Day7

Day 7: Move on to Luxor

Beep, beep, beep. Ahh! oh shit not already!
Good morning Mickey. Beep, beep. All right you can stop making that bloody racket I'm awake now! I rolled over and cancelled the horrible beep, beep noise.
Mickey's arms looked like he was doing one of the disco dance moves from the song YMCA. This awkward looking arm position from Mickey told me it was 4.45 a.m. and the beginning of another day in Egypt, with yet another early start to look forward to.   And then of course there was the added bonus of a cold shower thrown in for good measure. If there was one thing, it was that I certainly knew how to enjoy myself!
Not a good day for getting up, it took me the best part of fifteen minutes to finally get out of bed, which I only did reluctantly after the night porter had knocked loudly on the door with my early morning call.

It was still dark outside and with no lights on in the hotel I could hardly see where I was going on the landing or stairs, as I gingerly made my way down to the lobby. The next problem was I could not open the exit door as it had a chain and padlock across it.
The night porter who was asleep on the couch was not too pleased when I woke him to unlock it.
"It's open," he said wearily.
"No it's not, it has a padlock on it" I said.
"Yes but it's not locked"
"I'm telling you it is locked, I have already tried it"
"No it's not locked sir"
"Well I can't bloody open it," I said getting a little angry, all I wanted was the bloody key to unlock it.

The porter got up reluctantly and walked over to the door where he took the padlock off the chain without the use of a key. It had only been holding the chain across the door!
"Ah', I'm really sorry for waking you, but with the lights out I couldn't see the lock was not pushed in, and um' because of the dark and, um I've got to catch a train" I said in an almost apologetic stutter come whimper.
"Uh, Ok, ok, no problem goodbye sir" said the pissed off porter already making his way back to the couch and the warmth of his blanket, probably cursing me under his breath for being so thick!

My train was already standing in the station as if waiting just for me, not many other people were boarding, and it was probably a little early for anyone else. The journey back north towards Luxor was uneventful and passed by quickly, with the train arriving bang on time in Luxor.
Once off the train I started to look for the way out. "Can I help you?" said the little man next to me who looked more Indian than Egyptian.
"Yes, which way for the exit?" I replied.
"Follow me, I will show you"
So I did and felt more than a little stupid, as the exit was quite easy to find, if only I had bothered to take a good look.
The little man asked if I was looking for a hotel as by coincidence he was the owner of the Fontana hotel, and had nice clean rooms with bath for reasonable rate per night "Oh really" I replied sounding a little more interested.
This was a stroke of luck, as the Fontana was one of the hotels I had in mind to stay at while here in Luxor, so I asked him if it was far and how much a room would cost.
He told me it was not far and would be only 15 Egyptian pounds a night, if I wanted to see the place he had a car outside that we could get there in. "OK I'll take a look," I said in a non-committal kind of way!

Stood outside was a long line of taxi's all waiting to pick up a fare off the arriving trains, a few drivers approached me wanting to take me wherever it was I wanted to get to. "No thank you, I've got a lift already" I said.   I looked around for the little man and the taxi he had said was waiting. Just to the left of the station was the oldest and worst looking taxi I had seen since arriving in Egypt, and the driver who stood there was not in much better condition than the cab. This old man could just about walk and really struggled to put my rucksack in the boot. Needless to say this was to be our transport to the hotel Fontana.
Once we were on the move the little man turned to me in the back and said, "This taxi ride is free, but if you want to give the driver something, then as you like". What I wanted to give him I didn't have, well how many people do you know who carry a wheelchair around in their pocket!
This is a good system I thought to myself, he offers to take me to his hotel and I have to sort the driver out with a tip, "As you I like". I don't like, but still give the old man a couple of pounds anyway, feeling a little relieved after he has skilfully negotiated this old and creaking death trap of a taxi through the small and narrow back streets to the Fontana hotel.

