Egypt Travelogue-8: Sight seeing trips: Day 8 & 9-Sharm-el-Shiekh: Mt Sinai

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Day 8-Trek to Mt Sinai

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Our next destination was St Catherine's City. The St Catherine’s monastery situated in the foothills of Mt St Catherine and Mt Sinai were the places of interest in this region. St Catherine's monastery is one of the oldest monasteries where among others the burning bush is located. Mt Sinai also holds religious significance were Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. A trek to Mt Sinai and watching the sunrise from the summit is also supposed to be a memorable experience which was in our itinerary.

Someone from the tour agency was supposed to escort us from the resort to the bus which would go to St Catherine's. We were eagerly waiting at the resort reception with our bags. We read in various articles that it would be very cold early in the morning when we reach St Catherine's. So we packed gloves, scarves, jackets etc along with some biscuits and water bottle. The person came at 10 PM. In a flash of a second we were following him and within few minutes we boarded the bus that was waiting in the main road. The bus was already filled with tourists of different nationals. The bus journey was comfortable except for a couple of times in the midnight when we were asked to show our passports/visa to few Egyptian authorities. They were just doing their duty, so no complaints there..

We reached St Catherine's at around 2 in the morning. When we got down the bus, it was extremely chill that I covered myself with all possible things to keep warm. In case you forgot to take jackets, no worry, there were many renting out blankets.

At St Catherine's, the plan was to trek to the summit of Mt Sinai, watch sunrise, visit St Catherine's monastery and finally get into the bus. Our tour operator left us with a guide and told us to return back to the bus by 8 AM. It was pitching dark and the torch we carried came in handy. There were around 20 tourists in our group. We started our trek to Mt Sinai at around 2:30 AM following our guide.

There are two principal routes to the summit. One , the longer and shallower route the other steeper and shorter. During the ascent, we took the longer route. The climb up the cliff was a bit tiresome, but the thought that I would be seeing sunrise from the top of Mt Sinai kept me going. As morning broke, we could see a lot of people making a beeline to the summit. As Mt Sinai also holds religious importance, there were lots of elderly people walking with sticks and riding in the camel to reach the top. After some point, the path becomes so steep and narrow that the camels can no more walk. At this point, you can opt to be carried in a chair by a couple of men, of course for some Egyptian pounds.

It took around 2 1/2 hours for us to reach the summit. The view was amazing from the summit. Sun hadn't showed its face yet. We managed to sit on a rock facing east to behold the spectacular sunrise on Mt Sinai. Nature had different plans. The clouds played a spoil sport and as the time passed by, the day light broke, but no trace of sun. Now everyone waiting for the sunrise realized that the clouds had hid the sun. So we got down the rock and walked here and there (mostly following people with sophisticated cameras..They would definitely be more desperate to see the sun than us :))to at least see the sun once. How can you come back without seeing the sun (rise) at Mt Sinai. Somehow we managed to see it. There was nothing great about it, it was the usual sun. :-), but I felt happy..

After the sun drama was over, we took time to enjoy the array of huge reddish-orange granite mountains surrounding Mt Sinai. The sight was just spectacular. After 1 year and 2 months of our visit, the sight is still crystal clear in my mind.

We took the shorter, steeper route for the descent. As there were so many tourists flocked, finding the way down was not difficult. We had to just follow the people ahead of us. The descent, as with any other was easy and smooth except for few places where the steps were really huge. There were people on the way selling so many different kinds of stones, especially alabaster. We felt them to be costly, so did not buy anything. I remembered reading somewhere that alabaster is cheaper in Luxor. So we reserved buying those stuff for our Luxor visit. We had karkady in one of the shops for 5 EGP each.

The descent directly led us to St Catherine's monastery. The monastery is surrounded by a huge wall.
We entered inside, saw the burning bush, took some photos, went inside the monastery, saw some amazing paintings and came out.

We then boarded the bus and had buffet breakfast(cost included in the package) in one of the hotels on the way. I, being a strict vegetarian confined myself to eating just bread and jam. We reached the resort in the afternoon, physically tired by the trek but the whole experience was still lingering in our minds.

We just watched TV the rest of the day and went for a walk in the night to have a glimpse of the night life in Naama Bay, full of life, vigor and color.

