes without any real remorse. I have resorted to the cane with Stephan but this is only temporary until I can find a more appropriate solution or hopefully he becomes less naughty.

we tried checking the kids into kids club but that lasted all of 2hrs cos they were "so bored"... those little spoilt brats!!

The boys loved it so much that Stephan keeps asking to go back to Bintan (not knowing that his friends are no longer there though) and Nic & Mat want to give Egypt a miss and hang-out with the Teongs & Wongs in Bali instead. Guess we will have to organize another trip soon. Phuket for the tri (after Yen & I train.....) & diving on the Black Manta in November?

Steph with little Nicholas

BL & I

stephan & spencer @ movie night under the stars...

Hammer-head Hunt

A school of 40 hammerheads in front, another school of 70 below, 20 manta rays sweeping around during the safety stop, dolphins swimming by the boat on the ride back… Sounds amazing doesn’t it? Well that wasn’t our trip. That was what we wanted to see, what many had planned to see and what almost every other group saw, except us!!! Nevertheless, we had a much better trip than the group that went the week after and had 2 non-dive days due to bad weather. (And trust me; there is absolutely nothing to do in Lalang Layang if you don’t dive!)

I actually had a brilliant trip despite the limited sightings. I decided to join Rachel & Daniel last minute, not really prepared and not expecting anything in particular. I only found out later that divers go to Layang-Layang on a mission: To swim with schools of hammer-head sharks!! That being the case, nearly every dive was a drop to 35-40m followed by 40mins of swimming in the Big Blue till one spots the infamous hammerheads or runs-out of air!! 90% of the diving was hence nothing but blue and bubbles. In fact, we were staring so hard into nothingness that I often thought I sighted hammerheads to have them miraculously transform into flying pink elephants!!

I wasn’t the only one having hallucinations though. Chin, my endearing room-mate and newly found soul sister was on a completely different plane all together. Chin saw things that no one else saw and didn’t see any of the same things we saw…. We had feared that these were nitrogen induced delusions but were relieved to learn that our house-bimbo had in fact got her left contact lens in her right eye and vice versa!

Frog Fish

Reef Shark

Nemo

Anyway, we sighted a total of 7 hammerheads in 5 days of diving. Not quite the schools of hundreds that the group expected. That is the problem with “Expectations”. The rest of the diving wasn’t really all that bad. On our 2 non-hammerhead dives we saw in total more about 40 other sharks (white-tips, black tips and even a trasher shark or was it a shadow of one??), schools of travelleys (truly amazing), turtles, lionfish, frog fish and tons of other really beautiful stuff.

I had never done any deep blue diving prior to this. It is not all that different from other dives (despite Daniel freaking me out about safety and danger prior to the trip). There was only once when I felt a tad bit uncomfortable. We were out during very bad weather with poor visibility and the group got separated. Buddy Daniel was worried about sister Rachel and went off looking for her; signaling for me to wait. (Yes, all alone in the deep blue ocean.) After a few minutes, I lost sight of Daniel, Richard who was initially not far in front swam off after Janice and I found myself looking at nothing but blue; never-ending blue in front, bottomless blue below and nothing but blue everywhere I turned…….. The blue started closing in on me and that was freaky. The claustrophobia lasted merely seconds but the thing that was really disconcerting was loosing all sense of direction and orientation. I had no compass and no idea where we were so could not swim towards any particular direction, no ‘sausage’ (orange floatie thing that divers release so that the boat can find us when we surface) therefore I was not about to surface and find myself in the middle of a storm and choppy waters, so I stayed put and waited for Daniel to come back, and he eventually did……. Phew!!

It was pelting down with rain so badly that we couldn't even take a photo!!!

That little incident aside, Daniel was a great dive-buddy; especially when it came to yelling at me to get the hell up since I had a tendency to sink towards dangerous depths and was completely oblivious to the bippings of the dive computer. I never knew that one could yell under-water through a regulator, but Daniel could distinctly yell out my name, which he did at least 2-3 times per day!! In fact, Daniel had another interesting noise-making antic………. The Island Warrior Shark Call, which resembles a chest thump Tarzan style. The sound resonates quite far if you have a hollow enough chest.

There are many possible shark calls but evidently, none of them were very effective.
The Smacking Fish Shark Call involves removing your regulator, pursing your lips to imitate a fish breathing. Kindda ridiculous and abit of a hassle. The Fist Thump is easy to do (clench one fist and hit the base of the fist against the palm of the other hand), but I think the fish may get offended since it resembles a rather rude gesture. Anyway, my theory is that everyone was bored senseless so they were just inventing things to do!!! We even practiced under-water yoga…

You must be wondering what I am doing on a diving holiday when I was supposed to be taking a year off on a spiritual journey. Well, diving can be quite a spiritual experience; there is loads of quiet reflection time (when one is not making Shark Calls), and the long deep breaths is perfect pranayama practice!! The whole searching for hammer-heads experience is also a great lesson about contentment and not having expectations.

In the same way as Yogis are fixated with taking a dump, divers have a fascination for pee……. Peeing on one’s jelly-fish sting is quite common and not terribly exciting despite what can be excruciating pain. Real adventure is derived from peeing in one’s wet-suit. Yes, it seems that peeing in the wet-suit is quite a ritual with divers. I had previously thought that this was reserved for emergency occasions only when one cannot reach a bathroom in time, but that is not the case. Some divers actually hold their pee until they get out to sea specifically so that they can pee in their suit! The excuse for this ghastly behavior is to keep warm. The urine is supposed to circulate under the wet-suit and keep you warm. Grossness!!!

The sequel to the pee discussion is even better; The pee evacuation debate. Yes, I am puzzled, I thought we were peeing so that the pee could keep us warm, so why the elaborate process to get rid of it? Anyway, once you pee in the suit, it is not easy for the pee to get out as the wetsuit is skin-tight and it is not easy to flush out the pee. The obvious method would be to pull the wet-suit away from the body by grabbing the suit at the chest and letting water flow through the neck of the suit. This however would be too obvious. Diving etiquette allows you to pee in your wet-suit but you have to be discrete about it. So, the Island Warrior Chest thump was actually devised to allow divers to subtly place their hand to their chest to camouflage a pee-evacuation!! The Germans, have a more complicated solution which involves purging the octopus down the neck of your wet-suit and using air to evacuate the pee. Ya, those are Germans for you, they have to be all high-tech don’t they?

In addition to the pee-ing, we also get to spit in public. Cool! At the start of each dive, we get to spit into our mask and rub the spit ceremoniously around. This is supposed to stop the mask from fogging-up. And even though there are de-misting sprays and gels that do the job, many still relish in the good ol fashioned spit!! There are after all very few occasions where one can legitimately practice what would normally be considered socially unacceptable behavior.

All that being said, I think my re-initiation to diving is complete and I am itching to go again….

Dive Group : Daniel, Rachel, Chin, Richard, Janice with new faces sexy Dr Ben (Moody and plays the bass), hilarious funny "Heman", shark Mark (with 3 lawyers in the group, no wonder the sharks stayed away! those hammer-heads knew there were bigger sharks than them in the water!)

Rachel and her super-duper cool fins......

He-man herman showing us the hand signal for turtle (or was that a ray.... can't remember)