Isis had been unsure whether she was going to stay in Luxor for an extra day or try to head down to another place with a temple between Luxor and Cairo. She eventually heard that the other temple was not well preserved and wasn't really worth it, so she stayed in Luxor. After the long day, Kei and I dropped in on her and she said she wanted to visit more temples the next day. It was going to be a do-it-yourself day or temple visiting.
Isis had told us that a place called Habu Temple was absolutely amazing. It had lots of colour and paint left and it was in really good condition. Kei and I had decided that we were going to go there. Isis said she wanted to go back and there were a couple of other places she thought would be good. Kei and I were not long on where we actually planned to go, so we accepted Isis' plans and went along with her itinerary.
First though, we had to take care of some business. Kei was going to go on the bus to the Red Sea town of Dahab. I was supposed to go as well, but it required an overnight bus for 14 hours in a bus that wasn't a sleeper bus. I really didn't look forward to that and I eventually decided that I wasn't going to do that. That meant that I had to go somewhere else. I decided that maybe I would try to find the temple that Isis had talked about between Luxor and Cairo. Then when she said it sounded like it wasn't in good shape, I scratched. I decided that I would return to Cairo and then head to either Suez or Alexandria. I figured I would take a bus. But Isis had booked a train ticket and asked if I would go with on the same train. It was a bit expensive, but the train was going to be more comfortable than the bus, so I agreed. So our first stop of the morning was to the travel agent so that I could try and get a ticket on the train that evening, the same one as Isis.
We got to the travel agent and then Isis' strong personality started to show itself as being sometimes disruptive. We explained that we wanted to try and get me on the same train. The agent tried to sell me a flight, that would have been slightly cheaper, but would also require getting into Cairo from the airport and finding a place to stay, and all at the convenient hour of after midnight. Having experienced that once already, I decided it was just as well to take the train. It would end up being about the same or cheaper. The agent seemed less than thrilled about that. I suppose his commission would have been higher on a flight. Tough nuggies for him. He started working out the train ticket and trying to get Isis and I even in the same cabin. He also asked us what our plans were for the day. We told him we were going to go across the river and tour some temples. He offered us a car and driver. I was leery of this choice. After my experience with the driver at the pyramids, I didn't think it was maybe the best or cheapest option. The other two liked it though and it ended up that we would each only pay 50 pounds each. So we went for that option. But through the whole time, Isis kept at the man, asking him questions and trying to get him to work it all out faster. This, of course, only kept interrupting him and kept him from getting things done very quickly, which only made Isis harp more. Eventually we got her reading a book on her phone and the man got things done, including getting Isis and I in the same cabin on the train. I had begun to wonder though, if I really wanted to be in the same cabin with her.
The bills of sale were drawn up and we were off. But I failed to notice that the itinerary listed for our driver stated three places he would take us. We had talked with the agent about four places.
But we headed off and reached the west bank by about 11 o'clock. Initially the driver thought we were wanting to visit a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of Siti I. We actually wanted to visit his temple. So when we arrived at the Valley of the Kings (and I had recognized the road we were travelling, as I had been on it only the day before), we had to tell him to turn around and go back down to the town area nearby. He seemed a bit annoyed by that, but then he had not listened to the instructions the travel agent had given. He took us to the composite ticket office where we could get tickets for twelve different sites on the West Bank of the Luxor area (not being, of course, the actual West Bank). We purchased tickets for three places: Habu Temple, Deir al-Madina, and the Temple of Siti I. The driver came up and seemed a bit surprised by our choices. He tried to tell us that we weren't going to Deir al-Madina, but the Tombs of the Nobles. But we told him we were going to Deir al-Madina and he gave in. But then I checked the agreement slip and found that we were likely to be faced with trouble later as it listed the Tombs of the Nobled, but not the Deir al-Madina. I let that go for the time being, as we did have a bunch of places to visit and we might not end up with enough time to visit anywhere else, as Kei did have a deadline to be back and meet his bus.
