Greetings once again!

I am currently writing to you from Luxor, and nearing the end of a 5 day trip to "Upper Egypt" (Its actually in the South but as the Nile flows from South to North its knows as Upper Egypt).

My journey began with a whopping 15 hour train ride from Cairo to Aswan which brought bak memoies of my Asia travelling days. 15 hours over night cramped in a chair, with the added bonus of the ticket inspectors choosing my carriage to come sit in and play arabic music of their mobile phones. Cheers.

What began in Aswan was then the beginning of seeing approximately a million amazing temples in 4 or 5 days. Most temples cost around 30-50 Egyptian pounds to enter (3-5 English), but a few Arabic words and the occasional flashing of my Dads Egytian passport meant i got in everywhere for 2-3 Egyptian pounds (20-30p)!

I saw some pretty epic temples (photos on their way when i get to a net cafe with better computers), amongst the highlights was the awesome Abu Simbel, 40km north of the Sudanese border. Pretty much erected by Rameses II so that everyone could bask in his glory. Ive taken quite a liking to the egotistical Rameses II though, and not just cos he married 40 wives and had over 200 kids. The mind boggles at how they created such a massive temple, but what is almost as impressive is that in order to save the temple from being ruined by the Nile's water, the government and UNESCO moved, piece by piece, the entire temple and reconstructed it on higher ground.

We spent a morning at Abu Simbel and from there we rode the felucca which we would then call home for the next 2 days. For those that dont know, a felucca is a small sailing boat and I absolutely loved my time on there. I WILL own a boat one day. It was so beautiful, gliding effortlessly across the Nile, nothing surrounding us but water, and flanked by palm trees. At night I drifted to sleep with the gentle rocking of the boat and the simple sounds of nature. It was a million miles away from a normal Monday back home. I was seriously tempted to stay for weeks, I got on with the 2 man crew, and I may well return.

After 2 great relaxing days on the felucca with Captain Ramadan (his actual name, im not taking the mick), we continued our temple trail. Kom Ombo and Edfu were next, before ariving at Luxor and seeing the collusal Karnak and Luxor Temple. I would explain to you all that I learnt about the temples, but your best off looking at a few of my pics to get an idea of how impressive it all is. (that and the fact that im still confused by most of it).

That brings me to today and the Valley of the Queens, the temple of Hatshepsut, and the massively famous valley of the Kings. We went inside some of the tombs, and although all the statues hae been stolen long ago or moved to Museums, the artwork on the ceiling and walls are still intact, and unbelievably impressive. The colours still remain after over 2000 years. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Or maybe I'll find a postcard to take a photo of and pass it off as my own.

And now Im killing time before my trip back to Cairo, where a new adventure will begin. I start my training for my teaching English job on Sunday. I'm expecting to do it for a few months, but who knows. Anyway, i better go because, yet again, Im proving very popular with the Mosquitos, so i best go put a jumper on.

Stay in touch and speak to you soon!