Archive : crave

Adventure in Egypt –Day 8–

After a good night sleep back in Intercontinental Semiramis Cairo (their beds are amazing, you have to trust me on this). And at AED 330 per night stay, I have to stay it is very worth it especially the very central location in the downtown. One can actually walk to Cairo Tower and the Egyptian Museum while staying here.

Khan el-Khalili

We were too lazy to go out for breakfast although I do miss the street food that we ate couple of days back, so we decided to munch some biscuits before heading to Khan el-Khalili, a local souk and bazaar tucked away in the narrow streets in the centre of Cairo. There are many mosque around the area and the bazaar is very pretty looking amidst the old architecture.

Although we did not spend much time here, but we could see that besides tourists, the local does shop here a lot especially when Ramadan is just around the corner, many locals spawned the area looking for bargain. Indeed, there are lots of bargain to be bagged here. Even when this place is popular among tourists, I find that the items sold are of reasonable price. Since we did not stay here for long, I would not be able to account for all the stalls but we did chance upon a few shops selling very reasonable priced items (with the price clearly stated on the clothing). So, we actually had a pleasant shopping experience. However, due to Covid and the lack of safety distancing in the area, plus there are not much people wearing mask so we decided to leave the place after a quick look.

As I mention earlier, Uber is easier to use when requested from a hotel or prominent location (airport, mall) but since we could not see any hotel nearby, we just try our luck calling for Uber. Luckily we still manage to get one and headed to Festival City Mall in New Cairo.

Festival City Mall is a mall by Majid Al Futtaim and it is the main developer for malls all around UAE so we are very familiar with the layout. We felt particularly at home seeing Ikea, Bounce, Magic Planet and even familiar looking foodcourt in the mall.

Our lunch from Manchow Wok

After having an Auntie Anne’s pretzel that did not taste as good as back home in Malaysia, we had our lunch at a Manchow Wok, a Chinese stall in the foodcourt followed by a 3D movie of Kong vs Godzilla. The 3D movie price here is very reasonable at AED 25 and it comes with a 3D glasses to takeaway! It was a nice afternoon spend and we felt like local in Cairo and less of a tourist.

After the movie, we went to carrefour to get some snacks and drinks before meeting Steven’s colleague (Ebram) for dinner at Crave. Yes, we are back to Crave again! It is located near the fountain area and we got a good spot enjoying the dancing fountain while having a nice and cosy dinner. The lotus kunafa is too sinful, very nice!

Lotus kunafa @ Crave
Lovely dinner!

We went back to hotel to pack up as we are leaving to Marriott Mena House for our last night in Cairo. It is just next to the pyramids and the hotel have lots of area with a good view of the spectacular ancient monument.

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Adventure in Egypt –Day 7–

Time flies and we have been in Egypt for a week already! Today we finish our cruise and checked out from Sonesta St George at 8am.

The crew is amazing and kids gave the cruise thumbs up!

Karnak Temple- the biggest temple ever build

With our luggage safely tucked in the van, we headed to Karnak Temple on the East Bank of Nile River in Luxor. It is the largest temple ever built and it is indeed spectacular with its endless columns to explore. The avenue of Sphinx leads into the courtyard of the temple where rows of huge columns spans the area. There was 2500 sphinx build and so far 1400 has been discovered. Excavation works are still ongoing, hoping to find more of the sphinx. The special feature of this sphinx is it is face of ram with lion body compared to other sphinx with human face and lion body. Further in, we can see some statues of Hatchepsut but most of them has been disfigured or destroyed by her stepson. The most magnificent features of this temple is the vast number of columns spanning the courtyard.

Avenue of Sphinx- lion body with ram head

As the area of the temple is huge, not all the area is open for visitors. There are certain area which is closed for restoration works and we saw them rebuilding one of the statues but no photos were allowed.

Luxor Temple-seen in the picture is one of the Luxor Obelisks. It was originally a pair of Ancient Egypt Obelisks and now one of them is in Place de la Concorde in Paris.
The Luxor Obelisks in Paris

After Karnak Temple, we are headed to Luxor Temple. They are not far away and are actually link by the avenue of sphinx in the ancient time. For now, we had to drive around it and not able to walk the avenue of sphinx.

Luxor Temple is just by the River Nile and also very near the Luxor train station. Once we reach, we were greeted by six large statues sitting on the entrance majestically. This temple has been build by many people over the years so we could see many different side of it. There are roman scriptures, church with painting of last supper and the disciples, mosque, and some of the pharaoh’s carving and statues. Interesting to walk around the place.

Look at the design of these columns, they are different from the usual ones with lotus shaped and not round columns.

TIPS: There are usually people guarding the entrance to toilets at these attractions so prepare some EGP 1 coins and can give it to them when using the toilet.

After a quick stop at McD for our lunch takeaway, we head to airport for our flight back to Cairo. There is not much to do at the airport, one cafe and a souvenir shop at the domestic departure are and that’s basically it.

Flight back is again fully booked with close to 90% of the seats occupied.

Once back to Cairo, we tried to get Uber instead of booking limousine. The Uber costs us EGP 150 vs limousine which cost us EGP330, more than 50% off. The waiting point is at parking area B5 and C2.

Today we have booked a covid test with Pure Health (certified by Emirates for pre-flight Covid Test). It costs us EGP 368 per person for the test and we paid extra EGP 100 for the staff to come to our hotel.

It has been many days since we ate Chinese food so we decided to head to Peking @ Zamalek area. Little did we know that the traffic at 5pm is crazy. The journey usually takes 20 mins but we only reach after an hour and the worse is that the restaurant has closed down!

Luckily we met one lady who point us to this place called Crave, around 10 minutes walk. The food there is amazing! I particularly like their seafood risotto and dynamite chicken(starter). Did I mention that the food portion in Egypt is crazily huge. It doesn’t matter whether you get in cafe, or hotel restaurant. Everything is just HUGE! After 1-2 days, we have learn that ordering 2 main courses for four of us is more than enough.

Dynamite Chicken
Seafood risotto

After a rush dinner, we manage to head home before our covid test appointment time.

Wish us luck- hopefully tested negative and we can go back to Dubai!

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