Luxor
Today we had to start our day rather early. We were to be in the lobby at 4:15am ready to go. We had all the best intentions of going to bed early and getting a solid night’s sleep in the shadow of the Great Pyramids and it started out just that way. Despite a very comfortable bed in the Marriott Mena room, I woke up at 12:30am with some very stiff legs and joints. There is no secret as to why. I have been averaging over 10,000 steps per day since hitting the cobblestones in Rome a week ago and that is simply more than this old body is used to. The 11,000 from yesterday was not the high of the week, but it was in a warmer climate and on rougher terrain. Let’s be clear about this, Mike and Melisa in particular and Kim also for the most part are getting in quite a bit more mileage than me, but they are all more use to it than me. Using Mike as my example (since I know his weight), that gives me something like a 2X caloric usage and therefore, its fair to assume, 2X the bodily strain, so it has been like walking 20-25,000 steps per day on a relative basis. I n other words, no wonder I woke up sore and needed some Extra-Strength Tylenol. As I paddled off to the bathroom in the dark of the room, Kim sat up and said rather abruptly, “What time is it?” When I told her she asked why I was dressed so early and ready to go. I had to explain to her that I wasn’t and that she should go back to bed for several more hours. But that sort of interaction belied the reality that we were already awake and not likely to return to sleep, so after an hour of trying, we just threw in the towel and turned the TV on.
We went down to the lobby at about 4am figuring that earlier would be better. It was surprising to see all the people in the lobby doing pretty much what we were doing. It seems that Monday morning is fly down the Nile day and it looked like half the house was checking out. Our Cairo tour greeter and driver were there as expected and they loaded us up for the airport run, but not before we had to tip the guy who brings the breakfast boxes, the guys who load the bags, and, or course the tip for the chambermaids. When we got to the airport we has our driver and greeter to grease, but also the tour airport facilitator, baggage handlers and, yes, even the guy who put the tags on the airline bags. Baksheesh, the giving of gratuities, is a well respected and expected practice in the Middle East. It goes hand in hand with the tradition of patronage, wherein the petitioners ask their sheikh for money with a visit to their maglis or “court” and the good graces of the sheikh are on display for all to see his generosity…or not. Tipping is much more of an institution in this region than it even is in the U.S., where Europeans always complain about our tipping practices. Nowhere is this greater than at the airport where they have mastered the art of specialization and compartmentalization of labor, pretty much for the sole purpose of giving more people an opportunity to put their hand out to travelers that feel like it is a small price to pay to keep them in the vacation spirit. It sure works on me that way, I have been peeling off 200 EGP notes, worth $6.60, like they were Halloween candy.
That grease all slid us right into EgyptAir Business Class Lounge near our gate. They could seat about 20 in there and had an array of pastries and coffee/beverages, as expected. What wasn’t expected was how horrible the pastries and coffee were. It take a pretty uninteresting pastry to turn me or Kim off, but they managed to do that. We got up a bit early to wander to the flight. While Mike is a big Airline Lounge guy (as only a lifetime member of the Admirals Club might be), we tend to skip that program and just sit at the gate for premium boarding placement. The bad refreshments were enough to convince Mike that staying in the lounge was a losing proposition, so off we went. And thank goodness. Here in Egypt, as in most Muslim-dominated countries (Egypt is 90% Muslim, mostly Sunni), the security process is broken down between men and women. And just like at institutional restrooms, the lines for women are vastly longer than for men. With restrooms that may be a biological difference, but otherwise, it seems to be a combination of the number of women who travel to a place like the southern Nile (far more than men apparently) and the speed with which attendants of both sexes are prepared to pat down travelers. The end result was that Mike and I waited at the gate for them and they finally joined us with high frustration over it all.
Cairo is a busy airport and the domestic flights like ours to Luxor are not positioned to use the skyways for boarding. It’s not unusual in large and growing foreign airports to have to board a bus to the plan, but once we boarded our bus, we were taken on a fifteen minute ride all over the airport tarmac with no evidence that it would end. Finally, we drove past an array of mothballed EgyptAir planes that had their landing gear and windscreens/windows covered by duct-taped canvas and plastic wrap. All of these planes looked very shop-warn and clearly they were being held for resale or some such purpose. That begs the question of who buys old highly used planes from a developing country national airline, and is there any chance that they really have value? They sure looked like junk to us. Finally, we got to our plane and boarded. We had paid for business class seats and were concerned that our seat numbers (row 21 and 22) were not likely business class. WHen we boarded we realized that their seat numbering system started with 20 for some unknown reason. Maybe they had used numbered seats pulled out of one of those mothballed planes?
The flight to Luxor was uneventful and we were once again met at the Luxor airport by a tour company expediter who took our passports and luggage tickets and went to work. We had a repeat of the multi-layered baksheesh airport program, but we were soon off for the Temple of Karnak. This massive temple complex, complimented by the nearby (3km) Luxor Temple are, in a word, amazing. I didn’t think I could be overwhelmed by antiquities any more in this life and I would be wrong. Our guide for our entire southern Egypt visit is Mahmoud, who is an Egyptologist of great and well-spoken ability. He is also a very devout and impressively aware and kind Muslim father of three, who married his wife because it was God’s will. And to hear Mahmoud say it, his faith in God’s ability to guide his life well is most impressive.
We finally got to our riverboat, the Sonesta St. George, where we have been able to relax in ornate Middle Eastern comfort. Other than funky WiFi and surging shipboard power, all is well. Tomorrow we go into the Valley of Kings and Queens. With any luck, my aching joints and wobbly Apple equipment will make it through our next leg of our Nile journey.