Days 97-99
Sleeping location: “555 Studio and Flats”, Luxor, Egypt
Distance (km today/total): 54 / 7667
Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 58300
History levels: HIGH
Days in three words: Lap of Luxory
Three days spent enjoying the many wonders of Luxor and its surrounds, plus some R&R after six days of hard cycling. Luxor was the site of the Ancient Egyptian capital when the empire was at its peak. Modern day Luxor (east bank) was the city and the west bank was home to all of the tombs and some other bits and bobs.
Day 1 - My BIRTHDAY. A very long lie-in was enjoyed, although this was slightly ruined by windows facing east and the curtains being thinner than tissue paper (subsequently we rigged a tarp up for additional darkness). After this we headed across the river to Luxor town proper and had a little explore. It’s a nice enough place, although there’s loads of hassle on the main tourist stretches, mainly offering carriage rides and/or taxis. After a while we just started ignoring people, which is rude, but so is shouting “Taxi my friend” at someone’s back five times. The aim of the day was always to have a birthday blowout, so we went to the Kings Head pub and enjoyed several beers and some “danger pool” on the extremely ropy table. On the way back to our side for dinner we picked up an interesting looking assortment of Egyptian sweets. When Rebecca asked what they were, instead of the usual “my friend, these are the finest Egyptian sweets, very traditional, very delicious” the guy just shrugged and said “sugar”, which I really enjoyed. Back at the flat was another surprise as Rebecca had planted two “3” candles in a massive tub of halva, in lieu of a birthday cake, and also secretly carried some of our favourite liqueur all the way from Jordan. A very nice birthday, and I am panicking about how to make Rebecca’s (in a mere 19 days) as good.
Day 2 - Spent exploring the west bank on our bikes. There was so much to see that we missed some despite being out for 6 or 7 hours. I won’t go into the detail of each place, but it was frequently incredible and it’s amazing how well things have lasted. Some highlights:
- Seeing graffiti in English from over 200 years ago, and in Ancient Greek from goodness knows how long ago
- Being offered an alabaster frog by a guy who couldn’t accept that I didn’t want an alabaster frog at any price, and who was essentially haggling against himself whilst I repeatedly said “but I don’t want it”.
- Having a very funny conversation about some backpackers who appeared to be having group therapy for victims of Egyptian hassle, which included the line “I blacked out and woke up surrounded by 300 alabaster frogs”
- The Valley of the Kings was actually slightly disappointing, as it’s just a bunch of tombs and very expensive and busy, but it was still worth it. The tomb for Seti II was amusingly half finished because he died too quickly and they had to bodge the final touches.
- Deir el Medina, which was the village where the tomb artists lived. They made their own tombs for each other, and because they were free from the traditions of the pharaohs they made them really fun and kind of psychedelic.
Back at the apartment we made hot toddies with some terrible, terrible Egyptian whisky** as we were both feeling a bit peaky, perhaps due to sunstroke, heatstroke or historystroke.
Day 3 - Rebecca was history’d out so I did some solo temple visits. Habu, which we had missed the day before, was a huge and impressive temple which also served as an enormous comic strip, detailing how Ramses III laid the smackdown on the “Sea People”. Nobody knows who the Sea People actually were, other than that they came from the sea. On the east side were the two temples of the god Amun: Luxor, where he was born and returned each year to be reborn, and Karnak, where he chilled out for the rest of the time. The two were originally linked by a 3km path lined with thousands of sphinxes, only a small part of which remains. Both temples were very interesting, and the hall of 134 (I think) columns at Karnak was astonishing; they are absolutely massive. After this I met Rebecca at the Kings Head for some more beers and danger pool, then had some more beers with another touring cyclist, a Catalan guy called Raimon. He is heading the opposite direction and we shared some information about what lies ahead for each of us. After this we had had many beers and retired to bed in rather a sloppy state.
*After this I would use the phrase “I don’t want your alabaster frog” on anyone who was trying to sell me stuff, which confused a lot of people
**Alcohol is legal in Egypt but you can’t import it, so they make everything themselves, including some really awful spirits.
