Balle Balle babes in Egypt

landed in Egypt. In some ways the place was quite familiar – surprisingly like India.Yes the language is different, people dress differently but you feel more at home in Egypt than in many other places. People are amazingly friendly and have a soft spot for Indians. Main reason being – Mitab Bashaan (Google Amitabh Bachan). Bollywood is BIG there, and the average man on the streets has seen most hit and flop movies of the 60's & 70's including some you didn’t even know existed. And they adore it. You walk 2 meters and someone shouts – Indiaaa. You turn,smile and walk away but they shout Mitab bachan,Mard,Coolie,Amar Akbar Antony and of course El Shola…
Saw The Pyramids. It can seem anti climactic at first but then it hits you and you can't look at them as just another monument. Did you know that the only image we have today of the men who built such massive structures to ensure immortality is a 4-inch statue.
We went to Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel and Alexandria. Geographically speaking covered the country from the north to the south. We rode in a caleche.
In Aswan, we went on a felucca – which is an Egyptian sail boat. Saw the sunset while floating on the Nile...Upstream was no wind but downstream we had a measly wind. The movement was not enough to satisfy our felucca captain but his two Indian savari were very very happy.
Luxor and Aswan have amazing monuments and the temples are mind blowing. When you think that they built such massive structures 5000 years ago your Burj Khalifas don’t look very amazing. By the time we reached Alexandria we had Pharoahnic Fatigue – our minds refused to take anything more so Alexandria was the perfect break.
On a different note entirely, did you know that 6000 years ago Egyptians used to carry their eyeliners in small bottles like your LOreal/Revlon bottles of today. In fact they were more practical and had figured that a bottle with 2 compartments is more sensible – so you could carry eyeliners of two colours.
In Luxor - Valley of the Kings and The Queens – that’s were they buried all the Pharaohs and Queens and their Princes. It was OK – walking inside a tomb and going through the corridors. Somehow it all feels very sanitized with tubelights and glass separators but even though all the modern stuff which destroys the whole effect of the Tombs something lingers.
PS: Egyptian men are natural flirts. Ahh Marrreeeea. Beautiful name……..
PPS: A Caleche is a ghoda gaadi. As is obvious we played the tourist to the hilt.