One of the highlights of my trip to Luxor was the sunrise hot air balloon trip. (Actually there were only two highlights as I spent the equivalent of a day and a half being quite ill with stupid Egyptian tummy and missed out on things I had planned to do) The early morning alarm call at 4.45am was completely worth it as we floated above the Valley of the Kings watching the sun rise over the Nile. Very bonny. I also spent some time meandering round Luxor Temple which was another fascinating place with hieroglyphics galore and statues of various Pharoahs.....or is it Phari? Who knows. My poor grasp of the English language has been pointed out to me lol.When I got back to Cairo there was still much to explore - I went on a walking tour round the Walls of Cairo which was organised by the CSA, an organisation that exists to support expat workers in Egypt and their families. From my visit to their HQ, I came across what appeared to be 'ladies who lunch' ie the trailing wives who are in Egypt because of the job their spouse has. From what I understand, as many of the women can't work (as they aren't allowed to), there are plenty of opportunities for volunteering, doing classes in art/pottery/cooking etc, and a great social life hanging out with the girls. Hmmm, I could get used to that idea. Tum te tum......
Back to the Walls - the guide was great and pointed out so many things of interest that I didn't notice that we were walking for around four hours.
One of the evenings, we went for a sail on a felucca to watch the sun set which was just lovely.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Egypt - it's a place steeped in history and amazing places to visit. Lots of contrasts though - I was quite surprised by how poor some of the areas round the city were. It also took me a while to get used to the sound of the call to prayer from the many mosques throughout the day - especially the one around 0400 which always seemed to wake me up. In my dozy state it sounded like hundreds of cows mooing for their lives. Final thought: as long as there's a balcony for G&T time - you're sorted!
Long live the sundowner!
2 comments:
Sorry to hear you got a touch of Pharoah's Revenge! Hope it didn't spoil your trip too much. So funny to hear you mention CSA - we didn't go there too often - the odd coffee on a Sunday morning after taking the kids to school but the friends we are going back to stay with live in the next street. Hear that they've upgraded their coffee shop these days. Hope that the rest of your travels have some of the magic of Egypt with less of the noise!
aww great to hear from you! I loved my trip and hope you have a great time back there too. Please let me know your email address so I can keep in touch with you :)
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