The donkey

Update on the 29th august09 story. each of the people the police charged in the story got quite a heavy fine, the thief is still around he can have 5 appeals against his sentence. that may take 5 years. in the meantime he may decide to leave Luxor and that will be the end of that for him. but the innocent parties have had to pay the fines. who is the donkey the judge. or the the thief's transport.
The original story

at 1.00 midday I was walking home from Luxor and I had to pass the police station, outside tied to the railings by the police station was a donkey with a load of steel on it. And I thought to myself another donkey has been arrested, last time I passed the station they had a horse and carriage tethered in the same place the carriage had a wheel come loose and it was tied and left there for 2 days in the searing heat. While the owner was in jail for driving a dangerous vehicle used for the transportation of tourists. Was fined and let off after paying the fine.
So maybe the donkey is in the same situation the driver was being charged with over loading the donkey. Not until I got back to my flat did I know the story,

Each night a few bars of steel where taken from the building site behind the Sunshine home.
and hid in a field of maze 100 yards from the site, when there was enough hidden the thief brought his donkey and cart to take the steel away the only way out was down a foot path that people used to get to their homes, at the end of the path there is an open concrete irrigation channel that prevents direct access to the road. And a steep bend past the first house. While trying to get the donkey and cart laden with the steel around the corner the overhanging steel was rubbing against the mud brick wall causing the owner Ahmed my neighbour concern for his property,on going out to investigate he found some of the mud bricks had been dislodged from the corner wall and being the nice guy he is offered the thief some rope to tidy his load of steel up. And stop the overhang so he had no problem turning the corner when the donkey and its load got to the next bend there was a car and some motorbikes parked in the drive way of our block of flats.All of the vehicle owners who come to the coffee shop use this area for parking as the police will take the offending vehicle away if parked on the main road. The thief then starts shouting to get these vehicles moved because they are blocking the getaway path, no one objected as it seems the donkey has the right of way here no matter which way it is travelling or where it is travelling, everybody makes way for the donkeys, not for pedestrians don’t ask why; but that is the way it is here,

On negotiating the next bend the now overhanging steel at the rear of the cart scraped My landlords car that was parked in the building part of the drive, this was parked so there was enough room for a donkey and cart to get through but not the 10ft of overhang of the steel bars. Now my land lord is involved and wants the thief’s name so he can get compensated for the damage to his vehicles tail end, this is when the thief has to make a hurried getaway , but that’s ok because the thief is known to him. And others in the coffee shop. Who witnessed the incident waiting to re park ,
Then the watchman from the site turns up for his usual cup of tea and water pipe. On hearing what all the commotion was about asked why they let him getaway with the steel from the site and started to chase up the road after the thief, then the police were called . Now anyone would think this is the end of the story,

Not here in Egypt, this all happened 2 in the morning, just As I arrived from the west bank after my seeing Sheikh Tayeb, with my problem, and calling the police is the beginning of a problem being made bigger.
My landlord was taken to the police station to make the complaint as to who caused the damage and how the damage was caused. He was asked for his id, that he did not have with him then he was asked for money and 10 pound would of finished the problem but he had no money with him, so he had to write his name down that was taken away and returned with a drugs charge 5 years ago, now he had a big problem.
The watchman who is 75, was charged with letting the thief take the steel, and all this because no one had any money with them. The donkey and thief were arrested last night while passing the police station on his way home.
The charge of drug possession 5 years ago was a plant and refused to pay baksheesh to the police and Machmood got away with it after paying twenty thousand pounds for a top lawyer, but it still left a mark on his record, why ? because of a day like this .

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http://egyptswildlife2.blogspot.com/ birds of Egypt
http://www.nilelife.blogspot.com/ photos from around Luxor Egypt
http://www.nilelife2.blogspot.com/ photos from around Luxor Egypt
http://egyptdragonflies.blogspot.com/ Dragons and damsels
http://insectsonwings.blogspot.com/ butterflies and bugs
http://myegypttours.blogspot.com Tombs and temples of Egypt
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Nile polution

The Nile in Luxor,

Protected Area (Important Birds Areas of Egypt)

not according to the minister of the environment, Ali Mahmoud

or Dr Samir Fawak. or anyone at the

eeaa@eeaa.gov.eg
Youssef.Fouad@fco.gov.uk

all the mail I send to the above addresses are reurned as spam.

and another e mail today 2/8/09 To: Minister Eng.

Maged George Elias Ghattas (Ministry of State for Environment Affairs),

and yet they all have to drink this polluted water from the Nile, The passengers on the cruisers, all in one way or another get an intake of this water. apart from the bottled mineral water. all the water used in the nile delta is from the Nile.
This is the area where the cruise boats are moored,in front of the luxor supreme district office on the cornish,the pictures are taken around one of these boats there are 250 on the nile that only go from Luxor to Aswan, thats if they are in working order,
water bottles used as oil containers discarded in the Nile
the little white herons. are emaciated in oil and its plumage turning grey, more than half of these boats never leave the moorings but the engine has to run to keep the pumps working to keep them afloat, and they just belch out pollution from the engines exhaust,

diesel oil spillage is common place most of the pipes feeding Diesel from shore into the boats leak


not only these cruise ships pollute the Nile,
this is only a minor part of nile pollution.

high nile

Click on the photos to Enlarge May/2009

The land I am standing on at this time of year should be flooded.
in the background are the reed beds, that house a lot of the wildlife here,
This is a council vehicle.
When I asked him why was he dumping I was told the police say he can put it here'
and as you can see from this latest load it is all material that will pollute the Nile.

The nile is almost up to the road surface
see the damp patches in the new road. and the lanfill filling the reed beds,

this pollyurathain I suppose will be set fire to later
as it has no value.

Waste and garbage. note the date of the first complaint, 20/5/09

Click on the photos to enlarge.
Update 24/5/09 today all this land is being cleaned . a photo on the first page. I only managed to get one photo, and the police asked me not to take photos .and I was asked to go back after they clean the land.


15/5/09 Today I went to my favourite Quite place by the Nile The chick of the Little Egret was dead where I usually sit And still warm to the touch, no doubt in my mind it died from the pollution of the Nile it was hatched near where the next photos are taken.
As you can see from the paper this load of waste came from the primary school,and yes there has been some refurbishment there recently,And this lot is from someones home. a refurbishing project. .the Little white egret(chick)is a water wader not a swimmer it would be no suprise if it took its first drink in the Nile and died from its polluted content

This is the reed beds being filled in not with soil but all the materials that will pollute the nile when it recedes, home to Herons, kingfishers,moorhen, and an abundance of wild life

This is the old fibreglass that contains asbestos.
and comes from the guvornment buildings that are coming down to make way for the avenue of the sphinx.

