A day on the West Bank.

I poured another gorgeous breakfast down me out on the balcony and have 2 whole boiled eggs as today is going to be a longish day in the valleys. Before you ask, I am afraid I have decided not to do the Valley of the Kings this time as I have it so often in the past and as they are not allowing people to climb up to the top of the hill to look down at Hatchetfaces temple from the top - one of the most wonderful views I know - there is no point.

What I want to do is take a look at some of the tombs and temples I have only seen once before and that with loads of other Stinkende Menscheid, and as I feel I can see them entirely on my own this time, and as they are all rather ramped, that is my plan for today.

So I shall go to the Valley of the Artisans and the Nobles, the temple of Qurna and one other whose name I cant remember. I shall also use the same guide as I used at Karnak, and since I returned to the hotel and told my Mr Fixit friend on the front desk who it was I used, he has been oohing and aaahing at me ever since, as apparently Mohammed is one of the most respected tour guides in Luxor. He has apparently been doing it for 32 years and there are few who are his equal.

Mohammed is here on the dot of 9.30 and I am afraid has to wait. His Majesty here  thought we had agreed 10 and so was still wallowing in his bath. But that was OK, and ere long we were waltzing down the road together to the public ferry. Mohammed was already rat tatting facts and figures at me about what we were going to see and I had to tell him to slow down a little as my addled brain really wasn't going to cope with all that stuff this early in the morning - I can manage most things for about an hour between about midday and one before descending into my usual state of stupor!

The public ferry - which much to my amusement actually only costs £E1 each way - that little rat who put me on it ripped me off after all the other day! - and we sat on the top deck in the lovely sunshine. The expanse of the Nile really I impressive when seen head on, though the lack of traffic, whether Felluccas or Cruise Boats does give it a slightly synthetic air.

The ferry was full of locals going about their business. Schoolkids on their way to school - late? Women carrying their shopping in plastic bags on their heads (well, I assume it is their shopping…might well be contraband!) men in groups talking earnestly about one assumes what has been happening in the country of late. 

One thing that does strike me is that there is not a great deal of joy or happiness about. No laughing, or joking - other than of course amongst the children who act out as loons as usual! - the grown ups however just sit there talking. Maybe there really is a sense of uncertainty in this new democracy. I have already seen on the BBC there are riots, and fairly violent ones, about wage increases and other demands for the accoutrements of a country with a new sense of freedom. 

There is also a sense of Mubarak not having been so bad after all. Even in the West whilst of course we regarded him as a dictator, he was not regarded in the same mould as say Saddam Hussein or Idi Amin. He was a benevolent dictator…and when they are overthrown, there is always trouble. My own feeling is that we have not seen the end of the Egyptian story, though at the moment everyone is feeling their way forward.

We arrived on the other side and got into the taxi that would take us out to the valley. 

We arrived at the ticket counter - there is one central location for tickets to all the West bank sights. I asked them, as I had at Karnak how many tickets they had sold today. The answer ? 6!  

How many on a normal day in the season? 7000 - 10000. It really is desperate here at the moment. Absolutely desperate.

Before going any further, may I once again state that I am not going to be able to remember off my own bat the minute detail of what we saw and the meaning of all the paintings we see. My mind is like a sieve at the best of times and so I have asked Mohammed to join me for breakfast on my last day here, Wednesday, and go through the photos and put some detail on each one. It is the best I can offer!

Out first visit was to the Valley of the Artisans. In the general scheme of things these tombs and have only recently been discovered and are arguably contain the most beautiful of all the tombs. I mean CAroline is an artist, and she certainly reserves her most detailed work for her family, and wouldn't most people.

This painting apparently suggests the owner of this house had a swimming pool !

It is in my view absolutely essential to have a guide with you, as it is only when you have pointed out the various segments of a painting in a tomb that it all begins to make sense. Groups of people facing one way are travelling to Aswan, facing the other coming from Aswan. Darked skins means Nubians, lighter skins Northerners (haha!) the detail of children playing in the fields as their parents work is amusing. Girls employed to entertain are depicted waring bikinis (which puts paid to the myth of the Italians/Brasilians/Cubans or whoever having invented them!) and topless, looking for all the world most attractive !

It is the detail of what appears to be family life which I found the most interesting, and little vignettes within some of the paintings. There is one where the painter obviously made a mistake in the profile of the lady he was depicting, and then tried to correct it. The profile of the chin is too high and so there is a second chin painted in by way of correction.

Grapes depicting a pergola of vines

There is another absolutely amazing ceiling on one of the tombs depicting a oh, I cant think of the word right here, but is a covering to a terrace made of grapes. It is fantastic and the quality of the paintings as such that one could think they were painted last year and not 3000 or so years ago. I thought of course that it depicted this particular artisans love of wine….of course not, it was his love of sitting on his terrace, sipping a cold Sakara and scoffing peanuts as the sun went down ! I can relate to that!

Next we visited the Valley of the Nobles. Same thing, but not QUITE as detailed. It was quite a climb up to some of the tombs and at one of them we asked the gatekeeper how many times he had opened the tomb recently for visitors to go inside. He told us we were the first visitor to his particular tomb for more than 2 weeks. Hmm.

