"Luxor" a Luxor Travel Page by RawdgerDodger

Excerpt taken from Ballooning Over The Valley of the Queens by RawdgerDodger

06:20: A good-sized crew of perhaps half a dozen Egyptian men held the balloon steady as a small fire shot upwards and inside the balloon’s canvas envelope. The pilot was firing up the balloon’s burners by squeezing the blast valve with his black-gloved hand. The envelope inflated and the fabric of the balloon expanded and became larger as the balloon expanded and took on more air. Soon, the balloon crew was ready for us to board and I hopped on along with the other members of my group. A few of the crew extended their hands in order to help me in the basket but I was getting tired of all the baksheesh tips I had been giving everyone during my stay in Luxor, so I had made up my mind to do everything by myself and hopped in on my own. I am not a morning person and being a bit cranky, this was the side of me that came out. No baksheesh in the morning! Baksheesh is the Egyptian term for tipping.

Excerpt taken from: Ballooning Over The Valley of the Queens by RawdgerDodger
06:45: The sun had now fully risen and we were flying about thirty feet off the ground. I was beginning to wonder if the balloon would go any higher. Other balloons behind us were already much higher then our own. The pilot informed us that we were going to pass over Edu temple soon. We soared towards the ancient Edu temple and the pilot sank us inside walls of the temple. “Now you don’t have to buy a ticket to see the temple,” he informed us. It was amazing the control he had over the balloon and at any moment I expected the balloon to falter and drop our whole basket inside of Edu temple. But, magically, we serenely floated by in the air. At one point, the pilot flew us so close to the ground that he was able to call down to the guards stationed inside of the temple. He shouted something in Arabic to the guards on the ground. They were sitting down and had their machine guns propped between their legs. Luckily, the guards weren’t trigger-happy and they began to laugh at whatever our pilot had said to them. It was my guess that the pilot had told them not to shoot at the balloon.

Exerpt taken from: Ballooning Over the Valley of the Queens by RawdgerDodger
06:50: The balloon had gained altitude considerably during the last five minutes and we had risen a few thousand feet off the ground. The light shone well on the mountains and lit the whole area up. There were a number of other balloons flying in the air around us. The effect of all the balloons in the sky created a panoramic view that was incredibly beautiful. The entire area of Luxor and the valley around the Nile was now bathed in the fresh morning light . The pilot directed our gaze towards the mountains near Luxor and pointed out that the mountains we were looking at was in fact the Valley of the Queens. He told us that if we looked hard we could see the various tombs that had been carved into the mountains. The positioning of the sun in the horizon illuminated the Valley of the Queens in such a way that the contrast of darks and lights thrown around these ancient tombs made the view seem almost magical.