Luxurious Luxor

July 29
We had a wake up call at 3 am. For breakfast, Shea and I had delicious fig jam on bread! Mmmm. We headed to the airport in the pitch black, sleeping the whole way on the bus. When we got there, it was empty! It was a huge, nice airport with a Burger King and Starbucks. We didn’t get any but if we weren’t in such a hurry, I would’ve loved to have a caramel frap! I guess I’ll have to wait until I’m back in America because I’m sure the Berber village doesn’t have a starbucks…
So in the airport, Shea accidentally left her passport on the desk. We were in the terminal and wanted to go get a snack, so we started to exit and we were going to bring our passport. Right then, Shea realized exactly where she left it, thankfully. We walked pretty quickly/ran to the desk and on the way, every other SASer was telling us that a lady in a green dress named Susan had it. We walked around looking for ‘the lady in the green dress’ and got her passport back! Scary thought.

The airplane was a pretty good size, I was thinking it’d be smaller. We got on, and Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson were playing, haha. There were a few magazines and I read one on the 45 minute flight to Luxor. It was really a cool magazine and I read all about the Valley of the Kings and other discoveries, which we were going to visit, so I tried to retain all of the information! I fell asleep after reading a little, and the flight attendant kept waking me up to give me juice! It was a little annoying and afterwards, everyone was saying how she kept waking them up and making everyone keep their windows open, haha. She also put my tray down while I was asleep and put like 5 juices on it, I don’t know what that was about! Haha we all laughed about our experiences with this one crazy flight attendant.
When we got off, we took a little bus to another big bus. The Luxor airport is much smaller than the one in Cairo, but just as nice. There was a big sign that said, “Smile, You’re in Luxor!” It was funny. We headed out and drove around before the first stop. Luxor seemed much nicer and cleaner than Cairo; I don’t know if we saw the ‘dirty’ part of Cairo or not, but Luxor was definitely prettier and well kept. By the way, Egyptian people are SO nice. They love Americans, and are just very helpful and considerate in general.

We went to the Valley of the Kings- WOW this was a highlight. It is a massive valley that is filled with tombs. There are 26 kings that have been discovered in their tombs so far, and 2/3 of the valley HASN’T EVEN BEEN DUG UP. Wow, again. That is just crazy. 26 other smaller tombs have been found- inside were workers for the kings; architects, doctors, scribes etc.
We took a trolley thing (like at a wildlife park) up the hill to the entrance. The sight of the valley is a different landscape than anything I’ve seen. It’s all one color- tan. It’s hot, there are mountains of dirt and limestone, and it’s basically a boring-looking valley. What lies beneath is what was incredible… We first went into the first discovered tomb. We walked into a doorway that led to a tunnel sloping down into the tomb chamber. The tunnel was covered in hieroglyphics and then the tomb at the end. This one in particular wasn’t that big, actually it was the smallest; but it was still big to me! I can’t believe how it feels to be digging and find this incredible underground structure full of history and a tomb with a king inside!! We walked back out into the heat and on to the next. I’m not sure how many tombs are available to visit, but we saw 3. While we were walking to one, we saw men in robes with white towels on their heads excavating a new tomb! They were carrying out buckets of dirt and other artifacts! It was so cool and surreal to see these Egyptians digging up history and still to this day finding new tombs; crazy. The next tomb we went into was MASSIVE. You first walk in down a huge hallway (like in a school) covered in hieroglyphics and artwork. Then, the hall turned and continued even deeper into the ground. We went down several of these and arrived towards the end (couldn’t go to the end because it wasn’t finished). If I remember correctly- when a king is crowned, his tomb begins to be built. It tells a story about him all the way down the tomb and when he dies, they stop the tunnels and put him in the tomb, as a mummy. So this king was reigning for 7 years, which is why his tunnel was so long and full of art! Can you imagine what these Egyptians went through? They would work hard on these intricate tombs and if there was a small crack in the making, they would stop and start over somewhere else! It blows my mind how they made these. In some of the beautiful art in this tomb, it showed levels in the tomb, with water pushing a boat with a tomb on it up a hill and down into the ground. It was showing how they used the flood of the Nile and a boat to get these heavy, SOLID GOLD tombs to where they were now; ridiculously amazing!

