Ana_Luxor, Egypt

Day 1
We arrived in the morning around 10. Tired from no sleep. The train ride was interesting. Not as comfy as we thought. The didn’t turned off the lights and locals kept walking up and down the aisle. The bathrooms – NASTY! Pee all over the floo, stinky!! I only went once because I had to go. Towards the end of the ride we kept waking up since we didn’t want to miss our stop. Of course all the signs were in Arabic. In total it took around 13 hours to get to Luxor.

We got out of the station and I was not a happy camper, very cranky. We had one hostel in mind. It seemed very close to the station, close enough to walk. But with our packs a taxi sounded much better. As soon as we walked outside we were BOMBARDED by taxi drivers. There was one that kept talking right on my face, while Tim was asking what I wanted to do walk or take taxi? I totally snapped at him and raced my hand like BACK OFF! He did, he was surprised to see my reaction. But dude you were in my space. Even in the books say that in Luxor the vendors are the most aggressive. I believe it! In the mist of taxi drivers yelling one guy approached us holding a card with the name of the place we were going, the Grand Hotel. I was so glad. He said we can walk to it. It wasn’t that long of a walk but it felt forever since I was so tired. The place was tucked away in corner and forget ½ a star more like ¼ of a star. It looked mas o menos. Tim went up the 4th floor to check the room he said it was OK for $3 USD. As soon as we walked up I didn’t care the place was OK! I threw down my bags and fell asleep. By the time we woke up it was around 5pm. Nice nap!

We walked around the town looking for places to eat. Every second it seemed like we had someone screaming “carriage, to market, only 10 pounds…” We kept saying not thank you, we prefer to walk. They didn’t understand that they kept asking “why not?” My favorite line here, everything was and why not, with the heavy accent. After a while you had to ignore them otherwise you’d go crazy. We found this place recommended in the guide book. We walked in, at least they had ac. The menu was English also. I ordered grilled chicken thinking it was a safe bet, nothing to fancy. Our waiter only spoke a little bit of English couldn’t ask too much about the menu. Tim order some kabob. To my surprise my grilled chicken was not grilled chicken, it was this chicken casserole with veggies and funky spices served on a pot. Tim was laughing at me. It was OK, but not what I was expecting. On our walk back to the hostel we saw a Mc Donald’s and we thought we should of ate there much better. At least we had a sundae for dessert!

We decided to go see the light and sound show at the Karnak temple. This temple has pieces from different kings that kept adding on. So it’s really impressive. When we got there it was too early to buy the tickets. We sat on the super hot concrete and waited. The show started at 8 pm. Good thing it was in English. You enter the temple and you feel really tiny. As you’re walking and you hear this deep voice narrating it takes you back in time. You feel you’re living back in the days. We passed this section of pure huge columns, about 134. Massive site! It was cool to hear what king did what and what each room represented. Towards then end of the show I was falling asleep. The narration was just getting boring, plus we were sitting down. I’m glad we went!

We took a horse carriage back to the hotel. Mammut was the name of the teenage boy taking us. We asked if he can take us to our hotel and he said no problem. When we got closer to the downtown he wanted to drop us off in the middle of downtown and according to him he couldn’t get any closer because he didn’t have the right permit. We’re like what, no way, we’re getting off somewhere we didn’t know. Then we said OK get us closer to Luxor temple and we can walk from there, we know our way. So he proceeded to take us but was planning to drop us off at the other end of the temple, still very far away. Finally, I told him do you know where Mc Donald’s is? And he said YES! It took forever, but we made it. Cute kid, but what a hustler!!
The nice guy at the hotel Ahmed was waiting for us to have Egyptian tea. Not only tea, but to sell us on a tour package. I knew it too; he seemed too nice to be nice. I had a feeling he had other intentions. We went up to the terrace and he told us about the different options. He took forever too. He claimed that he didn’t want our money; it was a really good option for us, very cheap, bla, bla, bla. He convinced us and we agreed on the tour to the Valley of the Kings. He said the guide was really good; we were going to be only with four other people and no rush. We tend to do things at our own pace, we don’t like tours that much, but the idea of not having to figure it out is sometimes very nice.


