Namrin in Egypt: Luxor 26-27 Dec

This is the forth album...we nearly reach the end of the Egypt trip. I was still on the cruiser and Luxor was the next stop after Edfu (and Esna). This means Luxor located in North of those 2 cities as the current of Nile River goes from South to North. (Just repeat what I told you last time, hehe)

Let's talk about Luxor. Luxor was one of the capital cities of Egypt in ancient time. I think it was a capital city for a very long time during Pharaoh's reign. In the past it is called Thebes. Thebes owns several ancient buildings and tombs. It has so many attractions for tourists. And for the modern eyes, here is a big city which less busy but more friendly than Cairo. You may picture of Manchester VS London...or a better example is Kyoto VS Tokyo (because Kyoto also used to be a capital city). Note that I didn't meant that Cairo is as developed as Tokyo or London, just meant to compare the capital city with its brother city.

Major tourist attractions in Luxor are as follows:
In West Bank
- Valley of the Kings (we've been here)
- Valley of the Queens (we didn't go there)
- Tombs of the Nobles (we didn't go there)
- Deir al-Medina (Temple of Hatshepsut) (we've been here)
- Temple of Mernaptah (Museum) (we didn't go there)
- Colossi of Memnon (we've been here)

In East Bank
- Luxor Museum (we've been here)
- Mummification Museum (we didn't visit there)
- Luxor Temple (we've been here)
- Temples of Karnak (we've been here)

As you see, there are so many things to see so I and Sayuri spent 2 days in Luxor. The trip was very heavy on the first day because we still had been with the local guide and the Thai group so it's better to let him introduce us to several places. In the case that you prefer to have a slow pace, I think you can spend 3-4 days in Luxor without feeling bored!

When we were at the Valley of the Kings and Luxor Temple, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy was also visiting the same place at the same time. Unfortunately, I forgot his mobile phone number so we didn't meet up :-P

The thing that came through my mind when I was traveling in Luxor was about service mind. I think in general, service is not in Egyptian mind. I really wonder why (this is a tourist country) and I still can't answer myself. I believe that there would be something in their history that makes this wonderful sightseeing country is not good at service. For an example, when we were on, they called themselves a 5-star cabin cruiser, we were asked to leave the lunch table because they wanted to clean up. It was only 2PM and next meal was dinner at 7-8PM. I didn't know why they couldn't wait for a little bit. This kind of things also happened in Cairo. However, my negative feeling has been changed when we stayed in a small hostel on the last night in Luxor, the hostel team was very generous and unbelievably helpful. They even refused the tip!! I and Sayuri felt that this hostel was strange because it's too nice comparing to any other places we've experienced in this country so far. Anyway, we feel thankful and hey, some Egyptians have service mind but it's just not so easy to find.

For the last part of this album, I'd like to say modern Egyptians are very lucky that they had Pharaohs. I believe that people also appreciate those ancient Kings and Queens. Without them that means without those incredible Pyramids, treasured tombs, amazing historical temples, etc., Egyptians' lives today would be more suffering because economy wouldn't be this good without tourist business.

Most of living things are surrounded by dessert; heat, drought and sand. Have you ever wondered where all living creatures in Egypt go? I'll show you where next time. Stay tune.

Namrin

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/namrinb/Photo%202007/Egypt%20Trip%2020-29%20Dec07/Luxor%2026-27%20Dec/