We went to the dead 'Eatabe' Hotel yesterday for tea. (Actually, I'm exaggerating, there must have been a half dozen foreign tourists there really!) The new governor was there though, along with his entourage and quite a gang of Egyptians, mostly female, or so it seemed.
I think it may have been the same sort of meeting that the Boss had with the ex-pats the other night, but with (what looked like) influential Egyptians. We didn't bother going to the one for foreigners, as they're always the same (in our experience, that is) plenty of suggestions and promises, but nothing ever actually changes! From one report it seems that the main point of the ex-pat meeting was to encourage the foreigners to email or telephone their government's Foreign Offices and try to get them to lift their travel warnings. I hope that his meeting with the Egyptians was more constructive.
I mean; does he really think that the FCO would listen to the English rag-tags here in Luxor?
Today, we tried our other favourite haunt, the Nile Palace. As we passed the Iberotel, it was 'Changing of the Guard' time. You couldn't get stirred for armoured personnel carriers!
Does anyone know what make they are? I wouldn't like to have to drive one, as the drivers compartment looks tiny! They're parked up all over the place, and the poor lads manning them look as bored as can be.
Further along, we passed the Sonesta St George, and couldn't help but notice that the Governor was there! The road was choc-a-block with cars and pick-up trucks, but we've no idea what he was doing.
As it was still light, we sat on the terrace, overlooking the NP pool. There was a European woman in the pool, and her friend came to join her when she decided to recline on her sunbed. There was a bloke, by himself, wandering around waiting for his swimming trunks to dry before donning his shorts etc over them. And, there was a communist agitator and his wife occupying two of the sunbeds!
You may well ask how I know that this gentleman was a communist agitator; well, I just happen to know these things! He was short, with almost as much pale wispy hair on his face as he had on his head, and he wore small swimming trunks with his pot-belly. Mind you, the real give-away was the fact that he wore wire-rimmed spectacles! (He also had a rather furtive look about him, nasty piece of work!)
His wife was another fairly easy clue; she was much larger than he was, obviously a sweetener from the Kremlin! Say no more!!!!
(I'm currently reading "The Red Dancer, a life of Mata Hari" and we've just watched two particularly thrilling episodes of "Spooks", the series about MI5 !)
That's a nice 'misty morning' picture of the West Bank, isn't it? Well. actually, no it's not! It was taken this afternoon, and it's smoke! You know, of course Dear Reader, why we don't have any industry here in Luxor (apart from tourism, that is, and the reason why many of the locals are on the verge of starvation at the moment) don't you? Yes, that's right; so that there's no pollution to damage the monuments! But burning your farm crop waste is the easiest way to get rid, isn't it? Never mind a bit of smoke here and there!!!
Isn't this fascinating? OK, suit yourself!
While we sat enjoying our tea (and Nescafe) and English cake, I suddenly noticed the Luxor Red Kite, just above us. As usual, I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get any really good pictures, this one's the best, though:
Our caleche mate, Ahmed, took us shopping from the NP, and then on to Karnak for some hawawshi and macarona. It's ages since we had it, and we really enjoyed it. It made me think of our great friend Sandra, in Lincoln, who loves hawawshi, but who's going into hospital today for an operation. Will those of you who pray, pray for her, and her husband too, please?
On the way back, I remembered to get the camera ready to take this next pic, which I've wanted to for ages, but always forget until we're past it. It's Luxor graffiti, and although I've no idea what it's supposed to represent, I think it's splendid!
Time for bed, bye-eeeee.
I think it may have been the same sort of meeting that the Boss had with the ex-pats the other night, but with (what looked like) influential Egyptians. We didn't bother going to the one for foreigners, as they're always the same (in our experience, that is) plenty of suggestions and promises, but nothing ever actually changes! From one report it seems that the main point of the ex-pat meeting was to encourage the foreigners to email or telephone their government's Foreign Offices and try to get them to lift their travel warnings. I hope that his meeting with the Egyptians was more constructive.
I mean; does he really think that the FCO would listen to the English rag-tags here in Luxor?
Today, we tried our other favourite haunt, the Nile Palace. As we passed the Iberotel, it was 'Changing of the Guard' time. You couldn't get stirred for armoured personnel carriers!
Further along, we passed the Sonesta St George, and couldn't help but notice that the Governor was there! The road was choc-a-block with cars and pick-up trucks, but we've no idea what he was doing.
As it was still light, we sat on the terrace, overlooking the NP pool. There was a European woman in the pool, and her friend came to join her when she decided to recline on her sunbed. There was a bloke, by himself, wandering around waiting for his swimming trunks to dry before donning his shorts etc over them. And, there was a communist agitator and his wife occupying two of the sunbeds!
You may well ask how I know that this gentleman was a communist agitator; well, I just happen to know these things! He was short, with almost as much pale wispy hair on his face as he had on his head, and he wore small swimming trunks with his pot-belly. Mind you, the real give-away was the fact that he wore wire-rimmed spectacles! (He also had a rather furtive look about him, nasty piece of work!)
His wife was another fairly easy clue; she was much larger than he was, obviously a sweetener from the Kremlin! Say no more!!!!
(I'm currently reading "The Red Dancer, a life of Mata Hari" and we've just watched two particularly thrilling episodes of "Spooks", the series about MI5 !)
Isn't this fascinating? OK, suit yourself!
While we sat enjoying our tea (and Nescafe) and English cake, I suddenly noticed the Luxor Red Kite, just above us. As usual, I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get any really good pictures, this one's the best, though:
On the way back, I remembered to get the camera ready to take this next pic, which I've wanted to for ages, but always forget until we're past it. It's Luxor graffiti, and although I've no idea what it's supposed to represent, I think it's splendid!
I am really surprised at the amount of people who are scared of travelling to Egypt, I keep telling them, Cairo is all there is to Egypt, there are places that are a lot better and more interesting than Cairo (Luxor for instance) places that are so far from any problems, I tell them the people are helpful and friendly, even more so now, they are upset the way the media has made Egypt a no go area, of course the FC arent really helping the matter with there warnings
ReplyDeleteIf anyone reads this and takes any notice, go to Luxor, you will enjoy yourself, you will find the people nice and friendly, and you arent going to be over whelmed with other nationalities getting in the way, AND you will have tales to impress your friends with
The REAL people in Luxor will really do their utmost to make sure you hgave a great time