The last post in this series is here..
We had finished the Karnak temple sunrise, visited the tombs at the valley of the kings, seen the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut and were on our way to three more stops before being dropped off at the airport.
Our bags had been in the back of the van since the morning.
The next stop was to see the giant statues of Memnon. However the group was tired and did not want to get down. Only I made a dash for it with Walid. He explained the place to me and I took a quick photo and video and we jumped back and and moved.
We were in West Luxor and had to cross the Nile to East Luxor to get some Egyptian cotton and or linen. We crossed the Winter Palace hotel in Luxor where a lot of celebrities had apparently stayed over the years.
We were told Egypt had the worlds best cotton and linen and shops in East Luxor were authentic for quality (might be pricier than the street shops outside every attraction but autentic and great quality).
Walid stopped at one such shop and we did see the quality and price. We all shopped for what we thought was a good deal given the time. We were given 40 minutes and we came out exactly in 40 minutes.
The last stop was at an Indian restaurant. We had told Walid that we wanted Indian food at least once. He told us the only Indian place that he knew was in East Luxor and it was the New Taste of India.
We were almost going to be disappointed after reaching that place. They had been reserved for lunch for a group coming from India in one of the ships. That group was late. We got lucky. There was only a buffet with fixed menu (as they were catering to a group). So we had that same fixed vegetarian menu.
The chappati ended up being Pita bread (same as in the cruise) , the gulab jamun was the local egyptian sweet that has a hard shell and no syrup! Still the vegetable dish, channa and daal were Indian. The owner was Egyptian but his father had opened the restaurant after learning desi cooking or so we heard. The lassi was good per family.
We gobbled up things as fast as we could and were off to the Luxor airport which was on this side of the city.
The desi group from our ship was waiting outside the airport and told us "bad news. flight is very delayed". Fortunately they were on a different flight and our flight to Cairo was not delayed.
We were harrassed a bit by the security folks at Luxor aiport. We were security checked every 10 feet by a bunch of folks who had nothing better to do. We questioned why were being checked just after being checked and there were some irate guys who were trying to show they were boss of their station. We just shook our heads and went through with these checks and pat downs.
The saving grace was the small lounge at the airport which had wifi and charging stations and hot water. We made some Wagh Bakri chai with the hot water and sat there for an hour. Then we were off to Cairo for the night.
There are no direct flights from Luxor to Amman in Jordan. So we had to go spend the night in Cairo and fly out the following morning.
We said buy to Walid at the airport in Luxor and were met by Latif again in Cairo airport. There was no time for dinner. So we wanted to pick up some veggie falafal sandwitches and rice. Had to wait a good 40 minutes for the order to be made.
We were to go stay in a hotel a little away from the airport. It was more of an apartment type hotel.
The facilities were great with the rooms having a fridge, kitchen and microwave. We ate the dinner in the breakfast area of the hotel. Some rooms away from the freeway were great. We got a room facing the freeway and the noise was deafeneing. It was a bad room. We complained but they had no other rooms or rooms with similar noise! San decided to sleep in the kitchen area in a fold out bed. I was too exhausted to care. It was going to be a short stay anyways as we had to wake up yet again at 3:30 AM to head to Cairo airport at 4AM for a flight to Amman. The drive was a good 20 to 25 minutes and we had to load all the suitcases.
We gave Latif a list of things that were great and the few things he could change for future guests and he was appreciative of the feedback.
A video highlight of the last few things we did in Egypt..
and that was that.. it was bye bye to Egypt!
If my family allows me to stay glued to the laptop later tomorrow, might finish blogging about the Jordan leg as well.. that is another 1200+ photos and videos to review.