Once inside the rather clean and bright looking building situated in a small alley the hotel owner checked his register and surprise, surprise. He apologised that he had no single rooms left at 15 pounds, but he could let me have a nice double for 25! The difference was just under one pound fifty pence English money, so was not worth worrying about. But what you do wonder is if this man had left the hotel, say about half an hour before to meet the train he must have had a single room to let, as he said he did. So this means someone booked into the hotel at around 7.30 a.m. I don't think so; it was just another little scam the owner had used to get me to use his place. Still it was only the difference of a taxi ride so no problem and my budget was not that tight.

To be fair to the little man the room I was given was extremely clean and tidy, with a newish blue suite in the bathroom that was absolutely spotless. This was more than good enough for me and at just over three English pounds a night, I thought it was extremely good value for money.
The hotel owner told me that he was a local primary school teacher, but at the moment it was school holidays, so he was able to be around his hotel more than usual. He spoke very good English and was a very talkative person; he spoke to me for quite a while, all the time letting me know what he could arrange for me while I stayed in Luxor.
After a little negotiating he gave me a student discount rate and arranged a trip for the next day so that I could visit a few of the historical sites around Luxor. I had to promise him that I would not tell anyone else about the reduction. I reckon it was because they had all paid less than me and would have told me so if I had said how much I had been charged!
Another guided tour trip would mean travelling around in a minibus again, but thankfully not with such an early start, and distance wise it would not be very far, so this would be ok, even if I did end up on the little fold down seats again.
I also arranged through him for the hire of a cycle for the day at a cost of only five pounds. With the weather topping off around the 70 degrees mark it would be comfortable enough to cycle everywhere, and with the added bonus of not having to stop in the shade for a drink every 10 minutes.

I had my first hot shower in days, standing under it for what seemed like ages, I really felt rejuvenated and
Was soon ready to take in the sites of Luxor, but first off I had to get myself a bike.
The little hotel owner took me on a maze like walk around the side streets to the cycle shop where I could pick up my camel on wheels transport for the day. When I say shop, I actually mean a little dark and dingy lock up that doubled as a cycle store. The bike I was given was the old type your Grandfather would have ridden, single speed type with large saddle and block brakes, and I would imagine was about forty years old.
I got about twenty yards on it before I had to turn back with a defective pedal and brakes that were useless, the first brake application caused the handle to fall off the not so secure handlebars!
Looking around the bikes that were on offer for replacement was a difficult choice, they all seemed to be about as good, or should that be bad as each other. I chose the one I thought would be able to transport me further than fifty metres and so set off again to explore Luxor.

Luxor is a major town situated on the East bank of the Nile river and just like all the other main towns in Egypt, it gets it fair share of tourists from off the cruise ships and tours that stop over here to see the many ancient sites.
Luxor itself is made up of four main thoroughfares, Sharia al Mahatta, Sharia Karnak, the Corniche and the area where I was staying called Sharia Televizyon. This is the liveliest area with a bustling street market and numerous café's and restaurants, and also the place where most of the cheaper hotels can be found.

After the pyramids in Cairo, Luxor is probably the main place anybody interested in the ancient Pharonic civilisation of Egypt will want to visit. Of the twelve top must see sites in all of Egypt, eight can be found here in, or around Luxor. These sites include the Valley of the Kings where Tutenkahmun the most famous of Egyptian rulers burial tomb was found, along with many others. Also there is the valley of the Queens, the temples of Karnak, Luxor, Hatshepsut and the Ramesseum.
I was going to busy if I wanted to see as much as I could in the short time available, and at the same time I would have to pace myself if I did not want to end up completely templed out. You really can sometimes get too much of a good thing and so very quickly become bored with all, leaving out some of the better sites, then you regret not having taken your time, or wishing you had seen this or that!

I made why way to the station area in order to get my bearings and also as a starting point on my discovery ride around the town.

Outside of the station were a lot of horse drawn carriages touting for the tourist dollar, a nice way to see the sights I'm sure, but it was not for me as I had my own transport now.
The traffic in Luxor is nowhere near as bad as that of Cairo, so as it turned out was a pleasant enough place to cycle without the fear of being mowed down by a lunatic driving a death trap. In fact the people who drove cars in Luxor must have been fairly well off, as a lot of the vehicles were in good condition.

