Welcome to part two of today’s blog!

When I left you on the first part of the blog, it was 8:30am and I had already put in a full day riding in an early morning sunrise hot air balloon.

When our balloon touched down in the West Bank, we had the option of staying there or returning to our hotels.

Since the plan for the rest of my day was to see all the tombs on the West Bank, it made sense to just stay there.

I mean, we literally touched down a short walk from where I’d be starting.

I had two problems though.

One, I was wearing my winter jacket and there was no way I was going to lug that around all day and, two, I had left my portable phone charger back at the hostel and I was pretty sure I was going to need that today.

So, yeah, I took the ride back to the hostel.

Honestly, along with those two reasons, coming back, taking a little break, and heading back out again, made more sense.

This way instead of doing so much all at once and finishing at noon, I was able to spread it out throughout the day.

Back to the West Bank

I arrived back at the hostel at 8:30, grabbed my laptop, and headed downstairs to the hostel’s restaurant.

There was a free breakfast waiting for me and I had a blog to write.

It was weird seeing other people staying at the hostel funnel in for breakfast as it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that, while I had already had a full day, these others were just waking up.

I sat quietly at my table, eating my omelet, and putting together yesterday’s blog.

I had all the time in the world and I planned to only head back out to the West Bank at 11am.

Now, if you ask when is the best time to visit the tombs in the West Bank, you’re almost always told early in the morning to avoid all the tour groups.

The problem with that advice is that everyone knows that now so early morning is actually busy as well.

In a nutshell, there was really no good time of the day to go to avoid the crowds, so I figured why not start later.

So, at 11am, I finally headed back out.

I booked a ride on the InDrive app (their version of Uber) and headed to the ferry dock for the cheap public ferry that crosses the Nile.

Of course, the driver, when finding out I was going over to the tombs, tried to get me to hire him for the day.

This would be a running theme throughout the day with all my rides.

Honestly, I was tempted to take him up on his offer as he spoke English and he had a nice, new, shiny car.

The price he told me was $30usd but he quickly came down to $20usd which, all things considered, actually was a pretty good price.

The things is though, I really was determined to do this all on my own today.

It was kind of my little mission or adventure to see if I could do it.

I was soon on the 11:15 ferry taking me on the short ride across the Nile River.

A man, who I assumed to just be another passenger, sat beside me.

Inevitably, he struck up a conversation with me and, almost just as inevitably, he was soon telling me he was a taxi driver and could drive me around all day.

Just once, just once, I want to have a conversation with someone here that doesn’t lead to them asking if I wanted to take them up on their service or buy something for me.

When he finally realized I wasn’t going to hire him, he got up to move to another seat.

Shocker!   Dude literally targeted me!   So much for the friendly conversation, I guess.

Off the ferry, I booked another driver on the app.

Problem is, each time I book, it takes a little bit for my driver to arrive and I have to fight off the influx of taxis and tuktuks from asking if I need a ride.

It’s honestly so exhausting just saying “no, thank you” over and over again.

Today, though, I decided I wasn’t going to be annoyed by it but, instead, find some amusement in the fact that I’d be turning down countless people.

Still exhausting though.

Colossi of Memnon

At just before noon, I had arrived at my first stop on this adventure through the West Bank – the giant statues of Colossi of Memnon.

It doesn’t take alot of time to see as the two 60 foot statues, which are free to see, are just standing on the outside of the main road.

I walked past the dozen tour buses parked there, snapped a trio of photos, and was on my way.

I had taken off my long sleeve shirt at this point as it was getting pretty warm.

Problem was, the sun was also beating down and, without any cloud cover at all, I felt my skin getting roasted.

Hmm, take a sunburn on the arms or cover up in my long sleeve and sweat a little.

It was a tough call.

I ended up putting my long sleeve back on and donning a ballcap to protect myself from the unforgiving sun.

I mean, being sunburnt is just no fun, ya know.

Getting tickets

There is a ticket office called the Antiquities Inspectorate Ticket Office about 10 minutes away by foot so I headed down the road to buy some tickets.

As I walked down the road, I marveled at the fact that I had literally just been flying overhead all of this just hours earlier.

I was marveling so much that I didn’t realize that I was walking in the wrong direction.

Yup, I walked 10 minutes in the other direction before I realized it.

Luckily, I was going at an easy going pace today so I just kind of laughed at my mistake, turned around, and headed the right way.

At 12:30, I had finally reached the ticket office.

It’s here where you have to buy tickets to Ramesseum (220EGP, $6), Medinet Habu (also 220EGP) and the Tombs of the Nobles (two tickets at 120EGP and 200EGP, $9).

In total, I got 4 tickets costing me 760EGP or about $22.

Of course all these places were just an appetizer for the main course that was The Valley of the Kings which were completely separate tickets

Medinet Habu

First stop was Medinet Habu which is home to the temple of Amun and the temple of Ramesses III.

This place had a few tourists but it wasn’t so egregious where you feel suffocated by them.

I was probably there for about 15 minutes before heading off to my next stop.