As a side note, within few minutes of getting down the bus, we were feeling hungry, more because we got up so early. The biscuits that we carried helped us quenching our hunger. If you are also like us, its advisable to carry something light to munch on.

We stayed back at the resort the rest of the day watching TV. We were supposed to checkout the next day morning. Our bus to Cairo was only at 10 in the night.

Day 9

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We did not have any planned activity either. There was this quad runner which I wanted to give a try. But dropped the idea for no particular reason. We enquired at the reception if we can checkout later in the evening. The manager said we can, by paying 100 EGP. We accepted. We went for snorkelling. My husband read in the "rough guide" that somewhere at the end of the beach, you can find lot of lovely corals. We walked from one beach to the other in search of that "spot", but in vain. My husband did snorkelling on the way in every private beach(he could not end his quest for seeing beautiful corals and hundreds of varieties of fish), calling me occasionally if he spotted a really nice coral surrounded by a school of fish. We came back to the resort in the afternoon, packed our stuff, paid 100 EGP to the manager and checked out in the night. We took the taxi to the bus station and boarded the bus to Cairo. Our 7 days stay in the "heaven on earth" came to an end. If these 7 days were nothing but pure fun, the rest of the days in Egypt took us back in time, to the time of pharoahs and their splendid temples, which was also a fun in different way.

Egypt Travelogue-7: Sight seeing trips: Day 4, 5, 6 and 7-Sharm-el-Shiekh: Snorkelling and Scuba Diving

Sharm-el-Sheikh is at the southern most tip of Sinai peninsula where, in a few square kilometers all natural wonders come togther-sand, sea, corals, mountains. Its also one of the best places for holidaying with exotic locales, quaint resorts and fashion hot spot. The main attractions in and around Sharm are beaches, snorkelling, scuba diving, trip to Ras Mohammed, glass boat trip, early morning trek to Mt Sinai, desert driving and so on...

Day 4-Booking for scuba diving and Mt Sinai trek
While planning the trip, we had put scuba diving and trek to Mt SInai in our must do list(these were the main reasons why we left our then 1 1/2 years old kid at home) ..We have read a lot about red sea and its magnificient under water life with rich flora and fauna.. Its a diver's paradise with crystal clear water and good visibility under water.Trek to Mt SInai and watching the sun rise is also supposed to be an equally splendid experience. 

There are lot of diving centres through out Sharm..We enquired in 3 to 4 centres. Camel driving centre offered us diving in Ras Mohammad one of the best places in the world for suba diving. Generally beginners and people without any prior experience like us are not taken to Ras Mohammad.. When Camel offered us that, we readily accepted and paid the advance. We also chose our diving suit and shoes that fitted us. We had to wait one more day for the trip. 

Next we had to book for Mt Sinai trip. As our resort has been converted to a disco club, we did not get any help wrt sight seeing trips..But there were so many other resorts having their stalls for various tour packages..Trip to Mt Sinai is generally available only on fridays.. We booked in one of the resort's stall(forgot the name of the resort) We had to wait 3 more days for the trekking trip..

We then had a stroll in the main road of Sharm to experience the night life. It has starbucks, lots of ice cream shops, many restaurants offering variety of cusines and of course night clubs...We just had coffee in starbucks and we felt we are spending a fortune on a cup of coffee. 

Day 5-Just snorkelling
We did not have any planned activity for the day..So we just went to the beach to do some snorkelling. Snorkelling equipment was available for rent for the whole day for 20 EGP per equipment. My husband did a quick calculation and felt that buying the equipment would be cost effective(we had already enquired the price) than renting for another 5 days at 40 EGP per day for both of us. So we bought the equipment for around 120 EGP per piece.(of course after bargaining). We did a lot of snorkelling in the beach..It was a very nice experience. I was so happy to spot the same fish which was animated in Finding Nemo as the lost kid. Once we go a bit away from the shore, we could see colorful live corals being habitated by different varities of fish. 

Back at the resort, we packed for the next day's suba diving trip.

