nothing has changed

All I wanted was some fish, and ended up with a walk from my flat to Luxor town center 11/11/09
I can not make a comment on this fish restaurant as I have not eaten there
but judging be the display of supposed fresh fish heads on display I will not be eating there.

and looks like just as much thought has gone into the design of the restaurant fish sign.

Omar's is the one supermarket in Luxor that sells a good variety of food stuffs, including fish,
it also comes with rats and dodgy till receipts not to mention putting more expensive items in a bag and forgetting to give you them on leaving. having to stop and wait for staff to finish eating in the isle under the air con. and complaining about smoking near the meat and dairy counter. but the worst is they turn the freezers off at night to save on the electric bill. Omar seems to think he is the only food retailers in Luxor

lots of fruit and veg shops to choose from

Just three of the dozen shops selling fruit and veg plus the stalls in one street

this is where my fish man once traded looks like he has lost his spot to the offal butcher, and sun bread seller. I wondered where he had gone and was pointed in the direction of the salem Salem Square, translated goodbye goodbye square. very apt for where the station is situated.

The new market behind Luxor station this has just recently opened this Head of Luxor council is really making a new look Luxor personalty I prefer the old way of buying my edible produce at lest I knew it was fresh especially the fish and meat , you also have a closed in environment with people smoking cigarettes and the bubble pipe. I also noticed there was not one fan working and it was at least 40c the tin roof does not help Either so this new idea has a thumbs down from me.
the signs do not say fish market I wonder if I have come to the right place.


at least the donkey still has work but even here sadly or not the vehicles are taking over and what will become of the donkey. animal welfare are over loaded as it is and the farmer And trader cannot afford a donkey just to look at.

The one of many fish stalls this is the reason I came to visit the new Souk. I was informed my usual fish man had moved from the street to the new Souk. but here now he is only one of fifty.
and his fish did not look as fresh as they were usually when he was on the street his fish were all sold by 13.00 its now 14.00. and only a few more hours of trading . where does he put the fish for tomorrow??.


Even in this new market there is overcrowding people selling on the walk area,
This is what happens here in Egypt most likely the first few days of the new market ,my fish man would have been one of maybe 3 the other stall holders would have seen how quickly the fish was sold. so they started there own fish market. in turn this put the price of the fish up from the fisherman, all the fish sold here are local Nile fish. and the same goes for every stall holder here they all try to outdo each other. and every body here is a potential stall holder.
another instance is my Landlord. he rents the small coffee shop downstairs for 1000le per month
for the last 2 years to one man. now he put a link box in and receives all the football channels on tv. and is full every night. across the road we have the new government office now open and a lot of the men going there visit the coffee shop. so it's busy almost all day and night, now my landlord sits down stairs just looking how much money is being taken each day. and has now decided that the shop is not for rent after this month. nice greedy man a lot of people call him "hungry money" he also saw my local fish guy on his new stall. and opened a fish stall with a manager on it. he knew I buy at least 2 kilo of fish per week. and wanted me to buy from his friend.

All very Nice I hear you say trading here starts at 6.00 and the stalls are still half full at 14.00
all the locals come early for the best fresh edibles.

offal stall these have usually stopped trading by 11.00 because they had sold out.

have no Idea what these two empty blocks are for,

I only saw one stall with prices on the produce, but i was told that there is a new police depot just outside the market. any complaints of overcharging the stall holder will be thrown off the market. apparently they all have to be licensed to sell inside the new market,

And a new Mosque so people can go and ask God not to be ripped off.
and the stall holders pray for the foreigner to buy off him so he can rip us off.

The new Mowgaf ( microbus terminal)

Luxor train station from the souk with one of the new trains these new trains have now extended the 12 hour journey to Cairo by four Hours. almost every day the train is 4 hours late.

The tunnel under the station once was to get to the platforms from the ticket office.
is now a public thoroughfare to the market and mowgaf.

The revamped interior of Luxor station


the only flower in the new gardens around the station that has servived the summer heat it gets its water from the air condition over flow pipe of the New Information office.

the first view of Luxor Temple and this is mainly the reason tourists come to Luxor
is the Hagag mosque. Newly refurbished when all else near the tombs and temples including the avenue of the sphinx Luxor to Karnak temple is coming down. this actually sits on the old temple walls and built from the temple stones.

as one of my next photos show of the demolished mosque that sat on the avenue. notice the base stone they are waiting for Archaeologists to come here before the take this part of the Mosque down,

there are some 1880s houses still standing on the main temple road from the station


This one was never finished.

View of Luxor Temple ,Hagag, the mosque that most visitors are taken too, and the remaining pirouette of the demolished mosque in the background

oo ah a cyper club ?

wonder what is in those two milk cans

better than being over loaded like this poor donkey

Any body want to buy a second hand bike one careful owner, honest! its just that he was to careful with his money and has lost the key for the lock.

Its what we call built in balcony Lighting.

These traders have no intention of moving to the new market just around the corner,

the government bread shop 5piestas for 1 piece of bread in the bakers its 50piestas and usually this street is packed with people buying, 12/11/09 bought two pieces of our daily bread.mostly used for breakfast as a sandwich this bread is hollow in the middle when cut in half is ideal to fill with whatever usually foul(Beans)and falafel, I use boiled eggs tomato and onion or garlic eggs.
the bread used with the main meals is Sun bread, will also get a close up photo to show. there is sun bread being made on the first nilelife blog.

Queuing for bread

making a foul & falafel sandwich.

The Breakfast bar with the foul jar.

One Egyptian pound for two sandwich, one has beans and salad fill
the other has falafel chips and salad fill. and they were yummy do not know what spices he used in the foul but it was very tasty. by the way if you do want to try Egypt like I do always eat at places like this every thing is fresh. no meat or fish is served in these breakfast bars, if the locals use it the place is good enough for us to eat in. and even if they charge us more than the locals it is still cheap food. best way is stand behind someone in the queue and see how much he pays. never give more than 5egp note they will always make out they have no change. its ok for me Most of these guys know I am a local. If I go late I will always get a fully filled sandwich.
and keep one for later that way My food bill for the day is about 3 egp ,, eggs are 1egp for 3 ,
tea and milk 15 egp for 100 tea bags. I find them more convenient than loose tea, that is much cheaper 3egp per packet. milk is 3 egp per 1/2 pint .. Litre. used for my tea us welsh like milk in our tea. we are not the only ones even in Kenya a country that has some of the best tea, take milk with tea. There is a story on tea making in Kenya on my new volunteering days story. that I have almost finished and will publish the next installment soon.


I see Plastic Alli shop is making Luxor a safe place to live

ooh is it a Ghost or the cost either way it will be just as frightening.



Here I can get my furniture reupholstered here on the high street

Air heads why one should open a guitar shop here in Luxor is beyond me,

it only stayed open for 6 months and the one guitar they had is still there .

And this is the barber shop I have been using for the past two years
it seems evrest is quite a popular name in Luxor there are several shops called evrest.
plus an ev rest hotel the e has been stolen by some one leaving a gap for the birds to roost on the holding bracket.

My barber shop has full blare speakers its the only way to listen to music in Egypt.
I suppose its to overcome the full blast speakers on the minarets,
I have 20% hearing in my left ear and 40% in the right so if these are loud for me god knows what the people who can hear have to put up with,

rag and bone man. clearing up after the days trading.

One of the local farmers heading to the veg Market.