After Cairo (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1896 ) we flew down to Luxor. It would have been great to be able to start the cruise from Cairo, but the desert was full of bandits and it was not considered safe then. You can do it now.
We were on the MS Tulip. The boat was designed for over 100 but there were only 27 of us from our party on board, plus two other people. We were told that there were usually hundreds of cruisers on the Nile at any one time. Due to the Arab Spring there were less than a dozen.
(Deck of the MS Tulip)
We had hibiscus drinks on arrival (disgusting) and our tour guide, Randa, said that she would be on deck while we were on the boat to talk about anything Egyptian – including politics, which was not allowed before the revolution.
After lunch we took a coach to the nearby Karnak complex (as seen in The Spy Who Loved Me https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1627 ). It is the second most popular attraction in Egypt after the pyramids. The complex is really large and even in November the Sun was beating down. I learnt that baseball caps (that had been de rigeur for me on holiday since 1991) were not good enough in the hotter climates south of the Mediterranean.
We had been warned about touching our mouths as the Egyptian money is filthy. It actually feels greasy and dirty because it is kept in circulation far longer than it is in the UK. Most of the places that tourists visit will accept American dollars too.
(Entrance to Karnak)
After Karnak there was an optional carriage trip around Luxor town. Like a lot of the optional trips there was not much to do if you did not want to do it. Some of our group were upset by the poverty they saw, but Egypt is not a fairy-tale tourist paradise – it is a real place and a lot of it is incredibly poor.
(The coaches we took – you had to hold on securely)
(Backstreets of Luxor – the carriages only just made it through)
We saw the avenue of Sphinxes which was still being excavated. It is likely that this connected the Karnak Complex to the Luxor temple.
(Avenue of Sphinxes)
We were at the Luxor Temple at dusk – which was particularly beautiful. Again it was really quiet compared with what it was like before the revolution.
There were a lot of hawkers at both sites and you had to be really tough with them. They would start with a tourist price which was at least ten times the proper price. The British are particularly bad at bargaining, but I grew to really enjoy it.
After the light went it was back to the boat. It was not moving until the next afternoon but we were sleeping on it.
Luxor and Karnak are essential parts of an Egypt trip.
Siouxsie Sioux was one of the original punk fans that followed the Sex Pistols. Siouxsie and the Banshees were a good singles band, but their albums were not for me. This song was related to the Death of a Princess scandal in Saudi Arabi, where one of the ruling family was executed for her adultery. As usual at that time the furore with the Saudi government was a big issue due to the Saudi control of OPEC and the fear of an interruption to oil supplies. That control of the huge amounts of oil in the Arabian peninsula gives Saudi Arabia a significant free pass when they do things like extra judicial murder or war crimes in Yemen. Plus ca change.
Arabian Nights
Playlist:
- Playground Twist
- Love in a Void
- Hong Kong Garden
- Happy House
- Christine
- Israel
- Spellbound
- Arabian Nights
- Melt!
- Slowdive
- Fireworks
- Dazzle
- Swimming Horses
- Overground
- Candyman
- Cities in Dust
- This Wheels on Fire
- The Killing Jar
- The Last Beat of My Heart
Five Miles Out 