Honestly, after you’ve seen so many temples and ruins, they all kind of blend in together.

Don’t get me wrong, walking amongst all this was truly spectacular and every corner you turn, you want to take more and more photos.

It’s just kind of become normalized for me now so that sense of excitement and thrill I had a couple of weeks ago isn’t present any more.

Plus, there was so much more to see this afternoon…

Ramesseum

Next was the memorial temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II known as Ramesseum.

I got here at 1pm and the place was pretty much deserted.

The driver I had hired to get over here was desperately trying to get me to hire him for the rest of the day.

I even had to fake write down his WhatsApp number so I could contact him later if I needed to.

It only took another 15 minutes to see the grounds here and I was ready to move on to the Valley of the Nobles.

The Valley of the Nobles is a collection of a half dozen different tombs located in the nearby hills.

It was within walking distance from where I was but as I planned my walk there, I was hit with a sudden dose of reality.

It was closing in on 1:30 and I only just now realized that the Valley of the Kings which I still wanted to see later closed their doors at 4:00.

I was running out of time.

My leisurely approach to visiting the tombs this afternoon may well have been a little too leisurely.

So, I made the decision to skip the Valley of the Nobles despite having already paid for a perfectly valid ticket.

I mean, it wouldn’t be the end of the world and I really wanted to make sure I had ample time to see everything I wanted to in the Valley of the Kings.

Hatshepsut

There was, however, time for one more stop before that.

On the road to the Valley of the Kings lies the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut.

Hatshepsut was the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II and the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant.

And, yes, I did just copy/paste that from Wikipedia.

I paid 440EGP ($13) to enter and another 20EGP for a little tram ride up the road to the temple.

I entered the groups and immediately found out where all the tourists had been hiding.

Apparently it was here.

I walked about Hatshepsut for about a half hour and was heading to leave when a guy nodded his head and pointed me in another direction.

I thought he was showing me where the exit was but, nope, like with every other person I’ve met in Luxor, he wasn’t truly being helpful.

Instead he led me into another area of the temple and started to describe what was there.

He basically instilled himself as my guide and, of course, he wanted a tip for the service.

So annoying.   Can’t anyone here actually just be genuinely helpful or friendly without wanting something in return?

Valley of the Kings

Okay, it was nearing 2pm and I had given myself 2 hours to visit the Valley of the Kings.

It’s an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles under the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt.

And, yes, Wikipedia for the win again.

I had read that you’re supposed to alot 3-4 hours for the tombs so I was cutting it pretty short with only 2 hours.

There are over 60 tombs located on the grounds but only 14 are open for visitors.

Of those 14 tombs, there are 9 that are included with a general entry ticket and then the other 5 are an additional cost.

Got that?   It’s a little confusing, I know.

It gets even more confusing…

Of those 9 that you’re eligible to see, you actually have to choose which 3 of them you visit because your general entry ticket only allows you to visit 3.

Each time you visit a tomb, the guard outside of it will take a hole punch to your ticket and once you’ve got 3 holes in your ticket, that’s it.

So, in summary…

-60+ tombs
-14 that are actually open
-9 of them are included with ticket
-5 are an extra cost
-you’re only allowed to visit 3 of the 9 included tombs

Haha!   Wait there’s another wrinkle to it all though!

A couple of different people I came across earlier in the week in Aswan had told me there’s a nice little loophole to get around being restricted to choosing just 3 temples.

The loophole is to buy your tickets online from the official website.

They send you a PDF to your email that has a QR code ticket that you show the guards of the tombs.

There’s obviously nothing to hole punch so you can come and go to any of the open temples you choose.

So, that’s what I did.

Before I arrived, I purchased 3 tickets:

-a general entry ticket (750EGP, $21)
-a ticket for tomb number KV62, the Tutankhamun tomb (700EGP, $20)
-a ticket for tomb number KV17, the tomb of Seti I (2000EGP, $57)

Yeah, that last ticket was a doozy.   After paying between 200-400EGP ($5-10) to enter different sites this week, paying 2000EGP was alot of money.

But, apparently it was worth it.   The internet said I had to see the Seti I tomb and, well, who was I to argue with the internet.

Temple Hopping

As I entered my first tomb, I came to realize a couple of things.

One, that long sleeve top I was wearing was coming straight off – those tombs were hot.

And, two, my worry about not having allotted enough time to visit turned out to unfounded.

The tombs themselves aren’t vast and you can easily be in and out of each one in about 5 minutes.

Sure, if I was on a tour with someone describing every minute detail depicted on the walls, I’d be spending more time in each tomb but that wasn’t the case.

I took my photos in each one and then I was on to the next tomb.

In fact, I took almost 200 photos and videos this afternoon which is insane.

The first few tombs were very similar with alot of hieroglyphs on the walls.

Then, it was on to one of the tombs I had to purchase an additional ticket for, the Tutankhamun tomb KV62.

There were less visitors in this tomb since it was extra and at the end of the tomb was a cool display of Tutankhamun’s mummified body.

A friendly guard sitting next to the display offered to take a closer photo of the head and of me posing with it and, well, you guessed it, he wanted to be paid for that service.

