Smile on the Nile :)

Siyd met us at the hotel at 1700 to walk us over to where the Felluca's are docked on the east bank of the Nile. We climbed aboard and met Capt. Adam, I guess that was his English name. The sail across the Nile was very peaceful and relaxing. About half way across we lost our wind and had to paddle a bit. There was a shallow spot so we stopped to jump in, the water felt great! We eventually made it across, due to the hard work of Adam and Siyd, who didn't want us to help in any way.

Once docked at Banana island, we walked up the west bank to the plantation. Here you can pay $.80 each and eat all the Banana's you can handle. We walked around the plantation a while, then went back to fill our bellies on Banana, at least I did anyway. Heidi wasn't too hungry.

Don't think I was ready for this pic...

Donkey powered water pump, which channeled water throughout the plantation, genius!

Isn't nature amazing...no Frankenstein monsanto stuff here

Full of Banana, back to the boat.

Once back to the boat we sailed to the west bank. This trip also took a long time, no wind to help us so Siyd and Adam were back to paddling. About half way we caught a breeze luckily, so the guys got to rest till we reached the bank. It was an amazing evening.

Then to the hotel for bedtime. 

Vally of the Kings, Turkish Coffee, Egyptian Tea and Tobacco

We woke up around 8:30 am and met our driver, Sayd outside our hotel at 9 am for a trip to the West Bank, and to visit the Valley of the Kings.  The 20-minute drive was amazing.  We saw banana trees, corn, and other crops being tended by farmers and their donkeys.  We also saw snippets of village life characterized by women hanging laundry and buying food, children running around helping or riding donkeys, and men either walking to work or to one of the small side street cafes.

When we finally arrived, we headed straight for the welcome center, bought our tickets, then jumped on the trolly to the entrance of the valley. We were disappointed to find that they are extremely active in the prohibition of photograph-taking. 

 For a period of nearly 500 years (16th to 11th century BCE), The Valley of the Kings was the final resting place for scores of Pharaohs, including King Tut.   The tombs have been painted with scenes from Egyptian mythology, the entire book of the dead, the book of spells, etc, which gives the visitor some clues into ancient Egyptian culture and tradition.  However, most all the tombs themselves are empty, as they have been robbed of their treasures, and Pharaohs.


Tutankhamen's tomb was "discovered" by Howard Carter in 1922, and was completely filled to the brim with items that took almost 10 years to carefully remove and transport to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Tutankhamun's tomb had been entered at least twice, not long after he was buried and well before Carter's "discovery". I remember reading something once about one of these entries or maybe the artifacts being linked to Rosslyn Chapel...hmm. The outermost doors of the shrines enclosing the king's nested coffins were left opened, and unsealed. It is estimated that 60% of the jewellery which had been stored in the "Treasury" was removed as well. After one of these ancient robberies, embalming materials from King Tut's tomb are believed to have been buried in another tomb within the valley. The valley became famous in the 20th century for the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb, which coincides with rumors of the Curse of the Pharaohs.  


Below is a photo is his funerary mask made of solid gold, which we will see when we get to Cairo.  

After sweating profusely visiting the tombs, we headed back to Luxor to meet up with our friend Ahmed to have some tea, coffee and smoke :)

Our driver Siyd, is Ahmed's cousin.  He was extremely generous to drive us around for very little money in his taxi. We stopped at little coffee shop, we'll let the pics and video speak for themselves. We loved it!

Our driver Siyd

Ahmed, from the Hotel Gaddis

Heidi's first and only hit...

After this little adventure, we went back to the hotel and rested for a while, then prepared for our Felluca trip to Banana island with Siyd, whos uncle owns a few boats for sailing the Nile. Coming up next....Stay tuned

  

Luxor - First Full Day Part 3 - Luxor Temple

We walked around for awhile to soak in the awe of Karnak.  As the sun furiously beat down on us, we continued to walk along the Nile River toward the train station located in the center of town.  Throughout our journey there were microbuses, taxis and horse carriages offering us rides.  They seemed unable to grasp the concept of two tourists choosing to walk over receiving a ride.  One carriage driver told Kale that I was, "nooo good.  madam, noooo good."  I suppose he was insulted when I crossed the street to get out of the shadow of his lingering carriage.

After about a half-hour walk, we made it to the shop-lined street where we would find the Egyptian Railway at the end.  We climbed the steps, passed the Egyptian police guarding the entrance with AK-47's, and were inside the station.  Unfortunately for us, there was no air running through the station whatsoever, and sweat was literally pouring from our foreheads, necks, backs and arms.

