Mara House Luxor

... made excellent
travelling companions on our little adventures and it's always nice to
meet new friends.

It has been a great week overall and it is a little sad to be leaving
the boat but that's the sign of a good time with good company. An
experience I shall never forget and my life is somewhat richer for it.

... It continued back and forth for several minutes but we actually won this round, we managed to buy the one way ticket. We couldn't believe it and it really made our day. A small victory but it meant the world to us.

By the time we had made it to the other side we had agreed on a price of 60LE, 12LE each for the taxi. A good deal we thought as we were expecting to pay 80LE.

The taxi was cheap but the valley of the kings sure wasn't ...

... to see the sight, poke around and be generally impressed. We were very impressed, as our guide Mohammed is a history graduate with specialization in heiroglyphs, so he was very interesting, informative and could interpret the cartouches and heirglyphs- so impressive! Have to mention to heat- it was darned tooting hot even in the shade. Had and ice cream and coke zero to cool down, as well as the 650ml bottle of water. Alas this was not enough to stop the headache from heat for both ...

... far bigger than anything you could ever imagine being built at that time. When you go up close to them you see that they were put together with limestone blocks far larger than people. Being close to them is what's really impressive.

I'm going to go ahead and say though, that whatever you do, do not go inside. The pyramids were built in the Old Kingdom before tombs became ornately painted and decorated. They were tombs, nothing more, nothing less. We went ...

... they display it for you and tell you about it and try their hardest to get you to buy it. And once you decide you do want to purchase something, you always have to go through the bargaining process. The seller offers a price that is way too high, the buyer offers something way too low, and then they go back and forth until they finally reach an agreement, or the buyer sticks to the low price and if the seller wants the money bad enough eventually they will ...

... into many of the temples placed in Upper Egypt (down near the Sudan border).  During out trek around the island we saw some newly excavated carvings with what appeared to be some very fresh paint, though being dated to pharonic times.   We were then taken back to our felucca where we sailed to another island on the Nile to enjoy some traditional Nubian food.  The food was made in clay pots and we had the choice of chicken, vegetable and beef.  Each meal did not include ...

... the tomb, his cartouche (a sort of name plate) has been defaced in many places. In many ways as interesting as the royal tombs, were the tombs of the nobles and the workers.  Whilst smaller, every inch of the walls and ceiling were beautifully decorated, much with superb scenes of everyday life in ancient Egypt - farming, baking, making pots, hunting etc.  This helped to bring the historical epoch to life in a way that the mythical scenes of the dead kings being attended ...

... ugly as men from all directions run to join in with a frenzy of stick grabbing and belts coming off for battle weapons. Suffice to say, our initial impressions of Luxor are not good. Unfortunately we retain this stance for the duration of our stay. Horse and carriages or 'kaleshes' are everywhere with the drivers circling us, 'enticing' us into utilising their services, street vendors approach with no regards to personal ...