What Goes Up Must Come Down

So where were we?

Egypt!

This time in Luxor. After crawling through the Great Pyramids and riding in the desert, we left Cairo/Giza for few days in Luxor where the famous Valley of the Kings (King Tut’s Tomb!) and a hotel nestled up to the Nile was sure to be the perfect next stop.

The ancient ruins here were amazing. Elaborate temples and tombs in the desert next to a rich Nile River valley that was so lush in contrast to the endless sand dunes just beside it. It was as if things were the same today as they were 3000 years ago making the experience nothing short of incredible.

Unfortunately for the blog (but fortunately for the preservation of these places), photos were not allowed at many of the sites in Luxor. Just imagine King Tut’s tomb and how it would be to actually be inside it and that’s what it was like – unbelievable.

We can, however, share some pictures with a different view –

that’s right – from a hot air balloon!

After riding camels through a trash pit, a sunrise in the sky seemed like the obvious thing to do (especially in a place more interested in your money than your safety). So, we signed up and headed out at 4am to view Luxor from above.

First, we had to cross the Nile to get to the loading zone.

The company had told us they would provide coffee and breakfast cakes before departure. Hmm…breakfast cakes?

As we sipped our coffee and waited for the rest of our group to arrive the sun came up, which was actually supposed to happen in the air, but who’s keeping track of the details right?

Lucky for us, we were in such awe of where we were it wasn’t too upsetting. I just couldn’t believe we were on the Nile. THE NILE!

Once we had everyone in tow (there were like 20 people and it seemed like alot for one balloon but again who is keeping track of the details), we arrived at the loading site. It was a huge field filled with balloons being filled with hot air.

We were then introduced to our captain and received basic instructions on how to land safely. The gist is that you have to squat and lean back against the basket while holding on to rope handles AND be prepared to have the basket roll.

No problem right?

Other than it being a tight fit in the basket and me being slightly nervous, I was pretty sure I could handle it.

That was until we hopped in and I felt the flames.

Note to Luxor balloon company and those interested in riding in a balloon in Luxor: maybe you should add to the basic instructions and let people know that you will actually start melting before the balloon starts to go up. Jeesh.

As soon as we were airborne, the heat subsided and it appeared to be worth the meltdown.

The ride was meant to last about an hour depending on the winds. It was a spectacular view.

Not only could you see clearly some of the ruins we visited the day before,

but you could get a true sense of the life of an Egyptian farmer, there were workers in the fields and lots of people sleeping on roof tops in the open air.

Can you imagine this being your home? Thank goodness it never rains.

Look at the valley next to the desert. I mean seriously, without that Nile, there would have never been a civilization that still demands and entire unit in history class.

We floated through the air with ease. It was not windy, but Choq and I both noticed that we were sort of going up and then down and then back up and then back down, we weren’t sure if it was normal, but it felt safe enough.

Once we got into what felt like a rhythm, we really started to relax and enjoy the ride. Then, much to our surprise, about 15 minutes in to what was meant to be an hour adventure, the captain yelled LANDING POSITION!

Huh?

As I looked over the edge of the basket, it seemed like we were heading straight for NOT an open field.  It was as if we were going to land right smack in the middle of a field of corn as tall as me. We started to move fast and since there was no time to ask or think or prepare to die, we did as we were told and got into position.

Then boom.

All in tact and 100% relieved to be alive, I peaked out of the balloon and this was to our immediate right. Oh hello there.

And to our left?

Oops. How about instead of an hour-long ride landing in a big open field we come down in 15 minutes and kill this poor farmer’s crops?

Needless to say the farmer was far from pleased.

The captain made some calls and before we knew there was a large group of men running to our rescue (all the while we were now completely surrounded by begging peasants and angry farmers).

The balloon men and the farming men were yelling in Arabic and I was really glad I couldn’t understand. I also felt ashamed of myself for being the American in the basket waiting to be rescued from my $60 sunrise tour. Doh.

When it was all said and done, a good chunk of the corn was in trouble and the farmer remained mad.

We were all awestruck at the disaster. Then, as if it wasn’t weird enough, the captain – clearly trying to get our attention away from the dispute – suddenly yelled, “let’s do a safe landing celebration dance!”

Not me, I thought.

Then someone grabbed my hand and I had no choice. I did however, skip the tip bucket this time around, jeesh.

As we drove back to the hotel, Andrew and I sat silently thinking exactly the same thing – oops.  You know that saying what goes up must come down? Well, it’s true.

When we finally made it back to the room, we laughed/OMG’ed about our morning. So much had happened and it was barely 6am. Little did we know the grande finale/wrath of our Egyptian adventure was only getting started…