Egypt Trip Report Part V
DAY 7 LUXOR II
On the second day we went to Valley of the Kings (140£E for activities today) which involved visiting the tomb of Tutmosis III, Sety II (grandson of Ramses II) and Ramsees IV. Each were different inside and it was absolutely baking hot that day both inside and out. Nearby some local workers were also busy excavating. On this subject, the one thing that struck me about Egypt is how many stories there are of people finding things so randomly and there’s no doubt in my mind that they will uncover a great deal more in Egypt over the coming XX years. After this we went to Hapshipsuit’s temple which was another real spectacle and it was so funny to see, on this baking hot day, the amount the tourists were getting ripped off for water at the café. On this day we also went to an Alabaster factory where the guide could not tell us how much the correct price of the items were and that she “sometimes” got commission for taking people there… I smell bs Shaimaa…! As had become par for the course I tried to drive too hard a bargain with the seller (this was not like the market where the starting price was astronomically high, and the items were vg quality) and we both ended up leaving with nothing. After this Shaimaa took us to her humble abode where we ate like kings once more. Dinner was aubergine moussaka and we celebrated Aria’s impending birthday with a traditional Egyptian cake. This night we went and stocked up on booze before our desert trip and I wound down with a few brewskis with Matt in a nice bar with a sheesa for a couple of hours.
Aside on “A little spot of praying”
It is my understanding that you are meant to pray about 7 times a day (although you can bank a praying session and do a double later) and at various times on the day (in some of the Western Desert this included all through the night) everyone stops and you hear yelling and chanting and such like over microphones from the nearest mosque and everyone runs outside to pray. This involves putting your head gently on the ground. I say gently as many people in Egypt in fact love praying so much that they don’t do this and a permanent scar develops (similar to where the dots (bindi?) Indian ladies have) this disfigurement being seen as a mark of respect.
I should just say that despite being described by the guidebook as a hidden treasure, the hotel we had stayed at in Luxor (Little Garden) wasn’t the best to me honest and the guy as overnight reception was totally incompetent, the shower didn’t work and the breakfast boxes reliably had stuff missing from them. C'est la vie.
Day 8 - DESERT + Dakhla Hotel Stopover
It was now time for the 5 ½ drive into to desert.
This was basically a day of travelling West from Luxor into the desert. .During the driving we had a massive game of “countries” with practically the whole group taking part which was basically like drink while u think for countries and “major” cities(so lots of a’s came up) but you had 3 passes. After what felt like an eternity (but was probably only about 2 hours) and with the game having descended into “name places you’ve visited and argue about whether they fit the remit of “major city”” later (apparently Alsace Provence is lovely this time of year :P) or places that are in Australia (major enough?) and with 2 passes still in tact everyone else gave up. Sure we “called” it a draw but it was clear that everyone else has just been attrited. Chalk up another victory to the Rosster I’d say! FYI the capital of Ghana is Akra… not Okra….so I was close!
We had a pitstop in quite a nice small café whilst (ooh I just a yearning for a falafel sandwich…maybe that's me back acclimatised to UK food) out new rides -4x4s- got prepared. After agreeing upon some broad rules we managed to get a game of backgammon on the cards (another crushing victory) and also some dominoes, though I think the way Hisham was playing was different to how we kick it on the street over here, I mean not literally on the street, at Dianes pool hall (so probably safer on the streets).
This night I was feeling a little worse for wear although after a spot of dinner (potato in tomato, chicken thighs, bread: you know the drill) I did feel much better and back at the hotel we got some beers on the go and some tischtennis. Somehow I managed to lose to Liz, and then Matt, which was majorly embarrassing but I blame the bats which didn’t have any rubber on them which meant I couldn’t bring out “the digger” and my natural spin game. At drinks round the table Matt got a little tipsy after about 4 drinks (totally standard) and started waxing lyrical about a certain Beyonce Knowles much to the chagrin of Raewyn who was sitting right next to him. I was also alarmed to find out none of the 5 or 6 people left at the end had ever heard of the Big Lebowski (“The word dude figures prominently in it” ….?.... “Its by the Coen brothers”…Blank expression…“It’s got Jeff bridges in it”..Who?...“Its about bowling”.... Nothing..) How is that possible?!
DESERT 9 - WESTERN DESERT CAMPING UNDER THE STARS
I awoke to find the bread and cheese I had left out overnight had now thoroughly been infested by ants which got a shudder out of me, no morning snack for me then! We boarded the bus and set off to the Islamic quarter: we visited Dahkla’s fortified medieval capital, Al Qasr and had a look round this mud brick architecture and looked at a mosque. Another decent drive in the 4x4 which was actually quite enjoyable. I was in with all the girls which was quite fun.
