Gracy Bee

Telephone Etiquettes

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: General.

I don’t dare to say I have the perfect phone etiquettes, but I can say I have more or less the basic manners when I’m talking on the phone. And obviously depending whom I’m talking to, I executed different manners. For eg, when talking with friends, then we can speak like nobody’s business; when talking to someone you never know before, then it has to be different.

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All these while while at work or calling to companies in different countries, I have faced with different types of phone etiquettes all influenced by the different cultures. There are some who are nice and professional, while there are others sad to say are a bit out of the way.

There are particularly two types that can really pissed me off. Recently at work, I have encountered these. And it is really not a good experience I have to say.

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The 1st type: talking speed is faster than a machine gun

This is how the conversation goes.

Phone rings. I pick up the phone

Me: Hello, this is YYY.
She:IamcallingfromDcompanyweboughttvfromubeforebutudincome
collectchequesinceyourbossnoeABCsoipassedthemand ucollectfromherok?
Me: (??) hmm..I’m sorry where did you say you’re from?
She: Dcompany
Me: ehm.. you are from T company?
She: DCOMPANY!!
Me: ok…I’m sorry. Hmm.. how about this. Why not you give me your phone number I’ll tell my boss about it.
She: threefoursixsevenoneeightfour (in mandarin)
Me: three four six four one eight four
She: NO!!SEVENONEEIGHTFOUR la! Howcomeyouallalwayslistenwronglyone???
Me: Well, you are speaking so fast, my ear need my time to adjust. I’m sorry I will tell my boss what you have said, and if she don’t understand she will call you ok?
She: ok *phone down*

Well, I think it is the basic courtesy that if you are speaking to someone she/he don’t know much of the contents you are saying then you have to speak SLOWER and CLEARER.

The 2nd type: 1st time caller to you they expected you to know who they are

Phone rings. I pick the phone.

Me: Hello, this is YYY
X: Hello, I tell you ah, my tv very spoilt liao…ask someone to come and fix ok?
Me: Sure, no problem with that, can I have your particulars please so that I can arrange for an appointment?
X: no need la…your boss know me one…you tell him I called then he knows who I am already
Me: Well, at least can I have your name and telephone number?
X: I tell you NO NEED LA! OK AH….I WAIT FOR FOR THE TECHNICIAN BYE!
Me: ??!!

Well, please have the courtesy to state who you are and the address la. If you are a frequent caller and i personally know you then is fine la…But obviously when I don’t know then tell me la…. I can’t see you thru the phone and it wouldn’t kill you by telling your name right?

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Egypt 11th April

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Places.

Flashback 11th April 2006

Today marks the official end of our holiday, and we’re not doing any visitation, but rather, ‘travelling’ day. After a whole day rest yesterday, XC felt much better and gained some strength. We have bought some bread in the Aswan Bazaar last night that would last us our breakfast and lunch today.

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We left Aswan at 6am and embarked on what I called the longest train journey of my lifetime: 14 hrs from Aswan all the way back to Cairo. *sweat*.

saying goodbye to Aswan

Our plan is to get dinner from Felucca where we had our meal while in Cairo (1st day), and catch the bus to the airport. By this time, XC has totally lost his voice. alamak~~ what happened???

Taking a quick snap of Cairo town

Though it is unfortunate that XC got sick, but we considered ourselves lucky cos he actually felt sick towards the end of the holiday and not at the beginning…hohoho…if not I sure gotta strangle him! OoooOOops.

at the Airport

Our flight was at wee hours of the morning. Despite not doing any visitation today, we were surprisingly tired and zzz once we board the plane bound for Amsterdam.

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We finally reached home in the afternoon, and actually felt good to come home to the chilly England. Now is the time to sort out laundry, thesis and work to earn back the money I’ve spent.

