The reason for these unusually large numbers: the shop owners in the souks at Deir el-Bahari and the Valley of the Kings have been blocking access to these sites in protest at a government tax hike on their businesses. So the coaches from Hurghada had to go visit some place else. If I had paid for a (long) day visit by coach I would have been very miffed at not being able to visit the main sites. It will not do any good in bringing back tourist business, but the shop keepers must be desperate.
Tayeeb tells me that earlier this winter he drove some tourists to Abydos, only to find a similar protest blocking access to the site. How very disappointing for the visitors who were turned back.
Conversation at the RRR naturally turned to the balloon crash 8 days ago. Apparantly the pilot was the same man who hit a Dayabbieh [sp?] on the Nile in late 2011. The pilot and one passenger survived by jumping from the basket early on during the incident. It will be a very long time before balloons fly again over Luxor, and hundreds of families whose livelihoods depended on this lucrative business are now faced with poverty.
I successfully renewed my ISIC (student card) in the afternoon, so will benefit from reduced price access to any sites and museums that I visit again this year. Now I have to plan how I spend my remaining 12 days.
I apologise for the lack of pictures so far, but will try to include some tomorrow.