The Land of Luxor

This past weekend, four of my friends and I flew down to Luxor. We left Thursday night around 9pm and arrived in Luxor just after 10. Since we were splurging on the flight, we had decided to rough it a little in a very cheap hotel. The hotel sent a van to pick us up, which began the strangeness of this trip. The driver was very nice, but kept talking on the phone and at some point stopped on the side of the road. He appologized and said something about the hospital and we waited in the van for a little while. Eventually, another man showed up and popped in the passenger seat in front. Apparently this was the person we had been waiting for...Anyway, we continued our drive to the hotel, dropped off the man who had just gotten in and picked up and dropped off another person. The driver then pulls onto a small dirt road with houses on it in surrounded by cornfields. Stray dogs begin chasing our vehicle and we eventually stop in front a beautiful house...Apparently there was some confusing with the hotel booking in that when we booked a room for 5 people we thought we would get a room at the hotel for 5 people. The hotel, however, thought this meant we wanted the "flat," which is where we were, which consisted of this whole house to ourselves. The flat was gorgeous. It had beautiful decorations, nice bedrooms, two kitchens, and a rooftop terrace, however this was not where we were supposed to be. The flat was located on the complete opposite side of the river than the actual hotel and we were in the middle of nowhere. To top that, the houses caretaker, Muhammad (who seemes sweet) would be sleeping downstairs in the hallway (a little creepy), and he didn't even know the street we were on or the phone number of the hotel. Oh yeah, and there were little lizards on the walls and the lights were flickering and eventually went out! So yeah, luckily we had the number for the hotel and called them and told them we had thought we had booked at the hotel and would like to switch. We made them send a car for us. Finally after that strange ordela we got to our "lovely" hotel. You get what you pay for, it turns out. This was a step above a hostel. We had our own bathroom...but the showers didn't work. We had AC, but, when the sheets are stained and you just end up sleeping on top of them, it's a bit chilly. Oh yeah, and there was a dead cockroach in the corner - delightful. Luckily or unluckily, we got up early in the morning to start our sight-seeing on four hours of sleep!

My friend Laura, had a family friend visit Egypt a little while back, and she recommended a driver that she'd used. He was wonderful!! His name was Reda, and he was basically like our father for the trip. He took us anywhere we wanted to go, bought us tea, water, juice, etc, showed us places to eat, and told us he wanted us to live like actual Egyptians. The first day, we went to the Valley of the Kings and saw various tombs. We saw Thutmos III's, Seti I's, Ramseses IX's, and King Tut's tomb! Thutmos III's was really far underground and extremely hot and smelly! The hot Luxor sun almost felt cool oce we'd emerged from that tomb. Seti I's tomb was my favorite. It was very open, very big, and had beautiful carvings on the wall - quite a site to see. King Tut's tomb was a bit smaller than I anticipated, but it was pretty amazing to see his body and burial chamber.

After the tombs, we went to Howard Carter's house - the man who had found King Tut's tomb. After that, we went to Hatshepsut's temple. It was amazing! The straight lines and its location in part of the sand/rock behind it was stunning.

By now we were starving, so we went back into town and had lunch with Reda at a restaurant known for its BBQ. It was pretty good. They had great pita bread and babaganoush. Some of us had chicken and rice, and otehrs had lamb kebab. We were so tired by now (it was only 1230!), that we we went back to our hotel for a bit. Luxor is extrememly different from Cairo. It's so much hotter and really not safe to be out between 1 and 4. It's also a lot greener than Cairo, which I wasn't expecting. There are more fields, trees, and flowers, and the Nile is a lot cleaner. We stayed in our room and napped a bit until about 330, and then we went to see the Luxor Temple. This was probably my favorite thing that we saw. Everything was just so HUGE!! I couldn't believe people had built these structures. There were intricate and giant statues, and massive obelisks that were carved all the way up to the top. It was just gorgeous. What was also striking, is that this temple is located right in the middle of the East bank in Luxor. The Nile is on one side, and the city just moves around this ancient structure.

After the temple, we met up with Reda again who drove us around a bit. He bought us sugarcane juice which they make from squeezing the sugarcane plants through a machine. It was very interesting, but tasty nonetheless. Next, we drove towards the West Bank of the Nile and stopped on the side to dip our feet in. Apparently if you touch the Nile, you're destined to return, and if you drink it, you'll never leave. I just touched it lol. We then went to dinner at a little roof top restuarant overlooking the corn fields, and the Nile. From the roof, you could see Hatshepsut's temple in the distance. Once full, we went back to the eastside and visited the Souq (bazzar). It was quite an experience with everyone trying to get us to look at their selection of items. I wish these people would realize, however, that I'd be more likely to stop and look and they didn't pester me to. Oh well. We all had fun and bought some nice items. (We also bargained in arabic!) I bought a scarf and a pretty geometric star lamp made of copper.

Finally it was time for sleep in our delightful hotel room. We got up early again the next day and went to Karnak Temple. This temple was enormous and spanned a vast distance. I still prefered the carvings of Luxor temple, but this was jaw-dropping regardless. Later, we got lunch at a restaurant on the Nile. Reda then organized and got us a deal for a felucca ride (this time with a sail and not a motor) on the Nile to Banana Island. Since the river is so much cleaner in Luxor, this ride was much more pleasant than in Cairo. People were swimming, playing, etc.

Saturday was also my friend, Celeste's birthday. Reda was so sweet and bought her a cake, that we ate on the boat. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday then eating cake on the Nile. Our boat captain was hilarious. Words don't do him justice. He loved to do different accents and would show us his British and French accents. He would also constantly say something was "absolutely fab" and then quote Macbeth. So funny.

I've never heard of Banana Island, but apparently it is just that. An Island on the Nile, with a bunch of bananas on it. It was so great. Our captain showed us around, linking arms with us and spewing french amd shakespeare. We then filled our stomachs with the local bananas.

After the short, but adventurous and busy trip, Reda took us to the airport where we said "see you when we come back."