Paro – Thimphu, Day 1

26 July

6:15 pm BTT, Thimphu

I was chilling at my room at hotel Phuntsho Pelri after the day’s outing. I had my comics and books stacked on the coffee table and my earphones sprawled on the bed. I wondered what Kevin and Rufus were doing at home and picked up my phone.

“Kevin!”

“Hey! How is Bhutan treating you?”

“Bhutan has been awesome so far! How is the house without me? You miss me, don’t you? And Rufus? I miss you both. The room is nice, but the sandwich wasn’t…oh and I tried archery! Then-“

“Slow down, slow down,” he laughed, cutting into my excited rant. “Now take a deep breath and tell me how your day was.”

*****

26 July

7:30 am BTT, Paro

The Landing announcement already? I had just been on a running marathon since the wee hours this morning and had only sunk in my seat and was hoping for a nice long nap. Contrary to what was printed on my ticket, Kolkata to Paro took only about 40 minutes. I was there already!

The air was cool, the skies were blue…yeah, much like that Westlife song. With a smile, sleepy me walked into the airport. There were two queues for immigration here. One for foreign nationals and the other for SAARC countries. I happily walked to the SAARC queue.

Bhutan is one of those countries where Indians get Visa on arrival. Also, their currency Ngultrum is pegged to the Indian rupee. That means 1 Indian rupee equals 1 Bhutan Ngultrum always. Indian currency is accepted at almost all places (except for those places that already have had the bad experience of getting counterfeit 500 and 1000 rupee notes).

Immigration was done in a Jiffy, local sim card bought and after letting Kevin know that I made it successfully thus far, and I stepped out into the Paro morning. I spotted a smiling face holding a placard with my name. My guide for the trip, Chencho. He was wearing a Gho, like all the natives there. I remembered an image from TinTin in Tibet, where TinTin was sporting a similar attire. It’s like a knee length kimono of sorts, tied at the wait with a traditional belt.

“Ms. Reshma? Welcome to Bhutan!” Chencho welcomed me with a firm hand shake.

“Thank you!”

He led me to our car and introduced me to the driver. Sange. I was pleased to see this happy faced woman, also in the traditional Bhutan attire - the Kira skirt and Tega jacket. She was chewing on betel leaves and opened the door for me. The car smelt of fresh lemon grass.

We were off to my hotel in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. We stopped by a Dzong (That means a fortress) on the way, for a quick Photo break.  Before Bhutan was united by its first king Ugyen Wangchuck in 1907, it was 20 separate provinces, and each of them had at least one Dzong.

It stood of with its predominant white and red against the backdrop of the green mountains and the river that we followed from the airport. Prayer flags stretched from its walls to the river banks and they fluttered with the gentle wind. They say the wind can read the prayers and in Bhutan, you’ll see the prayer flags outdoors, almost everywhere. The 5 different colours on the flags represent each of the elements: Green for Wood, Blue for water, white for air, red for fire and yellow for earth.

“Indian Oil?” I exclaimed as I saw the familiar logo at a Petrol pump as we approached Thimphu.

“Yes. We import petrol from India. Also, it was after Nehru’s visit to Bhutan, that we started developing roads in Bhutan, with India’s help. We have a very good relationship with your country.” Chencho replied.

“Interesting”, I smiled.

“Which place in Thimphu would you like to visit today?”

“Hmmm…what would you recommend? I am a little tired from travelling”

“You had little sleep?”

“I had no sleep! I was out since 11ish last night…”

“Oh! Okay. We’ll go only to the Simply Bhutan Museum this afternoon. Make up for all the sleep you lost and tomorrow we’ll have lots of places to see”

“Sure” I agreed.

I checked into Hotel Phuntsho Pelri. Similar to almost all other buildings here, the hotel had the traditional Bhutanese architecture. The part near the roof reminded me of jenga blocks. Food, rest and 2 comics later, Chencho and Sange reached at the exact time as promised and we were off to the Simply Bhutan museum.

