Went to Egyptian museum (30 pounds for student) and spent 2 hours there. There are many cool artifacts but I can’t bring in my camera.

Egyptian Museum

Walked around the city, to opera house and Cairo tower which is not far away from downtown.

Took a bus to Giza with Mahmod and we got there around 4.30pm. It’s around 40 mins ride by bus. The Pyramid closed early because of Ramadan so we rent a horse (after haggling, I paid around 75 pounds for each person for a 1.5 hours ride) and ride around outside the pyramids instead.

Pyramid

Muslims in Cairo fast during Ramadan from around 4am till 6pm. I spent the whole day without eating or drinking, just to try out how it felt. I was exhausted after the day because the weather in Cairo is hot and dusty.
Egypt is so chaotic; bus doesn’t have set schedule nor a fix stop, to get on the bus is by chance and no one queues here. There are not many traffic lights in Cairo and nobody follow the traffic lights, the traffic lights here are just for decorations and it’s a challenge to cross the road.
Walked around Talab Hart st (street for shopping) in downtown. Met up with Don and he brought me to Goal Café in Zamalek with his scooter.

Sheesha (called hookah in the US)

With Don

People don’t sleep here. It’s 2.30am and there are still many families and kids running on the street.

Took the tube from Faringdon station at 5.50am in the morning to Heathrow airport (4 pounds, approx 1 hour 15 mins). It’s very easy fly out of London, no one really look at my passport, I just scanned it on a terminal and got my boarding pass. I remembered it’s the same in US when I fly out of the country. But when I arrived in London few days ago, the immigration officer asked so many questions.

Took the 9.15am flight to Cairo and arrived at 2pm (5 hours flight).

Cairo is hot and dusty. It’s one of the biggest city in North Africa (geographically), Middle East (politically), with 11 millions people. Everything is in Arabic, even numbers. I tried to be adventurous and decided to take a public bus to my hostel instead of a taxi (I did manage to haggle the price of a cab from 80 pounds down to 45 pounds which is around 8 dollars but I didn’t take it). I met some friendly Egyptians on the bus and they showed me the way to the hostel.

The bus ride was a blessing in disguise because one Egyptian friend invited me to his house in Masala for a celebration of a 7 day old baby.

Egyptians are friendly people. Everyone tried to talk with me. An old man invited me for food on the street. It’s Ramadan, so after 6pm there are free food on the street. At first I was worried about the cleanliness of street food since I read a lot about unhygienic water and street food in egypt in the guide book. But I ate it anyway..

Was walking around, then another guy asked me to drink with him and then we went for a workout in a gym.

Then some random guys asked me to drink with them while I was waiting

Then Mahmod which I met on the bus earlier brought me to his relatives house. There is a celebration for a 7 days old baby.

SIM card is cheap here (15LP), got a SIM card for my cell phone.

Walked around the city center today, from Northeast London city center, Faringdon Station to South West London city center, Imperial College.

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I have a late lunch at a Buffet Thai vegetarian place (5.50 pounds). I love buffet..and that will be my meal for the day..haha.

Stop by Harrods, a pretty interesting shopping mall

A 5000 pounds cake, it’s not the weight, it’s how much it cost

Spent some time at Imperial College then checked out a couch surfing meeting London at Oxford St in the evening.

Joined a free London walking tour this morning. They have free tours at 11am and 4pm.

Met at Wellington Arch which is just beside Hyde Park metro stop.

Walked to Buckingham Palace

change of guards opposite St. James Park

The walking tour took 2.5 hours and passed by Pall Mall st., Trafalgar square, some Palaces and then Westminster.

Then took a train to cambridge at 2.45pm (20 pounds for 45 mins off peak same day return ticket). There is also another option of taking a bus which is cheaper (around 5 pounds) and slower (2 hours), I took the train because it’s late in the day and Cambridge is just around 80km away from London.

Train to Cambridge

Visited Wei Sing’s dorm and we went to Cambridge University Addenbrookes hospital for his training. While waiting, I took bus Uni 4 to west Cambridge where there are newer buildings for science and engineering.

