From Cairo to the Red Sea: 3 weeks in Egypt (Part Two) - Andy Webb (2005)
Saturday 19th February - Luxor and Karnak
The early hours of the morning yielded weird dreams where I thought I was on an airline with various unsavoury things happening to the aircraft. Luckily my alarm clock awoke me at an equally unsavoury time to inform me that our waiter would be bringing breakfast in a couple of minutes. Breakfast which consisted of a couple of cheese rolls and yoghurt was eaten at a rapid pace as we seemed to be arriving in Luxor.
I'd been warned Luxor Station was a bit of a nightmare for hotel touts who jump on you as soon as you arrive, so with that in mind we made straight for the exits and headed out in the town of Luxor at first light. Luxor wasn't a large place so we had planned to walk to our chosen hostel, the streets were virtually deserted as we walked down towards the centre of town. Unfortunately when we arrived there was nobody answering and the place seemed very shut so we continued on to our second choice, the not so new looking New Windsor Hotel. Having got shown to our room we decided to grab about 2 hours sleep before heading out to explore Luxor in daylight.
Luxor was already getting hot when we ventured out, swarms of Caleche (horse drawn rickshaws) and taxi driver's descended towards us as we headed down to the Corniche trying to tempt us to use their services, once past them a barrage of souvenir touts began thrusting alabaster bowls and graphite pyramids in our face, so more La Shokran and we were free.
Luxor Temple was was built by Amenhopis III and finished by Ramesses II, some 4000 years ago. The temple was dedicated to Amun, the king of the gods. At one point it's avenue of Sphynx's apparently stretched some 2km to Karnak Temple, nowadays they stretch a mere 50m. We spent just over an hour looking around and myself having a rather unsuccessful go at wall restoration, I wonder how much those guys get paid.
After the temple we headed to the bazaar which starts as a tourist market and then blends into a local market selling everything from meat, veg, clothing and livestock. A cocophony of sound, smells and colour squeezed into a narrow back street. Suddenly an uninterrupted stream of about 30 caleches forced there way through the streets ferrying camcorder-wielding tourists obviously keen to get a look at the market but at arms length. Quite how the marketeers put up with this I don't know as mini pedestrian jams built up while they went past. Not to feel left out I did a return sweep of the market with my DVCam to get a more raw pedestrian's eye of the market.
After our wander we took some lunch in a nearby restaurant called Amoun which was pleasant enough, although I felt sorry for the proprietor of the restaurant next door who seemed to be losing all his prospective customers to the one we had just entered, hopefully a good sign. The food was very reasonably priced and suprisingly tasty, myself enjoying a plate of falafel, meatballs and rice. It was at this point that we were eyed up by the mankiest cat I had ever seen, obviously keen on our food should we decide to give some of it up.
After lunch we walked along the Corniche until we found the tourist office selling bus and ferry tickets to the Red Sea. Task fulfilled we then continued along the Corniche until it annoyingly diverted off the nile front and along a polluted main road. After all the walking of the morning we both fancied a cold beer and I was told, Luxor had a scarcity of drinking holes which is probably how we ended up in the surreal Kings' Head. I am always intrigued by 'English' Pubs abroad and how they always seem to try too hard to be English making them a predominantly surreal experience. In this case, the 'King' was a pharoah and there was not one English person in sight. The decor was vaguely British with wooden panelled walls, tables and chairs and a traditional type bar, despite all this they served a good cold pint of Sakkora. As luck would have it they also had a pool table and we were soon challenged by the bar staff to a game or two. I can't remember who won but to our bargain we managed to organize a taxi to Karnak and a half day hire of a taxi for tomorrow's trip around the West Bank.
Our trip to Karnak didn't take long and had the added bonus of being in a rickety taxi at a mere cost of 50p! Karnak is one of the largest temple complexes in Egypt and the Great Hypostytle hall was made famous by a certain James Bond film. Originally a city of temples, Karnak was built over 4000 years ago and dedicated to the Theben triad of Amon, Mut and Khonsu. Although a lot of the temple complex is now in ruins, you still get an awe inspiring sense of scale. The only drawback with Karnak though is the large hordes of tourists that congregate at anything vaguely important, while we visited it seemed quite likely that half the population of France's schools were present (oh and filthy dog munching on a baguette!).
We elected to walk back from Karnak into Luxor something that would probably be inadvisable in the heat of the day but quite pleasant early evening along the banks of the Nile. After a brief respite in our hotel we walked the length of the town for dinner in a pleasant alcohol-free restaurant called Jem where we paid about £3 for a selection of delicious Mezze dishes. On our way back into town we were accosted by a young Egyptian guy. 'Hello how are you my friend, I have a letter that I'd like translated', having read about possible scams regarding letters that were only ploys to lure you into their shops I decided the best course of action was another dose of 'La Shokran!' After trying a pint in the Kings Head where both of us just sat there to tired for conversation we decided the best course of action was to head back to the hotel for some much needed kip. On our arrival at our room we were greeted by an assortment of towel snakes balancing oranges (courtesy of Egyptian Railways) on their heads!
