Luxor - 7 April

Day 10

In luxor we stayed at the Queens Valley Hotel.

It was a very tourist orientated city and enjoyed seeing Luxor temple in the centre of town as you walked about.

We went to grab a takeaway lunch at 'Snack Time'. I ordered a very tasty chicken shawarma that I enjoyed in the back of the horse & carriage that we took to get to Karnak Temple.

Karnak temple was very large and beautiful with an area of huge columns supporting the ceiling.

After we visited a jewellers were I bought a couple of ankhs - one for me and one as a gift. The ankh means long life and within that is the eye of horus symbolising protection, a lotus symbolising love, and the bottom part is apparently tutankahmen. It looks like a scarab with 3 lines under and then the bottom half of a circle. He said that symbolised long life which is odd considering t

Tutankahmen died at 19?!

We walked as a group down the market street where every shop owner greeted us with fake Aussie accents, informing us its a 'no hassle' shop, 'I dont know what you want but I have it!'. Our tour guide said he always finds it stressful as they yell out to him in arabic saying we'll give you 50% commission if you bring your group to our shop, and many other things he wouldn't repeat!

That evening we took a boat accross the river to the restaurant 'Africa' and enjoyed some tasty targine cooked food on their roof top.

Day 11

We were up early the next morning to cross the river again and meet our donkeys for our ride to Valley of the Kings.

They were surprisingly easy and fun to ride and actually found them less stubborn then some of the horses I've ridden!

Valley of the kings was a beautiful site with sandy hills that looked hazy and surreal as we rode towards them.

Susie wasn't enjoying the donkey ride so much, and when her donkey had a stumble she fell from him landing on a high concrete gutter. Fortunately nothing broken but she had cuts and scrapes to her elbow, very saw ribs and later a VERY nasty bruise on her thigh. We were almost there after our hour ride, and she took the car the remaining way.

No cameras were allowed at Valley of the King's so we left them in the car and headed to check out the tombs.

We saw Ramses 3, 4 & Sepitah.

They were amazing inside with pictures and hieroglyphics lining the walls and the first time we'd seen them in colour.

Afterwards we were taken to a shop selling alabaster, onyx, basalt, moonstone and granite statues and I purchased a basalt ankh (100 pound - $15 AUD).

Being early we didn't suffer the heat of the day, but most of us did not feel like staying on to see Queen Hatchesupu's temple as already suffering from temple overload ... We also skipped going inside Luxor and just admired it mostly from the balcony of Snack Time where we went for lunch again, this time finishing off with the most delicious cinamon scroll with caramel sauce that I've ever tasted!!!

I used the toilet at the restaurant and it didnt flush when I lifted the button (no pushing here its puling!). I tried to fix it by turning the taps under the cistern and next thing you know a jet shoots out from the inside of the bowl and my crotch it saturated in water!!! Very embarrassed I try to dry it off a little under the hair dryer to no avail!

That afternoon we sat by the pool on the roof until we were tired of the dust storm, then as I'd sat on my sunnies we went shopping at the market for a new pair and stopped at the free trade shop on the way back & got a couple of unique jewellery pieces.

Another cold shower at the hotel and decided no humidity and sand gives my hair good volume so no need to wash it anyway!

Dinner nearby of stuffed capsicum, zuchinni and eggplant.

There was a train strike - apparently more frequent due to the revolution. So instead of another overnight train we got the 11.30 flight to Cairo.