Saturday, May 5, 2007

Day 6






Well, what a surprise…another very early start to our day. Those choosing to do the hot air balloon had to get up at the crack of dawn, if I remember correctly it was about 4 am. I did not do this tour because of my fear of heights, so I got to sleep in a little bit. Those who did it liked it a lot. I had breakfast and really enjoyed it as it was our last on the cruise. We headed out to the Valley of the Kings bright and early. We picked up the rest of the tour who did do the balloon ride and then took a tram up to Queen Hatshepsut’s temple. We climbed the steps and took a few photos, but we were all waiting for the main event….King Tut’s tomb.

It was so hot that day and in the middle of the desert there is no shade to hide under for refuge. We walked to a few tombs, I can’t remember which ones, and got to go inside. It was amazing to see how the Egyptians built these tombs and how well some of them are preserved. There was one where you had to climb up a lot of steps and then back down in order to even reach the entrance of the tomb. I did all the climbing but as soon as I entered, I had flashbacks of what happened at the pyramids, so I turned around and never entered. I wish I had because everyone who went in said it wasn’t half as bad as the pyramids. A few people never went into any of them, which is such a shame... If you can, at least try to go into one of them. A couple of people had upset stomachs and could not bear the heat inside the tombs and one girl was too hung-over from the night before. By the way, if you have a small hand-held fan….bring it!!!! As you can imagine, there is no photo taking in any of the tombs. They are very serious about this. A few people tried to sneak pics, and nearly got their cameras taken away from them. One guard wanted to open up a guy’s camera to take out the film and when he realized it was a digital camera, he wanted to break it on the ground. King Tut’s tomb was extra…..of course, but in my opinion it was a small price to pay. He is the only one out of all the tombs that still lays inside his coffin. There are long lines for this and those who choose not to do it must wait for all the others to come out before moving on to the next “free” tomb.

After this we went to lunch in Luxor. It was a great meal once again for very little money. After lunch, we checked into our hotel….Le Meridian. It was very nice, much nicer than the Oasis. The rooms were very comfortable with large bathrooms and a nice balcony. Most of us sat out by the beautiful pool, a few napped and a few others went to find the internet café.

Later that evening we went to see the temple of Karnak. I am sorry to say that I don’t have much info on this temple, as I only stayed for about 10 minutes of it. I had seen so many temples already that they were starting to run into one another, plus it was so hot and crowded that myself and a couple of others decided to leave and use the internet, get something to drink and then wait in the bus. I don’t feel like I missed all that much, but I’m sure I did. Each temple was unique in their own way and this was supposed to be one of the best, but I just couldn’t take it anymore.

After Karnak we did the camel ride through the Nubian Village. It was just o.k. I believe everyone on our tour did it, and I am glad I did, but it is not something I would do again. It is pretty self explanatory, they took you on a camel ride for about 30 minutes. The guides barely spoke English and once in a while pointed out things like sugar cane. The most interesting was riding through where people actually live. You got to see inside a few peoples homes and that was pretty neat for me. After we went to some guys house where they had tea and cookies for us, but after the camel ride we all felt so dirty and smelly no one was in the mood to eat. He gave us a quick tour of his house, and unless you are at the front of the pack, you can barely hear what he is saying. BTW, it is a good idea to wear long pants and bug spray. The camels, as you can imagine, stink and there are bugs all around them.

We took a water taxi back to our hotel and had dinner at the Italian restaurant…the food was just o.k. If you can get a group of people to go outside the hotel for dinner, I am sure there are better places to eat. Maybe even a different restaurant inside the hotel (there are many). Everyone from my group ate here, so I did too. I would normally not go somewhere, just because everyone else is, but I didn’t know where else to go, and being a single girl, didn’t feel comfortable anyways. There was a little belly dancing show in the courtyard of the hotel and a few of us sat watching that for a little while. Well, the end is nearing and I am sad but excited to start the next day……

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