Compared with several other countries in north Africa, Egypt's overall tourism resources and reception environment are very advantageous, although 95% of the country's land is desert and semi-desert landforms, but pyramids, temples, red sea, ancient cities and other popular tourist attractions are still very attractive. This trip to Egypt was by boat from the upper nile and all the way north (downstream) so that every day we could go ashore to visit and tour, which was very good!
The boat we took on on our Trip to the Nile.
According to the itinerary, the boat will arrange a three-day stop in Luxor, after all, this is the location of the ancient capital of Egypt, Thebes, where there are many shocking ancient temple buildings. In addition, Luxor has a project that I am looking forward to – hot air ballooning! This time, I am also determined to experience it.
Early the morning after arriving in Luxor, before dawn, the balloon company sent a car to pick us up on a boat on the Nile to take us to a take-off base more than twenty kilometers away (Tips: Book a hot air balloon flight for $85 per person, the hot air balloon company can provide round-trip hotel transfers, and from the steamship transfer is $100 per person). We'll fly in a hot air balloon to see the sunrise and see the many temples outside Luxor West, as well as the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, and a few other sights.
The car traveled to the hot air balloon take-off field, but because the wind speed was not suitable for the hot air balloon to take off at that time, it waited until the sun came out before successfully lifting off. It's just that in this huge take-off field, there are only 4 hot air balloons for tourists in total, and it is impossible to shoot the scene of many balloons taking off together, which is a bit regrettable.
Listen to people at the hot air balloon company that a decade ago Egypt had more than 13 million overseas visitors a year. Every day, about 30 hot air balloons full of tourists take off, the company's young men are so busy that the bosses are happy to close their mouths. But by 2013, foreign tourists had been afraid to come back to Egypt because of the revolutionary movements and frequent bombings that had occurred before, when there were only about two million foreign tourists a year, and the number of inbound tourists in recent years, although recovered, was less than half of what it was a decade ago. The lively atmosphere full of weather balls is probably not easy to reproduce in the short term!
As the balloon drifted away, we had reached the ideal altitude to see the scorched yellow land of the Sahara Desert, with many wheat fields and sugar cane plantations, which looked very beautiful from the air! For the Egyptians, the basic crops in the fields may only solve the problem of food and clothing, and only the cultivation of sugar cane is a high-profit and high-yield enrichment project.
A Nile sugarcane transport boat photographed from the boat.
During the days of floating on the Nile, almost every day you can see boats full of sugar cane, which are transported to the nearest sugar factory to make cane sugar. Many people may not know that in fact, the sugar making technology we Chinese is also brought back from Tianzhu by Master Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty. In addition to sucrose refining technology, some sugarcane varieties in the southern region were first introduced to China from India (most of the sugarcane in Egypt are also Indian varieties).
Farmland after being burned down.
The hot air balloons flew on a fixed route, and we saw the peaks, roads, rivers, temples, farmlands of the Sahara Desert, and every time we saw a new landscape, we drew a camera shutter sound. It is said that 99 percent of egypt's farmland is planted along the Nile river because of water scarcity, and farmers in these deserts are well aware of the importance of crop rotation: the same crop is planted on the same land and yields drop. So after they harvest the sugar cane, they will grow wheat or vegetables the next season. If you are lazy and do not rotate crops, many microorganisms from the previous crop will be parasitic in the soil, and the metabolites produced will inhibit the growth of the original crop, while the old microorganisms will be much less harmful to the new crops, so it is necessary to rotate crops.
I found that the Egyptians liked to put a fire in the field after the harvest of crops, burn the stems and leaves left by the original crops, and then go to the fields to plant other crops. In fact, this practice also exists in some parts of our country, but in the few days when environmental protection is more and more advocated, the similar situation is becoming less and less. But the matter of polluting the air may not be within the consideration of the Egyptians for the time being.
If there is no wind, the smoke generated after this fire will last in the air for a long time.
As our hot air balloon journey drew to a close, the balloon slowly descended on the banks of the Nile, in the valley of the kings desert where many pharaohs were buried. So you can see that the ground is full of pits that have been dug, which are all traces left by the archaeology of burrowing (or tomb robbery).
Before the balloon landed, some children on donkeys and disabled elderly people flocked from all directions— all to beg for money (or food). From the air, the riders' position had a bit of a desert cavalry feel. They don't care about politeness, they reach out and then open their mouths – One Dollar! Hello! One Dollar! (One United States dollar)
Although the actions of these "desert cavalry" are only verbal and do not directly grab money, they are also quite disturbing. I have been to Egypt three times, and I believe that this is a very beautiful country, and the Egyptians are also very beautiful and very kind to Chinese. Unfortunately, Egypt is not perfect.