As I walk through the Valley of the Kings

The next day, we grab the typical Egyptian breakfast and head towards that ferry that will take us to the other side of the Nile and to the hallmark Egyptian sites in Luxor. On the other side of the Nile hordes of taxi drivers yell at us trying to take us for as much as they can get. They shoot for the moon and we end up taking a local minibus towards the main site.





At the crossroads we visit the Valley of the Queens, followed by a temple and finally Valley of the Kings. The tombs at the Valley of Queen are all open and a ticket permits access to everything. After quickly checking out the tombs we visit a temple on our way to Valley of Kings. This temple is excavated in the middle of a valley that was covered in sand. Tents are setup like a gauntlet towards the entrance. At this point Eric and I acquire headwear through rigorous bargaining. The guy actually chased us down when we didn’t want this price. You know you’re getting a good deal when the salesperson is made at the transaction.



From the temple we venture up a rocky pass to the other side of the valley where the Valley of the King rests. The climb was tough, but the view was much worth it. In the distance you can see the long stretch of green palm trees that line the Nile.



We arrive in the middle of the Valley of the Kings, already past the ticket entrance area. We try sneaking into a tomb, but we are caught and we walk back to the entrance to get our tickets. This is the only place that my KU Student ID didn’t work. Again the guy saw the “issued date” and said the card is finished. Then I tried using my Kansas driver’s license again and he caught on to it. After arguing with him I finally cave and end up buying the full price ticket. Eric and Matt who ended up buying 100 Egyptian Pound fake International Student Card’s had no problem what so ever.



The ticket for the Valley of the Queens grants access to all the tombs, while the ticket for the Valley of the Kings is only four tombs. Each visit the ticket check punches a star shaped hole in your ticket. There are multiple tombs open and you have to choose your tombs wisely. Or if you are lucky like me you catch the ticket checker while he’s taking a snooze and get to visit more than four.



After getting back around sunset, exhausted we head back to our hotel. At the front we see Ruda and another Japanese guy checking in. It is such a small world.

Good Morning Luxor!

Eric and I look an overnight train down to Luxor. All the trains were sold out and we had to wait until 12 in the morning to board a train. The policy here in Egypt is that tourists have a separate type of train. It is usually the slightly faster train and also the one that usually costs twelve times more than local prices. The rule of thumb is that tourists are not allowed on local trains, although I would later find out that there are plenty of ways around that policy.





Egypt is kind of like the rut of the family. There is tons of hand me downs. From the old school 60/70’s style taxis, to the retired Finnish ferry I took from Jordan to Nuweba, and now even the trains are hand-me -downs. The fast trains are old French and German ones. We were able to get on an old Spanish train. The tourist police got us tickets and allowed us to take a non tourist first class train down to Luxor.



We get to Luxor in the morning. Matt from Montreal has joined us he was the third tourist that the Egyptian policed ripped off that night. We find a hostel near the train station and get a good price for a three bedroom. I wanted to save Valley of the Kings/Queens when we have a full day so I convince the guys to check out some of the walkable sights.
One of the temples that we visit Matt recognizes. He perfectly describes what’s around each corner as well as what each hallway leads to. Apparently this temple is fully recreated as a level in one of the tomb raider’s. It was pretty interesting to hear Matt talk about how this is part where you have to jump up grab that ledge, climb and jump over this other structure.



One of the temples that is just near the center of town has a night admission. The temple is lit up in incandescent lamps exaggerating all the carvings and hieroglyphics. It was a different mood at night and felt more authentic for some reason. The entire time I am in Egypt, I get this sense that I am in a theme park. Everything just seems so fake. Most of the ruins aren’t ruins at all. They are actually renovated landmarks, with fresh cement creating perfectly symmetric surfaces of walls, floors, columns and obelisks.

So who brought the coke?

I booked a tour of Wadi Rum through the Valentine Hotel. I wasn’t sure if this was a rip off or not, but after arriving in Petra it seems that people were paying twice as much as I paid for the same tour. We have six people crammed in our Land Rover Discovery SUV. There is no AC just windows-down driving.



