Luxor 26th-28th October 2010

Managed to sleep okay on the night bus after admiring some awesome desert views through the window at dusk. Had 2 seats to myself for about 85% of the journey. On an 18 hour ride this amount of space was unheard of! I awoke in the morning to see a very different landscape outside the window. We were approaching Luxor through the Nile Valley and the land seemed green and lush with farming villages and agricultural plantations along the way. Reminded me a lot of many parts of India I had visited.

The bus predictably stopped at a taxi rank short of the town station and I ended up sharing a cab into town with a Japanese girl while a tourist tout tried to recommend hotels to us…..

The tourists hustlers in Luxor were a lot more demanding than those in Dahab. As soon as we got to the central station they descended on us like a plague of locusts….

Luckily the hostel I was looking for was represented so managed to avoid most of the melee by agreeing quickly to see a room there . The “Bob Marley “ hostel had been reviewed well on the internet….upon arrival it didn’t quite live up to its reputation…no wi-fi, dirty, no bar etc…..I began to realise that nothing would live up to expectations in Egypt….had to hard bargain to get a cheap room price…worked out at 3 pounds (uk) a night for a private room…..not bad!

Met a nice Canadian couple from Quebec in the lobby and we all booked a tour of the west bank tombs( valley of kings/queens ) the following day.

I then set out on my own to check the town out….yep Luxor had that proper third world feeling I had been expecting but didn’t find during the previous summer in Turkey . Hot, dusty, traffic chaos, petrol fumes, various forms of rot along the main streets….made my way to the train station to be told that I couldn’t buy an advance ticket to Cairo for the following evening until the next day as the system had to update over night……..another thing I hadn’t seen on the European leg was the travel chaos caused when there are no legible signposts and everyone seems to send you in opposite directions to find things…..

Next I made my way down to the banks of the Nile with the intention of walking the 2km or so to the Karnack temple ( one of the best Egyptian sites on offer). According to my guide book ( a piece of crap by the way inaccurate and crappy maps ) the tourist hustling along the banks of the river was meant to be among the worst in Egypt. Within seconds guys with offers of “ hello friend where are you coming from?”, “Ah number 1 country !” “U take boat trip good price for one hour”, “today is special day..last day of Egyptian market “….“my brother has shop”, …then more discretely “ u want to smoke some good stuff” etc etc etc…... Luckily my time in Morocco/India previously had prepared me for this and after engaging the first couple of offers with polite but disinterested conversation, I just began to ignore the offers altogether and eventually they left me alone…..

By the time I eventually got to the Karnack temple I was pretty exhausted..it was hot as hell! However once inside I felt rejuvenated….the columns of the temple were better than the Acropolis in Athens and the whole site had a magical feel about it as the sun grew lower and redder in the sky……spent about 2 hours exploring the complex and reusing requests for “baksheesh” (tips) from the local workers for crappy mini tours of certain areas of the ruins . Even the armed guards were in on the action…two let me onto a closed off bit of the external wall to take “ panoramic photo” and then asked for money when I came down a sincere sounding “ sorry I have no small notes but thanks for your help “ seemed to suffice.

After leaving Karnack my feet were aching so I managed to barter a cheap ride back to the town centre with a guy in a horse drawn cart who suggested I help him to entice other tourists for a ride

“ come my friend we can make good business together”…I reply ” im on holiday dude the last thing I want to do is make business”…disgruntled he dropped me 300m from my destination with some bullshit excuse about traffic restrictions…hilarious ! and worth the equivalent 30 pence I paid him just for the story alone.

Back at the Bob Marley hostel there was nothing afoot so headed out to see if I could find a beer anywhere…the pub listed in the guidebook turned out not to exist and my long hair ( by Egyptian standards), seemed to be gathering some unwelcome attention from some of the rougher locals….. so in the end headed back to my room for an early night …slept like a log!

