Today we got up at 1 am to catch a 2:15 transfer to a 5:30 am flight from Cairo to Luxor. We booked these tickets weeks ago. However, both of our original flights were canceled. So we ended up on the earliest flight to Luxor and the 2nd to last flight headed back to Cairo. Total time in Luxor: 16 hours. When I looked ahead at the forecast several days ago it put the high temperature at 94 degrees Fahrenheit. I figured we could handle that. Actually high today 102 degrees.

Today was long, hot, sweaty, stinky, and at times overwhelming. But also very beautiful, and enlightening. I will say, the kids make this experience very special and are always entertaining us.

Luxor is quite different than Cairo and other northern cities. For starters, much less trash. It has very green areas like Fayoum but feels a little bigger. I’m not sure if it actually is but it is divided by the Nile River into West Bank and East Bank. Though we landed on the east, we started the day in the west side.

Our stops in order:

1. Temple of Hatshepsut
2. Valley of the Kings
3. Medinet Habu
4. Alabaster shop
5. Lunch
6. Felluca Ride
7. Temple of Karnak

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll try to be as visual as possible for this entry.

Temple of Hatshepsut

Valley of the Kings

So many tombs. So many stairs. We paid extra to see the tombs of King Tut and Seti. It’s so cool how deep these tombs are carved into the ground. The shop owners here will profile every customer and heavily mark up items for non Egyptians. I tried haggling as much as I could to get Matt a head covering. Even though it was still less than $12, I knew I could’ve gotten a better price.

Medinet Habu






This is about when our two groups caught up with each other.

Alabaster Shop:
We were advised they had good prices but they tried to charge me $350 for a set of 6 onyx shot glasses. I said no way. They lowered to $250 and when I still said no, they asked for an offer. I said, “careful this might upset you.” They promised they wouldn’t get upset at my offer. So I said $25. They shook their head and smiled. Did I lowball them? Who knows. But I ended up finding an identical set on Etsy for $39.

Lunch
Lunch was included and we had the option of chicken, meat, or fish. They brought out a bunch of tradition Egyptian dishes one after the other and all were quite tasty.

Felluca Boat Ride



This was a much needed opportunity to relax and catch the breeze. This was also about the time I found out that our return flight was canceled and our new flight was an hour later. Normally not a big deal. But Sarah is catching a flight back to the US as soon as she lands so I was really trying to push for an earlier flight. No luck on leaving earlier though.

Temple of Karnak
This is when the weather reached its hottest. Which was really a shame because there was a lot to see.




We were very exhausted after this so we skipped the Luxor Temple per our guide’s recommendation.

Ohm Kalthoum Cafe
We got dumped here for refreshments but all we wanted was some place air conditioned. They kept pointing us to the back where there were big fans. We sat for a few minutes until a couple huge tour groups took over the area and the music was turned up. This is the point where our tour company hooked us up with some hotel rooms to rest in and sent us some dinner to eat.

The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur until we got back to Cairo airport. Mom and Dad and some other family were waiting there to say goodbye to Sarah. We haven’t done a family trip like this in years and this is actually the first time that all 4 of us are in Egypt at the same time.