Luxor: East Bank

I'm glad we got a chance to relax in Sharm, as the next few days were at a breakneck pace. We took the early morning flight to Luxor. Almost immediately after checking into Steinerberger, our hotel on the Nile--which the locals pronounce as the Nil (kneel)--we headed to the Temple at Karnak. I think this is supposed to be the Temple of Amun, the King of the Gods. The grounds were expansive and it was our hottest day yet. Although we were pleased by all the giant ruins--the row of sphines, the Hypostyle Hall, the Ninth Pylon--we found ourselves running from shady area to shady area to excape the heat. Nici and I got seperated from Regina and Kaitlan when we were trying to find the sacred lake. Although the lake itself was not very aesthetically pleasing, our venture to it led us to the 9th Pylon, which was probably my favorite view of the temple. Of course, the viewpoint was pointed out to us by a guard toting a machine gun. It is hard to disagree with someone with an automatice weapon.








After Karnak, we grabbed a quick meal at Al-Hussein. This was our best meal during all of Egypt. It started with lentil soup and several sides of tahinin, hummus, tzatiki, eggplant, and other toppings to go on top of our naan. The main course was a mixed grill of meets with a side of potatoes in a yummy red sauce and rice.


After lunch we hit Luxor Palace. It was not as impressive (or a large) as Karnak, but we were grateful that it did not take long to explore it in the heat.





We went back to the hotel to swim in the pool next to the Nile. After sunset, when the pool closed, NIci and I ventured out (Regina and Kaitlin were not feeling well). After doing some shopping and witnessing a prayer session,
we hired Adam to drive us in a corniche (horse drawn carriage) to Sharia Souk, an all night market.
While we were quite happy with our ride with Rambo-gini (our horse), Adam only did a quick trip through Sharia Souk, telling us it was the fruit and vegetable market, and dropped us off at "the tourist market", which was really an overpriced store that we are sure gave Adam a kickback for bringing us there. We really liked the papyrus floor and demonstration. We ended up buying several pieces on this floor and some other items on other floors despite the high prices because we liked the selection, felt that most of the prices were relatively reasonable, and we could use our credit cards.


Fully knowing that we had been hustled, but content nonetheless, we enjoyed our ride back to the hotel. That is except for a few near death experiences. In Egypt, the roads rarely, if ever, have any lines seperating the lanes and even if they do exist, that are merely suggestions that are rarely ever heeded. It is not uncommon to have six cars driving on a 3 lane street. We learned during our ride that direction of traffic is also only a suggestion, especially if you are a horse, and that short, repeated honks mean ready-or-not, here I come. Our evening was also marred by Adam's insistence that we pay him $250 Egyptian pounds instead of the $10 pounds we had agreed upon. We didn't pay him that, of course, but this was one of the many disheartening experiences where we were asked to pay substantially more than we had agreed upon.