Day 8

Discover Egypt

We are woken at 05:00 and are all to meet down stairs at 06:00. Today we have a full day ahead of us which starts with the valley of the kings. The one thing about traveling at this time of year when it is averaging 45 degrees is that the sights are so quite. We arrive at the valley of the kings and there is almost nobody else there. No queues and very few people in the way when your taking photos, saying that we are not allowed to take photos anyway.
We are shown 3 tombs in total each very similar just different sizes and hyrogliphics differ slightly from one to another. We finish up and head back to the bus to continue to hapchipsue temple which is very grand and with it's steps leading up 3 levels and it's statues of the queen. After the temple we are taken to an animal hospital called Ace. Intrepid adventures support this charity who look after the welfare of the working animals in Luxor. They try and educate the owners on better treatment for the animals and are doing an amazing job. Then back on the bus for dinner at a local house, none of us are sure what to expect from this but so far so good intrepid have not let us down yet! We drive down a side street and then turn into another and we all have the same thought going through our minds omg where are they taking us? The streets are lined with rubbish and when I say streets it's more like a dirt track going down between shabby half built four storey buildings. We stop and all get out of the bus. We knock on a door and are greeted by a young lady . She welcomes us in and we are shown in to the reception room which is used for guests. There is a low table laid out on one side with cushions on the floor to sit on and we are all quietly relieved. We sit at the table and dig into the food and as all the food we have had on our travels it is very good. We sit and chat for a while with our hostess before heading back to the hotel. The plan is to have a rest and freshen up at the hotel and then head to karanak temple in the afternoon. After a chat we ask if we can leave the temple today and do it at 06:00 the next morning when it is a little cooler. The temperature here is still around 43 and we had an early start this morning. It is all agreed and we go back to the hotel for some rest. In the evening we all meet up to head off to the market to get something to eat and browse around the bazra. Again the food is good and we come out very full. We wander round the markets for a couple of hours, getting approached every few steps by the stall holders to "come look I do you a good price". Grant now has the bartering off to a fine art and he normally gets the price he is asking for. We head back to the hotel all knackered from another busy day and knowing we have 6 hours before we are up and doing it all again.