Susanna Hotel Luxor

Welcome to Egypt. Welcome to the land of civilization, history and originality. Here, history stops to salute the greatness of civilization of all ages starting from the Pharaonic eras and its several great monuments and the sparkling great pyramids, which are considered one of the Seven Wanders of the World. We should not forget to mention the young King (Tutankhamun), which dazzles the ...

... 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 ...

... their tour finished the next day.
That meant that most of the people I had become good friends with during the trip were leaving.
There were five Colombians on the trip and I had naturally fallen in with them and become good friends. It could have been because I was sharing a room with Gabriela during the trip and she hung out with the Colombians because of the shared language but I also got along with all of them really well. They were insanely funny and they ...

... IX, III, and I. The original choice was closed for restoration so we had to go to another one instead. My main thought with these tombs is that I was expecting something like Saqqara, a small entry way, crouching really far down into the mountain for a small tomb. I was pleasently surprised to find a large entry way that accomodated at least 4 people lengths with amazing paintings on the wall in full color the whole way down. The tombs were about what I ...

... be just like kissing...he sounded like a great guy... She had the whole table in stitches though when she told us quite innocently how a guy in Kenya had offered to take her for coffee. She replied that she didn't want to have coffee because it would keep her up all night. The guy didn't miss a beat, "But it's sleepy coffee!" I'm not sure whether or not she ran away very fast...but she probably should have.

We went to an internet cafe after dinner to upload ...

... to this effect, which has been met with extreme gratitude. Well, enough about that. We left Aswan via a cruiseship which plies the Nile between Aswan and Luxor. This 3 night trip takes you past farms along the fertile Nile valley, the dunes of raw desert, punctuated with lush vegetation in places. Going downstream , we are being helped by the current. Cruising this way is very popular and our fellow 100 passengers represented Europe and Asia, making for an interesting mix ...

... and the astonishing male whirling dance. Afterwards we enjoyed a few beers with the Norweigians and a Spanish couple who we sat with at meal times and an older Canidian man who we had first bumped into in Cairo, then again at Abu Simbel and now on the boat. April 8th - Nile Saray Today we were picked up at 8.30am for our tour of the west bank of the Nile at Luxor. As the English speaking van was full we were put on the Spanish van with the promise that when ...

Day 4 Tues 9 Sep 2008

Alarm call at 3.45 am and off to the coach for a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings at sunrise. The Valley of the Kings was made famous in 1922 by the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter. There have been many theories why this site was chosen as a Royal burial site. According to ancient Egyptian theology, a good tomb would be a place which could be considered to be the best possible "bridge" to the underworld. At the ...

... all boiling hot inside as well so it was always a relief to get out into the shade. I tried to stay in each tomb as long as possible and to take in as much as I could - I wish I could film inside them! We met back with our guide and caught the stupid little trolley car thing back to the visitors centre. We finished at the valley and then headed off for the temple of Hatshepsut. I didn't really want to go back to Hatshepsut because I had only been here two weeks ...

... sphinxs that have been moved into the Great Court over the years (more on this later). The highlight is walking into the Great Hypostyle Hall with 134 papyrus shaped columns that surround you when you walk in. Larger than St. Peter’s Church all on its own, the Great Hypostyle Hall is a forest of massive columns. Even complete with painted figures on the ceiling and hieroglyphics covering the columns and walls, it is a magical place. The paint they used to color some of ...