The Nile, the Valley of the Kings and Luxor

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So at this point I feel like I've beat Egypt to death on this blog, so I will try to be short. The cruise was cool because we actually had a little time to relax and just hang out on the deck of the ship and try to recharge before we got to the next thing on the agenda. Plus, you could get drinks which was rare in Egypt. The only place that sells alcohol are duty free shops and there aren't many of those.

One of the best parts was that we got to check out a small Egyptian village. Although part of the trip was on camel and was just as touristy as the rest of the trip, the village did not see as many visitors as some of the big cities so you got a better idea of how typical Egyptians lived. We got to see their farms, inside some of their houses, and actually met some people that were interested in seeing us for reasons other than the fact that we had money and may buy some crap that they were trying to sell. These people were different because they seemed content with what they had and their way of life. They weren't looking for a handout but instead were focused on their families and their way of life. It is a view of Egypt that I will keep with me even though the majority of the trip was spent dealing with people that were simply looking for a way to get my money.

One other story then I am done. As I mentioned during my Cairo entry, many of the indoor exhibits did not allow photography, usually for no good reason. I had seen some people sneak cameras into the exhibits anyways and get caught and they just made them put it away. So by the time we got to the Valley of the Kings I decided that I was going to snap a couple pictures inside the tombs. Nothing with flash or anything that could damage the colors of the paintings, but just fire off a couple so I wouldn't feel like I needed to buy another book. On my second picture, some old Egyptian dude caught me and took away my camera. I was freaking out because all of my pictures from all of Egypt and some from South America were all on that camera. But I wasn't going to argue too much with the guy because some of those guys have guns and I didn't really want to piss off a guy with a gun. So my strategy was to stay with him the whole time and just bug him enough so he would give it back or until I thought of a better strategy. All of a sudden all the lights in the tomb went off and we were stuck in a pitch black cave-like tomb. I was actually in the room that was the furthest from the entrance and the stairs were iron ladders that connected the rooms and not really safe to be climbing in the dark. It was freaky! I could even see that the Egyptian dude with my camera was freaked by it, I think he maybe thought this was some sort of bad omen. Turns out that one of the other guys on our tour saw the whole camera thing go down and decided to run back to the entrance of the tomb and shut off all the lights. That way he could bargain with the Egyptian guy. He told him that he could get his lights back on if he gave me my camera back and then all he did was flip on the switch and the guy was so happy to have light again he gave me the camera back. It turned out to be a good lesson, don't mess with Egyptians and their rules but it also was cool to experience the tombs without light because it gave me a deeper appreciation for how difficult it must have been to paint and carve the walls with just a torch light. In the end some of the people on the tour were pissed because the stunt left them in a dark, scary, ancient tomb but in the end everyone was fine and I got my camera back.

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