Luxor, Valley of Kings, Karnak
Luxor yeah…. Here I’m with huge yawn and wrinkled face from red eye overnight bus journey from Cairo bit cranky and hungry as it is early morning after the night trip through dessert, watching the stars through the window as well as sunrise over the horizon of barren land of dessert. Got off the bus, luggage on the shoulder and annoying taxi drivers everywhere like flies, trying to get business from everyone who is getting off. Walking down the street to the train station to get ticket so I will not be stuck on return. Ticket in the pocket and noting in the belly so in search of edible things, I went crisscrossing the street to see if anything is open at this early hour, which was not. Some guy came across the street to me and asked if I looking for breakfast and that he will make me one, so I want across the street to hotel of his. Breakfast of day old bred, two eggs, two jams and two triangles of happy cow chees “only happy cow cheese in every hotel / hostel in Egypt so the Cow must be really happy” and coffee was God send as I was famished. I was in better mood and ready to find my hotel as I logged to his wi-fi to check et email as I have not saved the name of hotel I booked. He came and asked for 50 pounds which I said straight away that 25 is all I will pay and gave him 100 pound bill, when he returned with change he asked again like with some retard “you want 50 back” and I said no I want 75 back and without a word he gave me a 75 back but tried to sell me one of his rooms which comparing now with Happy Land Hotel where I’m staying now was a class or two lower. Anyway I knew that I will not stay there so I did not care and with full belly and warm coffee I was on the way to happy land 😊 what a name of hotel… genius as the name sometimes attract people.
Hotel is located in narrow streets where just one car fits and maybe skinny pedestrian, as anyone with bit of belly could get skinned by side mirror of passing car “thank God and BJJ that I’m skinny” . Upon arrival I had chat with bloke who was at reception waiting for something so we introduced ourselves and then Mike told me that he is going to tour of valley of Kings with few others. Since my room was not ready, I was asking the receptionist if I can join the tour and when it was approved I did join the new group, which is nice way to meet people btw. It was a little minivan as usual and nine of us went on the trip to see the kings camping grounds. Mike, me Bruno, Kasia and rest I do not know names but couple from Germany, local couple and one more bloke hit the road with guide. First was the temple of Hatshepsut which is quite good and they did lot of restoration works so it looks nice, spreading over the three floors it is a nice and big with dramatic background of tall mountain behind. Obviously the entrance / exit is through the touristic shops with all sorts of trinkets and overpriced water thank God for good guide who told us to buy food and water for local price at the town before entering the rip-off zone of touristic wallet sucking shops. So ticket bought for 160 pounds and here we go, exploring the temple like hungry Japanese tourist with cameras in hand ready to shoot Clint Eastwood style, just instead of shooting the bad and ugly we shoot the old and nice on the walls of temple.
Thank God that we had small touristic train organized from the gate to temple otherwise our legs might fall off or we could die from exhaustion on those on hundred meters walk to the temple. Well got instructions from our guide who was not a guide in complete meaning of the words since he was just sitting in the car, telling few well know facts some jokes and some good advices and buying tickets he never vent with us to any of the temples to give us good explanation of what we see as the guide should do. We have got an deadline what time in the minibus which of course I missed since I have no watch and like to see things on my time not rushing like mad, which was made with few frowns and funny comment from guide that I will buy the drinks for all. All in the van and we moved on to Valley of kings which is for 200 pounds with three tombs of our choice to visit included in price. No photography allowed unless you buy permit for 300 pounds so I did not bothered. Well it was nice to see the plastic 3D map of the valley with all the tombs and the tunnels underneath how they are done in the entrance hall.
