The Land of no Top Floors, Sun, 27 Feb 2022 | written by Simon
Jemma and Simon at a City, Desert in Africa, Egypt

We got up early, are the very fermented cheese with delicious bread we bought yesterday, and set of to catch or bus to Luxor.

Notes from the 4 hour ride to Luxor

  • The desert is a proper desert, none of the Australian plants
  • The main thing that grows in it is rubbish, sadly
  • There are a number of checkpoints and military structures on the way
  • In fact, everything seems to have guard towers – we’ve seen them in a coal depot, petrol stations, and lots of other walled structures
  • There are surprisingly many little huts where people live, and the bus stopped a few times to drop someone of our pick someone up.
  • A bunch of those are located right next to big power pylons – are these some pylon minders living there?
  • Half-finished hotels, petrol stations and other buildings visible everywhere along the Red Sea
  • Even the buildings that are already lived in, have unfinished top floors, as if they left it open in case they want to add a floor later.
  • The opposite highway lane isn’t right next to us, but some 100m away. Want? There is space! How does it work with repairs?
  • The change of scenery as you get to the Nile is massive
  • Donkeys everywhere!

We got to Luxor nearly two hours late and despite some very persistent taxis and carriages, we just walked to our accommodation at the Venus Hostel. The staff are super friendly, gave us tea and coffee, some good advice, pointed out a great food joint and shared some of their food. We ate and went to the markets. We were almost immediately approached by a scammer who posed as a cook from the hostel and told us that because we’re from the hostel, he’ll lead us to the local market the tourists don’t know about. The market was indoors and empty, and sold only tourist tat, so it was pretty clear this isn’t a real thing, but I really wanted to buy a galabiya, and I thought I haggled a decent enough price, so I bought it anyway. And then immediately regretted it as it became clear that the fabric and the shape are both crap. It wasn’t expensive, but thankfully, Jemma talked me into going back and getting my money back. And amazingly enough, they did give it back!

Even more amazingly, we walked a bit around the actual locals market and found a fabric shop, where the guy actually had nice fabrics and said he can make one for me within three hours for basically the same price. Not only this, but he cut the fabric, took us on his motorbike for a mad ride to the tailor, who measured me and got to work, and another ride back. We then went for a walk around the rest of the market, hang out by the Nile a bit, and lo and behold, as we showed up at the fabric seller’s place after 8pm, he drove us yet again to the tailor and I got an absolutely wonderful galabiya! Totally the best adventure of the day.

Our hostel has a roof terrace, so we spent the rest of the evening there.

Assorted observations for today:

  • The tourist market and the local market are basically next to each other, but couldn’t be more different. The tourist market has a sun shade all along, the local doesn’t. The local has live chickens, the tourist has jewellery. The clothes sold are completely different. The difference in clenliness is huge. And naturally, the vendors are about 20x more annoying on the tourist market.
  • All animals are very skinny, and the horses and donkeys are getting quite mercilessly whiped.
  • The motorbike riders are pretty intense, especially with so many kids on the streets!
  • I love being a pedestrian here! Can basically do anything. They just respect your ability to decide, not expect you to follow rules.