“Reshma,” called Chencho as we stepped out of our car, “This is a new museum. It started operating only from 2010. It was constructed as advised by our queen mother and all the profits from this museum is used to rehabilitate the youth.”

At the entrance there was this pretty young girl who introduced herself as the museum guide. She gave me a brief introduction to Bhutan again, while Chencho quizzed playfully.

“Before we proceed in, you need to have our welcome drink,” she said and took out a wooden wine jar.

“This is made from wheat” She poured it out in a small wooden bowl for me.

“It is strong!”

“It is similar to the Japanese Sake,” she explained.

When I handed my little bowl back, she poured me another one, saying a second helping is customary, else it indicates the guest isn’t pleased with the hospitality. Happy me.

This place had a lot of traditional Bhutanese artifacts, wall paintings, a live kitchen… Some of them reminded me of the old kitchen back at my home when we had the ural, ulakka, ammi kallu etc.

I could write pages about how she explained how the wine was brewed, how the festivals in the paintings were actually celebrated, how Chencho quizzed her while she did her job, I tried on a Kira and Tego to get my picture clicked in them…But let’s move on to Butter tea.

Now this is a salty, buttery tea, called Po Cha, often paired with puffed rice. My guide led me to the open restaurantish space, let me pick a table and served me a hot Po cha. I did tell her I’m not a tea person or a butter person but she insisted I try a sip anyways. It definitely wasn’t my cup of tea, but I think all tea lovers should give it a shot.

My guide called some of the other staff at the museum and they all danced to Bhutanese music. Chencho joined in and tried to get me dance too!

At the next stall, there were intricate wood carvings in Bhutanese designs. I saw a person working away with his feet.

“Have you heard of Pema before?” my guide asked

“No”

“As you can see, Pema is differently abled. He had the chance to meet our queen mother during one of the events and she wanted to help this young boy. He was sent to the School of Art, taught to carve and paint and was given this stall in this museum. This is how he earns his livelihood.”

Pema smiled.

I picked up a little round wood carved wall hanging to take back home. Before he packed it for me, he signed it with his feet and put his seal on it too. I have seen how differently abled people do similar things on social media, but seeing it up close, in front of your eyes is a different feeling altogether.

 The next few stalls had traditional Bhutanese textiles and artsy things for sale. The traditional weaving machinery were kept for display as well.

The last stop before leaving the premises was the archery spot. Archery is Bhutan’s national sport. Here, they had the traditional bow and modern arrows. A rectangular wooden target was placed a few yards away.

“Give it a shot,” my guide said as she gave me the bow and arrow.

I took them, aimed and knocked like I had seen Merida do in Brave, and fired.

The arrow was nowhere close to the target.

“You can try again!” she chirped, getting me another arrow. She showed me where to place my thumb and how to position my arms and…Whoosh! No. No luck again.

Chencho joined us now and he took a turn.

“Hey, mine was better!” I laughed as his arrow didn’t hit the mark.

“Watch me now”, he said as he struck a bull’s eye.

“Oh”

“I practice during my spare time”, he said with a smile.

“I don’t think this is my sport,” I said handing the bow over to the museum guide. While she reluctantly took it back, she said, “It’s good luck to hit before you leave”

“Try once more,” encouraged Chencho.

“Okay, last shot,” I said taking the bow and an arrow.

It was no bull’s eye, but I did hit the target board. I could now leave the museum happily.

*****

26 July

6:35 pm BTT, Thimphu

“You sure had an interesting day,” said Kevin when I gave him a pause to speak, finally.

“Yes!”

“Good. Try something new for dinner.”

“I will! I’m going to read for a bit until dinner. I’ll tell you how it was.”

“Okay, then. Bye. Rufus says bye too”

I glanced at my stack of comics wondering which one I should pick up.

 My ringtone interrupted me. It was Appa.

“Hello Appa!”

