West Bank

Trip Start Feb 07, 2009
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11
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Trip End Mar 19, 2009


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Flag of Egypt  , Nile River Valley,
Wednesday, February 18, 2009

We got an early call (around 6am) from Adrian's tenants saying their toilet was blocking up and not flushing properly. Told them to contact the body corp guy to try and get it sorted out. We had breakfast and got in our little bus for the short drive to the motor boats which took us across to the West Bank. Another little bus then drove us a short way to the Valley of the Kings. When we arrived at the entrance, we checked out the visitors centre with the 3D model of all the tombs. This was really interesting because it shows all the individual chambers in all the tombs and how far down they extend. We got the small train (or touk touk) up the hill to the start of the tombs. The tombs that we visited were Ramses I, IV and IX. The first one quite steep steps going down and wasn't quite as impressive as the last 2, which had amazing carvings and paintings. The last one even had the huge granite sarcophagus in the last chamber. Even in winter it is still so hot and dry here. We decided not to go in Tutankhamen's tomb as there is nothing really inside, instead we wanted to do hot air ballooning as we'd seen about 20 or so of them inthe air early in the morning before we left. We walked down the hill again and then had to wait for a while as George couldn't find our little bus among the 1000's of other little white buses there. Ate the croissants from breakfast in the bus.

We then drove to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (hot chicken soup as Ange calls it). Mike and I didn't go in this one last time so we are loving the fact that we're doing different things this trip. A sweet little gardener picked these for us
A sweet little gardener picked these for us
 This temple has massive steps leading up to it and is just magestic with the mountains in the background. We stopped at the cafe on the way out for a drink. We also bought chips, some ice blocks and Mentos and it came to a ridiculous amount of 240LE (about $60-70 AUD!). Our last stop was at the Colussus of Memnon - 2 giant statues just standing there at the side of the road. We took heaps of photos, inclusing goofy ones of us leaning and holding up the statues, the the one of Adrian, Ange, Joe and Lina was spoiled because a woman kept trying to get in the shot and wouldn't move. We drove back to the boat again for a quick freshen up then headed out to walk to the markets. On the way we found a ballooning company who was charging only about $48AUD for a trip so we booked for the next day. We obviously needed a map as we were walking for about 20 mins and hadn't found the markets yet. Joe decided to get us a carriage and he said he'd take us for 2LE. He ended up driving us right through the local markets along the narrow lanes, past fruit and veges, meat hanging from hooks. I think it was the first time that Joe and Lina had seen this side of Egypt. Adrian was loving it though and was standing on the side step of the carriage all the way. The driver then took us to a papyrus shop where we saw how they made the papyrus paintings. We didn't buy any though - even at our "special" half price, they were all so expensive. After a few more wrong turns and detours, we finally got to the markets.

Again so much hassling, expecially for the girls and even Joe who was wearing a singlet was called Rambo. In spite of the hassling, we managed to get some shopping done - bags, scarves and bracelets for Alanna and I, another little sand bottle for Adrian and Ange. We stopped at McDonalds for a quick bite to eat - I only wanted chips for an dinner and an early night. I had a shower and freshen up and we all sat downstairs in the lounge area having hot chocolate, coffee or tea for a while until all the rest of the groups on the boat came in and started smoking all around us. I headed up to bed (Alanna was already there) but the others stayed down to watch the show - a belly dancer.
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