Day 6-Scuba Diving
Camel driving school's van picked us up at the resort at around 7:30 AM. We met a Russian scuba diver who saw a shark the previuos day he went for scuba diving..The instructor in the van told us that we would not be able to do the diving in deep areas as we do not have any prior experience. We were a bit disappointed. In the next half an hour, the van was full of Russian divers and all of them were experts. They had dived more than once in the red sea. We realised how funny it was that we were disppointed that we would not get to dive in deep sea. We also felt we did a big mistake by choosing ras mohammed as there was no beginner for our comapny. 
Once we reached the quay, we boarded our boat. Within few minutes, I felt sea sick and had to take a pill. I was just lying down for the most of the journey cursing myself for choosing ras mohammed. Then came the first deep sea destination for diving. All the russian divers changed to diving suit, tanks and dived into the sea. The guide offered us to go for snorkelling till the time the divers come back. My husband accepted immediately and I backed off at the same pace. I was really scared that my husband was going to snorkel in the deep waters of red sea. I know he has never done anything like this before though he had always wanted to. He is a good swimmer too, but he is not going to swim in a swimming pool or pond...its the RED SEA. I just kept my fingers crossed. The boat was always following him while he circled the sea reefs. Finally he signalled for the rope by raising his hands in the sea. The boat went towards the shore and threw the rope so that he can be guided. He reached the boat safely and was just elated to have seen so many fishes,corals. it was indeed a happy event for him though the memorable one was yet to come. 
After few more diving by the Russian experts in deeper areas, we headed back towards the port. I thought may we might not dive today and I was really happy about it..But the boat stopped at some place and my husband was supposed to dive first ofcourse with the guide who would handle all the operations. The guide explained to us some of the sign languages with which we need to communicate when underwater. 
My husband dived, and I started worrying. Atleast during snorkelling I could see him, but diving is entirely different. He was below the water for what looked like a very long time to me. He came up safely after fifteen minutes or so and he had loved every minute of it. Then it was my turn. I don't even want to say anything about it except that after going 1 foot under water, my ears started paining like anything(due to pressure difference), I got panicky and I just remebered one sign language that is to tell the guide to bring me to the surface. I felt terrible and ashamed of myself...But I was really happy for my husband that he could do it. We came back to the resort in the evening. For lunch, we had brought some noodles. The too provided lunch on boat for 20 US $ per person.

Cost per person for scuba diving: 100 US $ for one dive

Day 7-Just snorkelling again
We spent our time in the beach snorkelling. I forgot to mention that we did buy an underwater camera in one of the shops in SHarm to take snaps while scuba diving. as if diving was a child's play. We did not even take out the camera there. We used it to take snaps of the fish in the beach while snorkelling. .We developed the photos in a studio in Sharm, half of the photos were good..Back at the room, we got ready for the Mt Sinai trekking for which we were supposed to catch the tourist bus at 10 in the night.

To be continued...

Srirangapatna travelogue - A day's trip

We had been to Srirangapatna last weekend. Here is an account of our trip.
Srirangapatna is a small island near Mysore in Karnataka surrounded by river Cauveri. Tipu Sultan, known as the Tiger of Mysore and his father Hyder Ali ruled the Southern part of India with Srirangapatna as the capital city. The main attractions of the city now are the Sriranganatha temple from which the city gets its name and some really good monuments of Tipu Sultan's period.
Our itenary consisted of visiting the ranganatha temple, some of the monuments related to Tipu Sultan, ranganthittu bird sanctuary and balmuri water falls. We had planned to return to Bangalore by 7:30 PM as we had a dinner invitation from one of our relatives. So we decided to cover as much as possible before 4 PM, without over doing.
We started from home at 7:15 AM in the morning in our Hyundai accent. There were 5 adults and a kid. We took the nice road and reached kadumane restaurant on Mysore road at 8 AM. The mysore road is pretty good though there are some traffic jam points. We went past Ramnagaram of Sholay fame, mandya, maddur and finally reached sriranapatnam at around 9:45 AM. An arch welcomes the visitors once they enter Srirangapatnam. We went past the arch and crossed the bridge and there was another arch to the right welcoming again. We took that right and went straight. We then went past the fort entrance. "The sword of tipu sultan” serial's famous title music lingered in my mind. We kept going straight..On the way to the temple, there were some historical places of interest which we decided to visit on our return from temple.
SriRanganatha Temple

We reached ranganatha temple at 10 AM. The temple is a small one and unlike its counterparts, the gopuram was yellow in color.. The inside of the temple was simple without elaborate carvings. I guess belur and halebid has one of the best carvings, not even an inch is left without a carved figure.. We had the darshan(Vishnu in sayanam posture, goddess lakshmi, hanuman, garuda, narasimha to name a few) and left the temple premise at 11:45 after having our packed breakfast.

