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Other entries in Luxor

Karnak, Habu Temple, Queens Valley, Luxor Temple

I was trying to summon up my will for a mega day.  It was easy to get up and present myself on the roof for a wonderful breakfast.   My hotel was nothing special but damn, they had a nice breakfast, a great roof for lounging in the morning and evening and wireless internet. With my own room with a fan I was paying a little less than 4 dollars. Its amazing what competition can do.

Getting off the roof and renting a bike from the hotel proved a little more difficult. When I did leave it was almost 11:00 AM. I started with three liters of water in the front basket of my bicycle knowing that it wouldn’t be enough.   I pedaled my way towards the Karnak Temple.  I missed the turn off and pedaled 2km too far.  I knew something was wrong when I reached a police check point for leaving Luxor.  But the police officer who told me I had missed it was quite nice with his few words of English.  I suppose I can thank the British Empire for that.

Even turning back I still had a hard time finding the turn off, because it was through a narrow alley with a gravel road. I knew I had passed within 500 meters of extremely large complex and that’s kind of funny.  It was pandemonium when I got there.  It was a steady stream of visitors and buses.  They were also making the parking lot bigger, so imagine it being part construction zone also.  Like most construction in the developing world, the focus is always on human labor and not so much machine labor.

It was already hot and sunny enough that I was burning myself by touching the metal on my bike while I was locking it up. I worried a bit about it being stolen, as it was a nice bike, and I was so conspicuously the only tourist arriving by bicycle. Sometimes as a lone budget tourist I feel a little bit alienated by my group tourist cousins.

The Temple of Karnak was something else.  It was easily the largest and most interesting site in Egypt.  It wasn’t quite Angkor Wat, but it still takes place among the worlds top wonders.  For something like 1500 years it was the religious center of the Ancient Egyptian state.  Its main gallery with pillars when it still had an intact roof had more volume than St Peters in Rome and the largest cathedral in London combined.  I visited St. Peters, and I think it’s the largest church in the world. The Artistry was simply amazing.   Places that were protected from direct sunlight still had lots of paint, and the original colors were still showing. Even where the color was faded, the carvings were in great shape.  Imagine,  I think the newest constructions in the temple were almost 3000 years old.  Angkor is only 700 years old and if not for extreme upkeep and renovation, many of those temples would be complete ruins.

The scale and the artistry of Karnak largely made up for the difficulties caused by modern Arab Eyptians. I spent about one hour on the site and it was big enough that when I started exploring some of the far corners it was just me and tour guides that follow you around and ask you for money.  For the first one I was nice and told him politely that I wasn’t giving him anything and that I preferred to be alone.  After him, I developed a more of a buzz off attitude.  Force of will was much more effective.

When I made it back to my bike, the plastic handle bars sitting in the sun caused some minor burning on my hands. I had big red spots and sensitive hands for days after that. I of course left my water in the basket and was glad that no one chose to take it.  I drank at least a liter before I left. It was a few kilometers to the ferry terminal.  I hopped on board with my bike.  Many Egyptians had bikes and other sorts of cargo.  I had a great laugh when a sailboat tout tried to sell me a ride as I pedaled by.   A bicycle is a great weapon against pushy salesmen.  When you walk, they just walk with you.

It was about 5km to the ticket office where I bought the necessary tickets for the Habu Temple and the Valley of the Queens.  On the road I had to stop at three places before I could even buy some more water at even 50% more than the normal tourist rate.  Even then I had to hear stories about a hungry sister from a man with a large shop.  He said something like sad rich man who wants my sister to go hungry. 

There are hungry people in Egypt, but they sure as shit are not the sisters of shop owners. Somewhere along the way in Egypt I did make a donation to my favorite charity, the children’s hospitals in Cambodia run by Richard Beatner. It’s the only charity I have been able to believe in.

