Egypt, Day Nine

Day 9: The next day we went to the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. We signed up for a tour for this so we could actually learn the history about it and not just go and look and guess at what we were seeing. We were in a group with about 8 other people. We drove around in a big van and then they would drop us off at certain historical places then we also had a guide that would give us the history on everything. The Valley of the Kings was most impressive. It is where all the past King’s tombs are. There are I believe 63 or so of them. In old Egyptian times when you became King they would start digging your tomb and then stop when you died/ went out of power. If they were not done by the time you died, the workers had 70 days to finish because that is how long it took to prepare the body. To prepare the body they would pull your brain out through your nose, cut a slit on the side of your stomach and pull out all of your intestines except your heart and then fill you with saw dust to dry you out. Then they would put salt on your body to also dry you out and then they would mummify you with long strips of cloth.

So when touring the tombs you could see how long people where in power by how deep their tomb was. We went down into the deepest tomb…it was quite a hike down…and sooo hot. Luxor is a lot hotter than Cairo…about 90 degrees each day….and so when we went down into the tomb you instantly started sweating allll over. We then went to the Valley of the Queens and went in some of those tombs as well. The paintings on the walls in the tombs are unreal because they still look so good even though it was done sooo long ago. After the Valleys we went to a Papyrus factory. Papyrus is a type of plant that they strip to make papyrus paper and then people hand paint on top of it. I bought one that on half of it has an Egyptian symbol that is the key of life and then the other half has my name in hieroglyphics.


That night before after the faluka ride, Hiraji invited us to his house to eat a traditional Egyptian meal, and then after that to go out “on the town”. We were so gracious and accepting of his offer. So that night after the Valley of the King and Queens we met Hiraji and eight and he picked us up in a taxi and took us to his home where he lives with all of his family (his brothers and sisters, parents, nieces and nephews). We would say that Hiraji was probably 35-38ish….not married. So his mom and whoever else was in the kitchen cooked us this huge meal….I have pictures that will help show what I mean by this….but it was this large tray that had plates and bowls of food and we set it down in the middle of us and it was a big community dinner with him and the 5 of us (his family had already eaten together). The food was amazing! There were different kinds of soups, pasta, chicken, potatoes, veggies, and amazing homemade bread. We had also gotten a few beers with dinner…but since the Muslim culture isn’t really supposed to drink beer (but most everyone does anyway) they pick up the beer from this building with one window in it…Hiraji called it the Black Market…and it looked exactly like that haha, we just didnt ask questions haha.

After dinner we all went in and thanked their whole family for dinner as well as we could considering there was a large language barrier….but we shook all of their hands and said Shukran….which means thank you. Also while we were there Hirajis nieces and nephews were pretty curious about us…they were no older than 3 or 4…they would peak in and wave and then scury away….but towards the end they would come in and sit with us…they were all so adorable. After dinner we went to Hirajis cousins for awhile and just sat around with his family again. It was so awesome for us to get to experience this. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. After his cousins we went back to the other side of the river because Hiraji said that he was going to take us to an Irish Pub. We went there for a drink and played some pool and then he said there was a disco that we could go too. None of us could quite imagine a disco in Egypt.

At this time Ish and Michaela were tired so they walked back to the hostel, but Catherine Joy and I decided we would go check it out with him for awhile. So this disco was in the downstairs of a hotel….it was pretty hilarious to see….it maybe would have had potential if it would have had more than oh 15-20 people haha. We danced for a while and then when it began to get really lame….the three of us girls wanted to go. So we got a taxi and went back to the hostel. And now here comes the creepy nice reference again….Hiraji had been drinking pretty solidly during the night and that was quite apparent when he tried kissing Joy when she got out of the taxi. It was absolutely hilarious, but at the same time a total creep move. When she denied him he said “what is kissing at the end of the night normal????” …haha we just laughed and said not for us and made a dash for the hostel door.


There was so much to laugh about from that night as soon as we got up into our room….it just proved our creepy nice moto right again….because even when we were dancing at the “disco” he tried dancing with us and it again was creepy and we just kinda stayed clear of his awkward dancing…..but none the less, still a nice guy. Getting into our room that night, we got ready for bed and as soon as Catherine went to go lay down on her bed, we heard this crash and she kind fell in because her mattress sunk in. We all burst out laughing and as soon as I was getting up off my bed to help her mine did it too. Turns out the mattresses were being supported by slats of wood that weren’t nailed into the frame. So we had to lift up our mattresses and resituate our slats of wood….this sounds easy but we were all laughing so hard that it was almost impossible. But all in all….a good night.