Last few hours in Cairo

It is a weird feeling to be leaving home (Egypt) to head back home (Canada). It's something that I cannot explain. With those few words, I leave you with this beautiful shot of the majestic Nile River.

Visit Egypt ... you'll have the trip of a life time!!

Question to the newly "elected" egyptian president

If you are as fearless as you claim, if you're a just ruler as you claim, if you think the Egyptian people love you, why on earth are you surrounded by at least 9 body guards while you are praying in public!!??

The photo I saw today in the news paper really pissed me off. All what I see is a president who is fearful, and scared for his life. I see a puppet controlled by the Muslim brotherhood. During my month stay in Egypt, I tried go follow the news as much as I can. I have never seen a political party make so many mistakes and blunders in such a short period of time!! They started their campaign with a lie "mashrou3 el nahda". In my view, this is a crime. They lied to the most vulnerable group of the Egyptian populous. They lied to the poor and oppressed and gave them hope, only to yank that hope once they're in power. All what I see is a new political party using the same methods of the old regime to try and stay in power. Haven't they learned anything from the very recent history? Are they really that stupid and idiotic? I don't see them staying in power for long. Their political stupidity and arrogance will be their demise. And what a fall that will be for them.

Egypt is a rough diomand ....

It just needs some polishing to show its true beauty!!!

I left Egypt June 2001, and I've never been back to visit since. 11 years have passed, and here I am returning to Egypt spending my month vacation. And here is the month flying by, and I'm heading back to Canada in a couple of days. Mixed feelings fill my heart and mind. I don't want to leave, but I can't wait to go back to Canada. I'm sure the second I land in Toronto, I'll be longing to coming back to Egypt.

Egypt is beautiful! I fell in love with Cairo, its history, its people (well, some of the people). I can see a lot of potential in the country, and I have no doubt that this country will regain its greatness. I will post later about my opinion of the political situation in Egypt.

Here are some photos I took at El Mo'ez Street. It's a historic street that also connects to Khan el Khalili (one of the most famous markets). Enjoy the photos, and remember that you'll enjoy them more if you visit this amazing country.

 Sultan El Ghouri's mosque

 El Ghouri's complex

 At El Mo'ez Street with my sister

 I'm particularly fond of this shot

 Sitting inside El Sehemi's house. It's a historic house in El Mo'ez Street

The Pyramids of Giza

A trip to Egypt cannot be complete without a visit to the Great Pyramids of Giza. Being born and raise in Egypt, I never really had a god appreciation for the pyramids. They are always there. Some people see them on a daily basis. Some wake up to the view of the pyramids every day. Believe it or not, it actually gets old. It's like having a dangerous or risky job, after a while, the dangers just become routine.

My appreciation to the ancient egyptian history grew while living in Canada. I felt like a tourist while visiting the pyramids! I practically was one, and people approached me as a tourist, talking to me in english, french, german, etc. The mystifying thing is, some of those vendors can't read nor write (I asked one of them), but still, they can somehow function in several different languages (more or less). They know enough to make a sale.

Now, the photography bit. All photos were edited after my shoot. I also played around with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos. Basically, you take several shots of the same subject at different exposures, and then you combine them using an HDR software (I'm using Photomatix, trial version). The results can be amazing. The photos don't look realistic (which is okay), since the human eye cannot perceive such a wide range of exposures.

  

So, without further ado, here are some of the shots I took during my visit. The photos don't do them justice. 

Khafre's Pyramid. This is the second lagerst pyramid

Khufu's Pyramid. The first and largest great pyramid

Me at Khafre's pyramid!!

The Sphinx and in the background, Khafre's pyramid to the right, and Mankare's pyramid (the smallest one) to the left

The Sphinx with Khufu's pyramid

Khufu's pyramid. Photographs don't do it justice. It's majestic !!

Khafre's pyramid

HDR shot of the Sphinx and Khufu's pyramid

HDR shot of Khafre's pyramid. You can also see Mankare's pyramid to the left

#Egypt #Giza #Pyramids #The Great Pyramids #Ancient Egypt #Pharos #Ancient Monuments #Pyramids of Giza

My Trip to Egypt

It was June 1st, 2001, the day I said goodbye to Egypt and set sail (well, got on a plane) to Canada. As I left, it never crossed my mind that I won't be back for another 11 years. It was strange getting a culture shock going back to one's homeland, but that's exactly what happened. After all, I did spend the crucial years, where you develop your personality, in Canada.

The trip so far is amazing. I've fell in love with Cairo. The city never sleeps and is full of life. If you can get over the crazy driving, you'll easily fall in love with it. The city is full of historic buildings. You literally don't want to blink so you don't miss anything. 

In my next few posts, I'll talk about some of those historic sites. Hope you enjoy them.

Cheers,

O. 

One year later

It has been more than a year since my last post!! I'm not the most avid blogger, far from it. But, I never expected to go more than one year without contributing to my blog. I blame facebook for that.
Also, it's been a pretty turbulent period lately, but things are finally settling down and everything is falling into place. For the very few that check out this blog, I will keep on posting.

Cheers,

O.

Geocaching

Geocaching is pretty much High Tech Treasure hunting. It all started when a software engineer hid a "cache" in the woods and put the GPS coordinates up in the year 2000. This occurred, naturally, after the U.S unscrambled satellite signals allowing the general public to use GPS systems.
Right now, there is about 1 million caches hidden all over the world. Non geocachers are known as Muggles in the geocaching world.
Here is a link for the main website for geocaching. It has all the info to get you started;

www.geocaching.com

So, today I went on a geocaching hunt. I only found one, but the photos turned out okay which substitutes for the fact that my geocache hunt wasn't as successful as I expected. Enjoy the photos :) all feed back is welcome. Also, which shot of the MINI do you like best ?