Luxor, Karnak, McFlurries

(Miller) We've come, seen, done and tasted Egypt and now, are getting ready to leave the first country on this round the world extravaganza. After hugs goodbye and email exchanged in Dahab, we boarded the 18 hour bus to Luxor. If I could be a professional travel sleeper, I would. No problems here slipping out of consciousness. Because of Ramadan, we stopped for the breaking fast meal and another full out food stop at 1:30am. I was content with just keeping my eyes closed until we got to the final destination but Annie, in her ever-caring manner, lured me off the bus by dangling chips and coke in front of my half-mast eyes. She was worried about blood clots and sore muscles and I must admit it was interesting to observe the late-night meal. As Annie said, it made our ankles swell and we were not the glamorous travelers we usually are after we got off that ride. We hit the hotel at 9 in the morning and after the necessary errands, passed out until the afternoon. I'm not a usual napper but wow, my body just shut down. That night we walked around Luxor proper. The temple was well lit, so we tried to get as many pictures as we could to show the layout.

Speaking of pictures, it's time to make a disclaimer about our photo albums. Since this blog and the albums are just as much for us as anyone else, we're trying to record everything we can. So many of the pics are just going to look like piles of rocks or one more hieroglyphic montage. There really aren't any words I possess to fully convey what we're seeing out here. The scale and antiquity of these places is truly awe-inspiring. Just keep clicking if you get bored...

So, we took a stroll all around the temple which is situated right next to the Nile Corniche and thus got a nice breeze off the water. Luxor, ancient city of Thebes, being what it is, a huge attraction town, attracts people from all over the world. The Egyptians here who work with the tourist crowd are clearly very good at what they do, though it makes a huge difference when someone really leaves the hustle out of a conversation and will just tell it like it is. Horse and buggies are about a popular here as taxis, for tourists. Most local folk take the micro-buses from point A to B. Made a deal with Annie that we could take a Felucca boat down the Nile if we didn't have to get in one of those buggies. There is the Brooke Animal Hospital here and the horses look well taken care of, for the most part but galloping down the asphalt in city traffic just doesn't do it for me. The drivers are pretty aggressive and have no problem following you for awhile until you make the effort to ditch them. Annie has developed a "buggy row" walk and song, it's definitely deterring if anything...

After talking to our hotel guy, Ziggy, we decided that since we only had 1 day to see the West bank, it'd be best to go with a group. Not two ladies who are fans of tours, we had a great time! The original plan was to bike the 60 or so kilometers roundtrip and just take our time at the sites. In hindsight, this may have killed the friendship, or just killed us. Luxor is HOT! It's been a solid 97 and much warmer in the sun. Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, the Temple of Hatshepsut, and the Colossus of Memnon were all amazing. We're not in high travel season so all the crowds were manageable; especially if one was willing to walk around in the noon sun. It made us a little kooky but nothing a coke couldn't fix. The tombs in the valleys were hot, dry and mesmerizing. Thinking about how long ago these were constructed and the world at that time was like walking into a time warp. Because we were with a guide, a lovely lady egyptologist from the University of Cairo, there was really no hassle and we got mini-bused around to each site. If you're going to do a tour, this was the way to go. We were also able to get students discounts, which helped us immensely to stay on budget. The temple of Hatshepsut is something I've been wanting to see for years and to finally go was so awesome! It's a three tiered temple carved out of a hillside by the only female ruler, who at times was even depicted as a man in many statues and drawings. Her stepson destroyed many of her statues when he took over rule but enough remains to get a good sense of the original grandeur.

The next day we walked the few kilometers to Karnak to see the huge temple. After braving the parking lot with no less than 20 exhaust belching busses, we waited until noon, beefed up on our temple knowledge in Lonely Planet and walked down the avenue of Sphinxes. This place is HUGE! Spent a good two hours walking around, taking photos, and people-watching too (our guilty pleasure). Though I'm sure we've been observed a time or two ourselves (how about those pants Carrie?!) Had lunch at a nearby restaurant, and went back to the hotel to regroup until the sun calmed down a little. It was time for Annie to cash-in on her Felucca ride so we went right before sunset and found the captain who'd been really nice and relaxed earlier. His boat the HoneyMoon was already out so he just took his friend's and off we went. What a cool vessel! It's a one sail, one rudder boat that can really get moving with some wind. They let Annie and I take the ropes and we had a great time chatting with his little skipper, Ahmed. As a last night in Luxor treat, we went to McDonalds (i know, i don't even want to hear it) to get McFlurries, which were obscenely expensive but we did run into a Spanish kid who'd been on our tour the day before so we got to catch up in some air-conditioning.

The rooftop bar is where we've been unwinding every night and the owners have been great to us. Knock on wood, we've been so lucky with hostels here, hopefully the trend will continue. We're checking out today and doing one last tour around the city to see the Luxor museum, write some postcards, and do some India planning until we catch our overnight train to Cairo around 9pm. We'll easily kill the morning in Cairo and fly out to India Monday afternoon, with a short layover in Bahrain. There is no possible way we've been able to talk about everything we've done here but hopefully it's been a good window into our world. Keep up the comments, they make us chuckle and remind us of home.