Nicholas of Nazareth

Everything in Egypt is big. Big monuments, big festivals, big train rides, big touts, big water consumption or, alternatively, big dehydration.

A catalogue of today's beverage intake:

4 1/2 litres of water
660 ml of coke
500 ml tea
500 ml of karkaday
300ml mango juice
300 ml tamarin juice

It's now 7:30pm (ish), so the day's not yet over.

Yes, Luxor is hot, as Aswan (Egypt's southern most centre) was a few days ago. It's been 5 days since my last confession. I ended my trip to Alexandria with a bus trip back in the direction of Cairo on which nobody else spoke English. Slap-dash Arabic saw me somehow arrive at my destination of Wadi Natrun monasteries, which had an air of calm I have not again experienced in Egypt. I completed the trip to Cairo and hung out with some other travellers, which was the first time I'd done this since setting out. The next day I got to the Cities of the Dead in Cairo; two massive cemeteries that also house some 500 000 people. I've attached a photo.

That evening I set out on the Nile valley leg of the Egypt trip. After a 14-hour overnight train trip I arrived at Aswan in scorching heat. However I still managed to get to their "world-famous" bazaar, where every two steps (literally every 5) you are accosted to buy something, but with lines like 'hey, you dropped something', 'hey, can you help me write this letter in English', and other similar things designed to get you into their shop. This was a good introduction for the Luxor I am currently in.

Went to the Aswan sights: nothing special. On my way to Luxor on the 2nd I managed to cram in visits to Kom Ombo temple, which I think has the best position on the Nile of any I have yet seen, and Edfu temple (photo attached. The ants are people). Edfu was an astoundingly huge and meticulously detailed cult temple to Horus, fronted by a massive relief of Ramses II attacking some enemy or another. Ramses II was a bit of a meglomaniac, it seems, and his stuff is everywhere.

Yesterday I went to Abydos, which was good but not worth the effort of transport there and back (10 hours in the end). Today I saw Karnak temple, which apparently covers the area of 10 great cathedrals. The highlight is a hall containing 134 columns roughly the size of 20 people standing on each others' shoulders (photo). Big. I also saw the Valley of the Kings via the medium of donkey. In a strange twist of fate, I think I got more enjoyment out of the 4-hour mountainous donkey ride than the Valley. Cest la vie.

Tomorrow I head to Sohag, further down the Nile (north) on the 6:30am train. And now I go to watch belly dancers.

Nick