Day 4: Hot Air Balloon and Valley of the Kings and close encounter with a Gator

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Woke up at 3:20AM for the hot air balloon. I managed to shower and brush my teeth before heading down to reception. 17 of us would be on this hot air balloon ride. The few of us who opted out had already taken a balloon ride at other places such as Turkey. We piled into a van and took it down to the river where we boarded a boat that took us to the west side of the Nile. A fun fact, all the temples and tombs are on the west bank of the Nile as it symbolizes the end of life because the sun sets in the west. We boarded another van on the west side of the Nile and made our way to a field where 5 or 6 balloons were being inflated. Our entire group was able to fit inside one balloon which was sectioned off into 4 spots. Right around sunset we were off the ground and we got a view of the sunrise. We also saw the temples and historic sites that we would visit later that day. The balloon operator joked that this was his first flight and asked how we were doing. We got to a height of 550 meters and the ride was well worth the 75 British pounds it cost. We landed after about an hour and tipped the crew for a great job. Also there were small children who came asking for money but they had no connection to the balloons. One of us felt bad for them and gave a pound to one of the children and he actually left looking mad. We than took a rather bumpy ride back to the hotel for breakfast.

We met the other 3 people who didn't go on the balloon for breakfast and checked out of the hotel. As a note this hotel is quite high end and I took a look at how much a room usually cost and it was $220 USD a night. We must have gotten a huge discount because my entire tour was not that much more than that. Today we would visit 2 historic site. The Valley of the Kings where Tutankhamen was buried and the Temple of Hatshepsup. First up was The Valley of the Kings which has at least 63 Pharaohs buried there. It cost 100 Egyptian pounds for 3 of the tombs and the one for Tutankhamen is extra. The 3 tombs you are allowed to visit are quite large and they all go downstairs. You are not allowed to take pictures inside them. This is strictly enforced because there are officials inside watching you at all times. Inside the tombs it is quite cool compared to the boiling heat outside (40+ degrees Celsius). The tombs are filled with artifacts and carvings and I spent a long time just admiring them. I will say at this point there are some rude people who had actually carved their names into the tombs. The tomb of Tutankhamen is the most complete one because one of his successors actually built his tomb more or less on top of his and the rubble covered his tomb completely. I wish now I had paid the extra money to see his tomb. After about an hour we left and went to the next stop Hatshepsup.

Hatshepsup* pronounced (hot chicken soup). She is one of the few Egyptian Pharaohs who was a woman. For legal reasons she was always depicted as a man. Her statues were all defaced by her son in law and successor. Even with all the damage it was still an impressive monument to her. It was starting to boil by this point so I cut out early and went to the cafeteria where it was at least shaded. Next stop was an Alabaster store. Here they showed us how they shaped and grinded alabaster stones into the proper shapes. It is a time consuming process and they showed us the difference between what they make and the tourist crap you would buy in most stores. The stuff they had in stores actually shattered when you dropped it because they were made of concrete covered with paint to make it look like Alabaster. I wanted to buy alabaster cobra but I was short on cash and didn't want to spend the money anyway.

I was not feeling well at this point and I was starting to show the early signs of heat stroke so at lunch I only drank soda, water and ate some bread. I was really not up for anything else. After lunch Zizo took us to a pharmacy where we loaded up on sunscreen, Antanine and bug spray. We would be using all 3 extensively for the rest of the tour. It was now time to go to Aswan near the famous dam. Zizo told us there were 2 roads to get there, 1 was on the east side which goes through numerous villages and took 5 hours or a shorter one on the west side of the Nile and took 3 hours. The one on the west side was not officially finished but Travel Talk has been taking it for awhile now and only been forced to cross back to the east side twice. We took the west side route and we got there in 3 hours so we it was a good gamble. We checked into the Helnan Hotel which was another fine hotel. We had a bit of time before the Nubian dinner that night so we went down to the pool. At that point I decided to tell everyone I couldn't swim as it would have come out on the Felucca boat anyway. I got some good hearted teasing from my travelmates about that before we settled to drinking beers. I tried to charge all our beers to room 316 which was Stephan and Emily's room because they were the only ones not at the pool. Unfortunately we were unable to convince the pool staff who were on to us.

Now it was time for the Nubian dinner. The Nubian dinner was only 13 British pounds and the motorboat ride to get there was worth the price alone. Dinner was at Nubian family's house and they were raising Nile Crocodiles. We were able to hold one of the smaller ones and take pictures with it. Zizo explained to us this family raised the crocodiles and released them back into the wild after they grew up. This is in contrast to the less ethical who raised crocodiles to turn into shoes, suitcase etc. Dinner that night was chicken, soup and bread. The bread was actually baked under the sand using the heat of the day. It was a tasty meal and it was worth the money. After dinner we headed back to the boat and back to our hotel. It was another early day tomorrow, 3AM wakeup to get to Abu Simbel.

*A note Hatshesup is the site of the Luxor massacre where the last tourist massacre happened.

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Photos

Me with a Gator
My favourite pic from the tour

On the riverboat
Ashleigh, Josh, Gary, Kate

Selfie on the balloon
Jess, Myself and Emily

Hot Air balloon
Myles, Brendan, Kait, Ollie, Luke and Ashleigh

Steinberg Hotel prices
This was a luxury hotel and we must have gotten a huge discount