The martians are coming to Luxor Egypt

Moved to    www.myegypt.co.uk 

Luxor Egypt, back streets

After  an exciting evening of waiting to see how long a tomato would take to cook in our brand new " made in Egypt" oven (I suppose my landlord was being patriotic buying an oven  with a large sticker Made in Egypt on it)  or was it the cheapest he could find,    he is not the first landlord who has tried to give me a cheap cooker  at least it was better looking than the last one and I managed to do some cooking  on the rings.
even though I had to take the back cover off because it kept falling down and needed a pan or something heavy to prop  it in an upright position, the reason Pam  ( my wife)  decided to cook a tomato  was I made a fish tagine  after frying the onions and tomatoes  on the top rings  preparing the herbs and all the ingredients  ready for the fish tagine I put it in my favorite cooking earthenware pot ( because it keeps all the flavors in the fish)
I put it in the oven  normally it would take  20 minutes to bake.     With mouth watering   I put my oven gloves on to get said dish from the oven ,   first glance at the dish told me it was not  cooked  so I left it in the oven  silly oll me had put the gas on its lowest  ( no telling no gas marks) so I moved the knob, hoping  that another 15 minutes it will be done.  I hour later I was still waiting.   then, without needing oven gloves on I put it in the good old back up oven... the microwave.   I was in no mood yesterday to test the oven so Pam decided to try it with a tomato.  ( wifely common sense)  it did cook quite nicely  as tomatoes do in a very slow oven,  in fact 2 hours slow cooking.
 Mr mechanic got up this morning ready to politely return my new superb feat of Egyptian engineering to my landlord,  first I must strip it down to see where the fault lies,  So I took the bottom tray off  and lit the oven   lo and behold  out of about 50 holes  only five are working that is like heating an oven with a candle.
and so off we went to find out how much a decent cooker with oven would be,

Looking from my front room window I can see the road that houses two electrical appliance shops.
First we had to go down the narrow  street for about 1000yards with a mixture of old and new dwellings but what I have noticed  here in Luxor  no one has the same kind of  front door.  I know I have done a series on balconies and doors before http://nilelife2.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_06.html
I find them so fascinating  like the first balconies opposite my flat none the same  its like time has stood still after they where first painted  and now years later life is back and all need another lick of paint but sadly only a few will get. no love is shown to anything here.  its if its not broken do not fix then its to late and the demolition man steps in.  each of the  doors and places are dwellings. and we are not back in the 1800s. this is Luxor Egypt 2010  that houses the largest open air Museum and has one of the largest volume of tourists in the world.





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Sun bread  rising   by the front door  before it is put in the oven. (  not mine) 

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One up one down  the tailor shop on my back street 

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Even the new doors soon get to look aged  
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We had a sandstorm today All windows doors and blinds shut it is still blowing outside thats 5 hours  none stop sandstorm,

Life in Luxor

 Today I have randomly taken people photos   most are from my first visit to Egypt 2002.   and built  a story around them with new photos.


Not far from the valley of the Queens this young girl was working with her donkey taking water to the now only tomb robbers houses left in the area,    photo taken 20/2/10



   just around the next corner from here is the place known as the village of the workers there too 4000 years ago water was carted for the village  workers  there is a story on how the traders went on strike to get more money.  this is an areal photo taken of Der-El Medinet  20/2/10     http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/medina.htm

This photo taken near the  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesseum
The house behind this boy is the residence for the American archeological teams  all the other houses have been taken down,   and to me the tomb robbers houses had more interest as they had been built over 4000 years,    Take it as the first bank robbers but the knowledge had been passed from one generation to another.

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 The Ramesseum   photo taken 20/2/10  from the hot air balloon at  1700 ft

Photo taken in Daraw 2002

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Three generations of farmers  photo taken in Daraw  2002 

Balloon flight Luxor Egypt ( part 1)

 
  This photo was taken the morning I booked my flight in the hot air balloon, by 33/1 chance  its the same balloon  I took today's flight .      balloon over hatshepsut.16/2/10







Sun up on arrival at the take off site in Gurna West Bank Luxor
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 blowing air  into the balloon preparing it for flight 
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our captain Ragab was quite informative  and said there are 33 balloons in the  area but only Eight can be on the take off area at one time,,  (that was another one of his lies  I happened to be on my roof again the next day and I saw 15 balloons taking off at the same time)  ,    the flights from first light then every 45 minutes the time of each flight before landing. before I purchased my flight ticket I specifically asked if I can take the zoom lens to take photos of Karnak and the places that the balloons are no longer allowed to fly over since the accident last May 09.  of coorse why not!   do you have any information on what we are or not allowed to take on board,     and the travel agent  got a bit pissed off with me asking such idiotic questions.
 before the incident  09  balloons took off from wherever they found a cheap enough plot of land to take off from and landed anywhere  including near the Luxor Airport where the pilot and travelers got arrested and the balloon impounded,   because its a military zone as are all the airports in Egypt.  ( Police State)
 but now at this moment in time we have  security police on the new take off site in El Gurna  this site is opposite the turn off for the funery Temple of Hatshepsut  why it has taken so much of the growing land is beyond my comprehension when  a few kilometer from here its desert land  and always will be  as is the now new landing areas of the sensible pilots who adhere to the regulations, some are still landing in green farmland
 good for the farmer he gets a few bucks from the negligent pilot.  or did I hear oh the wind changed,  new regs say,   if the wind is too strong  no taking off!   and that is supposed to be the reason why we have such obnoxious police security  such as the one who tried to stop me boarding with my zoom lens,  leave it with me
he said,, not ******* likely I said, you think I am leaving a 2000.00 sterling lens with a cop that takes 20 egp to close his eyes while I get on board. piss off ,  and the argument went on whilst we where waiting to heat the balloon up for take off.  in the end I promised I would keep it in the bag on the floor of the balloon basket. after he could not show positive proof of regulations that he said was in force. and a mention of  go fetch General  Luwa  Magrabi.   I got a polite salute and a sorry mister.  
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once the balloon was inflated and upright  12 people boarded the basket hot air was blown into the balloon but first The captain had to go through the technicalities of taking off and landing  positions. and we were away. heading to the nearest Antique  Hatsheput Temple,    I did want to get a photo from the air of the carter house,  http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/2009/08/howard-carter-house.html and Seti 1st temple Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple but the sun was to strong when pointing the camera in its direction.  you will also notice on some of the photos the fog caused by the sugar cane fires  and the Nile and Luxor town was almost invisible through the blanket of smoke 
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Hatsheput Temple http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/2009/08/hatshepsut-temple.html
Over 40 photos on my blog

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Hapshepsut  looking over the ridge that backs on to the  valley of the Kings.
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 Valley of the Kings.

 .The Ramesseum  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesseum

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Entrance to the Valley of the Queens

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 Dier El-Medinet  Village of the workers.on    http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/

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Captain Ragab checking his tips   seems to be quite happy or is it a smirk.
Mean buggers on this trip   you can read the whole of this trip on    http://www.myegypt.co.uk/index.php?f=data_home&a=8
and the reasons why I did not tip.
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