The preservation of Egypt lot still have not got back to me they have recieved 3 E-mails, at least you would think they would have the courtesy to acknowledge them. delivering on Sunday along with a cd of the photos I delivered the following letter to the head of Luxor council Dr Samir Fawak.
The following is a transcript for the head of Luxor District Council the photos were taken on thursday 14 may.09 and sat 15th

This is over my concern for the area known as El Gezira & Banana Island,
The landfill and abuse of this land has to stop. I believe there is already a preservation on Nile Land. I,E, land that is filled naturaly by the waters of the Nile'
so why are you making landfill here not only with the debris from the buildings you are taking down for the new look Luxor city but as you will see in the photos it includes plastic waste, fiberglass waste, lime, gypsum plaster boards, From what is said by the local people, the police said that its ok to put garbage and soil from the land of new buildings such as the new cultural centre in el gezira, but for you to know none of this good soil was put in this area, some of the good soil from the new 12 million Pound land of the swimming pool was put there and only enough to make it look like it is soil for growing , growing land needs at least 18" of soil, here we have Maybe 3", that in itself is wrong how will the water stay on the land for 15 days until it is inundated again ( Watered by pump) they will have to water every day?
After I raised my concern of this matter with the ministry of Agriculture here, Mr M Zachry came with me to see what was happening, And he was appauled at the waste he saw in this area, after he left I went to take some more photos, and what I saw I was also appauled at, I already have problems with sleeping. Every night, I wake with this awful smell of burning plasic and the foul smell of garbage burning.Today I asked the man who was burning the plastic , Why ? His answer , I NEED MONEY.
from what I know He will need one hundred fires to make 1 kilo of copper,
please think about the future generations as I see it, I would like my grand children to see what I see, if this continues they will never see the natural life to The Islet of Banana Island,
neither will yours. what will they say? My grandfather killed this land.
and what for,?
because we wanted the tourist to see a new Luxor. the pharoas respected this precious land and they knew that only here by the Nile and oasis areas can we grow food, What is the percentage of arable land here , I believe 3%. so please take and put the rubbish in the other 97%, its not far to desert land, I am not saying its right to do so but at least it will not polute your lifeline, The Nile,
already there are over 250 cruise ships polluting the Nile for the tourists .
soon tourists will not come pollution does not encourage people especially pollution of the Nile, then what will become of the boats and new hotels , land fill?

More serious stuff

And this is the result of polluting the Nile.
the Little white egret(chick)is a water wader not a swimmer
it would be no suprise if it took its first drink in the Nile
and died from its polluted contents.
I have a quiet place where I take a lot of my photos from
no ( twitter huts here)
that is where this chick died and that is why
I am raising my concerns over the pollution of this land.
our wildlife can not speak neither do they understand why
they die from polluted water that they have lived in well
before man came here.

not garbage

the fires

Mr 1 Piesta and son.

yet another plastic fire this one hung around
for hours as there was no wind last night


these lazy road cleaners if there is nothing in
the bin for them to sell, they put a lighted
cigarette but in the bin and clear off out of the
area, once the fire has taken hold they come
back waving their arms and blame it on some
passer by , job done no need to load its contents
onto the bin lorry. that seems to dispose of it
down by Banana island.

2/8/09

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My life living near the Nile in Luxor Egypt

tee shirts

We get real cool guys and gals come here with the cool great idea at the time tee shirts, most likely because they think they are coming to a place like they did on the last holiday In Tenerife, first there is no night life as such here, no cheap booze and these poor kids are stuck with a crappy tee shirt that says things like " it aint gona suck itself" and worse. now these cool tee shirts on end of seeing the valley of the Kings ETC, will end up in the trash bin of the shop that sells welcome to Egypt and a big tut mask or a camel bonking, much cooler when they get back to home base night club,"look where we went" problem is these Egyptians end up with the suck my **** tee shirts poor buggers cant read English can they,

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Reed beds

Date palm from the reed beds


These papyrus reeds are over 2 metres high

can not go far without seeing the cattle egret! a few weeks ago this area of the reed bed was flooded.

bags for sale

These bags have been hanging here outside the back of a shop in Hamees restaurant since they boarded up the rear entrance
5 years ago,
Pigeons in flight the dates are just about ready
for the birds, its another 2 months before they
will be ready for human consumption,
these 2 are the neighbours future meal.

The call doves are in full plume now, notice
the bird droppings on the wall that is the dye
from the dates.

A bumper crop of Dates. by the time they are
ready the birds will have eaten most of them.
but there is no shortage of date palm trees.

6.30 good morning its time to preen

Nice and clean

Cleaning the corn or are they adding some taste of soil to it?

Drying the corn ready for the flour mill

its life

The mango tree next door this tree is so full of life Sparrows ,Nile valley sun birds and bee eaters all pay a visit different times of the day,*

I am not going to say what I think of these Lazy buggers buts its the life here in Egypt,*

most of the traders or as we say in the UK
hawkers ! door to door salesmen, use the donkey
to sell the made in china plastic rubbish,*

A nice load of hashish (fodder)this is on its way to the
camel sanctuary

This poor little donkey has to pull around
3 1/2 tons.*

Avadavat (Amandava amandava)

This small, short-tailed finch is a native of India that has colonized in an area near to my flat here in Luxor, following the escape of birds from captivity.
this colony was made up of male and female, I have been back to the area several times but have not sighted the birds again, and never will now this area has been filled in.

Unknown species of finch this just happened to be in one of the frames of the Adavat .

Ramadan breakfast

Here Ramadan breakfast is at 6.15 after the sun has set over the land of egypt,
The landlord Machmood and family with Pam all of The son's friends have been invited and the place settings are outside
as is normal here

Some 30 of Achmeds friends attended the feast the greeting is (Col sanna wanta teyb) Happy feast. much like saying merry Christmas to us Christians, and this feast happens every day during the month of Ramadan. to me ramadan is Guy Faulks night November 5th, Christmas and Easter all rolled into one,


Next door preparing for the breakfast.

Esna Barrage

The old road over the length of the barrage now the traffic uses the road over the lock
and a new foot bridge was erected to take the on foot traffic.

Just checking the water line

Follow me to the exit of the barrage

This barrage was built in 1909 to govorn the flow between Esna and the next barrage in Quena some 120 kilometres.

Esna lock

Entering the lock from Luxor, we left Luxor at 5.00 and arrived at the Lock at 8.30.


hawkers waiting for the ship to stop then out comes the normal rubbish for sale. until the local river police chase them off,

Waiting for the ship to come through the lock entrance,

The Nile is 4 mitres lower than the other side of the Gate,when we came back 5 days later it was 5 mitres

Here you can see the water line once the entrance gate is closed and filled. to raise the ship to the next level.

Looking to the barrage from inside the lock.

getting ready to fill the lock.

almost full ready to open the gate

and away we go on our travels next stop the Temple of Edfu,
http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/2009/09/esna-temple-of-horus.html


Going through the old lock in the barrage had to be navigated with care there was about 9" to spare each side of the ship.

Bouy what a great place

Bouy this is the best place to watch the Nile tourists

A pad by the Nile

A roll in the sand

blogs on egypt

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Sunset on the Nile

Little white egret at sunset

flocks of herons heading to roost at sunset

Life on the Nile

Nile cruise

My trip up the nile is my next blog. We had a real relaxing break on one of the Cruisers that we took as a last minute break
I took over 600 photos and I first need to get them sorted out.

luxor news

The new Heritage centre now the fire is out *

Nearby homes were lucky not to have been severly damaged
with all the rubbish stored on the roofs we nearly had roast chicken for tonights Ramadan feast.

