• 1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Mercy Seat
• John Lennon – Imagine
• 10cc – I’m not in love
• U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday
• David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
• Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers
• Bob Marley – Redemption Song
• Rufus Wainwright – Hallelujah
• Muse – Knights of Cydonia
• XTC – Dear God
• (last song reluctantly culled) The Pixies – Monkey Gone To Heaven

I’m sure they’ll all be different in a week. I just want the tickets to Reading. Some happy but fuzzy memories of Reading 2003 with the Darkness, Blur and Metallica, all of whom just missed out on being in the list above. I’m sure they’ll be gutted.

• Abu Simbel/Lake Nasser
• A 3 dy, 2 night Felucca trip north from Aswan towards Luxor
• Seeing the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens on the West bank at Luxor
• Seeing Karnak on the East Bank at Luxor

and then I’ll be getting another train up her to Cairo where I’ll be off to see some of the things I missed this week and to go back to the Museum. I don’t know what sort of internet access I’ll have while I’m away but I should be twittering away happily.

The light show however when it started was a little more impressive.

Pyramid Light Show Crowd

A pretty tough environment for photography as the lights changed pretty quickly and also the plethora of media with very bright camera lights filming the crowd to show people watching the light show before they turned the lights off for Earth Hour. My guess is that total power consumption for the evening was probably up, but that the symbolic gesture got out there.

Tri Colour Pyramids

The moon sitting directly over Khafre’s Pyramid added to the spectacle.

Sphinx Khafre Pyramid Moon

There was also a bit of story-telling with green light around the place.

Lights on Temple Khafre Pyramid and Moon

More lit pyramids

Two Pyramids Temple and Moon

And finally, this is what it looked like as we were being herded out before the lights went off for Earth Hour.

Lit Pyramids Before Earth Hour

Nothing to do after this but find and wake up the driver and doze off while he drove me back to the hotel.

Before that ripoff, we went to Memphis, once the capital of the Egyptian Empire, now a tatty museum where all the pieces not good enough to be in the British or Egyptian Museum are. Except for a huge reclining statue of Ramses II. That was ok.

Ramses II Statue from the feet

Ramses II chest and head

I’m being too cruel, they also had a decomposing Sphinx

Memphis 30 ton Sphinx

Where I wanted to go and where I will go before I leave is to see Sneferu‘s Bent and Red pyramids at Dahshur. But alas the driver had no means to extort money from me there so it wasn’t on the menu.

After I had run the gauntlet of the souvenir sellers at Memphis and the uninspired kebab, we made our way back to the stables at Giza. There were still a couple of hours of daylight left before the light show so I took myself to the roof of the stables where I had a very good view of the pyramid complex, ordered some tea and read my book for a couple of hours. I took a few photos from up here, but without filters everything was too washed out. Even after the sun was down it was still very bright.

Awesome Bloke nearly outshines sun and pyramids

Having stayed outside at Giza, I was keen to crawl around inside the odd pyramid, and Saqqara offered a great chance to do this. I started off being accosted by an “Egyptologist” who wanted to show me around inside a couple of tombs. I took him up on his offer as he seemed quite knowledgable, unlike my horse guide at Giza who told me that the Great Pyramid was 500 metres tall.

So we wandered off and round a corner to this locked mastaba. A very desert looking guy shuffled up, produced a key and let us in. Turns out this was the tomb of twin noblemen, who’s high status was ensured because they were the King’s manicurists, as well as scribes and some other stuff, but the drawings and hieroglyphics on the wall were dominated by hands with neatly trimmed fingernails.

They must have gotten on ok as they were buried next to each other. You’re not meant to take photos but I grabbed a couple anyway since I knew I’d be paying for it in tips anyway.

Egyptian Nobles Tomb Painting

The guide was well informed and happy to give me time to look at stuff so I was happy wandering around. He took me to another tomb which had a bunch of statues carved in it, some unfinished which was good as it showed you exactly how they made them.

After this it was back outside into the blazing sun and a look at Zoser’s Step Pyramid, the first pyramid known to have been built nearly 5000 years ago. It started as a Mastaba (rectangular tomb building, but Imhotep the architect just went crazy with a second storey. Once the king saw it he said, I like where you’re going with this, how about we strengthen the base and put anothger 4 levels on. The result:

Zosers Step Pyramid

And this guy turned up again

Awesome Bloke in front of Zosers Step Pyramid

Next to the step pyramid is a remarkably well preserved temple, although many pieces have been removed to the Egyptian Museum where I saw them later. Some columns from the temple can be seen here

Columns in Step Pyramid Temple

Once I finished the Step Pyramid complex, and to my driver’s great annoyance (becase I woke him up for 500 metre drive, I finished off the trip to Saqqara with a visit to Ti’s Mastaba, another interesting tomb. Nothing to see at the surface and fairly poorly lit inside. It was however a very interesting tomb with lots of hieroglyphics and wall paintings. A statue of Ti inside a niche had been saved from the museum people and is below:

Ti Statue in Mastaba

From there it was off to Memphis which I will cover in my next post.

