Hitting the Ground Running

Activity level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Modes of transportation: 👟🚂🚐🚢

Woke up to this view from the train – it was a beautiful day! If only the windows were clean…

We woke up in a slight panic that we had missed our stop (we didn’t), but that was the jolt we needed to be awake. Our train guy? (For lack of a better term) asked us to settle up for the tea from the day before. That’s when we learned our second lesson from Egypt: don’t expect change if you don’t explicitly ask for it (even when the “tip” is much larger than the bill).

We had almost no room to pack and unpack, but that’s trail life baby.

Sarah hadn’t slept well on the train. She woke up in the middle of the night to loud mechanical squeaking noises from the jostling of the train. She had the disastrous realization that she drank too much tea and desperately needed to use the bathroom despite Eric’s warnings. She made a dash for it and raced down the bunk to find her shoes. Unfortunately, it was too dark and too small of space, so there were no shoes in sight. She made a tough call and ran down the hallway for the toilet without shoes. She opened the door to find… the bathroom floor completely wet, so she had to go back and find her shoes. Luckily, she eventually made it, but that might have been the worst bathroom on the trip, and that includes the car camper with no toilet.

We were looking forward to getting to the cruise so we could shower and relax before our tour started in the afternoon (the train had no shower). We were surprised to see our guide, Ashraf, and a driver waiting at the station to pick us up to start our full day tour…..

First, we started at the Temple of Luxor. Ashraf said it wasn’t the largest, but it was “nice in its own way.” We thought it was awesome.

The video provides a better scale than the photos (editors note: now that we have better internet, we’re going to upload more videos).

The highlight for Eric was the statue of King Ramses II (the “big deal” one) with an individual list of all of his enemies on his statue under his foot (“here lie all my haters”). Also, they’ve done an amazing job at restoring the temple to its original splendor—and our guide was one of the people who worked on it!

This is a statue of Ramses II sitting on this throne of “his haters.”

Our guide told us to touch this wall for good luck on our honeymoon. We’re still not sure why.

This temple was covered in hieroglyphics! Quite the change from the pyramids in Giza.

Next, we went to the Temple of Karnak, the largest ancient temple in Egypt. It was almost too massive, but it had so much inscription and so many ornate carvings that it was spectacular. We ended up having to sit down in a random untraversed corner when our guide gave us “free time” just to relax a minute.

This was actually a 1.5 minute long video, but our brains were mush so we just cut it to the end.

This temple was extremely huge but eventually was very crowded. We see why so many want to visit. Every king of ancient Egypt from 1971 BC until 30 BC contributed to the construction.

Many kings wrote their stories on these massive pylons over the 1500 years of active development of the temple. There are 134 pylons lined up in 16 rows in the Great Hypostyle Hall (pictured).

The temple grounds are roughly 200 acres. We were pretty tired though, so we didn’t get to much of it.

The grounds are actively being restored. They now use computer imaging to help map piles of ruins (pictured) to recreate sections of the temple.

Dozens of Sphynx rams with Ramses II line the entry to the temple.

There was also one benefit to starting early: the site was empty when we got there. We didn’t realize how lucky we were. By the time we left, it was absolutely swarming with people (apparently the tours get there at 9:30, so it was all at once).

We were so excited to see our boat! Sarah booked it two days prior. Since it was so last minute, the company we reached out to was able to give us a great deal. We didn’t realize how great until we went on board (although the private tour escort and car pickup from the train should have been an indicator).

From there, we finally got a break. We went back to the boat to check into our room and eat lunch. But first, we showered.

A shower and a toilet that could flush toilet paper—Sarah was in heaven.

Lunch was an amazing spread and we felt the need to try everything (someone had told us this boat has the best food, though we learned that after booking). It was well worth it.

Pictures don’t do it justice but the lunch buffet was insane on this cruise. We think we might have accidentally booked too nice of a cruise for us (we were also the youngest onboard by at least 40 years).

After that it was time to chill. We went up on the top deck to enjoy the views, and Sarah took a nap (while Eric napped in the room).

Eric hunting for the shadiest cabana before giving up and napping in the room. Sarah woke up extremely dehydrated but luckily not sunburned.

As we were exploring the boat, we also ran into the captain, who insisted on giving us a tour of the bridge. He told us he was never formally trained in sailing a boat. Hopefully we don’t have a titanic situation on the Nile.

We were so tired from getting so little sleep that we slept on and off until dinner.

Full speed ahead! Just kidding we stayed docked the first night. Apparently Aswan isn’t that far from Luxor.

It was about this time that Eric thought it would be a good idea to leave the boat and pick up a few essentials (ie Sarah ran out of conditioner in India and hadn’t been able to find any). Immediately after disembarking from the boat, a man approached Eric telling him he worked for the boat and could show him the spice market if he wanted.

Eric definitely met a scammer. He “helped” Eric buy the conditioner for only a few dollars “tip” on top. Eric expected that. What he didn’t expect is that the pharmacist would (at least) triple the price of the conditioner. That’s when Eric learned the third lesson of Egypt: everyone will “scam” you because they expect you to negotiate with them. Even pharmacists. Also that conditioner was at least 3 years old, but it seemed like it still functioned (Side note: it’s better than what happened to an Australian man we met on the hot balloon tour, who had the same experience only to get home and find out the hair spray he had bought for his wife was empty).

The spice man. We don’t think he was telling the truth about working on the boat.

Meanwhile Sarah got to enjoy the sunset… until an hour went by and no sign of Eric. Her iPhone just so happened to glitch and sign out of her account too so she couldn’t send or receive text messages. Then it got dark and she got really worried.

Sunset on the Nile! Things got scarier a few minutes later when it was dark out and no Eric in sight.

Eric returned with bags full of spices! Sarah took a look at the Saffron and couldn’t smell a thing. Guess the shop must have switched the ingredients on Eric. Luckily he didn’t spend more than $20.

For dinner, we had to order a la cart. We both selected the Egyptian dish, which was stuffed quail. The appetizers, soup, and dessert were also delicious.

We couldn’t believe we had 4 more days of this cruise food!

Our guide messaged us asking if we wanted to go on an unforgettable sunrise hot air balloon tour the next day. The catch: we needed to be up at 3:30am. Before deciding, we reflected on the past 3 nights…

We left India for a 30 hour layover in Riyadh and toured the city, then had a late night flight into Cairo where we woke up early for a full day excursion of the pyramids and ended the day on a sleeper train to Luxor, which we woke up and walked off into today’s tour and first day of the Nile cruise.

We decided to book the hot air balloon tour for the next day at 3:30 AM and went to sleep early. We were regretting it immediately. We can rest when we get back to the States! (Editor’s note: nope, maybe in the new year).

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