Day 3 – Cairo to Luxor

Waking up to a load of emails on the Boxing Day offers we had a relaxed start as our flight was only in the afternoon. We took a walk along the Qasr Al-Nil bridge marvelling at the waters of the Nile, the lifeline of Egypt!

Jump to

• Luxor temple
• Luxor West Bank
  1. Ramesseum
  2. Temple of Hatshepsut
  3. Valley of Kings
  4. Medinet Habu
• Karnak Temple
• Dendera

The van from Cairo Shuttle Bus was on time but Novotel refused to let him into the driveway so we carried our bags up the steps. The driver was pleasant and spoke better English than our earlier encounter and offered an apology for not being able to come into the driveway. We had initially booked a pick up 2h 30min before our flight but were asked to make it 3h 30 by the staff in the lobby. We felt that was way too ahead and settled for 3h before the flight. There wasn’t much traffic and we reached the airport with lot of time to spare or rather kill! Just as we were placing our bags onto the security scanner a large group arrived and much to our annoyance their rep shoved their bags in front of ours onto the scanner. T3 domestic was nearly deserted. Our lunch was a stale cheese sub from one of the cafes near the gate (and I suspect I was short changed) and we really had a lot of time to kill before our gate was announced. Uneventful flight on Egypt Air with free tasty cookies and a drink. (Hear ye, EasyJet?). 

We were met by Mohammed from Oceanus as we landed in Luxor near the baggage carousel and escorted to our van. He was to be our guide for the day after. As we drove into Luxor we marvelled at all the greenery around us. The sun setting over the limestone hills in the distance was a sight to behold. We were told there’s hardly any rain in Luxor and all the farming is done with water from the Nile. They seem to be growing every fruit and vegetable under the sun in addition to sugar cane (I didn’t know where to classify that one!). We took the bridge to the WB and into El Mesala for our 2 night stay.

After much hesitation I booked El Mesala based on reviews and that it was neat. I wasn’t expecting much being at about £40 a night. But we were in for a rude shock. As we tried to check in the manager and other staff started yelling at each other in Arabic. We had wanted to drop our bags and visit Luxor temple as it was nearly 6 by then. We interrupted them to find out that a “family suite” had been given away to a couple and they didn’t have that room anymore. This was unexpected and unacceptable. I had emailed them couple of days before we left the UK confirming the room we booked and the time we will be arriving from Cairo and now this? He showed a small 2x single bedded room as the only available room. He said he will speak to the couple in the family suite and move them by tonight. As we were in a hurry we left our bags in the tiny room and went to the EB by a motor boat organised by another staff at the hotel for 20EGP. 

Luxor temple

As we got off the boat and crossed the Cornish to the Luxor temple, pandemonium erupted! There was some event happening right behind Luxor temple and there was loud man yelling on the mic. The pavement was non existent and whatever was left had caleche parked too close to them. The pavement was uneven and we were pestered non stop by the caleche drivers making it very difficult for us to walk and to see where we were going. I was sort of prepared for this but did not expect chaos to this extent. SC was put off by all the nonsense that he refused to return to the EB the next day at first. We finally passed all the pestering and reached the mosque and we didn’t know where to get the tickets. Lucky for us a guide from a Chinese group was standing all by himself and we asked him for directions. Even then we ended up at the exit gate and were redirected to the entrance. Again there was no order here and many tour escorts jumped the queue to get tickets for people in their group. We finally got to the window and got our tickets. With a big sigh of relief we passed security to enter the temple. We spent the next hour enjoying the temple. There were a lot of people; most of them were part of group and they passed quickly. We had certain areas to ourselves to shoot some interesting pictures. I again followed the Lonely Planet guide to the various parts. 

SC refused to check out any restaurants in the EB and we returned right away by the same motor boat to the WB (the guy operating it had passed on his number to us). We had dinner at the roof top of El Mesala.. decent selections and pretty tasty food. It was getting cold and we went hunting for the manager to change our rooms. He was nowhere in sight. So stuffed ourselves into the small room for the night with a shower that went cold after just one person had their shower.

Day 4 – Luxor West Bank

Luxor West Bank

The breakfast the next morning was sparse. There was fuul, falafel, bread, yoghurt and fruits. Eggs arrived much later. Coffee was hot water poured into Nescafe. The staff didn’t care for us. We helped ourselves to what was available and went looking for the manager again. This time he was available and promised to arrange something by the time we returned from the WB tour. I kept insisting that we wanted the room we had originally booked – the family suite facing the Nile.. and he just nodded. SC was skeptical and he was right.

