From the lands of the pharaohs to the land of the sacred cows

Has been traveling a fair bit over the past 2 weeks, initially taking an holiday to Egypt with my loved ones, followed by a work trip to Gurgaon, off Delhi in India. Only managed to wash my laundry after leaving work slightly earlier to catch the laundromat before it closes, else might have to end up wearing stinky clothes to office soon.

Trip to Egypt has been really amazing in terms of getting close to the amazing history of the Egyptians and getting to comprehend the sheer scale and size of all the monuments built thousands of years back. My history of the country has never been better in my life although we did have the feeling of too much sand, tombs and temples after 1 week. The friendliness of the people in the cities of Luxor and Aswan really left a deep impression on me, and is genuinely touched by how they are living happily even though life is so tough for them (a white collar worker earns EGP250/mth, £1 is about EGP9.50!). Touting in the country probably takes the meaning of hassling to a new level, but it is just mainly because their lives rely so much on tourism. Never have I see so many donkeys, horses and cows still used as the primary transport in the little towns. It's just so surreal. Have started to upload some of the photos, but has been very slow so far...

India was pretty much a brand new experience altogether. Our office was situated slightly off the Delhi, in Gurgaon, but was close enough to visit after work. Someone told me that there are more cars in Delhi than the sum of all the cars in the rest of India! This basically translate to crazy journey times to the city even though it is barely about 70km away. As one would expect, the city is in a crazy mode of building, with roadworks, new apartments, buildings and shopping complexes sprouting up everywhere. This also meant that the pollution is probably as bad as what I experienced in Cairo. A few of us had the opportunity to visit the city of Agra during the weekend, and witness the magnificent Taj Mahal in its grandest glory. The 20hr trip really sap our energies completely and most of us were glad to be flying back the next day. Even though the city is in a rush to get itself ready for the 2010 Commonwealth games, it still amazed me to see cows in the middle of the road(I finally understood the reason and history behind the sacred cows from my guide), and hogs walking in front of our hotel!


For once, I really looked forward to having sandwiches for lunch again in a loooong time...