Epic. That's the way I'll describe today. We started out by waking up at 5:30am and then crossing over to the west bank for my second visit to the Valley of the Kings. Our guide Toni had picked three tombs, first we went in the tomb of Ramses I, which I had never had the urge to go in before, but didn't object to because it was something new. The crowd to get into the tomb was overwhelming and there was no real feeling down in the burial chamber, because it was so crowded and there were so many people talking. It only had one room which was decorated and I was unsure as to the reason the guide had picked it.

Next he wanted to take us into the tomb of Ramses III, I told everyone I was going to give that a miss. They all wanted to know why, but I told them it was a great tomb and they should all see it. I just wasn't going in, as I had seen it before. I chose to wander over to the tomb of Siptah, you know it's going to be a good tomb when the guard on the door hands you a torch. The tomb of Siptah, the pharaoh with the club foot, was beautifully decorated, although unfinished. It had a long passage down to an undecorated burial chamber, which contained one of the largest sarcophagi I had ever seen. After firmly telling the guard that I didn't need a guide, I was alone in the burial chamber. The noise of the crowds evaporated and the silence was deafening, the only sound I could hear was the beating of my own heart.

I left the tomb of Siptah and went to meet the group outside the tomb of Ramses III, Toni informed me that the entire group had elected to go with my decision to visit the tomb of Thutmose III. I was flattered everyone trusted my judgment that much. We walked up the familiar crevice in the Valley, which today, unlike my first visit, was crowded. We climbed the tall metal staircase, fighting the crowds as we went. Although, the structure of the tomb was the same with its high position in the cliffs, robbers pit and low ceilings, these were now lit and crowded with people. When I visited this tomb in 2006, it was likely that the Indiana Jones boulder of doom was going to come rolling down on top of you. It wasn't like that today, but everyone still enjoyed it and I enjoyed showing it to them.

We left the Valley of the Kings and proceeded onto Hatchepsut's mortuary temple, where once again I proceeded to look for the fat queen of Punt. Having already found her last time it did not take me long this time and it was fun to point her out to the rest of the group.

With Hatchepsut's temple, our time with the guide came to a close. Before he left I asked him how to get to Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum. He said he could drop me there on the way to the boat, which was very nice of him. Greg, Siobhan, Kristel and Aaron decided to tag along with me and we all got dropped at the ticket office.

We bought tickets for both and then set of for Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of Ramses III, home to the reliefs of the Sea Peoples I spent all of last year studying and writing about. Only once inside this temple we (me included) realised how epic it was. I had never seen anything like it built by a single pharaoh. It was one of the largest temples I had ever seen, the pylons were immense. The carvings one the walls were nearly 20cm deep and it was so colourful! We spent a good two hours there and there did come a point where I had to sit down and just marvel at the greatness of the pharaoh that built it. It actually had the same effect on me as it was supposed to have on the people of the time.

I managed to locate all the Sea Peoples reliefs and took great pleasure in pointing them out. The other amazing thing about this temple is that unlike the Valley of the Kings which was literally overrun with tourists, this place was completely empty, except for yours truly and her little possie.

We had lunch in a nearby café, which was one of the best meals I have had in Egypt, they also kept a pet hawk in the back, who watched me walk to the bathroom."Hello Horus" I said to him as he eyed off awesome shorts.

Our next stop was the Ramesseum, which in hind sight, we should probably have seen first and had I any idea of the true size of Medinet Habu that's what we would have done. Although impressive the Ramesseum was not a patch on the temple of Ramses III. It was still amazing, but heavily ruined and unfortunately, the guards were very aggressive with trying to show us around for baksheesh, despite our attempts to get rid of them.

During lunch I had realised the Ramesseum was right on top of the tombs of Rekhimire and Sennofer, so we bought tickets for those and had a look. They were right at the top of the cliffs of the tombs of the Nobles. We managed to get up there after fighting off locals who wanted to charge us 30 EGP to show us the way. Like we couldn't read the signs. The tomb of Rekhimire was cool and it was something I had studied so it was nice to see it in person. The tomb of Sennofer was spectacular. It was the most colourful tomb I have ever been in. The ceiling was painted in grapes and every wall had scenes of Sennofer and his wife in colours as fresh as the day they were painted.

After the tombs we made our way down to the boats, stopping to admire the Colossai of Memnon on the way. We sat and looked at the giant statues again getting hassled. Aaron said "Imagine a life like that, expecting to be paid for annoying people" to which I replied, "Yeah it would be like paying Dave". (Our driver who constantly annoys everyone, especially me)

We took the public service taxi to New Qurna and then got on a motor boat back to the east bank and walked back to our hotel, completely exhausted from our epic day of archaeology. I had a swim in the pool and then went to the pub with Siobhan to meet Ramez, who ended up not being able to see us because his ship got in late. I had fun at the pub with Breda and Guy and played a few bad games of pool, before going back to the hotel in a horse drawn carriage, which may or may not have had a square wheel.