Emilio Hotel Luxor

21.33 - After our stint in the desert, returning to a major town has been met with mixed reactions. On one hand we could not wait to get back to showers and proper beds but on the other, the desert was so amazing we didn't want to leave. Sadly that part of the tour is over now but I have some great memories and hopefully photos to go with them. We were up at sunrise in preparation for a long day of driving much to our disappointment. To make it even worse, we all stunk of smoke from the campf...

23.33 - Today saw arguably one of the highlights of our tour with Karnak Temple but also one of the lowlights as it was our last day together as a group. Although we had an early start, it was late compared to yesterday. We had a quick, **** breakfast at the hotel before getting a horse kalesh to Luxor Temple. The main reason for our early start was to avoid the majority of the tourist buses. When we arrived, it looked like we had failed miserably at this because it was already heaving. The t...

16.32 - Our extremely early start today is starting to catch up with me but it was well worth it. The alarm clock woke us up at 04.00 and we were in reception for 05.00. From our hotel, a shuttle bus picked us up and took us the short distance to the river Nile where we boarded a boat to take us to the east shore. As it was not only us going, we had time for tea and coffee before everyone else arrived. The trip across was very short which I didn't expect. I know we are not at the mouth of the...

Well today was a very long day but my favourite day in Egypt so far cos everything lived up to my expectations. As soon as I saw the main entrance to the temple at Abydos I knew I would love it. All the walls in the whole temple were covered in scenes of Ramses with the gods which is a combination of my two favourite Egyptian things. We were the first group at the site as well which was awesome because we could look at the scenes without anyone else's head in the way. The scenes inside the te...

Today was a really great day!!! I got up at 6:30am unlike the rest of the groups' 4:15am wake up - not having a roommate comes in handy sometimes. After breakfast Tarek and I went to the West Bank where I caught up with the rest of the group and found out that poor Josh lost his balloon t-shirt when a kid stole it (he's too trusting but he'll learn). We set off the Valley of the Workers and I was really looking forward to being able to wander through the ruined houses. First we went into the ...

Unfortunately nothing much happened today except for a long drive!! We had breakfast and then packed our stuff back into the back of the ute and then we all climbed in again to head back to the bus - not quite as rough this time. We got back on the bus and started on our way to Kharga. We had a couple of stops along the way including at a sign that pointed to an Egyptian town called Baghdad as well as at the Hibis Temple for a couple of photos. We arrived in Kharga and stopped to get some thi...

This morning I got up relatively early - not as early as those doing the hot air balloon but early enough. Robert and Vikki also weren't doing the hot air balloon so we got a boat over to the West Bank and then we got a taxi (the same driver from when I was with Tarek) and our tour guide (Mohammed from the Tarek tour). We got to the Valley of the Kings and had to wait for the ballooners to arrive and so while I waited I ate my breakfast box. Once the group arrived we entered the valley. I was...

This morning when I woke up I thought I was feeling ok until I started to move and then I felt very queasy and light headed. I was sitting in the little lounge area of the boat having my morning cup of tea and couldn't finish it and just didn't want to be doing anything. I told Tarek that I wouldn't be able to do the donkey ride which I was really disappointed about but I could barely walk to the boat. While everyone got their donkey and started on their trek I caught a taxi with Tarek and ou...

Today was another good day. After breakfast we went downstairs and got our calesh to Karnak Temple. I had messaged Lanie in the morning to tell her to call me after the temple if she needs help with what to pack because I had an e-mail from her where she sounded quite stressed about what to bring. On the way to Karnak though I kept thinking of things that I wanted her to bring for me. We got to Karnak and met Mohammed again and we started our tour. Again he was a good tour guide because he sh...