Ramses Revenge - Tuesday September 19
Back in Cairo now and am trying to catch up on posts for the past couple of days. I'll put the dates at the top of each one so hopefully it doesn't get too confusing!
After my last post in Luxor, Carol and I headed out to the market again and tried to find some wares. We found we were quite harassed by the shop keepers who kept coming up to us and trying to get us into their shops. ("Where you from? Good price for you, no hassle!") We walked rather quickly and didn't stop to look at any of them. At point one, one young man was really in Carol's face until she told him quite forcefully to go away. Just as he was leaving, she though he had tried to get something out of her zippered cargo pant pocket and told him not to touch her pockets. She went to check to make sure he didn't take anything and sure enough, her change purse was missing. The guy was only about a foot away at this point and she saw he had it in his hand. She grabbed it back from him, while he tried to say that she dropped it and should be more careful! She got quite upset at him and I guess made enough noise that he was embarrassed and ran off. Luxor really left a sour taste in our mouths, as it was filled with dirty streets and very dishonest people.
Around 4 pm that afternoon, we all gathered together and took horse drawn carriages down to Karnak Temple. There we met our guide, Suleh, who was dressed in the traditional Egyptian galabeya (long dress), complete with cigarette and walking stick. Apparently he's led numerous dignitaries around these sites, including the Egyptian president and Prince Charles. He also made an appearance in the Agatha Christie movie "Death on the Nile" and his picture is in the 2006 Egypt Lonely Planet Guide! (Had I found out sooner, I would have gotten him to autograph our copy!) It was quite hot out, but he took us from one shady spot to the next so the tour went by quickly. At the end we had some time to ourselves to take pictures but the lighting wasn't the best as the sun was going down. Took the carriages back to the boat and had supper around 7 pm. While we were touring the temple I hadn't been feeling well, but I thought it was because I had a bit too much sun that day, but looking back on it, I think I picked up something worse. (The locals refer to getting sick as either "mummy's tummy" or "Ramses revenge!" Don't know if they've heard of West Nile just yet... ha ha!) Right after supper, I went back to our room and became quite sick for the next 24 hours. I spent most of the evening making trips to the washroom before starting to throw up just after midnight. The next day was supposed to a donkey trek into the Valley of the Kings but I knew I was in no shape to travel 7 km by donkey and then spend 3 hours walking around in the hot sun. (Especially when the Immodium wasn't working and there would be no toilets in sight! Guess the ancient kings didn't need to use the facilities in the afterlife.) When the 4:30 am wake up call came, I told J to go ahead without me. Siobhan came to check on me and suggested I take the Cipro since nothing else was working. I spent the rest of the day in bed, sipping on water and Sprite.
Everyone tried to console me and said I didn't miss much, as the day was quite hot and the donkeys very jiggley! J fell off at least twice while trying to get onto his donkey and everyone agreed that it was quite hard to stay on them. The rest of the gang arrived back at the boat around 1 pm and we set sail for Edfu. I managed to eat a banana for lunch and the staff served me some hot water with fresh mint sprigs in it, which helped quite a bit. (They had actually called my room while everyone else was out and wanted to know if they could bring me anything to make me feel better. They were very accommodating and took care of all of us quite well!)
Later on in the afternoon we arrived at the Eduf locks and lined up with about 10 other cruise ships waiting to go through the locks. While the boats are waiting to go through, men in row boats come up along side the ships and try and sell stuff to the tourists. They don't take no for an answer and actually throw the stuff up on deck for you to take a look at! A couple of people got hit in the head by flying table clothes and t-shirts! Some of the ones on the lower level were sleeping in their rooms with the windows open, and the men came up to their windows and poked their heads inside. These people have no shame and will do anything to make a buck! (or a pound!) A few people did bargain and buy stuff but most just ignored the flying merchandise and tried to stay away from the edge. They did have pretty good aim though and could launch their merchandise all the way up to the top floor of most of the ships. We also discovered that most of the wares are washable, as when people would throw the unwanted stuff back and it ended up in the Nile, the men just fished it out and put it out to dry for the next crazy tourist!
Supper was served around 7:30 pm, after we had passed through the locks, and I managed some broth, pretzels and more mint tea. Felt quite chilly so took a Tylenol before bed and slept through the night!
Carriage to Karnak.
Columns at Karnak
One of the few pieces of Egyptian history with colour still left in it!
Waiting for their victims! Notice the "Horase Bazar!"
Sunset over the Nile at Luxor
Donkey riding at the Valley of the Kings
King Tut's tomb - empty inside but they still charge 70EP to see it!
Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, the only female pharaoh.
Top view of temple (thanks to Kym who did the climb!)
Worker's village from above (also a Kym picture!)
Another view of the worker's village
Colossi of Memnon (Thanks Kym!)
