New Windsor Hotel Luxor

... Woooooooo............ Yeah not really.<br> We catch a ferry tomorrow morning to Sharm el Sheik, and then a bus taxi to Dahab from sharm. 6 nights in Dahab, Cody and I are so looking forward to it!... $7 a night including a buffet breakfast everyday, fresh seafood and fruit smoothies, right by the red sea at lighthouse reef, amazing diving and snorkeling, and a swimming pool!<br><br>Hope these blogs aren't too boring ;) Signing off for now. Until next time.<br><br>

11 am + 49 degrees + cold medicine after a sleepless night = Not a good way to start a visit to what should be the most impressive temple in all of Egypt, Karnak Temple. <br><br>I don't remember a lot of what I saw at Karnak. I was feeling pretty ill the whole time we were walking around. I remember standing in the Great Hypostyle Hall surrounded by hundreds of stone pillars and hundreds of tourists and looking around knowing that any minute I might ...

... 10 min crossing with our granny bikes we set off towards the valley of the kings.<br><br>By 9am (the time we arived) it was already stiflingly hot. We went straight to the valley of the ings and looked around 3 of the tombs (it is all the ticket allows) We saw Rameses IX, Horemheb and Amenhetep III. All 3 were very special and photography was not allowed. Horemheb was extremely colourful and the nicest I think and Amenhetep III involved some climbing and some ...

... then gave it back to him. It was annoying.<br><br>I should have pulled a Vince Vaughn from Wedding Crashers when the gay brother paints him in the nude and gives him the painting as a gift. When they get thrown out of the house the brother demands it back but Vaughn goes, "No, you can't have that back, it was a gift" and walks off with the ridiculous painting that the gay brother famously describes as "Sexual and violent!" I should have used the term "Em shee" which ...

... huge columns and statues that are covered with carvings and hieroglyphs. Karnaks columns are the tallest in egypt. Karnak also has "the world's first excel sheet" and 2 obelisks - one is froma set of four - one in Egypt, one in London, one in Paris, and one in New York City. I've now seen three of the four. The other obelisk is one of a pair originally constructed by Hatshepsut, but one fell in an earthquake. That one is still standing because Thuthmosis III ...

... 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 ...

Luxor was a place I've been looking forward to for a while. My first glimpse of The Nile would be there. My first visions of hieroglyphs and ancient temples from one of the greatest civilizations in world history would be here. <br><br>I travelled down from Dahab on a grueling 19 hour bus ride with Sam, an Aussie that I ran into several times while there. We were exhausted upon arrival but still found time to see a few ...