deLux update

17:27 28 August, On a bus leaving Luxor

After departing from the felucca, we boarded a minibus and headed for the temple of Komo Ombo. Komo Ombo sits at a bend in the Nile, which in ancient times was a popular spot for crocodiles to sun themselves. This naturally became a good site for the construction of a temple to Sobek, the crocodile god of Pharonic might. The temple was impressive, and the chance to walk around after having spent so much time on the felucca was welcome, but we only spent 30 minutes there before reboarding the minibus enrutie to the Temple of Horus at Edfu. Edfu blew Komo Ombo away The temple complex was huge, and because the entire temple had been buried in 20 meters of sand over the centuries, it was almost perfectly preserved. Where Komo Ombo had tall walls covered in reliefs, Edfu's walls went higher, and still supported a dizzingly high stone ceiling. The presence of an original roof made the indoor experience much more authentic, and visitors are able to see small holes cut into the ceiling in order to illuminate the interior.

A Horus falcon at Edfu Temple

Right before we were scheduled to return to the minibus, Devin and I came across a mysterious staircase leading down under the temple wall. Such a thing is of course impossible to leave unexplored, and so the two of us headed down into the relative darkness. Leveling out, we could see a dim green light in the distance and, having watched enough Indiana Jones movies to know what could be expected, I let Devin take the lead into the tunnel. My caution was rewarded when Devin stepped, not into a trap door, but rather a large pool of water. The tunnel had been flooded, and the light submerged underwater. I examined the passageway with my flashlight, and determined it to be impassable, and so with heavy hearts, the two of us made our way to the surface, Devin squishing with every step.

After a rather long, and donkey-cart impeded drive, we made it to Luxor in the early afternoon. The driver left us off in a rather questionable drop spot, and it took some time to find our hotel, but soon enough we were checking into the New Everest Hotel, and unpacking our things. Devin and Alissa were sharing a two bed room, while I had booked a single, which allowed me to spread out my things in an effort to repack. Luxor is divided into an east and west bank. The larger temples, museums, and the majority of the commercial development are on the East Bank, while the West Bank is home to the famous Valley of the Kings, as well as many other tombs and a smattering of temples.

A ridge on the West Bank that separates the Valley of the Kings from the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Our first stop was to be the Africa Restaurant, recommended to us by my friend and frequent visitor to Luxor: Katy Kobzeff. The owner, Mr. Ali, is a friend of Katy's, and she suggested that anything we needed to book while in Luxor could be set up by the Luxor native. Mr. Ali was not in when we first arrived at Africa, but we sat down to the most delicious meal I've yet had in my travels. Fresh vegetables, fried eggplant, sesame seed spread, pot-cooked chicken, slow-simmered beef, potatoes, and cooked vegetables, all perfectly seasoned and served in ample portions. By the time we finished our meal, Mr. Ali had returned to the restaurant, and we chatted and planned out our time in Luxor over fresh-squeezed lemon juice. I left the restaurant with the sense of relaxed contentment that can only come from a great meal and a firm plan.

We made our way back to the east bank to meet up with a women from New York who Alissa had befriended during our minibus ride around Upper Egypt. Our destination was a bar recommended by our guide book for having the cheapest bottles of Stella in town. We made a quick detour to an English-language bookstore for postcards and souvenirs, and then headed over the bar. On our way, we intercepted a group of Irish travelers that I had met on Buffalo Island, and so the eight of us - Devin, Alissa, the New Yorker, the four Irish kids, and myself - sat ourselves down for a cold glass of Stella. Except, it turned out that because it was Ramadan, there was no Stella. Disappointed, but determined to share in each others company, we all ordered sodas and fruit juice, and sat chatting for a good long while.

After finishing our drinks, we left the bar determined to find an establishment that served alcohol during the holy month. Our journey took us almost half an hour, and halfway out of town, but we found an eerily authentic English Pub serving an array of beer and spirits. I ordered a beer and a club sandwich, while Devin and Alissa opted to sample the local spirits - mediocre Ouzo and criminally bad Egyptian Brandy. We hailed a cab for the return trip, and everyone settled into bed foreseeing a big day ahead.

