So, finally the day has come!!!!! Cristina came to Egypt!!! After adventures of me messing up the date of her arrival and buying tickets for Luxor, we had a great time together!
I picked her up at the airport and the next day we went to Luxor. We took the night train - 1st class (Nefertiti). It was a bit dirty, but in the end it was not too bad. The only weird thing was a guy that share the compartment wt us - he looked very dirty and had a "cool" pair of trousers on!!
The guy at our hotel offered to take us from the train station for 75 LE but i kindly refused his offer. Once we got to the train station in Luxor i asked an Egyptian guy what wud be a fair price from there to the ferry and he said 10 LE. It turned out to be worth less than that as it was not very far; that is why the taxi driver agreed from the beggining on 10 LE.
We got to our hotel (Nile Valley - very clean and pretty, wt a swimming pool), left our bags, showered an off we went to see the Valley of the Kings. Ibrahim, a guy that we hired to drive us there, was very funny and had a car tat ws a bit smashed on the left side - he kept saying that was his horse that did that!
Me getting in trouble (again!)
We visited 4 tombs at the Valley of the Kings, and right at the first one i got in trouble. At the entrance it was written you cannot take pictures inside the tomb, but after my previous experience at Abu Simbel, where the guards wud take ur camera to take ur picture, i thought it should be ok to take one (thousands of apologies to all the archeologists around the world) ... and i did!! Suddenly, this man comes and asks for my camera - apparently he was one of the guards. He takes it and looks at the pictures i have taken, sees 2 pics of the tomb and goes: "No photos inside the tomb!!" And he takes my camera (btw, brand new, brought by Cristina). I dont know what to do ... he goes: "We need to go and see the police outside!". At that word -"police"- i freak out. Hmmm... i tell him, i might as well see the tomb before that, so he allows me to. When i am done, i go back to him. Many thoughts go through my mind at that point - maybe he wants baksheesh, maybe he is quite serious about it and he will take me to the police... My legs were shaking, thinking i am in deep s**t. I bravely go to him and say: "Alright then, let's go to the police!", so i start walking fast in front of him. he stops me at the entrance and explains everything to another man that was there. They both go: "Mishquais"! I am still shaking ... they tell me i need to pay a fine of 100 Le. In the end i tell them that i live and work in Egypt, i am helping their country ... They ask me to delete the pictures and i try to, but because my camera is new i have no clue on how to do that!
In the end, they gave me my camera back and let me go. I was happy! i didnt give them any money at all.
We also visited Hatshepsut's temple, where everyone was asking or tips in euros or dollars and when Cristina gave the guy 2 LE he started complaining. We ignored him and left.
We got back to our hotel around 6, after having dinner at "African restaurant" on the roof top of a building wt a gorgeous view on the Nile. So, i slept from 6 pm until next morning at 8. Next day we rented bikes and cycled around Luxor to see the temple, Karnak temple, museum, try and buy tickets at the train station...
Trying to buy train tickets - that was quite of an adventure. The morning we got there we tried to buy tickets from Luxor to Cairo and they told us to come back next morning. After renting the bikes and getting a bit lost around Luxor (outside Luxor) we got to the trian station just to find out that tickets were sold out. We tried talking to the manager, to explain what happened but he couldnt help us at all. To my surprise i was calmer than my previous experience of trying to buy tickets. There was no way for us to get back to Cairo the night we wanted to, unless we have taken the sleeper train, which we did in the end! At least i got to sleep well.
Luxor was not as bad as i thought; i was warned about all the hassleing, but having rented the bikes has helped us a lot - it spared us from a lot of hassle. Cristina got hassled at the souk and she got scared a bit, but it was alright in the end. She managed to get things for a good price.
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