Physics building

Took another bus to the city,

Cambridge University celebrates its 800 year anniversary this year. It’s one of the oldest university.

An old college

Met my old high school classmate ChinLik who is doing his Phd in neuroscience and we went for dinner.

With the 2 doctors.

Took the last train back to London at 11.20pm. Arrived at King Cross station around 12.30am then walked back to my aunt’s place which is not too far away.

It’s very nice for Wei Sing to take a train down from Cambridge to visit me and we walked around the city. Called up YingJie, a good friend of mine and we decided to meet at King Cross station. I have not see her for 7 years and she still look the same.

British Museum

British Library

Renae and Jay treated us at a good chinese restaurant famous for its roast duck. too bad I forgot to take a pic then..

Trafalgar Square

Big Lion at the square, there are 4 of this lion actually

Palace of Westminster Building

Arrived at London Heathrow airport after 11 hours of flying time. At the airport, I tried to ask the direction to Farringdon station at an information counter since I heard there are some maintenance works going on at the subway. The lady at the information center doesn’t want to tell me anything and just gave me a map. At first I thought she was joking but she was not. I was going to say something bad to her face but managed to keep my cool.

Took the underground (4 pounds) to my aunt’s house. Since King Cross station is close on the Picadilly line, I got off at St. Paul and walked to Britton St. which is just beside Faringdon station.

I am supposed to fly out of London to Cairo on Monday morning but I called up the travel agent to change my flight to Wednesday morning instead (cost $52.80 which is not too bad) so I have more time to prepare for the next leg of my trip. I got my own bedroom here so I can have it easy for a few days before getting back into the backpacking mode.

Renae and Jay brought me to a malaysian restaurant for dinner and I had curry noodles which is pretty good.

Took a metro to Villa Madelena this morning. There are some very nice houses there and then walked to Ave Paulista which takes around 2 hours. Passed by Rua Teodoro Sampaio (which has many stores selling musical instruments) Oscar Freire (an expensive shopping area).

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Met up with Thiago at Barra Funda on the west side at 1pm and visited the Latin American museum and a few others spots.

Thiago got us some pastels and sugar cane juice for lunch. Met Renan (a michael jackson wannabe)

in the Latin American museum and we went to Rock Galleria (mall for hippies and rock music enthusiasts) and Rua santa Ifigenia (a place selling all kinds of cheap electronics from China, they are all OEM products because Brazil has a high tax rate on branded electronic goods. You can get a 128G of USB thumb drive for around $25 or maybe less).
Someone tapped me on the shoulder while I was walking at downtown turned around and it was the malaysian guy I met few days ago. I can’t imagine how small is the probability to meet the same guy in this city of 12 millions twice.

Played soccer with some Brazilian kids at Thiago’s apartment and those kids do move fast and are very skillful, they live by soccer.

Had dinner at one of Thiago and Isis’s favorite restaurant.

One of the best part of the cow, I forgot the name

Then Thiago sent me to the airport. Had some issues with my passport at the airport because I am flying to Egypt after London and they thought I will need a visa and a yellow fever certification to Egypt. Cleared things up and managed to get on the flight and like always, Brazilians at the airport are very friendly and very easy going.

I am quite impress with Brazilian culture. Brazilians are very clean and neat people, no matter inside the house or on public road, it’s quite clean. People here respect the laws and follow it. For example, car doesn’t park on the parking line, apartments are quiet and people are considerate. Brazilians line up everywhere and I have not seen people cut queue so far. The most important thing is the friendliness of Brazilians, they are the friendliest people I have met so far.

Moved to Thiago’s apartment this morning. I met Thiago and Isis at the hostel in Santiago and they invited me to stay with them. Took the subway at 6.50am to Itaquera which is on the east side of Sao Paulo.
Thiago the man

Thiago is super nice and taught me some Brazilian slang and introduced me to some Brazilian music. We made a Sao Paulo dish called Cuz Cuz Paulista.

Thiago and Isis.

