10th cruise day: First time in Egypt [YQrtw Day 21 Apr 28]

Location: Legend of the Sea [Day 10]
Location: Sharma El Sheik; Na’ama Bay, Egypt

After a day of R&R on the ship, I was ready to conquer Egypt, or at least the tourist town of Na’ama Bay.

I booked a shuttle transfer from the ship to Naama Bay since I desperately needed to buy a 3G SIM and a razor.

Na’ama Bay is a tourist town, meaning the streets were lined with shops that have English signs. It also meant that stall owners prey on the tourists.

While walking around in the hot sun, I was called out by stall owners. I usually use my umbrella to shield myself physically and visually from them.

One man shouted at me after I shook my head when he invited me to see his wares. I made a loud noise as well. I’m not sure if that managed to scare him off or not.

Another tout shouted at me when he saw me approaching the square. I stopped in my tracks and turned around. He stopped as well. I had to return to the square because it led me to Carrefour, the tout walked to me, saying something loudly. I shielded my eyes with my umbrella and went on to Carrefour.

At Carrefour, I was very happy. I got the thing I need and other groceries. I found mini face loofahs and a natural hair remover. I also bought a box of hibiscus tea.

[I am not kidding about the women’s razor. It’s unique selling point is that it’s small enough for women’s hands. Whaaat.]

3G data shopping

After the satisfying grocery trip, I stumbled upon a Vodafone shop and bought my data SIM. I tell you, buying that SIM is the best thing that has happened to me that day.

The shop assistant, Mohammad, said there was a cheap 3G package. For 60 Egyptian pound, I could get 4GB of Internet. I almost foamed at my mouth when I heard that. That is about S$10 for 4GB! (I later found out that it’s actually 4.5GB. Hurray!)

I happily Whatsapp and called my mom with my SIM. While I was happy with my data plan, one of the text messages from the mobile operator mentioned 500MB. I got paranoid and thought the sales person might have accidentally signed me up for a wrong package. I had to go back and ask again. (In the end, I found out online that the package was correct.)

With my groceries and 3G SIM card, I hopped on the shuttle bus back to the ship. The rest of the day was tame, compared to my 3G SIM card. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get signal out in the sea.

At dinner, I was reminded that we will reach the Suez Canal at 2:00am. I retired early, setting my alarm to 2:05am, so I can catch our entry into the canal.

9th cruise day: Birthday onboard [YQrtw Day 20 Apr 27]

Location: Legend of the Seas [Day 9]
Location: Safaga, Egypt [Didn’t visit]

Today was my birthday. Happy birthday to myself! (I’m 27–if you are curious–which is my lucky number.)

After a tiring day at Jordan, I decided that I would stay on board for the day and skip the Valley of the Kings. (Yes, I can hear you gasp.)

OK OK… I decided to skip the day on shore because I want to save money. Besides, being on board is less boring than you think.

The day passed with a lot of reading and sitting in social sessions. I like the reading part but forced myself to do more social things.

In the evening, there was a theater screening of Les Miserables which made the day even better than it was.

Les Mis blurred looks very much like a zombie flick.

At night, I gave rock climbing another try. The first time I tried rock climbing, I gave up halfway. This time, I was sent to the beginner’s lane.

About 2 squares before the bell, I wanted to give up but a lady I met cheered me on. I didn’t want to embarrass myself any more so I pulled up the few rungs and rang the bell with much gusto.

Before we leave, here is a badly stitched up photo of Safaga port.

8th cruise day: Jordan’s Rose City and Wadi Rum desert [YQrtw Day 19 Apr 26]

Location: Legend of the Sea [Day 8]
Location: Aqaba; Petra; Wadi Rum, Jordan

After 7 days at sea, we finally had a port call. Today, it was Aqaba, Jordan. Persuaded by two other ladies, I signed up with a private tour to Petra the Rose City and Wadi Rum the desert.

Surprisingly, the tour bus was waiting for us at the port even before we were allowed to go out.

Our tour guide was a woman–one of the 66 lady tour guides among the 1,000 or so tour guides in Jordan. She kept us entertained on the bus and was a stark difference compared with the Hoi An tour guide who was just talking nonsense most of the time.

Our first stop was Petra the rose city. The journey from the port to Petra was about an hour.