King Akenaten's head on King Henry VIII's body.

The next day, I woke up early, and hurried the others along to meet up with Mr. Ali on the west bank. We had planned to meet up at 7:00, but were almost half an hour late, a tardiness that was politely brushed off my the incredibly friendly Ali. Our first stop was the Valley of the Kings, that oft mentioned burial place of some of the most famous New Kingdom Pharaohs. A ticket allowed for entry to three tombs, and I'd like to think that we picked three winners. Skipping the most famous tomb of the boy king Tutankhamen - everything of interest was carted off to Cairo decades ago - we instead stopped at the tombs of Ramsis IX, as well as Thumosis III and VI. The Valley of the Kings was very tourist heavy, and somewhat vigilant "guards" - a misleading term that conjures up uniformed officials rather than apathetic locals lounging around, plying Westerners for baksheesh - made it difficult to engage in the popular practice of circumventing the "no pictures" policy.

The burial chamber of Ramsis IX.

Leaving the Valley of the Kings, we met up with Ali and were soon whisked away to the Temple of Hashepsut. Perhaps the most recognizable structure in Luxor, the Temple of Hashepsut was nevertheless a rather simple, if imposing, building. We lingered at the temple long enough to get a few pictures and get yelled at by a guard when, while exiting, we hopped over a small fence separating the bus park from the site.

At the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Our final stop for the day was the Tombs of the Nobles. The Tombs of the Nobles are some of the lesser visited sites on the west bank, despite being some of the most spectacular. None of the tour groups stop here, and the infrastructure is rather underdeveloped, but the tombs are stunning. Where the pharaohs were buried in limestone tombs, the mudbrick wallls of the Tombs of the Nobles have done a much better job of retaining the color of their original decoration. Ducking into the tomb of Senoffer, I thought a sheet had been used to cover the ceiling, before realizing that it was a perfectly preserved painted pattern of purple grapes. The tomb of Mena was, for me, an especially important stop as it was Katy's home away from home for many months spent painstakingly photographing every inch of the wall surface. Having seen these photographs on Katy's computer in Boston, it was a real joy to seem them in real life.

Welcome to the Tombs of the Nobles... it doesn't look like much, but there are wonders to behold under that sand.

Leopard print seems less tacky when you're wearing an actual leopard.

The grapes painted onto the ceiling were perfectly preserved.

I'm going to take a brake and see if I can get some sleep on the bus, I should have plenty of time to continue this update, as we'll be cruising for quite some time.

11:40 29 August, Still on the bus, going through Sinai

Jumping right back to where I left off...

Walking around the desert during the midday heat was enough to take it out of the three of us, and we were happy to hop into Ali's air conditioned car for the drive back to the Africa Restaurant. There he ordered us all a round of lemon juices, and chatted with us about what we had seen. As it was already midafternoon, and those of us who had eaten anything had not had much, we decided to take advantage of our location by ordering lunch at the Africa Restaurant. Once again, it was quite tasty, and after arranging to meet up with Ali the next morning for some more West Bank adventures, we boarded the ferry for the East Bank. Following the local example, we spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around, thinking cold thoughts. It wasn't until the sun was starting to set that we were back in action on the streets of Luxor. Our destination was the Temple of Luxor, which was both close to our hotel, and was open later than most similar temples.

This was the first temple I had been to at night, and they did a spectacular job of lighting it up. Because we were there so late, I hardly came across another visitor, improving the mystique of the experience. The temple was quite large, but my lasting memories of the place will undoubtedly come from its skillful illumination.

The avenue of the Sphinxes leading to Luxor Temple.

Ramsis II.

Luxor Temple was the last thing of note we did that day, though we did stop at McDonald's long enough to take advantage of their free WiFi and soft serve ice cream. The next morning, we found ourselves once again meeting up with Ali on the West Bank at 7:00 in the morning. This time, our first top was the Worker's Village, an archaeological site on an impressive scale. During their construction of the temples and tombs in the area, the laborers were provided with accommodations now in evidence in the form of the foundations of a congested village. There were also some small, but perfectly preserved tombs in the area, as well as a small temple. We had the site to ourselves, with the exception of the overanxious Egyptian supervisors, always happy to provide information, and occasionally bend the rules of the sites, in exchange for baksheesh.

