A Taste of India in Luxor

We met Dani and Katja and Dr. Onstine at this Indian Restaurant I believe called "A Taste of India" and the food was very very good. Luxor was decked out for Christmas so I had to get this picture from a tiny park-like area beside the road. Like Alice in Wonderland on acid in a happy kind of way. I love it, love it, love it!!!!

Random Outing in Luxor

AJ and I went into town to shop. Here are a few choice photos from the excursion into Luxor.

Medinet Habu Part II

Some scenes from Medinet Habu. Sorry I don't have good commentary from this temple. I'm just trying to get these pictures posted as quickly as I can.

Medinet Habu Temple Part I

We went one afternoon to Medinet Habu Temple. Well, Dani and Katja came to our house fro lunch and then we all went to the temple. It was a good excursion. The temple is pretty and the surrounding area is interesting because of the contrast between desert and ultra-green farmland. We walked the perimeter before we went into the temple and these pictures are from that recon mission. The town I am in front of is no longer a living town, that was one of the villages that got moved. The government built new houses but didn't actually pay people to compensate for losing their family homes (or their traditional livelihood from tunneling under their houses to pilfer tombs). Kind of sad. But life is change.

Valley of the Kings

So AJ and I left work one day and bicycled to the Valley of the Kings. As you can see from the balloon picture, our digs at the Casa Italia overlooked the desert beside the VK so we were already right there in the hood. The freaky thing is that the road into the VK is uphill the entire way, but it looks like it is downhill. See the picture of me riding on the bike? It looks like I am facing downhill, right? But NO!!!! I am pedaling UPHILL. The whole place is an optical illusion. Like the laws of physics stop working there at the place where the kings were buried. And the mountains look alive.
Anyway, after leaving and riding downhill all the way, we wanted junk food. So we pedaled to a circle K (or the local equivalent) and bought chocolate and diet coke and made friends with the cashier who said his name was David Beckham :)
I took one illegal picture in one of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, when the guard wasn't looking, so I posted it here. It is not all that great, but for an illicit photo taken on the sly from hip level while walking it's ok.

Bicycles

Mariam had a really great idea for me and AJ to rent bicycles while we were there in Luxor so we would be mobile. It was great idea, but the bikes themselves were pretty crappy. We got Kenawy to procure them and we think he might have just grabbed them from his cousins or something. The tires were low and they only had one gear and they were wobbly and rusty and the kick-stand on mine (as you can see) was purely decorative. We did ride them to the Valley of the Kings once and once we rode them across to Luxor to the Chicago House library. Here you can see AJ on the ferry with them and us riding at different places. The Valley of the Kings was a grueling challenge as it was uphill the entire way in. I was crying by the time we reached the parking lot. But out it was sweet! All downhill :) Next time I want to rent a donkey chariot.

Tombs of the Nobles

After work one day Mariam got us to stop by the tombs of the nobles which is somewhere on the West Bank near where we work. We went inside a few of the tombs and they are pretty magnificent in a claustrophobia-inducing kind of way. One of them, the tomb of Senn-Nefer (you can google it for pictures) was particularly frightening and beautiful. You have to walk down a long ladder and then climb through a very low corridor where I had to bend over halfway and sort of scoot and the air is warm and stale and it is scary. I felt my heart starting to race at one point and I thought I couldn't breathe. But the ceiling is painted in a grape vineyard and once inside the main part of the tomb, the ceiling goes up some and there are gorgeous painted columns and walls and it is just terrifically beautiful. Of course you can't take pictures so I was going to work out a system with AJ where I would have a panic attack and have to be "helped" out of the tomb, leaving him to take cool pictures. It wouldn't be much of a stretch. Unfortunately we didn't get around to going back so we never got to put the plan into action. Maybe we'll get to go back next year and follow through.