10 Days in Egypt: Days 6-10

Day 6

We got off the felucca at 7:30am and drove to Luxor, stopping at 2 temples along the way: Temple of Sobek and Temple of Horus.  (Each temple is dedicated to a different Egyptian god.  Sobek is the crocodile-headed god and Horus is the falcon-headed god.)

We arrived in Luxor around 3:00pm and checked into yet another hotel.  Dorothy and I decided to walk along the main street and find a nice place for dinner.  Most days on the tour, breakfast is the only meal provided, and we’d been living off snacks (apples, peanut butter, crackers, cookies) for lunch and dinner.  We were due for hearty meal.  We found a restaurant called Maxime – Dorothy got steak and rice, and I had shrimp/calamari curry with vegetables.  It was the best meal of the tour.

 

Day 7

It was another early start to the day (up at 5:30am), so we could go to the Valley of the Kings.  In the Valley, there are 62 tombs of Egyptian kings – King Tutankhamen being the most well known.  Unfortunately, no one is allowed to take photos of the valley or the tombs.  Our guide said that they used to allow it, but using a flash in the tombs is forbidden.  People frequently broke that rule, so they changed it and said only photos of the valley are allowed.  But people still brought their cameras into the tombs.  Now it’s just easier to ban all cameras from entering the area.

(This is the only photo we have of the Valley of the Kings.  We were standing outside the gates.)

Going into the tombs was unbelievable – I can’t even begin to describe the detail of the carvings and hieroglyphics or how well preserved the coloring is.  I wish I had pictures – it was one of my favorite parts of the tour.

After the Valley of the Kings, we saw the Temple of Hatshepsut.  It’s a special temple because it’s carved into the mountain (as opposed to free-standing) and Queen Hatshepsut is the only the female to have one.

Then we went to Karnak Temple.  It was the most impressive temple, in my opinion.  The sheer size of it was unreal, especially when you think that it was all created by human labor (no cranes or machines).

 

       

For lunch, the tour guide indulged us and took us to McDonald’s.  Then we started the 5-hour drive to Hurghada.  Upon arriving at the resort, Dorothy and I experienced severe culture shock.  Hurghada is a resort town on the Red Sea, and exemplifies a life of luxury.  The hotel we stayed at was ridiculous (I was so overwhelmed that I forgot to take pictures) – maybe 1,000 rooms, 4 pools, an enormous dining hall, and hundreds of chairs/umbrellas that took up all of the space on the tiny beach.  Dorothy and I freaked out and stayed in our room for the night (and took advantage of cable tv).  It was too much extravagance to handle for Peace Corps volunteers – meanwhile everyone else in our group thought that was the best hotel on the tour.

Day 8

So the upgrade that Dorothy and I paid for was a day of snorkeling in the Red Sea (instead of the second day sitting on the felucca).  Best decision ever!  After almost a week of visiting temples in 100-degree heat and driving across Egypt, a day snorkeling in the reefs and laying out on the boat was absolutely perfect.

The downside of the Hurghada detour was it meant riding a public bus overnight back to Cairo.  While the buses in Egypt are WAY better than in Uganda, I didn’t sleep at all that night.  It was only a 5-hour trip to Cairo, so I was a little peeved that the guide put us on an overnight bus, instead of an evening bus + a hotel room.  Oh well, I made it through.

Day 9

Dorothy and I were the only people in the tour group who went back to Cairo – the rest spent an extra day at the resort in Hurghada.  This meant that Dorothy and I got a private tour (and private vehicle) to go around downtown Cairo.   

 

We visited the Egyptian Museum, which displays all the treasures found in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and a very large display of Tutankhamen’s possessions (again, no photos allowed).  We paid the extra $15 to visit the mummy room – 12 mummies of kings and queens that were removed from their tombs and are still preserved.  It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

After the museum, we visited The Hanging Church and the Citadel of Saladin.

The Hanging Church

The Citadel of Saladin

For lunch, we made our way down to the Khan El Khalili market – the biggest outdoor market in Egypt.   

Weaving our way through people and market stalls, it felt very familiar to markets in Uganda.  And guess who we saw in the market???  More Ugandan Peace Corps volunteers!!!  I knew Patrick, Aubrey, Erin, and Erin were going to be in Cairo that day, but I did not expect to randomly cross their path in the bazaar.  It was too funny.

 

 

Since it was our last night in Egypt, Dorothy and I decided to end it with a bang and see the Sound and Light show at the Pyramids in Giza.  It was a 45-minute show that illuminated the pyramids while telling the story of the kings and architects.  The lights were wonderful, but the sound part was really cheesy.  It definitely needs to be updated – think of the soundtrack/voices from the “Ten Commandments”.  I think I’ll write to the tourism board and suggest a Pink Floyd Laser Light show for next time.  :)

Day 10

The tour was officially over, but our flight didn’t leave until 9:45pm.  We looked through tourist guides for more activities to do in Cairo but we really had seen everything (or the rest of the optional activities took place at night).  So we spent our final day relaxing at the hotel, gorging ourselves at the breakfast buffet, enjoying electricity (and charging all of our electronics), lounging in air conditioning, and going through over 1,000 photos from the week.

Next blog post will about my impressions of Egyptian culture.  ;)