Pharaohs Hotel & Restaurant Luxor

... spot appealed to them. In general, we were all a bit over it by the time we got to the Valley of the Kings because it was just so effing hot! It had to have been at least 45 degrees. And it's not even summer here!!!!!! We looked at 3 different tombs one of which was an unfinished tomb for a queen. There was ************e in this one which was great because that meant we could actually breathe. It was quite beautiful too because most of the original ...

... really got into it and were running their camels down the paths. Mine seemed to have a problem with the front left foot and was tripping every few steps. Still it was beautiful at sunset and we had fun together. <br><br>The night ended walking around Luxor temple and taking photos before returning to the Indian restaurant next to the hotel for an amazing dinner. Who'd have guessed we'd find superb curry in Egypt. <br><br>Morning was another pre ...

... see when they put down the chisel before they had to bury their king. An amazing tomb. The other two we made it into was Tawosret/Sethnakht tomb and Ramses IV. Taworsret/Sthnakht tomb the wife of Seti II has been open since antiquity, it and it shows with the amount of damage. It does however have amazing roof decorations. The most crowded of the three was Ramses IV tomb, which can be dated back to 278BC. Ramses died before the tomb was completed ...

Today was the day for Tombraiding..well, not really but tomb in the hot but not suffocating heat. We had our 5am phone wake up call (which wasn't too painful considering the 9pm ish bedtime!) and breakfast was had at 5.30am for 6am departure to the Valley of the Kings. We stopped and visited the Monuments of Memnon, and it's amazing to find out that they are still excavating MASSIVE statues from the site which has been mostly destroyed by ...

... my skin was on fire and I wanted sleep. BUT I realised the football was just starting so watched Brasil thump the USA.<br><br>We met up with Lloyd, Emma and the other Felucca people for dinner in a nice takeway and then we all went back to watch the next game where Egypt beat Italy - as you can imagine that went down well over here! We also bumped into our friend from Dahab - another Emma so that was a bit bizar! Now it is the middle of the day on the 19th ...

... way in which we were herded around quickly...so yeah...we were taken to another place Khalid probably gets a commission: a papyrus factory.<br><br>We were given a short demonstration on how papyrus is made which was pretty cool and enjoyable. Then we looked around at the hand painted papyrus, which was pretty well done. The shop was legitamite, unlike the people on the street, so I trusted that the stuff was real and hand painted and I liked it. Kristen thought she ...

... not sure why exactly. After lunch, we took a siesta and went back to take a nap. We watched our boat go through the locks at Esna and soaked our feet in the pool a bit. I tried to use the internet to email Mom because it was Mother's Day and I sent a message to Peter as well. The internet was extremely slow, but I was glad they had it, and the keyboard was in Arabic! It was pretty cool. Then it was time for dinner and more hanging out and talking. Pretty relaxed day.

... s most sought after cruise liner, was truly remarkable.  It was at such high standards I felt bad staying on it.  It was pure luxury and came at a great time as the group was starting to drag from the long days we had been experiencing up until that point.    Now I do want to take the time to apologize to you all for not updating as quickly.  After leaving Aswan, we were on the ship, which had wireless internet for $10 an hour, and I felt too cheap to pay that price.  I ...

... degraded experience.  We avoided this to some extent, at a cost, by having our own exclusive guide and gaining privileged access to some sites.  Also tourism was considerably down because of the World economic problems.  One sign of this, in the peak season for Luxor (the warm winter climate is ideal for sight seeing) was the large number of large Nile cruise boats, basically floating hotels, parked up in tiers alongside the river and going nowhere.  Apparently there ...

... but something even better was yet to come. <br><br>THE END...I'm behind on my journal but have to run to the Russian consulate to put in my visa application. I've bought a flight from Cairo to Moscow for Jul-1. I should have time in the next few days to catch up. Pics are already loaded!! <br><br>P.S. - I think I've been switching the way I spell "traveller" and "travelled". One "L" or two...I can't make up my mind.