Friday, October21, 2022

This morning we are up at 6AM to pack up and check out by 7. Next to grab some breakfast and await our guide who loads us into River Taxis and shuttles us across the river to a waiting bus that takes us to the Valley of the Kings, a place in Egypt where dozens of Kings and Pharaohs are enshrined in their tombs. A place we flew over in the balloons yesterday! I have to note that the River Taxis have names on them, some not necessarily what I would name a boat!

First we visit the Temple of Hatshepsut) pronounced Hat-ship-suit) another fantastic temple in the Valley! Mo informs us of the history here and it is very entertaining! We walk around on our own for a short while before getting back on the bus to the Valley of the Kings.

Every tomb but one in Egypt was raided by robbers and damaged or destroyed. The only Mummy ever found intact was that of King Tutankhamun. His Mummy is still here (although I kind of remember hearing that his Mummy went on tour around the world at one time). There is a model here that shows the terrain underground with depictions of how the Tombs are dug into the Valley.

We are given passes that allow us to visit 3 tombs of our choosing for free. Several Tombs, including King Tut’s, cost more. Elee opted to purchase a pass to Tut’s Tomb but I did not. I choose to see the tombs of Ramesses 5,6 & 9 along with Merenptah. Total of 3 Tombs as Ramesses 5 & 6 are in one Tomb.

Back on the bus, we next stop at an Alabaster factory where they show us in a comical way how they turn raw ugly stones of Alabaster into gorgeous display pieces! We end up purchasing a couple pieces.

Then it’s back to the bus for a ride back to the hotel where Mo has arranged 3 shower rooms for the Groups and I gladly take him up on it as the Valley is hot and the exertion has us sweating and tonight there will be no showers!

Now we have a few hours to kick back before the ride to our next accommodation, so I catch up a little on this Blog.

At 7:30 PM, we catch a bus to the local train station and we board the overnight sleeper train back to Giza. This is our second time on the Sleeper Train and we are hoping for a better experience that the first time. Not so, the same cramped quarters and this time the Club Car is 5 cars away A long walk through moving train cars so one trip there and it’s back to our room to go to sleep. Add to that Egyptian train tracks are not leveled like American tracks!

Dinner is served and it’s no better than last time so we are glad we kept our tummies full from earlier! Climbing into bed, it is easy to fall asleep tonight, even being tossed and jostled by the train! A glass of wine and it’s off to Dreamland!

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Today sees us rise and shine at 3 AM! Well, as much shining as can be done at that hour! We meet our mornings guide (not Mo) in reception at 3:30AM. He takes us for a short bus ride to a River Taxi where we cross the Nile. From there we board another bus and drive for a half hour to a large open field. As we approach the field, we can see they are setting up for us. Dozens of setups that is! We step out of the bus and into the field after promising we have no cameras except cell phones. Little do they know (or perhaps they do) that our cameras are out of site in backpacks!

What is in the field you want to know? Well it’s simple if you haven’t already guessed! Hot Air Balloons! Waiting to be filled and take us over the Luxor Valley and the Valley of the Kings. It isn’t long and they are loading 24 of us (yes, 24!) in the balloon’s basket!

Our cell phones happily catch the action as the balloons fill. Then after we are all in the basket and are rising aloft, our cameras are thrilled to be taken out of their hiding places It seems the Egyptian Aviation Administration has issues with tourists using real cameras to photograph from balloons!

Well, sunrise is beautiful from a Balloon even here in Egypt! Sunrise over the Nile! Who’d have thought I’d ever see that? The Valleys drop away below us and our cameras are in their happy places! Our pilot takes us higher than the other 30-40 Balloons for a short time and we drift silently above the Valley of the Kings!

I had been worried about it being chilly up at altitude so I borrowed a sweatshirt from a fellow tour friend that didn’t come along for the balloon ride. I needn’t have worried as I had forgotten how warm you stay every time they fire the burners. Quite hot actually!

