Hamish also enjoyed his stay at the Winter Palace Pavilion

We had a small extra passenger with us this year - Hamish the Heilan' Coo (translation for the non-Scottish - Highland Cow) and he too enjoyed his stay at the Winter Palace Pavilion

Hamish quickly secured a little bit of Egypt to be known as 'Little Scotland' for two weeks!!

A very brave Hamish perched on the balcony

Hamish had to sit down after perching on the balcony!!

Remember to take high factor sun screen on holiday to make sure you don't burn in the sun

Be safe at the pool and adhere to the guidelines (see below)

Be sure to keep within the rules of the pool

Luxor Street Scenes

I have included some street scene photos here, but there is a whole album full of them at  http://community.webshots.com/user/marlscat

There are sometimes questions about what type of shoes to wear in Luxor and, while high heels and dressy shoes are OK in and around the hotels, you'll see from these photos that in many streets of Luxor, high heels are just not practical at all.  There are many broken pavements and very high kerbs, some of which can be seen in these photos.

The Butcher

Fruit and veg stall

One of the many back streets

Fruit and veg shop

Motor cycles everywhere!!

Fruit and veg seller

Fruit and veg shop

Live food!!

Street food sellers

The bakers

Typical pharmacy - this one is on the Lower Corniche

Personal Views

Prior to this holiday I had read about all sorts of nasty things happening in Luxor so was very wary about walking about as normal and for the first few nights kept a good hold of my handbag and kept my camera out of sight.  However, after that, although I did still keep an extra tight hold of my handbag, I took my camera out with me to take some photos of the fascinating streets that are just teeming with local people and found no problem at all.  You need to bear in mind though, that this was in the local back streets and not in the more 'touristy' areas.

One thing I didn't like too much was the large amount of motor cycles speeding around with no obvious respect for anyone walking on the road - and that's where everyone walks, including the locals and their children!  They sometimes also had two or three or more people on them, and some were showing off doing 'wheelies' and suchlike.  I didn't see this myself, but our friend saw a driver of a motor cycle change seats with his pillion passenger on the move!!  At the head of one wedding parade we saw a number of motor cycles 'escorting' the cars, then they stopped, made a circle and one chap started whizzing his motor cycle round and round in circles, with the engine still running, surrounded by locals.  It was quite scary as I thought it would only take one little slip and that motor cycle was going to crash into the crowd - as it happened, he did make a slip but the bike crashed into another bike and didn't injure anyone.  On a few nights however, a few days into the holiday, we did notice a larger Police presence, some on motor cycles themselves, and there was a new tow-truck on show.  On those nights, there was a marked difference in the amount of motor cycles being used in the streets. One of the locals did tell us that the hospital has had to cope with a large increase in the number of people being injured in motor cycle related accidents.

I did not see or hear of any thefts of handbags by motor cyclists during my stay.  I did however overhear a conversation between a tourist and a local felucca captain stating that someone had tried to pickpocket him near Luxor Temple.

I did find that the vendors, some of the children and some guardians were a little more persistent than on previous visits and it was a bit more difficult to get them to take 'no' for an answer.  I saw many under-nourished horses - more than on previous visits.  I found that the local cafes seemed to be short of supplies and only went out for them when they had customers to serve, which made service a lot slower than normal and some of the food was not really up to usual standards.  I did not walk anywhere on my own but on one short distance where I did, I was shouted at and laughed at by local youths but, of course, I had no idea what they were saying, so just ignored them and kept on walking, but I have never experienced that kind of attitude in the past.  We were chased along Medina Street one night by a youth wanting money but, when he saw nothing was forthcoming, he soon left us alone.

On the whole, I got the impression that the local people were pleased to see us, and things weren't really that much different from previous years.

