Mina Palace Hotel Luxor

... It was a buffet style dinner and I unfortunately wasn't very hungy. After dinner some musicians came out and then came the belly dancer. The 3 Explore tour leaders that were there got up and danced with her and then each leader tried to get members of their group to dance and we were all pulled up but she didn't really include anyone she sort of danced as we all stood there. Suffice to say we all sat down pretty quickly. After that a man came out dressed in

... including<br>Windsurfing sailing deep sea fishing swimming<br>Snorkeling along with its fine sandy beaches it&#8217;s<br>Ideal to relax and enjoy the sea.<br><br>-MINIMUM 2 PAX EACH TOUR,<br>-TRANSPORTATION BY AIR CONDITIONED CARS<br>-WE OFFER GUIED AND REP. TO ASSIST YOU<br>-ALL PRICES IN ENGLISH POUND<br>Once again we thank you and hope you have enjoyed it.<br><br>Contact us:-<br> Email Booking :- Honemoon4travel@yahoo.com <br>Mobail No. :- 02 01244182111<br><br>

... 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<br>that used to run all the way to the temples of Karnak &#8211; 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 ...

... headed back to the complex. There is a scarab statue, which is representation of good luck, in which we saw people walking in circles around. They said if you walk around it 7 times you will receive good luck. Personally I think it is walk around 7 times to be a fool tourist, so I just watched. <br><br>After wandering the temple we headed back, taking a taxi for about 10 pounds after bartering, and did some laundry and relaxing before a few of us headed ...

... After the pyramids were built at Giza the pharaohs realised they were ransacked easily so changed to digging tombs deep in the mountain sides which were then hidden once sealed and not obvious. The desert and harsh mountains contains dozens of tombs most closed to the public but a few are open and we saw 3 here. The famous Tutankhamen tomb is here but is more costly to see and less impressive than others. The tombs we entered were fascinating and deep with such ornate wall ...

... Americans, 3 Brits, 3 Canadians. Our first time we've been with a majority of Americans on the trip.<br><br>So anyways, after our initial group meeting, Alice, Jessica, Victor, Ashley, Kristen and I went around the corner to a nice little restaurant called Tikka and got to know each other a bit. It was a fun first dinner, though I was surprised we didn't do anything as a group. The restaurant we went to couldn't have held everyone though. Egyptian food is, for lack ...

... on this rant, the other big annoyance factor here in Egypt is the persistance of vendors of anything and everything. They will hound you to death as you walk along the street, literally pulling you by the arm or blocking your path to take a buggy ride, a cab ride, a visit to their shops, buy whatever they are selling. I guess that they expect to wear tourists' resitance down, and that they will eventually successfully get some Faloos out of you (money in Arabic). It probably ...

... to the boat we soon wished we had stayed there, as the hawkers and sellers here were the most aggressive we had encountered in the whole of Egypt. Some would physically stand in front of you not allowing you to pass, others through scarfs and shirt over you as you passed and then lastly some more would follow you for hundreds of metres trying to negotiate with you for their product. They would be so determined that you could say 'no' a thousand times and ...

... of it because of previous damage caused. There was plenty of tour groups around and it was nice to get off to certain parts of the temple that did not have tourists. From the temple we headed back along the Nile and had all the usual touts hanging around. I just ignore them and one guy told me and my mate to shut up and **** off it was quite amusing really especially as we had not even said anything to him. We grabbed some lunch of Falleles ...

Day 4 Tues 9 Sep 2008<br><br>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 ...