Our compartment on the Cairo to Luxor train is a miniature slice of heaven. And more than anything Christi and I can lock the door and enjoy a little privacy. At least we can when Ahmed the host is not serving us dinner or later when he wants to turn our comfortable seats into two comfortable beds. Our compartment comes with a wash basin (with soap and towels) and luxury of luxuries…air conditioning. It is wonderful to be hermetically sealed in a train heading south watching the raucous life play out along the Nile. Sleep comes easily and for once a delayed arrival is most welcome. Ahmed serves us a delightful breakfast and then we brace for the onslaught of heat and fixers as we step off the train. And we’re not disappointed. It is bloody hot even at 10 am, but this does not appear to deter the fixers. What I don’t understand is how the fixers make any money. Virtually all the tourists we’ve encountered in Egypt are on some sort of organized tour and are jealously guarded by their own guides. From that perspective unaccompanied tourists must be a rare and tantalizing sight and to be honest it is too hot to argue. Christi and I succumb willingly to Jak who offers luxury rooms with air-conditioning for less than US$20 per night. And amazingly his sales pitch is actually accurate. The Princess Hotel will be our home as we explore the incredible history that surrounds Luxor: the Luxor Temple, the amazing complex of Karnak, and the West Bank tombs of the Pharaohs. And then – maybe – a cruise down the Nile to Aswan, which will either be the jumping off point for a ferry ride into Sudan or a dead-end and some serious head scratching as we decide how to continue our African odyssey.
We quickly learn that Jak and the owners of the Princess Hotel make their money on the tours. Jak positively lights up when he learns that we’re thinking of leaving Luxor by ferry. He shows us to comfortable shaded seats on the roof and brings us complimentary cold drinks (I do so like all this free stuff) and then he’s on the phone having a heated conversation in Arabic: ‘180 American dollars per night for 3 nights,’ he says beaming. He might be happy, but that ends the conversation as far as I am concerned. ‘Wait, wait,’ he yells as Christi and I get up to leave. Jak paces ever more anguished during the ongoing conversation, but comes back with a much lower price – and much less enthusiasm. ‘130,’ he says deflated. Even that is more than our total daily budget of US$100 per day. Believe it or not when Christi and I were planning this madcap Year of Wonder budget was our number one topic of conversation. At the time US$100 per day seemed reasonable according to prices in the Lonely Planet guide. I think has time has gone on, though, Christi and I have embraced a slightly more luxurious type of travel than backpacker class, but trying to do this on a backpacker budget is challenging. A cruise down the Nile is just too tempting to pass up, though, and while Jak’s new low price is still a budget-buster we agree.
Jak offers guided tours to the Luxor Temple and Karnak, but we intend to explore these places on our own. His last deal is the West Bank – the tombs of the Pharaohs. There’s the usual group tour rate where we’re at the whim of the guide and other tourists or…for a little extra…a private tour where we decide everything. After we agree a price Jak can’t stop smiling, which makes me think we didn’t do such a good job of negotiating this trip.
As the temperature finally begins to ease in the late afternoon we walk to the beautiful Luxor Temple located in the center of town. It is much smaller than the temple complex of Karnak apparently, but this makes the place much easier to appreciate. Luxor Temple dates to 1400 BC and in common with other temples from ancient Egypt its main function was a place to worship the myriad Egyptian gods and the Pharaoh. Indeed, maintaining the temples and building a tomb to carry the pharaoh into the afterlife were two of the most important activities in Ancient Egypt. A three-kilometer avenue of human-headed sphinxes once connected the temples of Karnak and Luxor. Remnants of that great avenue still exist leading to the entrance of the temple, which are guarded by two massive seated statues of Rameses II. Two 80-foot (25m) obelisks used to accompany them but today only one remains the other stands in the Place De La Concorde in Paris. As we explore the various courts, pylons, colonnades, the hypostyle hall, and the Holy of Holies the heat radiates off the stone and the sweat drips off of me. Photography under these conditions is challenging – I do suffer for my art – all the while I’m dreaming of an air-conditioned room at the Princess Hotel.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching tale of love and test tubes.
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