Egypt Continued

[zahryn]

Day 8: Our Xmas day started very early, the alarm went off at 05:30, we got up and dressed then headed out of the hotel towards the train station. We were met by our minibus and went off to the Nile to catch our ferry. We got onto the ferry and had mini chocolate croissants with orange squash for breakfast, then got into another minibus on the West Bank then drove out to the site. It was amazing to see the sky full of balloons and a piece of land with more balloons in varying stages of fullness. We walked across to the Viking balloon and watched as it filled and then drifted upwards into the sky. We all got into our section of basket and practised the landing position (squatting, holding onto the rope rings and facing away from the direction of travel) before taking off gracefully with the minimum scraping of the basket.
We gained height quite quickly and soon could see for miles. The mist was thick and we only saw the sun for the first time when were up on high, we got a much better trip than the “Sunrise” people would have done because it was so misty. We could see the temple of Hatshepsut, the valley of the Kings and Queens and during the flight we saw the temples of Ramses II (the Ramesseum) and Ramses III. It was so peaceful and when the burners weren’t going it was almost completely silent, we could hear donkeys braying from miles away and see for miles in all directions. At one point the pilot (Roma) pulled a blue cord and we swung around to get a different view.
It was a fantastic start to our Christmas day, the landing was smooth, the ground crew were great and afterwards we all had a little dance, with drumming and an Egyptian song as the ground crew celebrated our successful flight with us. We all got certificates and then we got back into the bus to go back to the Nile. The trip back was a bit longer rather than just going across the river, to give the guy who’d been waving a video camera in our face the chance to flog us his DVD. The only taker was a Canadian teacher guy and it’s entirely possible that was only from pity. The bus dropped us back at our hotel so we went upstairs, changed into shorts and got ready for the rest of our day. We wanted breakfast but it was only 9am and nothing in town was open so our Christmas day breakfast was a sausage and egg mcmuffin with OJ for me and coffee for G :o)
After breakfast we stopped for some cash and then were waylaid by “Yousef” the kalesh driver we’d put off the day before, so we went with him, making sure he understood that we were in no hurry (as we’d wanted a kalesh to Karnak anyway) and we had a very pleasant drive out of the city. Yousef was going to rest and water his horse “Michael Jackson” (not his real name) as well as clean his cab so he said he’d wait for us and take us back to Luxor for the same price; LE20 each way.
We walked into Karnak complex and got into the pre-temple building, we walked around the security station with its metal detectors that no one pays attention to and its bag scanners that no one uses and had a look at the temple layout from above using the 3D map. There was a huge gaggle of tourists with a guide and at least 2 of them were wearing Santa hats so we skipped ahead quickly, got our tickets and went into the temple. We pretty much followed the tour of Karnak and the temple enclosure of Amun-Ra that was in the guidebook and it was incredible, we saw some really amazing sights, even more-so than at Luxor temple. My favourite thing was the huge mud-brick slope that was used to haul the blocks for the pylons into place. G’s favourite thing was the hypostle hall, 134 columns of rock carved to look like papyrus, each one 32.2m tall arranged so that what the Nile flooded into the hall it would represent the papyrus swamps.
We walked and were sore quite quickly but we determined not to stop or miss a thing, even walking to the sacred lake where the priests of Amun bathed twice a day and twice a night for purity. We stopped to sit down near the “Giant” Scarab, laughing at the tourists who believed what they were told by their guides, that it was made by Ramses II for good luck, and that in order to gain the luck of the Pharaohs they had to walk around it 5 times!! It was actually commissioned by Amenhotep III and dedicated to Kephri, a form of the Sun God Ra
The number one thing we both noticed and commented on was the number of people, grown-ups particularly, who not only looked totally under whelmed by these incredible sights, but even managed to look completely bored, even to the point of not being able to raise a smile in their posed photos. Anyway, that’s their malfunction, not ours!! We had a fantastic day. We went back to meet Yousef and found him waiting for us, we took a leisurely trip back to Sindbads café, stopping on the way at the Mecure hotel to take photos of their Christmas display. We decided it looked as though it had been created by someone who had only the briefest idea of what Christmas is about and it makes us laugh every time we talk about it, so was well worth a photograph.
The traffic was very light, and the mosques were all running full sermons instead of just the call to prayer, we came to a traffic light (and actually stopped at it :-O) right in front of a mosque, the square in front was packed with rows and rows of men & boys, all with their prayer mats, alternately listening to the sermon and praying. It was quite eye-opening watching such devotion to faith and there were so many people wanting to join in that they spilled over onto the pavements and even had rows of people on the prom with their prayer mats, within sight and hearing of the mosque. I took a couple of pictures from the kalesh but I don’t think they came out very well.
Yousef took us back to the café so that we could begin an intensive afternoon of doing nothing :o) It was our intention to sit, drink tea, have lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the sun, which we duly did. Very enjoyable it was too. We read our books, had our Xmas lunch (tahina, falafel and beer) and chilled out. I finished the book I was reading (not impressed with the ending) then we paid up and left. We went to El Bess, the ring shop where G had bought his puzzle ring and the same guy helped us to choose a ring for me. It’s a thinner, more feminine version of G’s, with 2 extra rings and I love it. It’s a bit tight for the middle finger of my left hand, which means it should be a perfect fit when we get back to the cold of the UK.
It was sad to hear him say that he hardly made any sales these days, people don’t tend to go off the beaten track, and especially into the bazaars’ cos they think they’ll get hassled. His jewellery is all really nicely made and he has a lot of variety at good prices, it’s a shame he doesn’t get much custom. When we left the bazaar we walked back to the hotel to get fresh books, the new diary notepad and our cardies. We missed the pop-up t-shirt guy as he was doing his thing for other people and after a quick break we beat the pavement back to the Nile and the “Metropolitan Café and Restaurant” to have our fancy Christmas dinner. We had a glass of beer before ordering food and tried to figure out my puzzle ring, but it was no good, we were too hungry (and in my case ‘shaky’) to get it to work so we gave up and ordered a starter to share of “World Wings” which were very nice and just the right amount of spicy, then we both ordered “Napoleons favourite Egyptian dish” Beef Fattah which was tender pieces of beef pieces in rice with bits of toast mixed in and a nice tomato-type sauce on top…Yum!!
We finished eating and then started people-watching our fellow diners. A “Costa Del Sol” family arrived and ordered chicken and chips and weak tea, except she ordered it by asking for “half a bag tea” and then got funny with the waiter when he tried to explain that they didn’t have half-bags of tea. They got it sorted eventually though and seemed to enjoy their meal, even asking for a doggy-bag for the left overs. :o)
We’ve also just been left by an American family of 5 who sulked when there wasn’t a table free by the river, one of the teenaged daughters had a monk on when they arrived and then treated her family to a 5 minute diatribe on Egypt and how aggravated she was becoming by not being able to go anywhere without being disturbed or hassled. Their entire meal went very badly and ended when they ordered 2 chocolate and 2 pistachio ice creams and got 2 ice creams each with 2 scoops of the requested flavour, they were then charged LE50 for each.
Well, our Christmas day is ending as perfectly as it began, even with a slight chill in the air we’re sitting beside the Nile at 20:40 :o)
P.S. A new party has arrived and ordered, one of the women has actually ordered a “chicken Caesar salad, but without the chicken” LOL I’ve also just had my photo taken with Ramses II - according to our waiter :o)