Okay, first a little disclaimer.

I’ve always maintained that this blog was more of a journal of my everyday life while backpacking rather than the ‘ol run of the mill travel blog.

And, with that, I don’t hide when things don’t go right and share everything – both the good and the bad.

Today started off good but, man, once I hit Luxor it was just a whirlwind of frustration.

So, with that all in mind, let’s start with the good stuff, shall we?

Another early morning

There are a few ways to get from Aswan to Luxor.

You can take a multi-day Nile cruise with hundreds of others or, if you don’t want to pay a fortune, you can either take a bus, train, or private car.

The bus and the train will get you up to Luxor but only a private car will make a couple stops along the way at two temples.

And who I am to pass up the opportunity to see a couple more temples, right?

The hostel offered a tour up to Luxor stopping at both the Kom Ombo and Edfu temples for $20US.   That works out to 1000EGP or about $28CDN.

Oh my God, so many different currencies!

Anyway, that price seemed more than fair considering the trip was about 220km and it had the two temple stops.

In fact, I heard other places were offering the same tour for twice the price.

The tour started at 7am so I was, once again, up as the sun was rising.

This time I was checking out and ready to get to my final city or Luxor in Egpyt.

I was officially entering the tail end of my journey with only a handful of days left on this trip.

Two other guys from the hostel were coming with me, Roger and Noah.

There was also a trio of Canadian girls, Alexandria, Jessica, and Josie, from the Maritimes who had met Emily (the Australian) on the tour bus yesterday.

She told them about our hostel’s cheap price and talked them into coming from their place to go on our tour for half the price.

I was kind of glad to see more people because it meant we’d be traveling by minivan instead of a cramped car.

The van pulled up and there was also an older couple from Bologna, Italy already sitting inside.

So, the eight of us were on our way shortly after 7am.

Kom Ombo Temple

After just over an hour, we had arrived at Kom Ombo Temple.

Now, when I say this was a tour, what I mean is it was really more of a driver driving us places and dropping us off while he waited.

Yeah, it was another one of those “tours” that wasn’t really a tour.

We arrived at Kom Ombo at 8:30 before the inevitable influx of tour buses were set to arrive.

This was the biggest positive to this kind of tour.   It’s timed in a way that avoids all the tourists.

Nice!

The other bonus to arriving before the tour groups?   Hardly any vendors out harassing you to buy something.

Yup, aside from a handful of other early visitors, we were the only people on the grounds.

Entry to Kom Ombo cost 450EGP ($13) and we were there for an hour.

Along with the temple, there’s also a small crocodile museum down the hill.

The camera was clicking quite a bit on this visit as every corner you turn, there’s some either a cool architectural layout or awesome hieroglyphics on the walls.

As I was exiting, I finally gave in and bought a pack of Egyptian bookmarks from a kid for 250EGP ($7) which, obviously, was overpriced but, whatever.

Almost instantly another kid started following me trying to get me to buy his bookmarks.   He gave me a “free” bracelet and, this time, I just took it.

He followed me all the way out the exit basically begging me for some money, any money, you know, for that free bracelet he gave me.

Nope, I just walked away with my free bracelet.

I think I’m happier with that souvenir than the overpriced bookmarks I bought.

Edfu Temple

We all hopped back in the van and took the 90 minute drive up to the other temple on our trip, the Edfu Temple.

This one is much grander in scale and by this time, there was a teensy bit of a tour group presence.

But just a little.

For the most part, you could walk through the vast temple unencumbered.

Entry to Edfu cost 550EGP ($16).

There were so many rooms in this complex and it seemed like it went on forever.

Let’s just say, I took alot of photos…

A long drive to Luxor

When we got back in the van, my map said it was a 90 minute drive to get to Luxor and we’d arrive around 1:30 in the afternoon.

Well, Egyptian roads being what they are, that time was way off and we didn’t actually get into Luxor until after 3:00.

Yeah, it was three more hours of driving.

Luckily I was chatting with my brother in Japan on WhatsApp for the majority of it.

