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We started our day at 4am by catching a hot air balloon from the other side of\r\nthe Nile. On the boat across, we were unexpectadly supplied with coffee and\r\nTwinkys. We shared the balloon with Japanese tourists and a pilot with a sense\r\nof humour. I hadn't expected the fire part of the balloon to be so close to\r\nour heads, nor so loud.
\r\nThe wind took us away from the Valley of the Kings and across the Nile. We\r\nupped and downed a bit, with the pilot explaining that flying close to things\r\n(the Nile, tops of trees...) is more fun. We saw the sunrise, and lots of\r\nLuxor from above. We almost landed in someone's field but a disgruntled\r\nlooking chap on a donkey waved us away. So we landed in the next field, with a\r\nground crew of local kids, who had been chasing the balloon's progress for the\r\npast ten minutes. The pilot warned us not to tip the kids or we'd have to pay\r\nthem all, and to keep hold of our bags. We stayed in the basket whilst the\r\nballoon was haphazardly bundled away before traipsing through mud to the\r\nwaiting minibus. An experience of a lifetime. I got some cool photos.
\r\nBack at the hotel we slept for an hour before digging in to the remaining\r\nbirthday cake and heading out to Karnak Temple by horse and carriage. Karnak\r\nis huuuuge. Afterwards we went back to bed again before lunch.
\r\nAl and I set out on a hunt for the kushari shop, which should have been a\r\ncouple of minutes walk from where everyone else went for lunch. En route we\r\nencountered a young man desperate to sell his shoe cleaning services to Al,\r\nwho had jut stepped in something disgusting. This proved to be at a crucial\r\npoint in the journey as the distraction meant we missed the turning we were\r\nlooking for. Next we met the infamous Christian Mike, a toothless carriage\r\ndriver wwho misdirected us and we walked for a further forty minutes or so\r\ninto a distinctly tourist free area. Fortunately we didn't get charged for\r\nthis pleasure.
\r\nEventually we circled back and found an enormous tourist information centre.\r\nThe friendly staff directed us around the corner where finally! Kushari. A big\r\ntakeaway tub for 10LE. That's about a quid. As expected, finding our way back\r\nto the cafe where the girls' were took two minutes and we all returned to the\r\ntruck.
\r\nCue: four hour drive to Aswan.
\r\nWe checked into the Orchida St George Hotel, where they welcomed us with cold\r\nkarkarde. Score.
\r\nThat evening we ventured into Aswan town. The tourist stuff is mixed in with\r\nthe locals' stuff and veryone is much more laid back. We still got about the\r\nsmae number of 'hello!', 'where from?', 'welcome!', 'spice girls!', and Al got\r\nplenty of 'lucky man, five wives!', but people seemed marginally less\r\ndesperate to sell us things.
\r\nWe did struggle to find somewhere to eat though. Eventually we went into a\r\ndogy looking cafe which we decided was definitely a front for a secret mafia\r\nrelated organisation. It was run by a stoney-faced fellow who didn't seem as\r\nthrilld about having customers as other places have been. The food arrived\r\nincredibly fast and there was definitely evidence of it being fetched from\r\ndown the street. It was hella cheap too though, and by the end the guy running\r\nthe joint seemed to have cheered up. Out of nowhere his mate arrived with\r\nsomething sweet on a fork and inserted it into Lizzie's mouth. He had a small\r\nselection of apparently complimentary sweet coconutty things which he insisted\r\nwe finish off. They were tasty.
\r\nAnd thus ended the longest birthday ever. I was starting to get depressed\r\nabout the impending end to the trip, especially with all of the UK riots news\r\nthat was trickling through. Everyone we had encountered in Egypt was friendly\r\nand welcoming, providing contrast to what at the time felt like the country\r\nfull of thugs to which I belonged. But let's not dwell. We went to bed early\r\nfor yet another 4am wake up.
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