Luxor Fire

Photo taken 1 week before the fire *

At 8.00 on 10/9/09 a fire swept through the new heritage centre building site within minutes nearby houses were also set on fire, the intense heat blistered the piant on my flat door
the ambulance and 3 fire tenders with crew were at the scene within 10 mins of my noticeing the fire all the photos are taken from my roof .

the front end of the building one fire engine under the tree was pumping water from the culvert to douse the fire,*

the maze crops

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*

Nose job

my cats

Yes I did put my cats on then I moved the blog to my web site http://www.myegypt.co.uk/index.php?f=data_home&a=9

wine

people we met 2/9/09 , Martin do not forget to send any good picks you took of the kestrel.
a brave young man from China(now a face book friend) doing Egypt on his own studying economics in France,
and a couple from the UK. My wife had just arrived from the UK, and here she is showing photos I had sent her over the past week. of the birds that I had managed to snap.

the bubble pipe

Cleaning the glass base of my sisha pipe

The evening is coming again we get some fantastic sunsets when we have clouds

its a pity all these buildings have not been completed I will have to go to the reed beds and get some evening pics,*

Today I am stuck at home as my wife is coming tomorrow evening and I am having to do some tidying up. I already cleaned the roof balcony floor tiles, and finished the gardening. My garden is three pot plants that I inherited with the flat, Its much too hot up here for them but I

Persevere to keep the plants alive even though the sparrows take most of the foilage I have 2 flowers out today, so must be doing something right, My garden is all around me as you can see from my blogs, best part is No weeding or watering, I have the Lord as my Gardener, and doesn't he do a fantastic job with a little help from his creation.

must get on and do my bit like cleaning and getting some Ironing done. the washing is already out , most likely dry by now, the bed sheets are dry by the time I finish hanging out the rest of the washing, nothing like getting into bed with fresh bed sheets. the only reason I put one on the bed is to stop any insects biting me in the night those that miss the zapper I mean. or if the lecy goes off, then I was cleaning my water pipe did not want to use the clean kitchen sink where it usually gets cleaned every day, so I put it in the outside shower room. I have one living bed sit room one kitchen and two shower rooms one in and one on the roof my roof is my sisha pipe & sitting room, I ran the hater most of the time the cold water is warm until its run for a few minutes, so I just put the glass base on the floor and run the water, went to do my usual morning e-mail check, and went back to clean the bottle the power of the water had increased this made me want to take a photo

little things please little minds. and its the reason for showing you my Bubble pipe. or here we call it the sisha pipe, and this one took my fancy 3 years ago when it was sitting outside a souk on the Cornish, ( now its gone the souk that is ) It was a bit pricey but I liked it as I was well into learning about our Pharaonic ancestors at that time, it has also served me well only having to change the pipe once, as I always say if you pay rubbish you get rubbish and Egypt is full of it. I only put the pipe on here for the photo to show off to its best advantage, not that I purposely put it to show off King Tut and his resting place to the background,Thebes more on thebes on myegypt.co.uk have to run time is pressing . and i am not sure when i will blog next maybe after 2 weeks . I am hoping to get to Lake Qarun if My wife feels up to all the travelling.

*

the reed beds

This reed bed is only yards from my flat and is the area that is of concern in my pollution blog.

This vine grows in the reed bed


The vine and the bullrush is home to so many spiecies of birds and insects
all the 30/8 photos are taken around this area.

this is the plant humos seeds comes from.

donkey day again

Off to work

mum with her newborn foal

The family portrait.

Grasshoper

I only went out to take some photos of the night befores crime scene area.

first.

There was a Lizard on the stairs going down from my flat. pictures were taken but the settings were wrong from the night before, as you can see from the next photos I took of the damaged wall etc.

not until I rest the camera for macro did I realize . not too worry you can see what I had written about with photos .

The grasshoppers are everwhere at the moment the only reason they were noticed the blossom moves as you pass, and until you take a closer look the grasshoppers are visible as they are well camouflaged. they even change coulor as this one did on leaving its hiding place.

The only decent photo of the trapped lizard on my stairs.

A lemon tree in one of the abandoned dwellings.

Could not resist this one it was supposed to be a picture of on of the tiny butterflies. but this bee was in the same frame and made a better cut than the butterfly.

Now this guy has parked his donkey in the shade of our drive way.

while he was waiting for me to finish what I was doing. as I approached him to go back to my flat

he must have thought I wanted to purchase one of the second hand pieces of junk from his cart.

on finding out I was not in a mood to purchase such high quality rubbish. he got a bit aggresive and asked for money for taking the photo of his donkey. I then gave him a full verbal account on how much the camera cost so I can take good photos of things like his donkey to put on the internet. the only words he understood was camera and internet. and I put my hand out, if you want me to put the photo on the internet It will cost you 5le. he gave me a smile and said shukran,( thank you) Masalama ashufuk badain wi ana feluse, ( goodbye I will see you later for my money ) and the guy is still down there 2 hours later waiting. must have missunderstood me.

or my arabic is not getting any better with time, or he is waiting for another tourist that wishes to take a photo of his donkey.

en-route to breakfast

I had a real chirp from the sparrow as I was leaving for breakfast . here its ramadan so breakfast is at sundown, then all the time I have spent trying to get a good photo of the young Lizards in the coffee shop. there was one waiting by the car as I was about to get in .

First stop was the Vinyard to get some grapes for our host Mahoud's mum, She is diabetic I was told this morning, so I put off getting her some chocolates and seing that she likes grapes and they are in season. I got one kilo for myself and 2 kilo for mine host . 2 kilo because I know the whole familly will dig into them, as soon as I have departed, and gran is a soft touch,as most are.
Buying grapes is the mans place when its Ramadan, and seeing how late in the day it was there was not much choice left, so I left it to Mahmuod to do the haggling , and it seems that is all part and parcel of buying here, every thing has to be bartered for not where the tourist come so no prices are shown. the egyptians do not like prices on anything as there is no joy in shopping if they can not have a good argument over one bad grape,

by the the time we set off again the sun was setting and we were now close to the Nile. with an hour to spare before food would be on the trays, then I noticed a very strange looking plant that was next to the potted plant souk , we do not call nerseries a nursery, anywhere that sells is a souk(market), a shop that sells food no matter what size it is ,it is called the supermarket,

after we crossed over the new Bridge to the west bank we saw a field of sunflowers so we stopped again a good chance to get the sunset behind the subject. as I got out of the car we were standing in a field full of aborigines. they are one of my favourite vegitables,

.

as I was getting back in the car after taking the sunflower photos I saw the Stork got one photo of him then he took off and landed on the lampost.

meal time

Is this my diner a duckling getting to grips with his meal a scarab beetle.

This Gander thought I was his meal, or was it angry I did not bring it any food.

head down for the kill.

The Male moskovi this is the daddy here and he has 3 wives that no one is allowed to eat. they would be too tough to eat anyway.

A gagle of geese they only esually act like this if they have young,

Maybe they are looking after the moskovi chicks.

noodles

I have been here in upper Egypt for 7 years now and this is the first time I have seen the egyptian noodle bread beeing made, this is the traditional way of making the noodle and is only made in ramadan, there are many ways to serve this dish but here in upper Egypt the traditional wayis with milkand stoned dates with or without cane sugar, and its a yummy .

