The Widow and the Spinster: The Search for Adventure, Enlightenment, and the Quest for Forbidden food - Bacon, Bacon, Bacon, and New TR Link! 4/2

[franandaj]

I didn't mind tipping the workers but I was irritated that they just started grabbing our stuff while we were still trying to get through the checkpoint. I was very nervous as my money and passport were on the belt and they were grabbing it before I could get to it.

Yes, they just started grabbing our bags before we could even get through the scanner. They could have easily run off with the stuff, but I don't think they have the same sort of unspoken rules about not touching other people's bags like in the US.

The airline check in agent was super rude about the extra bag. We had asked our tour guy who assured us it would be fine to have 2 bags but something must have gotten lost in translation....it was fine for international but we only got 1 bag with domestic. It wasn't a big deal to pay but she decided to pretty much yell at us about it.

Yes, she was super rude. It wasn't a big deal to pay for the bags, like Jill said, she just wanted to yell at us.

It was also at least 10 degrees warmer in Luxor than Cairo. I really liked the guide that picked us up. He was local and really nice and helpful.

Yes Luxor was much warmer than Cairo. It was also much more laid back.

The resort was right on the bank of the Nile. Those little tables and couches were for a special dinner you could book.

I didn't realize that those tables were for a special dinner!

Alison didn't mention all the bugs! They were awful and chased us inside at some point.

I'm getting there. That was the next day that we got attacked by bugs.....

The drinks were great and strong! We didn't stay out too late as we had a really really really early wake up call the next day.

Yeah, I did say we were in bed by 8PM, and the drinks were strong. I had nice buzz!

 

[franandaj]

I woke up at 3:40AM and tried to go back to sleep, but really couldn’t. The alarm went off at 4:18AM, and we got up and got dressed. Today was the day for our planned balloon flight, meaning we actually booked this before we left on the trip. Unlike the previous one that was offered to us the night before.

We waited in the lobby of the hotel and met the driver at 5:00AM. Soon we were on our way to a boat to cross the Nile to the West Bank.

Later today we would be boarding one of these ships. I wondered if any of these were the one we would be on.

Once we reached the other side of the river, we got off the boat and went up the bank to board another van.

We passed all sorts of sights that I found fascinating on our way to the balloon launch. We passed about a dozen of these “riverfront cafes”. It was hard to get a decent picture as we were driving so fast. But there were a bunch of these types of places. Each one was different and had a bit of the owner’s flair. And there were tons of cuisines, I saw a pizza place, an Indian restaurant, vegan restaurants, “American” restaurants….I wondered where the kitchens were.

The sun was peeking up on the horizon. It was about now when I realized that the 3:00AM pickup would have been better as far as the sunrise. Those balloons were just getting up into the air and seeing the sunrise from the balloon.

Now this is something that I found odd. You’d see a nice house/building like this.

And almost right next door, you would have a building like this.

Just your average business on a street.

We’re getting closer to the balloon launch point.

Now you may notice that in some of these pictures, it appears that the sun is fully risen, but in the picture above, the sun is still rising. Most of the pictures that I’m showing you are from my phone camera which compensates for lack of light. The picture above came from Jill’s camera and while it also has compensated for the light, not as much as mine does.

As we passed these structures, I wondered if they were ruins or people still lived there.

Or these…..

And now we are really almost there….

See, the sun really is just rising….

And even in Luxor, or should I say, The West Bank, there were dogs everywhere.

It was around this time that one of the guides told me to hide my DSLR camera because the police would come looking and confiscate it. It wasn’t clear why, but we did what he said. Luckily Jill had a large enough purse. Once the balloon took off it would be fine to use it for pictures.

And then finally we were in our balloon

And here we go…..

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

The first sight we could see from our balloon was Hatchepsut’s Temple. But also look at all the white vans parked there on the road. Every single one of them was transporting tourists like us to ride in balloons.

Now we weren’t allowed to actually fly over the Valley of the Kings or Hatchepsut’s Temple, but we were able to get sort of close.

This is the Ramesseum, the memorial temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

And here’s looking east towards the Nile and Luxor.

Now we are flying eastward towards the river.

You got me as to what this is, but it looks like an active excavation site based on all the tents and such.

And that’s where we came from.

And then we began to move away from the lift off location.

