Full of hot air

Well we have finally arrived home so it is time to try to catch up with our last few days of travel. Normally I would have gone on to explain the fantastic boat trip we did down the Nile. This would normally have included some similes and metaphors to explain the villages we passed and the scenes of local village women washing on the banks while children played in the water; I would then wax lyrical of the importance of the Nile to the people and used copious statements such as “life blood of Egypt” and “river of life”. Then I would have quoted a whole lot of facts about the length of the river, how many people rely on it and other trivial stats that I make up because I know no one ever checks if they are correct. But unfortunately, I cant do any of this. Not because it wasn’t a fantastic and relaxing 7 hours cruising to the Temple of Dendera and then back but because my diary is hopefully somewhere in transit on its way to Sydney as we speak.

But again I am getting ahead of my self. Before I explain why the diary has its own first class ticket to Sydney I need to finish our trip in Egypt. The last few days involved more temples than you can poke a stick at. It seems that all the who’s who of Kings were buried in Luxor. Tutenkhamon, Ramses I through XI, Seti and Elvis Presley have tombs here – well – I cant really vouch for Elvis. While many were buried in the Valley of the Kings, even more visually impressive was Karnak Temple where they all tried to out do each other with the biggest temple, poles or statues. Built and enlarged over a thirteen hundred year period and covering 247 acres, the Temple includes the Hypostyle Hall of 135 Pillars, a towering site even with the bus load of tourists that descended on the temple at exactly 11.05am (so we found out!).

But the highlight of Egypt had to be an early – And I mean early – NO, I don’t think you really understand - A BLOODY early wake up to get catch a bus, then a boat then a bus before boarding a hot air balloon over this fantastic country all before the sun popped its head over the horizon. Thanks to Bethany’s money making skills we decided to do something special and you could not get more special than this. It gave Egypt a whole different perspective as you floated silently (except for the deafening roar of the burners every few minutes to propel us into the stratosphere) over the temples, sugar cane fields, villages and desert. Forever memorable.

As the plane took off, I was reminded of something I read which described Egypt as "A Land of Contrasts. You can't either love or hate Egypt. You simply have to do both. You love the history, you hate the dirt. You love the natural beauty, you hate the chaos. You love the chaos, you hate the noise. You love the food, you hate the daily evacuation of your bowels. You love the heat. You hate the cold. You love the warmth of the people, you hate that they all see you as a walking wallet. You love The Nile. You hate the pollution.” A good summary of an incredible adventure.


Ps: Over the last month we have had the most amazing weather with sunshine all the way. Unfortunately I made a joke in my previous blog that I hope we don’t break the Egyptian drought. Well, it turns out that we did. For what the locals tell me was the first time in somewhere between 2 and 10 years (depending on who you spoke to) we encountered cloudy skies on our last day and a spattering of rain that was just enough to disturb every particle of dust and dirt and propel it into the air and ultimately into your clothes, hair, lungs and every other orifice no matter how well covered. I think it was a sign to say time to go home.

Curse of Tutakhamun

While in Cairo we visited the Egyptian Museum, a labarynth of rooms housing over 12000 items covering every period of egyptian history. It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the stone carvings, jewlery, gold, pottery and all sorts of treasures recovered from the sands. But at centre stage was Tutankhamun and his 1700 items incliding a glittering solid gold death mask and gold coffin. So now that we were in Luxor we had to go and see the actual tomb where the treasures were found and his mummy which is still inside.

Having decided this was actually meant to be the relaxing bit of our trip we joind a small organised tour of the tombs deep in the mountains surrounding Luxor. A quick stop at Colossi of Memnon (2 60 foot high status of Amenhotep III) we went to Hatshepsut temple built in the sheer limestone cliff face. Stunning reliefs, inticate carvings and murals which have retained their colour for over 3000 years. An amazing history that would make great soap box TV involving Hatsheput taking the throne illigitimatelly, pretending to be a man, the son finally killing her and taking the throne himspef, then defacing and destroying all traces of her.

Next stop Valley of the Kings and several tombs hidden in the cliff deep underground with coloured chambers telling the story of the journey though the afterlife. And the most recently discovered tomb by Cater in 1922 - Tutankhanmun. While not as ornate it was amazing to see his mummy still inside the tomb.

Last stop was Deir al mMedina or the valley of the artisans with more beautiful mut much smaller chambers that you had to crouch down to discover.

What a day!

A day in the life of a tourist

Next day, leaving the kids by the pool I thought I would do a simple task and go and buy some fruit. After getting mollested by multiple caleche drivers, taxis, shop owners, beggers and I swear even a stray cat pinned me in a corner and demaded "bakish" (money). I really was starting to realise how friendly Cairo was. After much looking and no sign of fruit stalls I finally relented and agreed a price with a caleche driver to take me to the markets and back. After agreeing a price and much friendly chatter we arrived - he even offered to buy me the fruit from the stall. See - Luxor is not that bad after all.................. until 3 seconds after I got back in that he demanded we stop and look at one of his friends shop. After strong words he then said the agreed price was british pounds not egyptian (about 10 times more). By this stage i was considering throwing my self out of the carriage but luckily he stopped so it was time to make a leap. So here i was in the middle of Luxor having no idea where I was.

So returning to what I know best i jumped in the local mini bus heading in what I though was the right direction. Amazingly it went back past our hotel. An interesting experience all for a bag of oranges and bannanas.

I think tommorow we might take an organised trip to the tombs???

Luxor - the gold coast of Egypt

Street after street of cheap tourist trinkets; a line of caleche (horse carrages) lined up like one big taxi rank taking unsuspecting tourists for a ride (in more ways than one); the consant call of "hey mister what your name" or "where you from" then a somewhat intimidating arm direting you into their shop. My first impressions of Luxor are not the most flattering and gives an indication of some of the negative things tourism can bring to a country.

Round 1 began the minute we arrived at the airport. Being well used to avoiding porters we pushed passed several who were physically trying to take the bags out of our hands and headed for the taxis. Round 2 commenced with the bombardment of 257 taxi drivers and commnced hard negotiation and finally agreed a price. Rond three was a new one to us as reinforcements arrived from ring side swooping on the bags to lift on the roof of the taxi and again demand money. By this stage wee were fully punch drunk but thought we had the upper hand until we realised that the person we negotiated with was not actually a taxi driver but a middle man who then demanded money for negotiating a price. By this stage it was time to throw the towel in but yes - we did get to our hotel somewhat less in cash than when we arrived.

Not being compleatly defeated, we threw the bags in the room and decided to try the local mini bus into town instead of a taxi. Costing the equiv. of 5c Aust it is surprising that none of the tourists use this. But the people most surprised were those in the mini bus when 2 white toursits and their children squeezed in. We made our way to Luxor Tempe on the bans of the Nile. An unbeleivable temple with huge carvings of pharaohs and walls covered in hylogriphics. For a temple 1500BC it is amazing how much remains in tact.

But after travelling for 3 weeks we really came here to relax so time to get back and find that pool!