I made my way along the main road towards the Nile and headed to the Luxor temple. This splendid Pharonic temple is situated on the east bank within spitting distance of the Nile River.
This temple stands on ground once a sanctuary to the God Amun that was built in the rule of Hatshepsut. During the New Kingdom era Pharaoh Amenhotep the third built the temple that stands here today, but not quite in it's present state as further rulers added to it over the years. Among the rulers who had some influence on what the temple would eventually look like were, Tutankhamun, Ramses the second, Alexander the great and various other Roman leaders.   During the Roman occupation a fort was built around the temple site. The Arabs gave this fort the name Al-Uqsur (The Palaces), which in turn became the name of the modern day town called Luxor.

There are many forms of architecture to be seen in this temple complex including many shrines, a pair of pink granite obelisks, unfortunately there is now only one, the other stands in the place de la Concorde in Paris having been given to the French as a gift. Further construction of note include the great hypostyle hall, large roman pillars, and numerous statues of all the various pharaohs who tried to leave their own mark somewhere in the vast complex.
But, for me I think the most impressive of all the building that took place here was the avenue of Sphinxes, which originally led from the temple entrance all the way to the Karnak temple some three kilometres to the north. Although there is very little left of this avenue, the few remaining sphinxes give one a good idea as to what this must have looked like in all it's splendour.
Without even going into the complex one can get outstanding views by just walking, or in my case cycling around the perimeter, which only has some low railing fences to keep out non-paying tourists. I took a look around without actually going in, I could take some pictures and see all I wanted to from the outside, but did plan to return later that day for a closer inspection.

A leisurely cycle lasting about an hour was enough to get my bearings and help identify places I would later explore on foot. Then I turned the machine northwards and cycled the three kilometres from the town centre to the Karnak temples.
They say the simple things in life are the most pleasurable, and this morning I was inclined to agree with that statement somewhat. Here I was riding a pushbike that was nearly as old as me, alongside one of the most famous rivers in the world, the sky overhead was a deep blue something and the sun was shining without being too hot, and to top it all there was a slight cooling southerly breeze blowing into my face.
I could have continued riding along the Nile all day, but all to soon came to the Temples of Karnak.

The cycle had two padlocks, both of which were used to secure it to a rickety fence under the shade of a tree just outside the Temple complex. I just hoped the herd of goats that were milling around near the bike did not take a fancy to having a chew on my tyres.
To see everything that was on offer here at Karnak was going to be a bit of a slog, especially with the site measuring 1.5 km by 800m, my one concern was whether or not my split boots were going to stand up to all this tramping about. In the days of Thebian power the Karnak temple complex was considered the most important place in all of Egypt to worship the Gods, of which there were many. It was known as Ipet-isus, meaning "The Most Perfect of Places".
I purchased my entry ticket costing 20 pounds from the small, almost shed looking type ticket booth, and then made my way towards this great monument to the ancient Gods. There were still a few Sphinxes in relatively good condition forming a line from the northern end of the avenue from Luxor, still guarding the way towards the main entrance and the great court.
Just inside the great court to my left I found various small chapels dedicated to the Gods Amun, Khons, Mut and Seti the second. To my right was another smaller court leading to the temple of Ramses the third, very impressive colonnades flanked all these smaller buildings. Ramses the second, who I was beginning to feel had a great liking for his own image, was again represented in the form of a pair of large statues at the entrance to the Great Hypostyle hall.
I can imagine that when Ramses the second came to the throne he immediately ordered statues of himself to be erected everywhere. Mind you it has to be said that the life expectancy of the average Egyptian was not that great, with a lot of people being lucky to reach forty, so I suppose he wanted to see himself immortalised before his passing.
Every time a new Pharaoh took to the throne they started to construct their burial tomb, so that it would be ready in time for their passing. Ramses the second was the exception to this rule living to a ripe old age, he even outlived at least nine of his sons, of which he had many with the copious amount of wives and concubines he had.