I actually stopped taking pictures for part of the ride and just enjoyed the flight, but once we started to come back down I started taking pictures again. We were probably in the air for 20-25 minutes.

Now a while back in the TR I mentioned that there was a fourth way that you could land. Before our flight today, they went over the same three methods as our previous balloon flight, but there was actually a fourth that they didn’t tell us about. That’s when about 10 guys surround the balloon basket as it’s approaching the ground, and they just pull you out of the sky and set you on the ground.

As we were landing, guys showed up with bags of sugar cane handing them to the balloon passengers. Of course then they wanted baksheesh for giving you the cane.

We were literally hoisted out of the basket. When we got back to our van, there was a couple from Northridge in the van with us. If you don’t know, Northridge is where I lived for 14 years before and when I met Fran.

Here we are getting back on the boat to cross the Nile again.

Boy do we look chipper for not having had caffeine yet! I guess it’s that balloon high!

We had breakfast at the buffet. The crepes were amazing. This gal is making my crepe. Boy is she giving me some stinkeye!

But this is my crepe that she made for me.

I decided that I needed some sort of protein, so I got a falafel. They advertised them here so that anyone could have one, not just people in the know.

They actually had beef bacon on the buffet, and I almost took a small slice to show it to everyone, but you all got a pretty good shot of it on Jill's burger a couple days ago.

On the way back to the room we noticed that there was a small bazaar down one of the hallways. I'd been wanting a T-shirt from Egypt, but I didn't see any I liked from that "cotton factory" that we visited. And every single place that they were selling anything, they were doing a "hard sell" and they all had the same crappy merchandise as they did at the cotton place, but more annoying to deal with.

The gentleman who operated this shop was not pressuring us to buy, in fact he helped me find a shirt in the right size and a color I liked.

Jill found this little stuffed camel which she thought would be perfect for the little girls who live next door. The man said he had more camels in his other store several doors down and we went to take a look. We ended up paying a little more than we might have had we hassled with a haggle at a bazaar, but my shirt was nice. It was embroidered, not screen printed. We didn't have to hassle and I got to use my Amex Gold card instead of cash.

We wandered around the grounds for a while, but it was just too darn hot. And there were large bugs flying around near the river, everywhere we sat, they kept dive bombing us or just landing threateningly near us.

So we went back to the room for a few hours, and I got caught up on the TR while we watched Almost Famous. I never saw the end of the movie, I’ll have to see if I can finish it on one of the streaming services.

We turned off the TV around 11:40AM and went downstairs to wait for our ride. Eventually they showed up and loaded our luggage into the van. I mentioned to the guide that we would like him to check if we had a room with two beds or one. I didn't want to hassle while they switched us if it hadn't been updated since I decided to join Jill on the trip.

While we were on our way, he called somewhere, and he confirmed that we had two twin beds. Later we would learn that we actually did not have two twin beds, but since he spoke in Arabic, we didn’t know that he changed our room assignment from one king bed to two twin beds.

Up next: Did we say Party of Nine?

 

[jedijill]

I didn't realize that those tables were for a special dinner!

I knew that from reading the literature at the front desk!

We had breakfast at the buffet. The crepes were amazing. This gal is making my crepe. Boy is she giving me some stinkeye!

The crepes were so good! Another reason to come stay here again!

ill found this little stuffed camel which she thought would be perfect for the little girls who live next door. The man said he had more camels in his other store several doors down and we went to take a look. We ended up paying a little more than we might have had we hassled with a haggle at a bazaar, but my shirt was nice. It was embroidered, not screen printed. We didn't have to hassle and I got to use my Amex Gold card instead of cash.

My neighbor girls (4 and 7 at the time) loved the pink camels! Worth the money! The store owner was super nice..he was excited to try an Amex for the first time! He said he just a got a system that could take them and Alison's was the first Amex transaction.

So we went back to the room for a few hours, and I got caught up on the TR while we watched Almost Famous. I never saw the end of the movie, I’ll have to see if I can finish it on one of the streaming services.

I was just happy to find something in English even though it had Arabic subtitles on. Such a great movie..you do need to finish it!

The hot air balloon ride was nice but I think I liked the one in Wadi Rum better but I'm glad we did both. We passed lots of banana trees on the way back from the balloon site. I think they said the location was called Banana Island since there were so many banana trees.

