Luxor - Lili on the Loose

30 08, 2018

Egypt Travelogue: Day 12, Part 1 – Valley of the Kings

By Lili|August 30th, 2018|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: 2015, Africa, Cruise, cruise ship, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, Egypt Travelogue, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, King Tut, KV11, KV6, KV62, KV8, KV9, Luxor, Luxor West Bank, Merneptah, Middle East, Mummy, Nile, Nile Cruise, Ramesses III, Ramesses IX, Ramesses V, Ramesses VI, Tomb, Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings, West Bank|0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Monday November 2, 2015 Egypt: Day 12, Part 1 – Valley of the Kings Once again, I awoke early to finish packing as we'd not be returning to the cruise ship, our bags instead would be taken onto our next hotel. I paid the last of my bill and then we all piled into a bus to take us to the Valley of the Kings. We crossed the Nile and past green fields and local houses and came out into

1 11, 2017

Egypt Travelogue: Day 11, Part 3 – Luxor Stroll

By Lili|November 1st, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: 2015, Africa, bargaining, Camel, Cruise, cruise ship, Dream of Egypt, earrings, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, Egypt Travelogue, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, ghost, Ghost Ship, Luxor, Luxor Temple, Middle East, Nile, Nile Cruise, shopping, Souk, Tea, Zahi Hawass|0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Sunday November 1, 2015 Egypt: Day 11, Part 3 – Luxor Stroll In Aswan and Kom Ombo our cruise ship had been tied up in a row with another ship, so we actually left our lobby and entered directly into another ship's lobby before getting to a gangplank to go ashore. However, in Luxor, hundreds of ships were tied up along the shore, sometimes 10 deep. But this time they weren't fancy other cruise ships, but the decaying unused ones.

11 09, 2017

Travel Missteps: Luxor Locked In

By Lili|September 11th, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2015, Africa, bargaining, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Locked, Locked in, Luxor, Middle East, Nile Cruise, Souk|0 Comments

Photo by Elizabeth I'm not good at bargaining, as I'm just too nice and not good with that type of confrontation. Which is why Elizabeth, my friend from Middle School, ended up being my "Anger Translator" as she later joked on our trip of Egypt together. She stopped me from paying too much for things and got touts to stop hassling us. But it was definitely my fault that got us locked into a store in Luxor. I was thinking about getting a copper plate or bowl. I had seen one I really liked in Aswan, but decided

29 08, 2017

Egypt Travelogue: Day 11, Part 2 – Unexpected Nile Shopping

By Lili|August 29th, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: 2015, Africa, bargaining, boat, Cruise, cruise ship, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, Egypt Travelogue, Esna, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, ghost, Ghost Ship, Luxor, Luxor Temple, Middle East, Nile, Nile Cruise, shopping, table cloth, Tea|0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Sunday November 1, 2015 Egypt: Day 11, Part 2 – Unexpected Nile Shopping When we got back to the cruise ship, we had breakfast and talked about people's jobs. After this fortification, we had a group meeting to remind us of the time we should be near the Esna Lock. After a full morning, I decided to go back to the room and rest a bit. I found a towel elephant awaiting us! After resting for a while I thought

13 05, 2017

Souvenir Saturday: Camels vs Sand

By Lili|May 13th, 2017|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2015, Africa, Camel, Camels, Dream of Egypt, Dream Trip to Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Luxor, Middle East, sand, Souk, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site|0 Comments

I really wanted to get my friend's kids gifts from Egypt. I had spied some small stuffed camels in Cairo, and figured that would be good. But after traveling for almost 2 weeks, I still hadn't found the right ones yet. Some were too big, some were to scary (really, dancing and singing stuffed camels are weird), some were made...of real camel? I was hoping for something small, something that wouldn't be made of questionable materials, and something cheap. While in the Luxor souk I wandered into a shop that had these small camel keychains. The young seller made small

29 12, 2016

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

By Lili|December 29th, 2016|Categories: Attractions & Sights, Travel|Tags: Abu Simbel, Africa, Ancient, Antigua, Assisi, Aswan, Austria, Barrier Reef, Basilica of San Francesco, Bath, Belize, Cairo, Caye Caulker, Central America, Champs Elysées, Chichen-Itza, Coiba, Dahshur, Dashur, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, Egypt, Eiffel Tower, England, Europe, Florence, France, Germany, Giza, Great Pyramids, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Guatemala, Hadrian's Wall, High Dam, Holy See, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Leanding Tower of Pisa, Loreley, Louvre, Luxor, Mayan, Memphis, Mexico, Middle East, National Park, Necropolis, North America, Notre-Dame, Nubia, Panama, Panama Viejo, Paris, Petra, Philae, Philae Temple, Piazza del Duomo, Pisa, Pompeii, Pyramids, Ramesses II, Rhine River, Rhine Valley, River Seine, Roman Walls, Rome, Rüdesheim, ruins, Sainte Chapelle, Salzburg, Saqqara, Scotland, Seine, Siena, snorkel, Thebes, Tikal, Travel Thursday, UK, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, United Kingdom, USA, Vatican City, Venice, Venice Lagoon, Verona, Wesminster Abbey, Westminster, World Heritage, Yellowstone National Park|0 Comments

"Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration." - UNESCO There are thousands of world heritage sites. I've been to 30 of them: Salzburg Austria Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg A turtle in Belize Belize Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System Ramses Temple at Abu Simbel Egypt Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis Historic Cairo Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to

20 10, 2016

Death on the Nile: The Ghost Ships of Egypt

By Lili|October 20th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories|Tags: 2015, Africa, Aswan, Cruise, cruise ship, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, G Adventures, ghost, Ghost Ship, Google Earth, Google Maps, Luxor, Middle East, Nile, Nile Cruise, Travel Thursday|0 Comments

Ghost Ships at Luxor Temple Preparing for my trip to Egypt, I read many blogs. One of the unique articles I read was "Egypt's Modern Day Ruins: The Nile River Cruises of Yesteryear" from Roaming Around the World. It was fascinating to read about the fact that tourism has dropped so much in Egypt that out of over 350 Nile Cruise Ships that use to be working less than 15 are still in use. I marveled at the photos of the dilapidated Ghost Ships, decaying in the desert heat. Rows of mothballed ships. Source And I wondered

6 06, 2016

Travel Missteps: Desperate for Some Ice Cream

By Lili|June 6th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2015, Africa, deir el bahri, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Hatshepsut, Hatshepsut's Temple, Ice Cream, Luxor, Middle East, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site|1 Comment

One of my biggest fears of going to Egypt was that it would be horribly hot and I'd get terribly sunburnt. Thankfully, going in late October/early November was a good choice, as while the weather was still warm, it wasn't scorching...except for the one day I was on the West Bank of Luxor touring the tombs at the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir el-Bahri. That day I was so full of excitement, and had planned as best as I could. Wearing light clothes and hat, with plenty of water and sunscreen, I set out. And it truly

17 02, 2016

30 at 30: Best Experiences So Far

By Lili|February 17th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories|Tags: Abu Simbel, Africa, Anaheim, Antigua, Asia, Aswan, Bath, Belize, Belize Barrier Reef, Bent Pyramid, birthday, Bostan, California, camping, Canyon Ranch Spa, castle, Caye Caulker, Cenote, Central America, Champ de Elysee, Chino, chocolate, Christmas Market, CIE, Concert, concert photography, Costa Rica, Dahshur, Dashur, DC, Disneyland, Egypt, England, Epiphany Night, Europe, Ewok, fireworks, Florida, France, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Germany, golf carts, Great Britan, Guatemala, Harry Potter, haunted, Ik Kil, Ik Kill cenote, Ireland, Island of Adventure, Italy, Japan, Karnak, Lake Placid, Las Vegas, Latin America, lightsaber, Luxor, Massachusetts, memories, Mexico, Middle East, Munich, museum, Nagano Prefecture, Nevada, New York, North America, Orlando, Paris, photography, Playa Del Carmen, Pyramids, racing, Red Pyramid, reef, Rome, San Francisco, sharks, sheep, Sister Cities, snorkeling, Spa, St. John, Star Wars, Suwa, swimming, temples, The Vatican, Tokyo, tombs, tour, Trafalgar, Trajan's Column, travel experiences, trolly, Tucson, UK, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Universal Studios, USA, USVI, Vatican, Vatican City, Washington DC, white water rafting, Wizarding World of Harry Potter, yukata|1 Comment

Today is my birthday, and I've hit the "Big 3-0". I wanted to look back at 30 of my favorite travel memories in my life, in no particular order: Fulfilling my dream of going to Egypt, seeing so many amazing tombs and temples Sitting alone in the temples of Abu Simbel and Karnak Climbing into and on top of a pyramid Wandering the Christmas Markets of Munich Seeing the castles of Germany Taking a haunted trolly/walking tour of Boston graveyards. Seeing as many museums as I could in Washington, DC Swimming with sharks in Belize Racing golf-carts on Caye Caulker Making

11 02, 2016

Night Train to Aswan

By Lili|February 11th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travel Tips|Tags: 2015, Africa, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, Dream of Egypt, Edfu, Egypt, Esna, Giza, Kom Ombo, Luxor, Middle East, night train, Qena, train, train travel, Travel Thursday|0 Comments

Farmland out the window. On my trip to Egypt, I spent one night on the sleeper train from Cairo to Aswan. The train from Cairo to Aswan for tourists only runs at night, so you must take the night train. It took about 13 hours. Here are my thoughts on the experience. The Station I boarded at the Giza Station. I was a bit sad as I was hoping to see the famed Ramses Station and its beautiful architecture, but we were on the Giza side of Cairo and it didn't sense to fight traffic back into town. The station is