Blogs from Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 78

We moved to the West Bank of Luxor and have found ourselves a gem of a place called El-Fayrouz. It's a lurid apricot palace with spacious and cool tiled rooms with a fantastic rooftop area and a very pleasant garden outback with seating under the shade of creeping plants and vines. I am sorry now that we stayed on the East Bank for the first 3 nights, although it was convenient for the things we wanted to see on the east bank like the Temple of Luxor and Karnak. I think after the two and the previous ones in Aswan and Cairo, I am just about getting to the 'all templed-out' point and they are all melding into the 'yet- another-Pharaonic-temple' syndrome for me. Rob is still raring to go... The west bank seems to be ... read more

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 ... read more

Temples and early mornings not really being my thing I decided not to go to Abu Simbel. The Australians on the MS Melody were outraged, and convinced me that it was an absolute must see. So I did the tourist thing and got up at 3.30am to join a convoy through the desert to this monument. For those of you who (like me) have never heard of the Abu Simbel temple it was erected by Ramesses II and is dedicated to himself. However besides being a large monument it’s claim to fame is that when the Nasser damn was built it was going to be submerged, so UNICEF stepped in, chopped it up into little pieces and carted it up the hill thus bringing it into the spotlight this century. The convoy out there was pretty ... read more

We are leaving on a felucca tomorrow for three days and three nights sailing on the Nile to a village outside Edfu village, or, at least we think we are going on a felucca trip - it's been a bit vague but we think we have cut a deal with a man called Captain Washington. Everyone in Aswan seems to know Captain Washington so we think he must be a man to be reckoned with. The felucca captains here have names as colourful as their personalities - Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Flamingo, Captain Hash etc. And some are so colourful as to be on the blacklist of felucca captains to not go sailing with which the tourist office in Aswan will gladly share with you if you are trying to organise a felucca trip on your ... read more

Hi We arrived in Luxor quite early and went to the Temple of Luxor first thing in the morning. It was amazing. It must cover at least 3 city blocks, it is massive, it is right in the middle of the city, and about 100 meters from the Nile. It was just fantastic. The amount of the temple that is left is specatular. You can see the ancient hieroglyphics on the columns and the walls and the entrance has massive huge pictures of the Pharaoh on them.. I was in awe wandering all over the grounds. There is a street all lined with small sphinxes that I believe must have been the main entrance at one time. It was just a such a huge site. It was amazing. Then we took horses and carriages to Karnak ... read more