Since Petra was at a higher altitude, the weather was cool. By cool I mean air conditioning cool. Of course, the sun was so piercingly strong and the walk to the sights so challenging that everyone was hot by half way of the tour.

Petra's famous Treasury. — Petra’s famous Treasury.

There was a lot of walking on stoney paths in Petra. The most famous sight is the Treasury which was also where they filmed one of the Indiana Jones movie, or so I heard.

The Treasure and other sites were nice but I kind of like the houses facing the valley more than the historical sights. The houses were the color of sand and like boxes with square holes of windows.

After lunch, we took a long bus ride to the desert. The Jordanian desert is not full of sand like the picture books I read when I was a kid. Instead, there were rock mountains jutting out here and there.

Lawrence of Arabia was stationed at Wadi Rum for a period of time. Sadly, I didn’t do any reading on him so the excitement of being where he was didn’t mattered to me.

We had a 2 hour ride on the back of a pickup to admire the scenery, be baked by the sun and to see some of the souvenir places along the way.

At one of the stops, I tried running up one of the sand dunes but the sand grabbed onto my ankles with each step I take. I was breathless around one-third of the dune’s height.

After the desert jeep ride, we raced back to the port and was back an hour before we were required.

That night, I rested very well.

Sri Lanka 3G for tourist

I wasn’t planning to get 3G when I was in Sri Lanka. I assumed that wireless connection in my guest house would be enough for me.

However, it turned out that having Internet on my phone was very important as I kept getting lost in Anuradhapura.

If you are thinking about getting 3G in Sri Lanka while travelling, I don’t recommend buying the tourist prepaid SIM packages. For example, Dialog has prepaid SIM for tourists and the premium package is 1,300 rupees.

That’s rather expensive compared with getting a package targeted at locals. For example, Mobitel’s 1024MB data package is only 279 rupees and includes some free minutes and text messages for numbers on the same network.

I bought a normal SIM card at the airport but had to change it to a micro-SIM later. I was really kiasu and bought a back up 1024MB internet package which I didn’t need at all in the end.

I paid about 1,200 rupees in total for the normal SIM, changed micro-SIM and two internet packages.

I did a lot of Google Maps and Whatsapp with my plan. I was using data up fast at my first guesthouse where the Wi-Fi was wonky. I posted blog updates by tethering my phone’s 3G connection. Surfing on a hotspot was much faster than I expected.

When I switched to the hostel in Kandy, my data consumption dropped because I had stable Wi-Fi.

It might be worthwhile getting the tourist package for the IDD rates. But you don’t really need to make IDD calls if you are contacting others with VoIP apps or services.

I checked out a branch of HUTCH and they told me they didn’t have micro-SIM. I’m not sure if that’s the case for the whole country or just that branch in Anuradhapura.

How is your experience with 3G in Sri Lanka?

Reading in Dubai, first night at sea [YQrtw Day 12 Apr 19]

[Note from Apr 29: Now that I finally have internet connection, I will be uploading the backlog blog posts.]

Location: Dubai, UAE [Day 3]
Location: Legend of the Seas [Day 1]

I woke up early that morning to pack my bag. I didn’t want to head out into the heat for food so I hibernated in the room.

Packing my bag was much easier than it was before I went on the trip. This is partly contributed by the carry on bag that I could distribute my things in.

Around 12 noon, the speakers from the mosque carried the Friday prayers and the very passionate speech made by the Imam.

Although I told my AirBnB host that I would leave at 12 noon, he wasn’t there. I had to send him a text but he recommended staying later for the prayer crowd to disperse.

So I did. This gave me a chance to plough through book 2 of Song of Ice and Fire, aka Game of Thrones series. But at 1:30pm, I was restless and hungry. If I went on the cruise now, there would be unlimited food waiting for me.

I finally checked out and got a cab to Port Rashid.

When I saw the ship, my heart swelled. It was lovely from afar: a white giant with blue lace trimming. It was just so gorgeous, and I would be staying in there for 15 nights! Imagine that.

Checking in wasn’t smooth sailing. I didn’t print out my SeaSail Pass so I had to fill out some forms.

The employees also told me that I cannot head to Egypt because of visa. I showed them the print out from the embassy, saying that Malaysians do not need a visa. I was allowed in but trouble will follow me.

