This morning, we got up bright and early and left Aswan. It was a gorgeous city, and definitely one I'm going to miss. We left by bus for Luxor, and made several stops along the way. Our first destination was the Temple of Kom Ombo, which is unique in that it's the only Egyptian temple to worship two gods - Horus, son of Orisis and Isis, and his evil brother, Sobek, the crocodile god. After that, we went to Edfu, a town just south of Luxor that is home to Edfu temple. The lives of the people who live there seem to be centered on the temple, which attracts a heavy number of tourists and drives their economy. Edfu temple is dedicated to Horus and is known to be the most well-preserved of the temples because it's located far (comparatively) from the Nile.
Between the stops and the traffic, the trip from Aswan to Luxor took seven hours. I fell asleep in a fetal position on the bus seats and woke up feeling pretty miserable. Even though I'd had plenty of water (I've been drinking between 4 and 5 liters of water each day), I hadn't eaten since breakfast, which was only some scrambled eggs and a few pieces of fruit. Thankfully, the hotel we're at now, Iberotel, is modern and comfortable. The rooms are air-conditioned, which they have been elsewhere, but our room this time is actually cold. The beds are large and comfortable, and the hotel lobby is spacious too. And conveniently enough, I've been able to steal a wifi signal when I'm downstairs in the lobby. The hotel charges 120 LE (about $25) per day for wireless access, which is a lot more than I'm willing to pay.
We went to an "Irish pub" for dinner, which wasn't entirely like the Irish pubs back home. The one TV was playing American music, but nothing I'd listen to back home; a trashy techno remix of Under Pressure featuring Vanilla Ice, some Jennifer Lopez music, and not surprisingly, Celine Dion. They love Celine Dion here. I guess that's a good thing, since in the states, she hasn't really been popular since the 90s. All the same, there was delicious mac and cheese, which made the walk to the restaurant in staggering heat well worth it.
After dinner, we all kicked back at the pool overlooking the Nile. The pool at the Isis Corniche, the last hotel we were at, was nice too. But this one's bigger, the water is just slightly warmer, and it's on an actual boat docked just off the coast. We watched the sun go down over the Nile as we tossed a football in the pool (oh, and Egyptians think footballs are the coolest things ever). After, there was some music and a few dancers.
Tomorrow's going to be a full day, and the predicted temperature for Luxor is 112 degrees. Needless to say, we're getting an early start (6am) so that we should be done by the time the heat really sinks in. I'll post a few pictures from today following this.
Oh, and I haggled for stamps today, so I'll be sending out some mail soon!
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