Luxor, Egypt

After yesterday's hours in the heat, C elected to skip the evening tour of Luxor Temple. I went as it was only a five minute ride away and temperatures would be dropping with the setting sun. Built starting in 1400BCE, the temple is located in the current city along the banks of the Nile. In ancient times the city was known as Thebes. Legend has it the god, Amon, was reborn here during the yearly reenactment of the pharaoh's coronation.

During the Roman era, some of the hieroglyphics were covered over with frescoes of Christian saints.

Luxor’s temple is connected to the Karnak temple by the Avenue of Sphinxes.

The next morning we toured Karnak, the huge complex that covers 247 acres. Built over a period of 1500 years, starting in 1971BCE, it is a series of elaborate temples and holds the honour of being the largest religious structure on earth.

The sphinxes turned into rams that symbolize the Egyptian god, Amon. Each is protecting a statue of a king between its front legs.

Rika and I participated in the ritual of walking around the scarab statue for luck. You walk a certain number of times for different intentions such as marriage, longevity and wealth.

It's here we learned an important lesson on the custom of baksheesh, the act of tipping that is expected by everyone. We experienced this at the airport as we were standing in the lineup someone came up and moved C's suitcase four feet forward and extended his hand for a tip. If you ask anyone a question they expect a tip. Today we were trying to locate a particular statue for a geocache and decided to ask a uniformed police officer. He lead us to the excavation site, and with nobody around asked us for a tip. We complied and he told us it wasn't enough. This is a cop in uniform. It was generally an uncomfortable feeling. Another example: you expect to tip for services rendered in public washrooms, sometimes by unofficial attendants. I asked in advance what was considered acceptable. We visited a large shopping mall one evening and noticed there were no attendants present. The next day we returned and a woman was there. I was not prepared and dug up what change I had left, the average expected amount. After Rika and I left the ladies room she followed us yelling loudly, presumably that we hadn't given her enough. It's a poor country and people are coping the best they can I suppose.

We returned to the ship to set sail. We were followed by men in a small boat trying to sell tablecloths and blankets to the passengers.

I spent the afternoon sketching the views from the ship, as I packed my watercolours and paper, but forgot my brushes and pouch of art supplies. I was able to pick up a pencil at one of our tour spots at a perfume factory and Bob's your uncle, as they say here in Canada.