Overall

I’m pleased in how the trip has turned out: worthwhile, successful and within budget. I have learnt a lot more of Egyptian history. Not only that, I have also gained experience in overall planning and management. So far, I have visited the more important places. My next trip, I would like to visit those less famous places, like the Amarna.

Going to Egypt by ourselves gave us the chance to see and experience the local lifestyle. While we get to experience the bustling of the city life and the warmness of the people, we also get to see the poorest of the poor. Seeing them make me realised that I have been living too much in comfort and laziness!

Three positive things that did happened to me were, firstly, I didn’t develop any allergies (I’m puzzled cos I am allergic to dust mites), and secondly not once have I experienced any gastric pains to the local food (that is strange as I can have gastric pain with some ‘outside’ food i had in UK, Msia and Spore) Thirdly, this trip has renewed the vigour in me to exercise to build up my stamina. Before, I was always postponed my exercising schedule to ‘tomorrow’ and ‘tomorrow’.

I felt more energetic than before, and it is true that a holiday break does good to people, like me. Yippee~~ my next holiday destination: Cambodia, sometime in the near future.

Some statistics

No. of photos taken: 400+
Air ticket: £285
Overall expenditure per pax: Egyptian pound 1180 (= £131)
Knowledge and experience gained: priceless

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Egypt 10th April

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Places.

Flashback 10th April 2006

Today is our last day in Aswan. The southern most town in Egypt, Aswan is a very clean small town when compared to Cairo and Luxor. Even the bazaar is clean! As XC is seriously ill and weak, he spent most of the day zzzzz.

Oh well, as I don’t fancy going out alone, I spent most of my afternoon reading at the hotel’s rooftop, enjoying the breeze from the Nile and admiring the scenery.

Up at the rooftop

The backyard of the hotel
No, I didn’t stay up there for the whole day!

End of the day

A very boring day but had a very restful rest and compensated us of the lost zzz from the last 3 days. Mixed feelings that my holiday is finally coming to an end.

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Egypt 9th April

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Places.

Flashback 9th April 2006

Our schedule today was Abu Simbel and the Temple of Philae. I woke up at 3am to prepare to go. Our bus would come at 6am, and the hotel has prepared take-away breakfast for us. Off we went finally at 6.30am. Why this early u might ask. Well, it took 3 hours drive there to Abu Simbel, and in order not to be scorched by the sun that is, when visiting the temples~

I was sitting on the left side of the bus, and I happened to see the sunrise over the desert. I have never seen sunrise over a desert sea. Quite an experience in the midst of the desert!

The Ramses II’s Sun Temple in Abu Simbel is the most extraordinary monument I have seen so far in Egypt. It was such a magnificent structure that no others can beat this. It is being moved to higher grounds after the newly built Lake Nasser threatened to drown the temple.

The Sun Temple. Isn’t it magnificent?

The cravings on the walls were very realistic and were so much nicer than the ones we saw in other temples. Also, the sun only shone through all the way into the temple only twice a year: 1st on Ramses’s birthday and the 2nd, on the Coronation day. Superb calculation! It was delayed by one day after the shift to higher grounds.

The only craving that I can take outside the temple

Really, I have to marvel at this. 1st, obviously is their skills and engineering feat that built such remarkable temple. 2nd, is the UNESCO’s dedicated efforts to move the temple to higher grounds. It is not even obvious to naked eyes that this is actually been moved b4!
wow! wow! wow! This is really two thumbs up.

Nearby is the Queen Hathor’s temple, the wife of Ramses II. A much smaller scale but no less magnificent.

The Temples. Queen Hathor’s Temple on the right

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It was nearly 11am, and we need to set off to another destination. We can see the desert sea on both sides of the road. Even we are in the comfort of siting inside the aircon bus, we can feel and see that IT IS HOT. Not just hot. EXTREMELY ULTRA HOT. Just a bland white sand all the way to the horizon, nothing else in sight. *sweat*

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Our next destination is the Temple of Philae which was also being moved to its new current site. It is on the island, so we need to catch a boat to go over. Bargaining time again. It can get annoying sometimes to argue about prices. *ARGH*

Temple of Philae

This temple is one of the few very well preserved temples. Hence based on this, we can easily imagine how Luxor and Karnak Temples would have looked like in the past, on a much greater scale. We don’t stay there for long since we only have 40 min.

