Big Orange Backpack

So we arrived in Luxor in the morning, and the train station was crazy. We were lucky enough to run into the guys that run our hostel outside and they drove us to the hotel. We got two rooms with three beds each, they had no four bed rooms, since Keturah and Mike were still travelling with us. Both of our rooms, luckily, had A/C, although mine and Jakes worked far better. After checking in and taking a short nap we rented bikes and rode to the Karnak and Luxor Temples. The Karnak Temple was like nothing I've ever seen, it was enormous, and I can't imagine what it looked like when it had a roof and was complete. When I get back to Cairo I'll upload the photos. I've gotten so in shape since being here, I've been walking and exercising everyday, and the 2 mile bike ride there and back in the heat was nothing, compared to a similar bike ride the day after I got to Israel, which kicked my ass. Although that was a bit hilly, and the bike here was better. But it was hotter here. I'm getting used to the heat, but it's still unbelivable. It's 104, but with the humidity of the Nile and the UV index (10+) at EXTREME, it's unreal. On the way there we had to stop halfway because Mike's bike chain was broken, so we went back and got a new bike before setting out again. And then this crazy/deaf man crashed into me, it was pretty scary actually, I totally bent his front wheel with mine, but, literally, 15 people came over to help, and they all told me that he was crazy and that the accident was 100% his fault. Everyone in town knows our names, where we're staying, and when we got here. There are hardly any tourists down here, but more on why that is later. After coming back to the hostel we went to a nice restaurant with great food and fresh squeezed OJ, which I've grown very used to both here and in Israel. We came back and went to sleep at 9, because we were waking up early today, and because we had hardly slept on the train. On the train ride down we met a woman that converted to Islam, married a Sudanese man, and moved to Cairo, and she was whiter than me and from Idaho. It was really random, she helped us get off the train. Anyway, this morning we woke up at 5 and had a great breakfast at the hostel and went out to the Valleys of the Kings and Queens (two different places) as well as Hasheput temple. I can't spell it, but believe me, I was there. The tombs in the Valley of the Kings were really cool, a lot of colour remained on the walls, and even though it's officially forbidden to take photos, the guards that were supposed to be enforcing that kept asking us for a bribe to take our photos in front of the painted walls, which the flashing would eventually destroy. We passed, as the good world citizens we are. The Hasheput temple was beautiful, and it was carved into the mountain face of a cliff. On the way back I was reading our guide book about the Temple, because I forgot to before we got there, and I read that in 1997 there was an al-Queda funded attack on tourists there, and 58 people were killed. Since then tourism down here has plumited. And that might also explain the kind treatment we've recieved from everyone here, and why everyone knows we're here, because they get so few Americans. Sidenote: Everyone here tries to guess our nationality and it always goes: Australian? No. English? No. Canada? No. American? Yes. Welcome to Alaska. They always say that. It's so strange. Anyway, tonight we're taking a faluka ride on the Nile, and hopefully going back to that place we ate at last night. This afternoon Mike left to go back to Cairo before jumping a plane to Greece tonight. So now it's just Jake, Ketura, and myself. It'll feel weird travelling without him, and it'll be hard not having him to help us carry our bags.

Hehe, Israel and Egypt feels like it's on time-warp. All the songs are from around 1995. I will go on from the Titanic soundtrack, with Celine Dion just came on in the internet cafe.

I'll post photos when I get wireless in the hostel in Cairo.

We're not planning on doing much tomorrow but buying some souvenirs and hanging out. It's funny how being here a few days has changed my perceptions of some things. I'm excited at a bathroom that isn't a hole in the ground, and if it has toilet paper I'm positively giddy. And paying more than 80 cents for a 1.5 leter water will feel weird. I've never sweated or drank so much water in my life. I like Luxor, it's more small town, and I am not looking forward to going back to the craziness of Cairo.. but I can't wait to see Coptic Cairo and Ben Ezra Synagogue. Nor can I wait to get back to the Motherland. A week is far too long to be away..