Club Med Louxor Luxor

... valley is extraordinarily arid and even in November it was 35/85 degrees. It gets up to 55/120 degrees in August. The crowds weren't too bad and the hawkers surprisingly few. The great thing about street vendors in Luxor is that they take no for an answer unlike almost everywhere else in the world. <br><br>Stopped at Howard Carter's house (discoverer of the Tutankhamen tomb) for the highlight of the trip - strangely ...

... part I thought was the roof which is decorated with astronomical scenes and the zodiac signs, as well as the months and days of the year. On the walls the Roman emperors are dressed as Pharoahs and they make offerings to the local gods of Esna. <br><br>The people of Esna seem a little more aggressive and the kids all say hello and then ask for baksheesh with very sad looks on their faces. However, they are dressed fairly well in trendy clothes and I feel like slapping them and ...

... a stack and post them back.<br><br>Now on the plane to Luxor. Bit delayed as we had to wait for connecting flight to come in but will reach there by 6pm hopefully. Mohammed, our driver was there to greet us at the airport and took us to Mara House where we were met By Mara, her son Steve &amp; his girlfriend Sarah. We immediately had a beer and another and another whilst chatting to them and learning lots about the ...

... was a bit upset by this, but given the alternative of riding in an unsafe balloon I decided it was for the best. Oh well, a reason to return! GAP provided an option to go on an ATV in the desert for $65, but the price and the fact that it was semi-guided turned off everyone, and no one did it. Instead we headed over to the Valley of the Kings early to beat the heat and the crowd, since the area is one of the hotest places on the planet, and we were there ...

... I sadly just admired them and quickly left the shop as others were cornered by the sellers. From here we stopped at the massive 2 statues the Colossi of Memnon which are all that remain from a massive temple complex built there. The pharaohs were amazing monument builders and just imagining life then and the structures intact is mind blowing. I so loved seeing this area and despite the heat and rip-offs have found it intensely rewarding to see. We headed back to town and ...

... like on any average day at any average tourist site. <br><br>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 ...

... 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 ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)<br>< br>The first line in my journal for today reads thus: &#8220;Today Troy got a crook gut and sprayed the bowl brown.&#8221; Thanks for that, Hoges. Though you weren&#8217;t in any better shape yourself. Things had a taken a turn for the worse during the night for both of us, and let&#8217;s just say it was rather fortuitous that we had both a private bathroom and the floor&#8217;s shared toilet ...