Ramesseum

Our first stop was Ramesseum. The Ramesseum is a memorial temple of the Pharaoh Ramesses II and was supposedly to have taken 20 years to build. It has a 57 foot seated statue of Ramesses II but there’s only a few fragments of it left.

As soon as we reached the temple the guard told us the tickets were sold elsewhere. Our guide, Mohammed left to get them and we were whiling our time away for nearly 20 minutes before he arrived with the tickets and we went into Ramesseum. There were only a few people scattered around the site. There was still some excavation going on and they were putting in new wooden steps. The guard followed us around and himself a 20EGP baksheesh. I wouldn’t say I was super impressed but it was good intro to the middle kingdom.

Temple of Hatshepsut

Next stop was the temple of Hatshepsut. This is a mortuary temple built during the reign of Pharaoh Hatshepsut, the second female pharaoh of Egypt. This temple is considered a master of ancient architecture.

Some harassment from vendors as we walk to get the tickets from the parking but it was certainly more bearable than from the caleche drivers on EB. The view of the temple from the ticket office block was very impressive. There were three wide and impressive terraces rising from the desert floor but blended in harmony with the desert floor and the cliffs behind it. The short tram ride wasn’t very much necessary but never mind. There was a big group of school kids and they were excited to see us and kept waving at us. This temple was much more crowded than Ramesseum and it was hard to get pictures without people in it. Hatshepsut’s tomb is in the same building.

Next he kept driving back and forth bet VoK and Ramesseum telling us he is going to take us to an alabaster factory where there would be no pressure to buy but he took a long time to find it. The “factory” was just outside the shop where a group of men sat around and started to sculpt the piece of alabaster in front of them as soon as a group arrived. The guide gave us a special introduction with the “owner” of the shop who promised to offer us the best price. We wanted prices in Dollars or Euros, he asked. I said Egyptian Pounds. A “hand-made white alabaster candle stand” was 1200EGP reduced to 800EGP just for us. Nothing interested me while the family had a toilet break. We were out soon and went to the VoK.

Valley of Kings

This was the highlight of our trip. The Valley of the Kings was the active burial site for Egypt’s pharaohs for 500 years between the 16th and 11th century BC. This is part of the new kingdom of ancient Egypt and has about 63 tombs split across two valleys with the East valley having the most tombs.

Almost all the tombs were robbed in antiquity except for Tutankhamun whose treasures are on display in the Egyptian Museum. A ticket entitles the holder to visit 3 tombs. We can also visit specific additional tombs by purchasing a ticket. These additional tombs are much better maintained and are elaborate. King Tut’s tomb is one such “additional” tomb.

The guide decided to take us to Rameses IV, Rameses IX and Merenptah. We also got tickets for Rameses VI. I had not done my research completely so had nothing to say when he picked his choice of tombs. They were all close to each other and did save us a lot of time and effort. With only a camera pass for 3 tombs, our guide spoke to one of the guards at Merenptah and we did not get our camera pass punched. There wasn’t much in this tomb anyway but the kids enjoyed the climb down and up. A little something for the guard after we returned. Rameses IV was busy. I had my dSLR and SC had his iPhone. On waving the photo pass to the guard he left us in peace. Rameses VI was empty. It was a beautiful tomb and perhaps the best of those we had seen. My order of tombs – Rameses VI, Rameses IV, Rameses IX and Merenptah. As we left, we noticed Tut’s entrance was very crowded. It was 1 o’ clock and we wanted to get some lunch. Our guide insisted that we finish the last place we wanted to visit – Medinat Habu and he would drop us off at the hotel. He mumbled something about half a day. I said I didn’t agree to any such thing while booking. He then said Habu will get hot as the day progressed. I decided it was better to visit Habu than arguing with him.

Medinet Habu

Medinet Habu was absolutely stunning. It was in a much better state and all the work on the walls, the columns and the remnant of colours on the walls were brilliant. I was glad we chose this over VoQ. The temple was cool and there was also a breeze. After Habu we were contemplating a stop at the Colossi of Memnon. However it appeared insignificant after our exhilarating day and we asked to be dropped off at the hotel.

Late lunch and shopping in East Bank

Went to find the manager who gave us another 2xsingle bed room. I asked about the family suite and he had no answer. As it was proving difficult to get anything out of him and we decided to get our lunch. Crossed to the EB after persuading SC and walked to Sofra for a late lunch. The interiors were beautiful and the food, good. Quite a few vegetarian choices too. Then walked to Ragabs for buying some tea varieties, Turkish coffee powder, water and snacks and then to Gaddis. Their collections were beautiful and very reasonably priced. The very same alabaster candle stand was priced at 400EGP. Picked up a few more before taking the boat back to WB.

