Egypt – Aswan Philae Light show – Wednesday 9 May
Today we left the boat and went onto our hotel. The hotel is massively swish - its five star! We were expecting a three star place and this is one of the fanciest in Aswan. I’m a bit concerned that the tour company is going to try and charge us extra money. But we requested 3 star and they gave us this without asking if we’d pay more, so we’re going to go with it and see what happens.
It was INSANELY hot today. At 9am it was already 43 degrees in the shade. Aidan and I went down to the pool and Aidan took a photo of me next the temperature board. It was ridiculous. It was even too hot to enjoy lying by the pool. I went for a swim and dried out about 17 seconds after I got out of the pool. We spent most of the day kicking back in the hotel rooms to avoid the heat.
I’m so annoyed that we ended up with the extra day is Aswan. Aswan is boring as (hasn’t helped that the very air feels like lava). We decided on the extra day because we couldn’t get flights on the days we wanted, but it was suppose to be an extra day in Luxor where there is loads more to see. Instead we ended up with an extra night on the boat at the Aswan end of the tour and we basically saw everything worth seeing yesterday. I’m sure the locals would tell you that we were missing some amazing sights, but we couldn’t find them!
Tonight we went back to the Island of Philae for the sound and light show. It was great. Like the one at Karnak the voice over was cheesy as. I don’t think it has been updated since the 80s, but its very cool to walk around 2000 year old temples in the night time.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Egypt – Aswan Attractions – Tuesday 8 May
After being woken up by the stupid tour man last night I fortunately fell straight back to sleep – I’m terribly lucky that I can sleep so easily. I haven’t had any problems the while time we’re been away with the wild animals roaming around and the disrupted wake and sleep times the moment I lay my head on the pillow I’m snoozing.
Anyways, we wake up and have breakfast on the boat again and then its off on our tour of Aswan. Its even hotter today than it has been travelling down the Nile. The heat is killing me! Not as bad as last time I was here, but then maybe I’ve acclimatised a little. I cope better at home during the summer these days and I guess 6 months here living by the desert might have got me a bit better in the heat.
First stop on our Aswan tour is the Unfinished Obelisk. It’s carved into the granite. Its weighs an estimated 1168 tons and would have been the single heaviest piece of stone ever fashioned. Unfortunately there was a flaw in the stone and it split during its carving so the stonemason abandoned it where he started carving it.
Next we drive to the High Dam. It’s fairly impressive and there are massive posters on the walls showing how it was constructed. Aidan took loads of photos to show dad. The construction of the high dam created Lake Nasser the world’s largest artificial lake. All the effort to build the dam were worth it – its construction increased cultivatable land in Egypt by 30% and the hydroelectric station doubled Egypt’s power supply.
Next stop is Philae Island. We got on a boat – they are like little sail boats, but powered by little unreliable outboard motors. Maggie, Colin, Aidan and I all settled into the boat and we were on our way to the island. About half way there our boat conked out! Luckily there were loads on boats going back and forth and our captain yelled to one of his friends who came over to us. I thought we were going to have to transfer to the other boat but they tied them together and the one that still worked towed us to the island…
We got to the island and toured the Isis temple complex. This is one of my favourite temples because Isis is the goddess of magic. The temples quite spread out, but it was just so hot we couldn’t really appreciate it. We basically ducked from shade to shade checking out what we could see from the shady spots. Wael gave us the spiel about the temple, it was under water for 6 months of the year while they we building the high dam. Then when the dam was nearly completed Unesco did a rescue bid and took it apart and moved it (took them 8 years between 1972-1980). They moved it 20 meters higher up onto a different island.
Tonight was our last night on the boat. This is where we parted ways with Maggie. She’s off on the rest of her adventure at some ungodly hour in the morning.
Its been a good cruise ship, but would have been much better with a younger (English speaking) group of passengers and/or a decent bar! The pool was lovely, the deck was spacious and it wasn’t over crowded, but I think we’d have had more fun on a busier tour group.
After being woken up by the stupid tour man last night I fortunately fell straight back to sleep – I’m terribly lucky that I can sleep so easily. I haven’t had any problems the while time we’re been away with the wild animals roaming around and the disrupted wake and sleep times the moment I lay my head on the pillow I’m snoozing.
Anyways, we wake up and have breakfast on the boat again and then its off on our tour of Aswan. Its even hotter today than it has been travelling down the Nile. The heat is killing me! Not as bad as last time I was here, but then maybe I’ve acclimatised a little. I cope better at home during the summer these days and I guess 6 months here living by the desert might have got me a bit better in the heat.