Jill in CO

 

[pkondz]

I actually kind of look at it more a slight connection to the real world. Communicating with folks back home and knowing that things are still continuing as normal even though I'm not there.

Heh. I don't want to know what's going on "back there"... I'm on vacation!

In one of the next updates I will be watching a movie while working on the TR!

I can't wait! Jill gets here in about 54 hours and once she gets here it's around 12-15 hours til Disney. Depending on how early we want to get up and drive over there.

Not that you're counting or anything.

I didn't even mean to do that! I guess my unconscious mind was being witty!

Well, no because we have some (albeit hazy) good pictures of the sunrise.

I meant that if you had gotten up that early, it would have been cloudy... but since you didn't get up that early... it wasn't cloudy.
Obviously not, in reality. The time you get up isn't going to affect the weather one way or another.

 

[pkondz]

I woke up at 3:40AM and tried to go back to sleep, but really couldn’t.

I hate when that happens. Tonight was the opposite. Needed some sleep before work, but... ah well.

Soon we were on our way to a boat to cross the Nile to the West Bank.

Good thing it isn't as wide as it is long. I hear it goes for Niles and Niles and Niles...

Now... I wonder where I heard that before??

You both look pretty chipper for that time of morning.

What does Jill's shirt say??

Those balloons were just getting up into the air and seeing the sunrise from the balloon.

Pretty sunrise.

Now this is something that I found odd. You’d see a nice house/building like this.


And almost right next door, you would have a building like this.

Location location location!

We’re getting closer to the balloon launch point.

So many balloons!

As we passed these structures, I wondered if they were ruins or people still lived there.

That first one at least, I'd guess people lived there. The others... not so sure.

See, the sun really is just rising….

It was around this time that one of the guides told me to hide my DSLR camera because the police would come looking and confiscate it.

I wonder... because if you have a long lens you could possibly take photos of sensitive sites? (militarily important, I mean)

But also look at all the white vans parked there on the road. Every single one of them was transporting tourists like us to ride in balloons.

That surprises me not at all, given the shear number of balloons!

Now we weren’t allowed to actually fly over the Valley of the Kings or Hatchepsut’s Temple, but we were able to get sort of close.

Allowed?
If the wind had been a bit different, you couldn't have prevented it. I wonder if they are grounded if that's the case?

I actually stopped taking pictures for part of the ride and just enjoyed the flight

And that's okay!

there was actually a fourth that they didn’t tell us about. That’s when about 10 guys surround the balloon basket as it’s approaching the ground, and they just pull you out of the sky and set you on the ground.

Oh!

As we were landing, guys showed up with bags of sugar cane handing them to the balloon passengers. Of course then they wanted baksheesh for giving you the cane.

Ohhhhhh...
And here I thought "Wow! What an organized ground crew!"

When we got back to our van, there was a couple from Northridge in the van with us. If you don’t know, Northridge is where I lived for 14 years before and when I met Fran.

Really! Huh! Small world after all.



great... now that song is in my head.

Boy do we look chipper for not having had caffeine yet! I guess it’s that balloon high!

But yes you do!

This gal is making my crepe. Boy is she giving me some stinkeye!

But this is my crepe that she made for me.

Yum!

The gentleman who operated this shop was not pressuring us to buy, in fact he helped me find a shirt in the right size and a color I liked.

And there were large bugs flying around near the river, everywhere we sat, they kept dive bombing us or just landing threateningly near us.

Reminds me of Florida during love bug season. Yuck.

 

[franandaj]

I knew that from reading the literature at the front desk!

Well I'm glad you did!

The crepes were so good! Another reason to come stay here again!

And maybe that dinner that you read about, we'll have to see what that's about.

The store owner was super nice..he was excited to try an Amex for the first time! He said he just a got a system that could take them and Alison's was the first Amex transaction.

I forgot that he just got a new system and I was the first to try out the Amex Gold card.

I was just happy to find something in English even though it had Arabic subtitles on. Such a great movie..you do need to finish it!

I guess I never looked at the TV and tried to channel surf. I didn't realize that nearly everything was in Arabic!

The hot air balloon ride was nice but I think I liked the one in Wadi Rum better but I'm glad we did both.

I definitely enjoyed the one in Wadi Rum more as well, but it was neat to do two in one trip!

