Egypt, 2008 - Luxor

Found out that there is no shower on the train so I had to take a French shower until I can get to my hotel room.  My train got in 4 hours late.  Met the greeter we went straight to the hotel so I was able to take a shower before moving on to the first destination.  This hotel is much nicer than the Oasis, maybe not as much entertainment within the hotel but just right.  We went to the Karnak Temple first.  The guide, Ahmed was very good, he asked how much information I wanted before we started, little; some; or a lot.  He gave me extra time to take photos while he waited.  The guide in Cairo did not do either of these things.  Next, we went to the Luxor temple, much smaller that the Karnak finished the tour in an hour.  Afterwards he took me to a Mideast rug broker, a friend of his.  This guy had tons of silk rugs from the Mideast and Africa.  He showed me 20 or so rugs.  I took pictures for Phil then we started haggling for a smaller rug.  I had no intensions of buying a rug but I set my price at sub $900.  He said the two I was interested in were $1,800 and $2,400 I thought there was no way I was going to walk out with a rug.  I started at $800 and said I just simply cannot pay more than that.  He came down to $1,400 but I was committed, I did go up to $900 thinking there was no way he would sell at that price.  He asked for my very best price but I did not budge, he grabbed my hand and shook, deal!  Wow, I was not expecting that.  Half price!  Ahmed was apologetic he thought I was pressured in to purchasing a rug.  We went to lunch at a restaurant on the Nile.  The food was buffet style and was so-so.  We talked about tomorrows plans. I said I needed to do some shopping.  I took a nap then wondered around the hotel area.  Had dinner at the bar.  I received am message that I will need to get up early to leave for the balloon ride around 4:30AM.  Time to go to bed.  When I got to my room I received a call that the balloon ride will be at 6:30 so I get to sleep an extra hour