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It is a very hot day that we really got restless. These few days our sunblock is working overtime. Our last stop is actually the unfinished obelisk, found among the bed of rocks that are also used to build temples in Luxor. Due to the hot day, nobody wanted to go down the bus. That end our journey in the late afternoon.

End of the day

A tiring day, due to not enough zzzz and a hot day to complement it. As a result, my housemate was not feeling well. Oh dear, hopefully after a nap, he would get better.

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Egypt 8th April

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Places.

Flashback 8/4/06

Today we went off to another temple in Luxor: the Karnak Temple. Wanting to save our money on transportation train our fitness , we decided to walk there. We took the exact route where the sphinxes used to lie for 2 km between Luxor and Karnak temples. There are not many left, but there are still some sphinxes that still lie in situ nearer to the temples.

Sphinxes near to Luxor temple

Sphinxes nearer to Karnak Temple

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Karnak was one of the most important temples in Ancient Egypt, an area so huge that 4 St. Paul Cathedral can fit nicely into it! :O

I have to marvel their technology to build these vast structures. Especially their columns that I felt like an ant next to an elephant!

Can you see where am I?

Their wall cravings are pretty impressive too. You have to look at these! They have the skills to:

1: craved ‘3 D’ pictures on the walls

2. And indented cravings on the wall! All these are all over the temple!

This temple is badly damaged and sparsely dispersed, that it is difficult to imagine how the temple once looked like. Nonetheless, there are restoration works going on at the moment and I hope to see the restored temple in the future. We spent 3 hrs in the temple.

The Obelisks

Look at the colours from 4000 years ago!

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We took one hour to walk back to town, this time alongside the Nile River. The water looks so blue and inviting in this hot weather that we are tempted to jump in for a swim! No doubt just like in an overheated oven. ~HOT~~~

The Nile, overlooking the Valley of the Kings

We had lunch at our favourite food joint. Our train to Aswan was scheduled at 5.30pm, so we decided to rest in the hotel till the time to go.

At the train station, we met with the Korean guys again. They are also going to Aswan. Such a conincidence! Only that it was the 2 of them, rather than 3. They said the remaining one is still zzzzz in the hotel and don’t like visiting temples. Come all the way to visit and don’t like visiting temples. HHmmmmm…

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3 hrs journey to Aswan, the southern most part of Egypt. Arrived at 9pm. Again, look around for hotels, ended up in Hathor Hotel. Tomorrow we decided to go to Abu Simbel, meaning we need to set off at 5am.

End of the Day

Pretty tiring. And need to head off to bed soon as I need to wake up at 3am. ZZZzzzzzZZZZz

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Egypt 7th April

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Places.

Flashback 7th April

Today we set off to the Valley of the Kings. With Aladdin as our genie to grant us wishes our tour guide, he explained why:

1. Unfinished houses: to avoid paying 40% government taxes on finished houses (O..K..)
2. Roofless houses: not necessary as it only rain once every 2 years. Even if it ever rain, it only last for 2 min
3. Sugarcanes crops planted 400 m away from roads: lesson learnt from previous terrorists attacks

We went together in a bus with 2 other Chinese and 2 Belgium and crossed the new bridge over the Nile. Aladdin also told us that it is easy to differentiate different tourists by looking at what they holds on their hands.

1. Japanese: make up and umbrella
2. English: a can of beer and a woman
3. German: two cans of beer
4. French: a lot of photography!
5. Spanish: a lot of souvenir

haha….don’t know if it is true so don’t be offended ya!

