Luxor, Maybe

We were originally booked on a direct flight to Luxor at 6:30am, which would have gotten us to Luxor at a bit after 7. We have today and tomorrow in Luxor. I know that even a week wouldn't be enough to see everything, but the two things I really want to see are Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings (and King Tut's tomb). That flight was cancelled. We were rebooked on a flight through Cairo, leaving at 9:30am from Sharm and 11:50 from Cairo. So, we would get to Luxor about 1. I was sad to miss out on our morning, but as long as we still saw our stuff, I was OK. We were supposed to see Karnak and Luxor Temple tonight, and then Valley of the Kings and some other things tomorrow.

Wadi took us to check in. Somehow, our old reservations hadn't gotten cancelled (though the flight had), and our new reservations hadn't gone through. Thank goodness Wadi was there, because he had to work for almost 3 hours to get us on that flight. Luckily, it was delayed until 10:30, because we would have missed it. Unfortunately, that delay also made our hour layover in Cairo nonexistent. Wadi spoke with the check in desk, and they assured us that they would wait for us. He said the luggage might not make it on that flight, but that there was another at 3, and we could get it then. So, we got on the plane for an uneventful flight. I did get to see the pyramids from the window, which was quite exciting for me, but with all the smog/dust/dirty windows, I couldn't get a good picture.

The Bent Pyramid

We landed in Cairo at 11:40 and taxied for almost 10 minutes. By the time we actually got off the plane, it was after our other plane was supposed to have left. We ran to the other plane. Wadi had told us that the plane would be in the same terminal. It wasn't. It was quite far away, actually.  About halfway there, an airport employee asked where we were going. I told him Luxor.  He said that the plane had already left. I cried. There was another couple that were in the same position. He took our luggage tags and our tickets, and said he would be back soon. He came back with new tickets for the 3:00 flight. He said there were no earlier flights anywhere, as all the domestic flights are run by Egyptair. So, now we weren't going to get to Luxor until after 4. I was so disappointed. I knew that Luxor Temple was open late, but that Karnak closed at 5. The man let Mom use his phone to call the tour company. She was having trouble, so he talked to them. He assured us that somebody would be there when we got there, and that they were rearranging our program, so we would still see the things we wanted to see. I was still pretty upset, but I felt better after he said that. Egyptair is on my list. At the bathroom in the airport, there was an attendant who squirted soap on our hands and turned on the water for us. And wanted money. She was not going to let us leave that bathroom until we paid. Luckily, I had a change purse with a few euro in it, so I grabbed that and paid her.

They comped us lunch in the airport, and upgraded us to business class, so they moved up a bit, but not a whole lot. The seats on business class weren't any bigger that. The coach seats, but we did get drinks before take-off,  Lunch on the plane (which we didn't eat, since we had just eaten lunch in the airport, but we saved them for later), and a business class bus to take us from the plane to the terminal. So, that was nice.

Em feeling cool in business class

Ahmed was the guy at the airport in Luxor to pick us up. We went to baggage claim, and Em told me she was having intestinal pain. An awesome addition to an awesome day. Even better? The bags didn't come in. They had friggin' bright red "priority" tags on them. We had a three hour layover in Cairo. How had they not made it on the plane? Again, that couple was in the same situation. We had to go in the luggage office and fill put paperwork. It took ages. They said it would be in at 6. Ahmed said we needed to wait. I asked if we were going to get to see anything at all. He gave a sad smile and shrugged. I asked if they could bring it to the hotel, because that's what I'm used to airlines doing when they mess up your luggage. He said everything would be OK, and we could go. So, it was off to the hotel.

