How many Mohamed's are there in Egypt?


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Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Aswan
June 10th 2005
Published: June 27th 2005
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A cabin to myself...A cabin to myself...A cabin to myself...

Me on the overnight train from Cairo to Aswan

The title question regarding the number of Mohamed's in Egypt, could be asked of several names of course. It just struck me that after just a couple of weeks in Egypt I had met at least 4 or 5. I asked one of the local tour leaders' how many he knew. His response of 40 wasn't really a shock. Having to remember each Mohameds' fathers' name for further identificatiojn might be difficult for people like me though. Not a good country to be bad with names that's for sure!!


And on with the travels. Having spent the last day in Cairo racing around the museum, it was nice to stop and watch the sunset. We stoppped right on a bridge and within a couple of minutes a cup of tea was offered to us all. It feels as though I could be travelling on the moon and an Egyptian will have set up a stand to offer me a 'cupa. Although it's not quite the UK 'cupa I've become so used to! Looking below the bridge there was an island called Abu Dahab, everything on it seemed so serene. Donkeys trotting along the edges, farmers working the fields.
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The Unfinished Obelisk
And then you look up a little bit to see the Cairo city skyline. Egyptians have certainly made use of every land space available, sadly even using the canals for their garbage waste. They've managed to combine the busy city with farm life around the corner. The madness on the roads are partly caused by the combination of donkeys and vehicles. Aaaaggghhh, time to leave Cairo.


Next plan of action is an overnight train to Aswan. Having not been on a sleeper train since I was a wee wee lass with grandma in Scotland, I was a little bit apprehensive about what I might encounter. Heaves of tourists on the platform to start with, only 20 minutes late and we boarded. This is a time when it's great to be the 5th in a group of 5. Having the cabin to myself was a relief, although a bit boring. After the initial excitement of turning the switches and hearing radio waves of Islamic prayers bouncing off of my walls, I settled down to listen to a few ipod tunes. So so so glad I spent that many hours downloading music! Within a few minutes of leaving the station,
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Philae Temple
dinner was brought to my door. MMMmmmmmmmmmmmm, glad I packed some fruit, although it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Then a chap came by to release my bed from the locks holding it to the wall. And then it became a little clearer. If I wanted to continue dancing the night away, it would have to be standing on the bed and hitting my head on the roof. So sleep it was.


Morning wake up knock at 7am followed by a lovely breakfast assortment. It wasn't quite suitable for those with a wheat intolerance, (sorry Michael!) but at least some of the criossant, piece of bread, piece of cake and muffin made it down the throat with a big gulp of tea at the same time. Having arrived in Aswan, I was looking forward to going to the hotel. The train journey was a lot better than I had thought, but the fresh morning start to the day was difficult without a shower.


Change of plans by the cheeky tourleader. See all the sights right away to avoid the heat of midday, and then the hotel. Hopefully I didn't smell that bad. First stop
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Temple of Philae-ladies are always watchin out!
was the Unfinished Obelisk. Not really having a clue what an obelisk was, I was really looking forward to the tour. Did I remember to put deoderant on?


It turned out that an obelisk was a large carved stone needle like memorial raised at the front of temples. Defined in non Egyptologist terms of course. As this one in Aswan was 'unfinished', it remained half carved into the side of the rock face. When I say needle perhaps your impression is small. This is hardly the case. The obelisk in Aswan was going to be the biggest of all time, until a crack formed and the entire project was abandoned. It's hard to imagine that if they had been successful that it could have possibly been carried onto a boat on the Nile. Surely dropping several thousand tons of carved granite would have flooded everything and killed everybody in the process. Although, I expect they believed the Gods would have given them a helping hand after carving such an honour.


The next tour was to the high dam, constructed by the Russians and creating Lake Nasser. At the time it was the worlds' largest dam. Apparently
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The Gods are always there
it was built by 30,000 men over a few years of the Nile flooding. Now I'm afraid it looks a little aged and a few books even state that lack of water in the future may cause it to become 'of no use'. This dam was created some 50 or 60 years after the British built the first dam in 1898. Do you think Egypt will be looking for a sponsor for a third attempt?


