Day 5, Luxor

We started with a late breakfast (first day we slept in since we arrived). We braved the Souq (Egyptian Marketplace) and bought fresh bread from the baker, oranges and bananas from one of the fruit guys, and cheese and fig jam from one of the corner markets. We settled into a table at Om Kalthoum and enjoyed our breakfast with coffee (Turkish for Jaimee, good old Nescafe for Krystin and I).

Jaimee went upstairs to work on her paper, and krystin and I walked to the Mummification Museum, which was underground and refreshingly air conditioned. The museum details the whole gruesome process of mummification, and had mummified animals as well as the mummy of a High Priest from the 21st Dynasty. It was a small museum, and we weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was very interesting to see everything that goes into the process... i.e. they use a little spoon and spatula to mash the brain to soup through the deceased's nose, then pull it out and replace it with linen. We saw a cross-section of a brain like that, very gross.

We taxied to the Karnak Temple next, the biggest we've seen so far. Sprawling over 100 acres, we raced through to try to see everything. The most impressive part of the temple was the Great Festival Temple, which had huge columns that still maintained some of their bright colors. We took a ton of pictures and really enjoyed just exploring.

Back to the hotel to meet Jaimee, we took a horse-drawn carriage (those things are everywhere and so cheap becuase the supply is so much higher than the demand this time of year) to the famous Winter Palace Hotel. This is where the rich people stay. Not the Angelas. We followed an intoxicating smell to an ice cream cart wheree a very nice Egyptian lady was making fresh waffle cones. We enjoyed our tasty treat, then adjourned to the lounge area and enjoyed cappucino like fancy folk just enjoying the quiet. The Winter Palace Hotel is where Agatha Christie was inspired to write Death on the Nile.

Let me take a moment to talk about how UNBELIEVABLY loud this country is... loud music blaring in the restaurants, in the cabs, on the trains, etc. Also, on the trains boys will crowd around a cell phone and blast music and watch videos. In the roads, there is the incessant sound of honking. Lanes aren't really divided on the roads here, traffic lights are ignored, and pedestrians definitely don't have the right of way. Each car is constantly honking, just so the other crazy drivers know that they're there. It's very chaotic, and especially overwhelming in the 100+ tempatures during the day... and the traffic never ends.

Cheers!'