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Long Drive to Luxor

The drive from the Dakhla Oasis to Luxor lasted 9.5 hours. During the drive I was reading the book “Feuchtgebiete” / “Wetlands” (see the travel library I posted on Oct 5th). I really don’t understand how someone can write a whole book on his arsehole and this piece of junk literature becomes a bestselling book in Germany. The only aspect I liked about the book was that it indirectly discusses the excessive hygienic and moral standards of some people. Especially it describes how several experiments to loosen up these standards did actually not hurt anybody.

We arrived at 4:30pm at the Rezeiky Camp, a lovely backpacker’s hostel in Luxor. The best features are a pool, excellent food, very friendly staff and WiFi all over the camp (40 Egyptian Pounds / 3 USD per day). I’m sharing a tiny room with an American and a Canadian woman and we arrange very well with ach other. After a refreshing swim we had a group dinner consisting of several Egyptian specialties such as Falafel, Kofta and onion soup.

Besides us there is only one other guest in the hostel: Lorenzo, a Dutch guy, travelling on a motorbike from his hometown in The Netherlands to Cape Town. He has originally planned to finish his journey in Cape Town by the end of December but due to the circumstances in Syria he had to take an alternative route across the Mediterranean Sea leading to a significant delay of his journey. Lorenzo also plans to take the same route into Sudan as we do so we might run into him again on the ferry crossing from Aswan (Egypt) into Wadi Halfa (Sudan).

Luxor, also known as the ancient city of Thebes, very much reminds me of Rome since lots of historic stone is lying around the city. Some of the major attractions like Karnak and Luxor Temple are just in walking distance to our hostel. The river Nile is impressive as well. A few meters to both sides of the river you can find a green lush stripe before the desert starts over again.