Time flies and we have been in Egypt for a week already! Today we finish our cruise and checked out from Sonesta St George at 8am.
The crew is amazing and kids gave the cruise thumbs up!
With our luggage safely tucked in the van, we headed to Karnak Temple on the East Bank of Nile River in Luxor. It is the largest temple ever built and it is indeed spectacular with its endless columns to explore. The avenue of Sphinx leads into the courtyard of the temple where rows of huge columns spans the area. There was 2500 sphinx build and so far 1400 has been discovered. Excavation works are still ongoing, hoping to find more of the sphinx. The special feature of this sphinx is it is face of ram with lion body compared to other sphinx with human face and lion body. Further in, we can see some statues of Hatchepsut but most of them has been disfigured or destroyed by her stepson. The most magnificent features of this temple is the vast number of columns spanning the courtyard.
As the area of the temple is huge, not all the area is open for visitors. There are certain area which is closed for restoration works and we saw them rebuilding one of the statues but no photos were allowed.
After Karnak Temple, we are headed to Luxor Temple. They are not far away and are actually link by the avenue of sphinx in the ancient time. For now, we had to drive around it and not able to walk the avenue of sphinx.
Luxor Temple is just by the River Nile and also very near the Luxor train station. Once we reach, we were greeted by six large statues sitting on the entrance majestically. This temple has been build by many people over the years so we could see many different side of it. There are roman scriptures, church with painting of last supper and the disciples, mosque, and some of the pharaoh’s carving and statues. Interesting to walk around the place.
TIPS: There are usually people guarding the entrance to toilets at these attractions so prepare some EGP 1 coins and can give it to them when using the toilet.
After a quick stop at McD for our lunch takeaway, we head to airport for our flight back to Cairo. There is not much to do at the airport, one cafe and a souvenir shop at the domestic departure are and that’s basically it.
Flight back is again fully booked with close to 90% of the seats occupied.
Once back to Cairo, we tried to get Uber instead of booking limousine. The Uber costs us EGP 150 vs limousine which cost us EGP330, more than 50% off. The waiting point is at parking area B5 and C2.
Today we have booked a covid test with Pure Health (certified by Emirates for pre-flight Covid Test). It costs us EGP 368 per person for the test and we paid extra EGP 100 for the staff to come to our hotel.
It has been many days since we ate Chinese food so we decided to head to Peking @ Zamalek area. Little did we know that the traffic at 5pm is crazy. The journey usually takes 20 mins but we only reach after an hour and the worse is that the restaurant has closed down!
Luckily we met one lady who point us to this place called Crave, around 10 minutes walk. The food there is amazing! I particularly like their seafood risotto and dynamite chicken(starter). Did I mention that the food portion in Egypt is crazily huge. It doesn’t matter whether you get in cafe, or hotel restaurant. Everything is just HUGE! After 1-2 days, we have learn that ordering 2 main courses for four of us is more than enough.
After a rush dinner, we manage to head home before our covid test appointment time.
Wish us luck- hopefully tested negative and we can go back to Dubai!
