Day in Luxor

Yesterday I had an all day tour to different sites in Luxor-namely the West and East banks of the Nile. I went to a few incredible Temples on the West Bank of the Nile, weather that was incredibly hot, and air that was incredibly smokey. The bus picked me up at 7:55 am-and picked up a bunch of others are other hostels in town-there we're about 9 of us on the van-2 Chinese girls, 1 Taiwanese girl, 1 Japanese girl, 2 Spanish girls, and a couple of guys from India and Vietnam-and myself.

I am pretty sure I am all alone here at the hostel. While to have my own room and bathroom for approximately $5.00 per night is nice-it would be nice to be with others-so I was sort of happy to do this group tour. We saw the Colossi of Memnon-two giant statues. Then we went to two other sites-Temple of Ramses II, and Temple of Hatshepshut-both of which are death temples. These we're the shrines for the funerals of these great Pharoahs of Egypt, I learned that on the west bank, all of the temples are Funeral temples, simply because the sun sets in the west, and that is where death is symbolized. We went to a place called Valley of the Kings-where the tombs of 62 kings are located underground, and their are vast pathways to many. We only saw 3-but the detailing was intense. We weren't even allowed to take pictures.

Then, We went to a shop selling little models, They showed how the models we're built, and they had musicians playing-yeah-same as all places-the tour guide is payed to take us to a shop.

Afterwards-we went to lunch at some buffet restaurant-yeah-tour guide gets a free meal there-it wasn't real expensive-about $5.00 for the buffet.

After lunch-some of the group actually went back to the hotel-we picked up some other guys. A Mexican guy in his 50's who lives in Miami and some hippie-looking 30ish dude from Michigan. Of course-I talked with the Mexican guy about home-which might seem nice-but that is why I don't like group tours-I like to meet others from around the world and examine the scenery-not talk about home.

Then we went to two other temples-these we're actual prayer temples-where each of the Pharoahs made their own contributions to the temples. So each temple may have statues from 30 different Pharaohs.

Then I walked back to the hostel-I found a nice place for dinner where I met the Vietnamese guy from the group.