We got up early once again in order to eat our last big breakfast at the phenomenal hotel buffet. Our plan for the day was simply traveling by air from Cairo to Luxor, and we had plenty of time to make the flight. So we ate the biggest breakfast yet, and then said goodbye to all that great food and went back to our room to pack. Our last hours in the hotel room meant final charging and downloading to our phones, and using the toilet because, well, just in case. It is always good to be near a clean, functioning toilet while traveling.
I found a taxi service on the Internet that would pick us up at our hotel and take us to the airport, and it was a lot cheaper than both the hotel service and the price that yesterday’s taxi driver had quoted. The best part was that there was no negotiation and hassle – I knew the price going in and that is what I would pay. We made a taxi reservation for noon. After checking out we walked outside with our suitcase, and our taxi driver from yesterday came running up to us hoping to drive us to the airport. He must have been waiting there all morning to try to catch us when we left the hotel. I told him we made other arrangements and the sad look he gave us just about broke my heart. The big, bad Internet squashes another small family business. Just about then our ordered taxi pulled up, and to his credit our clearly disappointed ex-taxi driver gave us a warm handshake and said goodbye and to enjoy the rest of our trip.
Our ride to the airport was with a service called London Taxi Cab, and they actually sent a black London-style taxi cab to pick us up. We sat in the back in a huge passenger area, and the driver silently drove us to the airport – no haggling, no discussion, but also no Egyptian hip-hop or hot coffee. The driver was very skilled and the ride to the airport wasn’t that far through the brutal traffic. On the freeway we encountered bumper to bumper traffic, and that slowed us down a bit. We were even rear-ended lightly by a medium sized truck at one point. Our driver sighed, stopped the car, and went out to talk it over with the other driver. Apparently this is no big deal, and after a very calm discussion he got back into our cab and continued driving, without making any comment to us. It was a minor bump, but we tried to recall just how extensive our traveler’s insurance was. Things could easily have been a lot worse.
He dropped us off at the airport, I gave him a little tip that seemed to surprise him (thanks for getting us in a car accident!?), and then we approached the entrance to Cairo Airport. We were using the domestic terminal, and I have never seen a more disorganized and unnecessarily complex security system in my life. I was glad we weren’t in a hurry to get anywhere. What a mess.
It started with the front door. Even before we enter the departure terminal, they are checking to see that each person has a paper ticket. We don’t have paper tickets, we have e-tickets. We need to show the guard our passport along with a screen on my phone that shows the flight number and luckily I have prepared an offline e-ticket and we get past the first hurdle. If I didn’t prepare that, what would have happened?
The next hurdle is a security check. This is before our check-in, which is an extra step of security that we’ve never seen before. Here there is one line for all departures for the entire terminal, but fortunately it is only 10-20 people long. We need to take off our shoes and jacket, and put them on the x-ray conveyor belt with our suitcase, electronics, etc. We line up to do that but there is a lot of discussion between the security workers and the passengers. The shoes, jackets, suitcases, electronics, and pocket change have all been through the x-ray machine long before their owners get to pass.
One cultural point we noticed was that anytime there was a person in charge helping someone, it was perfectly OK in Egypt to walk up while that person was helping someone else and ask them some question or make a request. Rather than refusing the request or pointing to the end of the line, the person would always handle that request, interrupting their previous activity. Then there was a visible point where you could see them trying to remember what they were doing before. This wasn’t just at the airport – it was everywhere. These “side conversations”, as Kuniko called them, caused lots of delays and inefficiencies, and led to a very long wait to get through our current security situation. At the front of our security line there were lots of people walking up and asking questions, and all these questions needed to be resolved before the next person could pass security. It was fascinating to watch.
For added excitement, suddenly a young woman sprinted to the front of the line, and shouted in English to the people waiting that she was about to miss her flight so she needed to get by. Many of the people waiting started to debate with her, and security guards were further confused, and … I think you get the picture.
We finally made it to the front of the line, and the guards were not satisfied with our e-tickets – they wanted paper. He held our passports and demanded paper tickets, and so I showed him the e-ticket, but this time he said it didn’t have both our names on the ticket. More people came to have a side conversation with the guard, and he forgot about us, and when he came back to us he said, go ahead. After we left with our stuff and lined up at the check-in counter we realized that the guard was still holding our passports, so Kuniko ran back and retrieved them. All this before we even check in to our flight.
Luckily, after this we were able to get paper boarding passes for our flight to Luxor. Using those we passed through the next security check, this one a little easier since our luggage was now checked in. We had arrived a little early at the airport to look around and survey the souvenir shopping situation, but things were grim here in the domestic terminal. We couldn’t leave to visit the other terminals, and so we were stuck in a waiting area with only a small shop. The good news was that they sold beer and wine. So we calmed our nerves with a couple of cold ones and relaxed until our flight time. The beers were expensive here – almost eight times the price that we paid in the secret liquor store back in Dokki. I think the only people buying beer here were either rich foreigners or the truly desperate secretly drinking locals – either way, no price was too high.
It was a simple one hour flight to Luxor, and by the time we arrived, night had fallen. It is always a little more scary to arrive at a new city in the nighttime – it has been that way for us since our visit to Florence, Italy for our honeymoon. The darkness makes you a bit nervous, but the next day in the daylight everything seems perfectly normal and safe.
