Cairo of Egypt (arabic: Qaherah of Misr) was a splendid and challenging holiday destination for us. Back in the year 2010 when we were still undergraduates, we took a ten days holiday package from Kembara Sufi and paid about £315 per person, inclusive of everything except meals and flight tickets. We booked our flights through STA Travel.
We were greeted by a very nice chap, Mr. Ariffin at the airport and his colleague. The night drive experience was indeed a surprised one - there are literally no lanes - or even if there is one, the drivers are not bothered to drive within their respective lanes. Crazy!
Our trip was divided into three parts - Qaherah, Iskandariah (or Alexandria) and Sinai peninsular. Kembara Sufi does have another different package which covers the southern part of Egypt - Aswan and Luxor. Due to the heat and extreme climate in June, we decided to not proceed with Aswan and Luxor.
The City of Cairo is the most populated city in Africa and the city associates itself with ancient Egypt - the Great Sphinx and Great Pyramid residing in Giza is adjacent to Cairo. The City of Cairo is blessed with River Nile, flowing through the city. The Egyptian has the ability to turn dry inhabitable dessert into a green park at the flick of their fingers. Nahhh basically with Allah's will ;-) We recommend you to spend time in Al-Azhar Park.
Good food is easy to get and it is cheap. The thing that we love most about Egypt is its very affordable fresh fruit juice - guava, mango, tamarind, sugar cane. You can quench your thirst with just LE1 (one Egyptian pound equivalent approximately one eight of a British Pound) per glass.
Our trip was in June so it was very.... very hot. Don't be surprised if you could finish five glasses of juice in one go. Plus, our driver never switched the air-cond on for some unknown reason. While in Cairo, we always brought at least two 1.5 liter bottled water with us during tour, to get us through the day.
There are many masjid (mosque) in Cairo and one of the famous masjid is Masjid Sultan Hassan - this is where the four scholars of four mazhab conducted their classes simultaneously in one place. Here, we met one of the bilals (person who calls for prayer) which we failed to remember his name. Erk..
There are countless tombs of many famous Islamic scholars. One that we can recall for now is the tomb of (Makam) Imam As Shafie. We had the chance to visit his mosque and his tomb.
Khan Khalili is the largest bazaar in Cairo and its history dates back 650 years ago. We went to see the busy bazaar after visiting Masjid Saidina Hussain nearby. The masjid also houses several belongings of the late Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Makam Saidina Hussain (Rasulullah s.a.w. 's grandson) is in the masjid too.
Cruising on a boat in River Nile at night enjoying the enchanting lights of the city is an option to spend your evening. But be warned! They play loud musics on the boat and you have to yell to speak to the person seating next to you. People danced to the music, literally enjoyed themselves.
For accommodation, we stayed in student villas (different villas depending on the daily tour) in Malaysian student accommodation complex. When we say villa, it is indeed furnished luxuriously. Perlis Villa is a big one - three rooms for three, large bath room, a kitchen with all the utensils and cooking ware, TV room to enjoy the World Cup 2010, dining room, two guest lounge, washing machine etc. We got a master suite to ourselves with an attached bath.
An entry on Alexandria and Sinai will be uploaded laterrrr. We need to refresh ourselves and dig out old photos for us to track our activities in both places. =)
note: Qaherah means the conqueror or the vanquish.
We were greeted by a very nice chap, Mr. Ariffin at the airport and his colleague. The night drive experience was indeed a surprised one - there are literally no lanes - or even if there is one, the drivers are not bothered to drive within their respective lanes. Crazy!
Our trip was divided into three parts - Qaherah, Iskandariah (or Alexandria) and Sinai peninsular. Kembara Sufi does have another different package which covers the southern part of Egypt - Aswan and Luxor. Due to the heat and extreme climate in June, we decided to not proceed with Aswan and Luxor.
The City of Cairo is the most populated city in Africa and the city associates itself with ancient Egypt - the Great Sphinx and Great Pyramid residing in Giza is adjacent to Cairo. The City of Cairo is blessed with River Nile, flowing through the city. The Egyptian has the ability to turn dry inhabitable dessert into a green park at the flick of their fingers. Nahhh basically with Allah's will ;-) We recommend you to spend time in Al-Azhar Park.
Good food is easy to get and it is cheap. The thing that we love most about Egypt is its very affordable fresh fruit juice - guava, mango, tamarind, sugar cane. You can quench your thirst with just LE1 (one Egyptian pound equivalent approximately one eight of a British Pound) per glass.
Our trip was in June so it was very.... very hot. Don't be surprised if you could finish five glasses of juice in one go. Plus, our driver never switched the air-cond on for some unknown reason. While in Cairo, we always brought at least two 1.5 liter bottled water with us during tour, to get us through the day.
There are many masjid (mosque) in Cairo and one of the famous masjid is Masjid Sultan Hassan - this is where the four scholars of four mazhab conducted their classes simultaneously in one place. Here, we met one of the bilals (person who calls for prayer) which we failed to remember his name. Erk..
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| This bilal really has a ver melodious voice. And he loves Malaysians =) |
Cairo is also where the Sultan Salahuddin Fortress situated. This fortress is one of his many fortresses that he built in Egypt during his campaign to unite the Muslim world. He was one of the great rulers and conquerors of the Muslim world. If you don't know who he is, you might want to see the movie entitled Kingdom of Heaven.
Visiting the pyramid and the Sphinx is a must, to see the greatness of this ancient version of KLCC. So we went there, took several pictures and never had the extra money to pay for the fee to go inside it. he he. From that moment, we strongly believed that the pyramid and Sphinx were built by aliens. Refer to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Alien vs Predator movies. Haha!
There are countless tombs of many famous Islamic scholars. One that we can recall for now is the tomb of (Makam) Imam As Shafie. We had the chance to visit his mosque and his tomb.
Khan Khalili is the largest bazaar in Cairo and its history dates back 650 years ago. We went to see the busy bazaar after visiting Masjid Saidina Hussain nearby. The masjid also houses several belongings of the late Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Makam Saidina Hussain (Rasulullah s.a.w. 's grandson) is in the masjid too.
Cruising on a boat in River Nile at night enjoying the enchanting lights of the city is an option to spend your evening. But be warned! They play loud musics on the boat and you have to yell to speak to the person seating next to you. People danced to the music, literally enjoyed themselves.
For accommodation, we stayed in student villas (different villas depending on the daily tour) in Malaysian student accommodation complex. When we say villa, it is indeed furnished luxuriously. Perlis Villa is a big one - three rooms for three, large bath room, a kitchen with all the utensils and cooking ware, TV room to enjoy the World Cup 2010, dining room, two guest lounge, washing machine etc. We got a master suite to ourselves with an attached bath.
An entry on Alexandria and Sinai will be uploaded laterrrr. We need to refresh ourselves and dig out old photos for us to track our activities in both places. =)
note: Qaherah means the conqueror or the vanquish.
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