Living the life of Luxory: Luxor.

I've decided that in my final few weeks in Africa that sleeping probably ought to just take a back seat to adventuring. Since April 17th, I have been in Cairo-proper, a total of 6 days. The trips to Turkey, and Siwa were just the appetizers to the main course. This past weekend, I boarded a train and headed due south, along the banks of the nile to the well-known Egyptian tourist site Luxor. As the semester draws to a close, I really didn't think I was going to make it down to Luxor, even though some people take trips to Egypt just for Luxor. I didn't foresee it in my plans. But as so often has been the case here in Egypt, an opportunity for something you didn't expect falls into your lap and you are left with the decision to take it or leave it. Partially because my dad had been pushing for me to go, and partially because Ross and Adam highly recommend it, I accepted the invite and like that, I was Luxor-bound.
The train left the station at 12:30 am and moved south at a leisurely pace through the night. For some reason, temperature control on trains is an iffy subject and the entire ride was spent in absolute freezing temperatures. I, having packed for sweltering heat of the true African Desert, brought nothing other than a lot of t-shirts and a sheer longsleeve, that upon further review is more fashionable than warm. Compounding the issue, I also have a hard time sleeping on moving objects. I don't remember if I've discussed this, but basically the gist of the problem is that while I move, I cannot sleep well. There are people, like Adam, or Ariela who I traveled with this weekend, who have no problem dozing off on a moving train. I think they are probably the rule and I the exception, but basically for the duration of the 10 hour ride, I froze and thought about how nice it would be to sleep.
We reached Luxor around 10:40 am and met up with my friends who had arrived a few hours earlier. They had set up a guided tour of the West Bank. This guided tour seemed suspiciously expensive, but it was hot, and the van air conditioned so I bought in and the four of us, Jess (from BC) Hanan (a true AUCer) Ariela (Cornell) and myself, set off for a trip through history.
The valley of the kings in and of itself is hard to describe and certainly pictures cannot really do it justice. It truly is a valley. The hills rise high on all sides as you enter the valley and you can see holes all over in the hills. These holes are of course tombs of Pharaoh's that have a) been discovered b) been tomb raided c) been ridiculously over-priced to see inside. The ticket you buy allows you entrance into 3 tombs of your choice. The tombs are pretty well preserved, except for the number that Christians did on some of them while hiding out in them a long time ago. There are around 63 tombs found today, and most Egyptologists think that that is all of them, but I'm not so sure. I have no proof to back this up, but this valley is huge and tombs could truly be anyplace.
Either way, our guided tour next took us to the Temple of Hetshepsut. Our guide called this place Hotchickensoup for our benefit. I was not amused. The temple is the place you see in pictures that has a lot of Pillars and looks dug into the cliffs around it (not Petra). I guess Hetshepsut was a woman who became the ruler and built this really epic temple in her own memory. It's huge, and we were only allowed to explore 2 of the 3 floor of it, but still very cool.
We tooled around some more on the west bank, to the remains of the colossi of memnon, over to Medinat Habu and some temples in between, we saw what is left of the once vast empire of Thebes. It was a hot day, and we still had a lot left to do, so we returned to the East bank, grabbed lunch, said goodbye to our miserable tour guide and set off on our own to explore around Luxor itself.
Our first stop was Luxor temple. Again, the history for me is hard to explain. Some ruler built it and subsequent rulers added on to it, making it a pretty large place. It is approached by walking through the avenue of sphinxes, most of which have had part of their faces destroyed by either sand or vandalism. As you begin the approach, you can see one huge obelisk on the left side of the entrance and a spot where the other one should be on the right this other one was traded to the french for a clock that doesn't work. Tough trade Egypt. Continuing into the temple itself is just pretty indescribable. Pillars that it would take 6 people to wrap their arms around, and matching the height of about 3 basketball hoops, hieroglyphics with wonderful color still preserved, just the entire thing is incredibly well preserved. I guess the explanation for this is that the entire thing was covered by sand, and then, the City of Luxor was built atop the remains unbeknown to the designers of the city. It was big, and once again, pictures don't do justice.
We then decided to take a faluca out on the Nile for sunset. This ride was picturesque and incredibly relaxing. The temperature was perfect, the nile — a lot cleaner upriver from Cairo— was eerily quiet and the sunset was gorgeous. The company was pretty good too. We moved south, and then back to the north while the sun descended on the west bank. We shared tea with our driver and then returned to shore for one final adventure.
The 4 of us hitched a ride on a carriage out to Karnak temple where we planned to see the sound and light show. Jess and Hanan were taking off early the next morning and would be unable to see the temple if we didn't do the light show. Unfortunately, the light show runs only a little less expensive than one of the suits I own, and I couldn't even wear the sound and light show out on a date. Needless to say, we passed on the show and returned to our carriage. We went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening on the roof top watching the stars. We hit the hay early, and for good reason.
The next morning, at 5:05 (my alarm didn't go off as planned) we awoke in order to take a hot air balloon ride at sunrise. We hustled downstairs to the lobby, where we were ushered into a van, the van driver took us to the river, and at the river, we got into a boat. We thought we had been fooled and they were actually taking us on a boat ride at sunrise, but the boat took us across the river, where we again loaded into vans and then, we came upon the hot air balloons.
I'll save you the details, and just say that this is something I will never forget. I've never done a hot air balloon before so doing my first one in Egypt, at sunrise was pretty incredible. With the sun rising over the Nile on one side, and the temples of the West bank on the other, the view was... impeccable. I highly recommend that if one ever offers you the opportunity to take a hot air balloon, do it. Regardless of where you are, it's just cool.
After we landed, Jess and Hanan caught the train back to Cairo, and Ariela set out on another full day of Luxor sight seeing. We walked out to Karnak, this time paying the fee to go in (no sound, nor light, just heat) and examined the huge temple. This too was built and added on to by other rulers, but this one has a big lake in the back. Impressive. With wings and secret chambers, Karnak was worth the trip itself. Not to mention, if you are a fan of people watching, going to Egypt and examining tourists as they wonder through these places is high on the unintentional comedy scale. At one point along our tour, and this may have been lost in translation, but I think I got married to Ariela by way of the Serpent God. A random old egyptian took us into this secret temple, made me kiss my hand, touch a scorpion carving, then touch her forhead. She did the same and then he said mabruk. Which is congrats. We were skeptical, and I applied for an annulment to the God of Annulments soon after.
We wondered around Luxor for the rest of the day, and as the sunset, and our wallets were empty, we found a bench to just enjoy the rest of our vacation. We had a delightful meal in a shwanky hotel, and then caught the train back to Cairo. The ride was again long, and this time, instead of being really cold, it was uncomfortably hot. We arrived in Cairo early the next morning and after a brief nap, I went to class at 1.
I will be in Cairo again for about 3 days now before making what looks like my final trip outside of Egypt to Jordan. Hopefully everything goes according to plan. If so, you'll read all about it.
So to reiterate: Hot air balloon options are few and far between. Take them. Doubly take them if they are at sunrise on the Nile.

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