After the Worker's Village, we were off to the Temple of... okay, I honestly can't remember. If you're getting a little overwhelmed with the names and descriptions of the temples and tombs, then you're probably feeling a little bit of the Pharonic fatigue that we were experiencing. I have never had such fantastic sites so readily available, and my attempts to connect with ancient Egypt in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts pale in comparison. Yet it seems that even these masterworks of cultural achievement are not immune to what economists would call: diminishing marginal utility. Whether you're eating potato chips, or visiting ancient tombs, the first one is incredibly satisfying, as are a certain number afterwards, but eventually you find yourself getting less and less enjoyment from each successive chip or temple. That is, unless you seriously kick it up a notch, and where FritoLays came up with flavored potato chips, the ancient Egyptians offer Karnak Temple.

Karnak Temple, which we visited early in the morning of our final day in Luxor, was spectacular. Built on a titanic scale, and added to over the centuries, Karnak Temple is the largest religious building in the history of the world, a distinction it has held for over two mellenia. Its great hall alone is large enough to fit The Vatican's St. Peter's and London's St. Paul's Cathedrals. The entire complex currently sits on over 100 acres of excavated land, though archaeologists have recently found evidence that Karnak Temple was linked to Luxor Temple, three kilometers to the south, by a paved road lined for its entire length with statues of sphinxes. There is really nothing that I can write, nor any picture I can take, to convey the overwhelming size of the site, and despite hearing such rhetoric for months before visiting, I was none the less awestruck. Like the Grand Canyon, Karnak Temple is one of the few sites in the world that does not disappoint.

Ramsis II, again.

The Great Hypostyle Hall in Karnak, the largest in the world, has 134 of these massive collumns.

At a certain time of the day, this single beam of light shines down and makes a perfect dot on the ground... remind you of any major motion pictures starring Harrison Ford?

Feeling adventurous.

Stairs leading up to the ruins of a shrine.

Unfortunately, we only had half a day to spend there, and in what can be read as yet another accolade to its size, the last two hours of my stay was spent looking for Alissa with Devin (a search which, in the end, was fruitless; we rejoined each other at the hotel). Devin and I were splitting up from Alissa in order to catch a bus to Dahab, on the Sinai Peninsula. Some of you geography buffs are propbably musing to yourselves: "Luxor to Sinai... isn't that a long way for a bus to go?". The answer is: yes, it's a wicked long way for a bus to go. As I write this, I'm passed hour 18 1/2. On the same bus. That does take into account one short stop for gas/Ramadan, but otherwise it's been a straight hall on a crowed Egyptian bus through the desert. I'm hoping that we make it to Dahab in the next half hour, rounding out the trip at an even 19 hours, but we'll just have to wait and see...

16:22 29 August, The Red Sea Resort

The bus ride did in fact take just over 19 hours, making it the longest haul I've ever undertaken. Even the plane from New Zealand to LAX should take less time. By the end of the ride, it was only Devin and I heading to Dahab, and when we finally arrived at the bus terminal we were mobbed by touts and cabbies. They outnumbered us a good 4 to 1, and we allowed one of them to direct us to his cab/pick-up truck for the short ride into town. Locating our accomodations proved trickier than we had expected, and we had to grab lunch at an overpriced seaside cafe advertising free WiFi before we worked everything out. While Devin and I will be sharing a room with four other people, dorm style, I feel safe saying that this is one of the nicest, if not the nicest place I've stayed so far. The dorm rooms are attached to a rather posh seaside resort with a swimming pool, bar, and lounge area all in the middle of the best part of town. Everything is so clean and nice that I'm having trouble believing I'm still in Egypt. Tomorrow, Devin and I are going to see about organizing an introductory SCUBA lesson, as the Red Sea has some of the best diving in the world. The rest of today is dedicated to recovering from the 19 hour bus ride, and the free billiards $2 beers and $3 cocktails should help.