i haven't conquered upper case. off to luxor and mummification
museums shortly, followed by a drink on the terrace of the winter
palace hotel. morning was tombs of the nobles, village of the workers
and a hot air balloon ride. should probably have stuck with at least
a morning of planned nothing. the hotel (look up the Al Moudira on
the west bank of luxor) is luxurious, particularly after a week in a
toyota land rover with no ac- blowing sand, heat, and seven people, as
in addition to our guide - now known as Mohamed of the Desert in
comparison to Mohamed III, our current, not so good guide- we had the
driver and either a chef (for the night camped in the white desert-
think river trip without the river) or a policeman. the desert was
spectacular and like many such places, far away from anywhere else.
we drove 1,000 miles in all. the white of the white desert is a soft,
chalky limestone. in places it is covered with iron pyrite in lovely
shapes. although I'm sure no one else complies, we were good and
followed the national park rules asking us not to remove the love iron
pyrite flowers our driver abu talled and chef passam presented us
with. they are now up to 40,000 visitors a year and the resistance to
new Egyptian national park regulations - remove toilet paper and human
waste, stay on tracks, etc.- is strong. it is all stunning, as you
will see someday in photos. as usual our highlights are more the
interactions with people. passam declaimed long epic poems he had
written himself and i almost understood Arabic. we now know a few
words and phrases- all well received in the desert oases and not so
much here in luxor. our favorite hotel and food- we eat basically the
same meal morning, noon and night- was in Bahariya where the staff
were so gracious and welcoming and delighted to see us at all times.
it reminded us of the recapture lodge as a place to use as home away
from home base. everything we saw was reminiscent of something
(indio, bluff, etc.) and not. so much sand and vast expanse and we
were just on the eastern edge of the great sand sea. we have now
personally experienced the environment of deposition of aeolian
sandstone. oases are not a few palm trees and a pool of water; rather
small cities or strings of villages, green bands in the desert, strung
out along old camel tracks and routes used by conquering armies-
greeks, romans, etc. we saw mummies and tombs, an old roman fort, the
oldest coptic christian cemetery in the world. the tombs are
surprisingly moving- the people so real you feel you could meet them
on the street. think a family album of snapshots from the afterlife.
time to go. tomorrow we leave on the dahabiya for a week of sailing
from here to aswan. in real life, we spend the next two nights moored
somewhere around luxor. love to all, toni
palace hotel. morning was tombs of the nobles, village of the workers
and a hot air balloon ride. should probably have stuck with at least
a morning of planned nothing. the hotel (look up the Al Moudira on
the west bank of luxor) is luxurious, particularly after a week in a
toyota land rover with no ac- blowing sand, heat, and seven people, as
in addition to our guide - now known as Mohamed of the Desert in
comparison to Mohamed III, our current, not so good guide- we had the
driver and either a chef (for the night camped in the white desert-
think river trip without the river) or a policeman. the desert was
spectacular and like many such places, far away from anywhere else.
we drove 1,000 miles in all. the white of the white desert is a soft,
chalky limestone. in places it is covered with iron pyrite in lovely
shapes. although I'm sure no one else complies, we were good and
followed the national park rules asking us not to remove the love iron
pyrite flowers our driver abu talled and chef passam presented us
with. they are now up to 40,000 visitors a year and the resistance to
new Egyptian national park regulations - remove toilet paper and human
waste, stay on tracks, etc.- is strong. it is all stunning, as you
will see someday in photos. as usual our highlights are more the
interactions with people. passam declaimed long epic poems he had
written himself and i almost understood Arabic. we now know a few
words and phrases- all well received in the desert oases and not so
much here in luxor. our favorite hotel and food- we eat basically the
same meal morning, noon and night- was in Bahariya where the staff
were so gracious and welcoming and delighted to see us at all times.
it reminded us of the recapture lodge as a place to use as home away
from home base. everything we saw was reminiscent of something
(indio, bluff, etc.) and not. so much sand and vast expanse and we
were just on the eastern edge of the great sand sea. we have now
personally experienced the environment of deposition of aeolian
sandstone. oases are not a few palm trees and a pool of water; rather
small cities or strings of villages, green bands in the desert, strung
out along old camel tracks and routes used by conquering armies-
greeks, romans, etc. we saw mummies and tombs, an old roman fort, the
oldest coptic christian cemetery in the world. the tombs are
surprisingly moving- the people so real you feel you could meet them
on the street. think a family album of snapshots from the afterlife.
time to go. tomorrow we leave on the dahabiya for a week of sailing
from here to aswan. in real life, we spend the next two nights moored
somewhere around luxor. love to all, toni
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