The final tour before the long awaited shower, was to the Island of Philae. It was nice for a slight change of pace in getting on a little boat, a wake up in the heat at least. The Temple was huge. The stories that were told on the walls through the pictured language of hieroglyphics was never ending. Gods towered in size over and around myself and the streams of tourists. Amazing that all of the columns and walls have anything left on them, especially after the British actually drowned these ruins in the creation of the first dam. Just 20 years ago everything was rescued and placed on a new island as it once stood.


Almost 12:00 now, and we've
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View of the city from the bridge
made it to the hotel for a very needed shower. The rest of the day was spent lounging in the sun, jumping in and out of the pool. Cairo was hot, and Aswan is certainly hotter! The temperature sat around 38 degrees. I now understand why it was best to avoid touring in the afternoon.


The next day I was eager to start fresh. After my shower, wrapped in my towel I tiptoed outside my front door to collect the clothes I had washed and hung to dry before going to bed. I know I can be bleary eyed in the mornings, but seeing nothing hanging on my washing line was a slight concern. Nothing blown in the wind around the corner, not up the tree. Hhhhmmmm. I never really thought my clothes would be desirable enough for somebody to steal in the middle of the night, but the case seemed to be clear. I started my day in my bathing suit, and my one shirt left. Imagining the shopping adventure for Egyptian knickers and touristy t-shirts, followed by a pleading phone call to mom to send me an emergency stash.


Breakfast made me feel no
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The Egypt Guerba tour group (L-R): leader, Trish, Helen, driver, Michael, Elaine and myself
better as I was the only one there so I could smell how 'unfresh' my clothes were. Soon joined by the gang from the tour, I shared my story and was urged to go and tell the hotel staff. Thinking there really wasn't much point and how I've learned my lesson, I approached the reception with an embaressed head hung low. "Are you wearing any underwear?" whispered the receptionist with a smile. Stunned by such insight, I was speachless. She then giggled and handed me a nicely folded bunch of t-shirts and knickers. Apparently the security thought it would be safer if they hung on to my clothes. Lesson learned with happy ending.


Our group decided to rent a felucca for the morning to explore Kitchener Island. We paid for an hour assuming this would be enough time to cross the Nile, walk around the gardens and then return before boarding our cruise boat. We should have been a bit suspicious of the professionalism of our Nubian 'captain' as we were told to walk the plank or jump the rail to board the boat. We tacked back and forth in the Nile trying to catch the right wind
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Coffee/tea shops can be setup ANYWHERE!
but there simply wasn't any, and the current was against us. Nearly an hour later we pushed the tree branches off of our shoulders and out of our hair and it seemed to be the final push needed to dock. A quick tour of the island and then jumped back in the feucca. Luckily we made it back in a just 15 minutes.


Finally, it was time to board the Nile cruise boat. It was a lot bigger than I had imagined and looked rather grubby on the outside, but then I walked in. I felt a bit like Kate Winslet on the Titanic as I walked down the sweeping staircase under the chandelier. Yeah yeah I know, I'm on the Nile not approaching iceburgs! The top deck had a pool that I could attempt 3 strokes per lap in. But as the heat began to rush by us like that of a giant hairdryer, it was a pleasure to just sit in one of the 'cool tubs'. I watched the villages of the Nile pass by and dove into my book. I then had an afternoon nap in my quarters. When I woke, I couldn't help but
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Boarding the felucca-the female challenge...railing or the plank?
start writing a 'Dearest mother' letter at my desk. What a life this is!! Soon enough, it was time for dinner. This was followed by a night time exploration of the Temple Kom Ombo. Getting this different perspective of a temple continued the romantic atmosphere of life on the Nile, even though I'm on my own!!


The next few days involved several more tours of Temples, Tombs and Monasteries. The history quite simply never stops. The Valley of the Kings revealed many delicate colours on the walls, even after so many years. I watched a night time light show at the temple of Luxor. Although the historic commentary was hard to follow, the walking tour to catch the bouncing dot was amusing. We drove by a local football match one evening, just on the side of the road. Barefoot players, but still wearing Man United shirts. I finally fought a funny tummy as did all of those on the tour. Luckily it didn't hold me back from the Egypt experience-hang on-that is part of the Egypt experience!


