I anticipated waking up early on day three and rounding up whoever else was awake to go explore Luxor and find ourselves a place to eat for the night. Let's just say we had enough fun the night before that I didn't find a lot of takers. I started the morning with a trip down to the poolside bar, where the bartender there makes a delicious cappuchino, when I returned I read for a while until W was awake and felt bad that I didn't have anyone to walk with, so she got up and decided she'd tough out a walk with me to see what we could find. We grabbed a sandwich and a delicious lemonade coctail, and then went on our way. Our really talkative driver from the night before told us how much Luxor had been cleaned up for tourists, but we had a hard time finding any proof of that. There are hundreds of horse carriages that cruise up and down the main street, so every inch of it smells like horse. By 11 a.m. it was already very warm, and you get the impression that tourists there absolutely never ever ever walk anywhere, becaus
e every 10 feet you are asked if you want a "taxi...tax" or a "Carriage...Carriage" always asked twice, and in an accent I managed to master in my 3 days in Luxor. You are also spoken to in as many languages as it takes to elicit at least a head turn. We found some cheap internet, and at least let everyone who cared know we were alive, and made a quick facebook status update, and then went back out in search of a place to eat. Along the way everyone really wants you to take a look in their store despite the fact that they have the same thing as the other 100 you've already walked by. Even more funny are the signs that say "No Hassle Best Price"; Yes I just got here, but no, I was not born yesterday. We made it to the
Sonesta St George hotel, where we checked out the menus of the restaurants and asked the front desk how to get to the boat for our cruise. They were nice enough to write down a landmark in arabic for us, so we knew we'd get there somehow the next day. We walked a bit farther, but had enough and took the walk back, fighting off shopkeepers, carriages and taxis all along the way. We still did not know what we'd eat for dinner. We did however chance upon a sign for a shuttle to the
Luxor museum, and decided we'd take that and go check out the place. The first shuttle of the evening shift would leave at 5:30 pm, so that gave us a full afternoon of relaxing at the pool to tend to. The poolside service was very nice, and we even shared a little Mezze platter to help tide us over. We caught that first bus of the evening and really enjoyed the musuem. Unfortunately they do not allow pictures, something I'll at least try to say a little differently each time I write it here. After the museum we wandered a bit more, and even bumped into our nile cruise boat. That gave us the opportunity to step aboard and asked what time we should arrive the next day, and then continue our search for food. We managed to walk back to the museum just in time to catch the hotel shuttle, and when we heard it was going to make a stop back by the St George, we thought we'd go there for dinner. The Oriental restaurant,
Alladin, there was outside on the nile was lit by candle light, and served delicious egyptian specialties. Everyone at the table orderded the mixed grill except me, I bucked the trend and ordered the very sophisticated stuffed pigeon, it was worth the effort to eat it. We then walked back to our hotel, where we already knew the manager was anxiously awaiting a return to the bar from our group, but we decided to let him down. We still had plenty of duty free, and there was a kiosk right at the front gate at which you could buy all the tonic and fruit juice you need in life.
I anticipated waking up early on day three and rounding up whoever else was awake to go explore Luxor and find ourselves a place to eat for the night. Let's just say we had enough fun the night before that I didn't find a lot of takers. I started the morning with a trip down to the poolside bar, where the bartender there makes a delicious cappuchino, when I returned I read for a while until W was awake and felt bad that I didn't have anyone to walk with, so she got up and decided she'd tough out a walk with me to see what we could find. We grabbed a sandwich and a delicious lemonade coctail, and then went on our way. Our really talkative driver from the night before told us how much Luxor had been cleaned up for tourists, but we had a hard time finding any proof of that. There are hundreds of horse carriages that cruise up and down the main street, so every inch of it smells like horse. By 11 a.m. it was already very warm, and you get the impression that tourists there absolutely never ever ever walk anywhere, becaus
e every 10 feet you are asked if you want a "taxi...tax" or a "Carriage...Carriage" always asked twice, and in an accent I managed to master in my 3 days in Luxor. You are also spoken to in as many languages as it takes to elicit at least a head turn. We found some cheap internet, and at least let everyone who cared know we were alive, and made a quick facebook status update, and then went back out in search of a place to eat. Along the way everyone really wants you to take a look in their store despite the fact that they have the same thing as the other 100 you've already walked by. Even more funny are the signs that say "No Hassle Best Price"; Yes I just got here, but no, I was not born yesterday. We made it to the Sonesta St George hotel, where we checked out the menus of the restaurants and asked the front desk how to get to the boat for our cruise. They were nice enough to write down a landmark in arabic for us, so we knew we'd get there somehow the next day. We walked a bit farther, but had enough and took the walk back, fighting off shopkeepers, carriages and taxis all along the way. We still did not know what we'd eat for dinner. We did however chance upon a sign for a shuttle to the Luxor museum, and decided we'd take that and go check out the place. The first shuttle of the evening shift would leave at 5:30 pm, so that gave us a full afternoon of relaxing at the pool to tend to. The poolside service was very nice, and we even shared a little Mezze platter to help tide us over. We caught that first bus of the evening and really enjoyed the musuem. Unfortunately they do not allow pictures, something I'll at least try to say a little differently each time I write it here. After the museum we wandered a bit more, and even bumped into our nile cruise boat. That gave us the opportunity to step aboard and asked what time we should arrive the next day, and then continue our search for food. We managed to walk back to the museum just in time to catch the hotel shuttle, and when we heard it was going to make a stop back by the St George, we thought we'd go there for dinner. The Oriental restaurant, Alladin, there was outside on the nile was lit by candle light, and served delicious egyptian specialties. Everyone at the table orderded the mixed grill except me, I bucked the trend and ordered the very sophisticated stuffed pigeon, it was worth the effort to eat it. We then walked back to our hotel, where we already knew the manager was anxiously awaiting a return to the bar from our group, but we decided to let him down. We still had plenty of duty free, and there was a kiosk right at the front gate at which you could buy all the tonic and fruit juice you need in life. 
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment