Luxor By Day and Night

In a place famous for it's ancient tombs and embalming facilities, you need to keep a sense of humor. Luxor (aka al-uqsur) is one of the ancient capital cities of Egypt, south of Cairo along the Nile river. Ancient Pharaohs like Tut and Ramses made their tombs on the West side of the Nile, where the sun sets; the side of Death. On the dry and rocky West side lies the "Valley of the Kings", where Pharaohs had their tombs tunneled deep into the mountain side, up to 250 m deep. Every bit of surface in the tunnels and tombs is symbolically carved and painted so that their ka or soul would recognize their bodies and take them into the afterlife. SPOOKY STUFF!

None of these tombs were ever intended to be visited again by people, but since Howard Carter unearthed Tut's tomb in 1922, the Valley of the Kings has become a major tourist spot. This is the scene today:On the other side of those mountains is a huge structure built into the side of the mountain for the sole purpose of the embalming of ONE Queen. It took 19 years to build it and was used only once for the 70 day long embalming rituals of Queen Hatshepsut (aka Queen Hot Chicken Soup). Pretty serious stuff for a woman who married her brother and had all of her statues made with beards so that she'd look more like a man.

Luxor is a very hot and dry place, which has helped to preserve the carvings and paintings that dress every stone surface. The colours are still bright and the carvings haven't eroded at all. Speaking of antiquities, Egypt is on a completely different scale than Europe. These carvings were made sometime around 1150 BC.


CONTRASTS:
Egypt is the land of contradictions and contrasts. Headscarves vs. Bellydancers - The Nile vs. The Desert - Shiny shoes vs. dirty streets. In honour of these, we'd like to show you some of the contrasts we saw in Luxor.

Day

Night

Day

Night (this one has a few contrasts within itself)
ps, I think I know the secret of how they built the Pyramids!

Serious

Silly

Serious

Silly

Serious

Silly

Serious

Sexy

SeriousSilly

This one speaks for itself

Cars without pyjamas

Cars with pyjamas

And with the end of our trip to Luxor came the end of our time travelling with our good friends Marc & Kylie who are heading to Israel, Turkey and onwards. Check out their blog (sidebar) for their take on Luxor and Egypt, as well as many other things.



Ok, this post is getting long, but we really haven't said enough about how great it has been to visit our cousin Jody who is teaching at an international school in Cairo. Jody, we love you, and not just your great apartment! We ended up staying with Jody a little while longer than expected since we MISSED OUR PLANE TO GREECE! Oops! (Moms and Dads, we know you're thinking "Didn't we teach you anything?!") It's true, we set our alarm for the wrong time, and then slept through the alarm. On the bright side, we get to spend a couple more days with Jody in Cairo. Also, it will be hard to go from the Egyptian Pound back to the Euro.

Jody took us "whomping" in the Wadi, which translates to walking in a dry river valley. Jody bikes and hikes out here often to get away from the craziness of Cairo.



And, to finish this long post, here's a laugh. I decided that my hair was too long for travelling. I bought this high quality device so that I could keep it short in the hot Asian and Indian climates ahead. There's no better time to try a buzz cut than on a trip around the world. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


Maybe the 3mm comb was a bit too short...

- Tyrn

Sandblasted!

Our story starts in a land far, far away. (well, for everyone except Marc, Kylie, Jody and Josh) In a land we will call "Egypt". Our four heroes called the Canadianators were having their powers slowly drained by the noisy city of Cairo. To regenerate their energy to continue with their superhero duties they embarked on an adventure out to "the desert". After a bus ride out of Cairo, the Canadianators could tell right away that they were in for a fast paced ride, as all you could see when you looked down from your bus seat window was SAND. Our heroes didn't know it yet, but the desert had much more than amazing sand for them to contend with.

