Riding Camels in Sahara Desert ....

“What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery quotes (French Pilot, Writer and Author of 'The Little Prince', 1900-1944)

But to me what makes the desert beautiful is the camel ...

And to get there we need a sail boat ...

After struggling to get on ... finally!

Camels and humans ...

Say cheese!

OMG ... I am actually riding the camel on my own...-without someone holding it

Time to get down - Ugh easy ..easy ...

Finally ... down. Good camel!

Camels in Egypt originated from Sudan and they have one hump --a bit smaller compared to the ones from Gobi desert, China. (One of these days, I will take you all to ride camels in the Gobi desert but for now, let's focus on Sahara desert.)

Sahara desert is considered the world hottest desert and second largest desert next to the icy desert in Antarctica.

Property of healthylifecarenews.com

Hope you enjoy our journeys to the Egypt ...

•  Journey to the land of Pharaohs --First Stop: Pyramid Giza
•  Journey deep into the Red Pyramid
• The Valley of Kings and The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut
•  Tidbits about Egypt

the fun doesn't end here but I would try to insert other topics here and there and back to Egypt next Friday --too many places there to show you ...

Until next stop,
Journey of Life

Tidbits about Egypt ...

Sunset at the Cairo Airport

 We had so much fun so far traveling to Egypt on the following journeys ...

•  Journey to the land of Pharaohs --First Stop: Pyramid Giza
•  Journey deep into the Red Pyramid
• The Valley of Kings and The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

But, before we go to another site, let's look at its weather. I have found the following data from the net for your guideline.

property of www.ask-alladin.com

Some data suggested that majority of the today Egyptians are Muslims and there are some Christians. Ever since the fall of its kingdom due to so many invasions, some suggested that today Egyptians have a mixed of some foreigners', ancient Egyptians' and Arabians' blood. In another words, ancient Egyptians have vanished through this world.

Along with the Egyptians are the Nubians, they are the descendant from the ancient Nubians who have inhibited in the Aswan (Egypt.) According to our tour guide, unlike Egyptians, Nubians are keeping their houses and environment clean from garbage. They use Camels and donkeys as their main transportation.

Donkey and I :-)

And here are some photos taken at the Nubian Village ...

 

Bedroom

Their kitchen ...

Notice the rounded thingy stacked on top of the clay oven? --those are breads ...

Nubian kids ...

And I have the privilege of tasting their food ...

Beef stew and some side dishes ...

Rice

The tastiest bread --the ancient Egyptian sand bread ...

Now ... It was said that in order to quicken the process of grinding, the ancient Egyptian bakers (mostly women) would add sand or ground stone to the grain so they would grind much faster. That was the main reason why the ancient Egyptians possessed poor teeth. And today --let's hope the sand bread that I ate didn't contain any sand ...

Of course, this visit will not be completed without a visit to the bazaar ....

Meet the sand glass artist ...

Ah ...sipping a cup of Turkish coffee at the local cafe ....

Awake? . Time to go about your routines and I will see you tomorrow at the Sahara desert for our camels riding ...

Until next stop,
Journey of Life

The Valley of Kings and The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

Valley of Kings was supposed to be a hush-hush burial place for the pharaoh until myriad of robbers, treasures hunters, archaeologists combing thru the place and now us ...

The Valley of Kings --property of http://science.nationalgeographic.com

I hope you had fun visiting the Pyramid Giza and stepping foot inside the Red Pyramid and the fun is not over yet!

So far only 63 tombs (and counting) were discovered in the Valley of Kings and the 63th one is the well known Pharaoh Tutankhamun's, which was laid undisturbed until Howard Carter discovered it. It was said that only 24 of those are royal tombs and the rest are nobles and animals'.

Today, we would personally visit the following tombs:

•  Site KV2: tomb of Ramses IV

Outside the tomb of Ramses IV, property of http://library.thinkquest.org

• Site KV6: tomb of Ramses IX
  
  I found this link so you could view it with your eyes as it was prohibited to take any photo nor video during my personal visit. Enjoy!  http://www.virtualsweden.se/panorama/tomb-ramses-ix-valley-kings
• Site KV6: tomb of Ramses II
  
  This is in fact is one of the largest tomb in the Valley of Kings. It covers more than .2 acre.

