Fly High and Sail On

So on the first day of the New Year we go hot air ballooning. The basket is actually quite big but when you put 5 people in the compartment it was kind of cramped. The captain was very intense, British guy, he scared us, like obey the rules or die. So amazing to soar over the ancient monuments and the fields. Loved Hatshepsut from the air, it looked just like all the photos you see in the books. Then went to the Valley of the Kings and picked out three tombs. The colors in them were awesome. The detail of the walls and the massive sarcophogi were awesome. Also saw Tutankhamun's tomb, which was not so highly decorated as the others (less time to complete it), but the decoration that was there was extremly well preserved and lovely in color. From there went to Hatshepsut which was really cool. Rather then the normal war reliefs there were all these cool different ones. A lot about an expedition that she sent to the land of Push for sacred incense trees. Ate at an excellent meal on the other side and then took a horse drawn carriage around a little. The guy made me drive it, which was terrifying because he kept whipping the horse to go faster.

On 2nd January we got on the ferry to go up to Aswan. Check in and it was such a huge cabin with bathroom and everything. At lunch we met a couple from Los Angeles that we talked to, they were really nice.  Not much to do until dinner, chilled out and the looked out the window to the lovely view of...a giant wall. We were going thru a lock, which was really cool and fascinating in how it worked. The ship pulls it, they close the gate behind it, open some panels in the gate in front, when the water level equalizes the gate opens and the ship goes through. At dinner we talked with Mark and Ashley again till the waiters kicked us out.

Brief can be good

On 3rd January we skipped the stop at, somewhere and sleep in. At lunch everyone was trying this nasty orange fruit that sucks all the liquid out of your tongue, so awful but also funny. At 4 we stopped at Kom Ombo where we toured around, neat temple. Ate dinner and packed up, we get off at 8am.