May 29 - Luxor sites

Valley of Kings/Luxor Temple/Temples of Karnak

I am so glad I did tours today. It was so hot and trying to do it on my own would have been torture. Interesting conversations with other travellers were great too.

In the morning, we saw Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Deir al-Bahri, and Collossi of Memnon. Great sites, basically the Valleys are where the Pharoahs were buried along with their treasure. It is quite secluded to avoid any robbery. Deir al-Bahri has a Temple of Hatshepsut which is a very impressive temple. I really should order a book on Egypt after the fact to review what was told to me and I have mostly forgotten already! ;-)

The afternoon was to see the Temples of Karnak, which is a huge temple complex. Afterwards we went to the Luxor Temple, impressive too. Alexander the Great was there too.

Well, I have pretty much seen what I want to see in Luxor, and mostly of Egypt in general. I have a bus ticket lined up to leave for Dahab tomorrow at 4pm. It is around 13-15 hour ride, so it will be taxing I imagine. Then the plan is to get to Nuweiba to catch a 3 pm ferry to Aqaba, then hopefully try to get to Petra after that. That is the general plan but that is the ideal scenario, I will probably miss a connection along the way and have to stay there.

From Petra I think I can get to the Dead Sea and also arrange a trip to Wadi Rum. After that, it is to Mount Sinai and then to Cairo. But if I make really good time to Petra I might be able to fit something else in. So I will try to enjoy myself and do some shopping here in Luxor until the bus tomorrow. Nice to chill for a bit, right now there is an Australian couple and a Belgian with some beers on the rooftop terrace here at the Bob Marley House. I plan to kick back up there for a bit, maybe have some sheesha too!