Luxor and around...Valley of the kings.
Trip Start
May 13, 2008
1
11
16
Trip End
Jun 26, 2008
Luxor,
Egypt
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Soon we arrived at the place on the Nile that we needed to cross. We took a felluca across and got some tea on the way. Once across the river we loaded into vans that took us to the site of the balloon take-off. When we got close we could see some of the balloons that had already taken off and we got really excited! Once we arrived our balloon was already full with about 25 men holding it down for us to get in. Our captain gave us some safety instructions and we climbed into the basket almost immediately. It was good cuz the morning bugs were really bad. The basket was pretty huge and I think we had about 20 people in four different sections. We were still very sleepy and a little out of it and just remember hearing the sounds of the captain giving the balloon men orders and the loud KUSSSHHHEEEHHH sound of the ignighted gas filling the balloons around us. The gas was VERY HOT! Standing beneath the area where the gas shot up, the heat was so intense Jill thought her head was getting burnt but we realized it was our sunburn getting heated up and stinging. While ducking away from the flaming gas we barely realized we were starting to float up. The men started walking with us as the balloon began to move and rise and they were able to guide us up till we were out of reach....then we had nothing but hot air and a balloon lifting our huge basket up. As we were floating higher we saw the sun begin to rise. It was absolutely amazing. We could see about 20 other balloons on the horizon and on one side of the balloon was the green Nile River Valley and on the other, the desert Valley of the Kings. We flew over another temple of Ramses the III and could see the Temple of Queen Hapshetsut off in the distance. This was cool cuz we both studied this in Mr. Pages art history class in highschool. Our captain steered the balloon and out toward a Nubian village and we could actually see the local people in their beds waking up and waving to us. It was a little awkward because the Nubians were totally in their homes that dont have roofs because it doesnt rain and we were just flyng over them and it felt like we were invading their privacy. As we flew over them and heard the roosters crowing the people were waking up and seemed happy to see us and waved from their beds and shouted out to us. It was awesome and a unique view into how the Nubians lived. They even had roofs for where the animals slept but not where the people had their beds. They all slept in similar wicker like beds with colorful weaved blankets. All the people lived in their village on the edge of the Valley of the Kings near the Nile River Valley. After flying so low over the village, our captain really turned up the gas and took us really high. The sun was much brighter now and at our peak height, were the highest balloon in the sky. We were up in the balloon for about an hour total and we see our crew driving to the desert area where we would land. They all got out of the vans and had to run and estimate our point of landing and catch us as we came down. Jill got almost all of the take off and landing on video so we'll be posting that later. As the crew caught our balloon and the top was deflated, the 25 men grabed the cloth and wraped it up to fit in a big bag. We got out of the basket and they all sang and we danced to celebrate the safe flight. We were all in high spirits when we noticed a bunch of little kids mostly boys around hanging out in the background. We were given T-shirts and certificates before they had us get back to the vans so our tour bus could pick us up. Just as we got into the vans the kids began calling out to us asking us for food. As we had our huge box breackfasts that we had merely picked at and did't want at all we decided to give them to the kids. As soon as we held it out to them it was immediately snatched away and the boys attacked the boxes to get at the food. It was one of the saddest things we've seen. The kids must have been starving. Our crappy breakfast leftovers were like gold to them and they ran next the the vans as we pulled away begging for more. It broke our hearts to see the little kids running and begging like that for food. We have soo much that we can travel and take hot air balloon rides and these kids don't even have enough to eat. It was really heart breaking and really made us feel helpless. It really makes you appreciate what you have and makes you feel bad that you would ever complain about anything when we have it so good.
Our van ride was pretty silent til we got to where our tour bus picked us up and we rejoined the rest of the group. The balloon ride was optional and not everyone did it. The bus then drove us right to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, a magnificent temple that was dug and built directly into the side of the mountain. It was beautiful and we took tons of pictures. We walked up the long central walkway where they carried the sacrifices and where it was shaded and protected from the elements, we could still see the vivid colors that used to cover the entire temple.
The bus then took us to the Valley of the Kings. It was a burial ground for all the pharaohs after they figured it wasn't so smart to bury their kings in obvious places like the pyramids due to the tombs getting robbed by tomb robbers. Even as the tombs were dug deep into the desert almost all of them were still destroyed by tomb robbers...except for one, the tomb of King Tutankahum.We got to see the entrance and his tomb which we very cool because a few days prior we saw all the treasure that was stored within. We also got to see the tombs of Ramses III, and few other pharoahs. They were all pretty deep in the ground and beautifully painted. It was extremely hot tho going deep into the airless tombs and standing in the hot desert sun. King Tut's tomb was the tiniest of all the ones we saw and it housed a massive amount of treasure. We couldn't even imagine how much treasure was stolen from the rest of the tombs!! The only reason King Tut's wasn't robbed was because he died very young and they used a tomb that was located underneath onther larger tomb. Because of its location the robbers never thought to look under a previously robbed one. Howard Carter found his tomb in 1922 and we got to see exactly what he found. It is also funny because London is having the Tutankaham exhibit in the British museum that we will see when we are there. There is soooo much treasure that was found here to fill about 5 rooms of the Egyptian museum while still having enough leftovers for a traveling exhibit in London. Crazy!
After the Valley of Kings we got to visit the Temple of Karnak. By this time in the afternoon in Luxor we were told it was 130 degrees outside. The heat was very intense as we saw the largest temple in all of Egypt. It was over 200 kilometers long and wide and had a lake inside. It was so big because every pharoah of Egypt was supposed to make an addition to the temple. It was very big and we saw some of the most important parts before racing back the the airconditioned bus. Shiriff warned us about our cameras because in that extreme heat the LCD screens of digial cameras can explode. Our cameras stayed safe but...woah!!!
By this time we started feeling the extral long length of our day but it was only lunch time. We stoped at a place on the road that had a McDonalds that Jenn was very happy to see. Jill still opted for the other resturant that had paninis and things cuz she's not as much of a fan of the McDonalds. Jenn enjoyed her chicken nuggets and Jill had a nice lunch too. We got the get back on the bus and return to the boat to pack up our things, and shower before our overnight train ride. After a nap and some speed packing we left for one last temple visit. Luxor temple was right in the city and was beautifully lit up at night. We got to take some pictures and grab some dinner so we could avoid the sketchy train food. The bus then took us to the train station and we boarded the train. The club car was full of dirty smoking men and after our extremely long day we decided it was best to just fall asleep to the rocking of the train car. Good night Egypt for the second to last time!