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Our 1st stop is the Colossi of Memnon.

Colossi of Memnon

These two remaining statues used to be part of the temple of Amenophis III, but it has since destroyed by an earthquake. So where are the stones? Apparently it has been recycled by the nearby villages to build houses etc , as what Aladdin said. *sweat*!

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Our next stop is the Valley of the Queens. Here is the burial place for all the Queens and their children. We visited Tomb 44, 52 and 55. Of the three, #55 (Tomb of Amunhirhkepshef) is the best preserved tomb, with some of the colours and drawings still intact. There is even a mummified foetus which Amunhirhkepshef aborted at grief after her son’s death.

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Our 3rd stop is the Valley of the Kings. We need to walk a certain distance before we actually reach into the heart of the tombs. What a hot day!

Into the Valley

Now these are really an eye opener! The Queens’ tombs decorations paled when compared to the Kings’. We visited the tombs 2, 6 and 16. The tombs are much longer, wider, bigger and more colourful. You got to admire the artworks on the walls AND ceilings. It is so wonderfully decorated that I can’t believe they can do that nearly 3000 years ago! What puzzled me was:

1. With primitive tools and no light while digging deep into the tunnels, how can they dig the tunnel in such perfection rectangle shape,
2. How do they do the decoratives on the walls AND ceilings so nicely?
3. The granite sarcophagus that used to hold the coffins. They are HUGE and how on earth did they drag into the tunnel? We have steps and levelled platform for us to walk on. But what about in the past?? Some are really deep underground!

The only picture I can take of the tomb

Oh ya, they have found another new tomb named KV63 in March 2006. An exciting discovery after 84 years. And this was documented in Discovery Channel in Dec. Though there were no mummy found, but the discovery inside is really good enough.

The new tomb

After the tomb visiting, I’m still baffled, and add on more questions in mind. I have to salute their expertise, architecture skills and knowledge.

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After the VK, we went on to Hapshepsut’s temple. Hapshepsut was the only female pharoah that ever rule Egypt in 1503 - 1482BC. The temple was 60% renovated and so it looked relatively new.

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It was late afternoon when we finished our journey to the VK. As we still have the time, we decided to visit the Luxor temple so that our schedule for tomorrow wouldn’t be so packed.

Luxor temple is not far from where we lived, and it looked smaller than I have expected. I can’t believe that this temple was once buried in sand that a village was built onto it. It was not until it was partially discovered that evacuation began. The village was removed but only a mosque remained and form part of the temple since.

Luxor Temple

The entrance. Can you see the mosque?

Yet again, I felt small when I was in there at the statues and column were all so talllllll. Nonetheless, you have to marvel at this little Jewel. It was near dinner time and off we went for dinner.

End of the day

Pleased with the outcome with what we managed to see today.

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Egypt 6th April

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Places.

Flashback 6/4/06

Today we will embark on a 10 hr train journey from Cairo to Luxor. We met 3 Korean guys on the same train. Shame didn’t ask for their names. Hope to meet them around in town. They will be staying in Luxor for 4 days, and 3 weeks in Egypt. 3 weeks!!!!! Well, they can afford that since they are on 1 year out from Uni. *envy*

(more…)

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Egypt 5th April

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by GracyBee.
Categories: Places.

Flashback 5th April 2006

Today we arranged to go to see the pyramids. Not sure about the public transport to go
there, we decided to go by booking a day taxi to bring us to 3 places:

1. Pyramids of Giza
2. North Saqqara - Step Pyramid
3. South Saqqara - Dahshur Pyramid

We set off at around 9am after breakfast. One thing: the traffic was horrifying! There are 4 lanes of cars on the 3 lanes road! Our taxi driver, Moses was a very experienced driver and we actually felt safe. hehehe

As we were travelling on the motorway, we can see many residential buildings along the way. There is one thing that I noticed. The buildings are either half-built or very sparsely decorated. And they have no roof. Are they too poor to finish building the house?

