Mom in Egypt-Luxor 1

I wish I had writing skills enough to let the few people who read this blog know how happy I was/am that my mom came to visit. There is nothing to compare to the unconditional love of a parent and I needed some of that sweet love here in Cairo. Mom, Miss Myles, Little Mom, Mimsy, Gale, came to Egypt and fully impressed all my friends, was a perfect guest (would you have guessed otherwise) and made her oldest daughter very happy. We did a whole bunch of crazy tourist fun stuff, including a trip down South to Luxor. The following pictures are only a glimpse of all the ancient rocks, tombs, things made out of rock and rock with stuff drawn on it that we saw.

To get to Luxor one must either fly (very expensive), drive (no car), or take a ten hour train ride. I forced my mother onto a train less than three hours after her flight into Cairo and we both passed out. Taking a train in Cairo is pretty easy if you have any clue what platform to go to (there are no logical signs) and are able to get tickets. Getting tickets is tricky because all the tourist agencies buy up the first class seats (you do no want to take anything else) so that tourists are forced to buy through them as this is the high season for Luxor/Aswan. Katie and Paul helped me figure this out after their multiple failed trips to the train station to buy tickets. I learned from their efforts and called a friend. Always the thing to do in this country.

We arrived to Luxor after passing out and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast. The hotel manager met us at the station, we assumed we would get in a car, but instead we walked to the hotel! No, we did not stay at a classy hotel, it actually cost 60 LE a night (a little more than ten dollars) for the room, but he walked us to the hotel anyways. There we met katie and Paul who were also vacationing and immediately signed up for a guided tour to the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hatshepsut Temple and the rest of the West bank of the Nile. Normally I would not do a packaged tour but there is a lot to see and dealing with the hassles of multiple cabs and their desire to rip us off would have ruined all the old stuff viewing. And see old stuff we did!!!!!! Woot woot old stuff.

Hatshepsut's Temple.

People digging up actual artifacts in the Valley of the Kings, doesn't sort of look like an Indian Jones movie scene?

Mom, being an epic tourist at Hatshepsut's

Pretty stuff on old rock combined with mildly artistic lighting.

Entrance to the temple.

Old face, there were three of these outside of the temple doors.

Next stop these two really big statues, called Colossus, our final stop in a very long and fun filled day.