That's So Moontaz

Yesterday we awoke from our naps and grabbed a bite before checking out the Luxor Temple.  This town is packed with tourists, more so than Aswan.  The Luxor Temple is great at night.  Everything is on such a grand scale here you cannot really capture it on film.  We hung around there for a bit and then headed back to the hotel to meet up with Charlie whom we also met on the train.  He had left a message for us at our hotel so we waited on the rooftop terrace for him to show, which he did around 12:30 a.m. (like I said, not much sleep!).  We sat around and chatted about Egypt with the hotel manager and drank homemade hibiscus tea until about 2:30 in the morning.  The hotel manager offered up the roof to Charlie even though he is staying at a different hotel, so he crashed up there for the night.

  We plan to do the same tonight as we need to be up early tomorrow anyway, so at about 6 a.m. the sun will come screaming back on us - a more natural alarm clock.

Today we grabbed a very good breakfast on the roof - as they say here, "We respect the breakfast."  Our main objective today was to get to the Temples at Karnak about 3Ks outside of town.  We decided to rent bikes to get there, which are only about two bucks for the day.  Now bicycling in Luxor is a big treat but also a challenge. I just kept a look out ahead and prayed the drivers behind me would not run me down.  It was actually quite fun.  Our first stop, however, was McDonald's.  Yes, I had to do it.  My only justification was that Egypt is not known for its cuisine, and the main reason for stopping is that McDs overseas have the original hot apple pies - hot filling and all!  Plus by then it was about 100 degrees and it was seriously air-conditioned in there.

  So we grabbed some snacks and then checked out the Mummification Museum in town.  It has on display all the necessary tools for mummifying a body and some other bits of interest.  By then it was at the peak of the heat so we grabbed cool drinks at a Nile-side restaurant and chatted until sight-seeing would become bearable. 

The Temples of Karnak are serious business.  The main temple has abut 134 massive columns and some of the colors are still magnificent.  I took the usual 100 photos everywhere and tried to endure the mass crowds.  These were built primarily by Seti I and his son.  There were lots of crumbling parts but the main temple was so impressive - very "moontaz" (our new favorite word in Arabic meaning excellent).

  We hung around til closing time and headed out with the rest of the tourists.  We felt pretty proud we were not one of the hundreds jumping on tour buses but rather grabbed our barely-together bicycles to make our way back. 

Tomorrow we check out the main attraction, which is the Valley of the Kings, home to King Tut's tomb.  From there a 16 hour bus ride to Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula.