Luxor

Hey everyone, so this weekend my friend Luke and I did a quick power trip to Luxor Egypt. I have to say, I was a little hesitant to do it at first due to cost, temperature, and time (We only had a day there) but now that I am back I am very thank full I did. Although the pyramids where impressive and amazing when I went, Luxor and the monuments there are what make of the heart of what remains of the ancient Egyptians. In short, it was incredible.

Luke and I left Thursday night on the over night train from Cairo at 10pm and got into Luxor about 7:45 am on Friday. The train was alright; we were in a harry potter style cabin with six seats. Also in the cabin with us was a group of three guys from France (also students in Cairo at the French University) and a tourist from Germany. We talked for a good portion of the evening before all finally falling asleep on the train. We got into Luxor about 7:45am, stepped off the train and had roughly several thousand years worth of Egyptian history amongst temples, tombs and museums to see before our rerun train left for Cairo at 10:30 that night. We didn't see it all.

We then (all 6 of us) bought our return train tickets to Cairo for when we where respectively going. The Europeans where staying longer, Luke and I got ours for night. The first thing we did was find a hotel. Turns out that Felix, the German was going to be staying at a hotel near buy and although we would not actually be staying the night there we wanted to get a room also (for only 25 pounds) to store extra stuff in for the day and have a shower available before we left. After talking with Felix and having breakfast on the roof of the hotel the three of us then rented bicycles from the hotel for 10 pounds each. Felix decided to join Luke and I for our morning adventures on the east side of the Nile.

We got on our bikes and set off towards the Temple or Karnak. After cycling around the outside of it for a little bit finally came across the entrance and went inside after locking up the bikes. They had a giant scale map of the temple which was cool to see and near by was a tour group guide talking about the model in German which Felix quietly translated into English for Luke and I. We then entered the temple. Because we only had a single day in Luxor we kept the amount of time we stayed at karnak to two hours but we could have easily stayed much longer. I think as far as the historical/cultural aspects of this trip so far Karnak easily takes the cake. It was amazing. Imagine if you can a giant room composed of enormous sandstone pillars, 15 pillars wide, 20 pillars deep, spaced about 15 feet from each other, each ten feet wide, 60 feet tall and weighing several tons. It was amazing. In some areas the paint was still present on the hieroglyphics carved into he stone. If was something to take it all in and try to think about what all of it looked like in its prime.

In addition to karnak, we biked around Luxor temple and saw all of it from the outside. The three of us then stoped at a restaurant type place called snack time and got some food for lunch. After lunch we parted from Felix (He was going to go to the west bank the following day) and rode down towards the Nile. We took a ferry across with our bicycles and after a little riding around by the water we started off towards the direction of the Vally of the Kings. It was a lot of fun, we where the only people really on bicycles (maybe because it was 45 degrees C, about 113 F) but we where able to stop and take a lot of photos. We biked through the lush greens of the Nile river Vally, Banana fields and sugar cane farms. About 9 kilometers later we got to the end of the green area (it ends abruptly) and biked along the desert edge several more kilometers until we got to the temple of Hatshepsut. After Hatshepsut's temple we took a taxi from there another 8 kilometers (and up hill the whole way) into the Vally of the Kings. We actually got there 20 minutes after they had closed and with a little begging, saying we where only there one day, a little use of Arabic and a small Baksheesh (tip) they let us in. Unfortunately because we where late we only had about 20 minutes before they closed everything and kicked people out. We boguht our tickets to look three tombs. You got to pick any ones you wanted so we just went in the first three we came to. (That is with a few exceptions. You have to pay extra for Tuts tomb as an example) We went in Ramesses the seventh, then Ramesses the ninth and lastly Ramesses the third. As with Hatshepsut's temple I think I am going to leave most of the descriptions and stuff off of here, that way when I talk to you back home it will be new. I have a ton of photos over everything except the Vally of the Kings. They did not allow any cameras in there.

our taxi driver took us back down to the ferry and we headed back over to the east bank and then to our hotel where we sat around a bit and rested. We both washed off and did a little reading. (we both had homework to do) After we went to lunch/dinner and rode around Luxor on our bikes for bit in the evening. We got dinner at the same place we had lunch because honestly off all the places it looked the most legitimate and the food was pretty good. We returned to the hotel, took showers to rinse off the effects of biking around outside in 45 degree heat and changed into some clean clothes. After that we had about an hour to kill so we took a short little stroll down to a large open area kinda in front of luxor Temple and just sat around there. It was cool because we right by the temple and it was all lit up with lights but more then that the court year area is where ton of locals had gone to hang out. Lots of dads and children playing soccer, and children riding bicycles/learning how to. It was just a nice area. One guy who looked to be about our age even came up and sat on the bench with us. Although he didn't speak much English and we where having a hard time understanding his Arabic we still managed to have a extensive conversation. Luke and I then returned the bicycles to the hotel and walked to the train station. We got on and returned to Cairo about 8:30 this morning. All in all, although very fast, it was a wonderful trip.

long delay

hello again, I am really sorry it has been so long since I have written. As a wrote last time my computer crashed so getting on line and being productive has been a lot harder. Getting pictures posted has been a bit of a task too. Not to much has been going on...I returned to Dahab last weekend with a friend and we spent three days snorkeling the coral reefs and doing a bit of scuba diving. I was lucky enough to be able to dive twice and see all kinds of stuff from lion fish to sting rays, very colorful fish and even an octopus.

This past week and the following few to come are going to be able about the academics. I had a geology exam today that I got a 94 percent on so I was very happy about that. I have a couple more exams coming up soon, a role play mock trial for Sayyid Qutb and a ten page report due on the Geology of Egypt.

I only have four weeks left in the semester and then my dad will be here in Egypt for two weeks. We have a pretty good idea of what it is we are going to do but I am going to wait to post the plan first just because we are not 100% on it yet and second just to keep you all on the edge of your seats.

I am sorry to cut this off here but I am short on time. I will try to write again soon and maybe even get some photos up.