We picked up our suitcase and above the baggage claim carousel was a sign saying the expected taxi prices to the center of town, which I thought was a very nice touch. The price said 60 pounds, so I prepared to pay around that after haggling. We talked to a taxi driver outside who started negotiation at 200 pounds, and I laughed out loud and kept walking. He chased me down and offered 150 pounds, and I said that the best I could do was 100 pounds. He acted like I was kidnapping his children at gunpoint, but he motioned to the car and we were off. Later I heard that the price of gasoline in Egypt had recently shot up 50 percent because of some kind of austerity deal, which meant that the sign that we had seen quoting taxi prices was a little out of date. Our taxi driver told us all about it, but I didn’t believe him until I confirmed it later on the internet.
It was a short drive to the Sofitel hotel, and we looked out the window and saw a much smaller city than Cairo. We went through a little mini security gate, and then checked in to our hotel without any issues. The hotel was a bit past its prime but the price was right and the grounds and location were exceptional. When we arrived there were two pastries waiting on a nice dish for us as a welcome, and we thought it made a good first impression.
The Sofitel was located one or two minutes’ walk from a sightseeing spot that I wanted to see, Luxor Temple. We drove by it on the way in and it was beautifully lit up and looked pretty dramatic. Since it was so close, we left our bags behind in the room and set out.
Outside our hotel there was a big group of touts waiting for us. They were trying to sell rides on horse-drawn carriages, taxi rides, trips to a nearby market, their guide services to local sites, and who knows what else. You could tell there was a big drop in tourism recently because these guys were desperate – more than we had seen anywhere in Cairo. As we walked we were followed by six or seven touts, two horse-drawn carriages, and even a couple of little kids. We were like walking ATMs, and interest was high. The touts spoke really good English, and they told the same jokes over and over to try to get your attention (“Want to ride in my Ferrari? It is one horsepower!”) We tried “No, thanks” repeatedly but after the tenth time it appeared to be ineffective. The touts wouldn’t let up.
Eventually we walked near a police checkpoint and then they ran off. I asked the police which way to the entrance to the temple, and they smiled and gestured off towards the northwest, so we walked along in the direction they indicated. We walked around the area back and forth a few times, and even went into a mosque by accident because we could not find the entrance. Many locals were sitting around the square in front of the temple, and men would constantly come up to us trying to sell their goods or a ride in their carriage. It got to the point where you were almost saying “No, thanks” as people walked up to you, which I think was frustrating for them as well as us – a real-life lose/lose situation. One younger kid eventually told us where to find the entrance, and we were so sure that he would demand money for the information that we almost flinched away from him. He didn’t ask for money though, and continued on his way. It is too bad the touts were so aggressive in Luxor because I’m sure that most people were kind-hearted and just wanted to help.
The Temple of Luxor was illuminated at night, and thanks to the advent of LED lights the structure was beautiful. They could position the tiny lights in various places to produce a highlighting effect on the carvings of the hieroglyphics in stone. You could really see the details and for us it was our first chance to really see and touch actual hieroglyphics. These are messages from people a long time ago, and you are free to run your hands over them. I got a little chill when I did. There are tall pillars throughout the temple, and also big statues of pharaohs standing guard here and there. Running from the temple all the way to the Temple of Karnak (which we visited later) ran the Avenue of the Sphinxes – which was just as it sounds – a wide walkway that had a Sphinxes lining each side. The Sphinxes were quite close together – hundreds of them stretching out of sight to the north – and it was interesting to imagine it in its heyday. It must have been a grand way to arrive at the temple.
Inside the temple were more detailed hieroglyphics, but unfortunately there were also local men standing around ready to point things out. Apparently this is a way to make money – stand there, point out some details to the tourists, and then ask for money. Some “guides” were quite physical and actually tried to hold your arm and pull you towards an engraving they wanted to talk about. When we go to museums and sightseeing spots we like to see it at our own pace, so we pulled away from the grabby hands of the locals and told them no thanks. They saw it as income lost, but we didn’t care so much about giving out the money – it was just that we wanted to control our experience ourselves. We bumped into these “guides” at every tourist spot in Luxor, and it served to remind us just how bad things have been for the tourist industry here. These were desperate men making money the only way they knew how.
After getting our fill of the temple, we left and walked into another part of town to get something to eat. There was a big loudspeaker tower nearby, broadcasting the sharp voice of a man speaking Arabic. Was it the president of the country making a decree? An announcement of military restrictions on travel outside of town? Maybe a bake sale at the local community center? Who knows, but the big booming voice and the military vehicles parked here and there made it feel like a scene from a military dictatorship. Just my imagination running wild, I suppose. I liked the feeling – this was adventuresome travel.
Not far from the temple we found a large restaurant that looked promising, with a big menu that had an English version. The manager urged us upstairs and we sat at a table in the center of a big room, with a few young couples around us. We chose from the menu, ordering a kofta plate and a small pot of simmered vegetables and garlic. It ended up coming with a soup, salad, hummus, bread, and the main dishes even had a little candle made from colored peppers to set the mood. I like the way the manager snapped his fingers at his staff and put them in position to serve us correctly each time. The manager talked with us a little and he seemed very grateful for the business. The food was quite good – better than we expected – and although we were expecting a padded bill at the end it was priced exactly like the menu said it would be.
We walked back to the hotel which was just a few minutes away. The touts still tried hard to get us to submit to a horse-drawn carriage ride, but we kept up our wall of “La, shukran (No, thanks)” and eventually they lost interest. Just as we arrived at the hotel, a ten or eleven-year old boy walked by pulling an unhappy donkey with a rope. The donkey was reluctant to move on and was digging in with its feet. The boy sighed, lit up a cigarette, and jumped on the poor animal’s back, and they took off. Donkey and rider zig-zagged across the road as honking cars swerved around them, and then they disappeared into the night. It was sort of a surreal end to our day.
