Day 129: Grueling Final Touring Day in Luxor — Valley of the Kings and Queens — Karnak Temple
Today was grueling yet rewarding. We had a packed itinerary of memorable sights to see in scorching heat.
We hit the Hilton breakfast buffet by 7am. It was definitely the best of the three we’ve experienced here in Egypt.
We were greeted in the lobby by our new guide Amr and driver Sayed. They ended up being our favorite pairing of the entire trip.
Margaret gave Amr our standard request at the beginning of the day: short and sweet! The kids don’t have patience for long-winded explanations. And in this heat, neither do the grownups.
Today was the hottest of them all, well over 100 degrees with no sign of clouds. (The Aswan / Luxor area is supposed to be one of the sunniest on earth and we literally didn’t see one cloud for four days.)
Fortunately Amr‘s style was the shortest and sweetest of any guide we’ve had. He was super clear, gave us the key information on the major highlights and then knew when to stop talking.
Our itinerary for the day:
- Valley of the Kings
We saw three of the 64 tombs: King Tut, Ramses III and Ramses IV. This was one of my favorite touring stops for a number of reasons including:
- an intro video of Howard Carter uncovering Tut’s tomb;
- Amr gave us a clear intro;
- a 3D map that provided a great lay of the land;
- signage with written descriptions and photos in front of each tomb;
- not over crowded;
- clean and well designed infrastructure
The management of Petra, the Pyramids and just about every temple we saw could learn something from the operation at Valley of the Kings.
They had these yellow trolleys that carted people up to the area around the tombs. On the way back the driver waved James in to drive — one of 10,000 ways the people there try to get a buck from you. This was worth it. He steered *and* pushed the accelerator with 25 people riding behind us. I imagine that a 4 year old driving public transportation breaks some kind of rule. James loved it.
I somehow lost the comfortable Ray Bans I love in Cairo. So mad at myself.
Anyway, it was the single worst time to lose sunglasses — just on the eve of 3 days touring sand and limestone covered sites in one of the sunniest places on the planet.
I was desperate enough after this first stop that dared to buy a cheap pair from one of the shops along the gauntlet of aggressive sales guys on the way out. It was a classic scene that went like this:
Me after spotting a sufficient pair of fake Ray Bans on a spinning display case: how much?
Shop owner: what else do you want? Come in!
Me: no thank you, only these, how much?
Shop owner looking at Willa: some for the kid?
Me: no thank you, how much for just these?
Shop owner: come in, I have nicer ones in the back
Me: no thank you, how much for just these?
Shop owner: 600 Egyptian
Me shaking my head and starting to put them back: that’s too much thank you though…
Shop owner: how about some for the kids, come in!
Me: no thank you, just these. I’ll pay 100 Egyptian
Shop owner: 100! I can’t do that. They cost me 12 Euros!
Me pretending to put them back: Ok, no problem
Shop owner: OK 500
Me: No, 100. I’ll look elsewhere, thank you.
Shop owner: ok, last offer: 475. I’ll do 475.
Me: No, 100.
(This proceeds for another 20 seconds or so until the shop owner gets down to 300-something).
I then go into my wallet and take out a 200 egp bill and hold it up: 200 then I’m leaving.
He took the 200. That’s about $11.75 in USD.
I assume that 100 or lower is probably the fair price but whatever, I was ready to go.
2. An alabaster shop
Quick stop at an “authentic” alabaster shop. Amr was very clear that he wasn’t pushing anything but wanted us to learn the difference between high quality hand made stuff and the crap they sell outside all the temples and tombs.
This place had three guys sitting in an alabaster dust pile demonstrating the manufacturing process outside the shop — and doing anything for a tip, including letting Willa and James sit on their laps and sand a piece of pottery.
The owners of these shops have a certain type: perfect english, super personable jokesters, claim they won’t be pushy but then can’t help themselves and push like crazy.
“No hustle here!” the owner kept promising.
No doubt this routine works like a charm on countless tourists but the Bensfield / Sullivan clan wasn’t in the market for alabaster pottery today. We left empty handed — except for two rocks the guys outside gave to Willa and James on the way out. They ended up getting their $1 each after all.
3. Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple
She was the longest reigning female pharaoh in ancient Egypt. A savvy and fierce politician, she built this temple in between the Valley of Kings and Queens. It is gorgeous.
Margaret was especially excited to check out the temple because she studied it in Art History 101 at Vandy.
