It is nearly 11:00 P.M. when I arrive at our hotel in Luxor and Stephanie is relieved to see me. She knew that I was determined to go into Cairo on my own and has been slightly worried. We walk up to the roof top of our hotel and catch up on the days events before turning in for the night.
I am awakened from my short night's sleep to the morning call to prayer. In my mind it is the hotel's clever wake up call and I believe it to be 6:30 A.M. I get up quietly, only to discover 15 minutes later that it is only 5:00 A.M. I try to go back to sleep but am unable to drift off. Another call to prayer echoes in the grey dawn and I get up, tiptoe out of the room and take the elevator to the rooftop. I am still wearing my sleep t-shirt and my Bali lounge pants and I am a little embarrassed to find two other sunrise watchers already there. The Moser Hotel is 8 stories high and I look down on the flat roof tops of the surrounding buildings. Hundreds of dirty satellite discs, all with their faces raised to the satellite god, stand sentry on the rooftops. Skinny forlorn dogs wander amid the debris and trash that is scattered upon the rooftops. The unremarkable skyline is defined by several skinny spires and a salmon glow warms the dirty haze. A sliver of the sun pierces the grey and soon an orange ball floats fully round on the horizon.
Breakfast is at 7:00 A.M. and the weak coffee and sticky white rice and beans are less than appealing. I pass on the platefuls of pastries and wait in a long and inefficient line for a greasy omelet. Gary Young, the CEO of Young Living holds an orientation meeting and the 108 of us are divided into three groups, and then smaller groups of 10 each. (Unfortunately, the tour group has grown from 60 people to over 100.) We are identified by name tags and color coded cords. I hang my red corded name tag around my neck and join the red group on bus number 3.
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