Preparing the wood for the fire the hotplate is just a piece of steel oiled each time a batch is made once the plate is hot enough the batter is poured on with a special fine multi holed device that is large enough to do one batch, so the mix has to be prepared thin enough to run out of the holes,

after about 20 seconds its ready to pick up and usually its sold straight away, people come at a certain time as not to have to long to wait by the end of ramadan the baker will know who comes and in what order. the noodle is usually prepared for tomorrows supper not with the main breakfast meal. we had to wait, by the time we had a tea and water pipe, 0ur batch was ready and it cost 3 egp per kilo. that is like 35pence sterling enough for twenyy servings, so I was told He also said some people like it more than others, they do not say things like the, greedy person,

A new day has dawned

* This morning I got up early and decided that I would have my first cup of tea on the rear view balcony, it is the first time I have opened the doors and shutters since My wife headed back to the uk too look after her parents almost 2 months ago ( doesn't time fly) there is enough dust on the balcony to water to grow my own veg. but will have to leave dirty for now. Because a more pressing matter came to my attention. Like photo’s .

The houses to the back are soon to be demolished to make way for a vehicle parking area for the new cultural centre, the building of said is the cause of my new maybe veg patch

And I see that the fly by night builders have put on new roofs even built walls to support the new roof these are the strangest of people its like nothing is real to them (lets put up a shelter for the night) its not as if they are the owners of the land. My Landlord has just had his ownership papers revoked after a ten year court battle with Luxor council and because he built this building without permission he now has to pay 3 times what he originally rented the land for / its something they all do referring to the fly by night builders. Its nothing to wake up in the morning to find a new mud brick building in the middle of a field. And if the police do not knock it down the next day it means they have been paid, corruption:

Also this new day they are working in the new Luxor district supreme council offices. To the front of my flat I must have missed the grand opening, but already they have moved from the old premises by the Nile,

As I peered over the side of my balcony I also noticed that the a kids are back in town.

First they are both tethered then 5 minutes later after taking a photo of the sleeping cat & next doors sleeping watchman and the other neighbours making sun bread. Photos taken On the front roof balcony of my flat. I went back to catch a photo of the sunrise through the date palm, and spent some time watching the Spanish sparrows ( not common ol house sparrows) eating at what is left of the dates.

Then there was a crash , one of the kids went for the dog and pulled his tether off. Now it has made a bolt for the green area behind the sunshine home, and it seems like these are the only kids we are going to see around the sunshine home , for the foreseeable future anyway ,( 12 months open & still no kids in there)

Too much for one new day and all this from my lovely flat in El Gezira , nr Banana Island. Luxor.

Good morning to you too

the watchman sleepeth,

Making the sunbread ready for the first sun and bread to rise,

The sparrows having early breakfast,

This new day the new council office is open to business,

Myegypt Map

the Nile river

The new bridge Near Aswan

Comombo temple from the river

Nubian houses near the old Dam Aswan.

Sunset

Luxor is getting to look like one masive building site with all the steel protruding from unfinished buildings, nice sunset though.


Sunset now we are in ramadan the donkey starts his day as soon as the driver has breakfast,

The Nubian memorial to the nubian people who lost thier land due to flooding after the Dam now called lake Nasser

The dam was mainly built to house the hydro electric plant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_Dam



All the fishing boats no longer in use.

The old dam

The road to the new dam over the old

Housing

THE COWS HOUSE its not a shippon or a milking parlour

Just a cows house a place of shade for the animal that provides milk.

The pigeon house its not a loft or an add on for pigeons to breed its a complete pigeon house.

sunflower

Evening sky the first day of Ramadan, 09

another is on http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/08/plants-in-egypt.html

little machmood is back as dirty as ever, if he is not carefuul the rats will start nibbling at him.

fly trap

One weeks supply of flies from the zapper
and there are 2 zappers in my flat.

another strange looking creature on my stair window,

these little lizards are always loosing thier tails to one preditor or another
cats seem to prefer them to the rats.

wild life photos are on.

http://egyptwildlife.blogspot.com/
click on the photos to enlarge

A Sock Cactus

I wondered where I left my socks

Black Ants these are the ones we see racing around with their backend in the air,


Ramadan is here, what joy.

Little buggers

21/8/09 today I went for A walk over the New Luxor bridge I say new it was built in 2003
Joining the East & West banks of Luxor, I had A lift over the bridge because all I wanted to do was take some photos of the Sun flowers that are out at this time of year. the photos of the birds etc is on the http://egyptwildlife.blogspot.com/ as I was coming back over the bridge there was some steps leading down under the bridge that the local people use to get to wherever near the bridge, just like me I went down to see if I could get a good photo from under the bridge or from the fields by the Nile, to my amazement the place was teaming with wild life. the wild life is so adaptable to make the best use of its enviornment, what trees survived the building of the bridge is home to so many birds etc.
no better way to explain other by photographs. so many of these birds I have tried to get photos of, like the swallows in Aswan I took photos of from a speeding boat down the rapid waters. and here they were in a collony, just gliding from a branch to skim the Nile waters for an insect or a drink, I did not expect to see such an abundance of life and with all the local children following and talking most of the wildlife had flown off, next time I go I will go in the morning when the kids are not around now that Ramadan is here they all sleep until mid afternoon. its not that I mind kids its just that these little sods do not leave you alone. you have to treat them like dogs and pick up a stone before they go away. shouting abuses like fuckin tourist. cant just give baksheesh every time, or you have the whole damn village out after my money. and all I want is a bit of peace . ah well. try again. but at least I have found another unexpected spot to go bird and wildlife watching, only one side was the habitable area of the wildlife,
The luxor end was home to our other wild life the river police. they too were taking advantage of the man made sun shade,


Piling for the new footings for the road over the Railway lines and canal
this road will be the link to the airport ring road, the bridge is already under construction.

The scarab water feature that has never worked

Nile cruise ,Living under the bridge

Views off the bridge, the jetty is the wter pipe to the filtration plant for drinking water, and the canals that irugate the land,

The little buggers back to work cleaning the dishes
most of the people who live near the Nile still use the traditional method of cleaning and washing ,

A view from the bridge to the new cruise ship berths.

Even the police have made themselves at home under the bridge
they have even made a garden.its about 200yards from here to the Nile.

Nile cruise

fisher boys river beating for the fish to go in the nets.
I did not lock the lens fully home hence the light meter not working.


One of the Cruisers going under the bridge,

The Nile to Luxor

More rats they seem to be everywhere now

The Nile view up river to aswan.

Luxor this way

Under Luxor Bridge

View under the bridge to the east bank

Another Cruiser heading for the Luxor berths.

Catching the wake after the cruiser

A sand haulage barge heading back for another load these boats travel the full length of the Nile in Egypt about 800 kilometres from Aswan to zag-a-zig and onother 100 to Alexandria.

THE boat being hand loaded with building stone near Daraw.

Over the bridge

Two Horus eagles each end of the Luxor Bridge


all modes of transport cross over the bridge this is a rag & bone Man

They all have this deformity that makes me think they are asking for money. I hope not here on the bridge I will have to cross over 4 lanes.
It would be no suprise if I saw one of the watch guys so I can buy a cheap rolex. or a scarf,

four eyed spider

One of the small 4 eyed spiders on the stair well window.

and another species of grass.