First stop on our Aswan tour is the Unfinished Obelisk. It’s carved into the granite. Its weighs an estimated 1168 tons and would have been the single heaviest piece of stone ever fashioned. Unfortunately there was a flaw in the stone and it split during its carving so the stonemason abandoned it where he started carving it.
Next we drive to the High Dam. It’s fairly impressive and there are massive posters on the walls showing how it was constructed. Aidan took loads of photos to show dad. The construction of the high dam created Lake Nasser the world’s largest artificial lake. All the effort to build the dam were worth it – its construction increased cultivatable land in Egypt by 30% and the hydroelectric station doubled Egypt’s power supply.
Next stop is Philae Island. We got on a boat – they are like little sail boats, but powered by little unreliable outboard motors. Maggie, Colin, Aidan and I all settled into the boat and we were on our way to the island. About half way there our boat conked out! Luckily there were loads on boats going back and forth and our captain yelled to one of his friends who came over to us. I thought we were going to have to transfer to the other boat but they tied them together and the one that still worked towed us to the island…
We got to the island and toured the Isis temple complex. This is one of my favourite temples because Isis is the goddess of magic. The temples quite spread out, but it was just so hot we couldn’t really appreciate it. We basically ducked from shade to shade checking out what we could see from the shady spots. Wael gave us the spiel about the temple, it was under water for 6 months of the year while they we building the high dam. Then when the dam was nearly completed Unesco did a rescue bid and took it apart and moved it (took them 8 years between 1972-1980). They moved it 20 meters higher up onto a different island.
Tonight was our last night on the boat. This is where we parted ways with Maggie. She’s off on the rest of her adventure at some ungodly hour in the morning.
Its been a good cruise ship, but would have been much better with a younger (English speaking) group of passengers and/or a decent bar! The pool was lovely, the deck was spacious and it wasn’t over crowded, but I think we’d have had more fun on a busier tour group.
Egypt – Horus at Edfu and Kom Ombo Temples – Monday 7 May
Today was practically a sleep in because we didn’t have to be up until 7am – ahh the luxury :)
This morning we started the day by visiting the Temple of Horus at Edfu. This is one of my favourite templates in Upper Egypt. Its really well persevered and is dedicated to Horus – the falcon god.
Its massive and you walk through a kinda ruined bit then into an open area and can see the walls of the temple. There are two stone falcons guarding the door – ones pretty broken – off its pedestal with chunks missing, but the other one is still nearly whole.
Inside there are loads of hieroglyphics and paintings on the wall and there are few cool areas where a ‘skylight’ of sorts means rays of sunlight stream into the template. Because if all the dust and crap in the air the sun streams in like light saver beams into the dusty rooms. Aidan and I got some cool photos of each other standing in the sunbeams next to 2000 year old carvings etc.
We spent a fair bit of time at Edfu. Weal gave us the standard tape recorder like spiel and then we were free to wander around. I just wish it wasn’t so bloody hot. It hard to enjoy the temples when you feel like your baking from the inside out!
After Edfu it was back to the boat and more time by the pool. About 11am the boat started moving u the Nile again. Its pretty cool to lay on the deck of the boat and watch the banks of the Nile float past.
Later in the afternoon we stopped again – this time at Kom Ombo temple. When I came last time we stopped at this one at night but this time we arrived about 4pm so saw it in full streaming sunlight.
Kom Ombo temple is all about the crocodiles. They have crocodile mummies in one of the temple rooms. Its pretty impressive, it also has a stone calendar. Unfortunately the calendar had a massive line up of people waiting to see it and Aidan and I decided it wasn’t worth lining up for a photo – we just look at it over the heads of the people crowding around.
It’s been too damn hot to really enjoy the temples. We try and go from shade to shade but sometimes you just have to stand in the sun to see whichever 200 year old relic Weal is talking about. After about 30 minutes at Kom Ombo we decided we were over it and headed back to the boat. Aidan and I went back to our cabin and Aidan got some cool photos out the window of the street stall. Its such a riot of colour. It was a nice safe way to see all the stuff and we were thinking how good it would be to send out a ‘shopper’ and communicate by 2 way radio. We could see all the people being harassed and all the pressure sales it was nice not to have to bother about it. We did see a few things that looked good (while the sales people were trying to press them on other poor punters) but decided it wasn’t worth the pain and anguish of going back out of the boat to the stalls.
Kom Ombo done its back sailing down the Nile. As normal for this trip I was tucked up in bed by 10pm fast asleep. At 11:20pm we arrived in Aswan and the Aswan guide rang Colin’s room (which was suppose to be mine) and Colin whento speak to him but he needed to speak to me to confirm our activities in Aswan. So Colin had to come and knock on our door. I got up in my pj’s with my hair everywhere and put my jacket on to go talk to this bloody tool.