We float above the Valley for most of an hour before the Pilot starts bringing us down. We come closer and closer to the ground and we wonder where he is actually going to set us down. Shortly before touching down we actually scrape through the side of a Date Palm Tree and Elee and I pick Dates off the tree on the way by! No one is hurt or even close to it, but there you go with the title of today’s Blog!

We finally touch down in the middle of a plowed field but nowhere that the Chase Trucks could get to us. The Ground Chase Crews have reached us though and the Pilot hits the burners and keeps the balloon a foot off the ground as the Chase Crews push us almost a half mile to a small service road!

Small children find it quite fun to run to us and get their photos taken and Elee and I give them Dates we picked. They really want money like all Egyptians want but we disappoint them.

Finally down on solid ground, they start collapsing the balloon and we climb out. We DO tip the Chase Crews as they did all the hard work! Back in the passenger vans, we head back to the boat for breakfast.

It is all over by 7:30AM and we eat and check out of the boat! Luckily for me, it seems the Pharaohs have released their Curse on me! We meet up with Mo and he then loads our luggage onto the bus and we visit Karnak Temple for a tour. More ancient Egyptian ruins assault and attack our cameras and they fight back both happily and successfully! Unfortunately, for me, ‘Karnak” brings back memories of Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show with his skit of “Karnak Says”! How many of you remember that?

Karnak visited, we are appropriately exhausted and we check into the Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel, the nicest lodging yet and I daresay a ‘Real’ hotel. It is considered a 4 Star Hotel but I would rate it easily a 5 Star based on all my travels! We have a room overlooking the hotel pool and the River Nile! We have lunch in one of the many restaurants within and choose an Italian Restaurant and order Pizza and Beer. Refreshing!

Then it is to our room for a much needed nap for 2 hours. We wake somewhat refreshed just in time for another excursion to Luxor Temple at sunset. Sunset photos of an ancient temple are fun to take and our cameras are having a really good day! Even a policeman allows me to take his photo, which is usually a no-no in Egypt!

Now for dinner in a Lebanese Restaurant, also within the hotel, and the food is spetacular! Now back to the room for Blogging & Bed! Goodnight!

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Today we arise at 5:30AM for a 6AM horse and buggy ride to the Edfu Temple. The Pharaohs Curse has been leaving me and I feel up to getting out. Rather bizarrely, we find all the buggy drivers fighting amongst themselves to get our business! But our fearless guide, Mo, reigns them in and gets us each assigned to a driver and horse!

The ride to the Temple is exciting along unpaved streets and the horses seem to want to race at times! This is a very poor place, even for Egypt! We arrive at the Temple unscathed though and we are instructed to remember our buggy number as that will be our ride back.

Mo takes us around Edfu Temple, the second largest in Egypt, giving us a history lesson as we go. He finally sets us free on our own and we manage to capture a lot of photos which makes our cameras very happy! We then meet back at the horse and buggies for the ride back to our ship. Unbeknownst to us, our buggy has changed and we think we are being tricked. But I refuse to get in and walk back to Mo, who assures us that our buggy driver’s brother has taken over for him and we go back and get in for our ride back to the ship!

We are back to the ship in time for breakfast and we get a bite to eat. I am feeling much better this morning. But I still lay down for a nap after breakfast. We have the rest of the day on the ship. Somewhere around Noon, we pass through a Lock. Nothing like the Panama Canal, but a Lock nonetheless.

Vendors assault us with their wares as we go through the Lock, rowing their boats right up to us and throwing their towels and clothing up onto the upper deck with ease. It is quite entertaining and just for the heck of it I buy a towel from one of them! We haggle by shouting back and forth but I finally win the bidding war at 150 EGP (Egyptian Pounds), the equivalent of seven US Dollars. All in all, cheap entertainment for an hour!

We motor on down the Nile to Luxor where we stop for the night. We acquire info on tomorrow’s activities which will get us up at 3AM!

So I wrap this up and say goodnight!