"River pirates" surrounding another boat on the Nile.
"Good price for you, my friend!"
After my last post in Luxor, Carol and I headed out to the market again and tried to find some wares. We found we were quite harassed by the shop keepers who kept coming up to us and trying to get us into their shops. ("Where you from? Good price for you, no hassle!") We walked rather quickly and didn't stop to look at any of them. At point one, one young man was really in Carol's face until she told him quite forcefully to go away. Just as he was leaving, she though he had tried to get something out of her zippered cargo pant pocket and told him not to touch her pockets. She went to check to make sure he didn't take anything and sure enough, her change purse was missing. The guy was only about a foot away at this point and she saw he had it in his hand. She grabbed it back from him, while he tried to say that she dropped it and should be more careful! She got quite upset at him and I guess made enough noise that he was embarrassed and ran off. Luxor really left a sour taste in our mouths, as it was filled with dirty streets and very dishonest people.
Around 4 pm that afternoon, we all gathered together and took horse drawn carriages down to Karnak Temple. There we met our guide, Suleh, who was dressed in the traditional Egyptian galabeya (long dress), complete with cigarette and walking stick. Apparently he's led numerous dignitaries around these sites, including the Egyptian president and Prince Charles. He also made an appearance in the Agatha Christie movie "Death on the Nile" and his picture is in the 2006 Egypt Lonely Planet Guide! (Had I found out sooner, I would have gotten him to autograph our copy!) It was quite hot out, but he took us from one shady spot to the next so the tour went by quickly. At the end we had some time to ourselves to take pictures but the lighting wasn't the best as the sun was going down. Took the carriages back to the boat and had supper around 7 pm. While we were touring the temple I hadn't been feeling well, but I thought it was because I had a bit too much sun that day, but looking back on it, I think I picked up something worse. (The locals refer to getting sick as either "mummy's tummy" or "Ramses revenge!" Don't know if they've heard of West Nile just yet... ha ha!) Right after supper, I went back to our room and became quite sick for the next 24 hours. I spent most of the evening making trips to the washroom before starting to throw up just after midnight. The next day was supposed to a donkey trek into the Valley of the Kings but I knew I was in no shape to travel 7 km by donkey and then spend 3 hours walking around in the hot sun. (Especially when the Immodium wasn't working and there would be no toilets in sight! Guess the ancient kings didn't need to use the facilities in the afterlife.) When the 4:30 am wake up call came, I told J to go ahead without me. Siobhan came to check on me and suggested I take the Cipro since nothing else was working. I spent the rest of the day in bed, sipping on water and Sprite.
Everyone tried to console me and said I didn't miss much, as the day was quite hot and the donkeys very jiggley! J fell off at least twice while trying to get onto his donkey and everyone agreed that it was quite hard to stay on them. The rest of the gang arrived back at the boat around 1 pm and we set sail for Edfu. I managed to eat a banana for lunch and the staff served me some hot water with fresh mint sprigs in it, which helped quite a bit. (They had actually called my room while everyone else was out and wanted to know if they could bring me anything to make me feel better. They were very accommodating and took care of all of us quite well!)
Later on in the afternoon we arrived at the Eduf locks and lined up with about 10 other cruise ships waiting to go through the locks. While the boats are waiting to go through, men in row boats come up along side the ships and try and sell stuff to the tourists. They don't take no for an answer and actually throw the stuff up on deck for you to take a look at! A couple of people got hit in the head by flying table clothes and t-shirts! Some of the ones on the lower level were sleeping in their rooms with the windows open, and the men came up to their windows and poked their heads inside. These people have no shame and will do anything to make a buck! (or a pound!) A few people did bargain and buy stuff but most just ignored the flying merchandise and tried to stay away from the edge. They did have pretty good aim though and could launch their merchandise all the way up to the top floor of most of the ships. We also discovered that most of the wares are washable, as when people would throw the unwanted stuff back and it ended up in the Nile, the men just fished it out and put it out to dry for the next crazy tourist!
Supper was served around 7:30 pm, after we had passed through the locks, and I managed some broth, pretzels and more mint tea. Felt quite chilly so took a Tylenol before bed and slept through the night!
Carriage to Karnak.
Columns at Karnak
One of the few pieces of Egyptian history with colour still left in it!
Waiting for their victims! Notice the "Horase Bazar!"
Sunset over the Nile at Luxor
Donkey riding at the Valley of the Kings
King Tut's tomb - empty inside but they still charge 70EP to see it!
Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, the only female pharaoh.
Top view of temple (thanks to Kym who did the climb!)
Worker's village from above (also a Kym picture!)
Another view of the worker's village
Colossi of Memnon (Thanks Kym!)
"River pirates" surrounding another boat on the Nile.
"Good price for you, my friend!"
posted by The Patterson Pair at 5:03 AM
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