Day 4-9: Sweating Tea

We've spent the past few days in Luxor, famous for the Valley of the Kings, infamous for its ridiculous tourist hussle (this is a grave understatement, but no need to go into the unpleasant details of what can only be described as aggressive and even purposefully disrespectful attitude). Started our visit here with a nice relaxing float down the tranquil Nile. Spent our days climbing through the Valley of the King and Queens (hot hot hot), Valley of the Nobles, and Dendera, to name a few. All along the plea for Baksheesh (tip solicitations) has been like an evil smelly monkey on our backs. Something to note, the well-known sites here are not overrated by any means, but those that are uderrated are drastically so, specifically the Workmen's Village. The tombs here are very small, but the paintings are exquisite (we could not photograph it, but we strongly suggest following this link http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/inherkhaut.htm, my favorite is the cat slaying the snake scene).

Self-realization of the day: our lust for jewelry is hardly in control. The farther away from Cairo we get, the more unique the craftmanship.

We leave for Aswan tonight. Luxor is hot, Aswan is hotter than hot.