Distance (km today/total): 54 / 7667
Estimated climb (m today/total): 100 / 58300
History levels: HIGH
Days in three words: Lap of Luxory
Three days spent enjoying the many wonders of Luxor and its surrounds, plus some R&R after six days of hard cycling. Luxor was the site of the Ancient Egyptian capital when the empire was at its peak. Modern day Luxor (east bank) was the city and the west bank was home to all of the tombs and some other bits and bobs.
Day 1 - My BIRTHDAY. A very long lie-in was enjoyed, although this was slightly ruined by windows facing east and the curtains being thinner than tissue paper (subsequently we rigged a tarp up for additional darkness). After this we headed across the river to Luxor town proper and had a little explore. It’s a nice enough place, although there’s loads of hassle on the main tourist stretches, mainly offering carriage rides and/or taxis. After a while we just started ignoring people, which is rude, but so is shouting “Taxi my friend” at someone’s back five times. The aim of the day was always to have a birthday blowout, so we went to the Kings Head pub and enjoyed several beers and some “danger pool” on the extremely ropy table. On the way back to our side for dinner we picked up an interesting looking assortment of Egyptian sweets. When Rebecca asked what they were, instead of the usual “my friend, these are the finest Egyptian sweets, very traditional, very delicious” the guy just shrugged and said “sugar”, which I really enjoyed. Back at the flat was another surprise as Rebecca had planted two “3” candles in a massive tub of halva, in lieu of a birthday cake, and also secretly carried some of our favourite liqueur all the way from Jordan. A very nice birthday, and I am panicking about how to make Rebecca’s (in a mere 19 days) as good.
Day 2 - Spent exploring the west bank on our bikes. There was so much to see that we missed some despite being out for 6 or 7 hours. I won’t go into the detail of each place, but it was frequently incredible and it’s amazing how well things have lasted. Some highlights:
- Seeing graffiti in English from over 200 years ago, and in Ancient Greek from goodness knows how long ago
- Being offered an alabaster frog by a guy who couldn’t accept that I didn’t want an alabaster frog at any price, and who was essentially haggling against himself whilst I repeatedly said “but I don’t want it”.
- Having a very funny conversation about some backpackers who appeared to be having group therapy for victims of Egyptian hassle, which included the line “I blacked out and woke up surrounded by 300 alabaster frogs”
- The Valley of the Kings was actually slightly disappointing, as it’s just a bunch of tombs and very expensive and busy, but it was still worth it. The tomb for Seti II was amusingly half finished because he died too quickly and they had to bodge the final touches.
- Deir el Medina, which was the village where the tomb artists lived. They made their own tombs for each other, and because they were free from the traditions of the pharaohs they made them really fun and kind of psychedelic.
Back at the apartment we made hot toddies with some terrible, terrible Egyptian whisky** as we were both feeling a bit peaky, perhaps due to sunstroke, heatstroke or historystroke.
Day 3 - Rebecca was history’d out so I did some solo temple visits. Habu, which we had missed the day before, was a huge and impressive temple which also served as an enormous comic strip, detailing how Ramses III laid the smackdown on the “Sea People”. Nobody knows who the Sea People actually were, other than that they came from the sea. On the east side were the two temples of the god Amun: Luxor, where he was born and returned each year to be reborn, and Karnak, where he chilled out for the rest of the time. The two were originally linked by a 3km path lined with thousands of sphinxes, only a small part of which remains. Both temples were very interesting, and the hall of 134 (I think) columns at Karnak was astonishing; they are absolutely massive. After this I met Rebecca at the Kings Head for some more beers and danger pool, then had some more beers with another touring cyclist, a Catalan guy called Raimon. He is heading the opposite direction and we shared some information about what lies ahead for each of us. After this we had had many beers and retired to bed in rather a sloppy state.
*After this I would use the phrase “I don’t want your alabaster frog” on anyone who was trying to sell me stuff, which confused a lot of people
**Alcohol is legal in Egypt but you can’t import it, so they make everything themselves, including some really awful spirits.
Comments
Post a Comment