“Hello Reshma…eh? You’re going on a trip sometime?

“Huh? Appa I’m already in Bhutan like I…”

“Oh…It’s Kevin’s gift? Mol…looks like Reshma might leave on a short trip…it’s Kevin’s gift”

Okay. I see what he’s doing now. He hadn’t told Amma yet, and now he’s trying to make it sound like I miiight go on a trip sometime in the near future, just because the husband wanted to give me that experience as a gift. Well played!

That thought strand had not even completed in my head when I heard:

“Rajetta! What did you just say? Where is she? (Takes his phone) RESHMA???”

“Yes, Amma?”

“Where are you going?”

“Um…I…it’s…”

“You cannot go! Go anywhere you want to with Kevin, but you can’t go alone!”

I kept quiet. She hung up.

I called Kevin.

“So Amma just called me!”

“And? Has your dad told her yet?”

“I don’t think so, he was trying to do this trick call thingy…”

“Hey, give me a minute, I’ll call you back”

6:10 pm IST, Bangalore

Our Balcony. Kevin chilling with a can of beer and Rufus at his feet.

"Hey, give me a minute, I'll call you back", he said, as he took the incoming call on his phone.

“Uh…Hello?”

“HELLO? Where is Reshma?” That’s my mom.

“She…She’s out”

“Out? Out where?”

“Uh…Bhutan?”

“Bhutan?? When is she coming back?”

“Monday”

“Monday?? When are you going?”

“I’m not…it’s her trip”

“But. It’s her birthday in two days, you are going, right?”

“No…”

“Surprise? Is it a surprise?”

“No…”

“Oh! (Aside) Rajetta! How long were you in on this???”

6:50 pm, BTT

I had settled with a Jughead comic when Kevin called me again.

“Your mom had called me…”

“What? She called you? I was trying to tell you that Appa hadn’t told her yet and that we were trying to do this...”

“She knows now. I think you should call her...”

He told me the content of their short call.

“Guess I should call her, then,” I resigned.

“Good Luck!” he smirked as he hung up.

What was exchanged in our call can be summarized like so: She accused me of shortening her expected lifespan by 5 years, and I lost my appetite for dinner.

But then, it was relieving to know that she finally knew and that nothing’s going to change the fact that I was still in Bhutan. I went back to my books for the night and made up for all that lost sleep.

The (First) Solo Trip – Prologue

25^th July, 2017

7:30 pm

"Hello, Appa! Are you busy?"

"No, tell me"

"I'm going somewhere tomorrow..."

"Again...um...did you just say 'I'?? No Kevin?"

"Nope. Just me. Solo trip to Bhutan! You tell Amma, okay? Bye!" 

There. It was done. Whenever I go/do something I'm sure my mother wouldn't approve of, I'd take the easy way out and let Appa know instead. Telling her becomes his problem. He would get the initial heat and I would get a slightly mellowed down version a little later.

This time I was off to Bhutan for my first ever solo trip. Yes, I'm married and 30 is just two more trips round the Sun, but I don't think that changes a thing for Amma.

Kevin is cool and he helped me with all the travel arrangements. "Do it, please and get it out of your system," he encouraged. His mom was amazing too. Though she sounded a little apprehensive about me going all alone, she wished me a safe journey.

26^th July, 2017

1:30 am

Kevin saw me off at the Bangalore Airport with a tight hug. I had to fly to Kolkata first, and then to Paro at 6:30 am. Since I have this amazing history with phones that I kept losing, I was armed with two this time, only to wake Kevin up at 5:40 am for this:

“Kevin!”

“Hey…are you all set to board your flight to Paro?”

“No!!! The flight was delayed, the Paro flight is in 50 minutes and I still haven’t got my check in bag….What do I do?”

I was the first person to reach belt 1 to collect my bag. Only no bags were on it yet. I kept looking from my watch to my phone to the belt frantically, hoping it would start moving and that I’d spot my red bag.

