Luxor to Cairo

I had set my alarm for 9:30, but woke up at 9am and wasn’t feeling so great.  I took a bunch of drugs and layed down for a bit.  At 10am Tara and I went down for breakfast.  Breakfast was pretty good and even had fresh made to order omelets.  Tara and I sat alone (except for the birds that wouldn’t leave us alone) until we eventually moved to share a table with Jason (NY) and Karen.  After a while people floated in and out of breakfast, eventually I was just hanging out with Jacqui soaking in the sun.  After a bit I went upstairs for a shower and to pack up.  Just as I finished getting ready Tara came in, which was handy because then she would be there to put the luggage out while I went to use the internet.  I’ll digress for a minute...  Egypt is a Muslim Country and the Muslims pray several times a day.  So periodically throughout the day there would be a call to prayer – over the loud speakers they would broadcast prayers (I think) throughout the cities.  It’s fairly loud and very distinctive.  When I was ready to go use the internet the call to prayer was still going on.  I thought the call to prayer meant people were actually praying, but since it hadn’t really affected anything we had done so far I didn’t think much of it.

While I was walking over to the internet, which was just around the block, many men said hello to me and that I was beautiful, I have to admit that that made me feel more uncomfortable then good.  When I got to the internet place I asked the guy how much for half an hour, he said it was 10 LE, but he had to close up to pray.  I probably made a face turned on my heel and left, I was not happy and was having an ignorant tourist moment.  So if you’re that guy – I’m sorry I was rude.  So then I had to walk past the same people who said hi, and that I’m beautiful, which is even more fun when I'm grumpy.  Back at the hotel I ran into Jacqui and hung out with her for a few minutes before going back to the room. 

At 1:15 we all met in the lobby to take the bus to Karnak Temple.  The temple is HUGE and so is everything in it.  The colonnade room alone could hold Notre Dame Cathedral.  There seemed to be a lot of excavation and work being done.  It seems the temple was built on top of another temple, which they can’t get to without destroying Karnak temple.  In one area they had a pool, which was looking really disgusting, and was used to cleanse by the ancient Egyptians.  Sherif said that when the Nile would rise it would clean the water out, but I wasn’t convinced it was a place to cleanse.  Across from the pool was a scarab that after the Egyptians came out of the pool they were supposed to run around – for good luck.  Adam and Tara skipped the pool but they did run around the scarab.

Tara and I at Karnak	Sphinx	Satelite photo of Karnak	Colonnade Room	More Collums	A Cartouche	Egyptian love

Obelisk	From another view	Cities the Egyptian won in battles	Math	The pool, it doesn't look so clean	Good luck?

After Karnak we had a chance for a gourmet lunch – McDonalds.  I learned on my last trip that when everyone gets off the bus at McDonalds and you actually want to eat lunch you have to be quick, I was one of the first people on line.  For that I got to eat in the McDonalds.  I guess the anti-supersize thing didn’t transfer over to Egypt because the fries and soda were huge.  But the place did have a nice view of a new courtyard and Karnak Temple.  After lunch we went to the airport.

I didn't know Ronald was Muslim	Can I take your order	There was quite a view here	McDonald's characters in Egypt	We don't have artwork like this at home

We arrived at the airport around 4:00 for a 5:00 flight, before we got off the bus Sherif told us to take our own luggage and inside it would get scanned by security.  When I got my suitcase some guy tried to take it for me (naturally he would have wanted baksheesh for the trouble), I had to pull it away from him to get him to let go.  Hey, I don’t mind when people take my luggage but I can handle taking it 20 feet by myself.  On our flight to Cairo I sat next to Jason (SLC) and Jen (on the other side of the aisle).  The flight was only about an hour.   

When we were back in Cairo we had a brand new Spring Tours (the company that manages Contiki tours in Egypt) bus, the plastic was still on the seats, which naturally prompted a plastic fight.  Our first stop was the Khan el-Khalili Market, for an hour and a half visit.  Sherif told us that he doesn’t take the Trafalgar Tours to the market since they don’t seem to enjoy it, I couldn't picture my parents here.  The market is one of the oldest, biggest markets in the world, but we stayed in the touristy area of it.  While I had done most of my traveling in Egypt with a guy (husband) around, Jen, Tara and I spent most of our time there together without a guy and had no troubles, or at least no more then we had anywhere else when guys were around.  But it was insanely crowded here and everyone was calling to you to get you to look at there stuff, some asked why you didn’t want to look at there stuff, some shoved stuff in your face.  After about 2 minutes I thought that I might go insane and become an angry woman, but I made it through the market ok.  I even bought some stuff; a singing camel for Alex was my best purchase.  Ed wasn’t so happy with being there either, but in the end he bought a chess set so I guess it worked out ok for him.   

On the bus back I mostly sat with Sherif in the front and got to discuss the US and Cairo with him.  Apparently they have some different traffic laws here, you can put extra lights on your car, you have to wear a seatbelt, but they don’t seem to have laws, or simply don't enforce them, regarding emissions.  And have I mentioned that the lines on the road are only there because they thought it was a good idea? 

We got back to the Oasis hotel around 10pm, it was sad being back, it meant that the end of the tour was near, and I was having too much fun for it to end.  Back at the hotel everyone went by the pool for some dinner.  I had a burger and poor Tara had the worst/weirdest cheese sandwich (who new you could screw up grilled cheese?).  I don’t think the rest of her dinner was any better.  Went back to the room at 11:15, it was a long day, and I was exhausted.