The list of smaller temples and statues at Karnak is endless, what with the giant obelisks and large pylons e.t.c. There was more than enough history here to keep the average Egyptologist occupied for the rest of their life, and the mildly interested tourist occupied all day.
I am definitely no Egyptologist, I'm more your slightly interested tourist who rushed around the site at speed with his left boot flapping, I wanted to be interested and was trying to take in as much as possible, but without running the risk of boring myself shitless on Egyptology overload.

I suppose the good thing was that I was taking lots of photographs and as such was occupied looking for different angles all the time. Three hours was about the amount of time I spent walking around without taking in everything, but it was enough time to get a good feel for the place and just about right for someone who is only slightly interested, without going over the top.

The bike and its tyres were all still where I had left them, and the goats were still hiding out in the shade.
Nothing much had changed here in Karnak for thousands of years, so I guess it was no surprise that nothing had happened to the bike or goats in three hours.
The main bridge over the Nile from the East to West bank was about 10km back the way I had come through Luxor town. It was still early with plenty of daylight left, so I decided to ride as far as the bridge and take in some of the lovely scenery along the way. A couple of kilometres the other side of Luxor I stopped to look at a farmers home made out of mud and straw, it looked idyllic with some donkeys and cattle roaming freely in the small yard.
The woman of this house saw me and started running up the dirt path, she was shouting and waving her arms at me to come towards her. She spoke no English, but it soon became apparent that she was inviting me to go and look around her home, but first off she wanted some baksheesh! It was not long before her three kids joined us as well, there was one girl and two boys and of course they all wanted some money also.
The kids must have been well practiced in this form of gaining some baksheesh, as they were constantly tugging on my arm and holding their hands out repeatedly asking for money.
.
I declined the offer to look around her home for fear she had another group of people who I imagined would all be holding out their hands as soon as I walked in. I gave the woman five pounds and turned to go, but the two young boys would not let me until I also gave them some money.
They were holding on to the bike for all they were worth every time I tried to set off, which after a little while became a bit of a pain in the butt! I had two options, one I could give them money in the hope they would leave me alone, or two, and I could give them both a bloody good kick up the arse.
In the end I had another idea, remembering that I had some sweets in my rucksack I bribed them to let go off the bike in return for the sweets. But before I did, I had a quick look round to make sure there was no Muslim mad man opposed to the giving of sweets to children.
It was a tough decision for them, but soon forgetting about the money they gave into temptation and let me ride off towards the Nile Bridge while they scoffed happily on the sweets!

This new bridge that spans the Nile allowing access to the West bank without having to use a boat of some kind was impressive to say the least.
I rode as far as the East side of the bridge's police check point before deciding to turnaround and head back down hill towards Luxor again. I would after all be on the West bank the next day, so was quite happy to wait until then before exploring the other side any further.

By a roundabout near the bridge were another couple of small kids who approached me, they only wanted pens, but unfortunately for them I did not have any, although I did have some more sweets, which they were more than happy to indulge in.
I cycled for all I was worth on the slightly descending road down into Luxor, speeding past the field with the mud and straw house where I had been stopped on the way up just in case the kids were waiting to ambush me again.
The kids who had hijacked me were still there and saw me coming, but wisely thought twice about standing in front of the old metal bike being propelled at a furious rate of knots by an even more furiously sweating tourist who had his head down, teeth gritted and was pedalling as though his life depended on it.

Once past the kids I was able to slow the bike and cycle at a more sedate pace, and not just because I was totally bloody knackered, but also because I wanted to take in the sights along this fertile stretch of farming land that runs alongside the river. Had the kids been just a little further down the road they would surely have captured me again.
In the fields men, women and children were working with their bare hands harvesting their crops, and the only mechanical aid they had were donkeys and camels, pulling all sorts of ploughs and carts across the rough landscape in the blistering heat of mid afternoon. Some of the donkeys looked as though they would topple over with the sheer weight of the loads being placed on their backs. It is truly amazing that a creature so small can carry a load so heavy, yet I was struggling to pick up my rucksack at times.

