Luxor

We woke up bright and early the next morning and took a 1 hour flight to Luxor. Our first stop was the Luxor Temple. The pictures I took do not do the temple justice. Everything was just so large scale, yet again I was in awe of the detail. After spending about an hour at the temple we headed over to the Luxor Museum. This was by far the most modern of the museums we visited. Our tour guide for Luxor, Islam, was taking us through the museum and begin very detailed. Unfortunately, we had all been up since 4am so our interest in the subject matter was outweighed by our interest to get to the hotel.

This hotel was more like a resort and Luxor overall felt geared towards European tourists. After a nap Cabby and I joined a group of others and we took a carriage ride through downtown Luxor. Islam told us we were going to stop at a bazaar so I was getting excited to stretch my bargaining muscle yet again. Before we went to the bazaar we went through a local market on the carriage, which made me very uncomfortable. Shopkeepers were sitting on the ground waiting for customers and here we are, the white American tourists, riding through on our horse and carriages taking pictures of them as we sit elevated above them. My tourist guilt overwhelmed me. To me there are different ways travel and the most enjoyable ways are the ones where you incorporate yourself into the culture. This carriage ride was one of the ways that I despise to travel, as if you are going through a cultural zoo and are just stopping to snap pictures of the "exotic" locals.

Once my guilt subsided we arrived at the other bazaar. Cabby and I immediately went off in search of a bag for her to pack more of her stuff in. We stopped at one place and the man took us inside to bargain with Cabby. After she had gotten her bag the shopkeeper asked if I wanted anything. I told him no, that I didn't have a lot of money with him. He took this as a sign that I wanted to bargain and then started asking me to name a price for a bag. I told him no again. Then he turned to Cabby and asked her to leave. She didn't of course, and I know that the reason why he wanted her to leave was so that he could offer me the same bag he just sold her at a lower price. At this point Cabby and I start leave the store. After Cabby leaves the doorway, he blocks it with his body and says he doesn't believe me that I have no money. Well my patience was gone. The only way to get by him was to skirt around and step on his merchandise, which I did. Cabby asked me if I was ok and I said yeah but the Jersey in me was starting to come out so I should give the bargaining a rest.

After the carriage ride back, we had dinner in a room that looked like it was right out the Luxor hotel in Vegas. Then it was time to crash before another long day the next day.