Today we get to sleep in a bit and catch our flight to Luxor first thing in the morning. The tour agency Dawn booked this part of the trip through is really going out of its way to impress us. The coordinator shows up early at Dawn’s grandparents’ apartment in Rehab (Rehab is the community they live at while in Cairo...not a step in a recovery process). He explains everything that has been booked for us and how things are going to work over the next few days. He also says he’s been able to upgrade our hotel room to a Nile view. He then escorts up to a waiting minivan that whisks us away to the airport. At the airport he asks which seats we prefer to sit in (window or aisle) and then takes our passports and starts to finger jam on the check-in kiosk. A few moments later he’s managed to change our seats to what we asked for and hands us tickets. He even escorts us to the our gate (Cairo has a two security check point system. Check-in is behind the first checkpoint and anyone is pretty much allowed there. There is a second more selective checkpoint right before you board the plane). As we are about to part his phone rings and he hands it to Dawn. The person she had been booking the tour with over email was calling to check-up on us and wish us a good trip. Crazy attentive service.
The flight was pleasant enough and when we exit the plane there was a guy from the agency who is to be our local Luxor contact waiting for us with our names on a board. He whisks us to another minivan and takes us to our hotel all the while also reviewing our tour details.
Our hotel is very nice. No, our hotel is very very nice. It’s called the Nile Palace, and that name doesn’t contain much hyperbole. It’s a Steigenberger Hotel which is some sort of luxury German hotel chain. The interior designers followed a simple design principle, when in doubt - add more marble. Every lobby, every hall, the entire bathroom, you name it and they marbled it. The hotel sits on the banks of the Nile. Our room does indeed have a view and an impressive one at that. It also has a small balcony that we can sit on and watch sailboats cruise up and down the river. The valley of tombs is on the opposite shore. Did I mention that the weather is perfect? It’s hard not to just sit on our balcony and wile away the afternoon.
Eventually we decide that we traveled all the way to Luxor so we should go out and see a bit of the town. We set out down the street our hotel is on to see what Luxor has to offer. This does not go very well. The sight of a tourist gets the locals too excited. Every store owner or horse and carriage driver starts hawking their wares. A simple “no thank you” will not suffice. Often we our followed for a number of yards while a one-sided negotiation is carried out. After a short stroll we get tired of the aggressive sales pitches and we eventually retreat to quiet sanctity of the hotel.
The hotel also has row of shops on the bottom floor. Everyone knows hotel shops are probably the worst place in the world to shop, but the sight of tourist doesn’t send the shopkeepers into overdrive and it’s much more pleasant to settle for the faux shopping experience than the real thing. Dawn eventually finds a prototypical Egyptian souvenir that she wants and we decide to buy it. The price seemed high compared to other things I’ve seen, but we decided that being unhassled and overcharged was an acceptable alternative. I think clerk knew she was gouging us too, because on our way out to caught up to us and offered us a free bookmark “as a gift.” I suspect that’s the booby prize for not correctly haggling.
While I felt a bit guilty for not going out and experiencing the “real Luxor” that feeling quickly evaporated as we sat on the hotel’s patio and watched the Nile. I can’t feel too guilty spending my vacation time by sitting on the banks of the Nile watching boats cruise back and forth while the sun sets in perfect weather. In fact, it’d be hard not to feel completely satisfied with life.
Eventually we decided to try the hotel’s Nubian restaurant for dinner. As we sat down we discovered there was only a set menu. The set menu consisted of 5 courses! The food was good, well portioned for that many courses, and had high presentation value. While I confess I don’t know much about Nubian food, the meal did not strike me as particularly ethnic. Unless authentic Nubian cuisine includes minestrone soup and fried tortilla salad bowls.
At night they light up the tombs in the mountains across the Nile. We have a great view from our room. What mysteries await us on the west side of the river?
