Egypt Day 8 – Bond Pilgrimage and Drinkies

Saturday morning, and we got ourselves out of bed early to try to go see the Temple of Karnak with the sunrise and avoid the crowds. Our taxi driver from the previous day was waiting for us outside at 6 am, and we drive off into the darkness, passing armored personnel carriers with soldiers dozing at the gun placements. I asked the driver the price for the 10 minute drive, and he was purposely vague about it – and said it is really up to me. He is depending on guilt for profit – it seems like a weird way to make a living.

We arrived at the gate to Karnak Temple, and we are the first ones there. The guards were drinking coffee and shuffling their feet trying to wake up, and we bought our tickets and go through the main lobby. Unlike the Pyramids, there were a lot of educational displays and a giant model of the temple layout in the center of the room. After we passed the main room there was a huge assembly square – the size and scale remind me of Red Square in Moscow. With no crowds to follow we kind of drifted towards some buildings in the distance, and it turned out to be in the right direction. Another security check, and then we’re in.

There was a lot to see in the Temple of Karnak. Originally I had wanted to go here and walk through thanks to a scene from “The Spy Who Loved Me”. James Bond and the Russian agent “Triple X” sneak on board a repair truck driven by the evil henchman “Jaws”, and they make their way stealthily around the tall pillars in a tense situation. Here we could see the same pillars, and understand the sheer size of the structure – it was impressive. The grounds were quite extensive, and you could probably spend a half a day at least if you are really into stone blocks and hieroglyphics. We walked deep into the area, finding stone ruins, structures, obelisks and stone pharaohs standing guard. At one point we saw some old guys off in the distance smoking, and when they saw us they made a beeline for us calling out. I was reminded of sharks speeding towards their prey, and we were able to turn a few corners and leave them behind – we didn’t need anything pointed out to us.

After about a half hour of looking around the sun rose over the horizon, and started casting a golden light on the Temple, making the pictures I took even more dramatic. The bonus here was that there weren’t many people around and it was much easier to get the pictures that I wanted. It really does pay to get up early!

With our tour of the temple concluded, it marked the end of our sightseeing adventures in Luxor. We walked back to our taxi driver who was waiting for us patiently outside the gate, and he took us back to our hotel with the sun still rising. We noticed many children on the streets with their parents, because according to our driver there was a big test today for all Egyptian students. He said his wife was bringing their own child to school today and he hoped that his son would do well. When we arrived at the hotel I paid him what I thought was fair, and it didn’t get much reaction from our driver. I told him we’d be going to the airport later at 2 pm, and he said he’d be happy to do it for 200 pounds.  I told him that we had paid just 100 to get from the airport to our hotel, but our driver said that he would have to pay to enter the airport grounds, and so that is why it was higher. It sounded fishy, but I was getting a little tired of debating and negotiating every time we got in a taxi, so we agreed on the 200 pound fee right there.

Since we had been out early, now we could go have a big hotel breakfast and take it easy in the morning. The previous day we had arranged a late check-out, so we had plenty of time to lounge in our room, make plans for the next few days in Cairo, and write in this journal. Even though we had arranged a late checkout we received a phone call from the front desk asking why we hadn’t left our room, so we explained that the previous day we had made the late-checkout arrangements. They said OK, and around thirty minutes later we got a knock on the door from the housekeeper, and he wanted to know why we were still in the room. So we explained again, and he said OK. There were apparently some communication issues at our hotel.

So we checked out, caught our cab to Luxor airport, and said goodbye to our taxi driver at the airport. I never saw him pay to enter the airport, but maybe he had to pay when leaving, right? Hmm…

Airport security was again a pain in the neck. At the front door we had to show our info, and once past there we needed to go through pre-security. I was able to go through immediately, but since they had no women security officers available to search the female passengers, Kuniko and several other women had to wait outside while the men waited inside. While I was waiting they did a chemical inspection of our bag, and I was worried about the result considering the ripeness of some of my socks in there. Luckily, it was a pass. Meanwhile a female security officer wandered over, and then Kuniko made it through. Not a smooth process.

