TWO DAY ITINERARY FOR LUXOR

Hey....forgot to add snaps; so am doing that now. Enjoy!]

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After much research and consultuing with Egyptologist friends who have visited Luxor independently and not on guided tours, this is the itinerary that I decided for our two-day trip to Luxor and it worked wonderfully. A hectic schedule, no doubt, especially if you are the kind to linger on details; nevertheless a schedule that gives you the satisfaction of having made the most of two days!

It is best to make an early start-most of the sites open at 6.00 AM; afternoons can be spent in the hotels or having a leisurely lunch. Late afternoon/evenings are best spent visiting the temples on the East Bank.

DAY 1

Start your visit to Luxor by visiting the royal tombs at Valley of the Kings. A single ticket (LE 70) entitles you to visit three tombs. There is a toy train to transport you to the entrance (LE 4)-if you have the time and inclination, you can easily walk up to the entrance. At the entrance, you will have to hand over your video cameras. A map here shows the lay-out of the tombs and you can choose the three that you want to visit. We visited the Tombs of Ramses III, Tuthmosis III and Ramses IX.

Ramses IX-This tomb is notable for its well-preserved paintings, the colours still so vivid as if the paintings are fairly recent! It is believed that the tomb was unfinished when Ramses IX died; after his death, the tomb was hastily completed

Ramses III- This tomb had a “false start” when its builders mistakenly cut through into the adjacent tomb. Ramses III changed the course of the corridor to the right and the result was a very large tomb with beautifully painted sunken reliefs.

Tuthmosis III-This tomb requires some “serious” walking and climbing a steep staircase. It is located between two limestone hills and is the most inaccessible of the tombs at the Valley of the Kings. The choice of its location demonstrates the extent to which the pharaohs went to protect their burial places from tomb raiders. There is a second steep staircase that leads to the burial chamber.

After visiting the three tombs on your itinerary, you might want to just walk around the valley-away from the long queues near the most popular tombs; it is quite peaceful with some good views over a barren landscape.

Be prepared that some of the tombs that you have set your heart onto maybe closed for renovation-we could not visit the Tomb of Mernepath for the same reason. There is a visitors’ centre just before the ticket booth, where a couple of documentaries are run, giving information on the discovery of the tombs and their restoration. Also http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/ is a good site for detailed information on the “Valley of the Kings”.


Deir al Bahri-The Temple of Hatshepsut is partly rock-cut and partly free-standing and has a wide causeway that leads to three huge terraced courts. Hatshepsut was the daughter of Tuthmosis I and became regent for Tuthmosis III, the minor son of her husband. She is then believed to have assumed the role of a pharoah and ruled for 15 years. Spend an hour here studying the reliefs recording the birth of Hatshepsut and the pharoah in the presence of various Pharonic gods. At some places the reliefs show gaps where Hatshepsut’s face has been disfigured by her successors

Colossi of Memnon-En route to your hotel for a brief siesta, stop at the two statues known as the Colossi of Memnon. These faceless statues are the remains of a large funerary complex that was built by Amenhotep III, but has been eroded away over the centuries due to the floods. .

After lunch and a siesta, head out to the Luxor Temple on the East Bank.

Luxor Temple-This temple is best visited during late afternoon/evening so that you get the opportunity to see the temple by daylight as well as when the sun has set and the temple is lit up. The temple was mostly built by Amenhotep III. The architecture of the temple is truly awe-inspiring. I loved the court of Amenhotelp III, which is surrounded by double rows of columns on three sides and is built in such a way so as to be open to the sun. Alexander the Great has rebuilt the barque shrine in this temple, which has reliefs depicting Alexander in the traditional regalia of the Pharoahs.

