Day 146

Saturday June 14^th

This was our big day to see the West Bank of Luxor, featuring the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings. We had some more amazing people in our tour group, including Sandar, who was really excited about seeing everything. He was just really happy to be alive in general, it seemed, and he was a riot to be around. He was very talkative and energetic and he made the experience much more enjoyable. We also met Andrew, a GWU student studying abroad in the Middle East who was taking vacation in Egypt. We met another student who traveling around the world for the summer. Pretty sweet people all-in-all. They had lots of interesting stories, and makes me wonder if I should be getting out more and seeing more. Probably.

The first place we visited, wasn’t memorable enough for me to remember the name. They were some ruined giant statues out in a field. It felt kind of random and underwhelming. Nevertheless, we did the typical tourist thing, jump out of the van, ignore the hagglers, take a bunch of pictures, look at it a little while, and then jump right back in the van. We then headed off to the Valley of Queens. Here we got to go down to tombs and they were alright, but really they were just a build-up for the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is a huge complex with many different tombs. It would easily be a day just in itself, however with the ticket you only get to see 3 tombs. Luckily the three primary tombs, or maybe that’s just what the guide implied, are the tombs right by the entrance. So we got to wander into these muggy rooms and look at all the beautiful cravings and what not. Sandar knew a little bit about Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics and so he shared that information with us.

The main event of the day was the Temple of Hatshepsut, an absolutely amazing and huge temple to Queen Pharaoh Hatshepsut, who was one of the longest ruling women in Egyptian history. This was also the site of the first terrorist attack in Egypt, a sad event that scares the beauty of this massive temple. Adding to the imposing nature of the temple, are the canyon walls that surround the temple. These vertical cliffs climb 100’s of feet over the Temple, a clear reason why the Ancient Egyptians chose this spot. However, by this time, the summer heat was sweltering and after purchasing a delicious bottle of cold water we loaded back into the hot car and headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel we had a good couple hours before we had to catch the bus to sharm. So we followed some of our new friends to this supposed great and cheap place to eat around the corner. It turns out that it was more than just around the corner and it was a rather crowded, disorderly experience. However, it was fun getting some unknown but delicious black melon juice from the juicer across the street and then getting some authentic Egyptian food and authentic Egyptian prices. Always a plus. Rather waiting around for our food for awhile, another authentic Egyptian experience, we headed off to the hotel and hung out around the pool for a little bit before getting everything together and meeting Walid downstairs.

Now here is where the real fun began. Walid had been pulling my leg since the day we met him. Now he was telling us that there was no ferry and that it was a 16 hour bus ride to Sharm. This was basically my worst nightmare. I had repeatedly asked at Safir travel when I was setting this up about the 4 hour bus-ride to Sharm,that included the Ferry. I had no intention of taking a bus, as the one from Cairo to Sharm is awful enough and I knew one from Luxor would be unbearable. I even checked with Walid when we got down there just to make sure everything was good. Now he was telling me there we were stuck on it. I didn’t believe him. I still didn’t believe him when he gave us the tickets, and there was no ferry ticket and when the Bus station manager said we were supposed to arrive in Sharm, sometime around 11 the next day. When he was finally able to convince me I was livid. I hated bus-rides, and 16 hours would be more than awful. Not only did this mean we were paying for a night in sharm that we didn’t get to use, but it meant that people had lied or to me or where just dumbasses. Either way, we suffered for other people’s piss-poor performance. If I had known, I would have just paid the little bit more and flown to Sharm. This was outrageous.

The bus ride was all that it was cracked up to be. Walid called us about three hours in, and we found out we were moving at a snail’s pace. He had been in the same town 30 minutes after he left. (He was going to Cairo too, but on his motorbike). Shortly thereafter they started playing the Quran. Playing the Quran means listening to somebody chant the Quran on high volume, in a way that seems beautiful at first, but after hour 2 you can’t take it anymore. By hour 8, I wanted to stab by ears out. The earplugs didn’t work well enough to block out the sound, and it was starting to get cold and the cramped conditions didn’t allow for very good sleep. Luckily, I was tired enough that my body overcame my ears and mind and forced by body to sleep. Part of that sleep was on Megan, and apparently I am not too comfortable, as everytime the bounce would bounce, (like every 10 seconds) my head would bounce on her shoulder. I gave that up after awhile.