Our day started with a 4 hour drive from Swaziland to Johannesburg where we made a stop to ship a package home and then head to the airport. We flew to Doha again, landing about 4am and then got into Luxor around 10am, landing us back in the Northern Hemisphere for the first time since Oct 5th. All in all this was about a 24 hour trip, but everything went smoothly, so it felt pretty easy when compared to adventure from Asia.
We arrived on our 3rd son's 10th birthday and he has always had somewhat of an infatuation with pyramids, so it's only fitting (and lucky really) that we are here to celebrate his special day.
Landing in Luxor, the scenery is immediately surreal. It sort of feels like you are on the set of an Indiana Jones movie. Brown sand lines the horizon and horse drawn carriages are everywhere traveling right along side of cars. The air is dusty and many ruins and statues line the streets. Luxor, or the ancient city of Thebes, is a small community best known for the Valley of the Kings, the Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple and we had already booked with a tour company to see all three. We only had about 72 hours here and we intended to make the most of it.
Our tour company picked us at the airport and we cleared immigration and paid for our visas smoothly. Arriving at our hotel we were greeted and shown our simple accommodations. Nothing fancy, but we only had two nights here. We then headed in search of SIM cards. Here is where things get more interesting. We opted to walk the streets and just our bearings and were literally hounded by vendors and even more so by the carriage drivers. We would politely tell them no thanks, but they would follow us, constantly asking us "Ferrari, Ferrari?" We didn't get it at the time but later figured out that they refer to the horse as the "Egyptian Ferrari." The other thing that took us a day to learn is that if you are not firm (rude in our mind) with these people they will not stop bothering you. You cannot say "later "or "maybe" as that will not deter them. This gives us lots to talk about with the kids to say the least.
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Loving the Egyptian Bread "Eesh balladi" |
The Egyptian economy is really suffering since the revolution in 2011. Tourism, which is largest part of the economy stands at 10% of what it was prior to the revolution. Thats not off 10% but rather one tenth of what it was. The currency is officially pegged at 7.8 Egyptian Pounds to the dollar, but on the street one can get 10, which is a 28% difference and huge in the currency world. The difference is a reckoning to the government about just how bad things really are.
After successfully getting new SIM cards, we made our way back to the hotel snacking on a few of the local street foods and just taking in all the sites and sounds of this vastly different environment. We realize we are in a much different place than we've ever visited before.
Our only item for today was taking a sunset Felucca ride on the Nile. Feluccas are a sort of sail boat that are famous here and we are excited just to be on the water. The ride was smooth and the views amazing. Apparently some tourists desire to drink from the Nile as legend has it, the person will return to Egypt - this was not on our list of "to do's!" Following the felucca ride we had a birthday dinner at our hotel where they made G a huge cake.
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Felucca ride on the Nile River |
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Our tour guide smoking the sheesha |
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Shepherdess in the field alongside the Nile |
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Celebrating G's 10th birthday! |
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Men sitting on their carts selling goods along the streets |
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Oldest eating a traditional Egyptian meal of stuffed pigeon! |
That evening we took a horse carriage to dinner. We found a great pizza place and enjoyed some familiar food! Our carriage driver had convinced us he'd drive us after dinner, and so afterwards we began an escapade of finding an ice cream shop mom wanted us to try. We succeeded in arriving a few minutes before they closed and enjoyed a delicious treat of unique combinations. However, on our carriage ride home, we were continually heckled by our driver, who we'd brought pizza and been very upfront with about our intentions and cost. Finally fed up, we had him drop us off on the street and walked the rest of the way home in peace - they are relentless. The educated locals that we met at our hotel and on our tours apologized for the hecklers and carriage drivers and really held them in distaste, even referring to them as "savages". They claimed they are ruining tourism in Egypt. For us, it was interesting to observe that there really are two classes of people here in Luxor, and the difference between them can be felt.
All in all, we were in awe of our introduction to Egyptian history and current culture. Impressions from our first full day in Luxor were:
Dad: The places we visited are older so much than Machu Picchu
Mom: Incredible to wrap her mind around the timing and overlap of so many historical events
C: It was better than visiting Machu Picchu and was the best history class ever
CB: The ruins were so much larger than expected and really cool
G: Awesome! By the end of his life he's going to be able to read heiroglyphics!
Sj: Lots of pretty statues
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Our transportation to dinner |
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Luxor Temple at night |
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