Day 2

Make an early start at around 7.00 p.m from the hotel to first visit the Medinat Habu. The tickets for visiting Medinat Habu are not available at the site but have to be bought at the Antiquities Inspectorate Office, close to the ferry landing. Apparently Medinat Habu was inhabited as recently as the late 9th century. It comprises of funerary temples built by Ramses III, Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III. What I found most striking were the reliefs depicting Ramses III as the victor of several wars. Medinat Habu is a huge complex and has some of the best preserved reliefs-the colours are still vivid and beautiful.

Then you can return to the hotel for a siesta or visit another set of tombs-either the Valley of the Queens or Tomb of the Nobles.

The grand finale of any visit to Luxor is the Karnak Temple which according to one account is large enough to hold 10 cathedrals-therefore allow for sufficient time and energy to enjoy this temple. But I can guarantee that one visit will not be enough and you will want to come back again to visit this architectural marvel. The temple is open from 6.00 a.m to 5.30 p.m from October to April and till 6.00 p.m from May to September. Tickets can be bought at the entrance for LE 50. The highlight of this temple for me is the great Hypostyle Hall which consists of 134 papyrus- shaped stone pillars and lies after the second pylon. Originally, this hall was roofed; it was also brightly painted but today, the paint can be seen only in a few places. The temple has a total of ten pylons-its size and grandeur can only be imagined.

If you have time left before taking the flight/ train home, take in the sound and light show at the Karnak Temple, which is of one and a half hour duration.

Remember to read up a little on the sites that you will be visiting; this will help you to better appreciate the architectural marvels at Luxor. Do the sight seeing at a pace that suits you-prioritize according to your interests!

Cairo Grand Hyatt Hotel bans sale of alcohol

Received a mail from a friend that reads as follows:-

“The Grand Hyatt Hotel in Cairo has banned the sale of alcohol from the beginning of May, earlier this week. Though discussions are continuing between the Hotel chain and the owner, no drinks are served at any of the hotel’s restaurants or bars.”

I found it very strange because Cairo is the most liberal of all Muslim cities and alcohol is served in most hotel establishments in the city. The owner of Grand Hyatt is a sheikh from Saudi Arabia and he has banned the sale of alcohol on the hotel premises on the grounds that consumption of alcohol is forbidden under Islam.

Read on http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2008/05/02/saudi_sheikh_bans_alcohol_at_cairo_grand_hyatt_hotel/afp/

I have stayed in Khobar, Saudi Arabia for three years and all the five star hotel chains there have to adhere to the diktat of “no sale” of alcohol. In fact, sale or consumption of alcohol in Saudi Arabia is a punishable offence. However, to find a similar ban in a luxury restaurant in a city like Cairo is surprising and definitely puts Grand Hyatt at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the other luxury hotels.

It remains to be seen whether the ban will continue in the face of reduced business to the Grand Hyatt or whether the luxury chain is able to prevail over the owner to lift the ban.

STAY IN LUXOR, EATS AND TREATS TOO!

Staying At Luxor

Luxor is the place which can truly transport one to the Pharonic era; if you are visiting Luxor, you should be spending very little time in your hotel room. While choosing a hotel, the emphasis and concern should be getting clean beds and bathrooms. Most of the hotels are on the East Bank. This is much quieter than the West Bank and you will be close to the Luxor and the Karnak temples!

For checking out the hotel options in Luxor, log onto http://www.allhotels.com/. But be warned – the room rates mentioned on the site are not necessarily the correct ones-as I learnt the hard way! I chose Pyramisa Hotel from this website-a double room with a Nile view When I tried booking the room through the website, the operation failed every time. Then I called them and told them about the dates and the room that I wanted-and got the shock of my life-when the rates that were quoted were almost double and I was told that the website did not carry the correct rates! I suggest you use the website to get an idea of the hotels and the kind of facilities available therein and then do the bookings on the telephone. You will have to remit the money by wire transfer to confirm your bookings.

We finally stayed at Tutotel; a three star. Our rooms were clean and had good bathrooms. For the price of USD 44/- per night (double occupancy), it served our purpose. It has a small terrace pool and a terrace restaurant. The location is also very convenient.