Can’t someone, anyone, just help out without expecting something in return?

Then, it was off to see the tomb that cost me $57 – the tomb of Seti I, tomb number KV17.

This was the tomb everyone said I had to see so here I was, walking down the stairs to glance at what was inside.

This tomb was practically deserted as I think there was maybe 2 other people inside it.

It was so deafening quiet in there, it was surreal.

The Seti I tomb was longer and I spent about 20 minutes inside.

The guard standing inside walked up to me and I declined his help.

He said that he needs my help to unlock the gate.

I actually felt kind of bad cause I had brushed him off preemptively and it turned out he was there to actually help me.

We walked through the tomb together and at the end was a room closed off with a metal barrier.

He pushed the barrier aside and led me inside, holding his finger to his mouth.

This was a big secret apparently and I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone he let me in the room.

He even made me pinky promise that I wouldn’t tell.

And then he asked me for money.

Sonofabitch!

C’mon now.

I paid an arm and a leg to see this tomb and now you want a tip because you pushed aside a metal barrier?

After that, I visited a couple more tombs and I was back to being in and out of them pretty quick.

It was now closing in on 3:30 and the tombs were decidedly less visited.

Also, my battery had lowered itself to just 15%.   Thank God I went back to the hostel this morning to retrieve my portable battery pack.

The last tomb I visited, I was again approached by a guard offering me help.

I had learned my lesson and I told him emphatically I didn’t need his help or a guide.

He still started to lead me down the hall and I added that I didn’t have any more money for a tip.

He still led me…

Okay, well, I told him.

And, of course, at the end of it all, he was all but begging for money for food.

I mean, even when you’re emphatic about it, they still continue.

At just before 4:00 I was exiting the grounds.

There were quite a few tour groups entering as I was exiting so I didn’t know what to think about the 4pm close time.

Was I wrong?   I don’t know.   It was definately strange to see people still coming in.

I started to book my InDrive driver but had to move further away from the exit to avoid being bombarded by people offering me everything from rides to souvenirs.

Dinner with Emily

This would be as good as time to any to introduce Emily to the narrative for the day.

I had met the Aussie in Aswan a few days ago.   I found out that she also coming up to Luxor a day behind me which meant she arrived last night.

We stayed in contact with each other just in case we wanted to join each other during the day here in Luxor.

I actually had bought her online tickets for her to the tombs today.

She tried to also book the same hot air balloon as me this morning but by the time she tried, it was sold out for the day.

Anyway, obviously we didn’t go exploring the tombs together today.

She had left a couple hours earlier than me and she was cycling while I was dealing with drivers all day.

Our plans of which tombs to see were a bit different to.

We stayed in contact through the day and at one point we were actually at the Valley of the Kings at the same time but still never saw each other.

When I was leaving the grounds at 4:00 she sent me a message that she had stopped at a place down by the river for a late lunch and asked if I wanted to join.

Oh yeah, I was hungry.

And it was nice to see Emily again.

She sent me a photo of their menu and one of the menu items caught my eye – Shakshouka.

It’s an Egyptian dish of poached eggs served in a tomato sauce.

The dish had been on my list of food to try while here and it was also gluten free so I was pretty happy to see it on their menu.

She ordered for me while I made my way by car to where she was.

Soon we had finally met up after I spend the day a step behind her.

Naturally we chatted about our day today but also about traveling in general.

She’s on month nine of a year long trip spending longer in places to kind of assimilate into them.

Actually, she’s on the exact same flight as me tomorrow to London.

From there, she’s taking a flight to Morocco where she’s going to spend the next 3 weeks traveling around.

Wow, three weeks in Morocco.   Sounds like bliss.

That’s the thing with meeting other travelers.   Your eyes are always opened to the world and how people approach it.

I’ve met so many cool people on this trip and while some people might be impressed by country count, I’m equally impressed by their the way they travel.

Anyway, we chatted for quite a while as we sat on the patio long after our meal was done watching as the day turned into night.

Eventually we got up and headed towards the nearby ferry dock and caught a ferry back to the East Bank at just after 6:00.

Of course we were joined by a friendly Egyptian on the boat.

I had high hopes for him actually as the conversation was actually pretty benign talking about legitimate stuff like how he’s going to school and hopes to move to Germany for engineering.

And then he tried to sell us socks.

Had to ruin it, didn’t he?

After a short walk along the promenade into town, Emily and I parted ways with plans to meet up to go to the airport together tomorrow.

What can I say about today?

It was amazing!

It was literally two days rolled into one but it didn’t feel like it.

I didn’t come out of the day feeling exhausted.   Instead, I came out of it happy and smiling.

It was definately one of the better days of my trip if not the best one.

And it was the perfect way to end my time in Egypt.

Tomorrow, I’m checking out and heading to London where I’ll spend a full day before flying home the following day.

Yes, the Jordan/Egypt trip of 2025 is on it’s home stretch.

But, boy oh boy, do I have some plans for when I get to London!

Stay tuned!

This trip ain’t over yet!