After all the temples it was good to get back to the hotel in mid afternoon. My room mate Jane and I decided that we would go walking. We'd only gone a short distance when we were accosted by one of the many caleche drivers. A caleche is a small carriage pulled by a horse and there are dozens of them in Luxor. Jane was suddenly keen, so we hopped in when they offered to take us to the Saturday market for five pounds (NZ$1.25) I was a bit wary.
The horse was limping and Jane voiced her concern. The man said it was because she'd been pregnant for 11 months. He flicked her with the reins and Jane asked him not to hit the horse. There was a whip. He assured her he didn't use it on the horse, but we didn't believe him. Suddenly he drew up behind another caleche, obviously owned by the same group and swapped us into it so we wouldn't be worried about the horse.
We didn't know where the market was, but we went down Television Rd which was on the map the hotel had given us, and we saw Luxor Temple to the left, so we had our bearings, so to speak. The caleche drove to a shop, not a market at all. So we hopped out and took off. We walked back towards the temple, feeling quite relieved that we'd got rid of them. After all, you can't really chase a customer when you are managing a horse.
There was a proper bazaar on our left; Jane bought some scarves and I bought some pictures on papyrus. Then we walked to the Nile and took photos of the sunset behind the boats. On the way back to the hotel we ate vegetable tajine. Yum!
NB Sarah our tour leader says they have a free hospital for horses; this is an attempt to ensure that they don't get run into an early grave.
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4 comments:
Bit scary - glad to hear everything turned out okay !
Hi Wendy
So glad to read you are seeing it all & enjoying yourself. Brings back loads of memories for me. I rode a push bike to the Valley of the Kings.
But had not been told we needed tickets to get in before we got there!!!!!Really look forward to all the stories & photos.
LOVE D
Great that you are enjoying it so much Wendy. Enjoy reading all your posts.You bring to mind the black & white pictures in our encyclopedias from childhood.
Geoff
Well, that certainly WAS a wee adventure. Not the first you've had ;-)
Great to read all your trip like this. (Can you write your paragraphs shorter? - it's easier to read on-screen.) Off on our own adventure today.
Love A, C, T, J.
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