I was so annoyed. It was the middle of the night … well I guess it was only 11:20pm and if the boat had had a decent bar then we’d probably still have been up, but I was asleep. I think the guide got the message for how annoyed I was. He was carrying on about he had to meet us the moment the boat arrived or he’d get in trouble for not having done his job properly blah blah blah. I said what if the boat had arrived at 2am – would he still have woken me up. Ridiculous. Its all because these crazy people sleep all day and are up all night. I understand that part of that is based on the weather – its easier to do stuff at night when its cooler, but we’re tourist and tourists don’t stay up all night and sleep all day.
What was worse was that the stuff he had to tell me didn’t impact us really at all. Just that we’d be picked up in the morning to be taken on our tour of Aswan and then we’d stay another night on the boat and then stay the night at a hotel. Completely useless and certainly not worth waking me up and making me ‘angry girl!’
Today was practically a sleep in because we didn’t have to be up until 7am – ahh the luxury :)
This morning we started the day by visiting the Temple of Horus at Edfu. This is one of my favourite templates in Upper Egypt. Its really well persevered and is dedicated to Horus – the falcon god.
Its massive and you walk through a kinda ruined bit then into an open area and can see the walls of the temple. There are two stone falcons guarding the door – ones pretty broken – off its pedestal with chunks missing, but the other one is still nearly whole.
Inside there are loads of hieroglyphics and paintings on the wall and there are few cool areas where a ‘skylight’ of sorts means rays of sunlight stream into the template. Because if all the dust and crap in the air the sun streams in like light saver beams into the dusty rooms. Aidan and I got some cool photos of each other standing in the sunbeams next to 2000 year old carvings etc.
We spent a fair bit of time at Edfu. Weal gave us the standard tape recorder like spiel and then we were free to wander around. I just wish it wasn’t so bloody hot. It hard to enjoy the temples when you feel like your baking from the inside out!
After Edfu it was back to the boat and more time by the pool. About 11am the boat started moving u the Nile again. Its pretty cool to lay on the deck of the boat and watch the banks of the Nile float past.
Later in the afternoon we stopped again – this time at Kom Ombo temple. When I came last time we stopped at this one at night but this time we arrived about 4pm so saw it in full streaming sunlight.
Kom Ombo temple is all about the crocodiles. They have crocodile mummies in one of the temple rooms. Its pretty impressive, it also has a stone calendar. Unfortunately the calendar had a massive line up of people waiting to see it and Aidan and I decided it wasn’t worth lining up for a photo – we just look at it over the heads of the people crowding around.
It’s been too damn hot to really enjoy the temples. We try and go from shade to shade but sometimes you just have to stand in the sun to see whichever 200 year old relic Weal is talking about. After about 30 minutes at Kom Ombo we decided we were over it and headed back to the boat. Aidan and I went back to our cabin and Aidan got some cool photos out the window of the street stall. Its such a riot of colour. It was a nice safe way to see all the stuff and we were thinking how good it would be to send out a ‘shopper’ and communicate by 2 way radio. We could see all the people being harassed and all the pressure sales it was nice not to have to bother about it. We did see a few things that looked good (while the sales people were trying to press them on other poor punters) but decided it wasn’t worth the pain and anguish of going back out of the boat to the stalls.
Kom Ombo done its back sailing down the Nile. As normal for this trip I was tucked up in bed by 10pm fast asleep. At 11:20pm we arrived in Aswan and the Aswan guide rang Colin’s room (which was suppose to be mine) and Colin whento speak to him but he needed to speak to me to confirm our activities in Aswan. So Colin had to come and knock on our door. I got up in my pj’s with my hair everywhere and put my jacket on to go talk to this bloody tool.
I was so annoyed. It was the middle of the night … well I guess it was only 11:20pm and if the boat had had a decent bar then we’d probably still have been up, but I was asleep. I think the guide got the message for how annoyed I was. He was carrying on about he had to meet us the moment the boat arrived or he’d get in trouble for not having done his job properly blah blah blah. I said what if the boat had arrived at 2am – would he still have woken me up. Ridiculous. Its all because these crazy people sleep all day and are up all night. I understand that part of that is based on the weather – its easier to do stuff at night when its cooler, but we’re tourist and tourists don’t stay up all night and sleep all day.
What was worse was that the stuff he had to tell me didn’t impact us really at all. Just that we’d be picked up in the morning to be taken on our tour of Aswan and then we’d stay another night on the boat and then stay the night at a hotel. Completely useless and certainly not worth waking me up and making me ‘angry girl!’