Awesome Bloke in front of Sphinx

This post occurs directly after the last pyramid shot but that post was getting long and I was getting sloppy since I’d had 5 cans of Heineken from the off-license I found just down the road. Yesterday’s exploration was good and I have much better bearings for where I am.

Anyway, back to my good friend Hozza. I don’t have a lot of photos because I don’t really like other tourists in my photos and the Sphinx is somewhat popular. And as you can see above, that great looking bloke keeps turning up in front of the camera. Anyway, here’s the Sphinx in front of a Pyramid.

Sphinx in front of Cheops Pyramid

And here he is again from behind his shoulder

Sphinx side with legs

In general he looks a lot more fragile than the pyramids and I reckon had he not been buried for most of the intervening centuries he’d probably be gone. Still, n impressive sight, and worth the very annoying hassle to get anywhere near it.

I want what he’s having! Egypt hasn’t quite grabbed me like that yet, though I’ve only been here a few days so maybe it creeps up on you. Anyway boys and girls, I’ve finally made it to the pyramid post.

Against my better judgement, and it seems the advice of the Rough Guide, I booked a tour through the Mayfair Hotel. As the Rough Guide says (paraphrased): Great place to stay, don’t book a tour there. In my defence, I’d just landed and had just been driven through Cairo traffic for nearly two hours.

And anyway, it wasn’t quite as dire as I was dreading so no harm done really. Up early to head off at about 8am, I arrived in the foyer to find my driver asleep, a state he was in for most of the remainder of the day.

He woke up long enough to rive me down to Giza. We hadn’t gone far when I got my first glimpse of pyramids in the distance. When we got a bit closer I stopped the driver so I could take this shot:

Giza Pyramids from road

Then the driver took me to some stables near the pyrmiofds here the hard sell was put on for a camel or horse trip. I started with a camel…

Awesome Bloke on Camel

but I wasn’t really up for all the bouncing so I switched to a horse. Go on with your wisecracks, the horse was plenty big enough to carry me. A wild stallion it was! Well she’d go a bit beyond walking pace if you kicked her real hard anyway.

Awesome Bloke on Horse in front of Khafres Pyramid

The first thing we did was ride up a hill where we could look over all the pyramids. Once I saw the view from up there I forgave both the hotel and the horse blokes for all their scheming. I wouldn’t have seen this view otherwise, and as the only person “stupid” enough that morning to be on horseback, I had it to myself as you can see.

All Nine Giza Pyramids

From there we rode down to Menkaure’s Pyramid. A note here. I’m mxing my spelling and terminology between what I heard on the day and what I found later on the net. Apologies to any Egyptologists professional and amateur for butchering your chosen field. His is the smallest of the three but it has loads of granite so it might just outlive the other two. Here’s a photo of me after a quick jog to the top:

Awesome Bloke climbing back down from Menkaures Pyramid

and here’s another one which I think shows just how solidly and accurately it is put together. The modest size of Menkaures Tomb and its longevity got me wondering whether one couldn’t try and sell pyramids to the ludicrously wealthy as a way of achieving eartly immortality.

Menkaures Pyramid

Ladies and Gentlemen, the large pyramid in the foreground with the round ball at the apex is the PoshnBecks Pyramid, built here on the outskirts of Las Vegas in the early 21st century…

Menkaures Pyramid from Khafres Pyramid

Menkaure’s Pyramid was probably my favourite, probably due to the lack of attention by other tourists. But, bigger is better they say, so off we rode to Khafre’s Pyramid, which had a few more people wandering around but was still mostly quiet. I climbed up a few steps and took this shot up the East face:

Looking up the East Face of Khafres Pyramid

Limestone Hood of Khafres Pyramid

It’s really hard to get a sense of scale without being there. For those of you in Adelaide, Khufu’s pyramid is 12 metres taller than Westpac House (the old State Bank Building for Luddites like me). The next picture is of some buses in front of Khafre’s Pyramid, which at 144m is only 8 metres taller.

Buses in front of Khafres Pyramid

And finally you get to the big one.. It rises at a gentler angle so despite only being a few metres taller, it’s significantly bigger than Khafre’s

Cheops Pyramid and box and bus

There’s a boat in that box by the way. The big one also has loads of minor tombs and stuff around that are worth a look. Unfortunately, they’re not much good for photos as they are full of people. So this is the last Giza pyramid photo.

Columns in front of Cheops Pyramid

Still to come, the Sphinx, Memphis, the Light ansd Soundd show and the Egyptian Museum.

