adventures happen

wow.. today was a true adventure day.. I started later than I wanted to, around 10:30, left the hotel with my bike and headed to the ferry to cross to the west side of the river where the rich archeological treasures hide beyond the lush green fields. on the ferry, I was again a bit of an object of curiusity as people are not sure if I am a "khawaja" tourist or an egyptian. I was approached by Hamdi, a young handsome man in a galaba and we started a conversation that I can not recall.. when we arrived on the west he invited me for a tea and shisha. he later gave me his number as he offered to take me with his boat to Banana Island. once he uttered the name, my thoughts immediatley went to the gutter, as I thought that the island was a fictional place that is a code for oral sex.. very dirty on my part. but I would find out later if the Banana Island myth is true. our conversation at the coffee shop as usual with egyptian men took a very shamelss turn and revolved around sexual curiosities. I had to leave before the I and the day get hotter, and so my journey on the west began.

biking was so pleasant, the road from the boat goes straight and perpendicular to the river with lush lush flower bushes on the sides only hiding even greener fields behind.. I first came across the village of New Gurna by Hassan Fathy of which only the mosque, theater (closed) and a small strip of shops remain.. I was told that a couple of the houses are still there but if they were, they must have been overshadowed by more recent, typical unfinished concrete & brick building.

the man guarding the door was amazing.. old, wrinkled, dark, and with teeth so yellow they were almost gold in bright sun. he showed me around the mosque with great detail of the construction techniques and the materials, and methods of making the various arches using thread and simple tools.. it was a really special experience to have such a rish guided tour of the building by someone who knows it so well. the mosque is still being used although very lightly. the central courtyard was planted with very lush plants. after the extensive tour, I climbed the steps to the top of the unorthodox minaret for a general view of the area.

back on my bike I was met by the two colossal Memnon statues, the only remains of a great temple. I arrived at the same time as a massive tour bus and when I asked a man to take my picture he replied in a strong british accent "no no, no thanks, yalla" an automatic reaction, then he realized I wasnt selling him anything so he said "sorry, you know how it is.."

I continue up the road for another kilometer before I reached the ticket office. I have been lucky to only pay egyptian prices which are 2 egyptian pounds per site (about 30 US cents) this is compared to tourist prices which cab be fom 40-70 egyptian pounds (typical international prices for such sites)... the man at the ticket suggested a few sites to me and gave me the proper tickets..

off again I went to Madinat Hebu temple... amazing, I have never seen anything like this... I was far more impressed with this temple than I was with Karnak which was overcrowded with tourists and lacking in well preserved reliefs with alot of missing parts of the structure, it is still impressive, but my expectations for Karnak were hight. Here I had no expectations and I was stunned.. this temple is gorgous with lots of rich rich rich reliefs that you can come as close to as you want, entire walls fully intact, amazing chapels where you can wander around alone! it was really impressive. a man at the last hypostyle hall showed me a few "closed or prohibited areas" ofcourse for a small tip... these local men in their colorful galabas and white headdress guard the temples but also act as makeshift guides, they know alot, this is really their culture. he showed me a wall relief in a room that was closed for restoration work where a pharoah is shown with his large erect penis.. he even asked me to take a picture with it with my hands up as if I am grabbing it! (I love Egypt)

