Egypt & Jordan

My 5-hr bus ride into Red Sea resort town Hurghada was smooth, and I met my new travel mate Tracey from New Zealand. After settling in our hostels and getting ferry tickets for Sharm el-Sheikh, we ate some Egyptian food and strolled to the marina, a private beach, and Tracy’s hostel operated by a resort with a million-dollar ocean views (yet lower room rate than my hostel reviewed as 9.9 yet with no view). The ocean water is too cold for me to swim unless during 11:00- 2:00 yet too sunny during that window.

I didn’t enter the last site of my Luxor East bank tour: Temple of Luxor, as I can see the structures from the streets and I was temple-out at the end of the day. I rushed Luxor so I can catch the ferry from HURGHADA to SHARM on Sunday, thus sparing me from taking two flights or 16-hr bus ride (with many check points. After confirming the ferry time with HURGHADA hostel and getting my bus ticket, I went back to see the night views of Temple of Luxor as well the East bank walkway.

The key site of the Luxor East bank tour was The Temple of Karnak, which is well known for its forest of columns and colours that have lasted for thousands of years.

In between the two tours in Luxor, our group had a lunch buffet on the West Bank with nice views of the hippies/nicer side of Luxor, which made me happy yet sleepy. No crocodile meat, but delicious fish, meatballs, chicken, etc. I chose the convenient yet unpleasant East bank of Luxor over West Bank of Luxor with nice vila and Airbnb, so I can walk to the train station and bus station and access to much cheaper tours. I only paid 155 LE ($10) for both East and West Bank tours, and $6 per night single room with bath (basic and use my own bed liner). Some people bike via sites (45-60 LE per bicycle per day, 5 LE per ferry, which added together about the same as my tour fee yet with freedom of time and stops, but biking under hot sun and no tour guides). Since I cannot feel relaxed when bombarded by touts, I may as well tour via Egypt quickly to move to Jordan.

Another site I visited on the West Bank of Luxor was Medinet Habu Temple, which was dedicated to the god Amon, and carved with religious scenes and portrayals of Ramses’ wars against the Libyans, Nubians, and the Sea People.

I took two tours today starting from 8 am to 6 pm. The Luxor West Bank tour including three sites, but I entered only two, including Valley of the Kings, the burial place of most of the pharaohs of Egypt of the New Kingdom. I entered three tombs KV 2, 6, and 8 with colorful wall paintings. Although in winter, it was quite hot in the valley that requires hat, sunglasses, and sunblocks. Egypt recently changed photography policy that it is free to use smart phones to take photos, while there are still 200-300 LE camera fees depending on the sites.