Egypt - Day 4: The Luxor Roundabout

It was pretty dark out and we didn't get to see where we were riding through until the sun came up:


The train arrived crazy early. We thought we were getting good at haggling - talked the taxi down to LE20 from LE40. "We wuz robbed" - the ride was about 4 minutes and probably should have been LE10. We got dropped off at the Old Winter Garden. The front desk at there sent us down to the New Winter Garden (down side stairs then long hall way). Our room was not ready yet (obviously) I asked the clerk to hook us up with a driver to tour around the west bank - he made a few calls and got us one at 8:00AM (it was about 7AM then).
Gim passed out in the lobby when I went to get coffee:


Driving through the countryside:



First stop: Valley of the Kings

Lots of kings were buried here in tombs within this huge valley. The most famous one is Tutankhamen (King Tut) - whose tomb we didn't go to because of the extra cost AND we already saw the content in the museum. The temperature is around 90s to 100 and the sun was blazing by the time we got here.


Entrances were built for tourism. All the tombs are accessed via stair ways like this. Inside the tomb: hot, humid; years and years of built up tourist body odor. Being down there made the outside 100 degree air feel cool.

Here's what it looks like inside:


Funny story: there's a "guardian" sitting inside each level of each tomb. They're there to make sure everything is OK and no one is taking pictures. Me being the rebel that I am took videos. At the second tomb we went to, one of the guardians crept up behind me and snatched my camera. I begged and pleaded to get my camera back. He kept telling me in that if he told the tourist police upstairs/outside, it'll cost LE1000 to get my camera back. After following him in circles walking around, I finally realized that he wanted some money. I slipped a folded LE100 bill in my palm, held it up so he can see it and shook his hand. He was avoiding my hand until the room was cleared. I got my camera back and learned two lessons: don't get caught and bribe your way out.

Second stop: Deir el-Bahri (Temple of Hatshepsut)

Giant temple, massive tourists, blazing sun

Third stop: Alabaster Factory

There are tons of these along the way. The tour guides / drivers get a cut of the sale somehow. The prices are OK and you get a little show of how everything is made. We didn't get much because we knew we can probably get it cheaper at the market in Cairo.

Fourth stop: Colossi of Memnon

Just two gigantic statues here. There's a platform kind of deal where most of the tourists take pictures. There are also stairs going down to where the statues are. Most people didn't bother going down and up to the statues. No I says George! It smelled like dog shit down there.

It was about 12:30-1PM. We got some food and went back to the hotel.

Our room was ready by then and they told us to go through the back door to get to where our room is. So... we got bumped from the poshy victorian style Old Winter Palace to the hotelish New Winter Palace to the motelish Winter Palace Pavillion.
BTW, the place insisted that they didn't get their money from Travelocity.com and didn't believe the printout I showed them saying I did. I reluctantly gave them my credit card and they charged it. The rate they charged me was cheaper than what I paid via Travelocity. I'm still trying to get my money back from Travelocity.

Check out my picture set on Luxor, Egypt