AMARANTE ISIS Luxor

... Valley of the Kings and the Karnac temple which were both incredible. We went into King Tuts Tomb, all I can say is WOW. Incredible!!!! His Golden mask looks next to new. The Karnac temple was amazing too! 134 columns, the largest temple of it's kind. We had a few people trying to tell us how to take photos and at what angle, and then they would ask for Baksheesh, such a pain after 5 days of it, but we're still loving it here. Bob Marley Hotel also has the most amazing ...

Apparently the temperature passed 50 Celsius the other day - and I would absolutely believe it. I cannot remember the last time I remember feeling so hot. The scary thing is that we are all drinking tons of water, and yet none of us are really using the ...

... br>Anyway, one seller got really excited and started telling me how much he liked Obama and how excited he was for Obama's visit. He also told me that he was giving me a headscarf as a gift. He gave me little figurines as a gift as well. He put the scarf on my head and asked for my camera and took some photos. He gave me back the camera...then he asked for 50 pounds... I didn't give it to him. I yelled at him, told him he'd said everything was free and was a gift ...

... bread, etc. An blind English/Canadian (he either was born in Canada and lives in England, or was born in England and lives in Canada) man named Peter joined us for our meals since he was traveling alone and everone else on the ship spoke German or Dutch. He was awesome though. He had been to visit 8 or 9 times before and has traveled all over, so he had lots of advice for us and stories to tell. After lunch, we went to Karnak temple which is enormous! There ...

So we got off our Felucca which was "docked" if you can call it that on the side of the Nile, we all jumped off and headed up through a fame to the side of the road. We commented on how night fruit looked but quickly got shot down by Ghandi tell us that if we nicked some fruit off the farmers trees they could kill us as we have "stolen" from them. So hands in the pocket! Well we arrived at the side of the road, and it was exactly that just that side of a busy road. After ...

... Ramses II.  Its 108 foot high façade, with four colossal enthroned statues of Ramses II wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, was intended to impress and frighten, while the interior revealed the union of god and king.  The current location of Abu Simbel is not the original location.  It was moved in the 1960's because of the threatened flooding that was a cause of the building of the high dam to the north of the temple.  It cost over $80 million to relocate ...

... of the Valley of the Kings on the West bank, while graceful feluccas sailed serenely on the river and great echelons of egrets or geese made their way down river. While the hotel and its grounds was a relative haven of peace, poking ones nose outside invited constant hassling by locals trying to relieve you of your money.  Taxis screeched to a halt to offer you a ride, owners tried to induce you into horse carriages, feluccas or their shops and no one would take "NO" for ...

... se fendre dans la circulation bien qu'assez peu dense. L'âne a une place de choix dans la gamme de moyens de transport et nous apercevons à plusieurs reprises des plateaux tractés par l'animal, plateaux sur lesquels reposent des pains de glace, des végétaux.

Nous convergeons vers le temple alors que le soleil amorce sa descente, il est 18 heures. Une enceinte garde le temple comme une forteresse. Cet édifice plurimillénaire est ...

... ended up to be quite good.

There was enough time left in the day to visit the Luxor Temple back on the West Bank of Luxor. This temple, situated next to the Nile, is one of the more impressive sights of Luxor and the modern city of Luxor actually surrounds it. I planned my visit to coincide with sunset and dusk as the entire temple is lit up at night and wondering through the temple at night is meant to be one of the highlights of Luxor. This temple ...

... the pills before being smiled at creepily and welcomed to come again. Feeling quite pleased with this I venture to the pharmacy across the road for another transaction and am charged only 40 Egyptian pounds for the same product. No wonder the first shop-keeper was keen for me to come again! After dinner that night we are relaxing on the hostel rooftop when one of the young, local guys hanging around the hostel offers to ...