We passed lots of banana trees on the way back from the balloon site. I think they said the location was called Banana Island since there were so many banana trees.

That's an interesting Fun Fact!

 

[jedijill]

What does Jill's shirt say??

My shirt says "I blame Mercury Retrograde."

Jill in CO

 

[pkondz]

My shirt says "I blame Mercury Retrograde."

Jill in CO

Thanks!

I like it.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I got an omelet cooked to order, some fruit, chicken sausage (so far no pork products, but we keep hoping), cheese, and pastries.

Your breakfast spread looked very nice. I'm guessing pork products were few and far between in Jordan.

The drive outside Amman past the airport was super boring. It was almost like driving through the central valley of California on I-5 or the I-15 to Las Vegas.

Well, now I can picture this, and I have no desire to drive that.

I was going to say this doesn't look like Vegas, but I guess you never really know.

We still had another couple hours to go. Did I mention that this was a 4 hour drive? It was at this point that Jill pointed out that the motto of Jordan should be "Land of the speed bumps."

Sounds terrible.

This is when I decided that I like naked camels better than the ones all saddled up.

I am sure I will not create a "naked camels" running gag from this quote. Carry on.

It's just like Epcot! What did you have to go all the way over there for?

Actually, that looks pretty nice.

 

[franandaj]

Heh. I don't want to know what's going on "back there"... I'm on vacation!

I don't want to be blindsided by stuff going on that I don't know about. Like yesterday, I had so much fun at the Villas with my besties that I didn't even know that one of the presidential candidates had dropped out of the race. I was listening to the news a was very confused. I had to Google to catch up.

Not that you're counting or anything.

I was!

I meant that if you had gotten up that early, it would have been cloudy... but since you didn't get up that early... it wasn't cloudy.
Obviously not, in reality. The time you get up isn't going to affect the weather one way or another.

One of those.....

I hate when that happens. Tonight was the opposite. Needed some sleep before work, but... ah well.

I don't know how you pull off your schedule.

Good thing it isn't as wide as it is long. I hear it goes for Niles and Niles and Niles...

Now... I wonder where I heard that before??

You stole one of my chapter titles.......

That first one at least, I'd guess people lived there. The others... not so sure.

Well they said that they had to relocate people from Petra in the 80s, so you never know.....

I wonder... because if you have a long lens you could possibly take photos of sensitive sites? (militarily important, I mean)

I think it's more they don't want civilians running around with professional level cameras.

That surprises me not at all, given the shear number of balloons!

I guess so, I think they held either 24 or 36 people.

Allowed?
If the wind had been a bit different, you couldn't have prevented it. I wonder if they are grounded if that's the case?

Yeah, we almost didn't take off in Wadi Rum due to wind.

Ohhhhhh...
And here I thought "Wow! What an organized ground crew!"

No, those were just farmers wandering around trying to get some baksheesh

Really! Huh! Small world after all.



great... now that song is in my head.

Reminds me of Florida during love bug season. Yuck.

Well it wasn't that bad. But they were bigger and scarier.

 

[franandaj]

Your breakfast spread looked very nice. I'm guessing pork products were few and far between in Jordan.

Pork products were non-existent.

Well, now I can picture this, and I have no desire to drive that.

I was going to say this doesn't look like Vegas, but I guess you never really know.

Do you? What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas......

I am sure I will not create a "naked camels" running gag from this quote. Carry on.

Jill and I got quite a kick out of Naked camels!

It's just like Epcot! What did you have to go all the way over there for?

We just wanted to experience a 30 hour travel day!

Actually, that looks pretty nice.

It really was!

 

[franandaj]

When we got to the boat there were guys out there waiting to take our luggage. They were already gone and had whisked away our luggage by the time I got out of the van and took this picture.

This is one of my first glimpses of the inside of the ship as we ascended the staircase. One of the lounge areas.

We went up to the top inside floor into the cocktail lounge and they served us some Hibiscus juice. It was very tasty.

They took our passports, did all the check-in and returned them to us with room keys and everything. We headed to our room and the bellmen were waiting in the hall with our bags. I took pictures of the room quickly while they brought our bags in, since this would be the tidiest that it would ever be!

And the Hallway without the porter.

