Nile Valley - Luxor

Luxor is an interesting city. Locals have spent hundreds of years perfecting the art of ripping off tourists. I don't think we met an honest person the entire time we were there. The minute we got off the train, we were attacked by herds of hotel owners trying to lead us to their hotel. This went on for a good hour while they followed us around town. Hassling is an understatement... harrassment was more like it. The train ticket situation was the worst though. The guy working at the train station would look you in the eye and say that there were no tickets left when there clearly were. The hotel owners buy up the "tourist" tickets, charge you out the roof, then the train ticket guy gets a cut, the "tourist police" get some (their job is to "help" tourists), and of course the hotel owner gets a cut. Gotta make a living any way you can I guess :/
We took the 12 hour night train into Luxor from Cairo and the night bus back. At first I thought that night travel would be a good way to save time and money but after taking 2 buses, 2 flights and one train overnight in the last ten days, I realize that if I keep going at this rate I'll have aged ten years by the time I get home... Who woulda thought!

We spent the first day biking around Luxor. The pictues above are of the city and the ones below are this village that we explored outside of Luxor on the Nile. It was a great time and the people in the village that we met were so much more genuine than the ones in the city.
The whole dressing conservatively thing was really cramping my style! In this heat, soccer shorts and a sleeveless tee would've been just a tad bit more comfortable!

The kids in this village were so warm and friendly. And for some reason, they all wanted us to give them pens. Not money, pens.

The second day we went outside of the city to the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, and the Temple of Hatshepsut. At the Valley of the Kings, we saw the tombs of Ramses I, III, and IV. The Valley of the Queens also contained many tombs for the children of the pharoes. We saw the tomb of Queen Titi, the wife of one of the Ramses (I would be a great tour guide), and her nine year old son. She miscarried in her 6th month and was so upset by her loss that she had the fetus mummified. It was in the tomb with her son! 3,000 year old hierglypic writing in the temple. The hierglypic writings that we saw inside the tombs were from the Book of the Dead and contained recipes for the afterlife, spells, etc. The pic below is an example of the artwork in the tombs... The paint is 3,000 years old! They used eggwhites to keep the color (that's what the guide said at least!)

Yes I know its cheesy.