Snack Time restaurant

Again I went to the roof restaurant and it really is one of the best places to eat in Luxor.
not just for the Egyptian food but that awsome view of the Temple and across the Nile to Thebes
there is no alcohol served but that is made up by the variety of hot and all the fresh fruit drinks that is on the menu,



photo of the building is on
http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/08/snack-time.html

the watering hole

The watering hole is a man made oasis. this was created around a type of prayer area( mosque)
Here the workmen Building the walls and closing the entrances to the newly found tombs that were under the demolished tomb robbers house, See http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/2009/08/der-el-medinet.htm
and of course where there is water the flies, ants and bees will make a home. in the watering hole photo see the mud bricks. and as for the stone walling, if I did work like this back in wales I would never have another job there is an art in dry walling. and every wall I built I was proud to say I built it, here they have no pride in what they do when you pull them up on thier workmanship they turn around and say only Allah is perfect. No answer to that is there. so they should stick to building mud huts I reckon. what puzzles me is 2000 / 5000 years ago they were building the best as a lot of it is still standing. when or why did they lose this craft. see the http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/2009/07/construction-of-toud.html
click on photos
l

Cairo

I wonder who eats Pam poo. the smell puts me off.

Its rubbish day, From what I saw of Cairo everyday is rubbish day

The souk opposite the grand Hotel.

Tourist information luxor

Ice by the lorry full most of the street drinks
use this water to make the fresh fruit juices. very nice on a hot day you may say,
but most of us who are not used to drinking Nile water will have a nice tummy upset after the nice drink. so be carefull. only the sugar cane drink is pure juice.

Every thing from the cow is edible apart from the moo and the hair,

He said" I only stopped for some beer when I got back to my car I found I had a puncture. so I had to use the phone to get some assistance. same thing happened to me said the motorcyclist.

Accross the road from the rail station is the new Information Centre in Luxor. great place to get scammed on cheap rubbish hotels.that is if you manage not to get scammed before you get there from one of the many hotel touts,

read on scams in Egypt

http://bloodylyingbastards.blogspot.com/2009/07/scams-to-be-aware-of.html

Ramadan is coming

All the lanterns are back for sale in the shops. we will be in ramadan in a few days.
nothing past the lips during daylight hours. its very hot here at the moment.

OO look crisps and coke shop.

Seatless or peddless bycycles seem to be all the rage here in Luxor.
bit of a sore point innit.

The hardware shop, here you can buy all the pieces you will need to build yourself a sisha pipe.+ the wire wool to clean it and if it don't work there is enough rope to hang oneself.

Nile river

This part of the Nile cornish was finished from new just 1 month ago
already you can see how polluted the nile is. and the Nile is only high like this for about two weeks.
Nothing deters the sportsmen from thier sport.

The Nile was calm and Quiet today not a boat on the river in Sight.
I know I will get someone passing a comment like are you swimming? Apart from the one I am on "ok"

"Ok" where is this happy land hotel, Is there a lift for my donkey,
Better still where is Happy land

Howard carter

Howard carter House, Gurna, West Bank ,Luxor.

Now the water has been turned off to the tomb robbers houses they have to revert back to the old days and carry water by donkey.after all the demolition there is only about a dozen or so houses left now,

Disembarking from the ferry boat to the west bank.
its not so bad now the Nile is High most of the year the nile is about 2 metres lower.

English is Easy

Todays e-mail. is that one day or two days?
Can you read these right the first time?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum..

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?


Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth?

One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?

One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this.

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP, so.......... Time to shut UP.....!

Oh...one more thing:

What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? U-P
To put some light on the subject,
The air is light but not as light as light is,

Valley of the Queens,

Sunset over the Valley of the Queens.
Turkeys are quite a common sight here,

The mud brick houses are Susceptible to collapse now the sewage drains are in
Here the soil has been sifted into a hole in the main pipe causing the damage


Mud bricks these I used to repair a wall to the clinic in Daraw near Comombo

Evening by the Nile

Sunset over the Temple

felucca's birthed for the night,

The tree by my balcony now the dates are ready 12/8/09

The canadian's house is almost finished

Shopping in Luxor

Titti Fruitti Cafe A nice place to relax
over a cup of tea. or a snack.
click on the photo to see the menu.

The sun must be out. the woman can not
make out why all these handsome men
stare at her

Notice in severn travel agency.

bloody Idiots

Egypt is full of these bloody idiots who think they

are riding a camel or a donkey. then curse because

we stopped to let a lorry through who had the right of way,

he was lucky there was only damage to his overloaded vehicle,

we were on our way to Dendera temple after visiting Abydos,

Dendera Temple

Abydos

The trip to Abydos was mainly along the Nile after we left Quena
I decided to go straight to Abydos and see Dendera on the return trip.
that way I could travel on the west bank coming back.and see the villages to both sides of the Nile also it meant that we could see and go over the Ras Hammadi barrage.


The Nile reeds these are used for a whole manor of things mainly for roofing and to stop the wind Ie fencing,

the barrage was built in 1909 to govurn the flow of the Nile
since the high dam in Aswan was built 1970 s its only used to stop the flow between here & Esna.

By know you should know I take a photo of anything that moves, some take a good photo this one would be a good photo if the sun was not so High.

Travelling over the barrage

Waiting for the train this is the bypass bridge for the trains to Alexandria/Cairo to Aswan most of the track along the 1000 kilometer
is a single track apart from the main stations enroute. this steel framed bridge is over the canal. and only here before Quena does the train cross the Nile to the east bank. the night journey is a bit borring only traveling in the dark, so if you want to see the beaty of the country & Nile travel by day all the tourist trains leave at 6.30, Aswan and Cairo.



Entrance to Abydos village.

Not much to look at from the exterior. but this is the best temple for colour. and one of only 3 complete Tourist attraction Temples in Egypt (roof still intact) go to my web site to see the photos inside the temples.
http://www.myegypt.co.uk/index.php?f=data_home&a=2

The pottery chimney in Ras Hammadi

This idiot overtook us when we where stopping to let a lorry through.
good job he went into the sand not the lorry.

Abydos temple

Party time

My roof last night The landlords daughter 's
Engagement party.

Luxor Holiday Apartments

Madina heights
Madina street --Assaied Albadawy Street
Luxor
e- mail beverleyabdelaziz@yahoo.com
Mobile:- 002-0103713082
Home:- 002 -0952282815

Modern Egypt

The ultra modern star shopping centre
this even has a proper supermarket food outlet.

the new Gas building, well that is what its called.

And a modern block of flats

the ultra modern Mosque not to be mistaken for the blue Mosque in the city of the dead, all these new buildings are in Nasser City,

egypt travel

The new sightseeing boat.

the taxi got me to Ramsis on time and I was informed the train only leave from El Giza Station.

but no train its full. the last 4 cars on the train had about 20 people my car that i managed to get on had one passenger . "Me" so I wonder if they made a mistake of saying full when the meant empty "not full".