I suppose that a foreigner this far out of town was always going to attract some attention, especially from the many young children along the road who thought it was great fun to see me steering this ancient old jalopy of a bike along as though I didn't have a care in the world. And to be honest I didn't really have a care, as far as I was concerned it was a very enjoyable experience for the most parts.
One of the locals told me a very interesting little story about farming anywhere near a main road, especially one that tourist were likely to travel. He said that farmers were not allowed to grow cane and maize crops which would reach over six feet tall, or at least not within fifty metres of a main road.
This was apparently because of the threat from terrorists who had previously hidden in this kind of crop fields undetected and were able to strike at passing vehicles and busses. One thing was for sure, the farmers were not taking too much notice of this instruction, at least not as far as I could see.

Although not quite as large as some others there is a McDonalds in Luxor, and just like all the others it gets busy with tourists who are not that willing to try the local cuisine, preferring instead to stick to the same old bland food they eat at home. As I passed on my bike I saw a group of about six young men with beer cans in hand heading for their staple diet of a big Mac and fries washed down with half a gallon of fizzy black water. I thought to myself that these young men had probably not done their homework before coming to Egypt, and that they should have been a couple of hundred miles away on the beaches of the Red sea in a place like Sharm el Sheik.
They had probably seen a cheap break advertised in Egypt and gone for it, not realising they would end up in a place steeped in history that was purely for the more discerning visitor, not the fun loving, beer swilling beach boys that this rather loud and obnoxious little group obviously were. Still if they only took a little interest in all the historical sites around them, they would at least come away a little more educated in what Egypt is really all about.

Yes, I know that I sometimes eat at McDonalds and have even been known to like a beer or three, and yes I also admit that not everyone who eats a big Mac should be classed a lager lout. And yes again, I may even have got the wrong end of the stick here, but I don't think so, this little mob were only here for a good time drinking and such like, and I recognised two of them having previously seen them at both Heathrow and Charles DeGaul airports when I was coming out here.
These two had been drinking then and it was only early morning, so it seemed to me they were obviously intent on having a good old jolly up. As far as I was concerned that was up to them and didn't affect me one way or the other, as I didn't have to spend time with them. But I do think there is a time and a place for everything, and it did make me think what kind of impression they were making on the local people.

The lonely Planet gave Ali Baba's café a fairly good write up, which sounded good enough for me so I gave it a try this evening after returning to the Luxor temple to take some night shots.
This café has a side entrance on the street and looks like a small independent restaurant, but is actually part of the large Wena hotel. I ate on the roof-top garden area that is nicely decorated with comfortable cane furniture and covered by a palm leaf roof with some multi coloured lights and plants placed around for added affect. Shish tawouq (grilled chicken on skewers) was to be my main meal, with a side salad and bread that all made for a most enjoyable, and as it turned out reasonably priced meal.
The only thing that put me off the place was when the cocky waiter who brought the bill told me how much he expected for a tip, and this on a bill that already had a service charge added! I gave him nothing! Instead I gave a couple of pounds to the young boy who had actually delivered the meal to my table.

From where I had sat having my meal I could see down into the hotel garden that had a few tables spread around, with people sitting and having drinks with their meals. Time for a beer I though, so off I went downstairs and found myself a table to sit and have a cold beer, I deserved it after all that cycling!

At the next table were three men, two of them Australian backpackers and the other a middle aged English man who looked remarkably like Terry Waite, but slightly smaller build and a lot more aggravating to listen to.
You can't help but overhear a conversation at the table next to you, especially when you are on your own and don't have someone to talk to yourself.
Just from what I could hear it soon became apparent that this man could bore you senseless, and I think this was the case with the two Australian guys who invited me to join their table hoping to break up his monotonous ramblings, and opinions on everything.
I was in need of some company, but not that badly that I was going to subject myself to listening to this man ramble on all night. Then just as I was about to decline the invitation the English man got up and left.