One thing that’s hard not to notice walking around the hotel is just how empty it is. This is a big hotel. It has four restaurants, a bar, and a cafe. Where is everyone body? The hotel staff seem to outnumber the guests. It’s difficult to walk around an empty hotel like this and not get The Shining vibe. I know that the Arab Spring Revolution of 2011 has been rough on the tourism industry. Our tour guide in Alexandria made that clear. Luxor is pretty much a tourist town. It has three amazing archaeological sites in close proximity and has obviously invested in the infrastructure to cater to tourist, but there are very few of us here. This is the tail end of winter which should still be high tourist season. While I know that Egyptians have a reputation for being aggressive salesmen and fierce negotiators, I can’t help to wonder if the momentary collapse of the tourist industry has put an edge on the people who rely on it for an livelihood.
The flight was pleasant enough and when we exit the plane there was a guy from the agency who is to be our local Luxor contact waiting for us with our names on a board. He whisks us to another minivan and takes us to our hotel all the while also reviewing our tour details.
Our hotel is very nice. No, our hotel is very very nice. It’s called the Nile Palace, and that name doesn’t contain much hyperbole. It’s a Steigenberger Hotel which is some sort of luxury German hotel chain. The interior designers followed a simple design principle, when in doubt - add more marble. Every lobby, every hall, the entire bathroom, you name it and they marbled it. The hotel sits on the banks of the Nile. Our room does indeed have a view and an impressive one at that. It also has a small balcony that we can sit on and watch sailboats cruise up and down the river. The valley of tombs is on the opposite shore. Did I mention that the weather is perfect? It’s hard not to just sit on our balcony and wile away the afternoon.
Eventually we decide that we traveled all the way to Luxor so we should go out and see a bit of the town. We set out down the street our hotel is on to see what Luxor has to offer. This does not go very well. The sight of a tourist gets the locals too excited. Every store owner or horse and carriage driver starts hawking their wares. A simple “no thank you” will not suffice. Often we our followed for a number of yards while a one-sided negotiation is carried out. After a short stroll we get tired of the aggressive sales pitches and we eventually retreat to quiet sanctity of the hotel.
The hotel also has row of shops on the bottom floor. Everyone knows hotel shops are probably the worst place in the world to shop, but the sight of tourist doesn’t send the shopkeepers into overdrive and it’s much more pleasant to settle for the faux shopping experience than the real thing. Dawn eventually finds a prototypical Egyptian souvenir that she wants and we decide to buy it. The price seemed high compared to other things I’ve seen, but we decided that being unhassled and overcharged was an acceptable alternative. I think clerk knew she was gouging us too, because on our way out to caught up to us and offered us a free bookmark “as a gift.” I suspect that’s the booby prize for not correctly haggling.
While I felt a bit guilty for not going out and experiencing the “real Luxor” that feeling quickly evaporated as we sat on the hotel’s patio and watched the Nile. I can’t feel too guilty spending my vacation time by sitting on the banks of the Nile watching boats cruise back and forth while the sun sets in perfect weather. In fact, it’d be hard not to feel completely satisfied with life.
Eventually we decided to try the hotel’s Nubian restaurant for dinner. As we sat down we discovered there was only a set menu. The set menu consisted of 5 courses! The food was good, well portioned for that many courses, and had high presentation value. While I confess I don’t know much about Nubian food, the meal did not strike me as particularly ethnic. Unless authentic Nubian cuisine includes minestrone soup and fried tortilla salad bowls.
At night they light up the tombs in the mountains across the Nile. We have a great view from our room. What mysteries await us on the west side of the river?
One thing that’s hard not to notice walking around the hotel is just how empty it is. This is a big hotel. It has four restaurants, a bar, and a cafe. Where is everyone body? The hotel staff seem to outnumber the guests. It’s difficult to walk around an empty hotel like this and not get The Shining vibe. I know that the Arab Spring Revolution of 2011 has been rough on the tourism industry. Our tour guide in Alexandria made that clear. Luxor is pretty much a tourist town. It has three amazing archaeological sites in close proximity and has obviously invested in the infrastructure to cater to tourist, but there are very few of us here. This is the tail end of winter which should still be high tourist season. While I know that Egyptians have a reputation for being aggressive salesmen and fierce negotiators, I can’t help to wonder if the momentary collapse of the tourist industry has put an edge on the people who rely on it for an livelihood.
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