Luxor and the Valley of the Kings!

Back in Egypt, after the felucca ride and the temples, we arrived in Luxor, a grand, stiflingly hot city with big temples and lots of irritating horse carriage drivers. These first two are the view from the roof of our hotel, where there was a nice pool and tables to eat at. We were the ONLY guests during our stay (the hotel had six floors, it felt so lonely), so it was never crowded.

Downtown is interesting, as the remains of Luxor Temple are smack in the middle of it. Across the street is the entrance to the souq (bazaar, market; below), where I walked many times but never ended up buying things.

It was sort of embarrassing because the second day we went to eat at a restaurant that was reached by walking through the souq, and I tried to just charge through and make no eye contact with the merchants, but every other person shouts, "Oh, I remember you from last night, ketha ketha ketha..." (blah blah blah in arabic, which I just learned and really like). Then later that night, I was walking back through to the entrance, and almost at the gate I saw two little girls who looked so cute, and they told me their names, and asked me mine. It a stupid lapse of judgment, I smiled and said "ismi Kristine," after which I waved and walked on. "KREESTEEN!!!!! KREESTEEN!!!!!" they both shouted at the top of their lungs once my back was turned. Then all the guys working at the little shops joined in and started addressing me by name when they made their annoying pleas from my attention. It was awful.

This is the mosque built at the edge of the Luxor Temple, in front of which is this nice square to hang out at. I was waiting for others from my group and I sat here and talked to Ben for a while. That guy in the left bottom corner of the picture kept giving me funny looks. Not creepy, just like he thought I was really strange. Here is one part of Luxor Temple in the early of the morning, when we were en route to the Valley of the Kings, on the West Bank of the river (all the other stuff is on the East Bank).

There are dozens of hot air balloons in the sky every morning. I love how it looks. So much that I actually rode in one, a decision which rather surprised me when I made it.

After getting off the boat, we got on donkeys!!! We were on the side of the road, and kept getting in the way of the vehicles.

Mine was named Ali Baba, and he was a charmer. Never tried anything crazy, unlike several of the others. I would have done anything to keep him, but apparently that is allowed on GAP tours.

The Valley of the Kings is where a bunch of tombs for Pharaohs are, including King Tut, but we didn't go in his. We saw three others: Ramses II, Thutmoses III, and Merenptah.

Thutmoses III's tomb was the most intense by far, in the worst way. You had to climb some stairs to get there, that's okay, but then you have to go down a really steep incline once inside.

And inside was horridly foul smelling and so hot that several of us were nearly hyperventilating. It was NOT worth it, not in the least.

Here we are resting after enduring this hell.

Merenptah's tomb was the coolest for sure. Instead of being empty, there was a huge sarcophagus with a carving of figure on top. I was so caught up in the excitement that I momentarily "forgot" that there was a ban on photographs inside the tombs. Well, I obviously wasn't slick enough about it, as the "guard" caught me before I started and screamed at me. Luckily he caught some guy at the same time so I didn't get yelled out alone. I can definitely say it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my decade. I hadn't even taken the picture yet. Then he took me in a corner and made the international "gimme some cash" hand gesture, and I was so angry I could hardly handle it so I gave him one pound (20 cents US). He looks at me in disgust and says "only one pound?" In my view, you can't publicly humiliate someone for something they haven't even done yet then expect grateful payment for it. It he'd been more discreet I would have given him five pounds, but in this case, not a chance.

Much to my delight, we got back on the donkeys to go to other sites on the West Bank, so I was reunited with Ali Baba.