Blogs from Luxor, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 34

or is that in the Nile? Yea.. thats it.. Just FYI, a lot of people have asked about pictures, and I already have almost 200 of them, but i haven't found a place that will download them for me.. Day 7: Monday, May 29: We got to sleep in, which was fantastic.. After breakfast we headed down to our felucca, our transportation and accomodation for the next 2 days. It was incredible just to relax and enjoy floating down the Nile. It is interesting because even though we were travelling downstream, we were sailing against the wind, so you have to zigzag across the river. I didn't realize how clean the river is, it is amazing, part of this is because there is not much civizilaztion or industry upstream. We took a swim at our lunch ... read more

Living Between Two Worlds Traveling independently brings immense freedoms. There is no programmed time to be anywhere. You decide where you sleep, eat, and travel. You can change you mind on the lightest whim and find yourself in situations and new experience that would never be possible on a tour. Simply using the public transport network permits you a clearer glimpse into the daily lives of the people whos country you are visiting. Independent travel also means just that. During difficult times you often find that there is only yourself and your immediate traveling companion in which to lean on for support. Your usual support network of family and friends are thousands of miles away and even a short phone call is no easy, or cheap, task. Above all else we miss our families and friends ... read more

was that; Egypt, though a very beautiful and truley stunning place, has recieved more visitors than anyother place on earth. They have long been trapping tourists, learning foreing languages and picking up weird accents to imitate. I guess, I don't hate egypt as a whole because I have met some incredible people who have been very kind and generous and most of all they haven't asked us for anything. In aswan, place I think is the hassel capital of the world, I met 3 people in 3 days who I could have hung out with for a week. These were local men, (women generally don't speak to foreigners unless its to ask for money) and they didn't stare at me or hiss or ask how many camels it would take to buy me. Aswan was beautiful, ... read more

Geo: 24.9573, 31.9535We got up early and packed our bags- no more river boat. We crossed the Nile by motor boat. After a short walk we came to a group of donkeys. I was matched to a light grey one and helped on. Then it started to wander away from the rest of the group!! I kept my legs out to the side to try and balance myself- I didn't want to be the one who fell off the donkey. According to Tarek, there is always one who falls off. It was easy to steer it- pull left or right. We trotted down the road, cars and buses sped and tooted past us. I'm glad the donkeys didn't get scared. We then went through a village and crossed a busy road- with the assistance of the ... read more

Today was a nice day, we slept in and took our time. 3 days in Luxor is more than enough. 1.5 days would have been sufficient, but we enjoyed being able to relax. We went to the Mummification Museum which is a one-room museum with explanations and artifacts that illustrate the Mummification process. The neatest thing was a cross section of a skull showing where they had removed the brain and stuffed it with linen. Also, you never think about the fact that they mummified animals other than cats and dogs, but they did alligators, monkeys, fish etc. Many of these animals were considered sacred. We walked over to the Souq which is the market area that we went through on Wednesday with our horse and buggy driver. Like we mentioned before, this was a “real” ... read more