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Published: April 23rd 2008
April 22, 2008
Ok so I don’t have internet access and I’m a bit tipsy so I don’t exactly remember where I left off… Anyways, we are now in Luxor. We took a train for about 3 hours from Aswan to Luxor and once again the first thing we did when we arrived was drop our bags at our hostel and enjoy the air conditioning. It is HOT here!! Today it was 106 degrees and it’s supposed to be more of the same tomorrow. Apparently we’d been luckily the past few days and what we thought was hot, really wasn’t.
After checking in we headed out. Kim and I went to Luxor Temple to see the ruins and Kathleen went to Mc Donalds (where they have complimentary WiFi AND air conditioning) to work on a paper for school, since she’s already seen the temple ruins. Kim and I were hot and exhausted while walking around the temple and so we hit up the tourist trap restaurant on the temple grounds and enjoyed cold drinks in the shade. After being revitalized we explored more of the ruins and then headed up to Mickey D’s to meet up with Kathleen.
We knew she needed to work on her paper so we just picked up the key and Kim and I headed back to the hostel. As we walked with our bag of Mc Donald’s food I couldn’t help but feel guilty as the kids came up and begged for some but I knew if I gave any to one kid I would just get surrounded and so I stayed firm. When we arrived at the hostel we inquired about places to stay for our friends Jonathan and David (it seems they’re constantly just about 1 day behind us in our travels) and met two guys Brian and Ryan. They were really nice and mentioned they would be up on the roof later if we wanted to come up, so after settling things with the owner where did we go? up to the roof to eat our dinner!
We’re staying at the hostel/hotel Nubian Oasis and it seemed as though they tried to make the rooftop into one. There was an area with mattresses and pillows and a TV and then chairs and tables all around with the kind service staff that would bring drinks and water to our tables. I had heard about the local beer Stella (not to be confused with Stella Artois) and decided to try it. Although it wasn’t amazing it was ok and COLD!
While we were drinking and talking we discovered that Brian and Ryan are writer’s for an educational website that is based out of Chicago. They started the non-profit organization out of college and pretty much fundraiser during the summer and travel the other 9 months. While they’re traveling they write articles about their experiences at a 3rd and 4th (sometimes even 2nd grade) level and students in Chicago and New York check the site to read about their journey and to learn about the countries they’ve visited. They are working to increase cultural awareness and to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom. Right now they’re sailing around the world and next year some of them will ride their bikes (pedal bikes, not motorcycles) around Africa and write about it. It was fun swapping stories with them (well actually listening to Kathleen swap stories) and then David and Jonathan and crew showed up.
David and Jonathon came up for a bit and chit chatted and then it was established that they would be staying in our room as we had air conditioning (and they didn’t) and also so they could keep it for tomorrow night instead of risking someone else snaking it. So now everyone else is sound asleep in his or her beds while I am up typing and about to fall asleep….
Tomorrow, or rather later today, we’re going hot air ballooning and then we’re catching a flight to Sharm-el Sheik! yea!
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April 23
Ok so I still don’t have internet access as I am sitting in the Luxor airport waiting to catch a flight to Sharm-El Sheik. Kathleen and Kim have wandered off to decide if the pizza they serve here will give Kim “Mummy Tummy” or not. Today was very hot and long but most importantly…. completely awesome!!