As we were approaching Luxor, I realized no one had ever asked me where I was staying so I didn’t know where I was going to be dropped off.

When we stopped for a 5 minute pitstop, I tried my best to communicate with the driver about where I wanted to be dropped off.

Did he understand me completely?   I didn’t know but I’d be keeping a close eye on my map as we navigated through the streets of Luxor.

So, like I said, we arrived in Luxor around 3pm but it took another 45 minutes to finally get to my hostel.

The driver stopped at one place first and it seemed to take forever for him to drop the first guy off.

Something to do with finding an ATM or something, I honestly wasn’t too sure.

All I knew was that I’m staring at my map that said the hostel was only a 10 minute walk from where we were.

I was on the verge of just grabbing my gear and heading out on my own when the driver finally returned to the van.

Eventually, we arrived at my hostel at just before 4pm.

I was 2 1/2 hours later than I thought I would be.

Now, it wasn’t really a big deal because, honestly, I didn’t have anything else planned for the day.

It was, however, the impetus for an afternoon and evening of frustration…

Balloon?

After an awkward checkin where I sat waiting in a chair wondering what I was waiting for, I was finally shown to my room on the third floor.

By the way, apparently the guy at the front desk was waiting for me so we were both just kind of there in the lobby waiting for each other.

Like I said, it was awkward.

Now, I should say, the data on my phone here in Egypt has been very spotty and sometimes non-existent.

I’ve actually been over relying on hostel wifi to power me through all my internet needs.

However, as I climbed stair after stair, the wifi signal slowly dropped down to 4 bars, then 3, and finally to 2 when I reached my room.

It was just a small dash of frustration.

My first thing I needed to do was book a hot air balloon ride for sunrise tomorrow morning.

I used WhatsApp to contact a man who runs one of the top rated companies in Luxor.   Peter, the man I had dinner with last night, had mentioned them to me so I noted it down.

Anyway, the conversation took forever with his replies taking a half hour sometimes.

Small.   Dash.   Of frustration…

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of going back and forth, I made a $20 deposit on PayPal and confirmed my booking for tomorrow morning.

Not even a half hour later, he messaged me back to tell me the tour was cancelled for tomorrow due to weather.

Frustration growing…

Well, that was nice of him to tell me that after I made the deposit.

He asked if I wanted to do another day and, while I do, I was just getting such a bad vibe from the whole experience with him that I lied and said I couldn’t and that I’d need a refund instead.

He said he’d refund me but, honestly, I’m not crossing my fingers.

Whatever, it’s 20 bucks, and I just wanted to be done with him anyway.

A very late lunch

I popped across the street to a little hole in the wall restaurant to grab some much needed food.

It was now almost 5pm and all I had eaten all day was 2 granola bars.

I was starving!

The menu prices seemed a tad high considering this was just some small restaurant, but I just wanted to eat.

I order the mixed grill at 300EGP ($8.50) and had visions of complimentary salads and rice and veggies before a big plate of different grilled meats appeared.

Nope.

No free salad.   No free anything.

And the mixed grill?

It was literally a plate of like 5 little pieces of meat.

And no rice.

I looked at it incredulously.   This was 300EGP???

I asked for a side of rice to at least complete the meal somewhat but, damn, what a ripoff.

More dashes of frustration…

A frustrating night

I returned to my room to book some more stuff and, honestly, just relax.

It had been an overwhelming and frustrating afternoon.

So, I mentioned the wifi is spotty here on the 3rd floor but, the other thing is while I get wifi on my laptop, it keeps cutting out on my phone.

I actually ended up doing the unprecedented and set up my laptop as a mobile hotspot so I could then connect my phone to it using the wifi signal.

In the middle of all this, I was trying to book online tickets to visit the tombs here in Luxor in a couple of days.

Everything was fine until I reached that dreaded “Verified by Visa” screen that texts a code to your phone to verify it’s you.

Problem is, the phone that has my sim card in it, is back at home.

