- Little brother Leo -

It's been almost 20 years since we had our last K-9. Since his retirement, Dad had always wanted a good companion that doesnt talk back, like his children. So finally he gets one. My sister adopted this cute beagle. An expensive pedigree, and he aparently comes with a birth cert, microchipped and his own doctor's apointment card & pedigree food! Isnt he cute!
Now, not everyone would keep a beagle at home. they are hunting dogs. They will always need attention and love to play. So you gotta keep pieces of cloths & other "bite-able" things away from him, or he will help you recycle them fast.

Holy day @ Wadi Natrun

It was weekend once again, and time to hit the roads, yet for another road trip. My planner Hassen decided it's high time for me to repent on my sins, hence planned a trip to some ancient Coptic monasteries, situated along the Cairo - Alexandria dessert road. It was a bright shiny morning, excellent day for a road trip!

It is common to allege that Wadi Natrun was the actual birthplace for Christian monasticism. This theory can be challenged by the theory that the Essenes of Palestine were the first Christians, and they practiced monasticism.The reason why the early Copts chose to install themselves out in the desert was more than piety. Under the Roman rule the Egyptian Christians were persecuted, especially around year 300, and many found refuge out of the cities. When Christianity became state religion in 330 Wadi Natrun was already firmly established as an important Christian centre, a place of piety.

There were at the most 50 monasteries here, most built according to the same pattern: fortresses with one or more churches inside, storerooms, a dining hall, kitchen, bakery and monks' cells. Of these only 4 have survived into modern times. We visitted 2 of them, the Deir Anba Bishoi (picture above) and the Deir As-Suryani. As usual, i'll "try" to shut-up and let the pictures do the talking!

Ancient paintings hung inside the church of St. Bishoi

An aerial view of the building

Now, a little of the inside ancient drawings in the church.

Now, no picture is good until it gets a blessing from my appearance!

Another awsome ceiling painting, inside the church.

On the way back, we decided to take a detour through the village roads, looking for the Nile. We found a narrow path through a run down village at the northern section of the Nile and followed the Nile "coastal road" back to Cairo. It was awsome, so much village view, much like the kampung's we find back home in Malaysia. We found this ferry transporting village vehicles across a narrow section of the Nile. It was an instant dejavu of "those" days while studying in Unimas, Sarawak. We had similar crossings in Kota Samarahan, same run down look and simple life! Our scenic ride back home came to an abrupt end when the weather man decided to blow the sandstorm our way!

Suez & Sinai

I've lost count on the number of road trips completed during my stay here in Egypt. As we've run out of tourist spots, these trips are becoming more exciting & interesting. May-day, we decided to hit the roads up to the Suez crossing into Sinai.

Picture of the Suez, taken from the Upper Egypt side, across the Suez is Sinai. Imagine air craft carriers cruising on this canal for the Iraq war.

FYI, Sinai is the part of Egypt that has been plagued by the terrorist bombings, the last being as recent as last week. But what the heck, as long you dont travel with a large group of humans that look white, you're pretty much safe! So we (Me, Rasha & Hassen) decided to give this part of the dessert a good look, with no concrete plans, we decided to look up a French map of sinai and found a nice remote village where we "could" get some seafood. Part of the plan was also to "sample" shisha along the way in every town !

3 travelling stooges, me, Hassen from Tunisia & Rasha from Algeria & My driver Waleed
who's taking this picture la!

Before crossing the Suez, we decided to sample the Shisha at the Suez town. Me & driver Waleed on the sampling activity, while Rasha heads to the local Cyber Cafe to send some urgent mails!! We were impressed that a small town by the Suez had at least 2 ADSL based Cyber Cafe!

There are 2 crossings on Suez. The southern crossing is a Tunnel and the nothern crossing is a bridge. We crossed into Sinai using the southern border and drove north 150KM's to the northern crossing. The following picture is taken from Sinai, note the ship that looks "docked" on the dessert...it's actually moving on the suez!

After loads of shisha and dessert driving, we finally reach the remote village where we're surprised to see this sign board. Ericsson should change it's motto to "Ericsson: Taking you places"

Finally, we found the fish shop!

More pictures of suez

Now we're on a dilemma ...where to visit next weekend? Need to look at the French Map again to look for some clues ...it's surely more reliable then the local maps you get in Egypt!