The Habu temple was much smaller in scale than Karnak, but it was my favorite temple in Luxor.  It had more intact paint and the artistry to my eyes was more magnicent and detailed.   The last kilometer was all down hill and I screamed into the temple and locked my bike to a fence.   I think the taxi cab drivers were plotting to destroy my bike.  A few people were surprised to see me pedaling.  It was getting towards the hottest part of the day.  Every time I drank water, I tried to drink at least a liter. I was pushing it hard and with temperatures above 40C (103F) in a dry desert climate, I pushed myself a little too close to heat exhaustion.  I took 20 minutes hydrating some more in the shade.  Watching the local tour guides harass tourists.  It was an interesting study subject.   Most of the workers were cat napping in the shade.  There were not many guests around and being dormant was a great way to beat the heat.

When I felt a bit refreshed and ready to tell off the guy who wanted to follow me around and annoy me, I made my way through the Habu temple. It was quite great.  There were parts of the temple that I spent 10 minutes staring at.  The huge portal gateways, the carvings.   So many archeological sites in this great world are uninteresting because everything was carted off to museums around the world.  In Egypt every surface was carved with their mythology.  I was awed.

When I went back to my bike, I burned my hands more on the plastic handle bars.  Just getting the bike unlocked was a challenge. The local sellers were really hoping I would stop for lunch, but it just seemed to be getting hotter, and I didn’t have much of an appetite.  I drank more water, and then pedaled up the hill.  A few more kilometers brought me to the Valley of the Queens.  The guards made me drive past the hawker stalls a second time.

I put my bike down and then amazingly this far into the afternoon the man didn’t have change.  He wanted me to get change from the vendors.  There were 20 vendors and no people.  It was a setup, the vendors would tell me to buy something at a ridiculous rate.  I never even considered talking to them.  I said this is a sad way to treat visitors and then found a couple of older german men and asked them if they had change.  They told me it’s a scam and I said I know it’s a lie, yelling lie over my shoulder towards the ticket booth.  Sadly they didn’t have change.  I went back to the ticket booth.  I was hot, but not angry.  I felt… ready.   I used a firm voice and asked if after traveling for 10,000km that he thought he could stop me from seeing the Valley of the Queens.  I was only about 30 cents short on correct change.   His ticket booth was pretty small and quite hot, so I took out my money and put it a little bit in his face and leaned into his ticket booth.  After 10 seconds I said I think this Problem will solve itself.  In the end the change materialized, but it was still 15 cents short.

 I let that one go and went off on my merry way, riding my bike again past all the vendors, with them trying to sell me things as I whizzed by, I couldn’t help laughing.
After a few hundred meters I locked up my bike against a fence in front of some police officers, and drank some more hot water.  It hit my stomach like too much hot tea.

There were three tombs that you could visit.  I made a few jokes about trying to visit Hapshepsuts Tomb, you had to be a dignitary to see that, it was rumored to be the most interesting tomb in Luxor.  There were guards and employees all half dead from weather which must have been about 44C.  It was hotter than it had ever been for my lifetime in Wisconsin where I grew up. It didn’t matter how much water I drank.  The only thing I did think was all glory to my youth for allowing me to ditch the Taxi drivers for that day. I stole a photograph in one of the tombs.  I enjoyed them, because of just how well preserved they were.

I then pedaled back to the ferry dock.  I then visited the Luxor temple which was just across the river.  It was much more well visited.   Its most interesting feature was a fresco from its time as a Christian church.  Open to the weather I couldn’t believe that was still intact.  Even the Luxor temple on its own would have made an amazing day.   It was a mega tourist day, and damn even as I write this much later, I am still quite impressed by what I saw.

I snuck back through the entrance to my bike.  It was at least 2 km of walking around the temple from the exit back to the entrance.  Nothing for a tourist bus, but It was still too hot for extra effort.   Luckily it was cooling down and I had won the battle. I even kept well enough hydrated to drink a victory beer.  I had beaten Luxor.   For its tourist touts and problems there is only one place on earth that surpasses it in reputation. The dubious distinction of the most tourist hassle in the world belongs to Agra, home of the Taj Mahaul in India.

I visited a free trade craft shop.  I knew I was in heaven when I saw a woman behind the counter. The place even had marked prices.   They were clearly high, but the prospect of buying something without hearing about starving sisters was intoxicating.  I spent at least 40 dollars in the place.  That’s a fortune in Egypt. I then took it easy, went back to my hotel for a well deserved nap and a late dinner.   That’s how they do it in the desert.  They take nap time and make it a late evening.

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