Again tourist train to get us to the tombs what is a bit further than the Hatshepsut but still walkable but God save tourist shoes and legs, when they do so much walking from the room to breakfast and then to car / van / bus mostly. We were advised which tombs to visit and so we did as to choose what is worth, is hard and also clock was ticking so run for your life dear tour attendees. The Tutankhamun tomb is empty as all was taken to museums and the cost for the tomb itself is 1000 pounds so we stuck with the Ramses II, Amenothep and hmmmmmm can’t remember the last one… Over all they were nicely decorated and definitely worth while to visit as it is something amazing to see what they achieved. I would say that this was even better than pyramids. The one thing is to say that from the start the all hieroglyphs are chiseled into the wall and later only painted as time had run out for builders as the tomb was apparently took somewhere from 10 to 20 years to complete so if someone kick the bucket sooner, well he got half job done on tomb but it is still very impressive. The details are amazing as well as the fact that the paint is still the same four thousand years after it was applied…. Not sure how much will remain from our new “great modern life and technologies” in four thousand years on. The sarcophagi itself is something to marvel upon as it is details stone masonry work what took probably years to complete. After the three visits I just walked to the top of the valley to see how big it is and I have quite pace like mountain goat but still just about made it back in time for departure this time. Well it needs more time and money to see it all but as the guide said more less if you saw three tombs you see it all, as if you are not professional Egyptologer you will not know the difference.
So another one done and one more to go. On the way to last temple we moved to alabaster factory of guide nephew “as all are family here” to see the traditional way of making the alabaster products and obviously to purchase something as main goal of this tourist trap is clear but we had not fallen for it. Afterwards we moved to Temple of Amun Djeser -set for 80 pounds and we suppose to have here lunch for 80 pounds and some boat trip down towards Luxor apparently but this was cancelled, apparently because we did not wanted it. Not sure who was everyone as I only expressed my wish that I will not attend such overpriced lunch to Mike and maybe someone overheard me but if everyone has the same idea, than it did not really matter. The last temple was nice with nicely decorated pillars and walls including the so called paradise garden which unfortunately we had not received any info about it, since our tour guide did not enter any of them so as guide hmm from 1 to 10 I would give him 4 maybe. Back in town they dropped us near hotel and me Bruno and Kasia decided to do Karnak temple as well since it is near and sunset far. We started to walk there when not even in first 10 min of walk the horse carriage came and start heckling to get business as he is cheap only 40 pounds and since me and Kasia did not take bait he concentrated on Bruno. The usual where you from is question determining price as when Bruno said that he is from States, guy did not leave him / us. Eventually he worn Bruno down and he agreed to take it and he said that he will pay 20 himself which was nice gesture from him, so we went. The only thing is that when we said that we are really hungry he drove us to the nice Koshari place to get take away, which was tasty but then took a detour way around the half the city instead to go directly, so don’t believe anyone who say that all is long walk and far to walk so you need to take carriage or taxi.
Best thing is to check the directions on maps.me or in case you have data on google maps. Well the Karnak temple is very big and the pillars at the side entrance through which is entrance for tourist as the original entrance is gone mostly or in restoration are really tall and apparently it is the biggest Hypostyle Hall in the world with 134 columns. Another nice and definitely worth place is the secret lake, where priest purified themselves in water from Nile before the offerings / ceremonies. Again if you are spiritual person you could feel the place energy as for myself I was glued to one spot near the lake with view on obelisk and owl statue, where I had to took off my flip flops and was grounded to the ground as obelisk itself. It was so nice energy and calmness at least for me. Kasia went on her own exploration and Bruno did not resist another sales guy and bought the tour guide for the temple. At least someone is supporting the local guides and keep them off my back 😊 Before we made it to the secret lake we had a really nice discussion with Kasia, what I enjoyed a lot.
Temple explored and sunset here, together with closing time we slowly made it to the gate where we suppose to meet Bruno. I wanted to name my son Bruno actually …. Hmm but I think that Sebastian is bester name so thank God that his Mom choose it. Anyway we were already out with Kasia as we agreed and we said that we will wait 15 minutes and then go in case if Bruno will not arrive. Busloads of local people came to temple for light and sound show what is the evening program. Well we walked back to hotels and after Kasia was safely in hotel we continue to town as Bruno was searching for power bank and I was looking for local SIM on local Vodafone network. All done we had sat down at local corner eating the grilled liver and grilled chicken in the bread and talked about life. Since Bruno and Kasia booked he balloon flight early morning we went to hotel and took early bed as after the balloon me and Kasia booked trip to Abydos and Dendera since Bruno did not want to join us.