We cruised about in the 4x4s today with the girls and stopped off at various places for quality photo time before arriving at the desert camp. The desert is composed of weird white rock formations and Libya is to the West and Sudan to the South. I watched sunset, but unlike everyone else totally failed to take any nice photos of it, did some deep meditation for about 2 minutes and then Kate taught us 2 south American combat dancing moves. Matt and I had located a football but it was a rock ("if you buy like an arsehole..prepare to be fucked") so much so that feet were bleeding by the end of a little kick about we had upon jumping off the 4x4s. The post meditation game of choice switched to volleyball and then rugby league before we finally settled on american football just as it was getting dark. The almost telephatic understanding Ian and I had honed over the previous nights karaoke sessions enabled a quick pass and catch move to win it for the a team (good hustle) before we literally couldn't see anything and had to give up to commence eating, boozing and star gazing.
Mince garlic and rice for dinner with the other usual suspects. And then came the star gazing: the sky was so clear and I've honestly never seen so many stars out in my life, we must have saw about 5 shooting stars as well in 30minutes, it was quite funny for a while as people kept missing them but eventually everyone saw one (although sadly this heralded going off to bed for some). I do “go deep” when I look at the stars for too long, the chain of thought almost always goes something like this: start thinking about astronomy then space then infinity then the importance of human advancement then why we are here then what is my life's purpose then global allocation of resources or something along those lines, so yeah too deep.
Back in the land of the living, Ian led a rendition of savage garden “to the moon and back” I believe (The last nail in my credibility coffin at school in 3rd year English when i said i thought too the moon and back was “okay”; still, you cant beat lyrics and emotion like “That’s why she shys away from human affection”). Hisham came to tell us to be quieter because people were asleep and, in classic tour guide fashion, ended up downing half a bottle of wine and staying with us. It was shortly after this that we began our 5 person (Hisham, Matt, Liz, Ian and I) crawl to “the horizon”. And by horizon I mean light that looked about 5 miles in the distance, still at this stage we were still acting on every word our Tour leader said as gospel, half a bottle of wine to the good or not. It’s one of those things that you know isn’t really quite right but you go along with at the time (so sort of like the Hitler Jugend). At one point Matt had a wobble and being on the end I tried to correct him and we both ended up decking it. “No problem,” I thought as I fell to the ground, “the sand will cushion me”- of course we just happened to have stumbled over a massive rock at this point. Cue 2 graphic war wounds and much sympathy from the group (well everyone bar Liz).
On the second day we went to Valley of the Kings (140£E for activities today) which involved visiting the tomb of Tutmosis III, Sety II (grandson of Ramses II) and Ramsees IV. Each were different inside and it was absolutely baking hot that day both inside and out. Nearby some local workers were also busy excavating. On this subject, the one thing that struck me about Egypt is how many stories there are of people finding things so randomly and there’s no doubt in my mind that they will uncover a great deal more in Egypt over the coming XX years. After this we went to Hapshipsuit’s temple which was another real spectacle and it was so funny to see, on this baking hot day, the amount the tourists were getting ripped off for water at the café. On this day we also went to an Alabaster factory where the guide could not tell us how much the correct price of the items were and that she “sometimes” got commission for taking people there… I smell bs Shaimaa…! As had become par for the course I tried to drive too hard a bargain with the seller (this was not like the market where the starting price was astronomically high, and the items were vg quality) and we both ended up leaving with nothing. After this Shaimaa took us to her humble abode where we ate like kings once more. Dinner was aubergine moussaka and we celebrated Aria’s impending birthday with a traditional Egyptian cake. This night we went and stocked up on booze before our desert trip and I wound down with a few brewskis with Matt in a nice bar with a sheesa for a couple of hours.
Aside on “A little spot of praying”
It is my understanding that you are meant to pray about 7 times a day (although you can bank a praying session and do a double later) and at various times on the day (in some of the Western Desert this included all through the night) everyone stops and you hear yelling and chanting and such like over microphones from the nearest mosque and everyone runs outside to pray. This involves putting your head gently on the ground. I say gently as many people in Egypt in fact love praying so much that they don’t do this and a permanent scar develops (similar to where the dots (bindi?) Indian ladies have) this disfigurement being seen as a mark of respect.
I should just say that despite being described by the guidebook as a hidden treasure, the hotel we had stayed at in Luxor (Little Garden) wasn’t the best to me honest and the guy as overnight reception was totally incompetent, the shower didn’t work and the breakfast boxes reliably had stuff missing from them. C'est la vie.
Day 8 - DESERT + Dakhla Hotel Stopover
It was now time for the 5 ½ drive into to desert.
