I'm not in the best of moods to be writing about today, or to be writing at all. Feeling a bit cheesed off with Egypt and all the tourism (of which I am a part!). I'm writing this on the top deck of our “5*” cruise ship which, while very nice and clean, does not feel very 5* at all and all I want to do is complain.
Our tour guide, Nabil or Tiger as he says his nick name is, started off our day at 7am when our little group , about sixteen of us including a lovely Scottish family and some Italians, took a mini bus to the west bank for our tour to The Valley of the Kings, a bloody alabaster factory and shop and the Temple of Hatshepsut.
The Valley of the Kings was interesting, our ticket allowed us entry into three if the dozens of tombs cut deep into the hills. We visited the tomb of Amenhotep II first which was a warming climb up some outdoor steps and a sweaty climb down the inner steps, it was humid and airless inside the chamber but amazing, the alls were covered in passages from Amduat (no idea what this book is though) all in sticks figures looking so fresh it was as if someone had drawn them in marker pen last Tuesday. We clambered back out and stopped to enjoy the breeze on our sweaty bodies on the way back down the steps. We made our way to Ramses III which was beautifully decorated although this time without the sarcophagus inside the tomb. We stopped and rested in the shade of the only café on the site before we headed off to the tomb of Ramses IV which was also quite impressive, the drawing and etchings on the walls were simple but very elegant and there was still lots of colour. Our guide having shown us some photos of what we would on some of the walls (but neglecting to mention in which tombs) was sitting in the café, lazy bugger, waiting to take us back to our air-conditioned minivan and onto the Alabaster factory.
At the beginning of the day he briefed on plenty of things that were expected of us, I can't say I was too impressed, the guy is full of 'in fact's, 'hmmmkay' and bullshit. To his credit he was upfront about wanting (and taking commission) from all our purchases in the shops he took us to and drilled us all with the procedure should we want to buy anything, in fact I think we got more information about what to expect in the shop than information about the sites which we paid to see. I decided to wait in the van with Djalma while the rest of the group went in and took a look round. More than half an hour later, they were back out, the Italians having purchased something but the rest of us keen to get on – sightseeing in the heat is not fun at all. Onwards to Hatshepsut, by now it was late morning and very hot, I felt woozy in the heat and resentful that we had been taken to visit the factory before all our visits (D has since asked that the shopping be left till last because of the heat). The temple was okay, the most interesting thing about it was that a Bollywood film crew were shooting a scene with massive Indian beefcake as royal guards, the actors decked out in awful costumes taking over the third floor. We walked around taking pictures, Nabil actually doing his job and talking us through some of the pictures and what they meant before disappearing off to give us some free time, by not all I was good for was to sit in the shade and feel decidedly unwell.
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| From Luxor, Egypt |
We eventually made our way back to the boat where we had a decent buffet lunch and then a good three hour snooze before coming up to talk to the Scottish family by the pool, lovely people. There was a cocktail party with alcoholic and virgin drinks but I think that all the cocktails were virgins and didn't taste of much. We sat down to a five course meal, most of which we left, even the tea was rubbish.
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| From Luxor, Egypt |
I can't help but feel resentful that so many tip are expected for everyone, the slouchy, lazy, unsmiling waiters, the mediocre cooks, every single minivan driver and our half arsed guide. However the Scottish Daddy did have some good advice on the subject of tipping ' just not give it and love with the embarrassment'. I love it, I shall not pay and I will just suffer the embarrassment of being a tight arse, the lazy, greedy fuckers don't deserve it anyway, so there.
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