When I got onboard. I was in awe of everything. The ship was HUGE! I was gawking at everything like the country bumpkin I am. I feasted on the lunch buffet at Windjammer Cafe after I put my things in my room.

I joined a tour of the ship by one of the Cruise Director Staff (meaning entertainment stuff) and got a feel of what the cruise liner has (almost EVERYTHING).

Before we set sail, there was a muster drill where everyone gathered at a location as a drill for safety evacuation. It was the most boring thing on this cruise as everyone stood there doing nothing.

The ship didn’t leave the port until well past 7pm. By that time, I’ve missed my time slot for the proper restaurant so I had dinner in the Windjammer Cafe.

That was Night 1 on the cruise which I will call home for the next 15 days.

Dubai bus stops are the coolest, literally

Despite Dubai being in the desert, my trip to the city wasn’t as hot as it was in Sri Lanka. Most of the time, I hid in shopping malls or the freakishly cold buses.

One of the best things about the bus in Dubai is the bus stop. Some of the bus stops here are air conditioned! Inside, the temperature is a chilly 22 degrees Celsius.

Isn’t it just awesome?!

Less awesome is a video of me giving you a tour of the bus stop. I look like I was very very bored. The truth is, it was rather sunny and I couldn’t open my eyes as wide as usual.

Enjoy!

Video tour of Dubai’s air conditioned bus stop

Glutton in Dubai

I have to confess: I didn’t eat three meals a day while in Dubai. I was either too lazy to get out for food or too stuffed from tea time.

Still, I did eat some lovely food.

I love you chicken shawarma

I fell in love with the grilled meat and bread combination while in Dubai. It’s just so yummy!

What got me started was a chicken shawarma set from IKEA. The plate had a few sides and even french fries in the bread. The chicken was tender and seasoned so well. Drool. [28 dirhams]

I had a cheaper shawarma from the roadside stall near where I stayed. It was good too but the pickles were urgh. [10 dirhams]

At Mom’s Cafe, shawarma wasn’t served yet so I got the taco version with grilled chicken. [16 dirhams for two of this.]

Tea time

I had a coffee break everyday while in Dubai since I was mostly in shopping malls. It was also the best time to use the cafe’s Wi-Fi to send my mom and sister snapshots of my day. (By the time I reach my accommodation, it’s 12 midnight for them so not a very good time to send stuff.)

Water

It’s very rare that water gets an entry of its own in the Glutton Series. But water in Dubai is more expensive than other places so it gets a special place.

The most expensive water I bought was a 2 dirham bottle of 500ml water at the Pinoy restaurant. The size is usually only 75 cents in supermarkets.

Lesson learned: Don’t buy water at restaurants.

Surprisingly, there’s also free water around too. I was surprised to find water fountains at Dubai Mall. I repeatedly filled my water bottle while walking aimlessly.

Cheap breakfast from supermarket

Cobbling together pre-made food from supermarket is a trick that works in other countries as well. I bought a butter croissant and a bottle of milk from the supermarket before the tour at Jumeriah Mosque.

Milk fills up the stomach really easily so it’s something I like to buy for breakfast when travelling.

Do you have a favorite food in Dubai? Share them in the comment section below.

Sri Lanka scams and touts I met

Sri Lanka is a very peaceful place but like the Singapore safety tagline “Low crime doesn’t mean low crime”. I will share some of the scams and touts I met while in Sri Lanka.

As usual, at the beginning of a difficult post, I need to put a disclaimer. I have met many lovely people in Sri Lanka who are not scammers or touts. These people include:

Two schoolgirls who asked where I was from while I was eating my rice and curry at a “Cold Station”.
A Kandyan man with two children who were going back to his wife’s hometown (Sigiriya). His children pointed at me, smiling, when I boarded. He later showed me a picture of the Temple of Tooth and gave me an ice cream. “If you like,” he said.
The lady on the bus who insisted I take the seat beside her man-friend as she was getting off soon.
The little girl who said Hi on my ride to Colombo Airport.

I am trying hard to remember the good things about Sri Lanka because I am afraid that the dark side will take over and I only have bad memories of the country.