There are many other SUVs along our same tour and we end up seeing a lot of the same people over and over again. I meet up another American, Eric, who was on the same route toward Egypt. We ended up seeing each other at most of the various stone formations. At the rock bridge we both end up meeting a third American, Thu, a Seattleite who was visiting Jordan while she was working in Alexandria, Egypt.





When I was talking to Thu she talked about how she had just met another American from Kansas City. I described Brian and it turns out that they had met each other previously. I ended up having to leave hatefully from the last attraction because our group was late for another appointment. But Brian and Thu ended up see each other again and Brian was able to give me her contacts.



Our next stop is a Bedouin camp. Here we will spend the night in the tents and see both the sunset and sunrise. The Wadi Rum sunset and sunrise was amazing. The visibility was far and the landscape was bare and peaceful. The red rock color slowly changed various shades of red and orange. I took a barefoot walk around our Bedouin camp exploring all the wildlife that lived around us. There were countless lizards, 4x4 wheel tracks, snake tracks and lizard tracks throughout the area.



The night at Bedouin Camp is cold. When the sun sets the dry hot environment changed to darkness and cold. The atmosphere became completely quiet and there were no lights to be seen. The landscape felt calm and peaceful. This is the reason this place is called the Bedouin meditation camp. The moon lit the surroundings and we all decided to take a talk by moonlight. It was surprising how well lit the moon light was and desert was clearly visible.



That night we all sleep under double blankets. They were so heavy that it felt like you were trapped under the covers. I had the best sleep ever that night and nearly missed the sunrise. Dawn approaches by laying a layer of fogginess across the desert. The colors are grayed and slowly increase in saturation as the sun appears. One of the most beautiful sights so far. I would probably rate this higher than Petra.

Dragon Boating

Its 5am on a Monday. I’m rowed over facing the couch and suddenly I hear a voice, when I turn over I see a fuzzy figure standing over me. Initially my reaction was to drop kick that scary looking figure and take defensive actions. However, as my vision adjusted I realized that it was Nancy. “Weiiiiii, do you want to go to dragon boatinggggg?”



Nancy belongs to a Dragon Boat team, kind of like crew, but it’s different. I say different for a lack of a better word to describe the awkward style of rowing. The boat seats about 20 some people in rows of two, so you are only rowing on one side of the boat. There is a person at the back working, what I would consider the rudder. However since it doesn’t look like your traditional rudder and more like a long paddle, I’m sure it’s probably called something else. The rowing style consists of making an A shape with your arms. Much of the power comes from your back and shoulders. The form was really difficult to get use to.



My first day at dragon boating was really intense. To be honest I was kind of tired just from the warm up. Furthermore it was really confusing too. Because our coach’s name is Wai, pronounced why. But for someone reason some people would call her “Way”. I’ve only ever met one other Wei in my life and she went by her American name of Maria so this was really strange for me. Now I know how all the Johns and Jennifers feel.



Eventually I got to like Dragon Boating and made some friends there too. We got to a point where we were doing a meet to show off the sport at Dubai Festival City. Oh yeah all the different areas of Dubai are called cities, ei Internet City, Media City, International City, etc. It was hot and during the middle of the day. I think I was dehydrated from the night before too and also running around at 3am trying to find breakfast items with Ben, but that’s an entirely other story.



It was a really short race but the sun just made us all really tired. Afterwards, Nancy#1, Nancy#2, Ben and I headed to Barracudas for a liquor run. Barracudas is a liquor store out in the middle of nowhere and when I say nowhere I mean we drove by a giant sand dune to get to it. This store has alcohol from all over the world to suit the needs of all the expats. In Dubai you must have a liquor card to buy alcohol in bulk and also there is a heavy tax. However, here in BFE the prices are good. To really bring out the point of BFE, here are some pictures of us playing on a sand dune on the way to middle of nowhere liquor store.

Sahara Desert Trip

In addition to the Cascade waterfall trip, our hostel also offers a Sahara Desert Safari. The trip has three versions with different durations of 1, 2, and 3 days. All of them include a single night sleeping in the desert under the stars and a camel ride. We all opt for the 3 day version because it’s not as rushed and you get to see more villages along the way.





James and I were able to find another travel agency en route to the tanneries that had the same trip for 100 dirhams less. It was a no brainer so we all sign up for the 3 day trip and again rise early in the morning to the travel agency.