This was my first time at the Kolkata airport. I had to get my bag, figure out the way to the International Terminal, collect my boarding pass, go through the Immigration Counter, get my cabin bag scanned, go through security check and get in the flight, all in 50…no, it’s 40 minutes now.

When I finally saw my bag, I could literally hear the Hallelujah chorus in my mind. How I reached the international terminal dragging it along, only my feet know.

I saw “PARO” on a counter and shoved my e-ticket to the person there.

“Ma’am, this is not your airline, yours is Drukair. Please check for the right counter from the display board,” he said pointing. Of course. I should go to the Drukair counter.

At the right counter, the Drukair official was mildly scolding two other girls from the same Kolkata flight I had been in, for reaching late at the counter. I saved them, because all his words were for me now.

6:10 am

“How can you plan to reach so late? What if we had closed the counter? Do you know what the time is?” he went on and on, like a concerned uncle.

I stood there meekly, without a word and grabbed my boarding pass as soon as he printed it out.

“Go straight to the Immigration counter and get to gate 11 quickly!” he said, as I bolted.

“Kevin, I’m in the queue to the Immigration counter, I think I might get in!” I had to let him know.

“Good! Now let me know once you land in Paro.”

I wondered if I had a window seat by any chance and was reaching for my boarding pass, when I realized I didn’t have it in my hand.

“Kevin, I’ll call you back, Bye!” I said, as I hung up quickly, hunting through my bag and papers I held.

I had it in my hand, I did not have enough time to put it in the bag. So it should be…As I looked towards the Drukair Counter, I could see something on the floor, and I ran out from the queue towards it.

“What is it, Ma’am?” asked the official who was chiding us for reaching late. I couldn’t look at his face as I picked up the boarding pass from the floor and ran back to the Immigration queue, but I sure could hear him shouting.

This time there were 10 people ahead of me.

6:15 am

“Drukair announces the departure of its flight KB500 to Paro. All passengers are requested to proceed towards Gate 11, I repeat gate 11 immediately, thank you.”

“Sir, that’s my flight, please can I go ahead?” I asked the person allocating counters for people at the queue.

“No, no, it’s okay. There is time.”

I inched along.

6:20 am

“This is a paging announcement for Ms Reshma Raju Emmatty travelling to Paro on Drukair. Please board the aircraft from Gate 11, thank you!”

“Sir! Sir!” I called waving my hands up in the air this time.

“That announcement was for me! I need to go now!”

Somehow that worked. He let me pass. Bag scanned, security check done, I ran past it all to Gate 11. And guess who is at the counter? The same person who has been scolding me all morning.

“You’ve been running all morning, Ma’am, now please just walk through slowly. Take a break” he smiled

At 6:31 am, I was the last person to board KB 500 to Bhutan. But I did board that flight. With that happy thought, I sinked into my seat, hoping to wake up happy at Paro.

Aswan

June 22

Cairo > Aswan

If there's one thing I didn't like about this trip, it's the wake up time. Well, can't blame ém coz they were doing their best to give us all the places to see, so no complaints.

We drove from Le Meridian to the Cairo Airport. I took one last look at the Pyramids and smiled to myself. Today we were off to the city called Aswan. It was a short domestic flight and as always, Thomas Cook agents were ready and this time it was Emad who met us at the Aswan Airport.

We were taken straight to our cruise ship. And suddenly everything was small. Kinda like how Alice felt when she had the cake and grew big. The room, the loo, everything. But of course everything was great, only small.

We left our luggage in our cabin and were on our way to the high dam over Lake Nasser. It is the largest artificial lake in the world. Our guide there was Mortez. Emad had left after dropping us at the cruise and introducing us to Mortez. Mortez could read the cartouge I had around my neck. That felt good.

After the dam, we went to the Philae temple. It was on an island, so we went by boat. I wonder how it would have been if my mom was there, she completely hates the idea of boats.

