Day 11. Tue 23rd September
Luxor Village.
The six of us get up at eight to take a calesh ride to Luxor Village while
the newcomers do the Valley of the Queens and Karnak.
It is market day in Luxor, and we drive through a chaos of people buying
and selling fruit, vegetables and livestock. As I point my camera a chicken
seller poses proudly with a live chicken. A moment later he gets a customer,
and neatly beheads the bird and throws it still flapping into a bag. My
camera is still playing up, and I miss the moment, but Oisìn catches
it, to his great delight.
A woman and her daughter are selling rabbits - I assume these are for food
and not as pets, but she doesn't kill any of them, at least not while we
are there.
Luxor village, a few kilometers outside the city, is very much the 'real'
Egypt, with clay ovens, chickens and children everywhere.
The calesh driver is very friendly and chatty, and on the way back
through Luxor takes us to various shops. It soon becomes clear, however,
that these shops are run by his various relatives, and when we decline
to buy anything his demeanour cools noticeably.
After lunch in the Doma we walk over to the Hotel Phillipe. This hotel
is also used by Explore, and for 10EGP we may use the pool and bar on the
roof. However, it is not as nice as the Emilio and extremely hot, and after
an hour or so I give up and return to the ship with the intention of catching
up on my journal, but I fall asleep instead.
We have supper on the ship as soon as the others return from Karnak, I
pick up the T-shirts that I ordered last night, and we all sit on the deck
and drink beer until bedtime.