Even though I need to forget the bad, I still want to write down the scams that could have happened to me. I have no idea if the cases were really works of touts but, to be careful, I will list them down:

Official touts

As soon as I reached Colombo Fort station, I encountered my first tout. Unfortunately, it was even a government-sanctioned tout.

At the station, I was ushered into an air-conditioned room. On the glass window, big letters spelling RAILWAY TOURIST OFFICE made me feel rather gladly surprised that there was such a service. This is even better than Yogyakarta!

I told the moustached man that I was heading to Anuradhapura and needed tickets and I just missed the previous train by 15 minutes.

The man made a call on his cell phone to confirm that there were still tickets for the 4:30pm train. He asked where I was off to next, which I thought was nice of him. How wrong I was.

I told him I wanted to buy tickets from Kandy to Colombo and I would take a bus from Anuradhapura to Kandy since there were no trains.

He shook his head and said, “It’s very difficult by bus.” I replied, “It’s OK, I’m up for it.”

He offered to get me a driver to pick me up from Anuradhapura and bring me to the sights in Pollunawara and Sigiriya. I will stay in a hotel in Sigiriya for a night before being sent to Kandy. All this for 25,000 rupees.

At that point, my brain was hay wired. To me, 25,000 rupees sounded like S$25 which is ridiculously cheap. I almost said yes but didn’t because I wanted to do the indie travelling way.

When the man saw that I was not convinced, he brought over a map and pointed to the different places. Anuradhapura and Kandy looked very far from each other.

I was tempted until he said: “All this for US$250.”

Then I snapped out of it. I looked at him and said, “But I don’t have that much money.” US$250 was about two-thirds of my budget for the whole trip!

Then the man turned cold. He folded the map and said, “Well then, you have to buy the ticket yourself. For US$250, we can do it all for you.”

“I really do not have the money,” I said, packing up my things and standing up.

When I left, a Caucasian couple were deciding if they wanted to take up the package. I wanted to shake their shoulders and say: “It’s much cheaper to DIY!” But of course I didn’t, instead I left and went in search of my train.

Special ceremony tout

In Kandy, while I was walking the circumference of the lake. A man dressed respectably in sarong and white shirt suddenly started praying towards the Tooth Temple when he saw me approach.

I tried to walk behind him so I won’t block his praying. He stopped his praying and said to me: “Good morning, Madam. Today is a special day.” He pointed to the temple.

I replied: “Yes it’s New Year.”

He said: “There is a special ceremony at the temple. The president is coming.” He looked like he wanted to escort me to the temple.

Even though I had no idea if the president was coming or not, I said: “No! I was at the temple just now. Goodbye.”

I continued walking and heard his footsteps behind. In front, there was a tuk-tuk and the driver said, “Good morning Madam.”

The man behind me immediately followed with a “Good morning” but I just nod my head.

Good things another tuk tuk stopped in front. The drive in the vehicle prayed towards the temple. I took the chance to pretend to be enthralled with a crow that stopped in front of me.

I then continued walking and luckily the man did not follow me. Later, when I walked back (the lake was too big to walk a full circle), I saw the old man sitting in the tuk tuk with the driver.

Perhaps they were accomplices in a “special ceremony” scam: The man pretending to bring the tourist to see a special event. A tuk tuk miraculously appears. They then charge an enormous sum as payment for their company.

I will never know if my theory was right. But thank the Tooth for the tuk tuk which stopped just in time.

Tissue man scam

This is a rather small but ridiculous case of scams. At Sigiriya, there were two men lingering outside the women’s public toilet. It was very awkward and if I knew enough Sinhala, I would tell them to not hang around there.

One of the man offered tissue paper. I shook my head and went into the toilet.

When I was washing my hands, a few tourists came in. They took the tissue from the man, perhaps thinking that it was the Official Tissue Dispensing Man.

As I left, the Official Tissue Dispensing Man held out a palm in which there was a 50 rupee note. It was rather

Tour guide tout

At famous sights, there is always a person or two who wants to show me the way to the attraction (even though it’s plainly in sight).

I always decline because I don’t want them to turn out to be tour guide touts who want money in the end as reward for their company.

Regular Sri Lankans are lovely

All these incidents made me wary of people. When I hear “Good morning madam,” I have to ignore the greeting because I do not know if it was genuine Hello or just the beginning of a hard sell.

