El Gezira Gardens Luxor

... conditions in which they lived in 1920's. The Howard Carter house is also free which is an extra bonus but considering it was far, far better than the sound and light show at Karnak they could have charged LE 50 and I would have paid double. Highly recommended.<br><br>Back to the hotel for some R&amp;R by the pool, drinks in the courtyard and a slightly bizarre meal of asparagus, beans and Parmesan.<br><br>We were ...

... Elanoire is our guide and also a third owner in the boat and business. I was dealing with Enrique who is in Paris and the other owner is also on board the vessel. Elanoire spends most of her time plying up and down the nile with the guests and guiding them to the sites. The boat is well fitted out - loads of deck space and very cool below decks. <br><br>The first day we managed to sail a little and had a chat with the Captain and Pete told him I was also a Captain! I was ...

... to eating here tonight! Oh well will do it when we come back to Luxor. <br><br>We arranged a taxi into town which is about a 5-7 minute drive and went to The Taste of India for dinner. Ordered up big as we do and Pete had a Vindaloo curry, Lamb Korma, 2 x huge naan &amp; I had a chapati with Chicken Tika Marsala. We ordered 2 beers which because we were so full and a bit tipsy we couldn't finish. We arranged to call Mara ...

... IX, III, and I. The original choice was closed for restoration so we had to go to another one instead. My main thought with these tombs is that I was expecting something like Saqqara, a small entry way, crouching really far down into the mountain for a small tomb. I was pleasently surprised to find a large entry way that accomodated at least 4 people lengths with amazing paintings on the wall in full color the whole way down. The tombs were about what I ...

... and stored it by reception so after breakfast to a local minivan (25cents) crowded with amused locals to Karnak just north of Luxor. This is a sprawling complex of ruins of temples and roads and statues and grand pillars built over a period of 1500 years by the ruling pharaohs added to and altered by the incoming rulers. We wandered here for over an hour and half and sapped and hot we retreated back to town and rested in the hotel till time to walk to the bus station next to the ...

... which is good for Khalid and other tour guides, as you basically cannot navigate the museam properly on your own. In various corners you can look at artifacts 3000-4000 years old, like it's no big deal. The big prize missing at the Cairo museam though is the Rosetta stone, "stolen" by the British and at the British museam. Those darn imperialists. But overall there is just so much impressive stuff.<br><br>All of the stuff from King Tut's tomb except for his ...

... known for a few things-- he reigned for a remarkable 67 years, well into his 90s, (siring hundreds of children along the way), he built and established many of the important sites still in existance today (you would know him if you saw him, for all of the statues of him which have survived), and for his enormous ego! This guy was out to prove something. He even makes Donald Trump seem humble. He left a huge tomb, too, as he expected to be around for a long, long time, and so ...

... preserved decorations and it was nowhere near as busy. I none of the tombs the security guard opened up a gate he shouldn't have so Cesca and I could view properly where the sarcophagus had been found. He just about pushed us into the hole so I felt obliged to give him some baksheesh. On the way back to the ship we stopped for a quick photostop at the Colossi of Memnon, two huge statues in the middle of nowhere that used to be part of a long since destroyed huge temple.

... angry that the driver had acted as he did. Not long after we got back it was time to go to the Jamboree for dinner. After dinner Mohamed took us for a walk through the bazaar and pointed out a couple of places that people were interested in even though he doesn't like telling people where to shop. Mohamed told the group that he would be waiting at the coffee shop with the coke umbrellas and that we should meet him there when we were done. I walked with Cindy ...

... on the felucca in between swims, things were a little red raw in my downstairs department. <br><br>As we travelled steadily along a road shoulder cutting through verdant irrigated fields, my donkey seemed determined to stay in the lead, speeding up considerably whenever another steed dared try to overtake. After combining at the two statues of the Colossi of Memnon with the rest of our group who had done a morning balloon ride over Luxor, my mount was ...