Carriage Ride and the market

This time in Egypt is going by too quickly. It is great, though, and the days are long. I wish we had more time so we could go slower, but if we had more time, I would want to see more things. (Right - The Karnak Temple in Luxor Egypt). Anyway, we had our wakeup call at 7am. It was nice to “sleep in.” At 8:25, we were supposed to be in the lobby to be ready for our carriage ride. We rode to the Karnak Temple. That is amazing! It is a temple built to the main god of Lower Egypt, Amun-Ra. There are a lot of ruins there and I tried to read what was written. There were a lot of interesting parallels with the temple, but I won’t go into that.

We then took a carriage ride to the Luxor Temple. On that ride I got to drive the carriage; it was great. The Luxor Temple is smaller than Karnak, but still interesting. While there, I was trying to read the wall when a man came up to me and wanted me to tough the wall for good luck. I refused, but he wouldn’t leave me along until Lindsay came and bailed me out. (Left - Me in front of some Egyptian writing at Karnak). I later learned that he was doing that to a lot of people and then wanting money. One thing I’ve learned about Egypt is that NOTHING is free, even directions on the street.

From there we walked back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch, a few of us walked down by the Nile. That was nice. Then around 3 we were supposed to meet to go on a Faluca ride, but we had to go out in motor boats because it was too windy for a Faluca. But with the motorboat we got to go up on the top, so that was fun. Next I went with a group to the market. While I was looking at a T-shirt with another girl, Debbie, our group left us. So it was just the two of us . . . without a guy. That is strictly against the rules. When we left the shop, no one from our group was there. (Right - in front of the sacred pool at the Karnak Temple). Luckily, at that time Brother and Sister Huntington along with Eran (our JC director who came on the trip with us) came up. Eran was mad that there was just the two of us and we explained that we had been left. President Huntington told me to yell at the ones who left us when we got back to the hotel. In the meantime, we walked and talked with them while Eran bought something. We were much later getting back to the hotel than everyone else as a result.

Now I am ready to go to bed. Tomorrow we go to the Valley of the Kings and I’m not sure what else. In the afternoon I am also going on another camel ride!

According to tradition, running around this scarab statue 5 times will get you a husband, 7 times to have many kids, and 8 times for riches. I ran 8 times for good measure The Egyptian Ruins once had beautiful vibrant colors Me, Meghan, Lindsay, Debbie and Rich at the Karnak Temple Driving the Carriage At the Luxor Temple We had Ratatouille for Dinner, it was yummy! Boat ride on the Nile The Nile