Most of them were terrible, a few were ok./ They need better framing which I can’t be bothered doing. Here they are:

UPS Jumbo

Emirates Jet

Big Russian Plane

Burj Dubai from highway overpass - what was I thinkng!

Strictly speaking, this next photo is first chronologically and introduces you to the game of “Is that the Burj or a smudge” that you can play with the first few photos. This was about 30 minutes in as I was crossing the creek. The

Burj Dubai from Al Maktoum Bridge

Missing from the photographic record between the photo above and the next one is an hour of me traipsing up a hill to an overpass, trying to see which is the correct path to take then returning down to an intersection, walking 500 metres and repeating. During this stage I was cursing the cartographers at Lonely Planet, the road builders of Dubai and the weather forecasters who had predicted a mild day of 30 rather than the 37 which a cheerful sign on the freeway informed me I was walking through.

Burj Dubai from Sheikh Zayeed Road

At this point I had my bearings and all I had to do was walk down Sheikh Zayeed Road until the Burj got real big then turn left.

Burj Dubai from Sheikh Zayeed Road again

Burj Dubai from Sheikh Zayeed Road one more time

Since I was last here, a number of new buildings have gione up, one of which is the new Telecom building, complete with golf ball on top to match the older one in Deira.

Dubai Etisalat Golf Ball Building

Sheikh Zayeed Road is something special. Apart from being very pedestrian-unfriendly, it is very good at making you feel small. Currently about 20 buildings in the 300-400 metre range with many more under construction. Again, there were no dead sites here, everything was full steam ahead. First, the Emirates Towers

Emirates Towers

Emirates Towers with Palm Tree

And more towers:

Sheikh Zayeed Road Towers with Burj Dubai in background

Sheikh Zayeed Road Towers

The Rose Rotana is the world’s tallest building to be used exclusively as a hotel, overtaking the Burj Al Arab and the spooky Ryugyong Hotel

Rose Rotana Hotel and more SZ Towers

Rose Rotana Hotel

And yet more towers, getting quite close to the Burj now…

More SZ Towers with Burj Dubai in background

Dusit Dubai with Burj Dubai in background

I’d walked myself into a corner at this point. The Burj was tantalisingly close, but a nest of overpasses stood between myself and Dubai Mall from which I could gain access. I poked and prodded at the roads but made no headway. I decided at this point to award myself the achievment of walking to the Burj and hopped into the nearest cab. 15 minutes later I was dropped off on the other side of SZ road at Dubai Mall, a monumental edifice to consumerism sitting at the foot of the Burj..

I took a lot of photos of the Burj, none of which came out particularly well. I commend to you the skyscraper-spotters at Skyscraper City for some awesome photos/video of the Burj Dubai and fountain.

Burj Dubai from base

The mall has some serious attractions to get people in. Those that are open so far: The Aquarium

Dubai Mall Aquarium

Awesome creature in Dubai Mall Aquarium

The Waterfall

Dubai Mall Waterfall

Anyway, it’s just a mall, albeit on an enormous scale. I stayed to see the fountain testing which was awesome, even if my photos of it aren’t (watch he video on the Skyscraper city page linked above)

Dubai Fountain Lights

Dubai Fountain Lights and Water

Finally, there was a spot of hail, which seemed to be a novelty as it drew a bigger crowd than the fountain

Dubai Hail

And to top it off, a photo I’m fairly impressed with given my shaky hands and night time condiions, the Address, a residential tower across the fountain from the Burj.

The Address

And that was the day I walked to the Burj Dubai. I’ll spare you detailed photos and analysis of the next day, the day I rubbed my legs and moaned “Why?”

Anyway, Cairo comes later. First I had 3 days in Dubai. Don’t believe all the negative press you read about this place. It’s no ghost town. Every crane I saw was woreking. And it makes sense. In a world where you’re nervous about giving credit, giving it to those who do the banking for the oil producers is still a pretty safe bet. Anyway, I could go on about this for ages, but will save that for another post.

Rooftop at Sheraton Deira

On arrival at 6am and a speedy trip through immigration, I found myself with 6 hours to kill before my room would be ready, so I set out on a bit of a walking tour to kill time. The older parts of townin Deira and Bur Bubai (without the ‘j’ it’s a promontary on the Western side of Dubai Creek, with the ‘j’ it’s the tallest building in the world, you’ll get used to it).

I didn’t get my camera out so there are no serious photos of this day but I’ll sort something out on my way back through or dig up some photos of my 2007 trip. This side of town hasn’t changed much except for the massive new Emirates only terminal 3 at Dubai Airport. Which is awesome except they have no facilities for taking passport photos. More on that later. I took two photos from the hotel roof that I’ve included.

Anyway, that’s my first blog entry for the trip. Loads more including my day out at the pyramids coming shortly.

Burj Dubai from Sheraton Deira