Belly dancers and sleezy men

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We celebrated out arrival in Luxor by having a custom tourist show complete with belly dancers. To complete the western tourist effect we all dressed up in Galabea’s and other Egyptian attire. Very authentic, honestly! Funniest thing about the show was watching everyone else watching the belly dancers. There were those who were disgusted, those who were really REALLY interested, those who were trying to pick up tips and then those who were just plain uncomfortable. I didn’t quite understand the whole transformation from totally cloaked Muslim to belly dancer. But did enjoy quite a few Egyptian Stella’s.

Had an interesting conversation with another person who had the same operation as a friend of mine. He fell out of a 5 story building was in a coma for a week and they took out a bit of his scull and froze it for 4 months. His parents also thought he was going to die and so this trip was a big celebration for them which was pretty cool. He was a cool guy, totally recovered except had lost his sense of taste and smell… We had a bit of a bond over the whole thing. Apparently the scull removal thing is often used for car accidents and they actually cut it out, obviously with amazing results.

I was fairly allergic to Luxor, and it was not the tourist trade (renowned for being at it’s worst for hassling and abuse) but it was that the entire city was jam packed full of horses. Made worse by the fact that I was already fairly itchy from a rather violent reaction to the ‘genuine silver’ cartouche necklace that I bought in Aswan. I avoided another temple, though this time it was mostly because they were heading off on horse drawn carriages and I just didn’t see myself enjoying that.

Most of our time in Luxor was spent on the boat trying to avoid the sleezy men that hassled you constantly wherever you went. Though I did go to an Irish pub with my tour group members. I felt rather international sitting in this Irish pub in the middle of Egypt with 3 Brazilians and a Scot. Anytime we went anywhere with out tour leader we were greeted with a lot of “Oooh, lucky man, 4 wives, how much for one?” etc etc. It seemed like the fact that it was almost impossible to get married in Egypt results in it being full of horny men! Rankous.

We did also venture out to the famous Movenpick Hotel for some famous ‘Egyptian’ ice-cream. I did say before we got there that I thought it was Swiss… but it made no sense the our tour itinerary would suggest that we head out to a rich tourist resort to eat Swiss ice cream. But turns out that was exactly what it was suggesting, I think the tour company was just trying to stop people from hanging around too much in Luxor.

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Photos

Me
In "traditional" dress

Gi
Hiding on boat

Lara
Hiding on boat