There is a lot of critical comment going around at the moment about the 'rape' of Luxor (someone elses emetic words, not mine by the way!) There is much criticism of the building of the Avenue of the Sphynxes and the fact that a rather picturesque village perched by the Valley of the Artisans has been forcibly vacated with the owners of the houses having been allocated new houses in a development some distance away.

I have to say having chatted about it at some length with Mohammed I am shifting my position from one of uninformed outrage to one of slightly more informed approval. Yes, on the surface it is wrong to throw people out of their houses for the sake of what appears to be naked commercialism. But of course there is another side to the question. 

The sanitation in some (all?) of these houses is not only beyond what we could ever imagine, with years of effluent just pouring down into the ground (and in the case of the valley into the tombs that lie below the houses) and this is a situation that is felt cannot continue.

Sorry about the scarf....God knows why I bought it !

But my interpretation of what is happening here is this. History is disappearing from our world being destroyed everywhere for the sake of the advancement of technology and our modern way of life. Old houses are being destroyed for new ones, the Swiss, for instance clad old houses in modern stone to make them look up to date 'hip', the english ridicule someone like Prince Charles for daring to speak out against some ghastly development to be built by a couple of upper class chavs where Chelsea Barracks used to stand. His wonderful village of Poundbury in Dorset is derided by some as a backward step, when buildings ilke some of the ones we see going up around the world are lauded to the skies (literally) as being cutting edge and as defining (by those who think they know about these things) where the world is heading.

Here in Luxor history is being restored, unearthed on almost a daily basis below the tin shack houses that lie above them. The avenue of the Sphynxes, despite still in my humble opinion being something of a Folie de Grandeur, will when (if) completed be a breathtaking spectacle which will really turn Luxor into the open air museum it is being touted as.

There seems to be a real attempt to turn Luxor back into the upmarket town it was in the days of King Farouk, with new hotels being built everywhere - there is a 4 seasons hotel going up on the banks of the Nile which will be the last word in Luxury. Even the Winter palace is in on the act, building a new wing, and with a whole new hotel, to be called the Lixor Hotel, going up next door. There is obvious enthusiasm and drive to achieve what I think will be one of the most amazing holiday destination for those with even just an inkling of an interest in ancient history. 

I am not a natural historian in any shape of form, though in part due to the son of a friend of mine who every time he sees me talks, nineteen to the dozen of little other than history, and in part due to Caroline's son Oscar having a similar interest in the subject (though a different period) I have become aware of it's fascination for people in the last few years and am enjoying my time here 'learning' more than ever.

After the tombs we headed off to the temple of thigabob still on the West Bank. I was beginning to feel rather templed out and my attention span, short at the best of times, was beginning to peter out, but my attention was  briefly grabbed when Mohammed pointe out the living arrangements in the temple, pointing out where the bedroom, the bathroom, the loo and the throne room was for both the King and Queen!

But I was pretty much ready to go home and also to eat something. We returned to the river and without really being consulted I was shown up to a restaurant called Old Africa or something and sat down. Without a by your leave I had a very touristy looking menu plonked beside me and told to chose what I wanted off it.  I am afraid I didn't play ball and told them what I wanted to eat, and if they didn't have it I would leave and go elsewhere. Tourists don't normally talk like this and they looked suitably put out! Good, I didn't like the place at all. It had a view of the Nile which was almost obstructed by a forest of overhead electrical wires and a telegraph pole right in the middle.

The food arrived and was absolutely revolting. Deep fried Aubergine with oil oozing out of it, some chips which were frozen, a tomato salad made with anaemic looking tomatoes, some tahini which was ok, and some awful bread. I played with all this for a while and then gave up and asked for the bill. They tried charging me far too much for such a lousy meal…I paid them E£40 and was jolly glad to see the back of the place. I am slowly getting the impression that the West Bank really isn't a patch on the East Bank…and is where all the people who come here in a strictly limited budget come and stay. They try to sell this place - particularly the village of Al Gezira, as the place where all the Egyptian charm is hidden….for me its a place where all the super tat is hidden…and not very well at that!

I returned to the hotel and had a rest for an hour or so, and then joined Cat for another cruise on the Nile in his sailing boat. This time we went to Banana Island which is a little upriver and once again on the West Bank. Again, absolute rubbish. It is basically couple of banana plantations, a braying donkey which brays when you go near it - I videoed it and then played it back…it rather cutely pricked its ears up and listened when it heard what I suppose was for it another donkey, and a rather grubby looking restaurant where we sat down for a coffee. They give you a bunch of bananas to eat which was quite a nice touch. But that is it. Banana Island is in quite a nice location and they could make so much more of it. West bank'ism again maybe ?

As we returned to the quay it was about 6 o clock and the sunset was just happening. At the same time the call to prayer started up. I always find the sound of the call to prayer a most attractive one, and so sailing down the Nile at sunset with the noise of the call to prayer resonating from both side of the river was really a very special experience!