The view of one of the pyramids came into my view. OMG. Even from a far distance, the pyramid looked like a giant triangle standing oh mighty in the desert.

The Sahara Desert

When we reached the destination, we were talked into renting either horse or camel to visit the pyramids. It was expensive, but it spared us a lot of energy walking through the sands and the vast area. (I admited I’m lazy, ok? )

On a camel

It was a magnificant warm day, perfect for desert visiting. The winds were surprisingly very strong that nearly blew off my hat away.

My jaws dropped when I came nearer to the pyramid of Khafre. The feeling face 2 face with the pyramid was different when looking at pictures. I felt so insignificant when i stood side by side with it. Also, it was a pity that the pyramid of Khufu’s tip has fallen off, the evidence of erosion. Nonetheless, standing in the midst of the serene silence in the vast desert sea made me ponder even more about how they actually built this magnificent structure nearly 3000 years ago.

I’m right at the bottom
of the Great Pyramid

We also went to visit the Sphinx. I tried to figure out where the Sphinx is. Guess what. The Sphinx look so lost and is like a kitten amongst the Pyramids! I was amused and frankly disappointed to see that. Still a pity that it was under reno so we can’t get close so we took pix from the outside and the back of it.

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After 2 hours, we headed off to North Saqqara - the Old Kingdom’s capital to see the 1st stone pyramid - the Step Pyramid. It is evident that it was very badly eroded but no less magnificent. From afar, we can see other smaller pyramids older than the Step.

With Moses

We didn’t stay there for long and headed to South Saqqara. But on the way our driver told us to visit a store. The book has warned us about operators teaming up with each other and tried to earn comission. So we suspect this is the case. Well, it really was, where he tried to extort nearly 650% of the normal retail price of an alabastar ash tray! *sweat*

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After that, we went to see the Red Pyramid and the Dahshur Pyramid. Seriously, I don’t know these existed till I visited Egypt. These two were erected before the Famous trio (Pyramid of Giza). So they were even older! We tried to climb the Red Pyramid, 65m up and then 65m inside down. It was hot and stuffy inside. I’m lucky since I’m pretty small, so I fit into the narrow corridors of the pyramid nicely. hahahaha…For the very 1st time I had a last laugh when other people struggled to get in. This pyramid was unused and therefore empty. But it was the structure that supported the Pyramid that wow me. It was like inverted steps that is soooooooo precisely cut. They can actually do that 4000 years ago!

The Red Pyramid

The Dahshur Pyramid was the first model they argued, to try to make smooth sided pyramid. What is unique about this is that the original limestone lining is still intact at the bottom, giving us a rough idea how it might have looked like 4 decades before. But we couldn’t get close due to renovation. A pity.

Dahshur Pyramid. Notice the limestone casing?

That end our Pyramid’s journey that still left me bluffed. I saluted their superb engineering skills and intelligence.

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It was around 3pm in the afternoon and we decided to go back to the Museum, to sit down outside and enjoy the breeze. When we left, XC realised that he left his camera behind!!

Panic Panic Panic!!

We rushed back to the museum and THANK GOD it was still there. Now I understand why the locals weren’t allowed to be in there. If not, his camera would be long gone!

We decided to wander further into the area that we lived in. We are right in the centre of downtown. The city area was bustling with people and cars, and their dazzling shop display. One caution though, when people tried to approach you and recommend something good for you, ignore them at all cost. These annoying ‘friendly’ people tried to earn commission off you. Dinner, I decided to try somewhere in the restaurant. We ordered a roast lamb andrice. But very costly. so no more restaurant food. Need to cut budget since 2 days in Cairo nearly overshoot our budget.

End of the day

Today is a lot more organised as we gradually know our surroundings and the local’s behaviour. Feeling more upbeat about our trip. Now looking forward to Luxor, our next stop. Felt headache and tired.

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