Beetles and Museums

Egyptian museum

No cameras allowed in the museum the place is getting to look a bit scrappy considering the revenue it creates. one of the exhibits even has a thick layer of cobwebs it could be to make it look authentic. The link for the museum http://www.egyptianmuseum.gov.eg/home.html

I have been to the museum several times. but this last visit Did not impress me with its outdated 1930 cards on the exhibits. so small they are hard to read,

Cairo zoo

I knew before I went that this place was going to be bad,
I do not believe in caging any animal for the pleasure of people.
not only was it bad but I really felt sick at seeing the animals
the whole place was geared up like always in Egypt "sell", outside of the zoo gates I thought ok they are encouraging the people to buy the food animals and birds eat. entrance fee was 10 EGP. £1.10.( not bad for a day at the zoo) once inside you could smell the dirty green water and the animal shit, what animals there was, were very poorly looking. the food that was bought for whatever could not be given because of the rails and fine mesh wire to most of the cages, so was quickly eaten by the so called humans. one thing to my amazement there was nothing pharaonic for sale no scarab beetles no mask of King Tut only rubbish that they brought in from China. not that you can not buy Chinese made Scarabs and Tuts gold mask in Egypt.the only thing made in egypt is the alabaster,

Face painting to make the kids look like the animals they were there to see, seemed to be a big feature of the day. and the kids in turn acted like the animals that were missing , And whoever was painting the children thought all animals had a bright red face with white eyes and black lines as whiskers, the first enclosure stank to high heaven from an over crowded pink flamingo flock. this had a nice green 3 metre pool and about another 2 metres too stretch the legs once the visiters had gone home.

One of the many face painters who also sold plastic shell beads of various colours that the egyptians like.

Then there was the fish pool I think
this seems to be the breeding area of the coke and 7up bottles
and of course the well looked after , culicidae. (Mosquito)who have about 1000 species throughout the African countries. and seems to take anvantage of these breeding grounds the kind humans provide.

This is what I really came to the zoo for, the bignonianceae tree
little did I know it produced such a variety of crisps and plastic toys.
The species of tree I had been trying to get the name for over 3 months.

Most of the lizards and snakes were alive if barely. but this little fellow must be of the Nubian Variety where it is common practice to Hang the dead outside of the door entrance into the home. or it must be a very hard species to find as it is a dead exihibit. and by tho look in its eyes it seems to have been that way for a while.

Another Mosquito breeding pond.

I am the wise old owl wink wink. I know I am the teacher

here. enlarge the next photo.

botany

www.botany.hawaii.edu/FACULTY/CARR/bignoni.htm
http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/05/blooms.html

Cairo University

My first stop in cairo the university
To meet with the Sheikh Dr A. Tayeb
Over my problem here in Luxor.

The University Mosque.

In the evening I found myself a hotel Called
the Grand Hotel near to the TV & Radio building.
from there i took this nie picture of the Tulip Tower Zamalek.

The market ner the Hotel. we do not
seem to get fruit as good as this on the Luxor Markets.
The next day I went to Sakkara. The photos are on my blog

http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/

Friday fish market Cairo

One of the best places to eat if you are a lover of fish
On my 10th visit in 7 years. they have opened a
new Restaurant eating area on the top deck above the original restaurant it was so nice sitting on the deck with open views of the Nile,
And as always the food was supperb.

Find a fresh and unique dining experience at the west bank of the Nile. The Fridays Fish Market is a boat permanently moored in the Nile river for the past 12 years . It has no menu: Patrons instead choose from a fresh seafood spread laid out before them in An ice bar and the cooks prepare it on site. Fridays Fish Market 26 Shar'a al-Nil (Giza)Tel. +20 (0) 2.570.9694.

This 2 years ago was a Nile scenic view boat that cruised up and down the nile in Cairo.

Kigelia africana Bignoniaceae

After much serfing and the lies being told yet again by the egyptians.
the tree I was told was a ficus benghalensis. It is the , Bignoniaceae, sausage tree.
http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/07/rare-tree-in-luxor.html
I was in Cairo zoo 7/8/09 almost every tree in the park had its I d tag removed with the exeption of the tree I wanted, so I took a photo of the tag and tree, it is quite rare but the Luxor agriculture guys were adament this was the ficus benghalensis ( Banyon tree)
Kigelia africana, Bignoniaceae, sausage tree. Notice the large, showy flowers, the 5-lobed calyx and corolla, and the didynamous stamens. The corollas are leathery, which resists shredding by the clawed wings of bats that visit and pollinate this species in its native habitat in tropical west Africa. The flowers and the large, sausage-like indehiscent fruits that develop from them hang on long stems below and away from the limbs of the tree. Although not edible, the fruits are used in Africa as an external medication.http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/FACULTY/CARR/bignoni.htm

The ficus benghalensis tree is seen alover the place there is an avenue of this tree along the Nile cornish near the British embassy" Ok" its similar but all the ficus has fruit in between the leaves on the stem. that is why I went to the bother of finding out what this tree was in Luxor.

Nile pollution

http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

page on the pollution

Egyptian food

Sunset over the Nile in Luxor

Polenating the new date tree buds 3/5 2002

Rising the sun bread

Fruit and veg market in Daraw.

A meal in the Seagull restaurant and Museum Alexandria.

Recipe for cooking in egypt

I do not use recipe books I cook the way I want, and with such a big variety of wonderful tasting fruit and veg, and local herbs, its nigh near impossible to make a hash of cooking.
That is one reason I do not go out very often to eat in restaurants, it would be much easier for me now that most of the time I am on my own to go out. I love cooking, especially when my wife comes over for a break.

3/8/09 I made a fish tagine with local Nile perch and prawns.
cooked in a traditional clay pot. wonderfull superb flavour
I marinated the fish for one day in olive oil,salt,garlic, ginger and onion.
Then added the tomatoes just before putting in the oven. 1 hour baking time on a moderate gas.
only 2 settings on my oven low and high so I put it in the middle. next time I cook I will wait for the ladies next door to bake the sun bread and put my dish in the oven after. They cook the bread the traditional way in an earth oven. heated by dried sugar cane grass and cow or camel dried dung.
The spuds (potatoes) are just boiled. have to think of my figure.
I suppose rice would be ok but I am not fussy on Rice, only Rice pudding.
That I make with fresh buffalo milk and sugar cane, to this you can add coconut or custard powder. or both. yum, yum,
O K which piece does sir want. its all been washed in persil.
or was that the headscarf?.

Anyone for tripe

Looks all very nice but not the place to buy your spices,
I only buy where the locals buy, and the souk is only for the tourist.


A typical Egyptians meal nothing from a tin
only the rice and flour for the bread is more than 1 day old.



Shoe shine 1 le + another for the photo

New entrance into the souk( market street)

View from the Cornish of the Roman murials
in the roman part of Luxor Temple.
Just happened to be on my daily walk today and the sun was high
so no shadows on the walls. Luxor temple photos are on the myegypt website.

Nile felluca.

www2 stationed in Egypt, Mum in laws picture of a Nile felluca

Horses in the Nile

diner time for the Ants

The reflections of the Little White Egret on the Nile's calm waters.

These are the calache horses having a dip in the Nile.

"um" I forgot its Friday i have to catch my own fish today,

Midland bank Newtown Powys

Just messing about with my bank.

Donkeys

I love the donkeys here . they are a much used animal in egypt.most are looked after. but they still have to work hard. some of the photos show the work they do.

Even the fruit can be brought on your doorstep

The head of the sugar cane is used as fodder, bedding and when its dried its used to heat up the bread ovens.

Klaus wanted his photo taken with a cartload of oranges in Alexandria.

Day old foal.

and a month old.

waiting for the harvester to finish then the cart will be loaded with the corn. and taken to the flour mill.

A load of tomb, (garlic) a string of garlic cost 10 le
most of the meals here contain Garlic.