We started the day at 4:15am when we got up to get ready for our hot air balloon trip! As we were heading out we woke up Jonathon and he decided to come with us. The guys we booked with were pretty nice and we enjoyed a quick boat trip across the Nile to our take-off site. It was pretty windy in the morning and our captain warned us that we might not be able to fly (which immediately begged the question of would we get our advanced payment back??). While waiting for our turn to take-off we got to watch two other balloons take off. One was HUGE with something like 15 or 20 tourists clambering in! It took the men quite awhile to successfully blow the balloon up and once the people had been loaded and it was time to take off it lifted off then landed, lifted up again, landed again, skidded across the road and then finally took flight. Watching this we really began to have second thoughts…The next launch was much more successful and they only had about 7 people in their balloon, we looked around and saw there were only 5 of us left for the little balloon that they were beginning to blow up. When it was time to load things were different for us. Rather than blowing the entire thing up and having the basket upright for the riders to hop into as it levitated just above the ground, our basket was on its side. We had to climb in and crouch down in the bottom of the basket. I was lucky enough to share my little section with a German tourist named Bernhardt and after much anticipation we were off! The view of course AMAZING! Jonathon was one my side of the balloon and Kathleen and Kim were on the other so I’m sure when we compare pictures we will some amazing shots of Luxor from the air. About 10 minutes into our flight Jonathon and I noticed that despite the captain constantly pulling the chain to light the fire and heat the balloon…we’re steadily descending! With that we stop moving and the captain starts talking about how cool this is that we can be suspended in the air and not move and then we started moving backwards. Our captain then says that the ground here is very soft and he would like to land if there are no objections? Jonathon and I didn’t really feel like we could object since it seemed like we were halfway on our way to landing anyway and trust me, the ground didn’t look so soft! So we landed and it was just fine, we didn’t tip over or get dragged 100 feet like he said could happen and then we danced with the hot air balloon workers to celebrate our safe landing. Although the captain never admitted we were in trouble we didn’t complain about the 15-minute trip because at least we were safe and sound and on the ground!
Upon return to the Nubian Oasis Kim and I had 30 minutes to get ready for our tour of the West Nile. On the tour we went to the Valley of the Kings, Hatsashup’s (sp?) temple, and the Valley of the Queens. It was freaking HOT! And so once again I succumbed to the tourist trap prices and bought a cold sprite and 1.5 liters of semi-cold water for 25 Egyptian pounds…a total rip off by Egyptian standards but in reality just under $5! That’s one of the nice things about Egypt, even though it’s hot and you need to drink a ton of water, you can buy 1.5 Liters for about 2 Egyptian pounds!! Our tour was pretty good, our guide did tend to try to educate us on the history of the tombs in the middle of the sun, instead of the shade, and some people grew angry when she made us stop to an Alabaster Factory where they tried to persuade us to buy everything they sold, but other than that we saw a lot of cool things and enjoyed ourselves. At the Valley of the Kings Kim and I left the group for a bit and saw some cooler, less crowded tombs with 2 Belgium tourists we became friendly with (also in our tour group). The tomb for Tutmoses (sp?) III was pretty cool with a huge vertical staircase to climb before entering the tomb and the hieroglyphics on the walls were awesome. It’s so crazy to think of how long ago those tombs were made and how well preserved some of the coloring and drawings are. When I look at some of them they just look too perfect and I cannot even wrap my head around it!
After the tour we had the bus drop us off at McDonalds where, surprise surprise! We ran into Kathleen doing her homework and talking with our friend Ryan! We had become friendly with a pair from SD during the tour and had told them about the wonders of McDonalds air conditioning, WiFi, and free, clean bathrooms so they got off with us so that we could refresh before heading out to Karnak (sp?) temple. After about 45 minutes of enjoying the many amenities of Mickey D’s the five of us, Kim, myself, Ryan, and the SD pair left Kathleen to finish her paper and headed to Karnak temple. Karnak temple just blew Luxor temple away. The structures are bigger, more elaborate, and some even have some of the original coloring! Although cooler than earlier, it was still hot and so we just slowly meandered through the ruins, pausing often in the shade.
Afterwards we returned to the hostel where, thanks to David and Jonathon, our stuff was still safely stored in our/their room. On the steps hanging out was D&J and crew and so we paused to talk to them, then Brian came out, turns out he’d just arrived and then we spotted Kathleen walking towards us. Honestly it couldn’t have been better timing, even if we’d tried to plan it. After talking for a bit we headed up to our room and freshened up and packed for our plane trip. We said by to all of our friends, with the possibility of meeting up with D&J in Dohab (sp?) and maybe B&R in Cairo. We have another 20 minutes until our plane starts to board and then it’s off to another adventure! We’re all hoping being by the Red Sea will give us some relief from this heat.
PS I apparently don't have strong enough internet to upload pictures to this site and also I am misspelling things left and right, so Aunt Rosie the reason you can't find Aswand on the map is because it's called Aswan...oops...
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Dad
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Innocents abroad
I have always thought of you as a good girl!