Next morning me and the Quebec guys joined the tour of the west bank we had arranged….we were crammed into a mini bus with a few Russians, Koreans and Japanese and introduced to our guide Hammed who apparently spoke the best English in Luxor……( he didn’t )…could hardly understand him as he reeled off from memory the standard tour guide script that I usually would avoid….(In this case the price of the cab and the tour guide were low enough to make it worth it …but his disinterest in answering questions throughout the day was obvious.)

The sites themselves were well impressive first the Valley of the Kings and tombs painted with original frescoes from around 900BC, then a temple complex , then the standard trip to the “craftsman’s village” where we were touted ( all be it very good quality ) alabaster statues …including some that glowed naturally in the dark…..( actually the glowing ones were really cool had I had some more money may have bought them up …assuming the glow in the dark bit wasn’t done with a trick light ) .We finished by visiting a couple of colossal statues before returning to the hostel 2hours before we were meant to….needless to say the envelope passed round for tips for “Hammed the best englished (sic) speaker in Luxor “remained empty.

Later that afternoon I got my train ticket for Cairo, did some blogging, ate and watched the sun set over the river at the Luxor temple while the locals attended mosque alongside row upon row of parked tour busses…..despite all the hassle I love this kind of situation and once the touts realise that you know they are bullshitting you, you can actually have some good conversations with them…..

Was targeted with a few more choice comments on my hairstyle while walking back to hostel…..

man pulls up on motorbike and shouts at me ..”hey longhair, ….you look a gay “ …

I reply loudly :“ no you do “….

He replies louder ” No You”….

Me angrily …“NO YOU!”….

His response to this “Hahahahhahnah” ……

my verbal assailant then speeds off on motor bike and I notice he is wearing a tight pink T-shirt with two other dudes all snuggled up on the seat behind him looking pretty damn gay by western standards....kettle …pot!!

(actually its not uncommon to see male “friends” in Islamic countries walking down the street holding hands or with arms around each other….This is just a regular male blooded show of friendship according to the local culture …however having your hair longer than your ears is obviously taboo….ah well rock and roll man! sticks and stones init…..)

Back at the hotel decided to get a couple of hours rest before catching the 11pm train to Cairo…after a while was woken by a knock on the door and the hostel staff stuck another person in my private room ( had 2 beds in it ), he himself just being kicked out of a private double as a couple ,and the opportunity of more money, had arrived looking for shelter…..got the impression that this type of thing would be common throughout Egypt ….the Frenchman now sharing the room ( for 3 hours at least ) was cool enough and on a similar 6 month trip to my own….I eventually left the hostel at 10pm after getting 10 Egyptian pounds knocked off my bill for having to share with another person for 3 hours
( was I starting to get the hang of bartering again????)

Typical train station chaos as I was given multiple train and carriage options by the well meaning locals…eventually found my seat in a first class cabin ..was sharing with an Egyptian, 2 Japanese and a French lady….no one was really talking so put the I-pod on, read for a while and then struggled to fall a sleep as the AC was so high…like seriously cold ,student flat in winter, chill….ended up wearing jumper, jacket and zipped up sleeping bag before I could finally drift off . I wasn’t expecting to use them for a while so had to successively struggle them out of the bottom of my pack in the dark and cramped cabin during the night …had broken sleep and crazy dreams as the train made its way slowly north to Cairo….

The return of MDSU +Dahab Oct 21st -26th 2010

The return of MDSU……….

Well its been a while…… two and a half months back in the UK saw MD working as a part time festival organiser, performer and painter/decorator…all and all pleasant enough, but largelt without incident. Come Oct 21st and the coldest day of Autumn so far, it was time to set sail again for sunnier skies…first stop the Sinai peninsular in Egypt. After enduring itchy feet since my return from Scandinavia I was hoping this next leg was going to be more intense than Europe…..