Obelisk

Of the many historical places, tipu's summer palace and tipu's mausoleum are the only 2 places that are covered in a tourist package..The first not very touristry attracton that we visited was the Obelisk. After seeing the obelisk in Egypt, we really could not dare to miss this one. From the temple, we kept going straight in a very narrow road, after getting confirmation from the local people that the road is indeed motoroable. We parked the car when we could not go any furhter. We saw the obelisk from a distance. It was a small one. The surrounding was more fascinating than the obelisk itself..The whole area is enclosed within a fort, though destoyed now. Once we climbed an elevated road, we reached the fort wall from where we saw river cauvery flowing away to glory. It was very scenic with lots of trees dotting the banks of the river. There was also a railway bridge to give it a modern touch.

Dungeon

We spent sometime there and then headed towards the main road. On the way to the main road are a dungean and tipu's death place. There was nothing much to see in the dungeon. It was a big hall with pillars. There were some stones fixed to the dungeon wall. The prisoners were suppusedlt tiesd there and beaten..
Tipu's Death Place

Then we headed towards tipu's death place. It was here they found tipu's body during his valiant battle against the british. Tipu's own men betrayed him by showing the water gate to the british through which they breached the fort.
Then we saw the remains of tipu's palace which was completely destroyed by the British. Apparently, the summer palace of Tipu, our next destination, stays intact and after tipu it was occupied by Lord Wellesely.
Dariya Daulat

The Summer palace known as Dariya daulat(wealth of sea) was built by Tipu to commemorate his victory over british during one of the battles.
The entrance to the palace looks beautiful with trimmed pine like trees on both the sides with a passage for water in between. The walls of the palace are extensively painted mainly depicting the wars that Tipu had won. There were also paitings of Hyder Ali's victories. There were fighting scenes depicting both the locals and the british. The paintings are colorful and well preserved.. It is more like a museum now, with the furniture used by tipu displayed. It also has some potraits of Tipu, Hyder Ali, Tipu's seven sons. There was also a full size portrait of Tipu at the entrance in his war attire which looked really nice. It has a 3D effect in the sense that, you would feel as if the picture looks at you from any direction you see..

Outside the palace there is lot of open space with lawn where we (me and my parents with the kid) rested for a while when my husband and MIL were busy enjoying every detail of the paintings..
Mosque

Next we visited the mosque. I somehow liked the architecture of this mosque. It looked very elegant. One fascinating aspect of this mosque was the presence of 2 pillars that resembled their counterparts in hindu temples..
Mausoleum

Our last historical destination was the masaouleum. It was built by Tipu to rest his father Hyder Ali. When Tipu died, he was also put to rest there. The shape of the tomb reminded me of the citadel in egypt. :-) The place were the bodies are resting has some beautiful colorful paintings.

Sangam

That was the end of our historic trip. Now was the time to spend some time with mother nature. Our first destination was sangam where cauvery from south and north join. I expected some nice scenaries here. But nothing much to see. The water was dirty.
Balmuri Falls

Next we headed towards our last destination for the day( we cancelled ranganthittu wild life santuary due to lack of time), the balmuri falls. The falls was playing hide and seek with us. Finally with local help we reached the spot at 3:30 PM. August is supposed to be the best season. Best season is synonymous to crowd. There was lot of water and people. The sight of water flowing in steps was a treat to the eyes. We did not get into the water. Spent some time there. Had a late lunch at 4:15 and left the place at 4:30.
Scrumptious Dinner

We reached bangalore at . We were invited for dinner at a relatives place near koramangala. Had a scrumptious dinner and left their place at 9:30. Reached home at 10:30 PM.
It was a trip to remember. We have read about Tipu Sultan in our history class during school days. Visiting the place were the great Tipu built forts, patronaged art, ruled and fought various wars and finally died like a great warrior was like truly reliving history. This is also one of the best places to see river Cauvery at its best.

