Howdy all. Continuing on from my previous post when I was in Luxor, I spent the first day in Luxor itself. The second day I devoted to the ‘West Bank’ (of the Nile) where it seemed the only logical thing to do was to book a tour. However, it did not all to plan.

I booked the tour through my hotel, the Iberotel, with instructions to be at the lobby between 8 and 830am. However, I waited in the lobby and waited, nobody turned up. I did need to duck to my room to grab something at some point, but it was literally 2 minutes. So, when they finally called the hotel (who had been able to get in contact with them) shortly before 10am, I was working out what I was going to do. Probably hire a taxi for the day which certainly would have been more expensive. They said they had come to the hotel, and waited while reception had called my room over and over again. Reception didn’t know a thing about it.

That’s all I will say on that point. Within ten minutes I had a motorbike pick me up and drive me to the group which had already started the tour by that point in time. In fact, I was on the back of the motorbike going at ungodly speeds, over 120km/h, without a helmet. How a person with half a brain gets into such a situation, well I was so agitated and angry I hopped on without thinking. But I also didn’t expect him to go the speeds he did. I pathetically asked him to ‘take it easy’ a couple of times, that was about all the resistance I put up.

To get to where we were going we had to go well south of Luxor for about 15-20 minutes to reach a bridge to take us over the Nile to the west side. It seems crazy that at the city there isn’t such a bridge, but that is the way it is. Perhaps the reason is that it might spoil the view?

So we whizzed along on the roads heading towards, roughly, the tour group. The first thing on the itinerary was the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which I remembered visiting from 1999. However, it was too late to get there and join the group. Well actually, that was probably the second thing on thr tour, behind the Colossi of Memnon. Which is where we stopped before joining the group, meaning the temple was the only thing I missed.

The Colossi of Memnon are two large statues of Amenhotep III (a Pharoah one presumes) and rise 18 metres from the ground. They date back to 1350BC, although Amenhotep III ruled in the 14^th century BCE. They are incredible edifices and the way most tours seem to start to the West Bank and Valley of the Kings. Really it’s a photo stop and there were still plenty of people there taking said photo, whether they had just started the tours I don’t know. From there we moved on where I joined the tour group at what is typical for these kinds of tours – the stop and some sort of ‘factory’ – your chance to BUY something.

This time it was an alabaster ‘factory’, and as I arrived my group was watching a demonstration of how they fashion alabaster into ornaments, small statues and the like. I didn’t really get an introduction just had the group pointed out to me. We then were taken inside the gallery where there were a serious amount of alabaster products to buy. Some people did. Most didn’t, I didn’t. When you are doing a long trip you really don’t want to carry around heavy and breakable souvenirs for a month and a half. Some of the alabaster was painted presumably to glow in the dark and it was cool when they demonstrated that, but few people bought anything. Presumably the tour companies get a commission on any sale. However it does take time out of the day.

The next stop though was the main event, and that was the Valley of the Kings. After a short drive – I was now in one of two mini-buses, it was a large group of over twenty I think – we arrived. You go through a short street which is basically like a small market of mostly souvenirs and the like before the entrance. Entrance was not included in the tour price, and there are a few options you can go for. The tour allowed for around two hours at the Valley of the Kings in total, we had an hour or more to discover the tombs.

So basically, this valley is a valley of underground tombs of Pharaohs and rulers from ancient Egypt. A standard entrance ticket will get you into THREE tombs. Many are open, and there are a couple such as the tomb of King Tutankhamun which you need a special ticket for. The basic entrance is 3100 Egyptian pounds as of January 2024. That’s around $20USD. Add on King Tut’s tomb and well, that’s an extra 1000 EP. There are a couple more tombs you need a special ticket for.

We had a great guide, he was friendly, spoke in a voice you could understand and very knowledgeable. Also had a bit of personality about him. He advised us against visiting the tomb of Senor Tutankhamun as it was small and less interesting than many of the others (plus you see much of what was unearthed when they found it back in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo) and on top of that there is a big wait time. He suggested three tombs and I followed his advice.

The tombs I visited were – the tomb of Ramses 9, the tomb of Ramses 3 and the tomb of Ramses 4. Yes, Ramses was clearly a favourite name back in the day. Ramses 3 is thought to have died in 1155BCE, Ramses 4 died 1149BCE, and Ramses 9 in 1111BCE.

You are left to explore the tombs by yourself, guides are not allowed to stop inside and chat. They were good choices because they all went quite deep. Generally the opening passageway would have paintings on the wall, and then a chamber where Pharoah was buried, sometimes the passageway would take a corner or two on the way. Pretty hot in there too, outside the sun blazed and shade was precious. Photos and the video do the tombs way more justice than ,y words could.

We had a stop for lunch, a buffet at a restaurant, not sure exactly where it was located. Everyone was starving because it was well after 2pm by now. The buffet was pretty simple but did the job., bring as much water as you can bare to carry on this tour!

After that it was Habu Temple as our last stop. This brilliant temple was possibly the highlight of the day, I don’t remember it from 1999. It contains a temple for Ramses 3 so again dates back to the 1100s BCE, and it is massive with many buildings inside. I did a whole video devoted just to this temple.

Then the final event for the day was taking a sailboat over the Nile to the east side, rather than detouring south to the bridge again, and it was a nice way to end the day. On the other side of the Nile I was met with the manager of the tour company, who apologized for the mix up and wanted to offer me a ride to the airport the next day  – he wanted me to take a different tour I think – but I was leaving the next day. Strangely I thought he was offering me a complimentary transfer to make up for the mistake, but no, I had to pay full price and I’m sure a local taxi would have been cheaper. Not massively, it got me there.

The total cost for the tour was only 500 Egyptian Pounds – a little over $16USD. However, doing a little more research for the post prices have increased in the time since which is less than 12 months. On top of that, despite the issues with the tour the guide was brilliant so I tipped him, and then there were entrances to Habu Temple and the Valley of the Kings – and if I had made it to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, then there would have been entrance for that. Then there was lunch which, with drinks I paid a little under 200 Egyptian Pounds for.

It sounds like ‘wow, it all adds up’ but to be fair, it wouldn’t have been more than $50-$55USD all up, which is pretty decent for a full day tour to such amazing sites. And I was happy with the tour itself, if not the organisation of it.

And that basically is that for the story of my time travelling Egypt for Dhaka to Dakar. Next time we move onto Istanbul, via the last flights I took until I got to Dakar, Sengeal! Thanks for popping by! May the Journey Never End!