AFVOA Newsletters of Year 2012

Page 73 of 80 food tickets. Navy promptly arranged for the transportation of veterans to the ship's site. Very well received by the ship’s crew and guided all. At the entrance we were given a very good and sumptuous breakfast. It was a thrilling experience for many families. Every one enjoyed the hospitality of the Navy. We travelled back after the exercises and reached the port at approx 1500 hrs and we all were transported back to the Naval Mess. The children enjoyed the most. Arunagiri Thasari TRAVELOGUE VISIT TO THE LAND OF PHARAOHS by Maj Gen (Retd) N Viswanathan Dear Friends, During my school days I had read a sonnet called “Ozymandias of Egypt” by PB Shelley and Horace Smith. The central theme of Ozymandias is the inevitable decline of all leaders and of the empire they built however mighty in their own time. I never dreamt of visiting the country of the oldest civilization, the land of the Pharaohs till my son in law and daughter were posted there. As suggested by a few of my friends I am sharing the details of my visit. To those who have already been there, I am sure this will bring them happy nostalgic memories of their visit. We visited Egypt from 21 Sep to 10 Oct 2012. We reached Cairo at about 1130 hrs (Cairo time) (1500 hrs IST) on 21 Sep. The city and all the buildings looked brown from the aircraft. We arrived to a warm welcome and great weather in Cairo. The same evening we were invited to participate in the immersion ceremony of Lord Ganesha in the River Nile. We took a large country sailing boat (locally called the Felluca) for the event. The Egyptian boatman also joined us in the ceremony and the dinner. With the blessings of Lord Ganesha invoked at the start, I must say our entire holiday in Egypt went very well! The next day we went to see the Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu and the two adjacent Pyramids dedicated to Khefren and Meneptah. The vicinity also hosts the legendary Sphinx. We also saw the Pyramids during the night, with the sound and light show. It was sad to see that the show that could seat a thousand only had a handful of us. Such is the impact of the recent Egyptian revolution on tourism! We also visited the historic Tahrir square (means Revolution Square in Arabic) which has become a by word for describing revolutionary gatherings in the Arab world. It was a bit of an anti climax to