Hi All,
On the mini bus and off to visit temples on our way to Luxor.
Edfu. What a massive temple! the carvings were huge and impressive. Just getting to the ticket office looked like a challenge as there is a fence that guides you past 100m of souvenir shops along the way. We snuck in an open gate and missed it on the way in but not on the way out. Kind of funny as you walk along. Just like theatre as you walk along the sellers approach you often walking into your path showing you a sample of their goods then withdraw when you say no only for the next in line to take his turn. I really didn't find it that funny and by the end of the trip was growling 'Don't step in my path if you know what is good for you!' and showing them my walking corridor with my arms. Must look mean when annoyed as it worked.
Kom Ombo. This was a really excellent temple and no tourists or touts. Really underrated. Beautifully carved and lovely paintings on the ceilings. We enjoyed looking around again were too short on time.
Luxor. Quite impressive. The mosquitos (touts) bite even harder here than anywhere we have been. Every 10 metres walking. Not fun. Both are unwell with chest infections and my tollerance has run out.
The river is really nice and along the banks were moored about 3 or 4 side by side and 20 length by length floating hotels. So many. Unfortunately the fat european tourists could be seen shamelessly sunning themselves on the decks. Not good. There seemed to be as many horse and carriages as tourists on the cruisers and often we saw 40 or 50 in a row ferrying people from the boats into town. The horses looked great and it was almost tempting to take a ride but no. We have legs!
Nice hotel. 3 star! We were only about 1km away from Luxor temple and as it could be seen from the road we decided not to visit. Night pictures were good from the fence.
Almost high fiving tour guides again. We told the organiser that we wanted more time at the sites. He lied as was usual and said yes we could have it.
Valley of the kings. Got on the bus. There was a guide and he explained we would have 1hr at the valley of the kings we said it was agreed for 2hrs but he didn't budge. Grrr. We got to the site bought our tickets and then were told to buy electric train ticket as well as it was a long way from the ticket office to the tombs. Not happy but went along. The train trip was about 2 minutes. Scam. Once at the tombs we demanded to know when we would be expected back at the bus then went our own way. Had to be ruthless to get to see what we wanted. The tombs were really fantastic to visit and we really were rushed. So rushed at one stage that there was a queue of about 50 people on another tour waiting on steps at the entrance of the tomb and we walked down the steps beside them and jumped in front. Pretty rude but at the time I though they were just old and going slowly down. No pics allowed inside.
So we got back out because of our busy program and drove for 10 minutes to an alabaster vase factory. Hmmm. Another version of my cousins carpet shop. We watched for a bit but when they said to go inside and look at the finishing and final product we refused. We had started to become tour guide nightmares.
Hatsput (??) funeral temple. Again demanded to know when to return to the bus and went our own way. This temple was fantastic and had excellent paintings. Unfortunately the people who were supposed to be guarding the temple, and this was not limited to here, were taking bribes from tourists to let them into places that were off limits. They actively looked for willing participants. Pretty poor form. Just enough time for us.
Valley of the queens. This was really fantastic. Many on the bus declined to have a look at the tombs but the painting was superb. No pics allowed.
We were to visit Karnak temple and luxor temple in the afternoon. We told the guide we would have his talk at karnak temple then would do our thing for the rest of the afternoon.
We finished our tour in Luxor and figured it would be easy enough to just buy train tickets and head back to Cairo. The problem was to get to the ticket window. There were about 20 egyptians trying to buy tickets and packing in like a scrum. More packed in from the sides and eventually we had to put in blocks to get to the window. Crazy! Even at the window hands were coming over my shoulders trying to get to the ticket seller! Got there only to be told to come back the next morning for tickets. Hmmm. Not going so well. Back to the hotel and watched 7 year itch as we rested. Came back next morning and not so busy but the ticket seller said it was sold out and was so for 10 days. What a load of rubbish and we weren't going to pay backsheesh(bribes). We went and bought some bus tickets from a couple of danish backpackers who were just going to jump on the train rather than the bus.
This was not the bus trip we expected. Night bus is supposed to equal sleep. We got on the bus and our knees pressed again the seat in front. We expected to be able to recline our seats but for some reason the egyptians on the bus hadn't figured out how to use the technology yet so upright for the night trip and knees into the back of our seats. The bus driver felt it necessary to run movies late into the night until a couple of old Japanese women decided to demand it be turned off. The driver then played islamic prayers loudly for most of remainder of the night mixed with bright lights switching on and off without regard. Not out of spite but just doing his normal routine. There were roadside diner stops to make sure no one got too much sleep so by the time we got to Cairo we were completely exhausted. Luckily the bus station was near the hotel where we had stayed. 13 hr trip. yuk.
What to do next? hotel and bed. No way. Walked back to the hotel got a charger for the hard drive from one of the bags in storage went to the train station and booked tickets for a 2nd class train to alexandria in a couple of hours.
Bye.
David & Vanessa