Moving Around Luxor

We hired a car for the two days that we stayed in Luxor to take us around-for LE 300/day. We used the services of “Egypt on Line Tours” who provided us with an air-conditioned mini-van with a chauffeur who knew “basic” English and was conversant with all the sites. Though we did not hire any guide, it is possible to hire english-speaking guides for LE 150/- per day.

Eating Out

I would recommend the Africa restaurant on the West Bank- it has a friendly staff and serves freshly made Egyptian fare. A great place for vegetarians too! We had hummus and baba ghanough, greens salads together with rice, mixed vegetables, potato gravy and French fries for the main course. And of course, to help with the digestion; freshly squeezed lemon juice. We paid LE 48 per person, all inclusive. This place is extremely popular with tourist groups and if you get a table, you may be subject to subtle prodding by the staff to finish your meal and be off!

Treats

Treat yourself to a cold karkade and sheeshah at the Metropolitan Café on the Corniche while watching the sun set over the river Nile. The perfect place to rest your tired limbs and reflect on the historical sites that you have just visited is definitely by the river Nile – which too is as old as history!

A ferry ride between the West and the East Bank in Luxor is highly recommended-not only as the fastest and the easiest mode of travel between the two banks, but also for the sheer joy of cruising the Nile and feeling the spray of water on your face! Expect to pay around LE 1-2 per person for the crossing.

Take Me Home!

There are lovely clay pots (tagens) that can be bought beside the police station in Luxor. With some bargaining, you can buy the small pots for LE 5 and slightly bigger ones for LE 7-10. They can be used for cooking over the stove and can be used for serving too-to add a “different” touch to your dinner party!

TRAVEL TO LUXOR

Whenever one thinks of visiting Luxor and Aswan, the obvious choice is going on a Nile cruise. You have the option of 4 days/ 3 nights or 5 days/ 4 nights cruise. But I had only a couple of days in hand; my parents were to leave for India soon and I wanted them to experience the Pharonic ambience-and what better place than Luxor!

Decided to ditch Aswan and use the two days to visit Luxor. I thought the hard decision was out of the way-but the problems were to just begin. How to travel to Luxor?-By air, take the train or the luxury bus?

FLY TO LUXOR
On any given day, there are 10 flights that operate between Cairo and Luxor. Check out the timetable on http://www.egyptair.com/. Click on timetable and you can see all the flights for a particular day. The first flight out on any day is early morning-between 5.00 a.m. to 6.00 a.m. and the last flight out between 10.30 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. Early bookings are highly recommended; especially during the peak tourist season (which runs from October to April), -not only does it get you a better price but also confirmed bookings on the desired flights. We tried to get flight bookings on a Sunday for the coming Thursday and there we no confirmed bookings available for the return flight from Luxor. Our tickets were working out to LE 900 for a round trip per person-I have had friends who have paid LE 500 and one who has even paid as low as LE 350 for a round trip. And apparently there is no logical explanation to this difference in the price-I guess the earlier you book, the better the chances of you getting a good price. Have also been told that the rates are different if you book at the Egypt Air office –the rates differ from what is advertised on their site and there is no convincing explanation for this too!

TAKE THE TRAIN
If you are unable to get confirmed bookings for the flight you want, or the flight is working out too expensive for you or you can’t be bothered to spoil your sleep for taking a flight at odd hours, your best bet is the sleeper train.

These trains are meant exclusively for expats and are quite comfortable. You have to pay for it in US dollars or euros. As for credit card, they accept only the visa card. Up to eight tickets can be bought at the Giza station. For tickets above 8, the tickets have to be bought at the Ramses station. Buy the tickets at least a day in advance-earlier during the peak season and if traveling on a week-end.

