Day 96 - Monday April 3 Safaga, Egypt

Luxor Day 1 photos
position at 7:00am: N26 44.20 latitude E33 57.05 longitude
(Safaga, Egypt)
temperature: 74F, 26% humidity, clear
distance since FLL: 31,564 miles
It was a pleasant 69F and a slight breeze when Clay walked on deck this morning. Safaga was already visible.
We docked portside about 7:20am. LaVeranda opened at 7am, 30 minutes early since all but about 60 people are leaving this morning for Luxor, 20 buses worth. We ate a quick breakfast and then we went down early to the Doctor's office for our 8am check. We were the 3rd ones to be in the waiting room and we arrived 10 minutes before the office's opening hour. There was already a patient in there. It is not clear what time they actually opened this morning. Debbie's fever had broken overnight. She told the Doctor this and he confirmed a normal temperature. He listened to her chest and said there was still a problem in the right lobe of her lung. (She is not breathing easily yet.) He asked her if she was going to Luxor and she told him yes. He told her to keep taking the expectorant and gave her 4 big tablets in a foil sheet. They made her take one immediately and one was for tonight and one each for the next 2 mornings. (The bill was $143. $50 for the office follow-up and $93 for 4-500mg tabs of Zithromax.)
We were in the pink luggage tag group. We were about the 6th group called and that put us in bus 11. Shortly after we got on the bus, a convoy of the first 9 buses left the dock area. That put us in the 2nd bus of our convoy. We left about an hour after we got on the bus. It was a 3 hour drive. This is a tightly policed state and they control the movement of their citizens. Thus, the convoys. We had a police escort to drive us through roadblocks and checkpoints. When we boarded the bus the first row of seats was marked reserved for security, but we did not get security on our bus, so our guide Hoda, freed up one side for passengers. We first had to cross the Red Sea chain of mountains that you could see from the port. Then, we crossed a mix of rocks and sand. Then, sand. Finally, we approached the Nile and things started to get green. There are lots of irrigation canals and agriculture spreading out pretty far from the Nile and we drove through lots of villages and farms for the last hour or so. These were some pretty dramatic landscape changes. There are a lot more donkeys here than you might imagine.
We stopped first at the Sonesta St. George for bathrooms and a buffet lunch, but did not check in yet. We had about an hour for lunch. The hotel and the restaurant are right on the east bank of the Nile River and overlook it. It is a very pretty setting from the rear. The hotel was very nice and the lobby was beautiful. The restaurant was below the ground level and looked out the rear over the pool and the Nile. We were seated near a window and had a nice view. The buffet was a fairly International one with not much of local interest. There was soup, pasta and rice and a selection of breads and salads as well as fish, chicken, and beef. There was a dessert and fruit buffet as well. It was tasty food. Debbie also had a Coke and Clay finally got a local beer, Stella.
After lunch, we were back to the buses to tour Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. We went first to Karnak. This was just amazing. It was huge. It is hard to imagine what it must have looked like when all the surfaces were both carved and painted. There were a few places, like the undersides of remaining roofs that still had color visible, which is truly amazing. A four thousand year old surviving paint job. We toured quickly over the whole thing with Hoda and then we had about half an hour free to make our way back to the bus. Then we were off to Luxor. This temple is much smaller and is right in the middle of the town and surrounded by it. On top of part of it remains a mosque. The rest has been cleard as the town was built right on top of it. There is a avenue of sphinxes at each temple and originally it stretched 3km between the 2 temples. Eqypt is trying to relocate all the current inhabitants and excavate the avenue back out to its original state. Good luck. It was nearly sunset by the time we got back to the hotel and checked in. We watched the sun completely set from our balcony looking out west over the Nile. Then, we went out to do some quick shopping before dinner. We had just over an hour and thought it would be plenty of time to hit the few nearby shops and get showered and changed. Good thing it was all casual because we did not get our showers or clothes changed. We got caught up in a cult of merchant personalities. The people here are very friendly and happy to see Americans. They all asked where we were from and many had nice things to say about America and what we have done to help their country. It is nice to see our tax dollars earning a happy benefit. We bought a couple of gifts and some T-shirts. Clay had his name in hieroglyphs but on a T-shirt. Debbie's name in hieroglyphs was not so interesting, so she got a scarab on hers. Their T-shirts have the world's tightest necks! They are made of 'Egyptian' cotten.
We got back and just freshened a little before reboarding the bus. Dinner is a special event for World Cruisers tonight. We are having dinner in Medinat Habu temple on the west bank of the Nile. We had not seen a bridge crossing the river and wondered how far it was. It was pretty far. The drive to the temple was about 40 minutes. We are coming back here to sightsee tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see it at night and in daylight. We were the first bus to arrive. Roger held everyone at the turnstile until all six buses had unloaded. There was torchlight lining the path into and through the temple. As we stood there, they slowly uplit the temple with colored lights. It was very dramatic. Finally, they gave the go ahead and everyone pushed through the small opening. The way was very rough and irregular. It was only lamplit and so it was even harder walking. It is really rough sightseeing when the walks are so uneven and you only want to look up! It is kind of funny. Everyone has to walk funny to move forward and look up, look down, look up, look down... They had probably hundreds of carpets out for us. It was not clear if this made it harder or easier to walk. The carpets hid a lot of the obvious bumps and holes, but they were still there. They had our tables set in the center of the biggest part of the temple. It was beautiful and amazing. Again, it was funny though, you had to manuever your chair around to find a place that enough legs were in contact with the floor that you could sit on it. The carpets hid a lot, but they did not make for level floors! At last everyone was seated and a string quartet played chamber music while we were served dinner. We started with bowtie pasta and chicken in a creamy basil sauce. Next was cream of asparagas soup. The main course was tournedos de boeuf au poivre. (The beef here and at the lunch made us really appreciate how good the beef is on Voyager!) Next was cheese with nuts. Then rum cake. After that was a long pause and the music stopped. We got up from the table along with Shane, the Art Guy, and Sonja, the new tour desk person to tour around the temple and take pictures in the colored light. After we got up and behind the stage area, there was some loud dramatic drumming music and the waiters came marching through with torches flaming and a big cake decorated with fruit. They arrayed themselves behind the cake like oompaloompas from Willy Wonka and stayed there with their flaming torches until the music stopped then they marched back out. Roger took the the microphone and announced that the evening was over. There was an outcry as people said they were not going without cake and coffee. It was a little strange. About half of us were already out of our seats because we had already been served cake with no coffee. The menu ended with coffee, tea and petit fours as the last item. Apparantly, they did serve the big cake and coffee. We don't really know. We returned to our tour of the site and made our way back to the bus without returning to the table. This was an excellent evening. It was really special and not in a bad way. This was our first really spectacular "special event." We were happy for it. We look forward to seeing Habu Temple again in the light of day. Back to the hotel and in bed by 11pm. The hotel room is nice, but it is mainly about the view from the balcony. It is otherwise a pretty basic room, and the bed was not too comfortable. Again, we have been spoiled by Voyager. We slept right through until the alarm clock woke us at 6am.
Luxor Day 1 photos