This was basically a day of travelling West from Luxor into the desert. .During the driving we had a massive game of “countries” with practically the whole group taking part which was basically like drink while u think for countries and “major” cities(so lots of a’s came up) but you had 3 passes. After what felt like an eternity (but was probably only about 2 hours) and with the game having descended into “name places you’ve visited and argue about whether they fit the remit of “major city”” later (apparently Alsace Provence is lovely this time of year :P) or places that are in Australia (major enough?) and with 2 passes still in tact everyone else gave up. Sure we “called” it a draw but it was clear that everyone else has just been attrited. Chalk up another victory to the Rosster I’d say! FYI the capital of Ghana is Akra… not Okra….so I was close!
We had a pitstop in quite a nice small café whilst (ooh I just a yearning for a falafel sandwich…maybe that's me back acclimatised to UK food) out new rides -4x4s- got prepared. After agreeing upon some broad rules we managed to get a game of backgammon on the cards (another crushing victory) and also some dominoes, though I think the way Hisham was playing was different to how we kick it on the street over here, I mean not literally on the street, at Dianes pool hall (so probably safer on the streets).
This night I was feeling a little worse for wear although after a spot of dinner (potato in tomato, chicken thighs, bread: you know the drill) I did feel much better and back at the hotel we got some beers on the go and some tischtennis. Somehow I managed to lose to Liz, and then Matt, which was majorly embarrassing but I blame the bats which didn’t have any rubber on them which meant I couldn’t bring out “the digger” and my natural spin game. At drinks round the table Matt got a little tipsy after about 4 drinks (totally standard) and started waxing lyrical about a certain Beyonce Knowles much to the chagrin of Raewyn who was sitting right next to him. I was also alarmed to find out none of the 5 or 6 people left at the end had ever heard of the Big Lebowski (“The word dude figures prominently in it” ….?.... “Its by the Coen brothers”…Blank expression…“It’s got Jeff bridges in it”..Who?...“Its about bowling”.... Nothing..) How is that possible?!
DESERT 9 - WESTERN DESERT CAMPING UNDER THE STARS
I awoke to find the bread and cheese I had left out overnight had now thoroughly been infested by ants which got a shudder out of me, no morning snack for me then! We boarded the bus and set off to the Islamic quarter: we visited Dahkla’s fortified medieval capital, Al Qasr and had a look round this mud brick architecture and looked at a mosque. Another decent drive in the 4x4 which was actually quite enjoyable. I was in with all the girls which was quite fun.
We cruised about in the 4x4s today with the girls and stopped off at various places for quality photo time before arriving at the desert camp. The desert is composed of weird white rock formations and Libya is to the West and Sudan to the South. I watched sunset, but unlike everyone else totally failed to take any nice photos of it, did some deep meditation for about 2 minutes and then Kate taught us 2 south American combat dancing moves. Matt and I had located a football but it was a rock ("if you buy like an arsehole..prepare to be fucked") so much so that feet were bleeding by the end of a little kick about we had upon jumping off the 4x4s. The post meditation game of choice switched to volleyball and then rugby league before we finally settled on american football just as it was getting dark. The almost telephatic understanding Ian and I had honed over the previous nights karaoke sessions enabled a quick pass and catch move to win it for the a team (good hustle) before we literally couldn't see anything and had to give up to commence eating, boozing and star gazing.
Mince garlic and rice for dinner with the other usual suspects. And then came the star gazing: the sky was so clear and I've honestly never seen so many stars out in my life, we must have saw about 5 shooting stars as well in 30minutes, it was quite funny for a while as people kept missing them but eventually everyone saw one (although sadly this heralded going off to bed for some). I do “go deep” when I look at the stars for too long, the chain of thought almost always goes something like this: start thinking about astronomy then space then infinity then the importance of human advancement then why we are here then what is my life's purpose then global allocation of resources or something along those lines, so yeah too deep.
Back in the land of the living, Ian led a rendition of savage garden “to the moon and back” I believe (The last nail in my credibility coffin at school in 3rd year English when i said i thought too the moon and back was “okay”; still, you cant beat lyrics and emotion like “That’s why she shys away from human affection”). Hisham came to tell us to be quieter because people were asleep and, in classic tour guide fashion, ended up downing half a bottle of wine and staying with us. It was shortly after this that we began our 5 person (Hisham, Matt, Liz, Ian and I) crawl to “the horizon”. And by horizon I mean light that looked about 5 miles in the distance, still at this stage we were still acting on every word our Tour leader said as gospel, half a bottle of wine to the good or not. It’s one of those things that you know isn’t really quite right but you go along with at the time (so sort of like the Hitler Jugend). At one point Matt had a wobble and being on the end I tried to correct him and we both ended up decking it. “No problem,” I thought as I fell to the ground, “the sand will cushion me”- of course we just happened to have stumbled over a massive rock at this point. Cue 2 graphic war wounds and much sympathy from the group (well everyone bar Liz).