We have been very excited about our upcoming hot-air balloon ride over Luxor scheduled for this coming Monday morning. When we were here in 1998 there was only one balloon company operating on the West Bank and the cost was well over $200 per-person (which is why Lea, Frank and I didn't do it then). Now days there are many balloons operating in Luxor and the increased competition has made it more affordable for the consumer. For this trip, we were able to offer it to our group for $79 US! 37 of us signed up to do the balloon ride. As you can tell by the number of people who signed up, offering this to our group generated quite a bit of excitement.
I received a call from Basem yesterday with some bad news. He informed me that the rides have been canceled indefinitely due to one of the balloons entering a militarized zone a couple days ago. With this being the weekend and the end of Ramadan falling on Sunday, offices will be closed and no one knows what the authorities are planning to do about this incident. The authorities respond in different ways at different times to these situations when they occur--and they have occurred before. Sometimes the license of the offending company is revoked and it's business as usual for everyone else. However, sometimes they suspend all balloon rides for a week or longer--the longest being a month. We hope that they will reinstate the rides sooner rather than later and that our group will be able to do the ride on the morning of the 27th, when our ship re-docks again in Luxor. Please visualize this, or something better, happening for us. Thanks! I think doing the ride would be a lot of fun and a great memory of our time together in Egypt. I hope it will still happen and with you're added energy, it still might. Thanks for holding this (or something better) in your thoughts for us.
Many thanks and blessings,
Stuart
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