Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Luxor; hassle capital of the world!

After the official meet and greet on the boat we were given the keys to our cabins and told to make ourselves at home. The cabins are quite small, with two double beds, a small dresser and a bathroom. J said it couldn't really be called a true bathroom though - more like a shower stall with a sink and toilet installed inside it. (Remember the bathrooms on the Med cruise? They're actually smaller than that, if that's possible!) The shower doesn't really have a closed off area either, so the entire bathroom floods when one has a shower. We were also warned that the pipes in the bathroom were really really small, so no toilet paper is to go down them. It all has to be placed in the garbage pail and will hopefully be emptied three times a day by the staff.
Since we were up for the day we decided not to go back to sleep, but to explore Luxor. Fortunately everything is within walking distance so we were able to see the main part of the town without having to get a taxi. However, our walk was not without hassle. "Where you from? Canada? Canada Dry, Canada Dry!" (They have a phrase for each country and this is the one for Canada. I told J we should start saying "no, Canada wet!") Next they tried to sell us taxi rides, carriage rides and boat rides to the West Bank! As usual they seem to flock towards J while the rest of us kept walking.
Decided to do the Luxor Temple this morning as it wasn't on our tour. It was quite empty when we went through around 9:30 am but started to fill up as we were leaving. Lots of great picture opportunities with the columns and statues surrounding the temple. There's also a functioning mosque which was built over top of the temple at one point and they decided to keep it.
After the temple tour we walked through the market again but the hassle was almost too much and we didn't get too much "window shopping" done. Headed back to the boat for lunch and then back here again. Am planning on doing a bit of shopping before "high tea" at 3 pm and a tour of Karnak Temple from 4-6 pm. Tomorrow we do the Valley of the Kings at 4:30 am, on donkeys, and then set sail down the Nile!


Our cute little boat, the Melodie

Inside our cabin. Bathroom door is to the left.

View from the hallway

Smallest bathroom in the world!

Statue of Ramses II at Luxor Temple

Avenue of the Sphinxes, Luxor Temple

Market in Luxor : harmless looking but far from it!

Any fan mail today?

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