No sooner as we had landed, and of course had drunk the obligatory and rather good cup of tea Cat always makes when we return to base, than I was hotfooting it off to the Temple of Luxor, which is just down the road, to meet Mohammed again who was to show me round.

To walk around and see a temple lit up at night is also an amazing experience. Luxor temple, right bang slap in the middle of the town, is very well lit up, and has lots and lots of columns which of course make for good photos. I am furious as my Pentax has given up the ghost temporarily, despite having had it repaired in the UK, and so I am currently using a small Lumix which I have to say was on the edge of it's capabilities in that sort of light, but I was still pretty pleased with what came out. To see the avenue of Phynxes, although fat from complete, lit up at night was a wonderful sight, and one can see what it is the man here is trying to achieve. Once complete it will be a truly amazing thing to see!

And it's still not over. After Luxor Temple I went back to Cat at the quay for another quick dash across the river. I was very keen to see the hills that I can see from my window lit up, from close by. They look fantastic from afar, and I felt they would look pretty good from close up.

Charon crossing the Styx !

They have basically flood-lit the entire Nubian Hills on the West Bank where the Valleys of the Nobles and Artisans are. So we took a taxi from Al Gezira and drove out to see what we could find. Pretty impressive but my camera was really struggling with it all. I took a few photos and was reasonably pleased with them, when a call came through from a friend of Mohammed that we could visit Hatsheputs temple by night. This was really something amazing as apparently it is closed in the evening. 

We hotfooted it off there and drove up to it. It does look amazing in the evening. I had not visited this time but was pleased I went there this evening. We walked past the gate - of course I had to give the guardians there a few pounds - and as we walked towards the temple suddenly the lights went on illuminating the columns. Absolute beyond words how beautiful it looked. Unfortunately my camera really could not cope with the light differential between the surrounding hills and the lights on the columns, but I was pleased having been able to see it all from close quarters.

As we approached the temple voices started calling out from the hills surrounding the temple. They are the security guards who stay high up in the hills to keep a watch, I suppose for people like us ! Out guide called back to them and so we carried on, but it was a pretty eerie feeling.

Mahammed suddenly got a phone call and told me we had to hurry back to the taxi as the police were on their way, and it was totally illegal what we were doing. I had visions of prison and worse, but Mohammed told me they would probably confiscate my camera, and so I quickly took out the SD card, took a few token photos on the internal memory and hoped I would get away with that!

The police did arrive but were perfectly nice, suggested we might like to go somewhere else as quickly as we could, and then actually apologised to me for causing trouble, but said we were not allowed to be here. Phew…photos saved.

I returned to the hotel - by this time it was 9 o clock and was starving, and decided I would go the whole hog and eat in the Hotel's La Corniche restaurant which has been empty all week. 

The Winter Palace has 2 restaurants. The Corniche, which is run of the mill fancy, and the 1885 restaurant which is super-fancy, where you aren’t allowed in unless you come from south of Watford Gap and where you are required to wear a shirt and tie…preferably with some trousers and shoes attached for good measure.

The 1886 (I don’t know, and cant be bothered to look it up!) is closed due to lack of anyone staying at the hotel (apart from me!) but they resolutely keep the Corniche restaurant open, with each table made up and waiters in full regalia waiting forlornly in the hope of even one customer!

Well, tonight they got one. I gave my dusty shoes to be cleaned by the shoeshine boy, went up stairs and put a new pair of trousers, a clean shirt..my fancy new aquamarine one too from Honolulu..eh, a pair of pink socks to add to the spectacle and came back down to the restaurant to eat dinner. Oops…forgot to pick up the shoes, so returned sotodo!

I had the choice of any table I wanted – indeed could have eaten each mouthful of soup at a different table had I wanted to – so took the one slap bang in the middle. I set up my computer to write and was brought the Me and U!

I chose chicken soup, not expecting much, and then chose a Fish Tagine.

I was brought the fish soup by two waiters – one brought the soup, the other the bread. I picked up the silver soup spoon and started. It was delicious. Creamy and really tasting of chicken. Wonderful.

Next came the Tagine. Well, I stick resolutely by my comment that a Tagine should not be eaten East of Algiers, as this was no Tagine – a Tagine in my book has lots of Ras Al Hanout in it, or other spices in other countries and should come served in a plate with a funny looking hat on it – but whatever it might be termed it was damned good ! Really excellent. It was served with roasted peppers and onions, had a thick tomato sauce and came with lots of pieces of Nile Perch.

sat in splendid isolation in the middle of this wonderful restaurant, with 2 waiters hovering over me when they thought I needed something. I accidentally on purpose dropped my napkin to see what would happen….there was almost an accident in the  frantic scramble by the 2 waiters to bring me a new one…always a good test of a restaurant, and listened to Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 over the loudspeakers.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end eventually ….and I finished the fish thing! I really couldn’t manage a pudding so I sort of fiddled about for a few minutes and eventually asked them to bring the bill over. It was perfectly reasonable, indeed I worked out it was only 30 more Egyptian Pounds than the meal I had at Om Thingamibob the other day.