Luxor is fabulous minus one feature, the hasslers. We took a train overnight from Cairo to Luxor, and we ended up in Luxor at around 5:30 am. As soon as we got off the train, bleary-eyed and sleep deprived, it began. A man was in my face trying to tell me about the hotel he had for only 40 pounds. I tried politely explaining to him that I already had a hotel. Even though he was speaking to me in English, I used Arabic to get my point across. If Egyptians win anything, it is the persistent award. He followed me through the train station, repeatedly asking me and trying to direct me. Finally, in my frustration, I yelled at him. I was half asleep and don't really remember it that well, but apparently it was in a strange mix of English and Arabic and the most hilarious event of the day.
The guy who runs the hostel we are staying in picked us up at the train station, and brought us back to drop off our stuff. He is really nice and helpful, not to mention his hostel is ridiculously cheap. We then rented bikes from our hostel and headed to Karnak Temple. I still cannot fathom how people buitl these things. It was so spectacular. You will have to wait for pictures until I get back, but you should be prepared to be amazed. The only downside is it was overrun with scantily clad Europeans.
After we were completely exhausted from wondering the vast temple, we decided to head down the Nile to find some lunch. 4 boys, the oldest of which couldn't have been over 11 surrounded our bikes and tried to hop on, pull us back and push us off. Normally this would not be intimidating, seeing as even I was significantly bigger than the biggest one, but we were all on these really crappy bikes. Mine didn't even have functioning breaks, so I repeatedly ran into the boy cutting me off.
We then got rid of them and stopped at the mumification museum. It had some really cool artifacts, but the one room size was not really worth my five dollars. We finally got some lunch and headed back to our hotel, on our way back Kelsey fell off her bike in the middle of the road, a taxi pulled up next to me and asked if I needed a cab (keep in mind, I'm riding a bike), and then a small child ran out in front of my bike that had no brakes. Have no fear, no one died in the making of this blog, and only Kelsey came home with a scratch. We took a quick nap and headed back to the Nile.
We took a falouka ride to a small island, called Banana Island. It was Egyptian agriculture at its best. Our guide took us all around this remote village that I'm sure few tourists ever get to see. All the children said hello and then asked for money. Then we got back on our boat and sailed around until sunset. We finished up our night by visiting the Luxor temple, another spectacular excavated sight. It was cool to see it at night with all the lights on.
After such a long day, I need some serious sleep. I hope your days are turning out to be entertaining as well. Miss you all. Happy Friday!
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4 comments:
Our days entertaining? Definately not compared to yours! It sounds like you had a great time, and the "distractions"....well it just adds to the experience I suppose. I am looking forward to some more pictures.
You wanted to experience their culture. I guess you have. I think I will stick to my boring days.
So, I read the part about the cabi asking you if you needed a ride, even though you were on a bike and this was Shreya's response:
"clearly she was not riding it well" hahha
But that is SO Egyptian and hilarious. Glad you made it to Luxor, that is one thing I wanted to do but could not.
It sounds great and I can't wait to see the pictures!
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