Egypt – Touring the West Bank– Sunday 6 May
Up at 5am again (this is getting to be a habit – even Bogey doesn’t wake me up this early!!!) We go down and try to eat some breakfast – its difficult facing a ‘continental’ breakfast at 5am… I just wish the toast was nicer :(
Anyways, we’re back on the road at 6am headed to the Valley of the Kings. We went early partly to avoid the crush of people, but mostly to avoid the heat of the day – its going to be 40+ degrees again today so it’s best to get the sightseeing done early so we can lay about by the pool.
The Valley of the Kings was great – it’s so freaky to walk into a tomb that’s 2000+ years old and see the painting still on the wall.
We arrived at the visitor centre and then they put us all in little golf buggy trains. They are kinda the same as you’d go on at a theme park. It’s so they can keep the buses etc further from the doors of the tombs to try and protect them a little bit. We got on our train and it took us right to the entrance to the Valley of the King. From there it’s on foot walking up the valley to the individual tombs.
We went into three tombs – the first one was Tuthmosis III. It’s right at the very back of the Valley. To get in first you have to walk up a bunch of stairs then you go inside the side of the cliff and you walk down a bunch of stairs deep into the limestone cliffs. Tuthmosis III is referred to as the ‘Napoleon of ancient Egypt’ because of his military exploits. He was one of the first to build his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
The next tomb Ramses III – the last of Egypt’s warrior Pharaohs. Then we went inside the tomb of Ramses VI which is right next to Tutankhamun’s tomb. They think it was Rameses VI’s tomb that caused Tutankhamun’s to stay hidden for so long. When they were constructing the tomb for Rameses VI all the rock chips and other debris piled up in front of Tutankhamun’s tomb completely hiding it from view.
The kings resting places seen, now its time to move onto our next adventure… surviving the alabaster tourist trap… Our guide Wael took us to an Alabaster shop that the driver man had recommended. Firstly, they showed us how the chunks of alabaster were turned into objects, then they gave us the standard spiel on all the different types of stone they have. It was entertaining to listen to, but you know it’s a rehearsed speech that they give to every poor punter that walks in the door.
Aidan and I were interested, there were some nice things, but it was quite expensive and the main thing that really caught Aidan’s eye cost USD2000! Colin couldn’t really get anything because he couldn’t lug it all the way around the world. Maggie nearly bought two gorgeous black vases with carvings all over them, but she got annoyed with the sales man. She thought they were too expensive and she was concerned about shipping them back to South Africa. In the end she got cranky and walked out. Wael and the driver man were trying to talk us into going to another alabaster shop that the driver knew about, but we were jack of it by then.
After the Alabaster we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut. This temple seems somehow more impressive because you approach it from so far away. Many of the other temples have civilisation pressing right up against the walls, but the Temple of Hatshepsut is cut into the cliff and you walk up a massive walkway to get to the bottom of the steps.
This is the temple that had the big terrorist attack all those years ago. I think it was in 1998 and bunch of extremist freaks came charging down the sides of the surrounding cliffs with Uzis spraying the tourists with bullets. So nearly 10 years ago and tourism is obviously back on track, but it impacted all tourism in Egypt for a good few years. I’ll never understand how these freaks can think that it will help in anyway. How does making the lives of their fellow country men even harder, by reducing their capacity to earn an income, help bring them closer to their god? Its something no normal person can understand.
This temple’s cut into the stone and has many stairs. Its funny, some of the statues Hetshepsut looks like a female and others she looks male. Some of them even going so far as giving her a beard. The archaeologists assume this was to conform with popular protocol at the time. Hetshepsut was made regent when the Pharaoh died, but the son she was regent for wasn’t her son. For 15 years she basically ruled (the heir was quite young) with the backing of the Amun priesthood.
Since we’d been up so early we were back at the boat by 10:30am – we’d seen the highlights of the West Bank of the Nile in a little under 4 hours and then we were straight back to the side of the pool. We spent the next 6 hours or so laying by the pool as we travelled up the Nile.
Then about 4pm we got to the Nile Lock. This is where they dammed the Nile and the water is at two different levels. We got there about 4pm, but didn’t actually go through until 9pm. It was a bit frustrating because Aidan wanted to get some photos for dad of us going through the lock and we didn’t go through til nearly 9pm so it was dark.
He almost didn’t get any photos at all because I’d hidden his camera fro the towel origami man and hadn’t told him so he thought his camera was MIA… I had to quickly run down to the cabin and retrieve it for him.
