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Published: November 2nd 2009
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After a restless night (thanks to the shoulder) we had breakfast and jumped on the bus and drove north to Luxor, stopping at two temples along the way (Kom Ombo and Edfu). Edfu was the most remarkable seen thus far as it was mostly preserved thanx to the layers upon layers of sand that had covered it for the majority of it's life. All of the temples we have seen have been located right beside the river Nile and have all had sections of the temple that water from the Nile has had a tunnel to, literally passages that disappear into the water. All temples have had nearly every inch of stone covered with hyroglyophics and a few temples have had charred ceilings from the Christians taking refuge in the temples and having fires.
After visiting the two temples we continued on to Luxor following the river Nile. It's remarkable how life in the Nile valley differs to that outside. Lush green vegetation near the river and desert just over the hill where even shrubbery is almost non-existant. After checking into our hotel it was time for food, a swim and drinks.
The following day we were off to
the second most iconic sight Egypt has to offer, the valley of the kings. It was hot in Luxor when we left but the heat in the valley of the kings was something else. Barely tolerable. We stepped off the bus and went to the visitors centre for our tour part and then we were released to explore the tombs on our own. Our entry ticket gave us access to two tombs of our choice (except king tuts and one other where the was an extra fee to enter). Upon the advice of our tour leader, Yuki, we skipped king tuts tomb (which apparently isn't that impressive compared to others) and entered Rameses 1's and Seti 2's tombs. They were as you would expect a hole cut deep underground or into a mountain and decorated with magnificent colours and carvings, each telling it's own story. One of the tombs wasnt completed before the pharaoh died, obvious with the first half of the tomb perfectly created but the second half was rushed, uneven, roughly painted and was clearly shorter than was intended. It was incredibly hot and humid inside the tombs perfect for a decaying body?!? The guards handed out bits
of cardboard for us to fan ourselves with when underground but that attempt at keeping cool was futile. Almost everything was removed from the two tombs we descended into except for the sarcophagus'. The only regrets I had there is not visiting more tombs and not bringing more water, sunscreen and an aircon unit.
Following the valley of the kings we ventured back into the scorching sun and visited Hatchepsut Temple that had remarkably little shade around. As you can probably tell by my writing the heat was getting to most people by this stage so we rushed through the temple (which was magnificent) and belted back to the bus for shade and aircon. Why did we go in summer?!? Upon returning to the hotel (more of a resort) we hit the pooooool and all was well again, especially with the other half of our tour group (who did further felucca sailing for 2 days) returning for an evening of partying at the Irish pub around the corner from hotel. After returning to the hotel at god knows what time a few of us went down to the pool again and got roudy but ended up falling asleep in
the baby pool, the security guards weren't to happy with us when they found us!
Earlier in the day at the pool, there was another shoulder casuality for one of the tour group (Josh) except they couldn't get his back in. Several hours, a full anaesthetic and 700 bucks later he rejoined us at the pub for a beer, what a soldier!
After a very slow start to the day we back in the bus checking out more temples. But first, there were donkeys to be ridden! Poor little things, but it was fun. Mine was named frank(by me) and he was one of the quickest at the start but got sluggish towards the end, but we still won the race. Due to our height differences I couldve walked whilst sitting on top of him. Twas good for a few laughs. We were supposed to stop and visit a quarry that was used for making obelisks but nobody was motivated at that point, nor were they for visiting one of the other temples we were to visit (we did do a drive by though). But we did visit the largest and most impressive (although largely in ruins) temple
Entrance to a Tomb
Valley of the Kings of them all, Karnak Temple. This place was massive, as the photos will prove, and I've never seen so many statues in the one place. But once again the heat got to all of us so we headed back to the bus in a bit of a rush (although we did thoroughly boot around the place, even ventured into places we weren't allowed to be in 😊 ). Upon returning to the hotel we hit the pool once again (but no more games, too many injuries), and gradually made our way back to the rooms to prepare for an overnight journey back to Cairo on the train. There was no roudiness on this train ride though, everyone was still feeling the previous nights fun.
We arrived in Cairo early in the morning and went to a hotel for showers and to freshen up for our assault on Cairo. After visiting the hanging church we were off to the citadel which housed a giant mosque(not as big as Istanbul's though). Although we were the tourists there taking photos, we had many young Egyptian chics come up to us and ask for photos with us. I imagine they mustve been from
Valley of the Kings
Water, PRECIOUS, Water! out of town, but they were fascinated by our clothing and skin/hair colour, how bazaar! Following the citadel we hit the famous Khan El Khalili Bazars and got hassled and haggled hard for the items we bought. Scarves, shisha pipes, belts, jewellery, etc were bought, none by me as I ain't carrying that stuff around till january. Our final stop for the day was at the Egyptian museum for our final taste of ancient Egypt. We saw everything that this place had to offer from mummies, to sarcophagus', to statues, to treasures from the tombs. It was amazing. Then for the last time for the whole group we returned to the hotel and had one final night of partying before some went home and some continued on to Dahab.
I should note that procuring alcohol in Egypt is somewhat of a challenge (a lot harder than finding drugs, which you get offered regularly by the locals) as it is a Muslim nation and strict Muslims aren't supposed to drink. So a piece of advise, when ya find a liquor store stock up for the rest of the week! Back in Aswan we found a store that sold genuine duty
free alcohol but we had been in the country too long and had missed the window to buy, so we had to buy the local stuff. For those of you who know ya grog, I bought a bottle of "Gordoons" and "Racardi" amongst other rip offs. And shockingly they tasted nothing like the real thing, they were all pretty much raki with a different label. Funny stuff!
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