EP. 3 Middle East Adventure | $100 Balloon, $10 Tomb Guards, $2 Horse Scam — Egypt Day 7-10 Was Wild

Hello, travel buddies! Have you been to the Middle East before? Ian and I just wrapped up an 18-day guided tour across three countries. Was it expensive? Well, yes, it was. Was it worth it? Yes, totally hesitant for me to say that. Because next time in Middle East I'm not going on a guided tour. I'd rather do a tour If you missed episode 1 and 2, which covered those first six days in Egypt, check the links in the description. This video is all about our last four days in Egypt. Before we embark on our journey to Jordan, let's jump right in. It's day 7 today in Egypt. We're off the cruise in the morning with our luggage taken care of. We're heading to a relic site, the Valley of the Kings. We're going to visit three relic sites today. The scale model in the entrance hall was made by a team of Japanese experts. It's a 3D overview of the Valley of the Kings. You can see the excavation paths underneath. How delicate. Tickets are not part of the tour package. We can only visit six tombs with a standard ticket. And we need to purchase separate tickets for Tutankhamen, Setiwan and Ramses V and VI tombs. Tomb number 2, Ramses IV, part of the standard ticket. Tomb number 8, Merabta, part of the standard ticket. Tomb number 62, Tutankhamen. Separate tickets are required. Remember on day 3 in the Egypt museum, I was not allowed to film his golden treasures? Apparently his 3,000 year old body isn't nearly as private. The wall paintings and carvings are similar to the previous two tombs we visited. Tomb number 9, Ramses V and VI, separate tickets are required. I guess because of its ceiling decorations representing the celestial realm. These paintings were in place to make sure the pharaoh could travel safely to heaven. Tomb number 17, Setiwan. This is the most expensive ticket. It costs more than the standard entry ticket plus the two separate tickets for the premium tombs combined. So is it worth it? The ceiling paintings are colorful and the tomb is super long, big, complicated. Other than that... This is the secret chamber that the staff let us in but we have to give them another secret chamber. Tired, hot in this desert to see this wonderful relic. Tomb number 16, Ramses I. It's a part of the standard ticket. We stayed here for 3.5 hours with one hour of free exploring time, the Valley of the Kings. Well, there's only one king lying here while the others are all in the National Museum. Now we're heading to the Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. Hatshepsut was the only female pharaoh in Egypt's history. She's not a stranger to us. We've known her story in Egypt Museum and saw her mummy in National Museum. I guess as long as you're a pharaoh, your statue must grow beards. Must have on a guided tour. Visiting local shops. Mandatory visits to local shops are always part of the guided tour's itinerary. Remember the piper's painting shop on day two and the essential oil shop on day four? Today on day seven, we're at an alabaster shop. First, they hook you with cool workshops to get you excited. Then, they nudge you into shops to buy stuff. Who would fall for this trap? After shopping, we checked in our hotel in Luxor and had lunch nearby. It's night time. We're heading to the Luxor temple because it's super beautiful at night. Wow, this courtyard looks magnificent. It was designed to worship the sun. What's in there? Let's have a look. Oh, it's extremely dark and there's nothing in here. There's no fresco. Hey, want to hear something interesting? What's interesting here is out of the penis, can you see the sperms? So, here is the question till now, how did they know how the sperms used to look like? I think this is three kilometers if we want to finish this track. Some of us opted for dinner at the restaurant chosen by our tour guide, Nader. After dinner, how about a room tour? We need a good rest tonight because tomorrow, before the sunrise, we're going to hop into a hot air balloon. By the way, we just booked this hot air balloon ride yesterday for 100 USD per person. Prices can vary widely from as low as 20 USD to as high as 200. So, booking through a trusted agency is key. But I believe if we booked it earlier, it would be much cheaper. Look, hot air balloon. Look at this. Wow, wow, wow, sunrise, sunrise. Landing. This guy came to ask for tips and he had nothing to do with the hot air balloon activity. We still tipped him. At least he came with a prop. Back from the hot air balloon trip. Now we're going to take the boat back to the hotel and we have another two hours to have a rest and we're going to go to another place packed with activities. We spent almost two hours on the balloon and about one hour traveling to and from the site. Then we had breakfast in the hotel. Now we're heading to the Karnak temple. Karnak temple was constructed over nearly 2,000 years by more than 30 pharaohs. And that's a misery until now. We stayed here for two hours. We don't have any other activities scheduled today so we decided to revisit Lakso and see the Lakso temple during the day and stay to watch the sunset there as well. It would take about 30 minutes to walk from the hotel to the Lakso temple so we decided to go on food until... We're going with our tour guide because you are a good man. I take you to Lakso temple, take you market, meet your sister. Maybe not, maybe not today. Just the Lakso. Market open yesterday my friend. I know, I know, I know. Just to the Lakso temple. You know how much you go and back? Five dollars. Take you there and then wait you and after we drop you back. One hour, two hours, don't worry. Okay? Let's go to Lakso temple first. Go to Lakso first. All right. Lakso first. Yeah. Hi. Go to Lakso first. Nice to meet you. You want to sit here to take video? He said here to make video. Hey. Like to drive? All the market here. Oh, okay. Now they're taking us to a shop which looks dodgy. But we refused to go in of course and the drivers were unhappy so they could do nothing but taking us all the way to the Lakso temple. And here we are negotiating the price with the horse carriage drivers who were unhappy. Finally, we paid them 70 Egyptian pounds. Let's see what the Lakso temple looks like during the day and at sunset. This is why the initial letter of Yin and Yang. We stayed here until night. Now walking to the Lakso museum nearby. Now we're on the bridge and this is the best spot to look at the sphinx, I believe. Wow. Get to see royal mummies again. Lucky. Why was I excited to see corpses? Because they were well-preserved corpses from 3,000 years ago. Amos one and the Ramses one. While we were waiting for the hotel taxi to pick us up, the street food, wow, it looked amazing. But we skipped it after two seconds of careful thought. Guess who couldn't stop giving out warnings? We're on the way to Hurghada, a resort town on Egypt's Red Sea coast, famous for diving and snorkeling. A rest stop to go to toilet and have some ice cream. After all, it's a five-hour drive. The first activity we did after we arrived at Hurghada was parasailing, which required an extra payment as it wasn't included in our tour package. Of course, we will give a tip later. After that, we're now enjoying the private beach at the hotel. Now it's nighttime. We're in Hurghada Marina, a popular spot for both tourists and locals to visit. It's accessible from 8 a.m. to midnight. The dinner is awesome. All dinners are excluded from the tour package. The hotel is nice and it's part of the tour package. Today, we have the whole day exploring the Red Sea. We need to register ourselves first, similar to checking a hotel. After a 1.5-hour boat ride, we've arrived somewhere out at sea. It's time for snorkeling. Lunch is included and the taste is okay. Now we're on a boat and we see the open sky and sea. We know something is missing and that is island. Sea and island are always part of the same story, thanks to Maui. Gifton Island is a popular spot where tourists like to stay. There are local young men taking photos and treating you like a superstar, offering post-coaching, making you feel like you're floating in the air. Your brain stops thinking and afterward, you might regret paying too much for the photos. Yin is one of the few rational ones. We had only one hour, so no time for the famous water swing or hammock. Just me standing ankle-deep in water, pretending it's the same thing. Getting back to Hurghada, what a day. We're now in Marina again, ordering seafood tonight. This is our last day in Egypt. Tomorrow, we're flying to Jordan, part of our tour package itinerary. We will see you there, because what you're gonna see is unreal.