Egypte / Egypt 2002

July 9, 2002 – Luxor (Cont.)

After few minutes under the shade, the sun is pretty now and it is only 11am, we resume our trip on the west bank. We want to enjoy the view from the hills. So instead of taking a taxi to go to the temple of Hatshepsut, we will climb the hill just next to the tomb of Ramses III. After only a 15 minutes climbing we are at the top and the view is unbelievable. We have a great view on the Nile and its two banks very green. After these banks, it is only desert and desert. The view on the valley of the kings is not bad at all as you saw on the previous page. We are amazed by the spectacle in front of us and we spend quite a long time just to take the plein measure of what can be seen from this point. I will remember it for a while.

A small part of what we saw

On the other side of the hill while going down, we have also a great view on the inside of Hatshepsut’s temple, another famous temple of the valley but not only for the pharaohs time but also because it is here that more than 50 tourists were murdered in 1997…

Temple of Hatshepsut

With Salim, I stopped at the first shop near the entrance. We will spend there the next 2 hours talking with the shop owner and his assistant. We are also observing all the tourists coming here only to take a picture and sometimes buying some Egyptian articles. Jorge is visiting the site during all this time, I keep my last ticket for the Ramasseum.

Around 3pm, the shop owner comes with us because we are leaving the place to see another temple, the one dedicated to Ramses. I visit the site with Jorge because Salim doesn’t have a ticket and despite his try to enter, they won’t let him in so he will talk with the guards while drinking tea. In the temple, there is a huge head of Ramses and I am thinking of this statue when it was built because the proportions are so great. The Ramasseum follows a classical architecture: two squares, a great room with columns, a sanctuary and annexes rooms.

After the visit, we walk back to the ticket office where we take a service taxi to reach the pier. We pay the right price for the taxi, only 25 piastres. It is very different from the 1 EGP or more that taxi drivers ask when they feel tourists don’t know the prices. For the ferry, this time I will pay 1 EGP to cross the Nile.

We are going in the direction of the Grand Hotel but we stop at the corner of Sharia Mohammed Farid and Sharia Abdel Moneim Al Adasi to eat on the terrace of a restaurant. The 2 guys will take spaghetti and for me it will be eggplants, delicious.

With Jorge, we go to the bus station near the temple of Luxor to buy the bus tickets for Dahab. The bus will start at 5pm and we will arrive the next morning in Dahab. I take the opportunity to change some euros at a change booth not far from the bus station.

Tonight, we will have a party on our rooftop with Carrie (the Australian girl from the felucca), the 2 British girls and 2 Czechs. We will drink some beers and smoke the shisha.

Wit Salim, we go to buy the sandwiches at the same restaurant where we went yesterday and today we will pay the local price 50 piastres for a sandwich instead of 1 EGP yesterday, 50% off it is not bad at all. Tonight I try a camel sandwich, it is special concerning the taste but it is good.

Finally we wil spend a nice evening all together talking and listening to music. The whole hotel crew joins us to share these good moments.

Main expenses of the day :

Ferry crossing : 1 EGP each way or under if you have chance!!!

Valley of the kings entrance : 10 EGP (student fare) otherwise 20 EGP

Entrée Ramasseum : 6 EGP (student fare) otherwise 12 EGP

Nuit au Grand Hotel : 6 EGP (12 EGP a double with a fan)

Drinks (water, soft drinks, tea…) + Evening meal : 30 EGP