This morning was an early start, but even earlier for the balloonists.
Some of our group were up before dawn to go on a balloon ride over the West Bank and the rest of us were going to meet them when they landed. Our schedule for this morning was The Colossi of Memnon, Valley of the Kings and The mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. We met the balloonists at the Colossi of Memnon.
It
was amusing to hear their stories of climbing in and out of the basket, which
holds about 30 people and the narrow missing of the power pylon. They could
actually see into the mud brick houses of the locals as they flew over them.
The houses do not have roofs because it so hot and it never rains in Luxor.
We had about 5 minutes to take our photos of the Colossi, which are the statues
of Amenhotep III and are all that remain standing of his Mortuary Temple, although
recent excavations have found some more remains, including the bases of the
columns of the hypostyle hall , that are not yet on show to the public.
A story associated with these statues is that during the Greco-Roman period the north colossus was said to sing at dawn, after being damaged by an earthquake. Folklore at that time said that it was the Homeric hero Memnon singing to his mother Eos, the goddess of the dawn. Unfortunately the Roman emperor Severus had the statue repaired in around 200 a.d. so now it no longer sings. The figures stand 65 feet high and although they are now damaged they are still quite spectacular and spooky just sitting there in the middle of nowhere. It is inconceivable to imagine how big the original temple must have been. Amin rounded up his flock and then it was then back on to the bus and on to the King's Valley.
At the Valley of the Kings we were given 3 tickets to see 3 tombs.
After
a buggy-train ride from the entrance, we walked a little way to sit in a covered
shelter while Amin explained about the valley and suggested the tombs that were
worth visiting. Tour guides are not allowed in the tombs because the authorities
want people inside for as short a time as possible. The water vapour exhaled
and sweated out, about a pint per person, damages the paintings and if there
was no control, the paintings will eventually fade away. We decided on the easy
ones, which were of Rameses III, IX and IV, but they were all beautifully decorated
and their colours still very vivid.
It
was extremely hot even inside the tombs and the tomb guardians wafted us with
cardboard, and then expected baksheesh for the privilege.
Photographs are not allowed inside the tombs but these wily guardians try and get you to pose outside so that they can photograph you with your camera, again for baksheesh. The best way to avoid this is to go in with friends and take it in turns to photograph each other. We wandered around with Wendy and John and did some reciprocal photographing. Ray being his ever helpful self was showing Wendy some of the pictures of offerings on the tomb wall and she was taking it all in so for a bit of fun he pointed to a row of hieroglyphics and said "and this is the bill for them from Tesco". At first she nodded and then it registered. After that it became their joke and he caught her out several more times during the week. On our first visit 3 years ago we had paid extra and gone into the famous tomb of Tutankhamun but it is only small and although his mummy was still in one of its sarcophagi the public cannot see it. The tomb is sparsley decorated and all its artefacts are now in the Cairo museum so we gave it a miss this time.
After our ride back on the train, we had to avoid the souvenir sellers as we returned to the coach. We found out as the week went by that these sellers are strategically placed at all the exits to all of the sites but we got rather good at saying "La-a" (which we were told was no). They were really persistent but we found that if you stay in a group and ignore them they are just a minor irritation.
Our next stop was the alabaster factory. We were entertained by a well rehearsed demonstration of how the alabaster was carved by hand and how the drawings and paintings were done on the plaster. The young man giving the demo was obviously practicing his English and fancied himself as a comedian. He had obviously learned our TV adverts, using phrases like "Asda price" and "cheaper than Tesco".
We were then hustled into the showroom and plunged into darkness to demonstrate
the phosphorescence of the statues. We were then pounced on by an enthusiastic
old salesman who ran around trying to sell us everything that we looked at.
The prices were rather extortionate, but you are expected to barter them down,
then they try to make you feel guilty by telling you they have 6 children to
feed. We would have bought many pieces, because some are quite beautiful, but
we had to think about the weight for getting them home. We settled for an alabaster
Horus, who now sits proudly on the top of our bookcase.
By this time it was late morning and it was getting unbearably hot but our next stop was Deir-el-Bahri, which is Queen Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple. This temple was cut into the side of a mountain which is a natural suntrap. It is a magnificent building, which wouldn't look out of place in modern times and is still being rebuilt. There are three levels, with a central ramp leading the whole way up to the top.