It was lovely to see the temple from the boat as it looked larger as we approached. This temple was dedicated to Isis. The walls were full of hieroglyphs. It was partly destroyed by ancient Christians calling it a pagan place of worship.

Mortez told us how the Christians had hid here during the Roman attack, how the side were the Nubians used were less destroyed, about Hathor's smiling 7 faces, how the temple was rebuilt two times and moved to the current location...

We went back to the cruise. It was still at the dock, so it was like the floating restaurant in Cairo, only, this time we were in the basement so through the circular windows I could see water above my head. It was a buffet, okay-okay types.

We could rest for the rest of the day. But the mission for the day was to find fresh dates to take home for Amma. Of everything we had in the buffet, nothing was as good as the dates. I've had the fresh dates that we get back in India, but these were different, really juicy and great. But sadly, the crew didn't understand the English word dates so we took one from the buffet table and asked them were we could find dates like these.

They gave an attended Mahmood to accompany me and Appa and we were off to the Aswan market near by. Here too, people magically recognized us as Indians. I seriously don't know how. There were a lot of spices in the stores, a lot of sheesha kept out of different shapes and sizes and you could see small groups of people having a little conversation while slowly exhaling the sweet smoke.

One thing in my to-do list in the cruise ship was to have champagne. That couldn't be done. Dinner was buffet again in the same basement restaurant and after that we went to the upper deck to see the night lights and click some pics.

Sleep came really quick because we had woken up early that day and also because we had to the next day as well.

Cairo, Day 2

June 20

Writing this after a very long gap. I had made it a point to jot down things things I saw and did each day during that week I had in Egypt and to put it all here I guess I grew too lazy. Anyways, here goes.

Second day in Cairo. Enid Blyton breakfast repeat :P.

The Cairo museum is where we spent most our day. That place has thousands of years of history spread across its halls. According to Sam, we could distinguish the artifacts of Egypt by their look- if the statues had a dignified look about them, it belonged to the ancient period. The ones from the middle ages were grim and dark. The modern ones were fair in nature.

There were sarcophaguses of stone and alabaster at every turn and corner. Sam told us a lot that day. About Ka, Ba, Hathor, Horus, Isis and Osiris, false doors, embalming, Hatshepsut, Tutmosis, Ramesis...I could travel back in time through his stories and the things I saw there. Honestly, you'll need more than a day to walk leisurely through here and see all the wonders exhibited.

My younger brother can act like a spoilt brat at times. But in ancient Egypt there was a 19-year-old who could cover himself with gold. Yeah, I'm talking about King Tut alright. There was a whole section dedicated to his belongings. On his body, they found 143 gold objects wrapped in the linen coverings. The gold mask alone weighed 11 kg! His solid gold coffin was placed within 3 other coffins (like those Russian dolls), which in turn was inside 4 concentric rooms. His ornaments weer adorned with carnelian, lapiz lazuli and turquoise.

Then there was an ancient Egyptian ornament section. I'm somebody who hates wearing gold just because of the shiny yellow colour and the boring patterns I've seen. But looks like I could be game for the ancient Egyptian kind. There were really pretty, fashionable ones that I absolutely loved. The earrings were too thick, the holes in your ears have to be really wide to put the ones here on.

Another thing I remember from here is a birthing stool. The ancient Egyptians believed the crouching position was the most healthy one for birthing and had special stools with a hole in the middle for this purpose. Other things that caught my attention were a queen's bed, her metal pillow and her slimy internal organs still preserved. A duplicate of the Rosetta stone.Ancient writings, magic spells, charms....

Then there was the mummy room where we saw 12 mummies resting since about a 1000 years. We could still see the hair and nails.

I seriously cannot sum up everything I saw in there. You have to be there to get how it feels. History all around you, all about you.

The day's lunch included Kobeba and beef kofta.

