Luxor

So we finally got our trip to Luxor. We took a night train down and then stayed one night and took a night train back.

It was a 12 hour train ride and we got in about 9:30am on Saturday. We checked in our bags, and hit the sand, and Im not talking sunbathing on the beach.

We had only a short time and there is so much to see in Luxor. So we got a cab that would give us a deal. The driver's name was Abraham and he took us everywhere and we made it to all the places we wanted to see before they closed.

We went to the Valley of the Kings and entered long airless caverns that had amazing paintings and heiroglyphics all over the walls. Gaby took a few pictures and got busted. She almost had to pay a fine to the tomb police. But they worked it out, alhamdulilah (praise be to God). The s weren't even sharp images worth getting busted over.

One tomb was so deep there was really no air in there. It was nice to come up the stairs to fresh air. Those places are just not made for the living y'know.

Then we went to a queen's temple and Ramses' III temple. That was pretty amazing. The images on the walls are huge and there is still a lot of color there. It was pretty phenomenal to see the craftsmanship. I cant imagine how much time it took to just build these places then to put up all the carvings and images and colors. It is truly an amazing feat.

(If you click on the pic it opens up in another window pretty big so you can see better.)

That night we had an awesome dinner on the roof of a building and went to bed at 7pm. We slept the whole night and the next day we had an awesome breakfast on the roof of the hotel.

We rented bikes and took them across the ferry. We needed to buy tickets to get back to Cairo (see "If can, can..." blog) and find the train station. We ventured out of Luxor and realized we'd gone to far. It was a fun ride though.

We headed back to the train station to get tickets back to Cairo and the guy was all grumpy and yelled at us because he didnt have any. Although he just sold one to the guy in front of us. Things that make you go hmmmmmm....

Gaby tried to complain and talk to a manager but they had us walk in circles. It was pretty lame. Straight up they were jerking us around, but I wanted to support Gaby in her attempts so I walked in circles with her.

We ended up getting tickets for the sleeper train. I guess if you're white you should take the rich peoples train (the sleeper train) and not hassle them about the average person tickets. Capitalism is not a factor here at all. You'd think any train would want our money but no, go spend more money and dont fill up our seats. It's a whole new way of thinking. Quite interesting.

So we spent the rest of the day riding bikes around Luxor and checking out the ruins there. Women here don't ride bikes, I later found out. Its not proper for them to do so. About 30 years ago or so, it was no big deal. But because of the conservative muslim movement its no longer ok. But because are foreigners its ok. But not for Egyptian women, even if they are not muslim.

Gaby and I had seen enough heiroglyphics so we just took pics from the outside instead of going into all the temples.


Riding around Luxor in the crazy, no rules traffic was so much fun. I wish I could've gotten photos while I rode or had us videotaped getting through crowds and traffic. It was crazy. It really is another world here and it is so amazing. The trick in the crazy traffic is that there are no rules on the road. So you just need to keep moving. Don't slow down because people and cars will move in front of you, but if you keep moving then they move with you.

This rule applies well to all the guys trying to sell you falooka rides, carriage rides, or whatever. One guy was yelling at us to go on his falooka when we were going around Luxor temple. On the way back, he tried to get us again and started to cross the street. I looked at him and booked it on my bike. He stopped in the middle of the street and just laughed. But we had to meet Gaby's friends, so we stopped not to far away and he chased us down.


So I harrassed him with my camera and just started taking pics of him. He wouldnt let me get a good shot, but he enjoyed the harrassment. It was great. He had reasonable prices but we didnt have time for a falooka, we had to catch our sleeper train. It would've been nice but two days just isn't enough time to do everything.


The sleeper train was great. They have bunks and you sleep. Duh. Couldn't really complain at all.