First stop, Bahariyya Oasis, our story begins here. As part of our strict regeneration program, we were put up in very pleasing huts. While staying here our superheroes also soaked in a power renewing hot spring. The things a hero has to endure!
The next day, we met the director of hero camp, named Peter. A truly unique character, bubbly and wonderfully helpful, our entire trip was put in place by this man and it was AMAZING. He really knows what superheroes like us need.
First, we needed a Bedouin guide, to take us through the desert safely. Even superheroes need a little help sometimes.
Second, we needed transportation, fit with all the necessary trinkets and whistles to help us battle the bad guys.
Our Desert Mobiles would speed through the vast expanse, taking on sand, basalt, limestone, salt, water, asphalt and cold nights.
Finally our superheroes, Doctaur, Giggles, Wonderwoman (no this is not bias), and Subman were ready to go. Bring on the desert, superheroes are always ready.
We were taken to places that would blow the average humans mind!!! But our heroes were able to absorb the wonderful sites because of their super brain powers.
We went to places called:

The Black Desert

The White Desert

You can see our superhero camp with the tents near the desert "snowbank".

The "Oasis" (actually, there are many oasies and springs of all different names)

And many other places, but I can not add anymore or it could blow this computer.

Superheroes have a lot of superpowers, but these need to be sharpened in places like, the desert. This could be considered a working holiday for our Canadianators.

Superhero, Subman, regenerating his ability to leap from tall buildings. The superheroes never knew their would be so many things to climb and jump off in the desert.

Subman and Doctaur, fast as speeding bullets, sharpen their sand mogel skills.
Subman practicing his ability to go without water while in the desert. This is part of the extreme conditions training that all superheroes must endure.

Luckily for our heroes, they were on top of their game when they started to encounter the wild desert BEASTS. They had to use all of their incredibleness to survive.

We battled SCARABS. The Egyptian symbol for luck, which was put in place of the heart in a mummy.
We battled wild beasts called, "cows". They caught us off gaurd in the palm trees, but we were able to adjust.

We even battled the MUMMIES themselves. All through the desert there are tombs and old town sites where you can still see walls, pottery and if you are really unlucky the 3 thousand year old inhabitants themselves!

The tree with real superpowers. Middle of the desert, nothing but sand, rocks, and sun, then there is ONE tree, standing all alone. There are no other trees for miles and they are all palm trees. So, what is it's secret to survival? The tree sends chutes into the ground to find water, it doesn't actually root, if there is no more water in that area, the tree will actually MOVE. It will roll, send out more chutes in other areas and the trunk will just sort of fall in the right direction. You could see 3 other places, meters away from it's current location, where it had grown before. AMAZING!

There are very specific requirements for a superhero camp to be operated in the desert first you need Antar. He is the wisest desert superhero of all. He will teach you the ways of the desert and will take care of you. Here Wonderwoman is learning delicious Bedouin recipes that will refuel any superhero.
Here, Antar has shown our Doctaur, Giggles and Wonderwoman how even the desert can look and feel like home with the right touches. This includes a 4x4 Land crusier or desert mobile, a tent like structure that connects to it, mattresses, sleeping bags, water, a table and tasty meals to go on top of it. (prepared above)
We really loved Antar and would recommend that any of the superheroes out there reading this that may be taking a power rejuvenation trip to the desert, you should look him up.

Last but not least, the superheroes regained much of their power from the elements provided by the desert itself. Wonderwoman soaked up the flower power from this "flower stone", formed in this old sea when magma rose out of the earth and then was cooled quickly by the water.
Subman, also regained strength from the wind which could be quite cold in the desert. Because of this picture we have given him a new superhero name we call him PUFFY PANTS MAN, he loves it!

Nothing regenerates superheroes like the desert, we are practicing our cute and innocent poses to throw bad guys off our true identities. How are we doing?
Alas, one can not stay in the desert forever, well you can if you are a Bedouin, but not the heroes of our story. From the desert we set off on another adventure to the Nile and a town called Luxor.

The trip was a success, our powers are fully charged, CRIMINALS BEWARE!

K
(aka Wonderwoman)