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The 5 hour bus trip to Luxor was alright. It looked like I was going to be sitting on the floor at first, as it was packed. But I paid the most money so I got a seat, how nice! Not much else to do on here so I stick my ipod on for the whole journey. The Luxor bus station had moved from its central location next to the Luxor temple. The taxi drivers must have complained that they were not making enough money out of tourists so they moved it in the middle of nowhere. I had to get a cab to get anywhere half decent. My taxi driver was also the brother of the owner of a budget hotel in Luxor (How convenient!) but I had made my mind up where I was staying in town. The Happy Land Hotel, sounds like my kind of place at the moment! It was nice here though, clean and a aircon room for 20 Egyptian pounds, nice. Luxor is a pretty small town. That makes it quite easy to explore by foot in 45C heat, after all this is Luxor. This was the place my Grandad always looked at in the
Luxor Temple
Row of Sphinx's newspaper to see how hot it was, I always remember it being in the 40’s, pretty much like today then.
Walking along the Corniche was nice, except for 101 felucca owners all wanting me to go on one, I plan to go on one in Aswan and back up to Luxor in a few days, so not at the moment thank you. I accidentally find the train station, and walk back to my hotel, no map required as there are signs for the Happy Land every 25 meters. Some dinner and a few beers in town. Then time for a haircut, my first of the trip. My barber did a pretty good job on my hair and then asked if I wanted a shave. Why not? He seemed to find hair on my head that I never knew about, I want my eyebrows back!! The shave was very close, “Don’t move” was his warning, no shit!
I hired a bike the next morning to explore what there is to see on the East bank, my bike was over 50 years old, only had one break and the seat was skew-whiff, but it was faster than walking. First stop
Arty Bike Shot
Not just any old bike. My old bike was the Karnak Temple.
Huge, massive, really big! Most of this is over 3000 years old, very impressive, afterwards I wanted to get a tripod for my camera, so I headed to the shops outside the temple, about 10 shopkeepers came flying at me, all shouting “Kodak, Coca-cola, nice price” I replied “Tripod”, this got rid of all of them but one, He had a tripod in his store, but It was a steel one, so it was too heavy, never mind, there must be a shop in town with one. Next stop on my Tour De Luxor was the Luxor temple, just as impressive but nowhere near as big. Then to the Luxor museum, it was small, but had a lot inside, plus aircon, that helps too!
I spent most of the afternoon just cycling around town saying “Hello” to all the locals, was much more fun on here, avoiding taxi’s, donkeys, people and trains. Not a thing to do too quickly though, not in this heat. I had my dinner that night on banks of the Nile, not bad food but it was worth it just for the view.
I arranged to do a tour
Luxor Temple
Really old, no REALLY old, really. of the sights of the west bank with my hotel, I was up at 4.30 for my big day. My tour guide was 30 minutes late, so that’s 30 minutes more time asleep. Not happy. When we left the hotel he asked, “Do you want to go on the Egyptian ferry across or the tourist one?” “I don’t care” was my grouchy response, “We will get the Egyptian one then.” We had to walk on the ferry, even this early on in the day was hot, it takes about 20 minutes to get there, no conversation at all between us. I tried to break the ice but he was too interested in his Cleopatra cigarettes. I had to pay for the ferry too, only 10p but I thought this was a tour, not something I could have done much easier on my own. This was the straw that broke the camels back.
I told my guide not to bother and go back to bed, he didn’t seem to give a toss, “But you have a donkey waiting for you” and a ass telling me. I’m going to do all this on my own, how I should have done in
the first place.
On the ferry over I met a Geordie guy, we decided to share a cab to the Valley of the Kings and do our own thing once we are there.
The Valley of the Kings may sound impressive, but all it is are some holes in the ground with some pretty pictures inside. Most of the collections inside them have been dragged to the Egyptian museum in Cairo or off to Britain. I got a taxi driver to take me to the other west bank sites. The Temple of Hatshepsut and the Medinet Habu, much better and something to look at too.
All of the major bits of the west bank were covered be 11:00am. So I went over the Nile and bought my train ticket for Aswan that afternoon. In Luxor for the next few days is the Islamic festival of Shab-E-Baraat. It just seemed like a excuse to make more noise and get in the way more then they already do. A good time to leave I felt! I watched some Sunday afternoon footy and then went back to the station for my 5pm train to Aswan.
For a second class
seat for only 1 English pound, it was quite comfy I thought, loads of legroom and a nice aircon breeze, there was plenty of locals to talk to on the way there all of them asking why I am in Egypt. Pretty straightforward really, but I would ask the same question to a tourist in England I guess. The train was about a hour late, but that didn't matter too much. The Hotel Hathor, right on the corniche looking over the Nile was my rest stop here, top room with awesome views. Too late to check out the town, so I go to bed.
In daylight, my view is even better, with Elephantine Island over the river and the traffic buzzing about down below. Even that there is not as many tourists here there are plenty of hawkers and touts about, a right pain. I crossed over to the Nubian Elephantine Island in the late afternoon, really different from the rest of the town. The Aswan museum was over there too, I had to place to myself, which was surprising as it was quite good there. I spent most of the evening chilling out with a sheesha and a
Abu Simbel
The (Almost) full set. few cups of tea.
Another early start the next morning for my next excursion. The Temples of Abu Simbel. We left at 4.00am to start our police escort, it was more like a grand prix plenty of overtaking other coaches and minibuses. Once we arrived, it was worth it. Superb stuff. We got there just as the sun was shining off the 4 (3 and a half) statues of Ramses II. On the way back I recognized someone on the bus. It was the Dutch guy who I met at the Egyptian Consulate in Israel. He had decided to give up his trip after being locked up in a police cell for a day and cycling on his own for so long. A big shame I thought, but he still did a fair bit!
Once back in Aswan I went to the station to sort out my train to Cairo. As mentioned before I was planning to get a Felucca back up to Luxor, but after a week of constant "Hello my friend, want a Felucca ride" I decided to give it a miss. Letting one of them win would be too much!
I had a very
Sky + Installers Woz Ere, Abu Simbel
"I paid a extra 40 quid for that on my walls" flaky pizza before my train and then to Cairo. The final stop of part one of my trip. Lets hope its more rewarding than the rest of Egypt.
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