A trip to Shendi : The pyramids...

When we arrived around 11.45 am, I saw a group of sudanese selling trinkets and stuff outside of the gate. We were too excited to explore the pyramids to take too much notice. The plague outside gave the name of the pyramids as the royal cemetery of Meroe. Fortunately, we have among us En. Razali who could speak Arabic (he was an ex-student of KISAS). The entrance fee was 10 sdg for adults, kids free.

The trinket sellers...

The kids trying to find shade...hehehe

The plague outside of the pyramids...

En. Zainal was a bit nervous when he heard En. Razali mentioned that we're an 'usrah'... he thought that we had to be involved in an usrah before going in... hehehe... En. Razali was just explaining that we're a family (keluarga). We were laughing when we went in but looking at the little hill that we had to climb, we inhaled deep breaths...

Picture taken about a third of the walk up the hill...

The kids were already half way up the hill, while the adults inch our way up...literally, okay?!! I was with Hadi, while Amir's with my husband. I discovered that I had to walk fast in order not to be 'swallowed' by the sand... Actually, I was too heavy to stay in one place too long...hehehe... We were breathless by the time we were up there. Discovered a shady spot and the ladies took advantage of some rocks to catch our breath.

Picture was taken from our resting place...

We discovered that there were many little pyramids, not like in Egypt... I guess the technology was adopted in Egypt in a grander scale. They even used Sudanese labourers to build the pyramids in Egypt. I don't think the labourers were all that happy to be the servants of the empire... hmm... I should have read more on the subject because there was no guide and no leaflets to tell us about the pyramids in Shendi. I wish there was a guide to tell us about the history, instead we literally just roaming around the area.

After a while, I decided I'd better explore the area also... well, I did endure hours on the road not to enjoy this wonderful remains of an era. It was quite hot and we were easily thirsty. Aliah had fun with her friends while the boys kept me company.

My husband and Amir...

Amir was very cranky because of the heat...sigh...

As a family...in the shade...hehehe...

Mas and me...relaxing while watching the kids play...

After about an hour, we went down where all the camels await us... hehehe. We were delightfully surprised that Hadi agreed to ride the camel with Aliah. I was also glad that each and everyone of us managed to ride on the camels. Even the XXXL among us could ride (that includes me...hehehe). I just remembered that it was very high sitting on top of the camel and I had a scary experience when I tried to get on the camel. It suddenly lurched forward and nearly stepped on Amir. It was scary alright!!! Anyway, we felt like travellers during olden times sitting on a camel... Those single status engineers were wearing jalabiya, so they looked the part...hehehe...

Aliah and Hadi...

Amir and me...

En. Zainal with his camel... hehehe

En. Zainal was the last one to ride a camel and he was unlucky enough to get a temperamental one. The camel was making a lot of noise from the beginning of the journey until the end... from the picture you could imagine the noise the camel was making...hehehe...or was the camel protesting under his weight...hehehe... jangan mare ye En. Zainal... nanti kena jual... hehehe

Suffice to say that we had fun. We were making jokes how P.Ramlee got it right in his movie (3 Abdul)... we even recalled some lines like...'tumpuk2 tahi unta...). It was true, there were little mounds of camel s*** lying around... hehehe. After that we went to Shendi to have a picnic near the Nile river but lost our way. When we finally reached the spot, the men decided that it was not suitable for the ladies (on account of the place was where the sudanese men took their bath in the river without a stitch on...hmmm... could have make a very good entry that...hehehe).

Anyway, we finally reached a shady spot under a huge tree to consume all the food...not that we could finish everything...there were just too much food!!! We even gave some to a few sudanese sitting nearby. The only concern during the whole trip was the lack of toilets. There was one at the pyramids but nothing at all where we ate. So, we just went back to 'nature'... hehehe... imagine what you like but desperate times called for desperate measures. We used towels and even mats to cover ourselves...hehehe...

I truly enjoyed the trip... the visit as well as the company... We reached Khartoum during maghrib... Alhamdulillah...