There are three trains that leave daily-one at 20.00 hrs and the other at 20.30 hrs from the Giza station. A third train leaves at 21.00 hrs from the Ramses station. The journey to Luxor takes 9 hours. The sleeper train has 13 sleeping cars each, which contains 10 double cabins and 02 bathrooms. Every Cabin has a connecting door with the next cabin, to be used when needed. Cabins are equipped with basins, razor plugs, tap water, soap & towels. The day seats are converted into sleeping beds which are quite comfortable. A luggage compartment is available on the top of the door. However, the train can be a little noisy on the tracks. The ticket price is USD 120 for a round ticket and includes dinner and breakfast. The food can be disappointing though. Liquor is also served and is charged separately. For a single berth compartment, you have to pay USD 120. Check out their website for more information. http://www.sleepingtrains.com/

Another cheaper option to travel to Luxor is the air-conditioned express trains-both daytime and overnight trains. They take longer but cost less-around USD 30 for a round trip. The first class compartments are comfortable enough with reclining seats. But, there maybe certain restrictions on the foreigners traveling on these trains. For information on schedules and facilities, check out http://www.seat61.com/Egypt

BUS TO LUXOR
The one bus that I know that takes you to Luxor is operated by “Nile Transportation”. I have no idea about the facilities on board. You can get more information by visiting Monyeeb ,El baher El Azam street or call 35725362. The bus leaves at 5.30 p.m. and the reservations have to be made at 4.00 p.m.

Cairo Petroleum Wives

Last week attended a gathering of the Cairo Petroleum Wives (CPW)-an organization that is dedicated to “promoting social, cultural, educational activities and furthering friendship among women.”

The name “Cairo Petroleum Wives” is attributed to the ladies who started the organization, some 30 years back, but they welcome all English – speaking women in their midst and no affiliation to the petroleum industry is required. I had the opportunity to attend their event-“Show and Tell”-an innovative format. The members had brought along with them food items that they had “discovered” in Cairo which could be used as substitutes for ingredients available “back home”. Or they simply “showed” stuff indigenous to Egypt and “told” us about how it could be adapted and used in our meals.

The President of CPW Dianne Crewse, a dynamic and friendly lady demonstrated how to make the milky, frothy lemon juice which is so popular in Egypt. It is extremely simple-quarter a “baladi” (country) lemon, put it in a liquidizer with 2 teaspoons of sugar, a glass of water and some ice cubes and run the liquidizer and voila! Your thirst quencher is ready. Dianne had also managed to persuade the head chef at the “Maadi House” to take us through some Egyptian spices and their uses. We ended the morning with a raffle draw, with some members winning “hard-to-get” favorite foods. Never mind about me-am never lucky at these kind of draws!

Apart from the regular informative gatherings, CPW also has a very active book club and hold your breath!-a bowling club too! The book club gets together regularly to discuss a book or watch a movie and even does some related field trips together. The bowling club has a “bowl” of a time and meets twice a month. There is much more happening –you too can be a part of all the fun-send your name and number to cpwives@yahoo.com and you can receive emails on their upcoming events.

Sham El Nessim

Yesterday, the park in front of my house on the Gamat-al-Dwal al arabiya road was filled with families out on a picnic. They were carrying baskets of food and drinks and had laid out mats on the grass. The children were busy playing whereas their parents lazed on the mats and enjoyed the salted fish, coloured eggs and spring onions.

It was Sham-el-Nesseim, a non-Muslim, non-Christian festival that has been celebrated in Egypt since the Pharonic times (around 4500 years ago). “Sham” in Arabic means “sniff” and “Nessim “ means “breeze”-therefore this festival literally means “sniffing the breeze”.

The day starts with families having breakfast together-salted fish (fiseekh), boiled coloured eggs and spring onions are the staple on this day. These foods have Pharonic symbolism-for example salted fish symbolizes fertility and welfare, eggs symbolize new life and green onions are thought to keep the evil eye away. Families spend the day together, going to the parks, near the river Nile or by the sea.