We tried Sunflower for dinner. While their food was heavenly their service was pathetic. The younger one was nearly asleep by the time food arrived. Boy, the nights in Luxor are cold! During the day only VoK was a little warm but even then it was cool in the shade. Back to El Mesala thanking that there was just one night left!

Day 5 – Karnak Temple, Dendera and to Hurghada

Our last morning in Luxor. The harsh sun was up bright and strong while lone hot air balloon rose up as we got into our van for our long journey to Hurghada. The van from Oceanus seemed to be new and was very clean and comfortable. The driver did not speak much English but that was fine with us.

Karnak Temple

Our first stop was at Karnak Temple crossing over the bridge from WB. Long wait at the security checkpoint and after getting the tickets had a good long walk to the entrance. The mildest salesmen from the souvenir shops in Egypt were the m near the ticket office to Karnak Temple. We wanted to buy a baseball cap and compared to outrageous prices elsewhere we found the sellers near Karnak temple better. He also said we were his first customers for the day and he didn’t want to quote high prices and miss the sale. I think we might have over paid by about 20EGP but we needed the cap.

Karnak Temple is the largest temple complex in the world. Construction began during the middle kingdom and continues well into the new kingdom of ancient Egypt. Apparently 30 pharaohs contributed to its construction. The most significant aspect of this temple compared to other temples is the time it took to build this which is roughly 2000 years (BC).

Karnak temple was huge and with lots of visitors. We felt small and insignificant. Compared to Habu most of the temple was in shambles. The most impressive part was the hypostyle forest as Lonely Planet called it. Walked until the end and around the sacred lake to the Scarab statue. Saw a few tourists circumnavigating the sacred beetle but had no clue why. Later learnt that 3 rounds and your wish comes true!

After following the highlights as mentioned on Lonely Planet we made our way back to our van and settled for the long ride to Qena and Dendera Temple.

Dendera

We reached Qena around lunch time and were immediately pleasantly surprised. There were hardly a few a tourists and it was nearly deserted. Dendera is one of the best preserved temples of ancient Egypt and it was built by the last of the native Pharaohs around 300 BC. Their ticket office block seemed new and was very neat. However I heard all the stalls in the ladies toilet were blocked and unusable.

We gazed at the complete structure as we walked closer to the entrance. It was pretty dark inside though there are lights around the edges on the floor. Marvelled at the painted reliefs on the columns, the defaced face of Hathor, the bright and almost new work underside of the ceiling. After marvelling at the entrance hall walked around to the inner sanctums of the temple while a guard volunteered to take us to show the zodiac wheel. He took us along and in sparse English tried to communicate the purpose of the temple. I had read most of it on Lonely Planet and just nodded along. We went up the winding stairway to the open terrace and to see the zodiac circle before walking down the other stairwell. Gave the guard a tip of EGP20 before walking around the temple to the rear to see the only relief of Cleopatra. Initially we were confused about which of the reliefs was Cleopatra’s but the presence of Cesarion as a little boy confirmed the one on the left on the rear wall was Cleopatra the last pharaoh of Egypt.

As we exited we saw an Exit sign pointing to the row of shops that were in the wrong direction. I was stunned with what all the sellers tried to do to make people walk their way in the off chance that they would buy their merchandise. Thankfully we didn’t fall into the trap and made our exit. Our van was held up near the gate so that they could get more tourist vehicles to join the escort that would accompany us until we exited Qena. I didn’t see the purpose as we had made our own way into Dendera from Qena and why we needed an escort to return. It was at this time we were told we will not be able to stop for lunch as it would delay our journey to Hurghada and we would have to spend the night in Qena if we wanted to stop for lunch. Our driver kept repeating supermarket and we understood that he’ll stop there for us to buy something. The escort lead a row of vehicles to just before the Nile bridge where our driver parked alongside the road for me to buy some snacks at the supermarket. None of them spoke any English and I paid what was asked. All the products were scanned in the machine but the total could have been according to their convenience. I didn’t object and just paid what they asked for. It didn’t seem very high. Then we made our way to Hurghada after bidding goodbye to dear ol’ Nile. She has been what we looked at right when we woke up to and our last vision before tucked in for the night. There was a little sentimental sigh as we went into the eastern desert – visions of hills, sand and endless vacant land. Our driver chose to stop at the rest area and asked to have lunch. The sun was nearly setting and it was getting chilly. All the merchandise were over priced and we didn’t want to venture into ordering without a menu and prices. We waited while the driver finished his lunch and we made our way onto Safaga and Hurghada. As we crossed Safaga and caught sight of the coast in the setting sun, our spirits soared and we really looked forward to our 2 days of rest in Desert Rose.