Suez is a canal. We watch the beginning of the canal from the window of the restaurant of our hotel, the Red Sea Hotel. We search for more than that, but there is nothing. It is no way even remotely a tourist city which in a way makes it interesting. The real people going about real business. Not a drop of alcohol to be found even in a resort area called Soukna.
The tourist police have a fit when we try to leave the hotel to walk around. It is a port and industrial area. We finally arrange for a car and driver. First he takes me to an internet cafe so I can write one of my Jordan series. Then he and Sandra and I go to Soukna, which he recommends as a good place to see. The new port of Soukna is nothing but a strip of restaurants in front of a humongous resort and golf course being built behind. It is a Saudi project. There is a Chilis restaurant there. So much for local color!!! The rest of the area contains only resort after resort on the Red Sea.
We wanted to experience Suez and we did! If one wants to see the canal, a day trip from Cairo will suffice. Or take a cruise ship that sails through it.
Next stop Cairo and Hassan, Safa, Doaa, Hosam & Zeyad; my family in Cairo. Safa greets us like long lost sisters. Soon the boys are home from school and then Doaa from university. It is like coming home to be here with them. They are so hospitable and welcome me as a member of the family, which I feel I am. Zayed (9 years old) especially follows me around like a puppy. All of the children are excellent in English as is Hassan. Safa is very good but is reluctant to speak much. Hassan arrives after he leaves his group for the day and we have a visit with him. Oh, how I love to be here with them. One night at their place and we are leaving in the early AM to go to Luxor, but we will be back for a longer stay.
Our driver is picking us up at 3:30AM. Hassan's flat is on the top (13th) floor. We get our luggage and proceed to the elevator outside the door. Sandra pushes the button. Again. Again. No elevator sound. I go to the terrace and peer over the railing to the street below. Our driver is there, but how do we get to him? Knock Knock on Hassan's bedroom door. I hate to do it, but what can I do? Doaa hears the knocking and appears to help us. She bangs on the door of the elevator shouting for the couple who manage the building. Just at that moment we hear our driver, Mohamed and the manager coming up the stairs. We are SAVED, as soon as we walk down 13 flights of stairs!
We begin the walk down the 13 flights of stairs. The men are in front with our two large cases on their shoulders and the two small ones in their other hand. As we pass each landing one of them has to stop to push the light switch to keep it on. Twice we didn't make the landing in time - black, total black. We make it to the bottom and to the airport on time. Another adventure! BTW Hassan lives in a brand new building only 4 years old! Cairo does have electrical issues on an ongoing basis.
The flight is on time and we are now in Luxor. My other Egyptian family, Ahmed, Kalcum, Sara & Yara live here. Sara is my namesake as Ahmed and Kalcum have named her after me. Ahmed is away with a group so he has arranged for a car and driver to pick us up and take us to the St. George Sonesta where we will stay for the next 4 nights. We luck out once more and are given two rooms each fronting on the Nile with terraces. AHHH the good life. From Sandra's terrace on the 4th floor we can see over to the West Bank. With her binoculars we gaze upon Queen Hatshepsuts Temple, the pryamid rock at the top of the mountain that marks the position of the Valley of the Kings, and some of the painted houses of Kourna on the hills. I long to go there as that is where my soul lives or at least a piece of it. Boukra (tomorrow) we will visit Mohamed of Habu Hotel.
The first evening finds us at Ahmed's place to visit with Kalcum and the girls. Surprise! There is another daughter, Angie. Six months old. Ahmed hasn't told me!! The evening is such fun playing with the girls and visiting with Kalcum. Luxor has changed so much and she tells us about the economy now. The bread crisis is on so we speak about that. It is only one kind of bread, the staple of Egyptian life - pita bread. It appears that some crooked people who bought the flour very cheaply from the government were raising the prices above the set government prices making the bread very expensive. Also now that Luxor is a World Heritage site there is an influx of funds and the city is being brought up to "standards". The hotels by the Luxor temple that are higher than the temple are to be torn down as are any other buildings over height.
Prices on everything are rising sharply, but jobs are not paying any more. Real estate is doubling and tripling monthly. Land is almost out of sight now. What cost 35,000 LE 6 months ago is now 250,000 LE. To put that in dollars, $7,000 to $50,000. Man do I wish I had bought land then!!! Who knew???
