Luxor, revisited

Sunday, March 19
The last night on our ship, the crew made a special cake, which they served on plates with "See you soon" written in chocolate. They came out to the dining room in force, singing and playing drums, and we formed a huge conga line around the dining room.

And then on Sunday, we left the boat. Some of our group departed to go home. The rest of us continued on with a day of touring in Luxor.

We went back to the West Bank. I forgot to mention that along the way, there's a giant bill board with no words. It just shows a number of pharaohs and Mubarak (the current president) wearing dark sunglasses. The term "height of arrogance" comes to mind, and I don't think the Egyptians are very fond of the image either.

Anyways, we stopped briefly at two enormous stone statues in front of a huge sight currently being excavated. We proceeded on to the Valley of the Queens (earlier in the trip, we visited the Valley of the Kings). The VoQ contains tombs (and long passage ways) with beautiful, intricate paintings. There's also a small temple and the remains of the "workmen's village," the place where the artisans who decorated all the tombs, worked.

We ate lunch at a sweet outdoor cafe where there were cats. Of course, we all sacrificed some meat to pay homage to these godly (but dirty and thin) creatures.

And then we were taken to our hotel, where we had a small balcony overlooking the Nile and from which we could see the tomb of Hatshepsut, way across on the West Bank. During the afternoon, Robert relaxed, and I set out with friends for more souk and shopping.

We first searched out a Fair Trade store that we'd heard about. We finally found it, and it contained some beautiful hand-crafted treasures. We all bought some small items, and then had a lovely chat with the shopkeeper, a Turkish woman, educated as an archaeologist in England. She plied her trade in Europe but not in Egypt.

We continued on to the souk where we bargained our little hearts out. One of the members of the group seemed a little overwhelmed and kept walking away just before making a purchase. As I followed in my friend's wake, I heard the dazed shopkeeper say "what just happened?"