Weekend getaway-Innovative film city(IFC) in Bangalore

We had been to Innovative film city this Sunday. This post is an account of our trip.
Firstly I really don't know how I came to know about this place. I think I got to know while searching in the internet for Wonderla, a theme park in Bangalore. I read a lot of good reviews at mouthshut about IFC. They also have a very good website which gives a full account of the place. Wonderla and IFC, both are located off Mysore road within 3 KMS of each other. I wanted to go either to Wonderla or IFC. Wonderla is an amusement park with lots of land and water rides. There is no concept of entrance fees here. You got to pay around Rs 700 per person and you get unlimted rides. There are separate charges for senior citizen and childern.(a bit lesser than Rs 700) We(me and husband) are not great lovers of rides so felt paying Rs 700 upfront is not worth it. On the other hand, IFC charges an entrance ticket of Rs 50 and then pay for the attractions that you want to visit. Unlike Wonderla, IFC is not exactly a theme park. There are so many different varieties of amusements and attractions, mirror maze, 4D movie experience, riplye's believe it or not, cartoon city to name a few....There were 6 of us, one among them being a senior citizen. There were also 2 kids(2 years old) and we mainly wanted to go to some place where the kids also can enjoy.. So IFC suited our bill the best..There is nothing in this place that is associated with films. Don't know the reason behind this name.

Location, Timings and Entrance ticket
We started from home at 8:45 AM. Took the NICE road to reach mysore road. Once you enter mysore road there are lot of boards providing distance and direction for Wonderla. Once wonderla passes by, direction for IFC starts. Its pretty easy to follow the directions and reach IFC which is in Bidadi Industrial area near Kirloskar factory. We reached IFC at around 9:40 AM. I read in their website that it opens at 7 AM and closes at 10 PM. What a big mistake they have done and what a big mistake we did by believing the timings. The film city actually opens at 10 AM and closes at 7 PM. We waited outside for 20 minutes. At 10 AM, after security check, we entered inside. We were not supposed to take eatables inside the city. So they checked that too. But thankfully, water bottle is allowed.
As soon soon as you enter, an IFC representative takes you to a lounge to explain about the packages available. Seeing that there were 6 of us, she suggested the family package for Rs 5000. They would give 50 coupons and all the attractions except for roller coaster and carousel is included in the package. We need to give one coupon for each attraction per person. We felt, it might not work out economical for us for we would definitely not use up 50 coupons.(though there is a validity for 1 year for the coupons) So we politely declined the family package and the lady was kind enugh to show us the counter to get the entrance tickets. We got the entrance ticket for 6 of us(no ticket for 2 years old kids) plus Rs 100 for still camera.
As you start walking, you will reach the main street. The main street is buillt in ancient roman architecture with lot of roman statues on both sides of the street. It was definitely nice, for they have tried to do something different.

Attractions and Amusements IFC's website gives good information about all the attractions and amusements available, though cost details are not provided. I have given here a small review of the attractions that we visited along with the cost for each attraction.

Mirror Maze
I read in the reviews that mirror maze and 4D movie are the top most attractions. So we first went to mirror maze. Entrance ticket Rs 75 per person. Free for the 2 year olds, for that matter everthing is free for them. Mirror maze experience was amazing. You enter a room fulll of mirrors, find a way and come out at the exit. As soon as you enter you try to turn right and bang hit on a mirror. Fun starts from that point onwards. You keep walking trying to find out the way and always end up near the entrance. It was real fun.. We were roaming here and there for around 10 minutes, then with the help of an assistant, we came out through the exit suucessfully..It was a real fun filled experience for all of us.(Kids were also allowed inside.)

FunPlex-4D movie
Then we went to Funplex where 4D movie was shown. Entrance ticker Rs 100 per person. We enter a room like a mini movie theatre, an assstant gives us the special spectacles. We sit there expecting something special. We got more than what we expected. This is the best attraction in the whole of IFC. The 4D effect was just mind blowing. We felt nice when some cute little school of fish passed over our head, got scared when a big snake came in front of us and spit some water on our face, disgusted when a group of rats came running towards us and excited when he had a deep dive into the deep sea. The whole of 15 minutes for which the movie ran was enjoyable. You need to experience it to believe it. There were also video games in the FunPlex which we skipped.

