What happened to Luxor since the fatal massacre in 1997, and how is the place taking it all today?
As I'm just back from a research tour to Luxor (disguised as holiday, or was it the other way around?), an destination I should know after living here for nearly eight years.
Today? Quite a lot has happened, there is an Internet cafe on every corner where one before could not even make a phone call directly to the other side of the Nile. My friend Ibrahim have become the head of the inspectors of antiquities on the unbelievable west bank of Luxor, and Dr. Mohamed Nasser have moved as director for the antiquities of the west bank and sit now responsible for both the east and west bank monuments in Luxor.
Still underneath the changes there is a "rebirth" of "old Luxor", even the kind old jokes have got the opportunity to be recycled. As the story of President who came back from a visit to USA and told that his name written on all doors in Egypt. "Yes, but why?" he was questioned - and the President answered: "Look, in USA the President have his name on nearly all doors, why should not we?".
Don't get it?
Add the fact that the language in Egypt has no difference between "P" and "B" - and the first time the joke came was under President Bush (senior ) and today - who is USA's president but his son? Of course you all seen doors with "Bush" written on the handles (or was it "Push"?).
A story leading to another part that not has changed, the humour!
This is a fact far more important to know than "experts" telling page up and page down about how to dress or travel in Egypt. Whenever you have a problem, a driver who wants far to high payment or other - use humour!
Thirteen years ago I was to Egypt with a television and artist team, and we should visit the first rock temple in Egypt. The place Speos Artemidos was a bit out of any normal route and we needed donkeys to go there. Yes we found the donkeys, then the owners - and then a discussion.
My team fell into a discussion and there were soon loud arguments on both sides. Then I remembered my good time with Egyptian friends, so I went over to the donkey owners and told them I found the price very good and that they should not listen to the persons in my team. I explained that the only problem I had was that I had not planned to buy the donkeys, just wanted to rent them for a few hours. Then one of the donkey owners started to laugh, then the rest - and in the end we where a good bunch of new friends riding out in the desert.
So when I heard the recycled "push/Bush" joke, well then I knew Luxor was all okay again after the terrible shock in 1997. Once again young boys are welcoming you with "Welcome to Alaska" and you can hear a new story on the local ferry. Nothing makes me happier as this is "Luxor reborn".
Every evening the Atum sun sets red and large into the western desert while it's last rays spread magic over the Nile. It is in this moment you still feel the thousand years old atmosphere from times back when Luxor was the capital of Egypt and named Waset. Around, the tourists fill the Nile Streets, and by the Nile bank you find the feluccas, the traditional Egyptian Nile-sailboats.
The transition between day and night happens in an instant here south in Egypt, and the stars are already up. From the lamplight onboard the feluccas I can see that the closest boat I pass is named after the bird "Belikan" and outside I see a boat called "HAVA NICE TRIB"
- and so you once again may have in Luxor.
I continue my walk along Nile bank, laughing silently as I just remember another very good joke...

The Egyptian Museum, Cairo
 - a short introduction

In Cairo, one of the "must see" places is the Egyptian Museum in the middle of town. This museum is filled with so many objects and treasures from Ancient Egypt that it becomes a mixture between gigantic storage rooms and a unbelievable museum.

Standard tours offered give you normally a bit more than an hour visit which includes major parts of the museum and the treasures of TutAnchAmon.

With more than 120000 object in the collection we recommend a somehow different approach...

In Egypt its more important to have time to see what you visit rather than trying to see everything. For the huge collection at the Egyptian Museum we often find following "technique" the best:

Visit the museum twice! The first time have a good Egyptologist guide for a round through the whole museum (and make a note when you see something you want to look closer at later). Then go and have a break, the garden café at Nile Hilton just some meters away is a good option here. Having relaxed and maybe looked in some of the books you purchased inside the museum bookshops, then go back to the museum without a guide. Use your time, you will not regret it!

Fishing in Sahara
 From Egypt's Western Desert

While the article "Nature Calling - Cosmos Falling... in?" took us deep into the desert, or maybe rather far out in cosmos (what's the difference anyway in being a tiny grain here or there?) - this will "just" take us Fishing in Sahara.

