Amon el Gezira Hotel Luxor

... is that the West Bank is the hight light of a trip to Luxor and by doing two half days we were able to cherry pick some of the best bits without getting completely exhausted by the process. More importantly we avoided temple/tomb fatigue which would be all too easy to do. Short and sweet beats quantity every time. Remember to carry water with you as it gets extremely hot.

... we boarded the boat.<br><br>This temple sits in a 9m deep pit which represents 15 centuries of desert sand which accumulated since the temple was abandoned during the Roman period. Most of the temple is still covered. Khnum is the ram headed creator god who fashioned human kind on his potters wheel using clay. Construction of the temple was commenced by Ptolemy VI Philometor (180-145BC). The Romans added the hypostyle hall which is all that can be seen today. The most ...

... station. Had a good look around St Georges church, synagogue, the hanging church, a few modern tombs and received a good dose of christianity (bit weird). Tired out easily and heading back on the train to the hotel where it was good to catch up on some writing. Pete bought a few black and white photo's of old<br>Cairo/Pryamids and I bought a book on Omm Sety which only cost $8AUD. The books here are so cheap. Might ...

... price for a tourist restaurant. It was pretty tasty but a bit more expensive than usual for just appetizers. At this point we were exhausted and crashed since we had a 5am wakeup call the next day to go to the Valley of the Kings.<br><br>Normally on this day we would be getting up for a sunrise hot air balloon ride, but due to a recent crash and death, the city has shut down all balloon operations until new safety procedures and training could be done ...

... them from damage due to the heat. We were drinking litres and litres of water this day and had to buy more half way through the day. After this we had a little stop at an alabaster factory (of course we did as all tours stop at shops eh?) and with no pressure(yeah right) saw the alabaster famous in Egypt and how it is hand carved into pots and lightshades and statues. Very nice and I would have loved an oil burner as the stone is translucent when backlit but as we cannot carry ...

... after September 11th finding it very disconcerting when our airports were packed with National Guard members carrying M16s. These guns are not quite as serious looking, but certainly kill just as well. The tourist police walk around fingering their triggers and occassionally pose for pictures with their guns. Unfortunately we were not in Cairo for Obama's speech on Thursday, but I would have loved to have seen what security was like there, given what "security ...

... In Egypt, it is definitely the way to go. Either a group or private tour is almost imperative, given the convoluted ways they have of doing things here. We, who are used to the North American or western ways of doing things commonly associated with travel are clearly out of our element here. Things as easy as catching an intercity bus can be a nightmare, as the schedules change daily, or even by the minute. Lots of stuff is done via the backdoor, greased with baksheesh, or ...

... chose was no.14 which was in fact two tombs as a second pharaoh built on to the tomb of the original owner replacing all of the decorations depicting him. Our last tomb was no.2 which was for pharaoh Ramses IV and was magnificently decorated inside especially the roof which had lots of stars. Back at the vans we were delayed as one of the Spanish people had left his video camera up near the tombs. Whilst we waited the English van left us and carried on without ...

... Christopher was having his first stomach flu, we decided to just have lunch board instead of going to MacDonalds, which he has been craving since we arrived at Luxor. We said our goodbyes to Rifyat and the rest of the group and especially the Captain , who was really very, very nice and caring. Always making sure we had enough water, taken care of and our regular seats. Au revoir Movenpick

... had fallen off and broken his arm but no one believed us. We then got the boat back across to the East Bank. We got back to the hotel and decided to go for lunch before our Calesh ride, we didn't have long so I told them about the Oasis cafe which Jaymie had recommended. I was really excited because Oasis cafe is one of the only places in Luxor that uses proper bacon so I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and coleslaw and I didn't even eat half of it because we were ...