I grabbed my hat and Sunscreen from my suitcase, since I forgot them when I packed up earlier. I had carried my tennis shoes and socks with me because my sandals were so much more comfortable, but not practical for touring monuments. I changed into those as well.

Then we headed down to lunch. We had a little over half an hour to scarf down lunch and meet our new guide and driver. This is where we figured out that our room had been changed. I think we ended up in Room 409, but when we tried to check in for lunch, the Maitre’d couldn’t find us on the list. I saw Jill’s name, but it was for Room 412 (or something like those numbers). Evidently we were in a verandah room, but moving us we just had a window. We were actually fine with that because the room was pretty small as it was. Putting a verandah on it would have just made the inside space smaller.

OK, back to lunch.

Here’s a couple shots of the dining room.

They had pasta bar. There were several different bowls to choose ingredients from. He started with some sort of oil in the pan and you could choose from garlic, tomatoes, red onions, an assortment of peppers (I saw sliced jalapeños, or something similar so I skipped it), and a green herb. I asked what it was and they told me the name in Arabic. I asked if he knew the English name.

This got a bunch of different people involved and finally one of the servers told me that it was "green vegetable." I passed on that one. It didn't smell like basil so I was at a loss. Later I determined that it was parsley. After he added the pasta, he put in about 2 tablespoons of sauce. This was what I got. It needed more sauce.

Jill got a bowl of the Minestrone soup, the Beef Goulash, and some Chicken Fingers.

Then I got myself some MInestrone which was tasty. I paired my Beef goulash with mashed potatoes instead of rice and it was pretty good.

Many of the desserts had coconut. Jill forewarned me. I just had a few.

They also had us pre order our choices for dinner this evening before we left.

We had brought everything with us so that we could meet up with our guide directly after lunch. He was waiting for us in the lobby. We boarded our van and headed to a parking lot. This is where things seemed to get a little sketchy. It wasn't though.

There were a ton of buses and vans parked here, and after about 20 minutes another guide and a bunch of people came walking out from a clump of buses. They climbed into the van and introduced themselves. Hey wait? I thought we were supposed to be having a private tour?

I guess that was now out the window. They were all nice enough people, but it kind of sucked that now we were at the mercy of other people. When we exited the van, we noticed the boy (who was seven years old) was holding a Mickey Mouse. Not just any Mickey Mouse, but Mickey the adventurer, his dad pointed out. The daughter, who was about five years old, also had her favorite new toy, a stuffed green Nile crocodile.

Our first stop was Karnak Temple. The Early morning and the heat really started to hit me. At first I was like, I don't think I'm going to make it through this." I remembered the heat stroke incident at Disney two months before and began to power down on the water. At least they provided us cold water in the vans every day. Sometimes a couple bottles.

Once past the entrance gates, we stopped under a tree where our guide, Fayed, was able to give us some information. He gave us some background on the Karnak Temple. And then he gave us some pointers on the sellers in the bazaar. “Don't look at them, don't talk to them, just ignore them. If you show a little interest, they will follow you and they won't give up.” That's exactly what I had been doing and it seemed to work pretty well.

After about 20 minutes, and at least 500ml of water, I started to feel better, but my feet were still tired. Here we are just outside the entrance to the Temple itself.

The Karnak Temple Complex comprises a vast mix of temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BCE) in the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1700 BCE) and continued into the Ptolemaic Kingdom (305–30 BCE), although most of the extant buildings date from the New Kingdom. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are vast.

Many of the main roads which lead to the temples of Thebes (modern Luxor) used to be continuously lined with sphinxes. You’ll see some of those later. However, the statues which flank the entrance to the First Pylon of Karnak Temple combine the body of a lion with the head of a ram. The ram was a symbol of the god Amun, the chief deity worshiped in the Great Temple of Karnak.

Let’s head inside…..

Carvings were on the walls everywhere and very intricate.

Inside those walls is another courtyard with more Rams.

And other statues

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

Then we went into the next section called the The Great Hypostyle Hall. It was built around the 19th Egyptian Dynasty (c. 1290–1224 BC). Its design was initially instituted by Hatshepsut, at the North-west chapel to Amun in the upper terrace of Deir el-Bahri. The roof, now fallen, was supported by 134 columns in 16 rows; the two middle rows are higher than the others. It’s pretty impressive.

You can see our guide, Fayed, sitting in the right hand corner of this photo.

