11 November

Today – the last actual day of the tour and the second-last of my second trip away and the second last of my tripping overseas.
As usual it was awake early, in this case 0545 so I could be showered and dressed to be up to see the balloons over the Valley of the Kings. There were a large number and they were up at the time I was there, so it was good. I couldn’t get a low-level picture because of the number of cruise boats between our boat (Radamis II) and the Nile – there were four, but at some spots the boats were moored seven deep.
It was then down for breakfast, today with Ross as he was the earliest there. Bob joined us before too long and then more straggled in. We weren’t leaving until 0800, so quite a few were taking advantage.
After the usual final preparations I had my suitcase out by 0730 (we had to vacate the cabins for the next group) and then, after a final check to ensure I had everything, I was down to the lounge for our briefing before leaving. Eventually all arrived and we were off to the Valley of the Kings. Although it was just across the river, we had to go down about fifteen minutes, cross a bridge and then return. We drove in to the obligatory briefing before leaving the bus – in this case amongst many buses there, and the day was already getting warm, so we had our other warnings about taking or getting liquids to have with us.
After a look around the Visitors Centre (with a very good perspex model of the valley and the relative positions and sizes of the tombs), we boarded a tram (tractor with a few carriages), got our tickets and entered. The heat already (0930) and the size of the mountains and the rough and unforgiving terrain around is emphasised how bleak and inhospitable this place must have been when the tombs were constructed.
We were going to walk around with Hesham giving us an outline of history and location, while actually entering three tombs. We went into one which was fairly steep to enter (and therefore to leave), one which was gentle (and had two tombs, one built after the other and further in) and one which was unfinished. While that may sound too few in a valley of sixty-three tombs, many are not open, and others only open on rotation. Also, to hear the history and put it into perspective, to physically enter the tomb and to look at it and absorb the hieroglyphics and the paintings takes about twenty minutes (for each). Some decided to visit Tutanhkamen’s tomb (I didn’t) so we waited while they went there. By 1140 we were on the tram and on our way out, ready for more.
But wait – before we went further there was a visit to an alabaster place.
In the local village there, alabaster places equal the number of families. We visited one, where we got shown the process for forming the various pieces and then got the “hard sell” on the products available. It is easy to be cynical about our purpose in visiting such places (including papyrus, perfume and other places), but apart from seeing how things are done, it is a change of pace, a chance to sit in a cooler and more spacious area, an opportunity to have a drink and frequently, to go to the toilet in clean surroundings without having to pay. Also you can get souvenirs in a genuine place (but whether the price is genuine is very difficult for neophytes to know). Many (including me) got a small piece to take home as a suitable and light import for either memories or for others.
Then we were off to the Temple of Hatshepsut. From a distance it looks significant but as I approached it become imposing, especially when I walked up to it and through it. A lot of these places, sometimes covered in rubble, sometimes defaced by generations including the makers, are slowly being returned to either their former glory or at least being kept for future generations. So through the dust and the gentle winter heat I walked through and this temple, with its view of Luxor in the background.
After returning to the bus we went to the Colossi of Memnon, literally by the roadside, and then to a hotel in Luxor for lunch. Normally I would have taken the opportunity to walk around and just chew on biscuits or bread while doing to, but the temperature, the fact that the time away was coming to a close and the often unwelcoming atmosphere within Egyptian towns (so the good people get confused within the not-so-good) made me take the opportunity to sit and eat while chatting and looking out, in this case onto the Nile.
After this, and at about 1530, we walked out of the hotel restaurant and to the bank of the Nile and onto two feluccas. To board we walked along two spring gangplanks, which was unsettling to some but entirely familiar to others (including me). Once on board, we were towed out at there was little wind and we were going upstream. The other felucca was towed behind us, so we all saw the same sights – children playing, farmers working, camels and other livestock grazing and, occasionally, children now trying to sell or just asking for money. One was a young girl (about ten) who rowed after each felucca on the river (including our two) asking for money. On our way back we saw a hulk of a river boat – apparently destroyed in a fire for an insurance claim. It looked as if it was slowly being salvaged for scrap.
Once on the bank we went to our boat, sighted our luggage, completed any paperwork (mine was fortunately finished, but I still had to pay for the light and sound show the evening before) and then went to the bus (at 1810) to go to Luxor International Airport. This we reached before 1825 and here the fun began.
There were a line of porters waiting to take out luggage the hundred metres to the first detectors. For this they expected a tip. Then there were porters who lifted luggage onto the detector belt – they expected a tip. On the other side porters lowered luggage, again expecting a tip. Then different porters took luggage to the check-in counters and again expected a tip. Finally other porters put the luggage onto the weigh belt and again expected a tip. Most of us did it ourselves, but friends I had met on the ship found they had forked out five tips to get to the gate lounge. Not only is it an inconvenience (having to open money containers every few minutes) but it means if change was put aside for a drink, or as a souvenir, it all disappeared. IF there wasn’t any change, it meant either an excessive tip or disgruntled porters who ended up with nothing.
Finally we boarded a bus to go out to the plane. I was in three seats with others from Cosmos (no free row for me this time) and although I had the window seat, I gallantly gave it up and sat in the aisle seat. On schedule we took off (without the drama of our original flight) and after a remarkably short time landed in Cairo.
Getting of the plane was okay, boarding the bus was okay, getting into the terminal was okay, waiting for the luggage was okay but when the luggage arrived – a lot of unhappy campers, including me. Someone else had a hole in their suitcase – I had the extension handle (for holding while walking along wheeling it) broken, so to grip it is painful and not easy. Fortunately this is the third-last time I have to handle it (just tomorrow morning to get onto the aircraft and then in Melbourne getting off and then walking in Werribee to get a taxi home), so I can put up with it, but for a new suitcase it has not lasted well.
The matter was compounded when the porter engaged at this end piled very suitcase onto the one large trolley – I would not like to have had anything except clothes in the lower cases, and mine in the third-top layer was getting crushed sufficiently to make me feel concern about the souvenirs I had it there. We did all make it to the bus, but again there were rumblings about the luggage handling.
We got to our hotel five minutes later (Le Passage is just across the road from the airport) and Bb and I had determined that tomorrow morning we would scout out the different ways of getting to the airport (as we had no transfers included). But after everyone else had their transfers and times read out, we were told there was a free shuttle to the airport and we just had to tell the desk and we would travel there quickly. Some who had paid large amounts for transfers were now grumbling.
At the hotel we got our keys and headed off. Our rooms were mainly in the 5000s, which while logic would dictate would be on the fifth floor, were in fact in another building on either the ground or first floor. To get there from the lobby meant three sets of three steps – enough to annoy or to inconvenience, especially those who were older or very tired from the flight and day’s touring.
Eventually everyone was settled in, most said goodbye to each other because of different departure times tomorrow and I started to process some photos for Lin and Sue. When I went to tell them it would take some time to burn the DVDs, I found they had been unable to order breakfast boxes for tomorrow (they leave at 0130 – yes, that was correct!). We all went for a walk to the lobby and got that sorted, and some money changed, and finally I burned their DVDs and got them to them just as they were dropping off for a nap (not really a sleep for just over three hours).
I set the computer to shrink my Egyptian photos, but I still have to name and rotate them, which I wasn’t going to do feeling as tired as I was. At about 2300 I went to bed, although I wasn’t to sleep until nearly midnight.