Deluxe Luxor, Day the second

Hatshepsut's Temple

On my second and final day in Luxor, I opted to take a tour through my hotel to see the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hatshepsut's Temple, and other things.  It was a wise choice, barring the fact that our guide, though lovely, kept trying to sell us things, like necklaces of our names in Ancient Egyptian script.  That whole area is HUGE!  You can spend all day there and not see it all; we just did the alleged highlights.  By us, I mean myself and the only other person on the tour, a truly lovely Nicaraguan woman from, get this, my mom's hometown: Coral Gables, FL!  Photography is not allowed at all in the Valley of the Kings, which is for the best.  All the tombs there still have the original, beautiful, full color paintings decorating the walls.  I assure you, they are gorgeous to behold.  Our guide didn't go into the tombs with us; I kind of wish I had done a little preparing on my own to refresh myself on Ancient Egyptian mythology and art.  I later discovered that there is a whole section in the Lonely Planet Guide...oops.  I encourage you to check out the super cool Theban Mapping Project website if you are curious about the Valley of the Kings.  Of course, we could not spend all day at the Valley of the Kings, so off we went to Hatshepsut's Temple, where photography is allowed!

The Giza Gauntlet

Egypt threw down the gauntlet at the Giza Pyramids.  I wish I could say it was a really great experience, that the pyramids dazzled me, that I was inspired, etc.  But honestly, the hassling was so extreme at this tourist trap that I spent the first 45 minutes completely overwhelmed, frazzled, frustrated, and even near tears.  I knew it was going to be a bit intense, but what I realized retrospectively is though there were still busloads of tourists, I was more or less the only solo tourist visiting at the time.  Which meant open season on me.  I should have anticipated this; I already was aware that there were less tourists than usual (something that made me sad for Egypt's economy, but happy for my ability to actually see things and not be crowded at tourist places!), and that it was a pretty intense experience at the pyramids.  But holy. guacamole.  From the minute we approached the entrance in my cab, the cabbie let some guy hop into the front seat.  I was completely alarmed, and was all "What the what.  What are you doing?" We stopped at the "entrance" twenty yards away.  It was pretty clear it was not the entrance; thanks to my guidebook I was aware that this was a bit of a scam that is often run to get tourists to fork over extra money, rent a camel they don't want, etc.