Trailing by about a week now on the recount of my experience I have to re-post a quote from “Into Thin Air”, one that I had previously introduced when I was taking a long time to recount the story of “Trekking in the Andes”. 

¨I distrust summaries, any kind of gliding through time, any too great a claim that one is in control of what one recounts; I think someone who claims to understand but is obviously calm, someone who claims to write with emotion recollected in tranquillity, is a fool and a liar. To understand is to tremble. To recollect is to re-enter and be riven…I admire the authority of being on one´s knees in front of the event.¨ - Harold Brodkey ¨Manipulations¨, a passage quoted in John Krakaur´s ¨Into Thin Air¨.

Althuogh the past few days have not been nearly as exciting as this single mentioned story, I will do my best to recap them in this much more delayed fashion than I have previously done.

I left Aswan for Luxor at about six in the morning by train.  Luxor is much more de-centralized than Aswan and coincidentally makes for a much more local feel as opposed to the touristy feel of Aswan, with everything being based around the train station.  After checking into my hotel for 15 Egyptian pounds a night (about 3USD) I made my way to start walking down to the Luxor Temple.  I have to say, I am a sucker for a sailbaot because I was once again talked into a felluca ride instead.  I think being able to bargain them down to 10 Egyptian pounds (2USD) an hour may of had something to do with my decision.  This felluca captain also asked if I would like to go to his house for lunch which I happily agreed to.  I assume that the felluca captains all just resort to taking their customers to their house for lunch when they we don’t have a set itenerary.  When they ask what I want to do in the hours to come my usual response is, “I’m not sure….just sail around for a bit and check out some these islands”…..maybe they just take the opportunity to get a good meal on the job.  So, his wife cooked us lunch and his daughter ate with us.  After we ate he told his daughter to do her homework because she had just arrived home from school….she complained a bit and then came up with the excuse that her pen didn’t work well.  In response to this, he gave her money to go buy a new pen and a snack from the store to entice her to start her homework.  She took the money and rolled her eyes before giving her dad a kiss on the cheek and prancing off to buy her pen and snack.

Later that night, an Egyptian kid, about 20, starting talking to me and invited me to his place for tea (not uncommon), his mom’s place.  About ten minutes after his mom brought out tea for us she brought out a two pieces of pottery.  I imeddiately realized what I thought was going on, so I picked up one of the pieces and did my usual, “hmmm, interesting”. Right then, Zam Zam (the dude) said, “Take it! It is a gift from my mother!”  I continued to refuse to take the pottery and even offered money, but he wouldn’t budge.  I tried to explain that I am only traveling with a backpack and something like this is very difficult to travel with; he didn’t understand my English.  I had the nerve to ask if I could switch it for the smaller piece.  Now, the Egyptian culture is very welcoming to guests, as I have learned in my experiences, but it could be that his mother was just so excited about her annoying son finally making a friend that she felt she must grace my presence with a gift.
Later that night I met some kids when I was grabbing a snack.  A few Americans and a Kiwi (NZ) who were all teaching in Cairo.  One of the American girls had gone to elementary school with one of my friends who I had actually just met for lunch in Jacksonville on my way to south Florida; small world.  They were heading back to Cairo that night, so we talked for a while, exchanged some travel stories, and then they made their way to the train station.

 The next day I hung out with an Aussie dude that I met when I was grabbing breakfast.  We had a similar agenda for the day so we rented bikes and set out for the Temple of Karnak.

There are some cooler photos than this one, but the upload didn’t go through for some reason when I was uploading pictures in Cairo.  Shortly after we left the temple, my tire went flat and about ten minutes later his front wheel fell off, I have no idea how this happened but the whole thing was so rusted that there was no way we could fix it.  So, we walked all the way back…and ended up buying a few beers and getting a felluca for the sunset.  We passed my roomate along the way, a Japanese fellow, who also joined us for the felluca ride.

The next morning I met a guide in the lobby of my hotel. We took the ferry over to the West Bank of the Nile where we picked up two donkeys to ride over the mountain to the Valley of the Kings.

When we arrived at a certain site with a number of tombs, we stopped, and I walked down to buy my ticket and visit a few of the tombs. One of the tombs cost more for some reason and I couldn’t help my curiosity so I bought the ticket despite the guy’s stubborness in giving me a cheaper ticket (80 Pounds, just under 20 USD). The tomb was more expensive because it held the actually unwrapped mummy of King Tut (Tut for short). When I got down there, the guard asked me for a sip of my water (they always do this, its really weird), to which I naturally responded, “La” (no). Then, because I decided that I really wanted to get a photo of this corpse, saying as I paid 80 pounds to see it, I went back and told the guy he could have the rest of my water if I could take a picture of good ‘ol King Tut. He looked at me as if to say “are you crazy…you think your water is worth a picture as valuable as King Tut?” Then he preceeded to ask me where I was from and I told him I was from Canada in order to deflect the Americans reputation from becoming stingy, water hogging photographers. I ended up sneaking a picture anyway.

That night while I was waiting for my train, a Japanese lady started talking to me. She caught me off guard with her response to where I was from. When I said America, she motioned toward my backpack and said “obviously, I could tell that”. I restrained myself from pointing out that she was obviously in a forty person japanese tour group, because all of their roller suitcases looked as though they would fix me a cup of coffee if I were to press the right button.

Once I realized my train was delayed for two hours, I made my way to the train station cafe with the thought of grabbing some beers. Most restaurants in egypt do not serve beer (most Muslims dont drink), so I made an arrangement with the guy to go to a nearby market and bring me back some beers for about two dollars a piece to drink in his care. During the next two hours I had eyes baring down on me as I produced one beer after another from my backpack and sent emails on my blackberry while I waited for my ten hour train back to Cairo.