Far out it is warm here in sunny Luxor! I have adopted a new hairstyle which I like to call the oil slick, and a new weightloss programme called "sweat it out"... life is good!
I am going to try and fill you in on what has been going on in the last few days in Egypt - it has been busy so will just provide the highlights at this stage and hopefully not to long until I can get some photos up for you. Egypt is absolutely amazing... it is full of contrast (five star hotels next to unfinished houses, mcdonalds next to 300 year old temples, amazing architecture and design from 4 or 5 thousand years ago and a current literacy rate of 25%) and really fascinating.
I arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning and was met by my transfer guy and headed off to the hotel. Due to some communication difficulties none of the contiki people were allowed to check in to their rooms so we all ended up sleeping the lobby which was a little odd! Spent the next day by the pool and in air con until we met up with the rest of the group that night. The first day I already mentioned to you about - we went to the Great Pyramids of Giza and the National Museum (king Tut had some mighty fine jewels!) and started our overnight train south to Aswan along the Nile River. The river in Cairo is full of rubbish and is horrible but gets nicer and nicer the further south you go.
Aswan is the site of the high dams put in place to control the Nile floods and is very beautiful. We visited the dams and saw the massive man made lake that they have created, as well as visited the unfinished obelisk and some of the other local sites. We stayed on a cruise boat in Aswan so we had a play in the pool in the middle of the day (too hot everywhere else) and then headed out on a felucca (sailboat) to see some of the river and old tombs etc around there. The next day we had an early start to fly (egypt air styles... ) to Abu Simbel. It was absolutely fantastic - a massive temple build by Ramses II which was shifted in the sixties to avoid it being flooded by the contruction of the dam. It is in amazing condition and words and my photos do just not do it justice.
After Abu Simbel we set sail for Edfu so had dinner on board the boat and had an Egypt party. I don't want to blow my own trumpet but Pierre and I did win the mummy making competition (think me standing still wrapped in toilet paper) and I was a close run finalist in the musical spoons dance-off... all good fun and ended up with some late night treadmill work... don't ask!
We checked out the crocodile temple on the way to Edfu and once we got there the next morning we saw the temple dedicated to Horus (the falcon god). It is all so overwhelming with the size and colours and design and hard to believe how long all of these things have been around. We sailed on from Edfu to Luxor yesterday and got to Luxor in time to view the Luxor temple before our last night on the boat. We got a show after dinner (much better than Yartsevo - no strippers) involving a man dancing the whirling dervish, which is basically twirling around for 15 minutes and amazingly walking straight when he was finished, and a belly dancer who tried to teach some of us how to move... it didn't work but we had fun trying!
This morning we have been hard out site-seeing with a visit to the Valley of the Kings (again with the amazement and surrealness of the whole thing) , the Valley of the Queens and the Karnak temple. Tonight is the night of the camel ride and then tomorrow we fly back to Cairo for some more pyramid action, bazaar shopping and swimming pool time I suspect.
I hope you are all well. Having a great time, even if the heat is getting a little crazy!