it gets better

my next site was an area of ancient workers' tombs, they too had magnficent burial spaces not just the kings and queens. there I saw two tombs, it was blistering hot at this point and I rested a bit.. then I was told that my ticket allows me to see a small temple on the site and I was directed to it.. I walked there, it was a bit removed from the guards, but the gate was locked.. a couple of minutes later a man came with the key to the temple gate.. again it was a very private, one on one affair to experience such a place. the temple had three chaples in the back each with amazing reliefs of the process of death, judgment and rebirth on the other side. again there was a large relief of a pharoah with a large erect penis which the guard could not miss to point out.. he then added that this particular man was known for fucking all the women in some kind of a war situation, I cant remember the details.. then he added "like me... I have to fuck my wife at least 3 to 4 times a day... I have to, I need it!" I was shocked (I really need to loose this shame/embarecement that we are so used to in the west) anyway, the man appreaed to be in good health and was not bad looking either. he was 42 but looked younger and said its because of a hearty diet of meat and eggs (so southern egypt), he also has 4 duaghters and a son. he wanted to marry another woman because his wife sometimes doesn't want to fuck. I love how this type of conversation is so normal here.
the temple could have been visited in 10 mintues but I was there with this man for close to an hour, talking about all sorts of sexual things related to his "strong penis" and his constant need to fuck.. I was very curious, I mean there is this raging man in front of me in this typical southern egyptian dress, in a small dark temple chaple in the middle of the desert alone! its the stuff cheap gay fantacy books are made of and it was my reality.. it gets better.. I was standing close to the man when he was pointing to a relief when my hand brushed what I assumed was his penis.. I confirm that it was, I brushed my hands again... IT WAS... either large or semi erect I am not sure but it got me off! I was not sure what I should do, I saw in my very realistic mental image what I would like to do but I was not sure if I could.. however when I brushed my hand against him again and it was very obvious, he only looked at me and said "as long as you are happy, if there is anything you want to do, let me know!" WOW was that an offer? its too good to be true.. I am not sure.. then I hear the yacking of italian tourists approaching the small temple.. my close encounter with a real desert sex monster was suddenly over!

in complete awe of what just almost happened I sped away on my bike to my next site the Ramesseum (a ramsis dedicated and built temple) then I went on to the famous temple of Hatshepsut... it was a very very hot and dehydrated experience but I can still say that despite the fact that the temple has little of its reliefs today because of ancient graffitti and defacing the face of the queen by her step son after her death, this is an amazing building! it is so modern its really difficult to believe how ancient it is.. it does not follow the typical plan and structure of temles and its very horizontal facade, sturdy square columns and minimal decoration, really it looks like an early modern building.. very impressive to see!

as I am leaving the temple I met Hassan, a little kid (maybe 12) with blonde hair who lives in the local village and he offered to show me the way to two magnificent tombs and so I went. the tombs were great and I will skip the detials but I should say that one had a very cave-like stairway down and amazing scenes of making wine in great detail with the entire ceiling covered with the image of grapes!
the second tomb next door was also very interesting with a very very long plan and a ceiling that rose from the door to about four times that height by the end of the tunnel-like space. this was another special tomb-raiders kind of experience, as the guard set a mirror outside the door to the tomb so that it shines a beam of light into the space.. he later gave me a reflectiv surface that I can use to reflect that beam of light on to any part of the large wall so that I can better see the reliefs (very old world, very special)

I took my bike back and rode from Hatshepsut temple until the ferry back to the east bank all in one single ride with no stops and no water.. I am surprised I did not have a sun stroke today!

I took a much needed shower and went to meet my friend Hamdy whome I met in the morning on the ferry (we had plans to go to banana island)... and so we ment, he no longer wore a galaba, just a typical nike shirt and pants and off we went in his large boat which normally seats about 18 people at least.. he did not bring hash as he promissed earlier but we went down the nile away from luxor in the direction of aswan, passing by all the large 5 star hotels.. meanwhile our conversation was again about sex and a very direct and honest one (i am not used to having such conversations with a seemingly straight guy that I just met that morning.. but here that seems to be normal.. he even said, we egyptians and especially us nubians are very open about sex! I think he meant more the men but I understand what he was saying) he eventually got me to admit that I like myown kind and even asked me what role I prefer and other such questions.. he then said that he would like to try curtain things.. suddenly we arrived at banana island.. its a real place! with banana trees! the boat was moored and we started our walk. he seemed ready to try something new and next thing you know we went off the path and into the banana trees.. he tried something new today.. it was a bit quick and the experience had the feel of a crime and the after feeling of guilt, but its his first time, I shouldnt expect too much.. he was reliefed and I was ready to go home to finish my dinner.