Day 245 – Edfu to Luxor via Nile River Cruise
Edfu Temple and journey to Luxor
Today we had an early morning departure to Edfu Temple. The temple is actually a few kilometres from the banks of the Nile river, so we left the boat and had to take a horse drawn carriage to the temple. The return trip costs 120 EGP / $10.27 AUD per carriage. 4 passengers can fit in a single carriage, but the poor horse did struggle a little with the weight of 5 grown adults (including the driver).
Edfu Temple
The temple itself is so impressive. Apparently it was covered by sand when it was discovered, which would required a heap of sand! The temple is massive, and took 100+ years to build. The entrance tickets cost 140 EGP / $11.99 AUD per person.
The guide explained the various rooms and symbols. Inside the temple, it is thought that there was a fire from the kitchen as the roof is charred. Its odd how its only the roof that is blackened. But I imagine it would be hard to get up and clean it off 5,000 years ago. I think it would still be hard today! The corridors are in excellent shape, and are over the top massive. The small openings that let the sun in brighten up the massive rooms surprisingly well. Once again, Edfu Temple is a master piece of ancient engineering and craftsmanship.
Fire damaged roof Wifi? Apparently just a fan
Luxor
Once back on the boat, we had breakfast and we found out that there would be no more activities besides eating for the rest of the day. We were also even more disappointed to hear that the boat will reach Luxor at 4pm. Since this was the final destination, this means the ship will remain stationary for one and a half days.
Different designs every day. The sun deck Docking area in Luxor
After the afternoon tea break, we left the boat and walked to the market. As usual, we were hassled by carriage drivers all the way to the market. We also had another scammer telling us he works on our boat and will help take us to the market, as he was going there also. He kept saying he will show us for free, so I said okay (since it was free), but everyone else refused. We knew for sure he was a scammer as once we declined, he turned around and went back to the pier to wait for the next tourist to leave (Hint: Just tell them to name your boat and they will most likely get it wrong as the cruise ships dock parallel to each other meaning, you must walk between 2 or 3 to get to the land).
Google Maps was telling us to walk through a non existent road, that cuts through the Luxor Temple. Locals were jumping the fences to make this short cut, but we decided not to. We continued around the magnificent temple and stubbled across a different market than where the GPS was telling us to go. The Luxor Market street doesn’t appear on Google Maps, but punch in the GPS location 25.699079,32.641110 and you should find it.
Luxor market
We ended up going back to the the boat for dinner. On the way back, a guy on a bicycle tried to sell us some drinks. We asked him for water, but he only had small bottles. We said no, as we wanted a large bottle. He told us to wait and that he would be back. We said not to worry, and continued walking to the ship. We could actually see him going to a shop less than 100m in front of us and buying a bottle. He then raced back down to us and tried to sell us the bottle for 50 EGP / $4.28 AUD!!! We laughed and walked away. His price came down with every step we took. I gave him 10 EGP / $0.85 AUD. He accepted reluctantly. We gave him the money, because we were impressed with the effort he put into trying to rip us off.
After dinner on the boat, there was a belly dancing show in the bar. It was surprisingly cool. A male was dancing in what was a dizzying performance. The traditional dress he was wearing, would spiral out as he spun around. Later a more traditional woman belly dancer arrived but she was mainly dancing with the crowd so we decided to leave before we were forced to dance too.