Finally we got through all the hurdles, and we celebrated by buying a slice of pizza and a couple beers from an “Italian” shop in the waiting area. We were both happy to be leaving Luxor – it seemed like all kinds of weird things happened here, and the constant pressure of fighting off touts, negotiating with drivers, and generally trying not to get ripped off was a little stressful. Now it was back to Cairo, where at least there were lots of other things going on and businesses weren’t 100% depending on tourists like us.

The flight left about thirty minutes late, but we took it in stride and just read and relaxed in the waiting area. The flight was just an hour back to Cairo, and it went pretty smoothly. The only hitch was a very long wait at the baggage carousel – the suitcases just weren’t showing up. The wait was for around thirty minutes here, and the bored kids from our flight kept sitting on the empty carousel as it went around and around.

Once again I had booked a taxi ride from the airport by internet, this time using the London Cab company. The driver wasn’t waiting for us when we came out the arrival gate, but I saw a booth for the cab company so we talked to them and they made some calls. Our driver soon showed up and took our bag, and led us out to a parking lot that was completely crammed with cars. I’m not sure why everyone was at the airport, but it took quite a while to extract ourselves from the mess. The driver was a pro, though, and he got us to our next hotel without a problem.

We were staying at the Steigenberger Hotel, apparently a Belgian hotel, and it was located right in the center of Cairo next to Tahrir Square, the center of the Arab Spring protests that brought about a change in the government recently. The hotel was pretty nice and decorated in a modern style, and the check-in went smoothly. We went up to our room and found it comfortable and clean. There were little electronic gizmos and amenities around to play with, but really just a standard hotel room. For some reason our suitcase didn’t make it up with us, so on the way out to dinner we pointed it out to the bellhop who hustled it off towards the elevators.

We chose a nearby restaurant recommended by my research and also Kuniko’s. It was called Falfela, and when we arrived there was a young cook right up in front who promptly demonstrated how he makes falafel for us. Inside, there were a lot of foreigners, and for the first time we saw a lot of Japanese people on this trip. We sat down to dinner and soon had a couple of Stella beers in front of us. After ordering we had the opportunity to do some people watching. There was a mural on the wall with some illustrations of people enjoying dinner, and one of them looked remarkably like the famous Japanese celebrity Tamori-san – I wondered if it was him? We also saw some Japanese women dining with Egyptian men, in a very unusual match up. Gigolos at work?

The place was pretty busy with almost all the customers using English to order, and so it took a while for our food to arrive. Once it did, we were a little disappointed. I had a rice dish topped with a garlic sauce and grilled lamb that was pretty good, but the falafel that we ordered was cooked too long and dry as a bone inside. We also ordered some mushrooms, but they weren’t so exciting – a bit watery.

It took a long time to get our bill, and an even longer time to try to pay it by credit card. We’d ask the staff to bring the credit card machine, and they’d say OK and then we’d never see them again. Kuniko was getting a little pissed off about it – and told one poor waiter that they need to bring the bill or we’d just walk out. That seemed to do the trick and we finally paid and left. Falfela was disappointing.

We walked a bit around the neighborhood, and it certainly had a different feel from the Dokki neighborhood where we had stayed before. This area was built up with lots of mid-range fashion shops, more European-looking buildings, and wider streets with faster-moving cars. There were fewer small shops and we couldn’t find any supermarkets nearby for our souvenir shopping. However, we did stumble on a tiny little shop called “Drinkies”. They only sold alcoholic beverages, and so that night we bought a couple of beers and a bottle of Egyptian sparkling wine for the upcoming New Year’s Eve. The prices weren’t bad at all, and it was just a few minutes from our hotel – excellent! Hooray for Drinkies!

It had been a busy day of travel, so we headed back to the hotel to relax and hit the sack early. It was nice to be back in the big city.


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