He got a couple of good photos, but it’s a bit hard to see in the dark. What they do it open the low side gate, the boat drives in (along with another one) and then the close the gate. Then they fill the section up with water and the boat rises up. Once its level with the high side they open the other gates and the boat drives out into the high side of the Nile. Its quite an impressive engineering feat.
Up at 5am again (this is getting to be a habit – even Bogey doesn’t wake me up this early!!!) We go down and try to eat some breakfast – its difficult facing a ‘continental’ breakfast at 5am… I just wish the toast was nicer :(
Anyways, we’re back on the road at 6am headed to the Valley of the Kings. We went early partly to avoid the crush of people, but mostly to avoid the heat of the day – its going to be 40+ degrees again today so it’s best to get the sightseeing done early so we can lay about by the pool.
The Valley of the Kings was great – it’s so freaky to walk into a tomb that’s 2000+ years old and see the painting still on the wall.
We arrived at the visitor centre and then they put us all in little golf buggy trains. They are kinda the same as you’d go on at a theme park. It’s so they can keep the buses etc further from the doors of the tombs to try and protect them a little bit. We got on our train and it took us right to the entrance to the Valley of the King. From there it’s on foot walking up the valley to the individual tombs.
We went into three tombs – the first one was Tuthmosis III. It’s right at the very back of the Valley. To get in first you have to walk up a bunch of stairs then you go inside the side of the cliff and you walk down a bunch of stairs deep into the limestone cliffs. Tuthmosis III is referred to as the ‘Napoleon of ancient Egypt’ because of his military exploits. He was one of the first to build his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
The next tomb Ramses III – the last of Egypt’s warrior Pharaohs. Then we went inside the tomb of Ramses VI which is right next to Tutankhamun’s tomb. They think it was Rameses VI’s tomb that caused Tutankhamun’s to stay hidden for so long. When they were constructing the tomb for Rameses VI all the rock chips and other debris piled up in front of Tutankhamun’s tomb completely hiding it from view.
The kings resting places seen, now its time to move onto our next adventure… surviving the alabaster tourist trap… Our guide Wael took us to an Alabaster shop that the driver man had recommended. Firstly, they showed us how the chunks of alabaster were turned into objects, then they gave us the standard spiel on all the different types of stone they have. It was entertaining to listen to, but you know it’s a rehearsed speech that they give to every poor punter that walks in the door.
Aidan and I were interested, there were some nice things, but it was quite expensive and the main thing that really caught Aidan’s eye cost USD2000! Colin couldn’t really get anything because he couldn’t lug it all the way around the world. Maggie nearly bought two gorgeous black vases with carvings all over them, but she got annoyed with the sales man. She thought they were too expensive and she was concerned about shipping them back to South Africa. In the end she got cranky and walked out. Wael and the driver man were trying to talk us into going to another alabaster shop that the driver knew about, but we were jack of it by then.
After the Alabaster we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut. This temple seems somehow more impressive because you approach it from so far away. Many of the other temples have civilisation pressing right up against the walls, but the Temple of Hatshepsut is cut into the cliff and you walk up a massive walkway to get to the bottom of the steps.
This is the temple that had the big terrorist attack all those years ago. I think it was in 1998 and bunch of extremist freaks came charging down the sides of the surrounding cliffs with Uzis spraying the tourists with bullets. So nearly 10 years ago and tourism is obviously back on track, but it impacted all tourism in Egypt for a good few years. I’ll never understand how these freaks can think that it will help in anyway. How does making the lives of their fellow country men even harder, by reducing their capacity to earn an income, help bring them closer to their god? Its something no normal person can understand.
This temple’s cut into the stone and has many stairs. Its funny, some of the statues Hetshepsut looks like a female and others she looks male. Some of them even going so far as giving her a beard. The archaeologists assume this was to conform with popular protocol at the time. Hetshepsut was made regent when the Pharaoh died, but the son she was regent for wasn’t her son. For 15 years she basically ruled (the heir was quite young) with the backing of the Amun priesthood.
Since we’d been up so early we were back at the boat by 10:30am – we’d seen the highlights of the West Bank of the Nile in a little under 4 hours and then we were straight back to the side of the pool. We spent the next 6 hours or so laying by the pool as we travelled up the Nile.
Then about 4pm we got to the Nile Lock. This is where they dammed the Nile and the water is at two different levels. We got there about 4pm, but didn’t actually go through until 9pm. It was a bit frustrating because Aidan wanted to get some photos for dad of us going through the lock and we didn’t go through til nearly 9pm so it was dark.
He almost didn’t get any photos at all because I’d hidden his camera fro the towel origami man and hadn’t told him so he thought his camera was MIA… I had to quickly run down to the cabin and retrieve it for him.
He got a couple of good photos, but it’s a bit hard to see in the dark. What they do it open the low side gate, the boat drives in (along with another one) and then the close the gate. Then they fill the section up with water and the boat rises up. Once its level with the high side they open the other gates and the boat drives out into the high side of the Nile. Its quite an impressive engineering feat.
Egypt – Laying about in Luxor – Saturday 5 May
So 5am rolls round quicker than I’d like and the boys and I are all up and ready to go at 5:45am. Wesley got up and made us some toast – taking care of us and making sure we got safely on our way.
We got on the plane and safely made our way to Luxor. We’d only been on the ground for about 4 and half seconds and Colin had disappeared. Aidan and I were looking around and couldn’t find him. I swear he’s going to get himself in trouble wandering off in crazy countries… they always separate the weakest link from herd before they go in for the kill and every time I turned around Colin was someplace the rest of us weren’t!
Eventually we saw him waving at us though a glass door across the room. He’d gone outside (walking past 2 guards carrying large black guns) to have a smoke. Those ciggie’s are going to get him into trouble. He’d gone out for a smoke and the guards wouldn’t let him back in because he’d gone through an ‘exit only’ door. He was getting all cranky at us because he couldn’t get back to us and we hadn’t seen him waving at us. When I finally found him I went over to see what was going on and the guard said he wasn’t allowed back in. It was lucky that he’d gone out the door our meeter/greeter was taking us out too.
So the meeter/greeter man carries Colin’s bag to him and we get into the van and he drives us to the boat. Our boat – and by boat I mean luxury cruiser!! – is called Carnivale. Its got four levels of cabins and a bar and a pool on the open top deck. It‘s a nice boat, very similar to the one I was on last time I was here. I kind of mucked up this part of the tour. To try and get better flight times we ended up with an extra night in upper Egypt – my plan has been to have the extra night in Luxor so we had more time to see the east and west bank, but the timing of the boat meant we’ve ended up with an extra night in Aswan instead.
I was a bit annoyed actually with how this whole part of the tour started. We fly really early and I thought that was so we could get the tours underway and see lots of stuff. But then we got the boat and had to wait around for an hour for our rooms to be ready, then we waited all day before our first tour started. We spent the day just sitting on the deck of the boat, in and out of the pool. It was very very hot. Almost too hot.
Late in the afternoon we finally started the tours… we went to Karnak temple first. Karnak of course was amazing. The only bad thing about the tour was it is so incredibly hot. It’s almost unbearable.
Karnak is my favourite temple. Its massive, contains about 10 cathedrals, It was built, re-built, decorated and re-decorate for over 1500 years. At one point – during the time of Ramses II I think it had 80,000 people working on it. Guess it was like a big ‘public works’ project – both building something spiritual, but also keeping the population employed.
The boys loved Karnak – but by the end of the look around we were nearly ready to pass out. I bought 3 big bottles of water and we started sucking down the water to try and re-hydrate. It helped, but we were still struggling.
After Karnak we went back to the boat for 20 minutes to pick up Maggie. She’s a South African lady who is joining our tour. She was booked through Half Moon tours (the same guy Ahmed booked our trip through) so they put us together. It was good to have someone different with us – we were running out of stories to keep ourselves entertained so it was good to get someone new to hang out with.
First stop now we have Maggie with us is Luxor Temple. The guide’s been ok, his name is Wael. He knows what to say, but he’s very ‘telling us by rote’. If we interrupt him he gets all thrown and struggles to continue…
The Luxor temple is much smaller than Karnak, but tis still quite impressive. My favourite bit is the Avenue of the Sphinx. Back in the day this was the path between Karnak and Luxor temple. Its said that the Pharaoh would be at Karnak and his wife would be at Luxor temple and he would walk down the Avenue of the Sphinx to get to her.
We’ve taken loads of photos, its so different here to being in Tanzania. In Tanzania everything was a dark reddy brown or green where as here everything is beige. Its just sand and dust for mile upon mile. I guess part of that is the oppressive heat. Its been ridiculously hot today, I’m just hoping it will cool down a bit as we get further towards Aswan, but I’m not holding my breath!!
After the Luxor Temple we went back to the boat for a very fast dinner. We were asking the waiters to speed it up because we needed to get back to Karnak for the sounds and light show. So we scoffed our food and then headed back onto the bus to go to the sound and light show.