After we looked at the columns our guide gave us 15 minutes to look around and take pictures. Honestly, I'd taken mine while he talked. I took a seat and powered down more water. I think I got my second wind around then.

Next we moved on to view the Obelisk of Hatchepsut. It was built in the year 1457 BC, during the XVIII dynasty, and is the second biggest of all the ancient Egyptian obelisks. Made of one single piece of pink granite, it has a height of 28.58 metres and its weight is 343 tons. It is located in the Big Temple of Amon, in Karnak.

Now to give you an idea of how large this complex is, I’ve enclosed this photo from of the Temple Complex from 1914 from the Cornell University Library. We entered through the large gates in the middles at the top of the picture. The columns are also still in the top part of the pictures, as well as the Obelisk that we were just viewing.

The entire portion on the right side of the picture, and the bottom are closed to the public. I believe that we only went as far as that wall that parallels the bottom end of the pond. Here is the sun setting over that pond.

At this point, Fayed gave us 20 minutes to look around. He pointed out this Obelisk and if you circled it a number of times, good fortune would come to you. I was too tired to bother, but Jill circled it the prerequisite number of times while I waited. Not only for Jill, but I told Fayed that we wanted to follow him out of the Temple. I wasn’t exactly sure how to get back from where we were. He had a cup of coffee before heading out. How these people can drink a hot beverage in such a hot climate is beyond me.

The whole getting up at 4:30 thing and climbing in and out of the balloon basket was really starting to hit me. We still had Luxor Temple to visit.

Next Up: Mr. Ramses, I presume?

 

[pkondz]

I don't want to be blindsided by stuff going on that I don't know about. Like yesterday, I had so much fun at the Villas with my besties that I didn't even know that one of the presidential candidates had dropped out of the race. I was listening to the news a was very confused. I had to Google to catch up.

I understand that.
And you have a few things that you need to be kept up to speed on too.

I don't know how you pull off your schedule.

Neither do I.

You stole one of my chapter titles.......

Sorry! And if you don't believe that, you're in.... Africa!

I think it's more they don't want civilians running around with professional level cameras.

That's... weird.

Yeah, we almost didn't take off in Wadi Rum due to wind.

Oh!

 

[pkondz]

When we got to the boat there were guys out there waiting to take our luggage.

Never to be seen again...

We went up to the top inside floor into the cocktail lounge and they served us some Hibiscus juice. It was very tasty.

It looks a lot bigger on the inside than I thought it would be, from the outside photos.

I took pictures of the room quickly while they brought our bags in, since this would be the tidiest that it would ever be!

Looks pretty nice! I love the teak floor in the bathroom.

Putting a verandah on it would have just made the inside space smaller.

Huh. I hadn't thought of that, but... makes sense.

a green herb. I asked what it was and they told me the name in Arabic. I asked if he knew the English name.

This got a bunch of different people involved and finally one of the servers told me that it was "green vegetable."

Another way of saying... "I know the word for 'green' and 'vegetable' and that's as close as I can get."

This was what I got. It needed more sauce.

Looks like it.

Many of the desserts had coconut. Jill forewarned me. I just had a few.

I would've had none. Nope!

They climbed into the van and introduced themselves. Hey wait? I thought we were supposed to be having a private tour?

Not just any Mickey Mouse, but Mickey the adventurer, his dad pointed out.

Ah! One must be accurate with your Mice.

The Early morning and the heat really started to hit me. At first I was like, I don't think I'm going to make it through this."

Uh oh...

I remembered the heat stroke incident at Disney two months before and began to power down on the water.

Glad you did that. I'd hate for you to have another episode while on vacation.

“Don't look at them, don't talk to them, just ignore them. If you show a little interest, they will follow you and they won't give up.”

Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings,

Whoa!
Talk about dedication!

Many of the main roads which lead to the temples of Thebes (modern Luxor) used to be continuously lined with sphinxes.

That must've been quite a sight. Actually... can you imagine what the complex must have looked like when it was completed and intact?

Carvings were on the walls everywhere and very intricate.

Stunning.

The roof, now fallen, was supported by 134 columns in 16 rows; the two middle rows are higher than the others. It’s pretty impressive.

Just... amazing. My mom talks about Karnak to this day... and she visited over 40 years ago.

