Luxor

It turns out that it was, indeed, fairly noisy in the suite by the street, but it wouldn’t have mattered because the 5:15am call to prayer was heard all throughout town – I guess that’s the intention. I imagine you must be a very devout Muslim to start each day at 5:15am, especially knowing that it’s a late night culture. In any case, it was nice to know we had no plans for the day other than to hang out by the pool at the hotel.

Once we all got up and made it to breakfast, it turned out to be the best and most comprehensive breakfast buffet we’d had on our Egypt tour thus far. Afterwards, the girls were immediately in the pool. Shortly thereafter, they were joined by a pair of British sisters, ages 12 and 8, whom we had met briefly the prior afternoon. The four of them had a day long “play-date” together. Unfortunately, this left Avery the odd man out. Even though the girls invited him to play Marco Polo and other water games, Avery, was intimidated by the depth of the pool and didn’t want to get in. The fact that he couldn’t easily stand in the shallow end meant that he would actually have to swim some, and apparently that did not appeal to him. Josh even offered to give him a swim lesson and he demurred opting for ping-pong instead (there was table set up pool-side). If it wasn’t ping-pong, the he left something and wanted to go up to the room. It was a never-ending list of requests. We needed more energy.

We had lunch out by the pool, but only after we finally convinced Charlotte that she’d better swim a few laps if she intended on travelling with her swim club the day after our return to Rome. Sadly, she is always reluctant to stay “in-shape” on vacation.

I had the idea of going to see the Sound and Light Show at Karnak Temple this evening. These shows are held at several Egyptian monuments – there is one at the Great Pyramids of Giza and another at the Philae Temple in Aswan. Since we didn’t have any other outing planned for the day, I thought it would make a fun evening excursion for the kids. First, though, we stopped near the Mosque at the Luxor Temple in order to visit the Souk across the street. We had a strange experience with the cab driver on the way there in that he continually tried to take us somewhere else. Once in the souk, we were greeted by the usually aggressive salesman, and Olivia became quite frightened. In fact, during the taxi ride over, she whispered to me a story she’d remembered hearing when we had first arrived in Cairo about tourists taking a camel ride. She said “remember they take you far into the desert and leave you there unless you pay a lot of money?” No doubt Egypt is making an impression on her. The entire time we were in the souk, she kept asking to go home.

It’s a rather unfortunate aspect of tourist life in Egypt that no purchase, regardless of how small, is made easily. Unless we had our Egyptian guide by our side – and I mean by our side and not waiting in the car – even the purchase of bottled water or chips had to be negotiated. Actually, you don’t have to negotiate over these small items because whether you pay 50cents or $2 doesn’t really matter. But when you pay the $2, you know you are being overcharged because you’re a tourist. Still, the cab rides, the horse carriage rides, the fruit and the market, everything needs to be negotiated and it’s just exhausting after a while. In the souks however, it feels down right scummy when, for example, an item is offered to you for $65 when in the end the merchant sells it to you for $10. This is almost as bad as the guys that tell you something is made of stone as they hold it in their hands with a newspaper because it’s just been painted (a trick Monty tipped us off to). Then there are always the guys that just bother you and walk along side you pushing something in to your face – as if that will make you want to buy it!?! It’s a shame because all the effort required just makes me not want to shop. Every once in a while, you get a guy who takes a different approach. Like the guy we met later this evening when, as we were walking by, he called out “Please come and look at my rubbish. Come and see my crap!” This made us laugh out loud. And that is how you end up actually conversing with these guys.

We arrive at the Temple of Karnak well before our show is scheduled to begin, partly as a result of just wanting to get out the souk. After we bought tickets we ate chips and bananas while we waited. Avery, who had been on the program thus far this evening, started to lose his composure. Just after we were let in and the show was starting, there were all kinds of “loudness” problems: he was thirsty, he wanted more chips, his upper lip was itching, he was tired, etc. Little did we know that the first half of the show was actually standing inside the Temple at different points to see various statues lit up and to hear the narrative. Fortunately, we walked to the sacred pond area and were seated for the second half. I liked the show and think the girls and Josh enjoyed it as well. It was a nice way to close out the “tour” portion of our trip and listen to the story of the pharohs and the Temple and of Egypt, especially once we’d already learned something about it during the past nine days here.

We switched rooms with the girls and they took the suite for the night. Charlotte babysat Olivia and Avery once they’d gone to sleep while Josh and I returned to Smiley for a late night bite to eat. One thing in Egypt is that if you find a place you like, you stick to it (remember Felfela in Cairo). This place was even better than Felfela, with tablecloths, linen napkins and clean menus. Service with a smile, the waiters were all extremely polite. But the owner is the real draw. A gritty guy, with a sense of humor – Josh called him the Jackie Mason of Luxor. When we said we were in a hurry, and we’d ordered a shish kabob, he asked if we wanted it on the skewer. He could grill the vegetables and meat faster and by not making it on the skewer, would save time. Now here’s a guy who’s thinking about solutions.

When we returned to the hotel suite, Charlotte was curled up like a baby, sleeping on the sofa in the living room.