Dahab Oct 21st -26th 2010














The morning flight from Luton to Sharm-el-Sheik airport entailed a stay in a travel lodge near Luton airport the night before, and a 30 min walk from the train station through the cold and dark estates of the town to get there . I had been staying in London for a few days before hand and the changing of the seasons was apparent in the faces of the local population ….stress levels seemed higher on the tubes, people were layered up and suffering from the first waves of winter illness … dark by 6pm …a bleak scene…..I was ready to get out, and the night walk through Luton somehow felt like the last lap round the track at the end of an Olympic marathon……..

The next day a quick frost covered drive to the airport lead to a typically long queue at the easy jet check in …. after a 20 min wait in a huge line the staff tried to up sell “speadycheck in ” for a price of £19 pounds to the disgruntled “ regular check in “ customers .. This caused a round a blasphemous laughter as the speedy check in line was clearly in view and was just as backed up and understaffed as our own ….Rip off Britain in all its finery……..

5 hours later I was descending into Egypt along with members of my family, who I would be joining on a dive holiday in Dahab for the first 5 days of the trip before heading off to start solo adventures….a good way to say goodbye as I would be on the road for the following 6 months after leaving them.

The first sight of Sinai was inspiring. I had been reading TE Lawrence during the flight and the dark shapes of the Desert hills at dusk seemed ultra real as we flew closer in.

After coming through customs and buying a visa that none of the staff at the airport seemed to care or know if I should have, we met our with some other people from the dive group and formed a party of Seven. The next step was an hour cab ride from Sharm el; Sheik to the “Red Sea Relax Resort” in dahab…..

Two minutes of highway code madness made me remember how people drive in the developing world….I was sure by the end of the ride that if our driver was to take the UK theory test on Hazard perception he would have ended up with a negative score despite this being theoretically impossible…..ah back in the danger zone again!

The next few days consisted of mainly relaxing by the beach, doing some light snorkelling ( I wasn’t participating in the diving ) and regaining some of the colour in my skin that had faded since the end of summer……felt a bit strange having a relaxation week at the start of a big trip but you have to get the chill time in when you can. One late night drinking session in towns only Karaoke bar with an ex US special forces man, a Land rover enthusiast from Norfolk and a Gas worker from Newport was about a crazy as it got that week ….
Overall a good introduction to Egypt. Dahab was a very relaxed town and the accommodation I was staying in was likely to be the nicest on offer until I hit Australia the following summer… Also gave me a chance to brush up on some bartering skills that had not been called into use in almost a decade. The first few attempts on my part reminded me that one of the best tools in the 3rd world travel case is anger. Safe in the knowledge that my patience would be well an truly be tested by some of the worst tourist hustlers in the world in the following week, I allowed myself to relax as much as possible for the time being …even at inflated tourist rates Egypt was dirt cheap compared to Europe. Ironically though being a Moslem country the temptation to drink was not as prominent. There were less night spots meaning that I was likely I would be drinking less anyway …..I guess it all evens out in the end.

On my second last day I took a trip with my mom ( another non diver )to St Catherine’s protectorate , a Christian monastery at the foot of mount Sinai that pre dated Islam. The drive across the desert was spectacular, the ground changing from a rocky volcanic mars type landscape to a sandy lunar one straight out of Lawrence of Arabia. The monestary itself was typically crowded with tourists, this time Russian orthodox pilgrims rather than Japanese pensioners ….( .” hey anyone here like electric eel…errrh …Leningrad cowboys?”.

The chapel museum was the highlight. It contained various texts and paintings that dated back to the 6th century. The most impressive being a supposed original copy of the decree of protection Mohamed was said to have given the monastery during his rise to power in the area….the bottom section was said to display his hand print……okay maybe not entirely plausible but certainly more believable than the “original burning bush “ ( located outside) that Moses was said to have found on his way to discovering the 10 commandments ….hmmm didn’t seem even slightly singed to me ……

Spent the final morning in Dahab doing some last minute snorkelling on the local reef and saying goodbye to family ….next thing I knew I was on a bus leaving on an 18 hour night trip to Luxor and the valley of the kings …..Monkey Dolphin’s voyage was about to begin again in earnest…..