"Yeah sure why not" I said to Bob the blonde Aussie who had invited me over. The other guy's name was John. Both of them were in their early thirties and found themselves here in Egypt for a couple weeks trying to escape the cold of Germany where they were currently living. Bob the blonde was you're typical looking Aussie beach bum with his untidy hair and loose fitting clothes, John was a darker skinned, possibly of Aboriginal decent with black dreadlock hair.
They told me that they had been listening to the Englishman for the past two nights and were more than happy to have someone else to talk to. It appears that the Englishman was living here while working on some kind of Telecommunications project, and what he didn't know wasn't worth knowing, according to him that his.
We shared a few beers and some stories having a good laugh. Both John and Bob were nice guy's who liked nothing better than a few beers and sharing a few funny stories, one in particular from Bob about having to wrestle a shark not long after taking up diving really made me laugh.

The English Terry Waite look alike returned after about an hour to share his further pearls of wisdom. I mentioned the story about being approached by the young boy selling the newspapers, and the subsequent comment about Nubian banana. I asked if anybody had any idea what it was all about, and did they know if as I suspected it was some kind of reference to sex, or was it a drug based comment.
Well that was enough to start off Terry Waite who proceeded to tell us about how rife homosexuality was amongst the Egyptian men, especially the younger ones, and how you could have whatever you wanted in that respect, just so long as you had the money to pay for it!
He further explained that this was because the men became frustrated with there being no actual sexual contact between the two sexes before marriage. And furthermore all this was fact, not conjecture!
I suppose that looking at his explanation he may have had a point, but I would have thought it was not quite as widespread as he made out, none the less I wasn't going to argue this point with him as he was already boring me shitless and I was very quickly losing the will to live.

Bob and John to their credit went along with it all by asking further questions to him, they were just having a wind up at his expense and he was taking the bait feeling a little superior and knowledgeable. The one question I wanted to ask him was how he knew so much about all this? But then I thought I didn't really want to go there, as who knows where that would have taken the conversation.
Another conversation topic our knowledgeable friend knew all about was the Coca cola conspiracy? "What's that all about then?" I asked. He told us that the way Coca cola is written on the cans and bottles in Muslim countries has changed, and although it quite clearly reads Coca cola the script used is slightly different with an Arabic style to it. "Yeah well you see this is the twist," he said. Apparently if you put the sign against a mirror it reads something not to complimentary to Muslims in Arabic.
"Surely that must be just a coincidence," I said. No! He was adamant that this was the work of a very clever anti Muslim force and all very cleverly done! "What a load of bollocks" I told him. A little upset about this he said we should now stop talking about this subject as the Egyptians were a little paranoid about it all and that we could even at that moment be being spied on by secret police! Did he really say the Egyptians were a little paranoid, if anybody was now a little paranoid it was he!   None the less we spent the next couple of minutes checking out those people sat around us, you know, just in case! He did make me laugh and even Bob and John were finding it hard to keep straight faces.

A little light relief came in the form of another couple that joined our table, Aileen and Peter. This young couple had only just arrived in Luxor that evening having flown out on a last minute deal from England.
They were an odd couple, she was a chatty Irish girl and he was a rather quite unassuming lad from Surrey, but boy could they drink! They had six beers each in the further hour I stayed there. All I can say is they must have been very thirsty.
A well-travelled couple they were able to recount stories from all four corners of the world, and all without the slightest hint of bragging. A most interesting couple to talk to, it was just a shame they arrived so late.

Around midnight Bob took his leave saying he was tired and had to go to bed, and about twenty minutes later I had also had enough and wished everyone a good night before taking my leave.
I found Bob walking around in the side streets on my way back to my hotel he was totally lost!
Unable to find his way back to his hotel Bob had decided to return to the Ali Baba café to link up with his buddy John, who if not too drunk might be able to guide him back, the only problem with that idea was he could not now find his way back to Ali Baba's.

I gave him the directions not quite sure myself that they were right, but he never came back so I assume he found his friend. I was slightly confused myself as to where my own hotel was, I knew roughly in which direction I should be walking, but that was about all. Help was soon at hand, down one of the alleys kids as young as five or six were still out playing and it was just gone midnight! They soon directed me back to the Fontana; in fact they led me right to the door and all for "just a little baksheesh Sir" as one of the kids put it!