Market day in Daraw these donkeys are waiting for the end of market day,
hoping that the load is lighter than what was carried at 5 in the morning,

the donkey here is abused just look at the amount he has to pull
Then when he gets on the main road all the workers also climb on board.

Mrs Karima Awad wife of scum bag Mohamed Awad
outside my hotel in the west bank. hopefully i will get the hotel back soon? the fruit and veg was delivered every day to the hotel.

going home after a hard day in daraw market.

delivering fodder to the cow and buffalo. this is the buffalo I get my milk from once a week.

2 ton of cement + the 15 cwt cart, hard life for mum and her offspring.

work all day in the field just to feed the donkey,

sunshine home Luxor

Bathing time in the gardens outside the Luxor Temple

Snack time roof restaurant No beer but they have a good Menue for traditional Egyptian food and fresh fruit drinks this is not a fast foody, the entrance to the roof top lift is in Snack Time

once on the roof you get a panoramic view of the Temple and Thebes, it was a Nice rest after 4 Hours Taking photos in Karnak Temple. see http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/

Mrs Suzane Mubarek her Photo is postered outside the temple showing how she is the patron for the childrens Sunshine home, this is situated just outside my Flat it was finished last year. Suzane was supposed to open the home But could not be bothered , the kids where there all day in their best clothes and had to stand in a line from 9 in the morning intil 4 in the afternoon.

and its not the first time she has not turned up for an opening of The Sunshine homes.

Luxor Temple

The best place to eat in town the roof
restaurant on Snack Time even the
food down stairs is Much better than
Mc Donalds.

Both the fast foods are near the
Luxor Temple.

Heritage centre 1 year on

heritage centre

April /08




30/7/09

Luxor estate agents

.

The advert is in Quite a good place

most of us Expats already have a broblem In this court

After Buying or renting property here and some

from this agency.

spooky luxor

The mind boggles as to how they get
internet from a sewing machine.

This is where the Copts come if they lose anything

they make an offering then lay hands on the crypt

of some young boy who died years ago.

not sure what the baby has lost, maybe the father went missing,

I do not know what will happen to the area once it comes down Making way for the new look Luxor.

Strange thing is if the muslims find anything the say its a gift from God. Insha allah

A big yawn and a new fill for the bubble pipe may

take away the boredom of this Butcher

Not a car sign you would see in the U K

On tour English Ausies And Americans
on a tour of Africa,

O K which piece does madam want.

Its Mango and grape season

Luxor Hotel

The luxor hotel was the first hotel in luxor
now its the home for the police and has
fallen into disrepair ,once inside the grandure
if this once modern hotel is on display with its
inrticate wood patterns,


No more does the grand piano with its
cheap padlock get played in the Nile bar
maybe one day the hotel will get refitted
and again welcome the visitors to the
land of the Pharahos.

Another beetle

Luxor Egypt

Get Your Shirt ironed while you wait

This shoe sewing machine is 140 years old
and used every day Except Fridays.

Another lazy egyptian not often do you
see women road cleaners. but Luxor is
catching up with the reat of the world.

Fed up of waiting for the guy who has
a car who has money. problem is the
steering is on the other side, and the
begger womon is most Likely going to
be run over if the driver does not see her.

spiders

One reason I put the smaller subjects on the blog

because its a great programe to enlarge on.

New restaurants in Ramla

Nile valley hotel

The Nile valley hotel seems to be safe from the demolition contractors
according to a promise to the owners by Dr Samir Fawak.
I can Only say what I hear and what I am told. Naughty boy Mohamed And Samir Fawak for telling me lies.
more into the lies I have been told .
Three years Ago before I got burnt out of My hotel Myegypt. by the then so called business partner Mohamed Awad. he told me his Relative Hamada Khalifa. wanted to buy My hotel and would I sell. I asked why he said his place is coming down and all the houses in Ramla. and he will need a new restaurant and hotel.
After I had a problem with Mohamed . he wanted me too swap my hotel with some land He bought near the canal in Ramla and before I said anything I went to see Dr Samir Fawak. who is the guvorner of Luxor, (No 1) and he said the place you want in Ramla has no building permission and never will have , then he went on to say that all of Ramla between the canal and the Nile is coming down to make the new marina and tourist bus turning area. so who did Dr Samir lie too me or the khalifas?

Luxor Temple

Views from the oldest Hotel in Luxor.
these are taken from the roof of the Luxor Hotel

Nile cruise

These two old tug boats have just docked in Luxor.

luxor is full of these tour offices none have prices on show .
the price of a tour is depending on the hotel $ sign you are staying at.
so your answer on where you stay is,
Sherief hotel, off tv street. the shitiest hotel in town.

egyptscams, egypt tours.

To all who are interested my story on the corruption here in the court is on http://egyptscams.blogspot.com/
the temples I go to see are on
http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/

Click on here for the photos on Ramlha in this blogspot. http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/07/whats-coming-down.html

Pottery & a wise bird

Two cooking pots I bought from the pottery in Esna

now they will be coated in black suger, and baked before

I use for cooking. these pots cost 5 egp each,

want to buy a second hand mercedes.

as long as the engine runs its roadworthy

This chicken calls in to the cafe every day

now there is a breakfast bar in use.

Shaduf and ingenious fishermen

A Shaduf 15 k before Esna

2 boys on the way down the canal
from their fishing trip. ingenious lot
these Egyptians looks like they have
mammas table cloth as a makeshift sail.

The pottery 20 k from Luxor.

Not going to loose this sheep on the way home

unless it lies down and makes camoflage with the kerb,

after buying it from the market in Esna.

Village of Toud

Temple of Montu

the http://myegypttours.blogspot.com/2009/07/temple-of-toud.htmletemple photos are on

About Luxor

Isna Barrage

Isna barrage built in 1906 photo taken outside the Esna temple ticket office

Esna Cornish.

Crossing from the east bank over the barrage to the west bank'

A few hours in Isna

West bank Luxor

At last the houses are coming down in Ramla west bank Luxor

all the buildings in the front are coming down 14 this time then in a few more months the rest of the village of Ramla up to the new Mosque is being demolished to make way for the new marina.

. Two of the houses have just been sold by these crooks to English people who are now in the uk and they are going to have a big surprise when they come back next week with their new key : no house to put the key in: I have known for 7 years there is a problem in Ramla the reason I built out of this area, the embassy website warn people not to buy here or rather to be careful buying here, problem is we are told by the crooks not to listen to people as they are jealous of new Byers.not anybody can buy with Nile view, and we foreigners are so gulible as to these lying bastards.and I can put money on the person who sold these houses Methat the fat guy owner of Rahma transport.his mate mohamed villa. mohamed usef who's home and apartments are next to come down or his brother, Ah well more problems for the corrupt judges and police to sort out. Hamada Nile valley hotel is busy painting his hotel. hopeing it will not come down

I saw that the roof restaurant was still open so I went up for a beerHis dutch wife and two small children were there , and an elderly couple from Scotland who have just lost their home to the demolition .they bought 2 years ago from Mohamed Usef. (THIS GUN TOTTING smartie IS MENTIONED IN MY NOTES FROM TWO YEARS AGO) now he is saying they will have compensation + a plot of land in Ramla from Dr Samir fawak,

this is guvornment land and the reason why all these houses are coming down in the first place. the land is being sold to the saudi's to build a new Marina and will only move in when all the houses are gone. including the nile valley.

