Diary of day 7 of the India By The Nile festival 2016, Egypt

Diary of Day 7 #IndiaByTheNile #Luxor #Egypt
By Faridoon Shahryar

I visited the magnificent #ValleyOfTheKings in #Luxor for the second time today. When I visited this world heritage site last year, the number of tourists were considerably higher than what I witnessed today. In fact it was totally deserted. It was heartbreaking to see the local vendors desperately trying to sell their articles to the trickling tourists filtering in. It seemed like a matter of do or die.

The same story had been repeated at the magnificent #TempleOfHabu and the imposing #ColossiOfMemnon. There were very very few tourists and the desperate vendors tried all the tricks to sell their wares. They were willing to reduce the price massively. It is a crisis situation. The Russian plane crash in #Sinai has adversely affected the tourism industry in Egypt. What purpose does war of religion serve if it leads to inhuman poverty and depression for common people? I can feel a lot of pain all around. I dread to think what will happen if drastic efforts are not taken to improve the tourism industry in Egypt.

The #OberoiZahra sailed early in the morning. I woke up early and spent quality time on the Sun Deck soaking in the #Nile aura. All the three meals were awesome and will be remembered for a long time to come. The conversations with fellow journalists from the Indian media contingent were interesting too. We shall be taking off shortly for #Cairo. I am damn sleepy. I wasn't sure how tired I will be once I reach Cairo hence decided to wrap up today's diary here itself. So much for now. Good night.