Inside the tomb of Ramses II, property of smithsonianjourneys.org

 

Walking inside the tomb, property of National Geographic

No, we are not visiting the tomb of the King Tutankhamun, as you know that all of these tombs are pretty much empty and the treasures have been brought to the Egyptian Museum. So, after looking inside three tombs in the heat of 110 degree Fahrenheit, we called it enough :-)

And now let's move to the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. She is the first known female monarch that ruled for more than two decade. Some of the inscription even described her as a male.

 

The queen and I 

 And that conclude our visit to the Valley of Kings and the Mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut but the mystery remains ... as the tomb of Ramses VIII is yet to be found.

And where are we going tomorrow, you ask. Let's see, how about visiting the lifestyle of the Egyptians.. It only be exciting if we know how they are doing these days and what are the typical food they are consuming. And on Friday, we would be riding camels in the Sahara desert. Sounds good?

OK. Until next stop,
Journey of Life

Journey deep into the Red Pyramid

Never thought I would step foot on the land of the pharaohs ..and only then have I realized how impressive the pyramids are! Yesterday, we visited the Pyramid Giza (http://journeyofmylifendestiny.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-land-of-pharaoh.html) and today, we are venturing deep into the Red Pyramid.

First off, the Red Pyramid was built by the Pharaoh Sneferu, father of Khufu. It was said that according to the ancient depictions, the pyramid took 10 years and seven months to build. --source: http://www.sacred-destinations.com

This pyramid holds a special place in my memory, and I bet it would be the same for you, since I am taking you with me to explore the inside of the pyramid --right into its chambers.

Can you see the way in? Now ...what are you waiting for? C'mon in ..

Lemme lead the way ...

View from the bottom of the pyramid

Yes... Are you still there?

Or are you still down there? Hurry up, we ain't got whole day :-)

View from down there ...

Where are you?

The Second Chamber

There are three chambers inside the Red Pyramid, the third one was believed to be the burial chamber.

Burial Chamber ...

I hope you had fun stepping into the Red Pyramid with me and now time to climb back out ...-ugh, why there are so many steps?

  

Finally, we are out now and let's plan on going to the Valley of Kings tomorrow --what do ya say? 

Until next stop,

Journey of Life

Journey to the land of Pharaohs --First Stop: Pyramid Giza

Last Friday was supposed to be the day we get to travel but I couldn't manage to carve out some time.   To make out what we have missed, this whole week, I am going to take you all to the land of pharaoh --Egypt.
And today, we are visiting the 'Pyramid Giza.' I won't bore you with history but still, a little bit of background is cool. Pyramid Giza is the oldest of the 'Seven wonders" of ancient the world that still exists and largely intact --and the last survivor!

Five thousand years ago, Giza was the burial place for the Memphis, the pharaoh's capital city. The three pyramids and the Sphinx were built by arguably the greatest civilization on earth.

How do you feel so far? One could imagine my feeling when I first caught sight at the pyramids. There was a surge of excitement, feeling of impressed and touched. And the pyramid, at the first glimpse, it looks so majestic and every corner we turn ... we are trying to capture the moment --click, click.

Around 2,550 BC the first pyramid was built by Khufu, pharaoh, with over 2 millions block and weigh around 2.5 tons. --what do ya say? --I am totally in awe!

Here what I extracted from National Geographic site describing who built the pyramid, "

It took more than manual labor, though. Architects achieved an accurate pyramid shape by running ropes from the outer corners up to the planned summit, to make sure the stones were positioned correctly. And priests-astronomers helped choose the pyramids' sites and orientations, so that they would be on the appropriate axis in relation to sacred constellations.

From stone pusher to priest, every worker would likely have recognized his or her role in continuing the life-and-death cycle of the pharaohs, and thereby in perpetuating the glory of Egypt."

The Sphinx and the second tallest pyramid was built by Khafre, Khufu's next successor. The littlest one was built by the grandson, Menkaure

Along the side of both Khufu and Khafre's pyramids were large boat-shaped pits and buried boats that were presumably meant to help both pharaoh on their journey to afterlife.--Interesting...

