Luxor

Two nights ago my group took the night train from Ciaro to Luxor (its in southern Egypt) to see the Valley of the Kings, Temples, etc. The train was....interesting. I took some pictures which hopefully will one day make it onto this site. We have heard horror stories about this train for the last two years, but it was surprisingly pleasant...or at least in comparison to the nightmare that we had envisioned. We didn't eat the food cause we didn't want to be sick, but its REALLY hard to get people to accept the answer 'no'...they harrass you consistantly. So me and my roommate Lauren told the food guy that we were "fasting"... he got all worried and in shock and was like "WHY!?" so I said we "were fasting for religious reasons". Funny cause we are the two most sacreligious people on this whole trip, but they take fasting pretty seriously so that made him leave us alone. The person in charge of our train was this old man that was missing almost all his teeth...he kinda looked like a character off of Alice and Wonderland. When he found out we were studying arabic is ran off to get his phone and call his daughter whom he put on speaker phone so that we could talk to her. Then he showed us all his pictures of his family...he was very friendly...and was super hyper.
The Valley of the Kings was amazing! All the really cool stuff that I see they won't let us take pictures of....so when I finally get my pictures up I don't think they will be impressive at all. The tombs were extremely well preserved. They are around 6,000 years old and the details are amazing. The color is all there too...well about 75% of it. They used black, blue, yellow, red...these places are extremely colorful. Its hard to get my head wrapped around what I am seeing. The coolest thing i've seen is something that I had never even heard about. Its this boat that they found in the ground outside the largest pyramid. It was for the Pharaoh so that when he was resurrected he could sail to the sun....or something like that. Anyways this boat is about 4000 years old (I think) and when they found it it was so well preserved that they could put it back together. so they have it assembled in this museum 2 feet away from the pyramid. This boat is so detailed and beautiful, its wierd but that was more impressive to me than the pyramid. ...maybe cause i've seen the pyramids so many times already in pictures and movies.
I really like Luxor, it is so beautiful and we are staying right on the Nile. And the Nile is actually pretty here. In Ciaro it is gray and full of trash. Luxor doesn't have the pollution and overwhelming amount of people that Ciaro does. Its this oasis in the middle of this ugly ugly desert. There are a ton of Europeans here...all in saggy bikinis and speedos. They are very comfortable with their bodies. I swear if I see another 300 pound bald man with orange wrinkley skin in a speedo I will dig out my eyes with a spoon myself.
I have to go soon so here are some quick bullets of other things
- I get told that I look like i'm Egyptian a lot...I wish I could say though that they think that I speak like an Egyptian haha
- I rode a bedoin camel by the pyramids...that was the most fun thing that i've done so far...love the camels.
- Learned how to play Texas Hold'em and I definitly suck at this game.
- People do not use trash cans here...the world is their trash can.
- I ate at a Pizza Hut here in Luxor and it was a sit down restraunt with a waiter and everything...pretty nice place except that the airconditioner dripped onto my pizza so i'm pretty sure i'm gonna die. Muslims can't eat pig and so the pepporoni was made from beef...it tasted pretty much the same though.
- I think i'm slowly over coming my germophobia...or at least thats what I keep telling myself.