Llewellyn and the kids stayed in the van for this one it was a blazing 100+ degrees at this point and there was almost no shade at the temple.
We ran into our friend / tablemate / co-chef Mary (aka Cam?) from Petra Kitchen. She had just come from Valley of the Queens and said one of the tombs is a must see.
So what was going to be an optional pass, Valley of the Queens became stop #4 on our itinerary.
We were only just getting started.
4. Valley of the Queens / Nefertani’s Tomb
I took a DNP at the Valley of the Queens and hung out in the van with Willa and James.
The highlight of this stop was Nefertani’s Tomb. It hadn’t been open to the public for a while so it was both extremely well preserved and had a super expensive entry fee ($1200 egp / $70 usd!). Cash only.
We cleaned out all of our cash and borrowed 300 egp from Amr so Jim, Llewellyn and Margaret could check it out. They said it was definitely worth it.
But it took a toll. There is a long (hot) walk to get to and from the tombs. At one point Llewellyn lay down on a bench and said in her unmistakable southern drawl: “If I die, just throw me in one of these tombs.”
5. Lunch at Sofra in Luxor
We drove 40 min back across the Nile. The afternoon would be spent on the East Bank in Luxor. Both kids zonked during the ride.
Amr brought us to Sofra, saying it had good, fresh food. By this point he had earned our trust so we ignored the fact that it was completely empty — other than the flies that swarmed around us upon entering.
It’s an old house with two floors and several rooms. We ate up on the top floor where they had a ton of fans which kept away 80 – 90% of the flies while we ate.
The food was actually pretty good — not amazing but simple, fresh and cooked with care. My lunch highlight: fresh watermelon juice. I noticed a bunch of melons on carts around town so thought it would be good and man, it was delicious. It was so good that the kids, who got Coke for being so good during the morning were actually grabbing for sips of my drink.
6. Luxor Temple
We thought Karnak Temple would be our only stop after lunch but we had forgotten about Luxor Temple.
By this point the kids straight up refused to go to another temple. James griped: “We haven’t even ‘standed anything! It’s like they’re speaking another language.” (‘Standed = understood. So funny.)
Sayed the van driver was happy to keep them in the bus. So, we went off to see Luxor Temple leaving our children with a bus driver we had met this morning. Margaret and I joked that in our heads we were walking through the steps of how we would get a $1 million ransom.
Of course everything was fine — we came back to the van and they had built a temple out of “ding dongs” (our name for those Plus Plus lego things) and were hiding from us below the dashboard in the shotgun seat with Sayed playing along, having put bags and stuff on them.
“Where are keeds? I no see them,” Hahahaha, Sayed.
While part of us still wished the kids would engage with these incredible sites, we understood that they had maxed out and that everyone was happier if they stayed in the van.
Personally I get distracted by Willa and James kicking rocks or playing in the dirt or futzing with each other or complaining about the heat.
So it was much more pleasant viewing without them.
We were limping to the finish with one major stop still to come.
7. Karnak Temple
The kids stayed with Sayed again which allowed us to really take in this impressive place.
Karnak Temple is the largest temple in the world. The highlight is the jungle of 34 massive columns, all covered with inscriptions. There were two huge obelisks up front which were a gift from Queen Hatshepsut. One was knocked down and defaced by her step-son Moses but was brought back to the site of the Temple and is lying on its side near the Temple’s lake for easy viewing of scratch marks across a drawing of the fierce Queen H.
Amr was at his best here. He walked fast, hit the highlights and ended even sooner than I thought he would considering the size and significance of the temple.
By the time Jim, Llewellyn, Margaret and I made it back to the van we were ready to be mummified.
We returned to the hotel a little before 5pm and said our goodbyes and thanks to Amr. It was a long day — probably too long considering the blazing heat. Though it is really hard to complain considering Amr and Sayed had no food or water the entire day. Remarkable.
Jim, Margaret, the kids and I went straight to the pool. We had the whole place to ourselves and the water felt amazing. The grownups had cold (Egyptian) Stellas in the water as the sun headed towards the horizon on the West Bank.
Looking back on the day it was grueling but definitely worth it. We saw a handful of memorable sites, with the bookend stops of Valley of the Kings and Karnak Temple as my highlights.
When we got back to the hotel we took a glorious swim then did a little photo session while the sunset over the Nile. James fell asleep at dinner once again.
We are up early again tomorrow with a long travel day ahead of us: Luxor to Cairo to Dubai!
