RonnieAdventures: June 2023

Picture by Kolohe

After visiting the Temple of Horus, we boarded our riverboat Medea for a leisurely cruise down the Nile River. We had not traveled far before we encountered the "Hello People."

The "Hello People" are entrepreneurs that tie their small boats to passing riverboats and then sell merchandise to boat passengers. They are called "Hello People" because as soon as they are close to the riverboat, they greet passengers by shouting "Hello People."

Since the "Hello People" are not allowed on the riverboats, they toss goods wrapped in plastic bags up to riverboat passengers on the sun deck. They are amazingly accurate when tossing goods. After negotiations, if the passengers want to keep the tossed up items, money is placed in a plastic bag and dropped down to their boat. If people do not like the goods, they can place the goods back in the plastic bags and drop the bag back down to the merchant's boats.

Heather was especially skilled at negotiating low prices, so several passengers asked her to negotiate for them.

Picture by Kolohe

Picture by Heather

Various different "Hello People" stayed with us all of the way to the Esna locks. Each "Hello People" boat was only allowed to attach to our riverboat for a short distance and then they had to detach and allow a different "Hello People" boat to attach. One "Hello People" boat stayed attached too long, so the riverboat crew cut their rope.

Once a "Hello People's" boat detached, they waited until an upstream riverboat came by and then attached to that boat to start the cycle over again.

There are two sets of locks at Esna, with a small dam between the locks. The first set of locks were open, so the boats only slowed to go through the narrow passage. The second set of locks held two river boats at the same time and had about a 25-foot elevation drop. It was amazing how fast the boats went through the locks. Total time to go through both sets of locks was about 20 minutes.

Picture by Heather

After leaving the locks, we passed by fertile farms along the river, sand dunes, and small villages.

Picture by Heather

I asked our guide why there were so many unfinished housing units in Egypt and he explained that families leave the buildings unfinished until a son gets married and then they finish part of the structure for the son and his family. Thus, many housing units contain multiple families and the buildings are only completed as additional space is needed.

Picture by Heather

Toward evening we passed under Ponte di Luxor and then arrived at the Luxor Temple. Luxor was the historic capital of the Egyptian empire. It is a more modern city and it would be possible to spend an entire week just visiting all of the historic sites around Luxor.

The Avenue of Sphinxes runs along both sides of King's Festivities Road from the Luxor Temple to the Karnak Temple Complex 2.7 kilometers (1.6 miles) away. Excavation work on the Avenue of Sphinxes was completed in 2021 and the Avenue is now open so that visitors can walk between the two temples.

Picture by Kolohe

The Luxor Temple is Located at the south end of the Avenue of Sphinxes and the Karnak Temple at the North end. In front of the Luxor pylons are two large statues of Ramses II, and one obelisk on the east side of the entrance. Originally, there was a similar obelisk on the west side of the entrance, but the obelisk is now located in Paris. France. It was so interesting to be in the Temple Complex as the sun was setting, we stayed unit it was completely dark.