Luxor

We arrived in Luxor a little worse for wear. A whole afternoon on a felucca, food, alcohol, mosquitoes and not much sleep made for a weak foundation to the next day. We had a minimal breakfast and then climbed on board the bus that was waiting for us next to the highway on the east shore.

Barely 50km north of Aswan is the City of Kom Umbu, sadly we didn't see the city itself, we went straight to the Temple of Kom Ombo. Kom Ombo is a famous temple for being dedicated to two different gods. Crocodile headed Sobek and Falcon headed Horus. Meanwhile, I wasn't feeling fantastic but still followed along the tour. Michael was in his element.

The crocodile museum was nearby and further down the hill, and honestly it wasn't all that interesting. Like a taxidermy centre dedicated to crocodile, in darkness, so no photos taken.

We continued up north and arrived at lunch time in Luxor, heading straight to our next hotel, Susanna Hotel. We had a West facing room, looking at the Rive Nile, great for watching the Hot Air Balloons early in the morning.

We had a couple of hours to spare before we headed out again, I took the opportunity to have a walk around and seek out good food places. I even went against my better judgement and followed a local down some sketchy looking alley way so that he could guide me to a good restaurant. He was of course working for his tip, and we never did eat at that restaurant.

The hotel had a pretty decent roof top pool setup, a setup we made the most of in the afternoons and after dinner to watch the night scape. Some great views up there.

Our afternoon activity was Karnak. Karnak is of course another temple site, but probably even busier than Giza. Giza has the advantage of space, Karnak you really feel how busy it is. The visitor centre gave us an idea of what was to come.

We walked out of the visitors centre, took a right and walked between the Rams that lined each side in "Avenue of the Rams", before the stone gates into the main Karnak centre. Took a few photos in this area then mustered back with Michael.

The next section is why people come to Karnak. The Hypostyle Hall. A series of columns equally spaced in a grid pattern. It is an anal retentive dream. But with it comes business and not enough time to take every kind of photo.

We concluded our first night in Luxor, enjoying the roof top views of Luxor.

Itinerary on day two in Luxor was to be a reasonable 8am start, Valley of the Dead, Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Colossi of Memnon then an afternoon of free time, dinner together and the search for a team shisha meeting location.

The Valley of the Dead theme park is located on the west side of the River Nile, nestled in the mountains we could see from our hotel rooftop. There were little buses to take us up the hill towards the temples, just like at Alton Towers? It was appreciated, given the lack of shaded areas.

On this visit (I've been before, but remember nothing) I visited three included temples (extra ones cost more) of Tumba KV6 de Ramses IX, Tumba KV8 de Merenptah and KV 16 Tomb of Rameses I. Others also chose to visit Tomb of Tut Ankh Amun. Here's a selection of photos...

Next stop was Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, as the crow flies a few hundred metres but for us it was almost 5km in the bus. If we thought the last place had no shade, this one was almost zero shade, and this was one of those 45 degree days. We did have golf carts for half the journey at least.

The final tourist stop was Colossi of Memnon.

The bus dropped us off at a house on the west bank of the Nile for a quick lunch at Achmed's house. Afterwards we jumped onto a conveniently timed ferry that took us back to the east side of the river followed by a short trip to bus to our hotel.

We decided to give another bazaar a shot. Compared to Aswan of course, the Luxor bazaar felt like relaxation spar. Yes there were some tricksters. They usual "I'm the cook at your hotel", and when we return and ask which hotel they say "What? no I work here, not in hotel".

Interestingly, the north side of the bazaar, they were pushy, rude and dishonest, on the southern side, it was a wonderful contrast. Some vendors had actual price tags, there were 'no hassle' signs, and to top it all off, we ended up going into one store and the vendor said 'have a look' and then didn't follow us around. He offered us tea, arranged for some postcards to be shown to us and didn't pressure us to buy anything, instead telling us about the tales of the bazaar.

So, thank you Hassan and Achmed for restoring my faith in the Egyptian bazaar. It's been over a month and the postcards still haven't arrived, though that may be the Jordanian postal system problem.

In the evening we had another team dinner followed by our team shisha event, because it was to be our last night in Egypt before flying to Jordan. A new destination also meant that some of our group wouldn't be continuing with us and would be replaced by new people. The Egypt leg had a great bunch of people!

Next stop Amman, Jordan...

But for those that need a recap...