“Jangan lupa singgah pyramid May, cantik betul kat sana, tapi hati-hati kena scam“. Pesan yang sama saya dapat dari beberapa teman yang mendengar rencana perjalanan saya ke Mesir. Sempatkan berkunjung ke piramida. Malam terakhir di Mesir saya menginap di Giza. Misi utamanya adalah melihat sunset, sunrise dan mengunjungi piramida di pagi hari ketika belum banyak pengunjung. Sebagai salah satu dari UNESCO 7 wonders ancient world dan satu-satunya yang masih tegak berdiri, Kompleks Piramida Giza adalah tempat wisata paling populer di Mesir. Mission accomplished, hotel tempat saya menginap ternyata tepat berada di depan Kompleks Piramida Giza. Dari roof top hotel terlihat jelas piramida yang gagah perkasa, it’s simply a rock, but it is so beautiful. Ada 3 piramida utama di Giza : Khufu, Khafra dan Menkaura. Mereka bertiga adalah raja-raja dinasti keempat di periode kerajaan lama (Old Kingdom) Mesir yang juga dikenal sebagai periode pembangunan piramida. Hampir seluruh raja Old Kingdom membangun piramida sebagai lambang dari puncak peradaban Mesir kuno. Setidaknya ada 118 piramida yang ditemukan dan teridentifikasi sebagai “Egyptian” pyramids. Piramida Djoser yang berada di …

Early this year I had the chance to choose between attending conferences in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia or Cairo, Egypt to present my papers. The Dhahran conference is the high profile one, a chance for networking, reunion and also a great opportunity for job hunting. My friends who will be attending have also planned to perform Umrah afterward. However, Egypt is calling, it was hard to say no. The opportunity to visit one of the oldest civilizations in the world was too appealing to pass up. Egypt is magical, and it was started before the trip as well. I was so busy (as usual), and my overseas trip only approved two weeks before. Indonesian must apply an entry visa beforehand, and it is well known that applying Egypt visa from Malaysia is extremely difficult. My friend said it need at least a month! And to make it more complicated, we had a plan to visit Phuket during the CNY holiday, I would definitely need my passport for that trip. And I only back to Kuala Lumpur …