Blogs from Luxor, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 28

The road to Luxor continued to be straight and true, with hardly any traffic whatsoever until we descended down a great wadi with spectacular cliffs on either side towards the Nile and Luxor town. After one or two wrong slots in the centre of the town we found the campsite in the centre of the built up area. There was grass for us to pitch our tents and we found only two other campers there - one lot, a young couple on two BMW bikes, we had met in the visa queue at the Ethiopian Consulate in Cairo! Apart from the showers and loos which leave a lot to be desired the campsite is quite adequate and the hosts very friendly. In the evening we went to a Sound and Light Show at the Temple of ... read more

Ha ha ha ha! In De Nile! We've been waiting for DAYS to say that! Ha ha ha. Somewhat appropriate to this entry though, as we recently took a two-day felucca trip down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor. It actually only took us as far as a smallish town called Kom Ombo, where we hopped on a minibus and went via Kom Ombo and Edfu temples to Luxor. The felucca boat was very peaceful; about 25 feet long, simple construction, with essentially the whole deck being converted to a large futon upon which 11 tourists spent 48 hours, sleeping, eating, lounging etc. Feluccas are distinct by way of their single 'sharp' free-floating sail. Our 'captain', Faddy, cooked our (very basic) meals for us; the highlight of which was Brigid's favourite, 'Koshary'. All the meals ... read more

Well I was up early again this morning to join my motorcade to Luxor four short, cramped hours and I was there, I headed for the Hostel and checked my stuff, before heading out to explore the Luxors East Bank. Luxor and its surrounding area contains almost 80% of Egypts ancient treasures. The city itself is an enormous open air museum, and tourists have been coming here since antiquity, It was seemingly as much on the Greek and Roman world tour as it is in the 21st century, as many of the monuments are not onlky adorned with heirogliphyics but also ancient greek and latin grafitti. Although Luxor is most famous for its pharonic architectural monuments, its name is inherited from its muslim occupation as the actual name Luxor derives from the Arabic for palace: ... read more

Luxor is ridiculously hot right now. Cairo was very hot because of the massive amounts of concrete. Luxor is more humid since it's located along the Nile River (about 10 hours by train) south of Cairo. If you carry a cold bottle of water around without a bag to insulate, you can bet it will be hot in less than 15 minutes. The hot wind blows in your face and feels like someone opened a the world's largest oven. We are staying at a nice budget hotel called Neferetiti (named after the famous Egyptian Queen). This place has A/C and clean rooms with private bath. Our only form of entertainment is my Nokia Euro-Cell phone. It has a few rap songs by Manny Fresh & Big Pun. I also have a Karate Kid song by Billy ... read more

Luxor Before sunrise, we boarded a small aircraft, carrying no more than 20 passengers, for Luxor. As the sky showed sunrise colors, the solemn call to prayer was intoned by a deep male voice over the speaker. The slanting sunlight revealed a barren but beautiful red landscape. Our hotel was on the shore of the Nile with a road separating it from the river’s edge. There were small sailboats (feluccas) on the water. We checked in and immediately arranged for the trip to the Temple of Karnak. On the way, we passed palm trees and fields cultivated by oxen-drawn plows and irrigated by a seesaw-like contraption that lifted water from the river into the ditches. These, we were told, have been in use for millenniums. Most of the vehicles on the dirt road were drawn by ... read more