nights over egypt
it's hot in luxor. ridicuously hot. 47 degrees every day hot.i thought i'd get that little statement out of the way, as the searing heat is what dominates proceedings here, rendering excursions from about midday to six totally unfeasible, making any phsical exertion bar lapping at a cold drink a real struggle at anytime, and inexorably turning me into a darker and darker quasi sudanese bit of human toast.
having said that, it works out quite nicely in that it makes you laze around for a large portion of the day, whilst leaving you free to hit the sites in the early morning and late afternoon, when the light makes the ancient egyptian structures that much more spectacular. not that they need much help... the sheer size of luxor temple is astounding, with the scope of the ancient egyptians' ambition outlined by the giant pillars now bereft of a roof atop them, intricately carved with hierolglyphics and, somewhat hilariously, graffitti in ancient greek. good to see that when aerosols were a few millenia away a humble chisel could suffice: who would have thought that the urge to desecrate was so primal?
luxor itself is a strange place: it's as if it's on the cusp of being a crazy, hectic, middle eastern city, but there simply aren't enough people here for it to become that. as such you have broad, wide, roads, and no matter how much noise and hassle the taxi drivers and touts try to generate they simply cannot fill the space around them. there's not even a genuine third world city smell in the air... any odour of manure and pollution is dissipated by the stifling dust and heat.
i have become a bit of an apostate to travelling 5* hotel way, although the onset of internet bargains means that, whilst the service remains essentially the same, the nature of the clientele in these establishments has changed hugely. i'm certainly easiy pleased... a roof and a sitdown toilet and i'm happy, and when you throw in toilet paper too it's a dream! i always thought 5* meant business types and aristocrats: i certainly can't imagine being allowed to wander around the taj or the oberoi barefoot in a beater and pajama.
a final word on breaking another habit of a lifetime and not travelling alone. vicks has been great value, but white folk are definitely a bit of a liability (big nose), especially as, in skin colour at least, i resemble the locals who are a bicromish brown mix of fair skinned arabs and negroid sudanese, and as such am largely left alone when i'm alone. i am getting a bit annoyed by all the shouts of "lucky man" which follow us around whenever we walk the streets however... i can only presume the shouts of "lucky woman" are in arabic.
posted by bicrom @ 8:32 pm
<< Home