The other couple that had trouble wasn't on our tour, but their hotel was on the way to ours. Ahmed said that, since we were a private tour (just our family) we could take them to their hotel if we wanted to. I said sure. They had already started talking to a taxi driver when I called to them, but they told him no thank you and walked with us to the van. The taxi driver flipped. He started yelling in Arabic at them, at me, at Ahmed, at our driver, everybody. Then came more taxi drivers. All yelling. They didn't want to let us in the van! The couple had to seriously push their way through the crowd of yelling taxi drivers to get in. Then, our driver and Ahmed were still outside yelling at everybody. It was almost scary. Finally, they dispersed, and we could go. It was not an auspicious start to Luxor.

I have to say, driving in Egypt so far has been an adventure. We were used to X-treme driving from Marrakech and Rome, but this is a whole new thing. Actually, Sharm wasn't as bad as Marrakech. Luxor, however, is on par, if not worse, because of the millions of horse drawn carriages on the roads. In Marrakech, they seemed contained. In Luxor, they're everywhere. Dodging donkeys, people walking, carriages, carts, etc. All the while honking like crazy. There is no concept of lanes. Well, there is a concept, because lanes are painted, but they don't pay attention to them. Most of the time, our driver drove right down the middle of the lanes. They also don't use their headlights on a regular basis. They seem to be used in conjunction with flashers and horn beeps - all together in elaborate patterns to indicate meaning - you're in my way, get out of my way, I'm here, you need to move, you're blocking the road, I'm going now, etc.

There are also lots of microbuses - old VW vans that drive around from one place to another, like a bus route, but they drive with the door open, and people just hop off and on wherever they can. The traffic never goes fast enough to make it dangerous, I guess.

So, we got to the hotel, and immediately a man from the hotel runs out to get our bags. Ahmed takes us and gets us checked in and up to our rooms. The porter brings the bags up and holds out his hand. Luckily, I still had some euro left. Our room smelled like smoke, but I didn't feel like getting into it and changing it. Since mom can't smell, she took that one.

Since Luxor Temple is open at night, we could still go there. We met Ahmed downstairs after we had gotten settled, and he introduced us to our guide. I thought Ahmed was our guide, but he was the tour organizer, I guess. Our guide was Tyreb. They took us to Luxor Temple. I was a bit unhappy about seeing it at night, because my camera doesn't get great night pictures, but it actually worked out really well. 

There was almost nobody there, which is always nice, and I actually did end up with a number of good pictures. 

While we were walking, Tyreb told us that the temple is depicted really well in papyrus. He also warned us about sellers of fake papyrus. He said if we would like to see some real papyrus, he could take us to a papyrus museum.we said OK. So, when. We were done at the temple, we headed out for the papyrus museum.

We pulled up to a warehouse looking place with a sign that said papyrus museum. It was a shop, pure and simple. A guy served us tea and gave us a demo on how to make papyrus, which was neat, but it was all an elaborate sales pitch. We ended up getting the kids each a papyrus with their names written in heiroglyphs.

Then it was time for the hotel and bed, or so I thought.  We got to the hotel, and Ahmed said I needed to go with him to the airport to pick up our luggage. Frickin' frack, seriously? I was so tired, I just wanted to go to bed, and now I had to take another hour to go pick up the luggage that should have been delivered to my hotel? Egyptair just went even further down on the list than they had been before. I wasn't even allowed inside the airport. I had to wait in the van with the driver for Ahmed to go get my luggage. I was just there to make sure it was the right luggage. The driver got out for a smoke and kind of wandered around a bit in the parking lot. Never far from the van, but he had left it running, which creeped me out. I actually got the phone out and ready to call for help, just in case. I swear, I thought I was going to be kidnapped.

All was OK in the end. We ate our sandwiches from lunch as a very late dinner, looked at our pictures, and said our good nights.

Emma says- We were sooo sooo bored in the airport, until we found the games. We found that Guillotine is a very fun game. I would recommend it to anyone reading this blog, as long as you don't mind dark humor. I was slightly scared that our driver was going to get hurt in the fight. I'm glad I was just a spectator for that. I loved Luxor Temple at night, it was really fun. My name in heiroglyphics is pretty cool. I have all bird stuff, a feather, two owls, and I think an egret.