Day Two: Early morning departure from Cairo

The way the travel industry has developed in Egypt was very similar to Thailand. The government KNOWS that it's a big money goose, and they'd do anything to keep it tip top. When we were told that we had to leave by 6am, our first reaction was "but breakfast?". They'd planned things so well however. They said they'd pack b'fast for us, and they'd done such a good job - choice of cheese, 2-3 types of breads, croissants, orange juice, fruits, etc. At first I thought it was a speciality of this particular hotel but when we reached the airport, we saw tons of tourists ALL with similar type takeaway boxes!

Checkin for the Luxor flight was smooth. As usual, the Travco team did everything for us - checked in our luggage, got us our boarding cards, etc. The flight was on time.

Cairo airport in the morning is a delight, very quiet and except for a host of tourists there isn't much activity in the place. We flew Egypt Air. The airline is shit! The planes seem a bit old and just serve the purpose of the 1-2 hour flights they're intended for. But no complaints, the flight was peaceful and more importantly took off on time. For me, being Indian, I'm so used to seeing houses and people everywhere, even during landing (most Indian airports are built SO CLOSE to residential areas) that when we were told we're landing Luxor, I kept looking out and all I could see was desert, desert, desert. I was straining my eyes to look for anything that resembled a landing strip. LOL!

We arrived Luxor finally into what looked like a deserted airport. I wouldn't be surprised if a Sidney Sheldon or a Stephen King didn't get their inspiration from this place - it was that quiet, deserted and in the middle of nowhere. But yes ladies and gentlemen....this was where it was all going to start for us. Our Egypt sojourn had well and truly begun!

Click on Next Entries on the Left to view the Karnak and Luxor Temples