We nearly got ripped off here. The airport pick up man had said that the sound and light show wasn’t part of our paid package so we gave him 400le to arrange for transport and entry to the show. I was sure that we’d already arranged this so I sms’d Ahmed and he rang the tour company and they rang me back. Turns out we had paid after all so they made the driver man give us our money back. I’m not sure if he was confused or dodgy – here its hard to tell. There are so many dodgy people that you kinda assume everyone is dodgy – out to make themselves a quick buck at your expense. He was very apologetic and made sure we were set to go for the light show so I’m trying to think the best, to think that it was an honest mistake.
We were all pretty shattered at the light show. It’s good because you walk around a bit, but at the end you are sitting on stone benches for about 20 minutes and I nearly fell asleep! I really enjoyed the light show, I just wish we hadn’t been up since 5am (and me with only 4 hours sleep!).
We got back to the boat (Aidan and I shared again and Colin got his own noisy snorers room). I went straight to bed and was asleep in about 34 seconds. Tomorrow is another early start - 6am!!
So 5am rolls round quicker than I’d like and the boys and I are all up and ready to go at 5:45am. Wesley got up and made us some toast – taking care of us and making sure we got safely on our way.
We got on the plane and safely made our way to Luxor. We’d only been on the ground for about 4 and half seconds and Colin had disappeared. Aidan and I were looking around and couldn’t find him. I swear he’s going to get himself in trouble wandering off in crazy countries… they always separate the weakest link from herd before they go in for the kill and every time I turned around Colin was someplace the rest of us weren’t!
Eventually we saw him waving at us though a glass door across the room. He’d gone outside (walking past 2 guards carrying large black guns) to have a smoke. Those ciggie’s are going to get him into trouble. He’d gone out for a smoke and the guards wouldn’t let him back in because he’d gone through an ‘exit only’ door. He was getting all cranky at us because he couldn’t get back to us and we hadn’t seen him waving at us. When I finally found him I went over to see what was going on and the guard said he wasn’t allowed back in. It was lucky that he’d gone out the door our meeter/greeter was taking us out too.
So the meeter/greeter man carries Colin’s bag to him and we get into the van and he drives us to the boat. Our boat – and by boat I mean luxury cruiser!! – is called Carnivale. Its got four levels of cabins and a bar and a pool on the open top deck. It‘s a nice boat, very similar to the one I was on last time I was here. I kind of mucked up this part of the tour. To try and get better flight times we ended up with an extra night in upper Egypt – my plan has been to have the extra night in Luxor so we had more time to see the east and west bank, but the timing of the boat meant we’ve ended up with an extra night in Aswan instead.
I was a bit annoyed actually with how this whole part of the tour started. We fly really early and I thought that was so we could get the tours underway and see lots of stuff. But then we got the boat and had to wait around for an hour for our rooms to be ready, then we waited all day before our first tour started. We spent the day just sitting on the deck of the boat, in and out of the pool. It was very very hot. Almost too hot.
Late in the afternoon we finally started the tours… we went to Karnak temple first. Karnak of course was amazing. The only bad thing about the tour was it is so incredibly hot. It’s almost unbearable.
Karnak is my favourite temple. Its massive, contains about 10 cathedrals, It was built, re-built, decorated and re-decorate for over 1500 years. At one point – during the time of Ramses II I think it had 80,000 people working on it. Guess it was like a big ‘public works’ project – both building something spiritual, but also keeping the population employed.
The boys loved Karnak – but by the end of the look around we were nearly ready to pass out. I bought 3 big bottles of water and we started sucking down the water to try and re-hydrate. It helped, but we were still struggling.
After Karnak we went back to the boat for 20 minutes to pick up Maggie. She’s a South African lady who is joining our tour. She was booked through Half Moon tours (the same guy Ahmed booked our trip through) so they put us together. It was good to have someone different with us – we were running out of stories to keep ourselves entertained so it was good to get someone new to hang out with.
First stop now we have Maggie with us is Luxor Temple. The guide’s been ok, his name is Wael. He knows what to say, but he’s very ‘telling us by rote’. If we interrupt him he gets all thrown and struggles to continue…
The Luxor temple is much smaller than Karnak, but tis still quite impressive. My favourite bit is the Avenue of the Sphinx. Back in the day this was the path between Karnak and Luxor temple. Its said that the Pharaoh would be at Karnak and his wife would be at Luxor temple and he would walk down the Avenue of the Sphinx to get to her.
We’ve taken loads of photos, its so different here to being in Tanzania. In Tanzania everything was a dark reddy brown or green where as here everything is beige. Its just sand and dust for mile upon mile. I guess part of that is the oppressive heat. Its been ridiculously hot today, I’m just hoping it will cool down a bit as we get further towards Aswan, but I’m not holding my breath!!