Ripplye's Believe it or not and Roller Skates
After this each one of us had different attraction in mind. I wanted to go for mini golf. Husband wanted to go to Ripplye's believe it or not. Mother-in-law just wanted to sit somewhere. The other three(husband's brother, his wife and husband's niece) wanted to go try their hand or rather leg at roller skates. So husband went to Ripplye's with the kid. Entrance fees Rs 100. We all with the other kid went to roller skates. Myself and MIL sat there watching the other 3 try to skate. Ticket Rs 100 for unlimted time. But once you get out of the room, you can't get back with the same ticket. The three of them without any prior experience did some skating with the help of a trainer available there. We had a nice time watching them trying to walk with the skates and tripping down every now and then. It seems the trainer said, if you are good enough you can learn to skate decently within 1 hour. If you already know skating, I think this place is for you..You can just be there skating away to glory. By the time we came out, husband also came out. He was not very happy with Rippley's stuff.

Food
It was 12:30 PM and we were all hungry. We just had a breakfast of scones which was not very filling. We went to the food court. We being vegetarians had fod at Udupi Ananda Bhavan and Jain foods. The food was good. There are also few other food courts and some chains like McDonalds and Pizza corner.

Attractions and amusements continued
Karoake
Then there was this Karoake section where you can sing for free of cost. Husband's niece being a good singer sang a song in the mother tongue. It was a very good performance. We had a nice treat to the ears. She got recorded her song for Rs 50.
Cartoon City
It was high time that the kids got their much needed chance to have fun. So off we went to the cartoon city. The entrance to the cartoon city was quite pleasing. There were many rides for the kids. All the rides costed Rs 30 per person. Since our kids could not do anything alone, we accompanied them. (So it was free for the kids.) We did some "dashing car" and "hit the shark"..Kids had fun. They were already feeling sleepy. We kept thier spirits high and eyes open by informing every now and then that we are going to the beach..(Yes, there is an artificial beach too in IFC..And kids just love to play in water..)

Roller Coaster and Haunted mansion
We wanted to keep acqua world our last destination. Elders excluding MIL had a ride in the roller coaster for Rs 100 per person. Ride was good, but it was too short for Rs 100. Then three of them went to haunted mansion for Rs 100 per person. Each one had a different opinion about the attraction. Husband said it was OK. Husband's brother and his wife did not like it that much.
Mini Golf
Then me and husband tried our hands at mini golf for Rs 100 per person. There were totally 18 holes. We really did not have much fun there as most of the area was sloppy and slippery and the ball was just not stopping. But we had fun in recollecting the days when we used to play golf in computer each one trying to excel the other and were literally addicted to it.
The time was now 3:30 PM. We were too tired to go anywhere else. Also the reviews for the other attractions was not that good like Lady Thussads, Miniature city, Dinosaur park, wannbe city. There was also a bowling aisle and go karting track.
Acqua World
We straight went to acqua world. Entrance fees Rs 150 for adults, 100 for kids. Our kids were too small to be charged. And the best part, entry was free for senior citizens..We left our belongings with MIL who was sitting in a shade. There were also lockers availble for Rs 50 per locker. Acqua world consists of an artificial beach with real sand. Though there is a 1 feet wall dividing the sand from the beach. You can't enter the beach with muddy feet. There is basically no dress code to enter the beach. Kids had a really nice time there. We missed the artificial waves which happens every 1 hour or so..There was loud music and a DJ. It was good. It would have been good if there were some water games. We came out of the beach at around 5:00 changed clothes and left acqua world at 5:30.

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We had some snacks and left IFC at around 6PM. Reached home by 7 in the evening. Overall it was a nice getaway. It was a bit tiresome as IFC is built in a huge area. So had to walk a lot. It was nice going as a family. We had a nice, enjoyable time. I would surely not say "What a place" (IFC's slogan), but defintely it is a place worth visiting atleast once.
I have posted some pictures too which just gives an idea about how IFC looks. For the real experience, do visit once