We made it to the first level and explored the side temple dedicated to Hathor which still contains some colourful wall paintings. The upper level has several almost complete chapels but it was nearly mid-day and far too hot to climb any higher and we had seen these at our last visit and we had to get all the way back down and back to the coach. Again we had to battle the souvenir sellers but we managed to avoid buying anything.
It was a relief to return to the air conditioning on the coach and even to listen to Amin's running commentary and lesson in Arabic. To explain - each day he taught us some useful words of Arabic, I wish that I had written them down because I have now forgotten most of them. Two words that I do remember are "sahara" which means desert and "enshallah" which means god willing and is used at the end of every conversation by the locals. He was very interesting to listen to, not only about the Ancient Egyptians, but also about the modern Egyptian way of life.
As soon as everyone was back on board the "Oddessey", we set sail southwards, up the Nile towards Edfu. Again we enjoyed a delicious lunch and afterwards everyone settled down to relax whilst the banks of the Nile passed by. Ray went to the cabin for a siesta and I went up on the foredeck to watch the scenery and read my book.
It was like going back in time to see the men fishing with their nets in the
reeds, this is the same way they have been doing it for thousands of years.
To get up-river we had to pass through Esna lock, about a 6 hour sail. At this time of the year it was not too busy, but the boats still race to get to the lock first so that they are not waiting in a queue. The lock takes 2 boats at a time and it takes about 30 minutes for the lock to fill to allow the boats can continue on their journey up- river.
Before reaching the lock however, at about 5.00 p.m. it was time for "Tiffin" or afternoon tea. This consists of a cup of tea or coffee and cakes. This got everyone up on deck in time for the boat to be greeted by the boat-sellers, who try to sell their wares of cotton goods to the passengers. As the boats approach the lock area, what seems like hundreds of small two or three man rowing boats appear out of nowhere on collision courses towards the cruise boats. It is absolutely amazing that there aren't any accidents. The small boats get so close and try to hang on to the ropes and fenders hanging from the cruise boats. The captain and crew of our boat were ready with their knives to cut away any unwelcome "hangers-on". The sellers try shouting to the passengers in various languages, then start throwing their wares up on to the deck. Polythene bags of towels, galabiyas, tablecloths and scarves fly over the decks and the boatmen barter with the passengers. It is really entertaining.
Passengers are supposed to look at the goods and if they want to buy they barter
a price and throw the money back to the rowing boat in a poly-bag. I think there
were plenty of goods thrown back landing in the water. In a way I felt sorry
for the sellers, but I imagine the wet goods were dried and resold to the next
day's unsuspecting passengers. Every cruise boat gets the same treatment.
We were second in the queue for the lock so the entertainment did not last long. A few people made purchases but as there were no more than 50 passengers on our boat I don't suppose the sellers made much profit. It took about half an hour to get through the lock, with much shouting from the boat's crew. After the lock, we continued on our way towards Edfu.
Dinner tonight was preceded by a cocktail evening and introductions to the crew. We were given some very colourful cocktails and there was also a buffet of Egyptian tit-bits.
Our after dinner entertainment tonight was to be Bingo. I'm game for a laugh so Ray bought me 5 tickets but conveniently disappeared as the game started (he doesn't like bingo). The prizes were provided by the on board jeweller, only small but so what it's only a game. We had no pens so to mark the numbers we poked a hole in the ticket with a cocktail stick. I'm not a bingo expert and I got quite confused with 5 tickets but I soldiered on with help from John. Someone won the first line so this gave me chance to catch up. When someone called out with the second line, I suddenly realised that I had it too but I was too late. Then we carried on and would you believe it, I had a full house so I shouted out excitedly and had my numbers checked and I was the winner.
I
won a small gold bust of Nefertiti charm, very pretty; it now sits on my chain
next to my cartouche. I was quite chuffed with myself because I very rarely
win at these sorts of games.
After bingo we went and sat on deck with a beer or two to watch our docking at Edfu. We sat and watched the activity on the dockside in Edfu for a while. There was a wedding going on and the people were really enjoying themselves. The wedding car was decked with fairy lights and loads of cars were driving round and round in circles, tooting their horns and shouting. The reception appeared to be going on in a hotel across the road and the guests were really going for it with the music and dancing and fireworks. The locals really seemed to know how to enjoy themselves.