After the Luxor Temple we went back to the boat for a very fast dinner. We were asking the waiters to speed it up because we needed to get back to Karnak for the sounds and light show. So we scoffed our food and then headed back onto the bus to go to the sound and light show.
We nearly got ripped off here. The airport pick up man had said that the sound and light show wasn’t part of our paid package so we gave him 400le to arrange for transport and entry to the show. I was sure that we’d already arranged this so I sms’d Ahmed and he rang the tour company and they rang me back. Turns out we had paid after all so they made the driver man give us our money back. I’m not sure if he was confused or dodgy – here its hard to tell. There are so many dodgy people that you kinda assume everyone is dodgy – out to make themselves a quick buck at your expense. He was very apologetic and made sure we were set to go for the light show so I’m trying to think the best, to think that it was an honest mistake.
We were all pretty shattered at the light show. It’s good because you walk around a bit, but at the end you are sitting on stone benches for about 20 minutes and I nearly fell asleep! I really enjoyed the light show, I just wish we hadn’t been up since 5am (and me with only 4 hours sleep!).
We got back to the boat (Aidan and I shared again and Colin got his own noisy snorers room). I went straight to bed and was asleep in about 34 seconds. Tomorrow is another early start - 6am!!
Egypt – 25th Anniversary – Friday 4 May
We got up nice and early and we’ve been flying all day. Originally I’d hoped to get home in time to go to the Hash, but the flights were a little delayed, our bags took forever and traffic was ridiculous. As a result we didn’t get back to Wesley’s until nearly 5pm.
It was Jan and Brian’s 25th wedding anniversary the other day and they decided to have tonight’s Hash On-On at the Heliopolis BCA to celebrate their anniversary. They are good friends of Wesley’s so he was keen to go, the only problem was that our flight to Luxor in the morning meant we had to be up at 5am so I didn’t want t be up to late.
When we got back to Wesley’s the boys and I washed our safari clothes and they settled in for some take out and TV. I unpacked, re-packed and got cleaned up to go out. Wesley was later back from the Hash than expected and had collected some tourists on the way. The boys had decided not to come to the on-on so Wesley, his tourists and I got a car to Heliopolis.
The on-on was great. I was having so much fun. Brian has been learning guitar and him and a couple of other hashers were playing in a band for the start of the night. They were great. Brian sings too and does a pretty good job. Wesley was such a sweetie. He said about 10 times during the night that he was ready to go the second I was. He was really conscious of me getting enough sleep before flying out. At one point I said ‘oh, maybe we’ll go when you finish that beer’ and he went to put it down straight away, but I said no, I’ll dance one more song…
I think it was about midnight before I finally decided we should go. Wesley did point out the time to me on a few occasions – he was more conscious of me having to get up in 4 hours than I was! The worst thing was that the 40 minutes drive from Wesley’s to the airport. I was so tired. It was a great night though. I had so much fun, I love hanging out with his friends – they’re such a laugh!
We got up nice and early and we’ve been flying all day. Originally I’d hoped to get home in time to go to the Hash, but the flights were a little delayed, our bags took forever and traffic was ridiculous. As a result we didn’t get back to Wesley’s until nearly 5pm.
It was Jan and Brian’s 25th wedding anniversary the other day and they decided to have tonight’s Hash On-On at the Heliopolis BCA to celebrate their anniversary. They are good friends of Wesley’s so he was keen to go, the only problem was that our flight to Luxor in the morning meant we had to be up at 5am so I didn’t want t be up to late.
When we got back to Wesley’s the boys and I washed our safari clothes and they settled in for some take out and TV. I unpacked, re-packed and got cleaned up to go out. Wesley was later back from the Hash than expected and had collected some tourists on the way. The boys had decided not to come to the on-on so Wesley, his tourists and I got a car to Heliopolis.
The on-on was great. I was having so much fun. Brian has been learning guitar and him and a couple of other hashers were playing in a band for the start of the night. They were great. Brian sings too and does a pretty good job. Wesley was such a sweetie. He said about 10 times during the night that he was ready to go the second I was. He was really conscious of me getting enough sleep before flying out. At one point I said ‘oh, maybe we’ll go when you finish that beer’ and he went to put it down straight away, but I said no, I’ll dance one more song…
I think it was about midnight before I finally decided we should go. Wesley did point out the time to me on a few occasions – he was more conscious of me having to get up in 4 hours than I was! The worst thing was that the 40 minutes drive from Wesley’s to the airport. I was so tired. It was a great night though. I had so much fun, I love hanging out with his friends – they’re such a laugh!
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