No hassle, No hassle

In Luxor now. Really like it here...aside from the fact that we can barely walk a block without being hassled to take a carriage ride. Its a funny place. They put up signs in their shops and know that you dont want to be bothere, but approach you and bother you by telling you how they wont hassle you. We're getting pretty good at ignoring them though. The tactic is to either not say anything at all or say thanks or I am not interested in Arabic (which I know how to say but have no idea how to type) and they might leave you alone. The second they hear that you speak english or are from Canada they have a ton of one liners and are really good at getting you to at least stop and talk to them. Its all fun though.

As for what we've seen and done for the last few days...

We left Aswan a couple days ago by felucca. This was actually a great experience - and we didnt die from the cold. There was 12 of us on the boat - 4 Americans, 2 Aussies, 1 Irishman, 2 Koreans, one Brit and then three crew members. We got on at about 1 and layed in the sun on cushions, had some good food and were able to meet some nice people. Acutally meeting people was probably the best part. Since Tam and I have been spoiled and have tours by ourselves we have not had a chance to meet other people traveling around Egypt and hear their stories. So it was really nice to hear where others had been and where they are going. We actually hope to meet up with a couple of them in St Katherines when we climb mount Sinai in a couple days.

After spending the night on the felucca - which got cold but not unbearably cold - we had a great breakfast. Kind of like french toast but made with pita bread and served with jams. Definitely one of my favorite things we've eaten so far. We then got off, said so long to the people who would be spending another day and night on the boat and headed north to the temples Komombo and Edfu.

By midafternoon we had arrived in Luxor - a nice and clean city - definitly as a result of it being so touristy. We spent the afternoon wandering around and finding somewhere good to eat. This morning we went to see Egypt's prized tourist attractions - the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple.

Valley of the Kings - After the pyramids, this is what people come to Egypt to see (as the crowds can attest). The valley is filled with 63 tombs (the famous one being of course that of Kig Tut - the only one that has been found with anything in it). We saw three tombs, that of Tutmoses III, Ramses I and of a King and Queen who cant remember. They are all really different, but equally interesting. The most facinating part is that these tombs were all madein the time of the New Kingdom - whereas mos of the pyramids were from the old kingdom. Its seems as though these guys got laz and instead of taking the time to biold themselves a whole pyramid they were smart and found a mountain that really looks like a pyramid and put their tombs in it. That was they still had access to the sky and sun but saved themselves some time and effort.

Hatshepsut's Temple - This was something that I really liked. Ever since the museum in Cairo, Tam and I have been pretty fond of Queen Hatshepsut. This is because she was a badass and declared herself the daughter of one of the most powerful gods of the day, stole the crown from her step-son/nephew and declared herself King of Egypt. She ruled for 18 years. Heck yes. Her temple was to honor her after her death and its beautifully placed on the other side of the mountain from the valley of the kings. Unfortunately, once she died and her step-son/nephew took over he defaced her temple, but its still very commanding and impressive.

Tonight we're going to find somewhere fun to eat and have some tea that we have grown to love. Tomorrow we see the Luxor museum, Lucor temple and Karnak temple then take the sleeper train back to Cairo(note: the sleeper train - NOT the first class train we took to get here. See this earlier post for more on that.). We then take a 7 hour bus ride (ugh) to St Katherine's to climb Mt Sinai for sunrise (wooo).

Oh yeah...today after lunch we layed by the pool on the roof of our hotel and read and worked on our tans. Life is rough!

Location: Luxor (East Bank)
Current Temperature: 26 °C at 6pm...tomorrow's forecast 30°C    :)