My landlady’s mom who stays just below us offered us some boiled eggs-she called it the “Egg of Upper Egypt”. Apparently this form of coloring the egg is very popular in Upper Egypt-the egg is boiled with onion skin and kohlingen, an Egyptian spice. The onion skin imparts the eggs with a brown colour. She served it with “dukka”, another Egyptian spice, which has as its base hazelnuts or chickpeas together with pepper, coriander seeds, sesame seeds and cumin seeds. The ingredients are ground together to a coarse powder. “Dukka” can also be used as a dip for breads along with olive oil. There are many recipes available for dukka - you can find one of them on http://shopping.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,1591304,00.html

Daylight Saving Time in Egypt

It has been four days now since Egypt re-set its clocks-advanced it by one hour, to be precise. But the battle to adjust to the changed time still continues-the body clock continues to “live in the past”. Mornings are disrupted- at “dawn”, it is still dark outside. My friends with children have been complaining that making it to the school on time these days is a herculean task.

Egypt practices daylight saving time between the last Thursday of April andthe last Thursday in September. This year the change was made at midnight (local time) on 24th April (Thursday)-one second after 23:59:59 became 1:00:00 on Friday. We arenow at three hours ahead of GMT.
Read more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time_around_the_world..

The rationale behind this practice is to make available longer daylight hours in the evenings for activities after the normal working hours. Also the electricity consumption decreases since it is daylight for much of the waking hours. Hence the term "daylight saving time"-you save the daylight for the waking hours!

However, there is still much debate on the merits of practicing daylight saving time. Inconvenience, disruptions in schedule etc are some of the points against this practice. India too used to practice daylight saving time for a few years but the practice has now been discontinued.

For us Indians in Egypt, for six months we will be closer to the Indian Standard Time-we are now only 2.5 hours behind India! And in my six months in Cairo, I had to wait for the daylight saving time to start to enjoy a cup of tea at sunset on a working day with my husbandJ

Ordering food at home in Cairo-Otlob

For days when you don’t feel like cooking and you can’t even be bothered going out, otlob provides the best alternative-ordering food at home. And it is extremely easy to use-log onto www.otlob.com; register your self and voila! –you have access to the some of the best restaurants in town! All the menus are in English and even the support staff speak very good English. This service is primarily aimed at the English speaking expatriate community and is very convenient as it does away with the hassle of conversing in Arabic.

I have been using this service for some time now; there have been some minor hiccups at times-small differences in the total amount, sometimes a delay in the delivery-they ask for a minimum delivery time of 45 minutes.

However, last night, when I ordered on Otlob, I had a huge surprise-I had ordered from “Arabica”, a restaurant in Zamalek. My total bill on the Otlob site showed LE 51.5. But when the restaurant delivered the food to my house, their bill showed an amount of LE 84.5-a difference of more than LE 30 from the Otlob site. When I called up the restaurant, I was told that they had a new menu and the bill was according to this new menu-the menu on Otlob had the rates according to the old menu. There was nothing to do but pay up!

However, I did register a complaint on the Otlob website and they got back to me within an hour-the guy who called me up from Otlob offered profuse apologies and assured me that the complaint had been forwarded to the right persons within Otlob to ensure that such errors do not occur in the future. Had been quite upset with the mix-up but was happy to see the response of Otlob-they take the complaints seriously!

RESPONSIBLE TOURISM

These days the pace of life is faster-we want to accomplish a lot of things in a shorter span of time. Unfortunately, this applies when we take time off too! Our pleasure trips sometimes leave us feeling more tired than rejuvenated – the sight-seeing is done at a punishing pace; no sight is to be left unseen and no adventure left untried.

Egypt has some of the world’s oldest engineering wonders and some beautiful treasures and sights. Since moving to Cairo a few months back, we have visited a number of “tourist” places and my enjoyment has at times been marred by the attitude and acts of some of the tourists.