With the plan in hand, the driver decided to go to Deir al-Madina first. This was a tomb area. There were a couple of tombs there open to the public, as well as what looked to be a cemetery, and a temple at the end of the site. We went down into the first tomb, where we had to leave our cameras outside again. Not wanting to trust the attendant, or to be giving baksheesh (tips) after trusting him, I stayed outside with the bags and cameras while the other two went in first. Then they waited while I had a look. It was an amazing tomb. It was very small and cramped to crawl through the little doorways, but the colours were fantastic. There were clear hieroglyphics and all sorts of stuff down in the little space. I was happy we had chosen this place.
The other tomb was similarly small, although not as cramped. Again we were not allowed to take photos, but we didn't get stopped with our bags at the door. But there was attendant there watching the whole time, so surreptitious photos were out of the question. We were offered the chance, several times, by the attendant, but with the requisite payoff for him for the privilege of doing so. We declined. But the colours were again magnificent and it was a really interesting tomb to visit. It was all the better because there were few visitors.
After the two tombs we wandered down to the corner and the temple. And we were amazed again. There were all kinds of scenes carved on the walls. There were lots of hieroglyphics and plenty of paint. And there was no prohibition on photos here. So I took plenty. The attendant tried to make a show of showing us around, even though we virtually ignored his efforts. It didn't keep him from sticking his hand out afterwards, but that is part of this particular beast called being a tourist in Egypt. The temple was worth the hassle and having to ignore his requests though.
There was even a very clear depiction of the weighing of the heart. When a king died, his soul would proceed to the underworld and he would encounter Anubis and a scale with a feather on one side. The king's heart would be placed on the other side of the scale. If the heart rose, meaning the feather was lighter, the king would be judged as having been a good king and he would proceed to heaven. If, on the other hand, the heart sank on the scale because it was heavier, it would mean the king was bad and had committed many bad deeds and the king would go to hell. It is a famous scene from the Book of the Dead, but I have never been able to take a photo of it anywhere because it has always been in places where photos are not allowed. Here I could though. It's cooooool!!
This first stop had taken about an hour and a half, so I was hopeful that we were going to take so much time that we wouldn't have time to get into trouble with our guide about wanting to visit an extra place that wasn't part of the deal we made originally. Our next stop was Habu Temple. Isis had told us it was a very interesting and that she had spent two hours there on her first visit. That would be perfect.
It was an interesting temple. It was set up much the same as Karnak Temple on the East Bank. There were large gates and then the traditional areas for each kind of folk, common, priests, and the top dogs of king, queen and high priest.
Once again well-preserved carvings and paintings adorned the walls.
There was a difference though in these carvings on the walls. Many of the hieroglyphics were very deeply carved, as though Ramses II (who had the temple built) was worried the hieroglyphics might somehow be erased. It turned out that the Habu Temple wasn't as large as I had hoped and we didn't take nearly as much time inside it as would have helped for later. But it was nevertheless interesting and I enjoyed looking around it. Again, there were not that many visitors, which made it that much better.
I also got to listen in on a couple of guides for a few minutes here and there, often in French. (It's amazing how even western, but non-English speaking, people seem to assume that any other westerner doesn't speak their language, be it French, Spanish, or whatever, and when someone might seem to be eavesdropping, since it's in another language, they don't make any attempt to prevent themselves being eavesdropped upon when they would do so if the lecture was in English.) I learned that the temple, when found, was in pieces. It had since been put back together for the most part, but it must have been one heck of a jigsaw puzzle.
Finished with Habu Temple, we headed for the temple of Siti I. I forget where he fit into the whole order of kings, but he was somewhere around Hatshepsut and the others. It doesn't really matter too much I suppose. We went and immediately I knew we were going to be facing difficulties. Over the course of the few days I had known her, I had come to have an idea of how Isis would react to things. Her immediate reaction to the temple was kind of a what-that's-it? Actually it was a general thought amongst the three of us. The ticket for the site was the same price as the other two, so we were kind of expecting a bit grander sight. Instead it was just a small temple in the middle of a much bigger ground, where something much larger had probably been at some point in the past. It seemed to be a bit of a rip-off to me. But more to the point, it was only about 1 in the afternoon, it was not going to take that long to explore and we would have plenty of time afterwards to be getting Kei back to the hotel for his bus at 4:00. And that was going to mean that, as this place would likely prove to be a bit disappointing for us, Isis would be wanting to get the ticket to go the Tombs of the Nobles, one of the places she had been talking up for a couple of days. I groaned a bit inwardly as I knew what was going to happen. We were going to tell the driver we wanted to visit one more place, he was going to point out that our agreement paper only listed three, and the only way out of it all was going to be to pay more money, after a probable argument by Isis to get her way, and without paying any more to boot. But that was going to be a while later. Maybe the temple would surprise me and keep us occupied for longer than I thought it might.