Thiago showed me around downtown and we went up to Edificio Altino Arantes and got a nice view of the city.
Sao Paulo city is huge with tons of high rise buildings

Suddenly rain poured, we got all wet and we went to a juice bar. Juice bar in Brazil is popular because Brazil has a lot of tropical fruits. Some popular local fruits are Guarana ad Acai. Thiago has classes in the evening so I just wandered around the city. I still have not watched the movie Bruno so I called up Bomi and it’s very nice of Bomi to accompany me to watch the movie. What can I say, Sacha Cohen is one crazy actor and we had a good laugh. On a second thought, maybe it’s not a good idea to watch Bruno with a pretty Brazilian Korean girl.

Still standing after Bruno

Thiago picked me up from Paulista Mall and we went to a bar at Itaquera to have vaca atolada soup. There is a live music at the bar, they are playing MPB which combine Jazz with Samba.

Went to the tourist information center so I can get a map of Sao Paulo. The place is at Sao Joao 465 and close to the Sao Bento subway station. Found out that there is a place to have a bird eye view of city and the building is called Edificio Altino Arantes. It’s just right at the corner of the Brazilian futures exchange. Unfortunately, the place was close so I will try to get there again tomorrow.

A steep street towards the shopping area of 25 march.

Rua 25 de Marco which have wholesellers selling all kinds of goods from underwear to electronics.

Heard that there are many Chinese from wenzhou that made a fortune setting up shops here.

Tried asking directions on the street from someone on the street and funnily he is from Malaysia, pretty crazy. Got some tips about doing business in Brazil and learned that the cut off date of getting a permanent residency was Jan this year. Those that still want to
get permanent resident here can pay just a few hundreds to a lawyer for some under the table procedures.

Theresa who I met in New York is back in Sao Paulo so I plan to visit her restaurant in Campinas.(Campinas is the third largest city in Sao Paulo state, around 1.30-2 hours bus ride)

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Took the 2.30pm bus (Lira) to Campinas and arrived at Theresa’s restaurant around 5pm.

Me and Theresa

There are many nice apartment buildings in Campinas.

The cities I been to in Brazil so far are comparable to any other first world cities unlike what I expected from a third world country. Brazil has great infrastructures, very clean subway, good roads and well planned cities.

Took bus 386 from R. Maria Monteiro to Campinas bus terminal then got on the 8.30pm Cometa bus to Sao Paulo. Cometa has more buses and is faster than Lira. I just write this down so I will remember if I am coming back again.

Dani brought me to Ibirapuera park today, it’s the largest park in the city. In the evening, I visited Dani’s university, Scerna University. Most Brazilians in university work during the day and study at night (from around 7-11). Unlike in US where students study full time and work during the summer. Brazilians work as a trainee in their field of study during the day and this is one of the requirements to graduate college.

Brazilian cooking by Dani’s mum

Avenue Paulista (Main business district)

There is a restaurant week in Sao Paulo too, just like NYC. Dani made a reservation at one of the restaurant for lunch. But because of bad traffic in Sao Paulo we went to Liberdade instead.

Liberdade is a place similar to chinatown or I should call japantown instead with restaurants and shops selling oriental food and stuffs.
Melona after lunch

Sao Paulo has the biggest population of Japanese outside Japan and Japanese migrated here during the early 1900s. Brazilian Japanese here are the third generation and they assimilate well to the Brazilian culture, a little similar to Chinese Malaysian I think. The third generation Brazilian Japanese doesn’t speak Japanese anymore.

Met up with Bomi which I met few years ago in Dresden, Germany. Bomi is super helpful and she is my tour guide for the evening. We met up at the subway station Se which is considered the center of Sao Paulo.
Mr Paulo with the church behind

The history of São Paulo city proper begins with the founding of a missionary school on January 25, 1554. The school which is at the heart of today’s city.

Walked around the city for around 3 hours and Bomi showed me around the city center while explaining about the history of the city.

Bovespa

Showed me around her medical school, the oldest in Sao Paulo.

Then Bomi treated me for dinner at a Churascuria restaurant. There are all kinds of seafood and meat, it’s buffet style. The waiters keep bringing out meats from all different parts of the cow.
Camera shy

Seafood on my plate, fish, shrimp, lobster, mussels…

We cleaned up the food…not really..