theladywanderer

Today was another dream come true day for me – Hot air balloon ride  😊. We woke up early in the morning at around 4 am. We were transferred into a mini van  and brought near a place, which was completely filled with tourist’s and the balloons were being inflated. It was an amazing site to watch during dawn with colorful hot air balloons. Balloons were ready now and we were asked to get into each one of them one group after another. As it started slowly rising up in the sky, we were little scared and excited too. Mixed feelings in fact 😊. I am little afraid of heights but I felt completely safe the whole ride. Because once you are up, you will forget that you are so much height above land. Sun started rising as we were in the air and the view from the balloon was simply spectacular. Luxor hot air balloon ride is one of the most beautiful hot air balloon rides in the world. From an air balloon, you have a perfect view on how the Egyptians strategically divided the fields. It is amazi

Kom Ombo  temple Today around late evening our cruise stopped at Kom Ombo to visit Kom Ombo temple. Its a short walk from the cruise dock. The Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple in the town of Kom Ombo in Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt. It was constructed during the Ptolemaic dynasty, 180–47 BC. Some additions to it were later made during the Roman period. Honestly, not as impressive as the temples we had visited so far, but still visit once since it is part of the Nile cruise package and a quick stop too. We had a view of the temple in lights as our ship left dock – very pretty! We headed back to ship for an eventful fun filled evening onboard 😊. Edfu Temple – The temple of Horus Our ship continued to sail to Edfu, as our next stop was to visit Edfu temple located on the west bank of Nile River next day.  One interesting part about this visit - which I really liked, was the horse cart ride from the boat pier to the temple. It is a 15-20 minutes ride through the na

Today’s highlight was trip to Abu Simbel, which is one of Egypt’s most striking monuments. When I received the itinerary of our Egypt trip  from WOW group, there were plenty of familiar sites—the Pyramids of Giza,  Alexandria and Luxor.  I had never heard or read about Abu Simbel before. However, after visiting this place, it got included into the list of my top favorite  places. You will understand the reason by the end of this blog. We woke up at 4 am to reach there by 7 am (3.5 hours’ drive from Aswan). Initially we were little skeptical as to why are we waking up so early in the morning. However, once we reached there, we realized it was totally worth it. Our bus stopped at the main parking lot and from here, we started walking in the desert towards the twin temples of Abu Simbel, carved out of mountainside. It is too hot and you will not find much shade here so carry a hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, and water with you. Once you almost reach there, you can see big statues of Ram