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Trafalgar Tour - Best of Egypt

Day 4 - West Bank of the Nile

Egypt

Queen Hatshepsut's Temple

Valley of the Kings

View from the ship, as we sailed down the Nile

The wake up call today was scheduled at 5:00am. Breakfast was from 5:00am until our bus left at 6:00am. The bus first drove us to The Colossi of Memnon, where we briefly stopped for pictures. There were two large statues there. Our guide told us the story of how the statues used to "sing" when wind blew across the cracks, but unfortunately they no longer sing.

We received about 15 minutes to walk around and take some pictures. The bus then took us to Queen Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple, which was located relatively nearby. We took a little tram car to the temple entrance, and then had about an hour to explore the temple and take pictures. We made it back to the bus at our own pace, so some people stopped to buy things from the aggressive sales people on the way back to the bus.

The bus then took us the short drive to the Valley of The Kings. Our tour guide purchased tickets for us, and negotiated a little tram to take us to the entrance to the valley. We then received a short 15 minute talk about the area. We were told the tickets would allow us to go inside three tombs. The tour guide recommended the tombs of Ramses III, Ramses IV, and Ramses IX. The tomb of Tutankhamun cost extra (80 LE per person), but we wouldn't have had time for that, anyway.

The Valley of the Kings was incredibly crowded. There must have been tens of thousands of tourists there. I was absolutely shocked to discover that Egypt had such a booming tourist industry, and that all the tourists were in one place! I really couldn't believe how many tourists there were there. The major drawback of all the people was that there were very long lines to go in any tomb. We waited in line for about 15 minutes at each tomb. That left us very little time to appreciate the tomb, since we only had an hour of free time on our own. Many of the other group members were also disappointed at the lack of time we had at the Valley of the Kings - it was probably the biggest disappointment of the whole tour.

We had heard that the tomb of Tuthmosis III was neat, since it was carved into rock high up on the cliff wall. Indeed, there were a number of metal stairs to climb up, and then the tomb descended into the rock. It was very neat to see. We also saw the tombs of Ramses IX and Ramses IV. Both were nice, but the tomb of Ramses IV was definitely the best.

We left the Valley of Kings at 10:00am, and then went to see Medinet Habu Temple - the mortuary temple of Ramses III. It was impressive, but not as impressive as other temples we've seen so far.

The bus took us back to the boat around noon. We had a great morning - I can't believe all the amazing things we saw. Lunch was at 12:30p, and we had the rest of the day free. While we were eating lunch, the ship started sailing down the Nile to our next destination - Edfu. At 3:30p, we had "tea time" on the boat, so we had some tea and small crepes. We spent the afternoon on the upper deck watching the sites as we sailed down the Nile. Young children on the banks of the Nile would often wave and shout "Hello" as we sailed past. Around 5:30p, we were approaching a lock. As the boat drew near, it had to wait in a line of other cruise ships. There were locals in small little boats trying to sell merchandise to the people on the cruise ship! It was so neat to see! When they found potential buyers, they would wrap things in plastic bags, and throw them up. After negotiating for the price, the purchaser would put the money in the plastic bag, and throw it back down. It was a very neat sight to see!

Dinner was at 7:30pm. It was very similar food to the previous day on the ship. We went to bed soon after eating - it was an early morning, and we were tired. The boat didn't go through the lock until about 1am and continued to sail through the night. The water is quite calm, and we had no problem sleeping while the boat was moving.