Next we went to St Mary's church. It was a hanging church, placed above wooden beams on an ancient building. Legend has it that Mary had appeared in this church several times. They also say that  Mary and Joseph hid here while travelling to Bethlehem while King Herod was hunting for baby Jesus.

This church had a lot of interesting symbology.The fish shaped tile, the 13 pillared pulpit...

We also went to a market that day. Full of hustle and bustle, people saying Namaste identifying us as Indians, calling out Amitabh, Shahrukh, Amir. It really is a wonder how they knew we were Indians. Yes we are brown skinned, dark hair, dark eyes, but there are a whole lot of other citizens who look like us, right? Pakistanis, Sri Lankans...

Anyways, we said bye to Sam that day. Had an early sleep too, coz the next day was supposed to start at 3:00 am.

Cairo, Day 1

June 19^th

Alexandria > Cairo

Fresh fruit and fruit juice, grilled tomatoes, cheese, sausages, bacon, French toast, honey, waffles, pancakes, scones, Danish, yoghurt.. Remember the spread Julian, Dick, George and Anne used to have? Breakfast in Radisson Blue reminded me of them. One of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had! I’ve not mentioned the complete list here, coz there were tables and tables of things and I could sample only so much, but you get the idea, right? Anyways, this post isn’t about food, so let’s move on.

After breakfast we checked out of Radisson Blue and we were off to Cairo. 3 hrs road trip. Did I mention that Thareeq stopped a truck loaded with fresh tomatoes so that he could get some for us the day before? Well, he had. It was so nice of him and we enjoyed having it. But we weren’t too keen on having tomatoes after breakfast, but Thareeq stopped a Tomato van and a Grapes van on the way so that we could taste them.

Somewhere in the middle of the journey we stopped at a small motel kind of a place. There was a souvenir shop where everybody went to. Thareeq went straight to a tabled and settled down with a hookah. You don’t see much of alcohol out in the open in this country, but smoke, yes, you see it everywhere.  Of course I couldn’t resist when he offered me, so I had to try :P (It was amazing!)

When we reached Cairo, Sameer a.k.a Sam, our guide for Cairo joined us and he quizzed us a bit about Egypt. He wore a locket with some hieroglyphs that caught my eye. He explained that it was a Cartouche. Pharoes got their name written in oval brackets to protect them, as a symbol of power etc. And if any common man dared to wear one, it was “off with his head!” in those days. I made up my mind to get one for myself.

He first took us to a Papyrus shop. Guess everybody knows that papyrus was the first form of paper ever, made from the papyrus reed. We saw how it was being made. And do you know why the papyrus reed was used? The cross section of the reed’s stem has triangles (Triangles>face of the pyramid>ray of the sun)! There were a lot of replicas of ancient Egyptian paintings here for sale. The judgement day, Tutankamun, Nefertiti, the Egyptian calendar, Horus, Cleopatra, Nut, Isis and Osiris...they even had Christian imagery on Papyrus. These people do know their tourism industry :P

After that was Pyramids. What I reaaally longed to see. Sam kept saying things about it as we neared it, but I was too busy gazing at them to hear much of what he was saying. He got us the tickets and we were walking out in the Egyptian sun towards the Pyramids.

You don’t realize how huge they are until you reach quite close to them. They look as if they are made up of small stones from a distance, but the height of the lowest array of stones is almost up to my shoulder and weigh tonnes. And they are arranged in perfect symmetry with no mortar or cementing, just placed one on top of the other.

There is more about the three great pyramids of Giza. Do you know Orion’s belt? The hunter that appear in the night sky with three stars that form his belt? The three pyramids of Giza and the three stars in Orion’s belt are aligned in a way. The biggest pyramid is of Khufu, the smaller of his son Khafre and the smallest of Menkaure. Khafre made his smaller than his father’s out of respect. So his son menkaure followed suit and built his a little smaller than Khafre’s.