First - just sit back in front of your computer - put the fishing rod and net down beside you on the floor for a while, and I will tell you about how I meet my "Desert Teacher".

Media View
When I was head of charter operations to Egypt, part of the work was to prepare for and take media around. My philosophy is always to show something "extra", something competing media did not get (- along with the "must see" places of course).
For the right media, a sudden tour on the Nile - banking on an island where one of the best chiefs are preparing a grilled lamb, give a far better story than a more standard Nile Cruise. After the journalists have been eating accompanied with a good wine to the music of reed flutes, white sails appears out of the dark night and dock by the island. Onboard on the traditional Nile sailboat, accompanied only by the amazing starry night and magical sounds from the Nile bank - the tour goes back to the hotel.
Not an easy adventure to forget even for the most blase journalist - and good turnout for any tour operators marketing department...
Into the Desert
This time it was a television team who should come to make a 45 minutes travel program from Egypt. The "must be's" was prepared, they should meet Director of the Pyramids area, Zahi Hawass in Cairo and visit the major monuments in Luxor. The producer had brought along his friend Morten Harket for the tour - so the team consisted of the program host, sound as cameraman, in total four persons. I refused to tell them what we should do the first days.
My arrival team was inside the airport in Luxor, and I awaited them outside with a big 4WD desert machine. Had used two days only to negotiate that we could rent the car, which could have space for the film team and my team. Well my team was less, as I only had two drivers with me - we should drive through the night.
All luggages were on the top of the desert machine, only the camera joined us inside (have yet to meet a cameraman or woman leaving the betacam too far away). We crossed the Nile, and after a dinner - our journey into the desert started. Not too comfortable for a long journey, but some bottles of the good Egyptian Stella beer helped. The morning came and we were in the first oasis Kharga. But we did not stop, we should to the next oasis - Dakhla.

After filming in the medieval old city of Dakhla, crafts and people in the oasis and a dive in the ancient Roman hot spring - we should meet the Chairman of the Oasis.
The Chairman
The film team had enough material, and nobody was too keen on meeting an official person - that's not the reason we where here. If you been around the globe as media representative, you soon find out that official persons are those you film to get your permissions - and cut it all away on the clip board after. Well, we had to meet this Chairman - after all it was me who had asked for it.
In the end he came to the hotel, entered and said: "Hello, I'm Mohammed Rafaat Abdelmomen, Chairman of Dakhla". He did not have to say it, we all knew the second he entered the room.
When one thinks "Desert" one normally think "Sand". When one thinks "People in the Desert", one normally thinks "travelling Bedouins". The "concept images" we have stored is not always the whole truth, so here are some facts:
Dakhla is not an Disney oasis with a water source and some few palms around - the around 400 square kilometres large oasis has an agricultural area of 22000 feddan (an feddan is 1.038 acres) and export olives, dates, onions and fruits to the Nile Valley. For most people of the Western Desert, farming are the main activity.Mohamed Rafaat Abdelmomen is not a farmer, but he has his PhD in "Bio fertilization under conditions of the New Valley, and its effect on clean yield". So he is together with the Governor of the New Valley, making sure the farming in the desert Oasis is staying clean.
He is neither a desert Bedouin, still one of the most famous desert travellers of today - Lama - says he must have been born on the hood of a four-wheel jeep in a sand dune.
The film team did not need the presentation, they knew they had a "scoop".
We took the desert machine over to a new hotel under construction - the last project of it's kind by the late renowned architect Hassan Fathy. On top of the hotel under construction he stood and told about the importance of ecology for this planets future. Far into the desert, a film team and a pop star was the audience - listening with growing respect to the future of what up to then just had been a large desert hole on a long forgotten map.
They where prepared to meet history in the Oasis of Dakhla, not a maker of history.
When the sun had set in the west, we all sat under date palms and ate fresh grilled fish from the large lake of the oasis. I still wonder who was the fish and who were the bait when we went Fishing in Sahara...