Hope you enjoy this little getaway and see you tomorrow on our journey to the "Adventure into the Red Pyramid." (http://journeyofmylifendestiny.blogspot.com/2012/08/journey-deep-into-red-pyramid.html)

Until next stop,
Journey of Life

Giving procrastination a second look ...

Recently I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal written by Dr. Perry, an emeritus professor of philosophy at Stanford University, is the author of "The Art of Procrastination," to be published by Workman later this month.  He mentioned that being a procrastinator is not bad at all… Why you say?

Here is what he has to say, a lot of us are feeling bad when we are ones or perhaps feeling depressed or even taking many advices such as don’t take in too many responsibilities or tasks simply because we may fail them. He advised totally different, in fact, take in as many tasks as possible because most procrastinators are ‘structured procrastinators” –we choose to be that way. We prefer doing something else than something deem more important but boring such as –doing budget or perhaps doing tax returns. So, the question is do we get it done? If the answer is, ‘YES,” then why worry about it?

In my humble opinion, when we are no longer meeting the deadlines or simply suffer consequences, perhaps it is time to look at how to improve your procrastination habit. Yes? Okay. Still not convince?

Here is his advice if you are a procrastinators:

• Avoid perfectionist – he said ‘avoid fantasizing doing things perfectly. Often procrastination is just a way of giving ourselves permission to do a less-than-perfect job on something that doesn't require a perfect job anyway.”

• Try not to be annoying to the non-procrastinators –in another words, admit it and work with them.

None of us are perfect anyway, in one way or another, we have been a procrastinator but perhaps the degree of procrastinating is the key. As long as we can accomplish what we want to accomplish and are meeting our given deadlines and are not suffering any consequences, why not! 

According to the author, it is worse if you are a ‘depressed procrastinator.”

He also mentioned a way to handle the common habit that turns us into a procrastinator in this modern world --sitting in front of our laptops and checking emails. How many of us happen to click a link and ended up reading some articles or perhaps surfing the net and at the end we haven’t gotten our most important tasks done and yet the time was gone. Now, are you a procrastinator? :-)

Well, he said that running our laptops from battery would help to break the habit --Oops! I am running out of battery, perhaps time to do real work :-)

There is one thing I find most helpful in dealing with procrastination --is to list of the tasks in hand and prioritize accordingly. It gives me a chance to see how much room do I have or perhaps how much time that I can procrastinate against certain tasks.

Hope you find this blog as interesting as I was writing it. –Um .. never thought I would give ‘procrastination’ a second look…

Until next stop,

Journey of Life

Calcium: too much or too little?

"Unless you take in enough calcium, by mouth, every day, you have to keep borrowing it from your skeleton, so over your lifetime, you need to get enough," says Dr. Siris. "If you have low bone mass, or are at risk for fractures, you want to minimize any need to take calcium from the skeleton."--cited from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304708604577502660615577758.html

Phew! That sounds so scary and couple with confusion whether we are taking in enough calcium or not. Then there is this news about some research that suggest that some of us are maybe eating too much calcium which in turn can cause more harms than good --heart attack and kidney stone.

Now you ask... what else besides milk and cheese that we need to consume to get our calcium and how do we know the exact amount of calcium that we are taking in unless we are consuming some supplement?

Okay, in general just fyi,  8 ounces of milk or 6 ounces of yogurt has 300 mg of calcium, and one cup of spinach has 270 mg.  

For more complete list, try looking up on the following links that I have found:

• http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile68e.stm
• And for comparison:  http://www.niams.nih.gov/health_info/bone/bone_health/nutrition/

As many of you have already known that our bodies need the help of vitamin D to absorb calcium intake. In a nut shell, for most of us, consuming about 600 international units a day is sufficient It is also noted that it is quite cumbersome to get vitamin D from food source and --sun exposure is not the best choice since it is also the leading cause of skin cancer. That leaves vitamin D supplement as our ultimate choice.

Now back to the question, how much is enough? 

According to the experts, in general we should gobble up about 1000 - 1200 mg/day (maximum of 2000 mg/day) calcium from food sources which is easily accomplish (please refer to the list of food on the above links or any other source of information that you may encounter) instead of taking in calcium supplement. But, if you can't get enough from food, by all means, please consult with your doctor/nutritionist on how much supplement you should take in. 

