Catching up with writing about the few days in Luxor...

When we first arrived on the train, we stopped at one of the hotels that we had called a couple of days before. Of course, the price was different than what was quoted and they weren't able to get Craig, Karen, and the 2 boys all in the same room. So Craig and I went off in search of another hotel. We went to another that he had called and they were able to get their whole family in a quad room. I had a double to myself, but it still wasn't that expensive. The first place had a bad location and would have been about 30 pounds for me. To get the better location and a view of the Nile, I paid 60 pounds a night. Mind you, that's Egyptian Pounds and at the current exchange rate, 60 LE (abbreviation for Egyptian Pound) is less than $12 US.

After settling in, we took a kalesh ride to Karnak temple. A kalesh is a small carriage pulled by a single horse. So we all piled in and for about 5 LE (less than $1), we had a 20 minute tour of the area and got to Karnak temple. Everything is just so old and impressive. I need to go back again after the feeling of awe wears off! The "wow, I'm really seeing this stuff" sensation made it tough to take in much of what I was seeing. We were all tired by early evening, so we went to bed early. Even though we tried to sleep on the train, it still wasn't very restful. So, I slept a long time and was all rested for Friday!

Friday was our day to hire a car and driver for the day so that we could easily see the sights we wanted to see. Sure, we could have done it cheaper by just hopping busses, but this just made things so much more convenient and we knew that we could schedule things how we wanted.

Our first step was the Colossi of Memnon. We're pretty sure that every tourist in Luxor goes there. Sure, they are 2 huge (30 feet?) but they're also free. So, the tour guides can add them to lists of things they offer without costing themselves any money! *laugh* After that, we went to Deir al-Medina. It's a collection of tombs, but they are right within a small, active village. That meant walking past where people were living and working on our way to the historic sights. Much different than the Valley of Kings, which is isolated.

I should really provide links for some of these things, but I'm not going to. *smirk* Maybe sometime I'll pay to get on a fast connection, but for now it's just too hard with a cruddy dial-up.

Anyway, I already wrote about what we saw in the Valley of the Kings, so I won't get into that again. When we finished there and returned to the hotel, I decided that I wanted to take a felucca ride. Feluccas are small sailboats and there were hundreds of them along the Nile. Each one had an eager captain who would talk to any tourist who walked near him! Price had to be negotiated, of course! I just wanted the experience of "being on the Nile", so I only went for 1 hour. Sadly, there wasn't much wind so we went out, let the current carry us for a bit, then came back in. But the captain was friendly and we had tea. While on the water, one of his friends in another felucca came by with customers, but he didn't have tea or sugar. So, we brought both boats together and handed across our tea and sugar. Silly...

But the day wasn't over yet. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go to Luxor Temple, but I decided that since I was there, I really should. When I'm back in Luxor sometime, maybe I'll go again? At any rate, it's all lit up at night, so most people go after it gets dark or at sunset to get some natural light and then the artificial. Hieroglyphics, hundreds of small sphynxes, a huge obelisk, and manymanymany tourists are what I remember.

And that was the Luxor trip...