Day 3-5 Egypt, September 5th??

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Days 3 - 5 September 3 - 5th

Hi! I haven't written in a few days because I've been on the run for what feels like the ENTIRE time! Ok, so day 3 we had to wake up at 3:30 am so we could meet the shuttle in front of the hotel lobby at 430 am in order to catch a flight from Cairo to Luxor. That sucked! Anyway, once we got the airport, I finally started to feel alive again....sort of. We flew to Luxor and arrived in Luxor around 8 something. The scenery in Luxor is much different than Cairo. First of all, it's a WAY smaller city. Cairo is ridiculously busy. They have 20 million people living in Cairo and you can tell. Isn't that almost twice the population of NYC? Anyway, Luxor was still desert but also green since its right next to the Nile River. Once we arrived to the boat (cruise that we are taking for 4 days) we loaded onto the ship, got our rooms and got settled. Once we were settled and had lunch we went to the Karnak temple and then to the Luxor temple. We arrived back to the boat in time for dinner and then instead of going to bed, we decided to stay up and drink with some of the other tourist. That was fun but not a very wise decision since we had to wake up again (day 4) at 3:30 IN THE MORNING!!!! UGH!

However, waking up at 3:30 to leave the ship by 4:30 was worth it, although I will admit while on the bus going to the hot air balloon, I was thinking it was a mistake! I was SO TIRED. Anyway, we arrived at the hot air balloons right before dawn. There were a bunch of men setting them up and it was quite a site. There were also a TON of mosquitos. Since there were so many bugs, we decided to wait in the bus until our balloon was ready. Of course ours was last but again...it turned out great. It was kind of funny because while they were blowing ours up the bus had to keep moving out of the way because the balloon would start falling in the direction of the bus! That's interesting to see! The balloon ride was amazing. We went up pretty high and the scenery was so pretty. We could see animals and farmers and the tops of houses where farmers sleep. We were told the reason why the farmers sleep on the roof is because the insides of the houses get to hot and it's a way for them to stay cool. It was so strange to see chickens on the roof and livestock in houses, but I guess that's just one of the weird but fascinating things about this place.



The kids really enjoy the tourists. I think they think we are rich or something, which compared to them, we probably are. The thing about people here though is that they appreciate what they have. We were talking to the tour guide and we asked about how much they make a month. First of all, the US dollar is worth 6 times what the Egyptian pound is worth. The typical salary here is L.E. 700 - L.E. 1000 a month (Egyptian pounds). That's roughly $116 - $166 a month of US dollars. Not much.



The people that are selling items around the temples are super pushy. I've learned to best way to get through it is just to look down and keep walking. I feel kind of bad because they are clearly talking to me and I am clearly ignoring them. The worst part is when the kids do it. I had a kid probably around 7 years old walk up to me and try to sell me a flower that he just picked. I said no and he kept persisting. He would look at me and ask me why I don't want it and then he offered it to me for free. Then he started calling me mom! That was strange. I eventually just had to walk away from him and felt really bad doing so. I had another kid walk up to me trying to sell me a map and when I refused to buy, he asked me if he could have a cigarette. He was probably 9! Continuing on....



After the balloon ride, we went back to the boat and had breakfast and then left again to go to the Valley of Kings. That was pretty cool. It's where King Tut is still buried in his coffin, as a mummy! The Valley of Kings is a mountain in Luxor that is off of the west bank of the Nile River. To date, they have found 62 tombs there. Ya know, King Tut isn't famous for what he did during his dynasty, but because his tomb was one of the only tombs that wasn't looted. They found all of his belongings with him in his tomb. He had tons of jewelry, furniture, gold inlaid coffins (sarcophagi) and a bunch of other random things. Anyway, there were quite a few tombs there but we only went into 3 since our ticket only granted us access to 3 tombs. Plus, it was so damn hot out. 112 degrees! Also, side note: After going to a bunch of temples and hearing the same names over again, things just start to run together. After the Valley of Kings, we went to the Valley of Queens. That was pretty impressive and was constructed for Queen Hatshepsut. By time we left there, we were all pretty much dead because of the heat. Nothing sounded better than going back to the ship, sitting on the deck by the pool and relaxing! Once we got back to the ship, the rest of the day was ours. So my mom and I up to the pool and watched the sunset and hung out with our new friends again until dinner. After dinner, we went and had a few more beers and then headed off to bed.



Day 5 - Today! This morning we were in Edfu. We got to sleep until 7:15!!! That was great! Once we headed off the boat after breakfast, we took a horse and carriage ride to another temple. It was the Horus temple. Now that temple was what I expected to see in Egypt. I took some pictures that just kind of look awesome and mysterious! Really cool. After the Hours temple, we rode back to the boat, hopped on and headed towards Kom Ombo and Aswan. We are arriving at Aswan tonight around 11:30 so we can wake up in the morning and tour the Aswan High Dam, which controls the yearly flood of the Nile. On that note...I'm off to bed and will try to write more tomorrow.

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