Day 2
Next morning we went got pickup at 8 am. By the time we picked up everyone it was 12 of us. First lie. Then we our guide was not the one were told. She seemed OK, but her English was hard to understand. We got to the first site which was to visit three tombs. Our guide talked very fast and all I heard at the end was “Ok – go! I’ll wait for you here.” The tombs were amazing to see. You can still see most of the writing and the colors. It’s incredible how the colors were preserved after very long time. Too bad you couldn’t take photos. After the third tomb they start to look the same. Similar idea – hieroglyphics along the walls, separate rooms for the goods and the bigger room for the sarcophagi.

After we took a detour to a shop were they made ceramics. Not part of the tour. We think the guide would get a commission. And of course here we stayed like 40 minutes. It’s so funny how she’d change the plans to her benefit. I didn’t like her.

The second site we visited was where the only queen (I forgot her name) to be a pharaoh built a temple coming out of the mountains. She wanted to be buried in the Valley of the Kings not at the valley of the queens. But she got killed but her stepson and he tried to erase all the writings on the walls. It was disgraced to have a woman has a ruler. It was neat site. But we only had 20 minutes to see it. No rush. SURE! After we were offer to go to another site and not the Valley of the Queens how it was planned. We were taken by surprise, but we voted to go there anyways. She kept saying “there is nothing to see at the Valley of the Queens but it’s up to you.” She added “fast, hurry, make a decision.” One guy in the group shouted Valley of the Queens and we all agreed.

We only saw two tombs. Nerfetiri’s tomb was close for restoration, which would have been cool to see. Here they’ll also bury the sons of the kings and queens. I’m so terrible with names and I forgot the name of the tombs that we saw. Oops! I’m not very good with history stuff. The trip ended after this.

As we were driving back the guide said - here in Egypt a way to say thank you is by giving a tip. And I said to myself – not tips for you. I think the rest felt the same. She was not very good. I felt bad for the driver. Tim felt the same.

We went back to the hotel for another nap. I tell you; the first days we took a lot of naps, with the time change and everything. After our lovely nap we went to Mc Donald’s, it’s the only taste of home we have. Although I barely eat it back home. It tasted so good. And Tim kept saying just for a minute you feel you’re back home. And it’s true. They do a great job maintaining the brand regardless where you are. It was great! We sat overlooking the Luxor temple. One of the major sites here in Luxor. Couldn’t ask for a better view.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at an internet café. To my surprise a cute kid was running the show and there were several other kids playing games on the computer. We only wanted one computer since we wanted to quickly check our emails. While I waited the cute kid approached me and with his beautiful big almond eyes asked me – what’s your name? He was so adorable. I know me and my kid’s stories. What can I say. I love kids. This kid, Ahmed, was so energetic and cute. The other kids were too. He’d keep playing with his friend but then look at me and Tim. When it was my turn in the computer, they asked Tim to play a game, it was a flying turkey game. They kept laughing, because Tim kept loosing. After the hour we left. They didn’t want us to leave. I was in love with those kids. The barely spoke English but it was so cute to see them interact with each other. Ahmed kept shaking our hands. Pumpkin! Right before we left this weird guy came in. I say weird because he kissed Tim on the cheeks. And we left he started following. Usually people do that but they leave after a while. He kept walking with us. I trailed behind and let Tim do all the talking. Good thing we were suppose to meet our other friend Ahmed, from the hotel, at a local restaurant. We couldn’t find him at first but good thing he spotted us. We told him about the dude and he asked us if we knew him and we said NO. In Arabic Ahmed told the guy to leave but he said he just wanted to watch us. He literally sat across the table we where sitting. Tim was facing him. We came to the conclusion he was on something, his eyes were really red. Finally after a while he left.

