Luxor Sunrise

Rising at 4 a.m. dimmed the appeal of another reasonably priced Memphis Tours add-on ($99), but riding in a hot air balloon was something Thom wanted to do.

Under cover of night with our second "breakfast box" of the trip, we crossed to the west bank of the Nile in a boat with with dozens of tea-sipping Chinese tourists.  The organizers asked us to write down our weights before herding us into vans.  We met our crew in a rushed blur.  They issued minimal safety instructions:  "don't look at the captain, who always will be facing into the wind, and bend your knees when the balloon lands."

We climbed into a straw gondola along with more than a dozen other giddy passengers.

The maestro of the propane tanks prior to boarding.

Game-of-Thrones dragon breath gently lifted us into the sky as dawn broke over the Nile.  I ignored the burned side of our pilot's face, no doubt the real reason we weren't supposed to look at him.

Airborne with Mamita, a journalist from Calcutta!

Mamita persuaded us to have our picture taken.  "The light is really good right now."

Queen Hatshepsut's tomb glowed in the desert below.

The green swath that the Nile cuts through the desert is unmistakable from 500 feet.

While pick-up vans chased us from the roads below, we gradually descended over sugar cane fields fields and unfinished farm houses.  Egyptians build up to accommodate new generations in their families.

"I don't like to land in the fields because it makes the farmers angry but I'm at the mercy of the wind," our captain explained as we touched down on a road.  Well done!