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Egypt – Melting from Dahab to Luxor

We left Aqaba, on the Jordanian coast, by land into Egypt, but to do that we had to cross Israel. We crossed the first border, passed through the coastal city of Eilat in Israel and in one hour we were crossing the border with Egypt. It has never been so fast to cross a country.

Arriving in Egypt we went straight to Dahab, a town on the Red Sea coast that promised to be paradisiac and that would guarantee us a few days of relaxation. It was just perfect! Apart from the 40 degrees on our head … What an incredible place, with its crystal blue sea that didn’t even look real. We had a nice room with sea view and decided to take a short vacation. Ahahhaha

The region is known as one of the best in the world to scuba dive, so Carol did a diving class, that she didn’t really like it by the way, and got to know two very nice girls, French and Spanish, and the next day we went snorkeling together in the famous “blue hole”, one of the only three places like this in the world. It was just wonderful, with its colored corals with all different forms and a lively marine life with fishes of all colors.

Dahab was perfect to rest and was very empty. Even there you can already see the impacts of the revolution. Restaurants, shops and hotels closed, resorts constructions abandoned along the way and local people desperate to do business. We felt super safe and we wonder what people are missing out of not visiting a so wonderful place.

But all good things in life have a time to end and after 5 days we had to keep going. We took a night bus for 14 hours to get to the famous city of Luxor. The trip was crap and we were dead, in a heat of 45 degrees that makes you want to do anything. So we hide in the cave of our air-conditioned room and left out only at the end of the day to visit the Karnak temple, with a more appropriated temperature.

At the Karnak temple we began to feel in the real Egypt, seeing the architectural style of the temple and all hieroglyphs and egyptian images on its walls, just as we see in movies. A language of a time of kings, of more than 3,000 years ago.

The city of Luxor didn’t pleased us that much, is nothing special and seemed even more deserted than Dahab. We rarely see tourists in the streets, because there are few who are stuck in expensive hotels or tourist buses, the restaurants are always empty and in our hotel we were the only guests. Maybe also because we arrived just at the time of Ramadan and everything seems so calm down.

But the most impressive of Luxor is the “Valley of the Kings”, a complex of tombs that were built 3000 years ago where the kings and queens of the era were buried. A stunning work that impress by its conservation. All drawings and inscriptions are still completely visible and with the original colors. We were astonished! Too bad it was forbidden to take pictures.

We also visited the temple of Deir al-Bahri and the Ramses III. All are impressive and interesting. We loved to visit the temples of Luxor; the real problem is the infernal heat. Now we are in the south and we’re melting! We wake up at 6 am to try and visit the places without the strong heat, because after the 10:30 it becomes unbearable.

After here we go to Aswan, further south. Forecast of 50 degrees in our head. Will we survive?

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