Blogs from Luxor, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 3

We took a tour with a tour leader from our Happy Land accomodation to visit various sites. We got picked up with a minibus and were part of a great group of travellers.... read more

At Luxor railway station we bargain with a taxi driver for a “good price” for the short ride to our hotel. Good for whom? The taxi is a battered old Peugeot 204, perhaps 50 years old? The door locks don't really work; the boot is held open with a stick; the speedo is stuck on zero. But it gets us to the illustrious Winter Palace Hotel, or rather its newer and cheaper Pavilion wing. Our room overlooks the wonderful gardens. The Winter Palace Hotel has always been the place to stay and everybody has – from Lady Di to Richard Gere. In 1923, Howard Carter used the hotel's imposing staircase as his podium to announce to the world’s press that he had, at last, found Tutankamun's tomb. The Nile is wide here and a local ferry, ... read more

Après le programme chargé du début et le dur lever à 4:00 du matin, la nouvelle partie du voyage apporte à la fois calme, poésie et relaxation. Me voilà en effet embarqué sur une felouque, petit bateau à voile égyptien utilisé depuis des siècles pour sillonner le Nil. Au programme: absolument rien. Ce sont en effet deux journées passées au fil de l'eau à remonter le Nil en rêvassant lascivement qui m'attendent. J'en profite, pour pianoter quelques notes pour mes articles, avancer dans mon bouquin, et m'intéresser aux gens de mon groupe. Comme je l'ai déjà mentionné, tous sont anglophones et une barrière de la langue sinon de la culture semble nous séparer. Malgré une mise en retrait au début, je me décide progressivement à venir socialiser. Et il y a clairement des profils et des ... read more

Today, Renata and I are going on our first ever hot air balloon ride. We are so excited to witness the mesmerizing ancient monuments of Luxor from high in the sky. Hot Air Balloon Ride After an early morning pickup (around 3:00 a.m.) with Sinbad tours, Renata and I traveled to the east bank where we boarded a boat that took us to the west bank of the Nile river. In the boat we were given a brief safety demonstration and we had to fill out a waiver form in case anything happened. When we arrived at the Hot Air Balloon site, it was pitched black and Sinbad tours was just starting to slowly fill up the balloons. We boarded our Hot Air Balloon and the group had to shuffle around to distribute weight equally in ... read more

Today Renata and I explored three places in Luxor: The Colossi of Memnon, the Valley of the Kings and the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. We finished the evening with a Nubian Dinner at a nearby Nubian village in Aswan. Colossi of Memnon The Colossi of Memnon are these two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III made from sandstone. The faces are a little run down but they are interesting to behold. The Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings was a highlight of our day in Luxor and one of the highlights of our trip to Egypt. Along with building massive pyramids, the Ancient Egyptians also built underground tombs which housed many ancient Pharaoh treasures. The most famed collection of underground tombs is located in the Valley of the Kings which ... read more

LUXOR. A SURFEIT OF RICHES. There are people today who have such excessive wealth you wonder what they do with it all. Billionaires. Bill Gates, the Saudi sheiks, institutions like the Queen of England and the Vatican. So much wealth its unimaginable and sickening. If Luxor was a person they would be one. The quantity and quality of antiquity here is unimaginable. There is the East Bank with Karnak temple, the world's largest temple complex. There is Thebes the city of a hundred gates, and Luxor Temple. There are the West Bank monuments with Hatshupset's Temple aligned on a direct axis with the Karnak Temple on the opposite Bank. There are the Colossi of Memnon just sitting casually on the road leading to the monument area. There is the Temple of Ramsis II second only to ... read more