Sunday, October 24, 2010

Crocodile Dundee and Spaghetti Strap Girl

On the Temple Tour
I had planned to spend today moving from Aswan to Luxor via train while stopping along the way at
temples. I decided to do this instead via air conditioned van, which I'm normally not a fan of, in part due to my ridiculously sensitive motion sickness. But it turned out to be a great decision, no sickness, I made it to Luxor in half the time in extreme comfort, and was entertained along the way by other tourists.

In addition to our driver, we had one of the driver's buddies along for the entire ride trying to sell everyone hotel rooms in Luxor. Except for the silent, blue-eyed woman in the hijab whom he left completely alone ;) Enter Mick Dundee. I call him this simply because he was a forty- or fifty-something Australian. An obnoxious one.

So Mick Dundee gets into an animated haggle with the tout, even though he clearly had no intention of taking the hotel room, which turned into the tout offering to let Fundee stay with him and Fundee asking what his wife would think. At which point, the poor tout said, "I have headache," and became silent.

Then there was Spaghetti Strap girl, a twenty-something, loud Russian in a mini skirt (with spaghetti straps, as you might have guessed) who became extraordinarily huffy and offended when someone at one of the temples asked how much she costs. I refrained from suggesting that she look around at how everyone else in Egypt is dressed, deciding hey, she is Russian, she is probably melting from Aswan's version of late October.

Speaking of which, Luxor redefines hot. My hotel is called the Winter Palace. Winter my ass! The pool is looking ohhhhh, so nice.

Free upgrade to the palace in Luxor!

Palace Suite in Luxor
I booked a room at the Luxor Winter Pavillion because these $100 per night rooms come with access to  the adjacent palace gardens. Then I got here and guess what! Free upgrade! The palace rooms are at least 450 Euro, with the nicer suites running upward of 700 Euro. Damn I'm a lucky girl! And I found wi-fi in the lobby. Once I get checked in I'll post some advice on how not to be a tourist, lessons learned from Mick Dundee and Spahetti Strap girl on my tour here from Aswan. Good times, good times!

My Bathroom in Luxor

Two Views!

View from Palace Suite