Nile Life

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Luxor price

Hamees price list good food and cheap beer.
and a nice view of the Luxor Temple accross the road

ok!! who is leaning sideways.

old and modern buildings in the same block


I guess this is a shoe shop

Horses and Mosques

Waiting for another load of timber from the Mosque

Nothing is safe in Luxor. This is the old Mosque (that the police used)
also the Mercure Inn hotel is about to be demolished to make way for the much needed new souk !!! Joke!

The street cleaners new carts,outside the street cleaners H Q


This is a rare tree,They have placed a guard on it to stop the workmen digging near its roots.
http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/07/rare-tree-in-luxor.html
I have e-mailed Kew Gardens to find its name and if we can propogate its seeds.

Luxor trade

The kebab shop......notice how clean the street is,
well its clean for Egypt.

Playing peek a boo notice the hand (it says Money)


The local market street off TV street the street starts with the Nile fish monger. then the vegitable ingredients to make a good Tagine.(local dish) half way down there is half a dozen local meat shops, then more fruit and veg stalls. A good place to see the flies especially on the meat cutting block. I got told off when I tried to get a photo of my favourite species. and of course flies eating the blood would have made a good photo, for me anyway, "ah well" I sighed.

The local ladder shop. I do not think health and safety have too much say here. Most are held together with a few nails and scraps of wood just like the seat

Modes of transport

A special made motorbike for sign carrying

A well overloaded cart that this donkey has to
pull in 45c temperatures

A water mellon trycicle +grapes and figs now in season.

This is Omar and his special donkey cart
supermarket for local produce. specializes in
Bananas, onions, tomatoes, potatoes and local sun bread.
all he brags are from his home.
fair play to Omar he is one of a kind A no hassle friendly guy.

shopping in luxor

The first time I went to Omars I got ripped off. I got home

3 items on the list were missing, cost 230le,

next time I went all I had was sorries and of course now I check before I leave, and do my own packing. much to the annoyance of the boy who is waiting for his bag filling tip.

all was ok for about 18 months , then I had to tell one of the staff not to smoke on the cold section. another sorry, but nowt was done about it then a month ago I decided to go for a big shop as my wife was coming. got myself a trolley half way through the shopping expedition I had to stop and backtrack up the isle , because it was the staffs food break and they had decided to sit in a nice cool place under the air condition unit only problem was its in the middle of the isle,

so I left my trolley half full of shopping including frozen produce, and walked out.

2 days ago I wanted some cheddar cheese. the only place I know where I can buy loose or cut from the block is omar supermarket, there was no one on the cheese counter. sorry there was a rat or shall I say rats. having a feed on one of the pastrami meat, guess what.

so for you expats keep away from omars there are other outlets such as Hosny supermaket who has promissed he will get some cheddar in,

all the pyramiza shops closed ready for the letting price increase( double)

Cadburies are in town

This veg stall is just up the road heading back to Luxor town centre from Omars

always has nice fresh fruit a bit high on his prices, but if you get any bad stuff he will replace it

and of course its up to you to hagle on bulk buying, but i have never had a complaint on his stock.

Lizards & Crisps

At 45c Its even too hot for this lizards feet,

The street opposite my flat has a super market, as they call it

its about 3metre x 3 metres. I wonder if they sell crisps ?...on the last count 50 different varieties.

I get my fresh local dairy produce from here.

Aswan nile river boathouse

There are several of these old boathouses stranded
and left to rot on the way upriver to the old dam.

Young lads showing the tourists their swimming skills.
near elephantine Island.

Agha Khan Mausolium and the first gate into what was the temple on Elephantine island.http://www.delange.org/Elephantine/EP57.htm


the old lock for the transport of ships has not been in use since the new dam was built 1973.http://www.delange.org/OldDam/EP81.htm
the high dam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_Dam

Aswan

Every 5 years the have a sculping competition, the winners had the finished model on show in aswan they are dotted all over Aswan the model donkey is in the Nubian museum gardens. this boat is on the cornish opposite the train station.
these are made of Aswan pink granite, the same stone and from the same quarry as the original Giza pyramids covering that Mr Napolion took downdown,http://www.williamdietrich.com/napoleon.htm

Aswan station no trains due for one hour so no Hassle.
on leaving

The rock Martins

Elephantine ruins.

Cataract hotel Aswan

The cataract hotel Aswan the old Kings winter residence,
is in the middle of a major uplift, I hope they do not spoil it It was so grand and had a real atmosphere about it. whole I worked on the Clinic in Daraw. my day off often was spent having tea and a sit in its garden overlooking the Nile

Hyroglific on one of the rocks under the cataract click to enlarge
to see the figures of Ramsis,

Aswans new Court house on the end of the cornish
before the egypt air office.

Nile rapids

The rapids when the nile is high.these photos are taken about half way from elephantine and the old dam.

Crockodiles

One of the Nubian houses. that are home to the young croks,
the two birds are a pellican and a comorant that flew into one of the many pylon electric wires that criss cross the nile coming from the hydro electric power plant of the High dam Aswan.
The crocodile was not big enough to make shoes etc when it died. and the turtle was found dead in the Nile most Likely after it came through the hydro turbines.

When I first saw this monster of a crocs head I thought it was
a fossle. on closer inspection and a few words from the wise
Nubian. it was the head of a very old croc one of the last caught in the Nile behind the English dam in 1965.


Bibi holding one of the young crocs

.http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/06/crocodiles-in-aswan.html
two years ago when i last saw these they were quite small.

The old dam aswan

Geese from the Nubian village


A typical nubian modern house

Camels

Here the desert comes into the Nile a great place to take a camel ride into the desert.

The Nile Aswan

One of the trees on Kitchener Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchener's_Island

Comorant on the Nile

Nile birds

Aswan

sights

 
 
 

The new Winter Palace Luxor

Gone is the New Winter Palace, now the hoopee
birds and crows have now taken the land over over


2009 photo of the Luxor Temple and the old Winter Palace
This Photo Taken in 2008, gone is the Block Hotel
that was called the New Winter Palace.
all in the name of modernization of Luxor Town

The Mosquito zapper

The problem with the electric Mosquito zapperis it zaps anything that gets in the grid.when I got up this morning, The greco was inthe base tray he has also learnt that when thefly gets zapped it makes a click the lauder the click the smaller the catch is, its strange that the mosquitomakes a louder click than a moth, and I was wonderingwhy there are always flies in the zapper tray by my bed & not in the zapper in the kitchen only flies of colour likethis one and the small beetles. and of course one of these flies is only photogenic when its dead,

Spider

Turtle Doves

bbc news

find a hole and put it in, even a hole in the wall,
that is the egyptians answer to rubbish,

This Lizard got its feet so hot it had to stop in
the shade to cool them down 43c in the shade today

Crocodiles in Aswan

These Crocodiles were kept in an aquarium
as a show case for the tourists in the Nubian village
close to the old dam Aswan Egypt,
once they get unmanagable they will be let loose in a
larger area to grow until they are large enough to be
culled and the skin used to make shoes etc.

The damaged wing

Click on photos to enlarge.

my total length is 28mm
Im just as pretty underneath

the tip of my wing is damaged

dragonfly's & lizard

Life all around us

Nile Boats