I know that as someone who is privileged enough to travel (yes, travelling is a privilege). I do have more disposable income than the locals. Yes I can bear to part with a dollar or two, but does that mean I should condone these scams and touts? I think not.

If we take out the scammers and touts of Sri Lanka, it’s a really great place to visit. The people are friendly and the sites are nice. Just remember to bring lots of sun protection and not get heat stroke.

Glutton in Sri Lanka

It’s Glutton time again! Each time I visit a new place, I share with you the yummies (or not) that I ate. Previous editions include Indonesia, east coast of Malaysia, Singapore.

Last week I’ve shared the wonderful rice and curries of Sri Lanka so today I want to show you other food!

Chicken kothu

My friend M left a comment in my past post that I need to try kohtu roti. I wasn’t really sure what it was but I ordered one anyway when I got back into Colombo.

It turned out to be my favorite dish during the entire trip. Maybe I was really hungry when I ate it but every bite tasted like chicken heaven.

Kohtu is sort of like stir fried noodles but with prata instead of noodles. This gives the dish an interesting texture.

Egg hopper

The hopper is a thin batter cooked on a little bowl shaped hot plate. The batter has toddy (palm wine) in it so there is a sourness.

I didn’t like my egg hopper as much as the kohtu. Despite the abundant pepper on my hopper, the taste was still a little flat.

Unknown noodle dish. I went back to the hotel where I had the hopper and kohtu, hoping to get the same for breakfast.

Unfortunately, it was too early so the shop only had this unnamed noodle dish. I ate the noodle with a serving of daahl and some chicken innards.

It was alright.

Drinks!

Can you believe I didn’t have any tea in Ceylon until my fourth day? Even then, the tea was from tea bags.

When I got into Colombo, I ordered a milk tea to go with my kohtu and hopper. The drink turned out to be too fabulous for words.

Sweet with no hint of tannin as other red tea do.

Despite my love for tea, my favorite drink in Sri Lanka has to be ginger beer. I was introduced the drink at my last lunch in Sri Lanka. The brand EGB claims that they are the only ones who use real ginger in their drink. In any case, I love the mix of gas and sweet ginger.

New year munchies!

These new year goodies were prepared by the hostel in Kandy. I’m grateful that I was able to have a taste of traditional Sri Lanka new year food.

What is your favorite Sri Lankan dish?

Mosque, zoo and long bus rides [YQrtw Day 11 Apr 18]

Location: Dubai, UAE [Day 3]

I woke up earliest this morning to join the morning tour of Jumeriah Mosque organized by the SMCC (10 dirhams)

I got off the wrong stop (2km too early), took a bus to a nearby mall to get a croissant and milk for breakfast. Took another bus to the mosque.

At 10am, the tour began. First stop was the cleaning area where worshippers clean themselves before entering the mosque.

Then we got to go into the mosque, sit on the carpet and listen to the tour guide.

The tour was really well organized and taught me a lot about what Islam is about (Peace!).

After the mosque, I took the bus to the zoo nearby (2 dirhams). When I got there, I remembered why I don’t like zoos. The animals were in their cages, looking bored to death. That made me feel sad.

One good thing about the Dubai Zoo (besides being cheap) is that you can get quite close to the animals.

But many visitors (1 adult, 1 teenager, 1 kid) banged on the cages to get the animals’ attention. I wanted to ask how they would feel if someone bangs on their windows for their attention.

After the zoo, I took Bus 8 which brought me to almost the other end of Dubai. On the way, I passed by many futuristic buildings. This is the place moviemakers should come if they want to film “The Future”.

I stopped by Mom’s Cafe for lunch. It was almost 3 p.m. and I was terribly hungry. Lunch was a taco-like roll because the shawarma wasn’t ready yet.

I also manage to hit 14 dirhams of transport fees with my NOL card. This meant that the next rides were free so my last ride back (4.30 dirhams) was free. I think this is a great system to encourage tourists to use the public transport.

After taking the metro back, I decided to stay in the room to rest.

Dinner was two shawarmas from one of the stalls downstairs. I love shawarmas to bits. They are so TASTY!

Tomorrow is Cruise Day and from then on I will not have Internet connection until the 4th of May. I’ve lined up a few posts for you so you won’t miss me.

Until then, safe travels!