Luxor By Night

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. 

Vincent Van Gogh

Riding in a service taxi through Luxor streets at night, I'm fascinated by the scenes outside the window. The trip passes too quickly. I share Van Gogh's sentiments about the richness of life at night. Bicycles by lamplight become so out-of-the-ordinary. Even parked, they seem ready to get up and go.

The small shops shine into the streets and their keepers provide fascinating vignettes such as this shisha salesman who obviously enjoys his work -- or else a free smoke is a fringe benefit of the job. Ordinary life takes on a different vibrancy in the night light.