You can see our guide, Fayed, sitting in the corner of this photo.

Red pants?

the second biggest of all the ancient Egyptian obelisks. Made of one single piece of pink granite,

!!!
Moving that must've been.... incredible to see, let alone do.

Now to give you an idea of how large this complex is, I’ve enclosed this photo from of the Temple Complex from 1914 from the Cornell University Library.

Thanks for that. Puts it into perspective for me.

Here is the sun setting over that pond.

Pretty shot.

He pointed out this Obelisk and if you circled it a number of times, good fortune would come to you. I was too tired to bother, but Jill circled it the prerequisite number of times while I waited

So........ has Jill had better luck than you since then???

How these people can drink a hot beverage in such a hot climate is beyond me.

I get that, sort of.
My dad, who worked in construction all his life, would drink hot coffee on his break, regardless of how hot it was. I could never understand it. He claimed that drinking something hot, made your body cool. Don't see how, myself.

The whole getting up at 4:30 thing and climbing in and out of the balloon basket was really starting to hit me. We still had Luxor Temple to visit.

 

[DnA2010]

to a boat to cross the Nile to the West Bank.

Pretty! I learned later in your pics that this was the normal paint/colour set up

I guess it was so early, no one was dining yet?

And almost right next door, you would have a building like this.

Whoa! that is surprising!

Lots up already it seems!

Or these…..

These are really neat, would be interesting to know if anyone lived there as you say

It was around this time that one of the guides told me to hide my DSLR camera because the police would come looking and confiscate it. It wasn’t clear why, but we did what he said.

Weird- glad you had no issues

This is the Ramesseum, the memorial temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

So old! Roads around all these historic sites

wow pretty, and so green! what a contrast!

That’s when about 10 guys surround the balloon basket as it’s approaching the ground, and they just pull you out of the sky and set you on the ground.

that is different! hey there buddy!

As we were landing, guys showed up with bags of sugar cane handing them to the balloon passengers. Of course then they wanted baksheesh for giving you the cane.

How was it?

Boy is she giving me some stinkeye!

whoa she sure was! was the crepe good?

cute!

Glad you found a shirt you liked!

 

[jedijill]

Karnak was very impressive but HUGE! Our guide was a let down after Achmed in Cairo. He was gave us info and then went and sat down. I wasn't super happy about others joining us as the tour had been booked as private guides and transportation but the others were nice enough. A super nice couple from Australia (firefighter and Qantas Flight Attendant!) and a family from Croatia and the mom's university friend from Greece. The family had two smaller children that were pretty well behaved but got hot and bored as kids do. The friend was that "one" on the tour...we were always waiting for him.

It was so much warmer in Luxor and those dang Ancient Egyptians didn't install fans or A/C. (Guess the aliens didn't share that technology) I was worried about Alison but she rallied after drinking more water. It had been a long day already with the early wake up and travel day the day before.

Jill in CO

 

[pkondz]

Our guide was a let down after Achmed in Cairo. He was gave us info and then went and sat down.

Unfortunate.

The friend was that "one" on the tour...we were always waiting for him.

It was so much warmer in Luxor and those dang Ancient Egyptians didn't install fans or A/C. (Guess the aliens didn't share that technology)

I think they figured that was a given.

 

[DnA2010]

they served us some Hibiscus juice. It was very tasty.

Was it sweet? Flowerly?

Some of the furniture is kinda...unique? it's not your super boring hotel type, more interesting

Did they leave you a little treat on the side table by the lamp?

tub!!

So flashy!

Evidently we were in a verandah room, but moving us we just had a window.

Funn, from the picture earlier, it still looked like a veranda

were these chairs uncomfortable?

After he added the pasta, he put in about 2 tablespoons of sauce

Well that's certainly not enough

it was pretty good.

This looks tasty! Was it well seasoned?

Not just any Mickey Mouse, but Mickey the adventurer,

Well at least the kids had good taste

I remembered the heat stroke incident at Disney two months before and began to power down on the water

Atta girl! roud:

He looks happy, like he's smiling

Carvings were on the walls everywhere and very intricate.

Very intricate! I enjoyed looking at the details in the pics

It’s pretty impressive.

Very impressive indeed, so the colour is old as well?

Now to give you an idea of how large this complex

Thanks, that was useful!


Another great update!