Alas, that was not going to be the case. Isis looked around for a few minutes and then sat down to read a book. When we asked her about why she was reading instead of exploring, she said it was because she liked to read in these sorts of contemplative places. I don't know if Kei was fooled, but I wasn't. She just wasn't that into the place. Oh brother!
Kei and I did look around though. It actually was quite interesting, but there definitely wasn't that much to the place. We were trying to find the carved scene that was shown on the ticket. It looked quite interesting and showed some kind of offering by someone to a god or maybe a king. But despite going in every room and looking at every scene depicted on the walls, it remained hidden from us and we were unsuccessful. It must be in the one place we didn't look. Or it could have been a lot of places. There were a bunch of other nice scenes though and it was overall a nice temple.
By the by, we finished that visit, too. It was only about 1:45 and it was time for the fireworks. Before we reached the gate, I stopped the other and asked what they wanted to do. I knew that Isis wanted to visit the Tombs of the Nobles and so I just asked her if she still wanted to do that. She said yes, so I told them that our written agreement with the travel agent stated that we were visiting only three places and this was going to make four. I felt it was likely the driver was going to kick up a fuss and that we would maybe have to pay for the visit to the extra site. I thought we could probably manage with an extra 50 pounds total, but I wasn't sure. Predictably, Isis stated that we had contracted a service to go to everything we wanted to see and we were not going to be paying any more money. Not her and not either of us. And out we marched to the driver. We told him what we wanted and, like I expected, he pointed to the paper and said that wasn't what was agreed and that we had to go back. So Isis told him he would wait there at the temple, as though we were still inside. We would walk to the Tombs of the Nobles (which was actually too far away for that to be practical) and return and he could then return us to town. She was all set to do so when the driver just decided to take us to the ticket office again. We got in, Isis convinced she had won her way, and proceeded to the ticket office. But the driver had not backed down, he had simply decided to call the travel agent and get help from someone who could actually talk to us, as he spoke very little English. We got to the ticket office and he had gotten in touch with the travel agent. The other two had gone off to get tickets to the tombs, and I was left to talk to the agent. He informed me that if we were going to be continuing our time on the west bank, he would have to charge us a full day's rate and that would come to 150 pounds more. I immediately stopped the other two and had them come back. This was more than I was prepared for. And I am not very good at dealing with that kind of thing anyway. Isis is far more combative than I am and I decided to let her handle it. She argued the agent into what she thought was submission, and we went to get tickets, only to have the travel agent call again and argue with her some more. Her arguments were a bit weak as far as I was concerned, but she was certainly sticking to her guns. We got yet another bystander in on it all and he was trying to translate and explain, but Isis was really having none of it and was on the attack with both the helpful bystander and the driver. I eventually got her calmed down enough to explain that it was neither the bystander's nor the driver's problem. The bystander was trying to help and the driver was just doing what he was told to do. He had explained that he had to go back and get another group and that it was a time issue to him. If we were going to keep him, then the extra charge had to be levied in order to make his lost income from the later charter. Our beef was with the travel agent, who had actually changed the rules when he had talked with me. When we first made the arrangement with him he had written down the agreement, erroneously (and that was on us, me actually), but had mentioned nothing about when the time was up. He mentioned nothing about a half day (which had begun at around 10:30 after the whole deal with the train tickets had been sorted out, so what exactly constituted a half day for the guy was unclear). He mentioned nothing about the driver having other things to do. He mentioned nothing about there being a full day rate if we didn't conclude our activities in time. I don't know what would have happened had we stayed in the three places for long enough to run afoul of the time limit, but I shudder to think of the consequences. That actually probably would have annoyed me enough to become combative myself. As it was, I was torn because we had definitely not examined the written agreement carefully enough to be completely in the right. But I managed to convince Isis to back off a bit and give the people in front of us a break. We would deal with the travel agent later. But we needed to get this settled quickly because the driver was definite that he had to be back by about three to get his next bit of business. And Kei did definitely need to be back to catch a bus at 4:00. If we were not going to compound our problem and have everyone angry we had to deal with this now and get on with our plan. It was eventually worked out that the driver would accept 50 more pounds, but it was on the understanding that we would visit the tombs quickly enough to be back in Luxor by 3.