Next, we went to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. This was the temple for the only woman pharaoh, so you can imagine how big and beautiful this was. It looked like we were in the middle of no where. To one side, you could see all of Luxor, to the other was this giant temple that blended in with the backdrop of the mountain terrain. We looked at some hieroglyphics (which I never get tired of looking at), and there was an Egyptian man walking around in his little robe, smiling at everyone. The little man said “look, a shish kabob” and was showing us everything and was so excited. We thought he’d ask for money but really he was just showing us how wonderful the stuff was and he was proud of it.
Went then went up a lot of stairs to the top of the temple and looked at some statues.

We went back to the hotel for lunch, and it was delicious. It was like a Disney World themed palace, but it was the real thing! It was the same food that we have been seeing everywhere, but it was way better and the desserts were too! We had a good 4 hours to hang out at the hotel and rest. Most of us went to the pool, which was amazing. The pool was huge, because it was a nice resort. There was a bar in the water, palm tree umbrellas, lounge chairs, and the NILE! We had a great view of the Nile and it was very relaxing! This was the most beautiful sight of the Nile that I’ve seen so far. I forgot my swimsuit for this trip so I went back to the room and napped. I got to watch Animal Planet for a little bit. I’ve been tv-less for a few months, and I’m ok with that, but I was so glad to get to watch something!

Around 6 we went to the Luxor Temple, a must-see. Thankfully we went this late in the day because any earlier and it would be way to hot to function! This temple was build by two pharaohs dedicated to their god. It was beautiful! There were several giant statues of some gods and other people, and many more hieroglyphic artwork. There was an avenue of mini-sphinx that go all the way to the Karnak Temple (which is in the next blog). The mini-sphinx run for 1 mile, and many were damaged and had missing pieces. I love the Sphinx, I really don’t know why, it’s just a beautiful sculpture. We were standing in front of one tall statue and started chatting with the security guard. His name was Mohamed, of course, and he was really nice! He had a huge rifle with him, which was a little intimidating, haha. He wrote our names in Arabic on basil leaves and was telling us facts about the temple. It was fun talking with him! The next day, we ended up seeing him again at another temple being the guard, haha! We saw more hieroglyphics and something about Alexander the Great (which was AWESOME because I bought a nice gold ring with an Alexander the Great coin on it in Greece!) One ring is meaningful in two countries. I’d say I made a good purchase.
We hung out at this temple for a while and it was a beautiful sunset, making great lighting on the columns and statues. The pictures turned out really nicely because of the ideal lighting from the sunset; not too dark, not too bright! When we were done there, Shea and I wanted to run across the street and try out an Egypt McDonald’s, just for fun. We started walking towards it and realized that we had about 5 minutes until we had to get onto the bus! We were CRAVING French fries, but we decided we didn’t need the calories, and we’d be late!
Every temple, museum, park etc that we’ve been to have the prettiest tickets. They are all similar but have pretty pictures on them of the places we visit! I’ve been keeping them as a memory maybe for a scrapbook or something just for fun.

When we were sitting on the bus about to leave, there was a figure on a wire that looked like a giant bat! Everyone on the bus was arguing whether it was a bat or not- and I say there’s no way it was a bat, it was trash. It was really funny and people were arguing and just joking around. Our tour guide said in a heavy Arabic accent, “Maybe bird got electrified.” Hahaha we laughed soo hard! It was just funny the way she said it and how she thought maybe a bird was just hanging there, hahaha I’m still laughing!
We went back to the hotel for dinner, and thankfully it was something DIFFERENT! WOO! We were pumped because we were getting a little sick of the same ole meal every single time… But tomorrow, we go back to a hotel in Cairo and get the exact same lunch again… surprise! After dinner, a friend had about 5 minutes left of internet time and let me get on and check facebook, of course. It was nice having internet since it’s near impossible to get anywhere! There were a few small stores in the resort and I bout 2 pillow cases made from Egyptian cotton. One is an ancient Egyptian with a pretty bird, and one is 3 little birds in bright colors! I love them and can’t wait to add it to my room! I went back to the room and slept!
What a great day in EGYPT!!!!!