Hilary and Ricardo were awaiting our arrival as the ship docked in SAFAGA, which is about three and a half hours away from Luxor. We left immediately on the bus trip (Carl with a pillow, some Xanax and the back seat of the bus to himself) and made the long trek to see our first sight, the Temple of Luxor.
It was, as advertised, quite compelling, enormous and VERY old. I am going to include photos of it,
some of the row of sphinx statues which used to stretch three kilometers to the funeral palace of Ramses III,
some views of the Temple of Karnak (I could not help but think of Johnny Carson every time I heard the name)
There is also one of the view from our hotel, overlooking the Nile. It was Hilton Resort, just redone totally and it was BEAUTIFUL. I think one of the charms was the lack of other guests. It was as though we (the group from the ship) had the place to ourselves. Food was great, service impeccable and the pool area (infinity pools for both bathing and as decorative touches) inviting. If I didn’t have to travel so far to get there, I would go again.
At lunch, after the AM of travel and touring the first temple, I was surprised with a birthday chorus and small (delicious) cake and singing in Arabic and English. Fellow tourists grouped around as I blew out my candle. There was also a lovely decoration and birthday wishes awaiting me in our room. I told all the other guests that I was inviting them all to a dinner cruise on the Nile. Of course, that was part of the tour anyway, so I felt OK in promising it. The food on the cruise was not so hot and the Egyptian wine was pretty poor! But the evening was most enjoyable and a very comfortable temperature. There was even comic relief at the end as they had a real problem getting the boat to line up with the small docking area at the hotel. First they overshot the area, then they only had one guy trying to pull the boat backwards, and in the end, we all left on a gangplank thankful we had not seriously imbibed. I have one photo of the last minutes of the tug of war between the ship and our lone (finally aided by a second person) dock hand. (Ed Note: Couldn't find that photo). By the way, we now all know what the men wear under their long robes. It appears to have been white boxers! And so to bed.
The next morning we went to the Valley of the Kings after a ferry ride across the Nile. It was hot, but not too crowded and the two tombs we entered (Hilary and Ricardo went on to see the Tomb of King Tutenkhamen (spelling?) but Carl and I walked back to the bus. The still visible colors inside the tombs are quite extraordinary. We had a guide with a doctorate in Egyptology who had a tendency to try and explain each and every cartouche and decoration. The guides were not allowed to lecture inside so she tried to explain to us how to look for each and every symbol and understand what each meant. I was just happy to see the pretty colors!
There was a visit then to the Temple of Karnak and some shorter stops at other sites which are already blending into one OLD place. After a lovely lunch at the hotel, we boarded the bus back to the ship. Mercifully, the guide did not repeat her three hour lecture of the first bus trip, but she was not exactly silent. Guides seem to have the habit of repeating themselves in case we didn’t get something the first three times. The countryside area through which we passed was filled with donkeys, wheat fields and black robed women. Our guide announced that she was not going to talk about politics but by the end of the trip we knew she did not support the revolution, she thought it was totally brought about by the middle class of the cities, she thought the poorer people of the country were very happy with their old ways (including female circumcision) and that it was a good thing for the government to control much of the economy. We heard about the disappearance of any police force during the height of the crisis and how glad she was to see them back again. We learned that there are severe gasoline shortages and saw lines (very long) of cars and tractors which she said sometimes involved parking overnight. Many were pushing their vehicles as the line moved forward slowly.
The canals which irrigated the fields were quite dirty and the small “homes” lining them were more than modest and all had sugar cane or reeds drying on the rooftops. In the early part of the drive, the guide spoke about the Bedouin tribes but we did not really see any. Yesterday, in Jordan, on the way to Petra we did see the tents and herds of goats and camels. More on that in my Petra post.
Love and kisses,
ME
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