And, lastly, we were all quite careful handling money and used the wet wipes and anti-bacterial spray lots, but there were one or two occasions where 'Antinal' was called for!!  The tummy upsets weren't too severe, but as we had lots of trips arranged, I did use a few tablets to make sure I wasn't going to be troubled while on my trips, particularly up in the balloon!!  These tablets are available at the local pharmacies and are cheap to buy.  You just need to be aware however that this is an antibiotic so you need to be careful if you are taking other medication that might react badly to it.  This is what the packaging and tablets look like

Friday 7th October

The alarm woke me at 4 a.m. prompt and I jumped out of bed to get ready, trying not to wake my poor hubby who was still in the land of nod!!  I gathered everything together, remembering to take a hat and scarf to protect my head and neck from the fierce heat of the burners.  I learned my lesson on my first flight after the chain of my necklace got so hot that it left me with a burn mark!!  I met Suzie and KV-Explorer on the front terrace at the hotel then it was off on the mini bus to be taken to the motor boat for the crossing over to the West bank.  It was very encouraging to see that there were a few boats doing the same crossing, so it looked like the flights were going to be busy.  The balloon pilot was with us in the boat and explained everything to us while we had our breakfast which consisted of coffee and cake.  It was a lovely clear morning as we saw dawn slowly break over the Nile as we crossed.

 We were then taken to the designated site where all the balloons take off where there was a definite air of excitement.  We watched as other balloons took off and floated into the air and then we watched our balloon being inflated

 

After the balloon was inflated, we all clambered aboard the basket for our flight.  We were one of either 10 or 11 balloons in the air that morning.  What a great sight it was!  All the flights appeared to be full, and certainly everyone in our balloon appeared to be having a great time.  I think there were approximately five people in each of the four compartments of the basket and the pilot took his time to show us the various sights below, and spun the balloon slowly round to make sure everyone had a good view.  The cameras were snapping ten to the dozen to capture the scene all around us!!  In fact, an elderly frail looking gentleman was helped into one of the baskets complete with his oxygen tank, so don't think having a disability of some sort would ever stop you from doing this sort of activity as they seem to bend over backwards to try and accommodate you.

It was so good to be able to see two of the places from the air that we were scheduled to visit the next day

Medinet Habu

Ramesseum

I lost track of time up there and have no idea how long we were in the air, although it must have been about an hour.  I could have stayed up there all day - and that's from someone who can't stand heights!!  I think I saw most of the views through the camera lens however, but I had a fantastic time and loved every minute of it.

Here are a few more photos (again though, there are loads more at http://community.webshots.com/user/marlscat )

Floating in the air

Donkeys in the field

One of the local ladies having a better look at us!

I think perhaps we might have woken her up!!

I took this to show the livestock, but actually took a shot of the toilet/shower room!!  Spot the soap and flannel on top of the wall!!

Local children running to meet us

Time to deflate the balloon

Getting the balloon deflated

Local farmers

We were soon back onto the mini buses to be taken to the motor boats to be ferried back to the East Bank - after giving tips to the ground grew of course!  We were discouraged however from giving any money or gifts to the children - who were really very persistent and a little more aggressive than I have ever seen before.

I spent the rest of the day sleeping and resting at the pool to re-charge my batteries for another highlight of the holiday - dinner at our friend El Shazley's house later that evening!!

We contacted a taxi driver that we had used before in Luxor - his name is 'Donny Osman' - what a character, but reliable and friendly and wow, has he slowed down a lot!!  He terrified us one time by driving up a one-way street the wrong way and he used to drive like a lunatic, but now he's calmed down and I think we had the slowest and most leisurely taxi ride that we've ever had in Luxor!!

On arrival at El Shazley's we were given a huge welcome as always and a feast to eat - the table was groaning under the weight

As always, the meal was delicious and we were all full to bursting!!  Family and friends all gathered around and many photos were taken before we headed off back to Luxor in the taxi with 'Donny'.  Here is a small selection of photos

The back yard

Family & friends

Family & friends

Alley from house to main street

The main street!  (the spots are dust particles caught by the camera flash)

The corner shop

So, after a busy day, it was back to the hotel for the nightly nightcap on the balcony before bed - another night where yet again I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow!!!

