good talk

A lot of times things are as good or better when you return to them. To see the 4 Temples and the Valley of the Kings across the Nile I hired a taxi and driver for the day. Luxor tour buses are for sissies, a little bit of time here, a little bit there and back on the bus, a canned tour and poorly canned. Each time I've been in Luxor I've gone to around the Luxor Museum and hired a taxi and driver and it works out great. This time I paid Ali $40 for 10 hours, a different driver each time. We took the ferry across the river to where the taxi was and it was great as always, you can take as much time as you like, say see all the tombs that are open instead of 3 or 4 (except for Tut's, clogged with Russians). I also had Ali take me to a real good place he knew of where I bought 6 alabaster Scarabs for people back home. The Scarab (dung beetle) is the ancient Egyptian talisman for Good Luck, all of us need to catch some every so often otherwise we'd all be toast. The only athletic team that I've ever heard of that had the Scarab as their team nickname was Cleveland East Tech High School (the Scarabs). Cleveland East Tech produced Harrison Dillard who won the 100-meter dash at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic and Jesse Owens and their Luck was Good. The first time I was in the Valley of the Kings I rode in on a donkey, well, I'm a humble guy. The next day I do as I always do the last day I'm in Luxor, I crossed the Nile and rented a bicycle. I rode it about 15 miles in 6 hours, you ride through villages, you ride past the archeological sites and a lot of the people you pass wave to you, it's a whole lot of fun. That night I took the train back to Cairo. I was sitting in 1st Class and the conductor asked me if I wanted a sleeping berth for no extra money, I said I was happy where I was at, but it was quite nice, I've always had a good opinion of the Egyptian people. The train pulled into Rameses Station in the morning and I took the subway (only the strong survive the Cairo Subway in the late afternoon) to around the Egyptian Museum where you can buy airline tickets at many places and bought a ticket to fly to Kuwait, where I had never been, that night. Except for a ticket to a general area and back, I always buy my air tickets on the fly, no pun, to use that day or the next, they're reasonably priced and there's always space, not like in this country. And you don't have to take your shoes off at the airport, why would it be necessary for people to take their shoes off? Reminds me, on November 17, 1997, 62 tourists, mostly Swissies, were gunned down by Moslem Extremists at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor. I was there several years later and I asked at the ticket booth where exactly did this occur? I was told, "Under your shoes."