Sunday 20th February - The Valley of Kings
We were greeted in the morning by our trip organizer who had met us with the driver in a minibus which we were to have all to ourselves. It wasn't long before we realised they had conned us slightly by giving us a price per person when I had asked for the total price for both of us, as it worked out. Netherless, not wanting this to get us down, we sat back as our driver whizzed us away from Luxor and through green nile side plantations. In order to get to the West Bank you have to drive 7 miles out of Luxor to the bridge, the other alternative is to get a ferry from Luxor and then hire a taxi on the other side.
Our first stop was the Valley of Kings the final resting place of some rather famous Egyptian kings including Tutankhamun and Rameses III. On arrival you buy a ticket allowing you access to three tombs, although perhaps due to his stature, Tutankhamun had his own price and ticket. The trick here is to get here early as even by 11am the queues were forming outside the most popular tombs. It is a strange experience entering these tombs, the detail of the artwork on the walls is staggering how old the tombs are and you almost get an idea of what it must have been like for the people who first discovered these tombs.
Nowadays of course, the contents of all the tombs, reside elsewhere or were plundered by grave robbers centuries ago. Indeed, Tutankhamun's tomb, is perhaps one of the least impressive tombs, most of what was found in here, fills an entire room at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo! Despite old warnings that the tomb curses anyone who enters, I'm still here, 6 months later writing this!
All tombed out, we headed back to our ride and headed to the Temple of
Hapshepsut. Queen Hatshepsut was an 18th-dynasty pharaoh who was one of the handful of female rulers in Ancient Egypt. Her reign was the longest of all the female pharaohs, and her funerary temple still stands as a tribute to her incredible rise to power. It is an impressive sight cut out of the mountains with wide steps leading up to the temple. At one time a tree lined avenue of sphinxes ran right down to the Nile, today only a few remain but give an indication of the scale.
Back in the taxi minubus, we passed though a few basic west bank villages before stopping at Medinet Habu, a place recommended to me. Medinet Habu was both a temple and a complex of temples dating from the New Kingdom. The area was one of the earliest places within the Theban region to be associated with the worship of Amun. Hatshepsut and Tutmosis III built a small temple to Amun on the site of an earlier structure. Next to their temple, Ramesses III built his mortuary temple, Medinet Habu's most conspicuous standing monument.
Ramesses III then enclosed both structures within a massive mud-brick enclosure that included storehouses, workshops, administrative offices, and residences of priests and officials.
Medinet Habu took me by surprise, in many ways, I found it even more impressive than the Pyramids and the other temples. The high walls of heiroglyphics are about the best preserved I have seen and the place still gives a sense of awe without being dissolved by coach loads of noisy tourists.
We returned to Luxor hungry after a half day of tomb wandering so rewarded ourselves with another feed before heading back to the hotel to get our bags ready for our bus journey to Hurghada. A bit early than we planned we took to having a bit a sit by the river and got harassed by numerous tat salesmen who don't seem to understand the word 'no' or even 'La Shokran'! Our bus turned up eventually and as it turned out we seemed to have been allocated the crappest seats on the bus with about as much leg room for a stick insect, some 6 hour bus journey this would be.
We perservered for about an hour, but on realising most of the seats were empty we moved to the back for more comfort and also a bottle of Finlandia Vodka accompanied by some playing cards. The bus began to fill up fast, and when two burly men got on it looked like we might have to move but bizarrely they took the seats at the front, obviously fans of contortion. It had been written that this bus route normally travelled in a convoy with other buses and police for fear of terrorist attacks but tonight there seemed to be little evidence of a convoy, police or terrorists.
We stopped in the middle of nowhere for refreshements and a toilet break, I had a smoke with some friendly Hungarians who were duped by the driver into believing they had to change buses, I had to explain that the driver was joking and they should stay put. We arrived in Hurghada just after midnight to be immediately be greeted by a chorus of 'this way please my friend', 'i will take you to a hotel room where you can wait before your ferry', 'hello english you need a ride'. In the end we went with the guy who hadn't said a word, a youngish guy with an old battered estate car, definitely not an official cab! We announced we wanted to go to Sigala Port and after bartering with him agreed a price. However, I began to have my doubt we were going to the right place as we seemed to be going in the opposite direction. When I challenged him he claimed we had said 'Seagull Resort', I replied and said that we wanted the Port and not something that sounded like a Brighton FC fans holiday club.
In the end we were dropped at the correct place where we ended up paying his first price, so much for bartering! We immediately headed for a basic cafe and ordered a shish and some mud like coffee to keep us awake in anticipation for our 5am ferry.
