Egypt, Take 2 – Part 2

The next day, we got up and had a driver take us into the town of Luxor which is on the East Bank of the Nile (we spent most of the previous day on the West Bank). Our driver had quite a gem of a car… I never saw the speedometer needle move off zero, I think I heard L’s head hit the top of the roof a couple of times during the ride—but that was before I was asphyxiated by the smell of gasoline…I’m just glad I didn’t nod off towards the door and poke my eye out with the unprotected screw that stood where the door lock used to be. Ok, it wasn’t that bad but it was memorable.

Our first stop was the Temple of Luxor. All of the sphinx's lining the way into the temple were pretty amazing…and they are still digging up more! We had a fairly good feel for what we were looking at in the temple since our guide had given us so much info the day before—we actually even ran into him while we were there as he was giving another couple a tour. One part that I found particularly interesting was a modern-day looking mosque that was built on top of part of the temple. I really didn’t understand why it was there until after the trip when I was that it had been built before the temple was discovered and once the temple was dug up they decided to leave it there.

Sphinxes lining the entrance to the Temple of Luxor

Temple of Luxor

Mosque built on top of the Temple

From the temple we headed for McDonald’s to grab breakfast and escape some of the hassling. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten in a McDonald’s in a foreign country before (except France & the UAE), but this time we just needed something that we could count on and not have to be worried about bad water making us sick.

Our safe haven

You don't look out too many McDonald's to see an ancient temple

After breakfast, we wandered towards the water as D wanted to see if we could get a little sailboat to take us up, down, and around the Nile. It turned out that we had many Egyptians willing to be our captains… wayyy more than we wanted. After getting barraged by more people than I can count we stopped even responding to their offers. Then one younger, fairly well-dressed guy gave us a hard time for not even saying “La shukran” (which is “No, thank you” in Arabic). We ended up having a very interesting discussion with him about how hard the times were on the local people and how even he, as a local Egyptian, gets badgered by the sellers because they are hurting for business that bad. It was true, Luxor was fairly deserted of tourists and this was supposed to be their high season.

Nile river boats

 R seemed to always get caught up with the locals

The bright neon colors probably didn't help our slim chances of blending in with the locals

Eventually we made our far enough down the walk to get away from the main area of craziness. Although, even getting there we were hassled by random people walking by offering to let us use their cell phone and giving us unsolicited, unhelpful advice and then asking for money in return. Once we were in an area of relative quiet we found a few park benches and pulled out some cards—family tradition.

Up & Down the River

For lunch we headed back to McDonalds!!! I know I’ve never eaten at a McDonald’s twice in one day before! But it was definitely a much needed respite from the mayhem. We had some chicken nuggets and fries, rested up, and got prepared to enter the souk.

We strolled through the souk and found some great treasures. I was really impressed by the vibrant colors of the dyes that many of the vendors had out. D got a cartouche made with her name on it from one guy, L bartered for some pyramids, I got a cute wooden serving platter in the shape of fish, and R found some magnets.

Luxor Souk

Indigo, spices, etc. and some wooden platters...I bought the 3-fish one on the left

While L & D went back to one stall to pick up the cartouche that they had made while we continued to shop, R, Paul and I continued to walk to the end of the souk towards the more local, less touristy area which had more food, etc. We watched a couple guys make falafel at a stand and they even let us try one.

Trying some fresh- made falafel

When R & L caught back up with us we started to head back but were stopped by a “riot/parade” that was going down the street. I asked some people what it was and got all sorts of answers from “a wedding,” “a funeral,” “a party,” etc. We didn't know what to think until someone walking by put this in our hand…

Who would have guessed we would take part in the Revolution?

It was really interesting to talk to all of our drivers and guides, etc. about the revolution and their thoughts of Mubarak...we received a very wide range of responses

We started to get hungry so we walked towards the complete other end of Luxor to find a restaurant that D had found recommended on TripAdvisor. After a long walk and many “La shukrans” to the horse & buggy drivers, we eventually found it. We waivered back and forth between 7 days, 7 ways (which was the one recommended) or the “Restaurant” which was in an abnormally tall & skinny building. We ended up going to 7 days, 7 ways and really enjoyed our meal.

Drink Menu at 7 Days, 7 Ways...  I love the names

Immediately upon our exiting from the restaurant, one of the horse & buggy drivers yelled over to us “I see you… it is laterrrrr.” He was one of the guys that had tried to give us a ride before dinner but we had said no because we just wanted to walk but maybe we would after dinner. He waited outside the entire time we were eating (over an hour??) for us to come back out. We took him up on his offer to take us back into the center of town to meet our driver for “5 egyptshhh” (that's the slang they would use for 5 egyptian pounds (just under $1). His horses name was Rambo and he had quite the time entertaining us on our ride, saying “Ko-nichi-wa” to a group of Japanese tourists passing on another carriage, and making sure D was happy since she was the “momma” and sitting up front with him while L, Paul and I squished in the back with R facing us.

Horse & Buggy ride with Rambo and his crazy owner

We were quite happy to find our driver hop out of his car to greet up as soon as we got off the carriage at our meeting point—again the McDonalds. I felt like we were the Von Trapp family escaping the Nazis in Austria the whole way home as our driver wouldn’t turn on his headlights—he claimed that it was law?!?!?  Overall, another great day!