Monday 3rd October

Another lazy day was spent by the pool.   I just love it here.  The pool and gardens are superb and the gardeners work continually to make sure everything looks just right.  There is an aviary in the grounds that used to be filled with pigeons, but they now have some cockatiels – and they are really cheeky.  It’s difficult to get a good photograph of them because of the wire on the cage, but here are a few

Dinner tonight was arranged over on the West Bank at a restaurant called Africa.  Hubby and I, our friend, Suzie and her mum, Mr and Mrs KV-Explorer and Mr and Mrs Bob62 all got together and headed off to hire a motor boat to take us over.  It was just a short walk from where the boat dropped us off, and we had a superb meal in the rooftop restaurant.  Afterwards, Mr KV-Explorer and Bob62 partook of a shisha and it was generally a very good night enjoyed by all.  Here are a couple of night time shots taken from the West Bank looking over to Luxor

 

No coffee at the local cafe tonight, but there was a nightcap on the balcony!!

Friday 30th September

Woke up to another lovely sunny day in Luxor and spent most of the day at the pool, so there's not much to say about it really!! Here's another photo that shows why we just love the pool here

Panoramic view of the shallow pool that surrounds the pool bar

Lunch was again spent at the local cafe - here's a view from the ground this time

Dappled shade in the cafe

That night we walked to the Lantern, which is hosted by Debbie, and where we had a lovely meal.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped off for a coffee and then had a nightcap on the balcony before setting the alarm for 5.30 a.m. - it was to be an early start to the day for our travels to Abydos and Dendera, which I was really excited about.  I had travelled to Dendera in the past, but never to Abydos, so this was going to be special!!

Monday 26th September - journey to Luxor

The long awaited day had arrived.  The day we were to travel to my 'second home' - Luxor!!  (There were four of us, my husband and I and our friends)

Being in Scotland, it's a bit of a long journey but this time we had booked with Kuoni who had handled the internal flights as well as the scheduled Egyptair fight from Heathrow and, as a special treat, we had booked into the Servisair lounge for some rest and relaxation prior to the flight.  I wasn't too happy wth Kuoini however when we got to Edinburgh Airport as we weren't able to book our hold luggage straight through for the Luxor flight so had the hassles of picking up baggage when we got to Heathrow, but that was all forgotten once we were eventually in the air and on our way!!

The flight wasn't too bad actually with quite a lot of leg room on the flight and, the encouraging thing was that the flight was quite busy and more tourists arriving is exactly what's needed after the recent troubles.

I'm not quite sure where we were, but here are some photos of some mountains and the sunset on our way to Luxor

 

We arrived in Luxor in the dark, which was a new experience for us, but the heat that hit us when we disembarked was not a new experience, and it was very welcome!!  We already had our Visas but was very surprised when the Kuoni rep directed people to the bank kiosks for their visas, unlike the the other holiday company reps who try to squeeze as much money out of the tourists as possible!  It was then onto the bus and off to the Winter Palace Pavilion.


We had been told that an upgrade to the Old Winter Palace was very likely as the Pavilion had been closed but, on our arrival, the Pavilion had just been re-opened and the anticipated upgrade never happened.  However, we were very pleased (as always) with our Pavilion rooms - here's a wee peek at ours (3009)

It was a lovely refurbished room and was very comfortable.  After a long tiring day travelling, it was just lovely to be back in Luxor to relax.  The men were sent to the supermarket for 'supplies' and I done some unpacking before a little nightcap on the balcony!!

There was one little panic however - I discovered that the adaptors I had brought with me and that I'd been using for years in Luxor, now did not fit the sockets in the newly refurbished rooms!!  Looking around I saw that the TV and fridge were plugged into the new sockets by the use of small adaptors, so I unplugged the TV as we don't really use it anyway, and used the adaptor so I could re-charge my phone.  Here is a photo to try and show the difference - we quickly discovered that these adaptors were being sold in Arkwright's supermarket and were also available on loan from reception

My own adaptor (European two pin) at the top and the new adaptor at the bottom

The adaptors for sale in Arkwrights plug into the new sockets and will take the European two pin as shown, and also the square three pin UK plug and the UK two pin round plug.  It probably takes others as well - here is a photo of the front of the plug so you can see for yourself

I was back in my 'second home' and immediately felt an overwhelming sense of peace!!