A new day is dawning and I am out on my terrace watching the hot air balloons against the background of the sand colored mountains of the west bank. Ballons of red, blue, stripes; 8 in all. One of the red ones seems to be drifting across the Nile to my side of the river on the east bank. As I watch it I cannot believe my eyes. It is going to go through the opening between the two hotels next to mine!!! With camera whirring I film what I think will be nothing but a disaster. Where in the world will they land? They are heading to downtown Luxor! The pilot must have read the wind wrong or is an idiot. I wait for the ineveitable crash or screech or something, but no, nothing. Later I find out that this is the new thing! When the wind is right they do cross the Nile and land somewhere on the east bank. All of a sudden instead of disdain for the pilot, I have a new respect. It takes great skill to thread that balloon through those buildings. I watch for it again each day after, but it never happens again.
Mohamed is waiting for us at the local ferry landing on the west bank. We speed through the villages to my favorite spot on the west bank, Habu Hotel. AHHHH heaven, peace, relaxation. I sit and sip tea as I gaze upon the wonder of Habu Temple just across the country road from the hotel. It is the funerary temple of Rammses III and is the best preserved temple on the west bank of its kind.
Mohamed has just arrived yesterday after 13 days on a mini haj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. As we sit all of his friends stop by to congratulate him and welcome him home. Some school children are in the outdoor cafe across the side country road having a party. They sing and clap and add a joy to the day.
Not much has changed here. Mohamed has some new tables and chairs, a new lattice covering over the downstairs outdoor eating area. New painted murals on the wall and a new floor. His old cat Garoup has died, but her daughter is there and almost her twin. The only difference is she has one green and one blue eye, but is not deaf as cats with two color eyes often are.
Mohamed's uncle, Mohamed (Mohamed is like our John-very common name) is in town. He owns 5 Dahabayias 2 of which are in at the moment. We arrange to go see them. A Dahabyia is a large sailing vessel that was used in the 1800s for tourists, rich Egyptians, the Pashas, etc.to go up and down the Nile. Some archeologists and visitors who spent the winters in Egypt often lived on them.
We approach the mooring place of the Dahabyias and are greeted warmly by Mohamed. He is quite the colorful character. Reminds me of a hollywood type of old time producer or director. The two boats are lovely. One is from 1835 and one from 1843 both lovingly restored in great detail by Mohamed. They are called the Dongola and the Girrafa. Mohamed invites us to attend a sailing ceremony the following day. It will be conducted by a German fellow and has something to do with a water ceremony. It invloves the Dongola and 6 felucca boats (the sail boats on the Nile that are the same as were used in the days of the Pharohs). That's as much as he knows, but we accept because then we get a chance to sail on the Nile on a Dahabyia! Dinner will follow!
Ahmed is back from Abu Simbel and meets us at 6PM to show us what has happened in Luxor so far. What a change. I can hardly recognize some of the areas. The souk has been paved and has a new entrance that kind of reminds me of the Grant Street in San Francisco's China Town gate only made out of wood. There are new western toilets for the tourists that cost 2LE50 (50 cents) to use, but they are clean, new and modern. As we wander down the new paved souk, I feel a pang of regret for the old charming dirt road local souk of days past. New is good, but old is charming and authentic. It doesn't smell like the old souk; a mixture of spice, shisha smoke (water pipe), perfume and old.
Behind Luxor Temple is now a huge open park with paving, grass and plantings. It is now a place to hold festivals, a children's place to play and a gathering place for the town. It is beautiful and the locals do like having it. The streets are wider especially the one leading to the railway station. The railway station now looks like a museum beautifully decorated in Egyptian motif on the outside and very clean and modern on the in. A new visitor's center is being built right across from the station. In the center visitors will be able to book tours, find a hotel to stay, get any and all information about what to do and see in Luxor.
I go back to the hotel with mixed emotions. I feel so fortunate to have seen the Luxor of old, and I miss it. But progress must be made for the tourist industry and so it goes. It is a mixed bag of worms. As Luxor is made new, prices rise and it becomes more attractive for tourism of the modern world, but at the same time what made Luxor an exotic destination is somewhat watered down by the improvements. The locals both benefit and lose. More jobs, which are very badly needed, but no rise in pay to offset the rising prices. However, it is still my love, my Luxor, and my favorite place in Egypt.
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