Our Sahara Desert trip actually included a lot of towns on the way to the sand dunes. One of the most interesting towns we stopped in as located near an oasis. The entire kashba is built with mud and straw. There is some distinction for this particular town though. It is currently a set to the film "Prince of Persia" and previously it was used to shoot many scenes from "The Gladiator".





In another village we were brought to a carpet and rug dealer. We discover quickly that the art of carpet making is only a woman’s skill while rug making is the man’s skill. The salesman does a good job of telling us all the symbolism that goes into the rugs. The materials consist of sheep, camel, and cactus silk. The most expensive ones are made of cactus silk.





Another stop is a valley full of locals. The water here is glacial and ice cold, much like the water from the cascades. There are many locals here and we do not see much tourists. There are little kids playing the water and they are all curious about our group of tourists. Many of the times the only things they can say are the simple greetings like hello, how are you and what’s your name.



The last leg of the journey is coming to a town that is at the edge of the Sahara. Here the roads are sometimes covered with sand drifts and dunes that have blown over. The dunes tower over the city in the distance. We are each instructed to buy 2 large bottles of water for this portion of the tour.





We each mount up on our camels and caravan along the dunes. It is afternoon already so the heat isn’t too hot. The reputation of camels is that they smell and spit. The latter I was unable to experience but they do indeed have a funny smell to them. Although their smell does not even hold a flame to the smells of the tanneries. One interesting this is that camels all seem to have something in their mouths to chew. Whether they regurgitates or just pick up random plans they are constantly chewing. The entire trek the camels take turn pissing on their legs. Camels walk real slow and the bob up and down the entire time. The ride almost gets uncomfortable, especially going down dunes, when the sun stats to set.







As the sun sets we approach a village setup of tents in a rectangle. There are carpets in the middle and our guides cook tagine for dinner. We end up spending one day under the stars in the middle of the desert sleeping on carpet. Without an ambient light from the cities the entire milky way lights up. Gentle warm then cool breezes blow over as we all go to sleep.

The Cascades

The group of three Brits have now joined forces with Daniel another Brit. And I have found another Yankee, Joe from Iraq. Joe is on vacation from Iraq where he has been deployed. He has picked to take a vacation from the deserts of Iraq to visit the deserts of Morocco. Together we all decide to go check out the Cascade Waterfalls on a hostel arranged day trip. Early in the morning, much earlier than when I should be getting up on vacation, we all walk across an empty Medina to the travel company.





There are two groups of us and we pile into a minivan and work horse of the safari world, a Landrover Defender. There was a good mix of people on the trip. In particular Joe and I notice the two Brits that joined us that were both pretty cute. Sadly they were “together”, as Ellie reported heavy petting between them, I completely missed it, but Cheri concurred, hmmmmm.



The weather is really hot and there is no AC. We just have the windows to keep us cool. There are lots of interesting things that we see from the car including the local hay transport. Just to give you an ideal these overloaded semi are all over the highways and they are almost as tall as they are long. This particular one was swaying to one side as it was cruising down the road.






Once we get to the Cascades there are lots of activities to do. The first series of waterfalls unload into a large pool area where you can swim and jump off the rocks. There is a second waterfall that is huge and much wider than the first series. At the top there is about a 15m jump. You climb up a pretty steep set of rocks just to get to the waterfall to jump off. You can even swim beneath the waterfall and into it to a hang out area.



The swimming area is cool as these are glacial waters from the Atlas Mountains. However on a day like today where it is super hot, in the mid 40’s, C of course, the cold waters are a nice clash of temperatures. When I got out of the water I was dry in 5 or 10 minutes max and again ready to jump back in. The locals also use the water chill drinks that they sell.



The last set of waterfalls is the actual Cascades and they dwarf even the second waterfall. There is no swimming here. Like the Niagara Falls there’s a boat ride to the bottom part of the waterfalls. Small wooden bridges are used to navigate across the small streams of water from the main pool and footpaths go all the way up to the top canyon surrounding the bottom. The funny part is that there was always a traffic jam of too many people on either sides of the small one way bridge to where the line of people would come to a haut as no one wanted to give way to the other. It was an amazing site to see.