On a quick side note, makeup is absolutely pointless here.  You are better off keeping a fresh face, and just accepting your natural beauty.  I have managed to make it three days without makeup, and although I feel plain, and my eyes look like beady pink rims with a few hairs sticking out for lashes, my skin is better off for it in the long run.      We decided not to purchase our train tickets right then because we wanted to definitely stay an extra day, and possibly two.  We would return when we knew exactly when we were ready to leave Luxor.
After leaving the train station, we walked back down the street in the direction we came from, and stumbled upon a large street market housed in a narrow alleyway.  We decided to have a look, and passed small shops with every type of Egyptian jewelry, clothing, artwork, food and music you could imagine.  As soon as we started walking down the alley, we were bombarded by offers to visit everyone's shop, and try on everyone's clothing.  We stopped at a small clothing shop, and met the owner, Bob.  Behind his shop was a glass door, which lead to a room that was approximately 10 ft x 10 ft with a high ceiling with built-in shelves that houses Egyptian cotton blouses and pants from floor to ceiling.  The brick floor had three small stools where he told us we could sit while he showed us some pieces of clothing.  The stools were about one-foot off the ground, by the way.  He brought us some tea, and we tried of some shirts, and ended up with two white cotton blouses.  After we made our purchase, he made us some tea, and we sat and talked for a while.  We met one of his friends while we were there.  She was a very nice English lady in her late forties to early fifties.  She volunteers at an orphanage here in Luxor.  After about half an hour, we said our good-byes and headed for Luxor Temple.  It was amazing!

Luxor Temple, which is located on the east bank of the Nile, is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex that was founded in 1400 B.C.E. The most notable parts of the temple that are still standing are the baroque chapels, the colonnade, the sun court, the entrance pylon and two obelisks, one of which was sent to France.  During the Roman era, the temple and its surroundings were a legionary fortress and the home of the Roman government in the area. We walked around for about an hour, and then decided it was time for happy hour.  

About ten minutes later we found ourselves in a small open-air bar with two ice-cold Sakara beers in front of us.  Sakara is an Egyptian beer by the way.  It's a lager.  At this particular moment, I don't think I had ever tasted anything so amazing.  Then again, we had been walking around in 120-degree weather for the previous four hours.

 After leaving the small bar, we headed for a roof-top restaurant to watch the sunset behind the West Bank of the Nile.  It had been a day full of excitement and education.  We looked forward to the next day, which would take us to the West Bank, The Valley of the Kings, and Banana Island.  

Luxor - First Full Day Part 2 - Karnak

Our next stop was Karnak...we jumped on another "microbus" and were there in 5 minutes.  The Karnak Temple Complex is a huge site that houses the ruins of temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings.  Karnak today is a vast, open-air museum, and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is also the second-most visited tourist site in Egypt.  The Giza Pyramids are first.

 
The characteristics of Karnak are not unique to other ancient Egyptian architecture, but the size and number of features is quite vast.  One notable aspect is the Hypostyle Hall, which is a 50,000 square-foot area with 134 gigantic columns arranged in 16 rows.  One hundred twenty-two of these columns stands 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter more than three meters.  The architraves on top of these columns have been estimated to weigh approximately 70 tons!  It was an amazing site that was also amazingly hot, so we spent about an hour and decided to move along to the next adventure...

Luxor - First Full Day Part 1

We woke up refreshed on our first full day in Luxor.  We decided to go the the market first so we could get some new clothes and Egyptian-ize.  Its a good idea to cover up here for a few reasons: 1.) It is about 120 degrees here; 2.) It is respectful to their culture; and 3.) You will make yourself less of a target.  After having coffee at the hotel, we stepped outside.  As soon as we started walking, we were met by locals asking us if we wanted, taxi, carriage ride, where we were going and what did we want to see.  One man stopped us because of Kale's shoes.  He couldn't believe what he was seeing.  Apparently Vibram Five Fingers haven't made it to Egypt.  The man actually started calling others locals over from off the street to look at Kale's shoes.  It was great!

 After saying good-bye, we continued our journey to the city center in order to buy new clothes.  Our plan was to take a bus.  The buses here cost a little under nine cents per ride per person.  They are small white VW-style vans that drive around with the door open, and when you need a ride, you flag one down and hop on.  It's a total adventure!

Here is one of the buses:

Here it is once we were on:

Here is a little video of our bus ride...

Once we got to the market, Kale hooked himself up with some authentic Egyptian threads:

Luckily he settled for the scarf, and left his linen calaberia behind:) After the market we headed for Karnak...