Ahmed wanted to take us to a local bar to see some belly dancing. I was totally up for it. I love any type of dance, especially go to a local place. We went back to the hotel for a quick shower. We met him back around 12ish.We walked to the Golden Palace. At first they wanted to charge us a cover charge just because we were tourist. Ahmed did his thing in Arabic and they let us in. I do have to say sometimes is nice not knowing the language. We went in and it was really smoky. The room wasn’t that big and there was a good crowd, mostly men. Although we saw two other tourist. It didn’t feel weird at all. People were very inviting, they looked at us, but then they mind their own business. The belly dancer was really attractive and I loved how she danced, very gracefully. It wasn’t what I was expecting. She had a cute, fitted dress, but not as revealing as I thought it would be. We had some beers and I kept watching the crowd and the belly dancer. The men really got into the songs, some of them would even dance in their sit. The belly dancer asked one man to the dance floor, the one who kept giving her tip, smart girl. The man was hilarious, he looked really rich and was having a blast. He’d barely move but, he’d sing a long. At one point he was asking me to go dance. I was too shy. Ahmed kept telling me – he wants you to go and dance. No way! Not buzz enough. We were there for a few hours. It was just so neat to watch, especially the men dancing. There were two in particular that dance very smooth. They were wearing the long robes and moving their hands so cool, sometimes up and down, or extending them wide open and from side to side. Not what I was expecting. Everybody seemed to have a good time.
Ahmed then took us across the street to another belly dancing place with live music. This was a stuffier crowd. You can tell ride away. The belly dancer was cute too, very spicy and sassy. The men singing was hilarious he had a black taupe. We only stayed for one beer. It was getting too late, almost 4 am. We stayed long enough to see a confrontation. I man got pissed because they were not playing the song he requested and apparently he paid money to do so. People seem to argue a lot here, for some reason. I know it’s in their culture to be loud but sometimes you knowing they’re bickering at each other. It’s totally normal here to raise their voices. Crazy night!


Day 3
Next morning I was tired and hung over, just a bit. We didn’t wake up as early as we had planned. Oh well! It was around noon when we finally got our butts up and running. We went to the restaurant on the corner to have falafel. It was pretty good, but not as good as the one in Cairo. After we went to internet café with ac, waiting for the sun to cool down for few hours.
We headed back to the Karnak temple to see it during the day. By the time we got there it was 5pm and we didn’t realized it closed at 6pm. One hour was plenty of time. We got lost in the huge temple. Amazing to see the different structures and statues. We also saw the wall of all the kings who contributed to the temple. It was still pretty hot, but at least we had the place to ourselves. The columns were very impressive to see during the day time. Very tall and all carved to the top. I still wonder the amount of patience and man power it took to complete those. Amazing civilization!

After that we made to the Luxor Temple, we’ve only seeing it from the outside. It was cool to see, but at this time I was getting temple out. After a while they all start to look the same, and I lost the UMPH to them. But it was still cool to see. We did see some funny figures with and erected penis. It was hilarious to see other tourist laugh about it too and take pictures next to it. Tim took my picture pointed at one and didn’t even notice it until he started laughing. That’s my Tim!!! On the way out three local teenage boys asked us he they can have a picture with me. I thought that was weird. Soon after we saw a police guy walked by and said not to pay attention to them. They looked like trouble makers. =)

We slowly made our way back to the hotel. Before doing so we stopped by the ATM to get some mula. We walked along the Nile River. Along the way we got harassed by a teenage boy to ride the carriage. He’d not go away. He kept asking – WHY NOT? I kept saying because NO – you don’t understand, we want to walk, THANK YOU! He kept saying in a high pitch voice - Listen to me! It’s cheap. I’ll take you to the market to this to that. I kept saying – NO YOU LISTEN TO ME. I was being rude but he wasn’t getting it. He left us for a while but then came back to us. Tim had a brilliant idea he took out a business card that had some hieroglyphics printed on it and he starting selling it to him. Tim kept saying – only 10 pounds, come on my friend, it’s cheap. He was using reverse psychology. The kid was talking over him but finally got pissed and told us to GET LOST! I thought it was great. He was not respecting our space. He deserves it!

As we pulled money out another kid approach me to ask my name. They were playing soccer. He was cute too all he wanted to say was “hello.” I love moments like that you get an annoying person but right after an angel to make you smile. That reminded me I wanted to stop by the internet café where the adorable Ahmed might be. I wanted a picture so I can remember him. Sure enough he was there with two other kids. As we walked in he said with a big smile – ANA. He remembered my name, of course I melted. I told him I wanted to say bye to him and have a picture to remember him by. At first he said no, I can tell he was shy, but the other friend convinced him. CUTE! What nice way to end the night.

We went back to the hotel to pack and get the early train to Awsan.

=)Ana