The tombs actually had four separate tickets, each one allowing a visit to 3 or 4 tombs. We decided that we could visit using only one ticket in the time allowed. Our helpful bystander gave us his opinion on which one would be the best. We purchased that ticket and headed off. Isis was a bit disgruntled, but settled that we would be dealing with the travel agent later.
At the tombs we went in and were immediately set upon by one of the people who lived in the area. He wanted to show us the way to the tombs, despite there being signs pointing the way. I took this as a sign that we would be asked for money. So I stopped with the guy and told him my opinion of that, and that I wouldn't be wanting his help because I didn't want to give him any money. He wheedled and told me he was just trying to look out for his family and that I could spare something for him showing us the way. I told him it would be tough luck and he should just give up the idea and go away because we really were in no mood to be paying anyone anything. He frowned and said something to the effect of, “Fine!” Then he stomped off. And I caught up to the other two. And then a different guy came up and gave the same spiel as the first guy. They started to follow him. I told them to be careful because he would be asking for money in a moment or two. And I said it loud enough for him to hear. He indignantly said he was not going to be asking for money.
He showed us the way to the tombs and told us how to get down to them. Then he stuck out his hand and said, “Candy? Do you have any candy for me?” I almost smiled at that because it was kind of clever, but it still annoyed me more because, despite his gentle seeming approach when he came up to us, his help still wasn't really help at all. It was just a ploy to get something. Nevertheless, called on it before he could get to it, he switched his tack to something else that wasn't money. It deserved a bit of admiration for the ploy. He still got nothing.
Inside the three tombs, those of Ramose, Ouserhat, and Khaemhat, there was more art on the walls. Some of it was quite good and again well-preserved. But it looked much like that I had been seeing now for two days. It was a bit different in that these were nobles, and not kings. The scenes depicted on the walls were of everyday life, not of kings being judged or shown the way to the fabulous afterlife. But they were still tombs and that was starting to get a bit old. I found it was actually a good thing that our time limit only allowed us to visit three of them. I would be getting bored of tombs soon. But again, we were not allowed to take photos. And with the deadline looming over us, I didn't even take any photos of the outside area.
We headed back to the van and, while Isis hit the bathroom, I paid the driver 50 for the extra site and I gave him a tip for all the trouble. He wasn't happy with my tip, but I told him I was tipping him for me, not for the others. I only have so much money. He still wasn't really impressed.
We got in the van and headed back to town. I explained to Isis and Kei (who understood much of the stress of the situation) that we had no particular beef with the driver. He had taken us where we wanted to go and done it without much fuss. And for that, they might consider giving him something for his trouble. They agreed.
So when we reached the hotel, they did pass him a bit of money and he was mollified. He was also just in time for the afternoon tours and would be able to make his next fee. All was well.
We bid Kei farewell. He had to head off to get his Lonely Planet from the restaurant we had eaten at the night before. And Isis and I headed off to deal with the travel agent. But when she found out that I had paid the driver the money already, she was thrown off a bit. She had been planning her arguments to avoid paying anymore to the travel agent, not to try and get anything back. She had to rethink her approach. I told her that I was okay with how things had shaken out. I didn't expect any money back out of it. I was satisfied and I had had a good. She explained that she often thinks that if she isn't happy with a situation, that must mean that nobody is either. She had to rethink that as well, I suppose. In the end it was just too much to worry about, and would take time we didn't want to give to the travel agent. We didn't even go in to see him. But, for the record, he did change the deal, so I would advise against going to get the Thomas Cook travel office on the main tourist drag in Luxor to do anything for you. He played a bit of dirty pool. Of course this had come to seem par for the course in Egypt.
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