Rudders at Home

Day 3 – Friday, November 10, 2006

Ok, so there’s starting to be a pattern here. On the morning of Day 3, we pretty much did all the same as we did on Day 2. Yep, you got it, the pool. I think it’s probably a good thing that Paul was enjoying his book, otherwise he may have gotten a bit bored, but we both agreed that it was so nice to just chill out for a while. And the pool was such a nice place to be, especially with the sun loungers we were getting – right beside the river. The view was so gorgeous there. We could just sit all day and watch feluccas go up and down. Along with the cruise boats. There were tons of them.

And we just took it easy there for a while, We watched a bit of the sunset with a group of Belgians, and then we decided we needed to make a move. So we went in and got cleaned up, and yes, we did manage to get out for a bit. in the evening on Friday. We had arranged to go to Karnak Temple, just a bit outside of Luxor.

We went with a group, organized by the hotel. We got in a van taxi thing and headed out. The trip to the temple was pretty uneventful, until we had just about arrived. I’ll tell you what, you’ve never seen anything until you see this big hole that was in the middle of the road. Seriously, a hole. In the middle of the road. With no signage whatsoever. I’m telling you the absolute truth, and if I could have gotten a picture of it, I would have. Our mouths just dropped when we saw it.

The sound and light show was awesome. We walk up to the entrance of the temple, and it looks like it’s going to be some small little rinky dink place with hardly anything at all – looks like there’s hardly any room for anything in there. But, when you get in, there’s just space galore and massive, massive statues. THe sound and light show was pretty cool. They would light the statues and a loudspeaker would play a narrative, telling the history of the temple and who built what and why. There were immense stone pillars and a huge courtyard halfway through. The show ended at the Sacred Lake, where we got to sit on bleachers and they told us about the stone obelisks that took seven months to transfer the granite to Luxor to build them. It was pretty neat, because the temple reflected in the lake – really peaceful and pretty. The entire thing was really cool and prompted us to go back to Karnak to see it during the day. See our information about Day 6.

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Day 2 – Thursday, November 9, 2006

And we wake up to SUNSHINE!!! And with that I fell in love with Egypt.

Our breakfast was included in our stay, so we got cleaned up (ok, I got
my bikini and the suncream on) and headed to check out what there was
to eat. We sat outside in full sunlight our first morning. Gorgeous.
Buffet, with nice cook making omelettes to order. The first thing our
waiter did was show us a table and ask our names, then introduced
himself. Very nice service.

Once we’d stuffed ourselves, we decided we’d take a little wander
around the hotel – see what there was to see. The first sidewalk we
wandered down led us to the Nile! We had a good look around and took
some pictures, and then headed back up. We then followed another path
which led us back down to the Nile and we decided to follow the jogging
path around the island for a bit.

The rest of the day was spent doing exactly what I’d been dreaming of for ages: Absolutely Nothing. After we wandered back to the room, we slathered ourselves in lotion and headed to the infinity pool. We brought towels along, and once we got to the pool, we realized that we didn’t need them. There was a man who took care of all that – brought clean towels out, spread them out on your sun lounger and then took himself off to take care of someone else. He didn’t even expect a baksheesh, which was great.

So, we hung out by the pool, and soon enough a fella came round asking if we wanted something drink. Just after noon, and we thought, yeah, sure why not? So we had a nice cool drink in the sunshine. The bottle of which is displaying on the left. Not a bad beer, really, but it’s not all we had while we were there. I had some really good juice as well – something they called karkade, or hibiscus tea. It was bright red, and sweet, just like almost every other drink we had in Egypt. Coffee had sugar in it, tea had loads of sugar in it, as did the hibiscus stuff, which we got both, hot and cold. I really wish I had brought some back, but I guess I probably never would have made any.

Later, the same guy came round asking if we wanted to attend a barbeque that they were having at the pool terrace restaurant. And we decided we’d try that, not really wanting to go into town just yet. And the afternoon slowly passed.

We made it back to our room and found that our tour operator person had left a note with some info on local tours and activities that we could do while we were there. So, we decided on a few of those, went to meet her and booked them. Then got ourselves cleaned up and headed for the barbeque.

Overall, time well spent and day full of not very much except the sun. The pool was freezing, by the way!

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Check out the blog for summaries on our days in Egypt. Read on to find out how I’ve accommodated things on the site.

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Day 1 – Wednesday, November, 2006

Our flight arrived, around 6pm Egyptian time, what I think was on time,
and we made our way through customs and the like. We had to buy our
visa when we landed. It’s a stamp, literally, and not the self adhesive
kind. We bought that, then got in the queue to be let into the country.
With our passports stamped, we made our way out to the baggage claim
area and waited for our bags. And waited…and waited… Ours was
nearly the last one off, but that was ok. I think I embarrassed Paul a
bit, with my wide eyed blatant tourist actions, but I attracted a lot
of attention. People were smiling at me, so I didn’t see any reason why
I shouldn’t smile and stare back.

Got to the bus, got on and started the journey to the hotel. I’ve
never seen anything like it, and I’m certainly glad my first few
moments in the country were on a bus, where I could gawk with no
repercussions. And gawk I did. While the woman (our tour operator
guide) was giving her talk, I was busy looking out the window. And, I
have to say, it made me feel better that Paul was too. On our way to
the hotel, we saw this group of men trying to break down a rock that
was bigger than the lot of them. In the middle of a dusty road. And
then we saw some gardeners, and everything looked dusty and hot – even
though everyone was covered, with long sleeves, even when they had
Western wear on. Paul and I had a chuckle, it was so great.
I really had that feeling again, that I was in a different culture and
way of life. It felt really good.

Not knowing what to expect on arrival at the hotel, and we were
welcomed in by a bunch of musicians. Well, three – four men with
instruments. We checked in, and leaving our bag (yes, only 1) with a porter ( We’d never done that before! How posh!) We had a bit of a relax in the
room, wondering if our bag would ever arrive, and then we decided to
have a wander. Looked around a bit, but
because it was soooo dark, (and yes, I was wondering what exactly was
out there, really) we decided to spend the vouchers we received
for the Crocodile Bar.

Fairly early night after a couple local beers, something called Stella, and the excitement really began the next day!

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Well, we arrived safely back in London on Wednesday night. And we’re now in the process of coming down from the holiday high. I can’t believe I’ve swapped sun and warmth for dreary drizzle and overcast skies.

Along with the laundry, we’re sorting out the photos – we took 389 of them!! – and I’m working out the best way to organize everything on the site. I’m really anxious to let you all know some of the details.

On the surface, though, I can easily tell you that I think Egypt is my favorite destination so far. I’ve returned with the same feelings I had for London my first time round. Luxor was gorgeous, the sites were amazing, and the people we actually dealt with were lovely beyond belief. I’ll be coming back with more information and manageable photos later this weekend.

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