Luxor

karnak temple
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We reached Luxor on New Years Eve and after leaving our stuff at the hotel it was straight off on a donkey ride to the Valley of the Kings. This proved one of the more exciting parts of the trip, as the donkeys were apparaently a bit angry since it was mid afternoon - and some were trying to bite anything that come near, while others like mine preferred to race any donkey which tried to overtake it.

The Valley of the Kings has the tombs of the likes of Tut-ankh-Amun buried deep within it. Some of the tombs were really ornately decorated with wall paintings, etc - especially Tut-ankh-Amun's which still has the golden sarcophagus and his mummy still inside it. From there it was back to Luxor on the donkeys - which proved to be a lot faster than the trip to the Valley (even donkeys get homeitis).

For our New Years celebrations we were taken to the 'Africa' outdoor restaurant/bar where they put on a huge buffet meal for us and had nubian entertainment. This proved to be an awesome night, with about 5 Imaginative Traveller groups there for the evening.

The next day we visited Karnak temple in the morning - a massive temple and by far the most impressive I saw in Egypt. From there it was a four hour bus drive thru the desert, to catch a hydrofoil ferry from Hurghada across the Red Sea to Dahab.