Queens Valley Hotel Luxor

... middle of town with a 14th century mosque built smack bang in the middle. This place was largely built for the Opet celebrations. First up is the Avenue of Sphinxes
that used to run all the way to the temples of Karnak – 3km away. The current administration is moving all the houses that are built over it and trying to restore the Avenue. The first pylon at 24m high was raised by Ramses II and decorated with reliefs of his military exploits, including ...

... August.

We began the day with a 45 minute donkey ride to the Valley. Riding a donkey was a bit more bumpy than the camel, and I ended up losing my lens cap in the process [I had an extra since I had two lenses and a protective case, so it was ok]. The view while riding was quite amazing, as we went through a small town and out in the hills to the main part of the valley. The entry ticket provides 3 tombs in the cost, and we hit the tombs of ...

... of the river Nile and earthquakes. On to the Valley of the Kings and we bought our tickets and stood in the shade for a history lesson on the first Tomb we visited, Ramses IV. Tour guides are not permitted in the tombs, nor were photo's so we memorised the salient highlights and descended into the shallow Tomb. The Sarcophagus was massive, I don't know how they got it down there without breaking it and the ceiling was a wonder to ...

... like on any average day at any average tourist site.

The hotels are very funny because the tourist police all sit next to metal detectors. But foreigners are pretty much allowed to pass through the metal detectors without question and rarely even have to put their bags on the conveyor belts. For whatever reason the tourists are just trusted, but each Egyptian is checked to make sure they too aren't carrying a submachine gun... It's amazing to see the ...

... or ???? I imagine that anyone trying anything like independent travel would be flummoxed or frustrated by it all. In contrast, the travel companies make it almost painless. Our agent, Lucky Tours, have been wonderful in finding so many fantastic things for us to do, with an boundless desire to see us satisfied. We feel like we are getting the treatment afforded to the very wealthy, something which do not ordinarily have exposure to. Back to our trip, today is our ...

... Our next stop was a alabaster workshop, we looked around but we weren't tempted into buying anything. We carried on and arrived at the Temple of Hatshepsut which is a memorial to the first female pharaoh. As the English van had left us we were treated to a tour in Spanish which of course we didn't understand a word. We considered leaving the whole thing and trying to get our money back but the Spanish guide promised to give us our own tour in English when ...

... in the complex grounds scratching his nuts. That sounds abit gay, believe me it wasnt, but he was digging about in there for a good 2 minutes like he was unearthing some ancient relic from between his ballsack and ********. I also went to the mummification museum which was rubbish, im glad my dodgy student card got me it half priced or i woulda been rather ****ed off. Day two i did a tour of the valley of the kings, valley of the queens and ...

... to be late and I hate keeping people waiting. Mark and I went back to the hotel to tell Mohamed that the others were coming but were just trying to finish their lunch. The others arrived not long after and we started our calesh ride. It was quite nice but we didn't go through the farming area like I did 8 years ago but it was nice all the same. We started working our way through the locals bazaar which was interesting but then we got stuck when another calesh ...

... Accord obligent !

A 5H00 du matin, nous sommes un peu en avance sur le planning et l'on nous fait patienter pendant que l’on nous prépare une chambre. Un jus de fruits nous est servi, rien à redire, service impeccable.

Au bout d'une heure, alors que le soleil se lève, on nous mène à notre chambre. Nous passons la porte à tambour du hall pour déboucher sur une terrasse qui domine le jardin. La vue est stupéfiante, l'atmosphère idyllique. Nous traversons le ...

... to ourselves, I couldn't believe my luck.

Needless to say, the balloon ride itself was absolutely incredible, the weather was perfect and having so few people in the balloon it was great for taking photos. Our balloon sailed over the top of some of the most spectacular temples of both Luxor and Egypt and seeing the structures from above was a very unique experience. Best of all only paying about $70 for a balloon ride with only 3 other tourist in one of ...