A visit to the Crystal Mountain in the White Desert is to enjoy the beauty and vastness of the landscape -picking a crystal as a souvenir or keepsake will only deplete nature and probably not even occupy “shelf-space” in your house after a year. Using a 4x4 to get closer to the rock formations definitely saves time and energy but the tyres over the fragile rocks will soon grind them to rubble and the very formations that are drawing such crowds will disappear! Visiting the desert in the age-old way i.e. walking or on a camel is more enjoyable!

Watching the sun set from the Sinai Mountain or star gazing in the desert with a chilled coke/ beer for company maybe idyllic but leaving behind the empty cans/ bottles contributes to the degradation of the environment and is nuisance value to the later tourists. Camping in the desert is adventurous; lighting campfires and singing, talking around it is entertaining but the burned out camp fires and other garbage left behind is not appealing.

The entrance fees to the Egyptian Museum is high – but it is not a license to go strolling beyond the “no visitors beyond this point” signs. Some people are hard at work here cataloguing and describing all the archeological findings for our better understanding.

The centuries old tombs and mastabas have lovely painted reliefs – we are lucky that they are still in good enough condition for us to admire them – don’t be tempted to touch them! And do we really need to talk so loudly when we are inside the tombs – the paintings and the frescoes are beautiful enough to leave us “speechless” – the moisture from our chatter may harm the reliefs and the frescoes. Giving “baksheesh” to a guard to allow you to use your flash in tombs will give you a good picture to be the focal point of a dinner party at your house, but will harm the paint of the reliefs.

It is only fair that we respect the sentiments of the people of the country that we are visiting, whether it is in the manner of our dressing and covering the head and removing the shoes when entering into a mosque. Scrambling on the rocks and the toppled statues in the temples at Luxor may give you a better vantage point for your photograph but you may be stepping on and erasing important historical evidence.

Most of these things are just a matter of common sense; we can do our bit to preserve what we have been fortunate enough to inherit-WE OWE IT TO THE FUTURE GENERATIONS!

Dowry Practices in Egypt

Had dinner last night at an Egyptian friend’s house- we are vegetarians (well, actually “eggtarians”); the friend had taken pains to prepare a vegetarian meal. The meal was scrumptious –Lebanese style dolmas-capsicums, tomatoes, zucchinis, onions cored and filled with delicately spiced rice and boiled. For the Indian touch, the friend had added some Indian spices to the rice and the outcome was mouth-watering. The vegetable had been boiled to perfection-firm enough to be easily “knifed” and yet the rice stuffed inside had been cooked through.

My friends are a newly married couple and everything in their house is new. My friend’s wife showed me around their tiny apartment – while doing so, she pointed out the stuff that “she” had contributed to the house as part of the marriage contract. For the first couple of times, I felt odd when she said this but then I realized that she was stating this very matter of factly and without any trace of “show-off”. Then my friend started on about the stuff that he had contributed-soon this escalated into a discussion about the prevailing dowry practices in Egypt.

The man is responsible to provide the house, the curtains and the furniture. The woman is responsible for providing all the kitchen appliances and pots and the pans. Crockery, cutlery, bedclothes also form part of her “dowry.” And one cannot forget the children’s room which has to be fully furnished and equipped, even before the marriage!

Of course, all this frank discussion did sound a bit strange to us-but my mom who was with us reminded us that in India too, the dowry system is widely prevalent and a bigger dowry gets you a “better” husband. In some communities in India, where the dowry amounts involved are huge, the parents start accumulating funds for their daughters’ wedding on her birth. In India, it is usually the girl’s family that bears the entire onus of the wedding expenses, in addition to providing the dowry. Sometimes, the dowry may also include a furnished accommodation for the couple.

That evening, I came away with a lot of thoughts on the concept of dowry-should the union of two people be so fraught with “material” considerations. The maid who works at my house is Egyptian and she too has told me on several occasions that she needs to accumulate money for her dowry-to buy all that is part of her contribution to the marital home. But on second thoughts, all this obsessions with the material aspect of a marriage may be “practical” and provide the married couple with some amount of financial security.