day 6 in the land that uses flimsy toilet paper
freshmeat: don't be french.
ahhhh...this was a day i had been looking forward to. the day we visit the valley of the kings, queens, and the temple of hatshepsut.
unfortunately this was also one of the hottest days we had experienced. at one point the guide stops us to give us a history lesson right as the sun is beating down on us...when 10 feet away there was shade.
so our first stop is the valley of the kings...located on the west bank of luxor (remember the ancient egyptians buried their dead in the west and lived in the east [sun rises in the east and sets in the west]). your ticket in allows you to visit three tombs. my guide book recommended the top 3 to visit. i didn't see any of them. the guide showed us to three others.
yeahhhhh...
on a side note, our guide's finance is also a tour guide and we ran into him at the valley of the kings.
to visit the tomb of tutankhamon was an additional 100E£...and all the good pieces were at the Cairo Museum so we decided to skip it.
the tombs were so humid. everyone was dripping with sweat by the time we reemerged into the sunlight. the first tomb we went to some woman was having a spiritual "moment." she had collapsed to the ground sobbing at the spot where the mummy would have been. others were around her chanting and whatnot.
the group decided to skip the valley of queens as they are not that impressive...so we pressed on to the hatshepsut's temple (see the photo above). she was egypt's first female ruler. and she's also the only woman to have a burial complex in both the valley of the kings and queens.
and then off to see the Colossi of Memnon.
and that was it. we were free for the rest of the day until they picked us up to take us to the train station for our overnight train back to Cairo.
so we passed the time with going to the post office (where you are expected to shove in front of others to get served), shopping, being called Spice Girls by the men of Luxor, drinking tea for hours at the market, then getting wasted at a place that overlooks the luxor temple.
once we were settled on the train we began a drunken game of battleships with the british couple we were traveling with, got scared by the train toilet, put on every piece of clothing i had to stay warm, and got yelled out for being too noisy.
i learned that train traveling in egypt is always best when you've had 4 or 5 beers in you.
ahhhh...this was a day i had been looking forward to. the day we visit the valley of the kings, queens, and the temple of hatshepsut.
unfortunately this was also one of the hottest days we had experienced. at one point the guide stops us to give us a history lesson right as the sun is beating down on us...when 10 feet away there was shade.
so our first stop is the valley of the kings...located on the west bank of luxor (remember the ancient egyptians buried their dead in the west and lived in the east [sun rises in the east and sets in the west]). your ticket in allows you to visit three tombs. my guide book recommended the top 3 to visit. i didn't see any of them. the guide showed us to three others.
yeahhhhh...
on a side note, our guide's finance is also a tour guide and we ran into him at the valley of the kings.
to visit the tomb of tutankhamon was an additional 100E£...and all the good pieces were at the Cairo Museum so we decided to skip it.
the tombs were so humid. everyone was dripping with sweat by the time we reemerged into the sunlight. the first tomb we went to some woman was having a spiritual "moment." she had collapsed to the ground sobbing at the spot where the mummy would have been. others were around her chanting and whatnot.
the group decided to skip the valley of queens as they are not that impressive...so we pressed on to the hatshepsut's temple (see the photo above). she was egypt's first female ruler. and she's also the only woman to have a burial complex in both the valley of the kings and queens.
and then off to see the Colossi of Memnon.
and that was it. we were free for the rest of the day until they picked us up to take us to the train station for our overnight train back to Cairo.
so we passed the time with going to the post office (where you are expected to shove in front of others to get served), shopping, being called Spice Girls by the men of Luxor, drinking tea for hours at the market, then getting wasted at a place that overlooks the luxor temple.
once we were settled on the train we began a drunken game of battleships with the british couple we were traveling with, got scared by the train toilet, put on every piece of clothing i had to stay warm, and got yelled out for being too noisy.
i learned that train traveling in egypt is always best when you've had 4 or 5 beers in you.
posted by vixen @ 9:22 PM
2 Comments:
At December 02, 2007 8:37 PM,
julia said…
m -- sounds like pretty much the exact tour/trip that we had. :) so fun to read your posts and know exactly what you are talking about (minus a few things like the man boobs, etc.). i paid the extra pounds to see king tut and it was really cool to see his mummified body laying there. the treasures from the tomb at the museum were amazing. unbelievable.
At December 05, 2007 7:36 PM,
vixen said…
welcome back!!!
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