The entrance to a Pyramid is small, narrow, and people with claustrophobia were advised not to enter. Because it is a small narrow tunnel which you have to crouch and climb down by wooden plank steps, walk straight a bit and then do the crouching –climbing thingy up to see the Pharaoh's sarcophagus.  I went in.

This was the tunnel through which the Pharaoh’s body was taken in by the priests and mourners to be placed safely for his afterlife. The small room up had the cold stone sarcophagus. The coffin and mummy were taken elsewhere, you could only see the ancient king’s resting place made for him millenniums before. This room held all his treasures and belongings. This small room was the reason for the gigantic architectural marvels.

How the pyramids were exactly built is something Egyptologists are not too sure of. True, there are theories, of rolling the stones over logs, lifting the stones manually and bizarre ideas of aliens helping them out, but how they could build these colossal structures with each stone that weighs tonnes in an age so ancient and create it so perfectly?

After the Pyramids, we went to a point where the three pyramids could be seen together from a distance. This is where all the songs scenes that involve shots with the pyramids are taken. Then we saw the temple where the mummification was done. It’s a 72 days process. First thirty days is purification and the next forty days is mummification. In the purification part, the body is cleaned, the internal organs are taken out and salts are used to cleanse it. The 4 vital organs according to the ancient Egyptian tradition that are required in the afterlife are the lungs, stomach, intestines and stomach. They are placed in 4 jars. You must’ve seen it in The Mummy, right?

Then the body is embalmed with oil and essences, armed with amulets and other magical trinkets and placed in the coffin. Mourners, musicians, priests and people carry the Pharaohs body into the pyramid and place there all possible things he might need in the afterlife. Sam said that grave robbers opened the graves mainly for food. Gold and treasures were sought after that.

Next we saw the sphinx. Human face and Lion’s body. Khafre’s face to be exact. Like a guardian of the great pyramids. Its nose was smashed by a ruler who wanted to prove that he was powerful than Egyptians.

After taking in all this, we went for lunch. On the Nile! It was a floating restaurant. Food was Egyptian again coz we wanted to try that. Chicken cooked with their special spices, kebabs, meat rolled in grape vine leaves, salads and desserts with dates.

Then we checked in at Le Meridian, Cairo (Yes, I got to stay in there!).  After nice long rest we went back to the Pyramids area again. But this time, we were there for a light and sound show. No walking around. It was presented like the Sphinx telling a story. It talked about Egypt’s history, stories from the past, the pharaohs of the pyramids and the glory of the ancient Egyptian civilization. It was a lovely sight. And there was a cool breeze and it was pleasant to sit out there and watch the show.

Dinner was on a rooftop restaurant. Food was great as usual, not going into details. I could still see the outline of the Pyramids from where I was sitting. I still had one more day in this city, close to the place I’ve longed to see.

Alexandria

Prologue

Is there one thing that you always wanted to do? Something you kind of dreamt of since forever? For me it was Egypt. My folks still find it crazy, but even as a kid that is one place I wanted to visit. 

Now, my School's library is in the new building that connects the Lower school to the Upper school. Back in the ancient times when I used to be a school girl, it used to be right next to the Office room. There, near that window which overlooked Lourdes Cathedral, there was a shelf with an awesome book on Egypt which some of my Egypt crazy friends and I used to read up and be amazed. The glory of the giant pyramids, ancient stories from an age old civilization, the details of the mummification process, names of their multitude of gods- I was under the spell of the Gift of Nile. 

June 18^th, 2014

Cochin -> Mumbai -> Sharjah -> Alexandria. 

It was a really bright and sunny morning when I landed at the Alexandria airport. Not many people would be overjoyed about leaving the air-conditioned airport to face the hot dry weather, but I couldn’t wait. I was finally at Egypt! Think happy, and multiply it by 1000. That’s the kind of feeling I’m talking about.

