As usual, we don’t have any time to spare. We had hired a private driver that was going to pick us up at the airport. While waiting for our luggage, we could tell that a few companies (Memphis Tours, Keningston Tours, etc.) pay to pick people up even before exiting the airport. I tried to look for our name through the signs, but no luck. This time T-Mobile service did allow me to connect so I texted the driver: he was waiting outside. Great News!
As usual, the tour guides and the drivers are expecting for tourists to go and check in at the hotel. We had no time for that. However, in Egypt is not what you want but what others decide. The driver told us that the guide we hired for the day was not available at the moment but that he was coming fairly soon. He obviously was trying to buy him sometime. Apparently, it didn’t. After we checked in and freshen up at the hotel, the driver decided to take us to the Luxor Museum (which was an optional in my list of things to do).
The guide ended up showing up at noon. The hottest time of the day. We were taken to the Karnak Temple. Hard place to go when the sun is full bloom. Not that many people -as probably they have heard how unbearable it can be. We didn’t have options. We took it.
However, this guide didn’t make it easy. He was completely unpleasant and not knowledgeable. He said a few things based on what he was looking at and then wanted to rest in the shade. Tried to do pictures but didn’t even focus on us! After we went around he decided to give us free time. We went back into the temple, revisited all the site (which is magnificent and quite huge) and took a LOT of pictures. Not sure how long after, the guide starts demanding that we head back to the car. We didn’t rush. We were not coming back.
Next, the Luxor temple. Smaller than Karnak Temple. Surprise when I came to realize that my student ID didn’t allow me to get the reduced fee because I am older than 30. So apparently, in Egypt you are not supposed to study after 30! The reality is, it is just an excuse to charge you more. Sometimes for being a foreigner, for being older. For anything! For taking photos, for the bathroom. No maps are provided and is hard to find any informational plaques around.
We had no time for lunch. Everything was closing at 4 pm. We went straight to Queen Temple of Hatshepsut. Impressive structure-still a lot of colors around the columns and the walls-. Did you know that there were supposed to be two of those? Wow! The ruins of the other lay just next to this Temple.
Our last stop: Medinet Habu. It was almost closing when we arrived. The guide talked to the guard on the way in and we needed to be fast. Magnificent, took lots of clean pictures, but we were running around!
The sunset came and we returned back to the Aracan Eatabe Hotel. My thoughts? It is an old but comfortable hotel with two buildings. Unfortunately, they gave us the a room in the older side that was a 5 minute walk to the reception and for breakfast- only part of the hotel with a poor Wi-fi connection. Also, for some reason, breakfast started at 6 am and the chef got mad if you asked him to cook you some eggs. A lot of language barriers. Not very nice people. Just the customer relations representative tried to be friendly. We didn’t gave any tip on the way in (didn’t had any cash) so no one helped us with our bags on our way out. They didn’t even borrowed us a pen when we asked for it!
By then, we just thought we were out of luck!
Wookitu 