I hope you find this stop visiting our health --whether we are taking enough calcium or not, useful. 

Until next stop,

Journey of Life

Inheritance

Years ago, I have the privileged to visit one of the oldest civilizations on earth, Chinese. Back then --life was pretty simple. Majority of the people were still following the culture that was passed down from generation to generation. One could still see the glimpse of ancient traditions in pretty much every corner you turned.

Same thing I noticed years later when I visited Greece. The Greeks were definitely one of the most amazing civilizations with many treasures left over from their ancestors. Nevertheless, they are one of the ancient civilizations that still exist in this world.

Something caught my eyes when I visited one of the oldest civilizations in the world, the Egyptian. Not until then, I have finally understood the dilemma behind --inheritance.

Occasionally now and then, we have read in the news that some tycoons or the rich and famous that would rather leave their wealth to some charities instead of leaving them behind to their descendants. I  have never understood the reasons behind --perhaps due to my ignorance or simply I am not that rich :-)

Not until my visit to the Egypt, an eye opening experience that I felt like somehow a light bulb has lighted up. It is in my humble opinion that one of the reasons behind the theory of inheritance was --identity. The tycoons want their offspring to find their own identity by struggling --perhaps with a better, and solid ground to begin with, but still able to find their own identity and strike a fortune. Only then, they can claim their own identity and put up their own flag on the mountain that they have climbed themselves instead of --being dropped off by by their parents' helicopters. Of course, there will always be an exception where some of the descendants are able to expand beyond their inheritance, but for the most part ...

The Chinese, the Greeks and the Egyptians share one thing in common --great inheritance. There is no doubt that these three ancient civilizations have been fortunate enough to inherit so much wealth and knowledge from their ancestors.And for years the Chinese were living off from their inheritance until much recent years that they finally came out from the shell and made their debut. And you all know where the Greeks are today. As for the Egyptians, they are in the midst of struggling to find their new identity and perhaps someday --will awe the world, just like their pyramids.

It has been an interesting journey, I say --visiting the inheritance from the ancient civilizations' point of view and I hope you enjoy it.

Until next stop,

Journey of Life

 

Our first stop -- Doing something we truly enjoy

I hope I find you all well and it has been sometime since our last ride. Before hand, I would like to extend my gratitude for those of you who had been visiting my blog while I was taking the break. Thank you for keeping the seats warm while the train was off. .

Now, has it been a moon away since I was gone? Nevertheless, I am so exciting to be back! BTW., have you seen the train?Does it look different?

Property of picturesforcoloring.com

Yes? You said, it looks the same? :-) --It does, huh! Wait, let me check. Aha! Its engine is well rested and in fact, it is ready to board its passengers. Have you heard its whistle? What are you waiting for? C'mon in and grab a seat and let's have a ride! And ...

guess what?! Recently, I was conversing with my younger brother who is attending an executive MBA program at one of the most prestigious Universities. He mentioned to us that some of the courses/seminars that he took were quite interesting. In fact they weren't anything to do with academic but something to do with finding who you are, what would you like to do --something that you truly enjoy and perhaps be thriving for --interesting...

A lot of us can't truly grasp this philosophy simply we are bound to do what the path has set for us or the path that we chose since day one. We are doing it day to day and somehow --the things we used to like to do have become things we must do.Somehow it has lost its meaning.. somehow it has lost its charm.

Coincidentally, the other night, we went out for a dinner and before we headed home, we stopped by at a gas station. All of the sudden my girls decided they wanted to clean our car's windows. So off the two and they did with much enthusiasm, much excitement and our car's windows were sparkling clean. One of the customers walked back to his car with his widest smile looking at my girls' excitement. He probably never seen any one that was that excited cleaning their car.

The question is, why were my girls so excited? Would they be that excited if cleaning the car windows become part of the responsibilities? --not sure ... perhaps yes... perhaps no.

But, I do know one thing, what my brother said and what my girls reminded me one simply thing in life --that, we need to enjoy what we are doing to truly be happy. If something that we do have become a drag --perhaps, it is time to ask ourselves and --perhaps, it is time to take the courage to change.

Hope you enjoy this first stop visiting "Doing something we truly enjoy!"

Until next stop,

Journey of Life