As soon as we stepped out, we were met by a chirpy, bubbly Shima, who was our guide at Alexandria, and Thareeq , the ever smiling driver. Though we all were tired and sleepy after some 12 hrs of travelling, Shima didn’t give us more than 20 minutes to quickly freshen up and go for the city tour. She was as proud of Alexandria as I was of Thrissur, so it showed when she talked about each place she pointed out.

First stop was lunch and we wanted to try the local cuisine. I forget the place’s name, but what they served was simply wonderful. First was Koshidi- A blend of rice, noodles, and pasta topped with tomato puree, fried onion and chick peas. Then we had Shawarma. Not the fast food types you get on the streets here, the real deal. Beef. Was lip smackingly good.

After lunch we were off to see the Citadel of Alexandria. It was originally the site of Ptolemy’s light house. But after an earth quake destroyed it, they built this citadel there. By the way, a citadel is a fortress on top of a hill. Next stop was the library of Alexandria. Though we were still full from lunch, Shima insisted we try ice cream from one of her favourite stores nearby. And since her favourite flavour was vanilla, I had to get a scoop of that plus what I wanted! But I don’t regret it. It was one of the richest, creamiest Vanilla ice cream scoops I had had.

Still holding ice cream cones in our hands, we reached the library. It was an elliptical dome. Shima, a PhD student talked about how cheap the membership fees was for students and how helpful she found the place, about the types of books and artefacts in the library, about how Alexandria got its name from Alexander the great...There was a sun dial and a planetarium in the premise too.

Then we visited a mosque. I had never been inside one before, so it was something new for me. There was a section for the ladies and another for the men. A Quran recital competition was going on when we entered. The wooden ceiling had beautiful carvings. I saw the side of the mosque facing Mecca.

And now Shima declared that the scheduled places at Alexandria were done, but if we wanted to go anywhere else, she was game to take us. But as rest was inevitable at this point, we headed back to Radisson Blue where a hot shower and a huge bath tub beckoned me. I wanted to be up and about the next day, for 19^th June, 2014 is when I would go see the Pyramids.

Children's Day Rant

Chilly breezes have started making their presence felt, making waking up a really hard thing to do, making me think of Christmas already.

There's one other thing that this autumn breeze reminds me of- the 'thud's of closing brown windows back at school.The way we used to keep stones so that they wouldn't close(later on the latch thingies were installed). Half yearly exam at school would be sometime in December. And a bit before that we'd have Children's day celebration. Like today! 

I recall being a Nurse, a Teacher and Mother Mary for the fancy dress competition held in school as part of the Children's Day celebrations. Also that skit we performed in Class 4 on child labour. With Simi Miss as our Class Teacher. For which we won the first prize.

Children's day itself would have only a few little things like this for me to remember of. But spending my childhood at NMCS was awesomeness. The kids now don't find school as great as it was for us. But that's because we had all the fun, we broke all the rules, so yeah, sorry, you kids don't get to do things that we did.

A friend of mine here from Pune holds that his Boys' school was way more fun than any co-ed school. I simply do not agree. I mean, how can it be? You have boys, you have girls. You have all the fun with your girl/boy gangs, plus you get the fun of being together!

Like, at first, if you chatter a lot, you'd be warned by your teacher that you'd be made to sit in between boys. But in a few years, that would be the sweetest punishment you could get. All those years of growing up together, the teasings, the gossips, the fights, the groups, the crushes...and most importantly, the friendships :D

Appa has a gang of friends from college whom he still meets. I do too. From, school. The strongest, the closest people I have are still from school. Those idiots next to whom I sat in class 8 always, how hard Jihan Miss tried to shuffle the Class. we'd be togther. Some how. 

Canada, Pune, Chennai or Thrissur, when we meet, we just become our usual crazy selves. 

Well, childhood is something special for all of us. And we all have a little kid within us (And some of us still kid around a lot :P ). No matter how we hated homeworks, exams, assignments, those occassional 'caning's, we'll still remember school with a little smile. We really grew up there. Together. And there's no dearth for stories once we start talking of that place.