Day 117...Book of the Dead -21st October

No more`mummy tummy` but feel like shit. Got up at 5am and had an early breakky before catching a boat over to the West Bank.

In ancient times, the people of Egypt only populated the east bank - the city of the living. The west bank (where the sun sets - where Ra goes in his sun boat) was for the city of the dead. Now Egypt has people on both sides, but if you want mummies? - West you must go!

A man with our donkeys was waiting for us. I thought the Valley of the Kings would be close to the river, but it is actually far back in the hills, so we went via donkey. It was an hour long donkey ride, up into the valley. The donkeys were so cute! Mohamed didn`t join us, but warned us they were stubborn and randy - so I was worried. Especially when Nathan got the one the guides have all nicknamed `wanker`. haha! I also remember an aquaintance telling us when he went on an Egytian donkey ride. His donkey tried to either shag or fight every other donkey, then ended up kicking him off and running into a field where he had to chase it for half an hour.

My donkey was called Homar and I liked him very much. They ended up being good little beasts. You had to kiss 4 times and say (I cant spell) `yella yella` which means in Arabic `lets go`. They had been trained (or beaten) well, and they set off trotting and knew where to go. What a bumpy ride!!! You couldnt swing your hips like on a horse, so you got jarred up and down very very fast! There were no stirrups and everytime my butt shifted I thought I would fall off. My donkey took me through a few plants and once up Nathans donkeys arse, but most of the time they just trotted frantically while we held on for grim life! (Girls and fat men: sports bra definately needed)

We saw some groovy stuff. Egyptian buildings framed by papyrus and palms. On a little farm lane we were passed by a cart which was weaving all over the road. It was drawn by two donkeys and driven by two tiny children. There was no way you could take a picture though. If I even considered taking a shot I would have fallen off!

The towns bled away and we trotted up into sandy, rocky hills and valleys with only the donkeys soft clupping hooves to be heard. (And also the roar of the occasional tour bus - we were certain one would hit us on a blind corner). After an hour of repetitive jarring my thights hurt from holding on and my back was jolted out of place. But we got there in once piece and I wanted to hug my little donkey and take him home. They`re so cute with their big ears.

We met Mohamed, got our tickets and went on a little tourist train which took us further into the valley about 250m.　Mohamed had a cold and no voice, so we used hand signals till he gave us a little speech on the tombs. People think that the pharaohs stopped doing Pyramids coz they were a beacon for theives an dhid them in the desert instead. Around us didn`t even look like tombs. Just hills, with a few modern concrete shafts added for archeologists. Very non descript. The first tomb we went to was Ramses I. You cant take pictures inside which sucked. We thought we`d have to do some scrambling through shafts, like at Giza, but here the shafts were hgue and you could just walk in. Ramses I shaft wasnt decorated, but the chamber was richly decorated with a big stone sarcophagi sitting in the middle - so large it went over our heads! The walls were of excellent quality with Osiris, Anubis etc. The paintwork was so colourful, and when you looked up close you could see the brushworks - that was eerie! It was weird seeing the colour too - knowing that it was all over the temples and stuff as well. In movies and pictures etc, it is always just sand coloured temples. But they were actually very colourful.

The second tomb was much larger (cant remember whose it was though), and all the way along the huge shaft were richly painted reliefs. It was a long shaft, with little square indents with paintings inside. There was also an upper and lower section, but you couldn`t get into the main chamber. The shaft was way cool though. The skyw as painted a rich - almost navy - blue, with stars all over it.
The last tomb, Ramses VI had a shorter shaft and a huge chamber. It has been open since forever and a day, and people used to hide in here during the wars. You could see their grafitti on there. The roof of the shaft spun us out. Black heiroglyphics with yellow oval background - it reminded us of traffic signals, and didn:t seem egyptiany at all! The roof of thechamber had the goddess Nut (pronounced noot). She swallows the sun (and the sun boat and the god R) every night, which then travels down through her belly where she gives birth every morning. Tough stuff.
Tutankahmens tomb was next door, but we didn`t go in as its not that good. (remember - he died young an dhad hasty russion-doll type coffins instead). We went via van back to the Nile, via the Collossi of Memnon. They are two huge statues, built by Amenhotep II. They were pretty impressive, but kind of odd too as they were right next to a road and parking lot!

We caught the boat back over to the east bank. Mohamed was feeling pretty unwell, and stuck his head in the Nile! I was starting to feel pretty crappy as well. Not unwell, but my stomach really hurt, like someone had punched me really hard in the diaphragm.
On the other side, we caught a horse and carriage to Karnak Temple. The horses in Egypt are pretty skinny, as well as the donkeys as there is mostly sand, and the Egyptians are pretty poor and cant feed them. Its sad to see them mistreated.

Karnak Temple is huge. It is one of the oldest, so (not Graeco Roman - tho there are some in parts) there are the columns that aren't in the flower style. It is also a different temple, as it is dedicated solely to the sun god Ra. The temple covers over 5 acres. Basically, when a pharaoh becomes pharaoh, he makes a temple dedicated to the gods and himself. However, they are pretty hard to make, so most of them add a section to an old temple and rededicate it. So this one has been added and altered, and added again spanning millenia. Amazing! Tutankhamen is there, as well as Hatshepsut and her nephew. There was a big obelisk there, and its partner was the one that we saw in Place de la Concorde in Paris! Its so amazing to see history entwine around different parts of the world. Karnak temple was a big messy maze, and the further back you go, the furher back in time you are. I liked it, but it was all open air. There was no roof left, so it didnt have as much of the mystery and charm of the other temples. It was mainly just really big in area. The best part though, was a big hall full of massive columns. It was like something out of lord of the rings (remember when they are in the mines of moria and are running away from the orcs in that huge coloumned hall? like that! But sandy and yellow haha). Nathan loves columns (as I found out in Rome) so had some good fun with photos in there.
Both Mohamed and I had to sit down alot, so we didn't cover too much area. In the photos, you can see I'm all hunched over, as my stomach really felt punched and hurt.
There was a scarab beetle sculpture there. Apparently if you walk around it 3 times clockwise it brings you good luck, 6 times for marriage and 9 times for children. Suffice to say I only walked around 3 times haha!

Mohamed and I looked like crap, and Nate was pretty tired, so we left. We got back into the horse and carriage, picked our bags up at the cruise ship and checked into a hotel. We were to board the sleeper train that night, but the hotel at least gave us somewhere to rest for the day. Checking in, the pain in my abs was too much. So I hobbled out past the staff (who were watching me very curiously), out the door, across the road and then promptly vomited in the garden!

Nate came and got me and we spent the rest of the afternoon resting, instead of going to the Luxor museum, so I was pretty upset about that. Mohamed was sick and got some sleep in as well.
Later that night, we went to the train station. The streets of Luxor were a babble of noise, dust and dirt. Loud music played, women bustled around shopping, and men sat on the sidewalks smoking sheesha pipes. We knew sheesha was an arabic thing, but had no idea just how popular the whole thing was! The train was nice and late again, so we sat in the hot Egyptian night and just people watched. It was fantastic. (and we saw the good old 'bbq train' go by as well!). Then we boarded the train, and after dinner onboard I went straight to bed.

Chatting the other night about the arab world with Mohamed, I told him I knew a few Arabic words. The Egyptian boys at my work taught me a few. He was delighted and asked what they were. Basically, they taught me (I cant spell) sharmuta, which is a bad word for a male or female slut/prostitute. Well he just about fell off the chair laughing!