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Last night I started showing signs of dysentery. A fun topic at best. Not. Last night’s dinner was not the culprit though as I was feeling a bit ill before we visited the Nubian Village. But it blossomed into full blown dysentery before I went to bed. It carried through the night and I couldn’t stay out of the bathroom for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Back home it is nicknamed, “Montezuma’s Revenge”. Mo tells me it is called, “The Curse of The Pharaohs”. So be it.

So this morning I opted not to join the early morning tour to Abu Simbel, considering it had a 3.5 hour bus ride each way. So I stayed in bed and nursed myself along. When Elee got back from Abu Simbel in the afternoon, she tells me it was nice but not worth the long drive. I busy myself with what free time I can have out of my Stateroom and watch the Nile. It is very busy with riverboats and Felucca boats.

The River Nile is a very calm and smooth river. I am literally in denial for I can’t believe I am really here, even with the Pharaohs Curse. But yes, we are in De Nile, LOL.

Our riverboat set off down the Nile around 3 PM and headed for Kom Ombo. We arrived several hours later and the group visited Kom Ombo Temple, all lit up in the dark. I opted to stay on the boat and visit the bathroom regularly. The boat then sailed off to Edfu and served us an Oriental Dinner on board that looked marvelous, but I opted to go for the BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast). Applesauce is the one ingredient that can’t be found on the ship.

There is a planned “Galabia Party” at 9 PM (Galabia are the long colorful Egyptian dresses) and I will try to go check it out to see what it is. But 9 PM comes and finds me in bed.

So, I’m back in my Stateroom, hoping to shake this ailment. The good news for today is our luggage has been found and delivered to our last hotel in Cairo and is being held for us. We will be back there on Sunday for one more night and we will get it then!

Good Night All!

Monday, October 17, 2022, Aswan

Today we awake, or should I say get up, for there wasn’t much sleeping on the train. The tracks in Egypt are such that at times we felt like we were back on the camels! But anyway, the car steward brings breakfast to our room around 7:30 AM. A slight bit more palatable than last night’s dinner, but mostly bread and weird spreadable cheeses.

We arrive in Aswan Station around 8 AM and we disembark to a Tour Bus that takes us to a river taxi and we arrive at Philae Temple around 10:30. Mo gives us the history of the Temple and turns us loose for a half hour. Our cameras are once again happy and we photograph the Temple and its Hieroglyphics. At one point it is sad to see that somewhere in history, some religious sects have desecrated some of the symbols as apparently offensive to them by scratching out the faces. This is not a unique thing to this temple but is prevalent in a lot of Egyptian ruins!

Feral cats vie for snack droppings and they seem very friendly. But I remember my words about them being feral and all I do is take their photo! Then the boat takes us back to the bus and we visit a Perfume Factory where most of the ladies and half the men go inside. I opt to stay on the bus as perfumes bother me. Vendor ladies outside the bus argue with each other to see who can try to sell their wares to us! The bus then takes us to our Riverboat that will be our home for the next 3 days. Our Stateroom is very spacious and Mo goes into town to pick up some items, one of which is a Power Converter for us since we still do not have our luggage.

We have a couple hours to rest before boarding another small boat (think African Queen) and head up the Nile for a stop at a Nubian Village for dinner where a family takes us in and cooks a tasty meal! On the way, we get to photograph Sunset on the Nile. Lots of Felucca Boats sail up and down the Nile and we are allowed and encouraged to sit on the roof of the boat!

In the Village we see camels and all kinds of vehicle transportation. The streets are lined with aggressive Vendors and if you even look at them they will follow you and hound you to buy something! But we manage to avoid them.

On the way back, there is another river taxi boat full of other tourists from our group and the two boats tie up to each other and the Africans on board start playing the drums and all the passengers dance! How many can say they partied on the Nile?

Back in our Stateroom it turns out the Converter Mo got for us works and we are on our way to charging computers so we can write this Blog! But it is time to turn in as we have a 4AM wake up call for a new adventure! Good night!