I thought I had figured out a secret workaround with that and had been able to access my text messages on my laptop using the MightyText app.

I had used it successfully on previous trips but, for some reason, it wasn’t working for me here.

I used some quick thinking and actually got Christine, who is checking in on my cats this week, to access my phone and read me the code when she stopped by my place.

In the end, it all worked out, but, hot damn, more frustration!

Anyway, this all builds up to, quite possibly, one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had…

A horrible dinner

I went to another restaurant directly across the street from my hostel called Chez Omar.

Now, I don’t usually mention names of things I don’t recommend but I really, really don’t want anybody to go there.

Anyway, again the menu prices seemed a tad high, but I just figured that was the going rate for food here in Luxor.

I sat down and ordered a shisk chicken dish and a Karkade drink, the hibiscus drink I had grown to love in Aswan.

The previous shisk chicken dishes I’ve had were a mix of boneless chicken pieces and peppers grilled on a skewer and served on a bed of rice.

I’ve found this chicken was much better than the dried out and overly charred 1/2 roast chickens that are also a common menu item.

A waiter brought over a bottle of complimentary water for me and I waited for my meal.

And waited.

Finally a little plate of heavily charred chicken pieces came out with a couple full roasted mini peppers on the side.

Where was my nice tender boneless chicken pieces?   Where were my sliced peppers?   Where was my damn rice???

Oh, and the Karkade drink wasn’t like the one I had in Aswan so that was also a disappointment.

I saw the meal and, as with the other place, I ordered a side of rice to complete it.

Now, I say the chicken was charred, but let’s be honest, it was burnt.

And there were so many bones that I finally just had to eat with my hands.

I ate the meal and quickly did some math in my head for the bill total.

The shisk was 250EGP, the rice was 50EGP, and the drink I figured was probably about 50EGP giving me a total of 350EGP ($10).

I pulled 400EGP out of my bag because, despite the horrible meal, I still tip cause, well, karma and all.

I am a waiter, after all.

I walked up to the counter to pay and watched as the waiter wrote my bill up in front of me.

1 item at 250EGP.

1 item at 50EGP.

and then 2 items at 75EGP each.

Those 75EGP items I assumed was my Karkade drink and he just thought I had ordered two.

I pointed at that line and he said it was for the two drinks I had – the Karkade and that bottle of water that he brought out at the start.

Yeah, that water wasn’t complimentary after all even though he brought it out without me asking.

And the price for it was insane.

Consider I had bought big bottles of water for 15EGP (43cents) in Cairo and now this guy was charging me 5 times that price for a small bottle.

Oh, but it gets better!

He then added another line on the bill for 1 item at 100EGP.

This was the 20% auto gratuity which he so nicely pointed at on the bottom of the menu when I enquired about what the charge was.

Yeah, for a meal that I thought would be 350EGP ($10), which I already thought was overpriced, turned out to be 550EGP ($16).

I just growled at him, told him he was ripping me off, and I wasn’t coming back.

The funny part is that I only had 200EGP notes and then smaller notes so I couldn’t even give him the exact total of 550EGP.

I actually left a 50EGP tip and paid him with three 200EGP notes because I didn’t want to wait for the change or continue the conversation.

I was fuming and I just wanted to get the hell outta there.

In fact, I was so mad that I decided not to write this blog at the end of the night because my mindset just wasn’t in a good place.

These words you’re reading were written the following morning after a good night’s sleep.

Now that I’ve had time to think things over, yes, it was a very frustrating end to the day.

Maybe if just one of those things would have happened on their own, I’d just shrug it off, laugh, and say “well, that’s what happens sometimes when you travel”.

With it all happening back to back to back though just led to the frustration boiling over.

In the end, yeah, I got ripped off with that horrible dinner, but it was only $17 and that’s not going to kill me.

And, yeah, all those frustrations simmering up sucked but it should never be enough to ruin my day.

At the end of the day, I’m out here traveling and exploring the world instead of back home working and living the daily grind.

I should be thankful and I will take that attitude with me as I close out my trip.