mummys, donkeys and sweaty americans
we dragged ourselves up at six yesterday to head across to the valley of the kings in the early morning. after loading up on free breakfast vicks and i bundled into the back of the affable gamei hussein's crumbling peugeot and trundled off to the west bank, to the necropolis in the theban hills.
anyone who's read my rants about the pricing of tourist sites abroad, especially in india, knows how much it enrages me that all foreigners get lumped into the wealthy category. the egyptian antiquities authority however offer generous student discounts, which at least shows an appreciation that us occidentals have different budgets, so well done them. unfortunately i'm no longer a student, so not well done me. still, the principle's correct.
the valley of the kings is a bit of a disappointment, and not just because it's overrun with tourists. in an effort to combat theft, almost all of the artefacts have been bundled off to the museums in cairo. unfortunately, all that remains are dusty, empty, tombs, many of which are not even open. there are hieroglyphics on the walls, and the occasional ingenious device to dissuade tomb raiders (although they should refill the pits with snakes), but it all looks a bit tired and hollow. it's the sheer volume of possessions that these guys wanted to take with them which was impressive, their expectations of an opulent afterlife... without any true indication of that the whole experience felt a bit jaded.
tutankahmun's tomb was also a bit of a let down: the legend's intriguing, but the tomb itself is small and not that impressive, a reflection of the brevity of his life. it's certainly not worth the additional fee you have to pay to get in: still, i suppose you can't begrudge the authorities a bit of opportunism, especially when it seems like the money is being well spent on restoration and the like.
after a hike over the theban hills we got to dein el bahri. now this temple is truly impressive, looming out of the mountain face like ellora... the view is particularly breathtaking when you cross the ridge of the hilll and suddenly see this huge edifice striking out of the living rock. again, it's the scale of the buildings, coupled with the timescale in which they were constructed that makes them so impressive.
all good stuff, but i think i preferred luxor temple, and will probably be even more enthused by abu simbel in the south (only 40kms from sudan! vicki has cut any silly ideas out of my head).
there's an arab fight breaking outside, so off for a gander...
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.