Our boat, along with 21 others was docked in Edfu for a couple of days as the locks to
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Felucca and the Nubian tombs
allow us up to Luxor were closed for maintenance. I decided to explore a little on dry land, thus having to cross through the reception area of 8 boats to get to the main dock. It's easy to get disorientated as I soon discovered I had actually gone the wrong way-almost stepped back into the Nile! I then had another laughable interaction with the locals at the internet cafe. As I busily tapped away on the keys, I didn't pay attention to the commotion behind me. I turned around to be asked by other tourists if I was going to leave as well. "Huh?" I looked over to my right as a police officer took apart the computer behind me. The owner had done a runner and the police were taking it all. How convenient for me to have free internet for the hour more it took him to pack everything up!!


We took a flight over to Sharm el Sheikh, and what a culture shock that was. Having walked through the markets of grime and theatrics, Sharm needed only to offer it's biggest feature-the beach. Having learned the value of the Egyptian pound, I now needed to
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Just to proove that I really am still on tour-wild hair on the Nile!!!
grasp the Euro. Sharm seemed to cater towards the Eastern Europeans and many many many diving groups. It's a great place for couples to parade along the paved boardwalk, and sit in the coffee shops smoking sheesha till early in the morning. I lounged by the pool and at the beach, finishing one book and starting another. The next day I joined a group of snorkellers. Having done this only once before in Hawaii, I wasn't greatly experienced-although swimming itself is always a joy where ever I am. It turned out to be as simple as opening my eyes to experience life as a fish in the most colourful aquarium. The varieties of coral were irreplaceable, and from what I understand, are irreplaceable. I had originally been upset that I didn't have time to scuba dive in the Red Sea, but I seemed to have found the perfect day out regardless.


After leaving Sharm, we drove to Dahab for lunch. Quite small in comparison to where we had come from, put pleasant nonetheless. The drive continued to St Catherine's. We passed several military check points and sand dunes that creeped up the jagged mountain edges. It's amazing how
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The Nubian villages have very reckognizable blue houses. We've moved more north for this village
the 'technology' of unpaved roads contrast with the way the Egyptians have managed to build the power towers along the curvy mountaineous roads. We finally arrived at our hotel. Of course the first thing I did was jump in the pool, slightly wishing I hadn't. Cccccccccold!!!


My alarm sounded at 1am, unfortunetly it was no mistake. A quick cup of coffee (blah-instant!!) and then off to the base of Mt. Sinai. Climbing through the night isn't something I've done before, but the sunrise at the top should be worth it. It felt very strange following such a procession of zigzagged lights as the climbers in front of me clung to their flashlights. Then a few people passed me on camels, tempting- but no. Must...finish...no...sleep-after a lot of huffing and puffing on my part we made it to the top. Then the realization of how many people I was following, in addition to those that were following me hit. I found a spot within the crowds that might secure me a good view, and waited for the sun. The climb up to 6600 feet above sea level was cerainly worth it when the first few rays crept over the
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Temples by night
surrounding mountains. This is where Moses received the 10 Commandments from God. Hhhm, and then it was time to go. Before starting the other route of steps down, I contemplated whether I really needed to go to the loo as there was a wood box on a cliff edge guarded by a salesman. Perhaps not. And then there was the coffee shop. No, my eyes were not deceiving me. The no. 3 coffee shop even had an ode to Canada on it. At least I can have confidence that I can run a coffee shop just about anywhere in the world, there's always the demand!


My knees finally creaked to a stop at the base where we had a chance to explore the active Monastery. There are 22 Greek Orthadox monks living on site. Apparently, the 3750 Steps of Repetance I just walked down, were laid by just one monk as a form of penance. A job I'd be glad to have missed.


We then began the 6 hour drive back to Cairo. Managed to sleep somehow and even woke up at one of the security checks with enough time to run into the Gulf of
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Statues by night
Suez and soak my feet. As always when driving in Cairo, there are some sights that I couldn't witness anywhere else. Drivers have no qualms about throwing their rubbish out the window or stacking their tomato crates and mattresses 10 feet above the back of their truck bed. How many crates of eggs do you think you can fit in the back? There must have been thousands of eggs. It was a bit of a strange scenario when our driver got lost and I was shouting directions to our hotel from the backseat. No no, let's not listen to the woman tourist, let's just turn another corner in the wrong direction. At the hotel I splurged on room service only to discover the delivery man pocketed some of the money he overcharged me. How embaressed was he when he got called in early the next day to explain to me what had happened.

Cairo and Egypt have been an incredible journey for me, although I'm glad it's now time to move on. "Welcome welcome" and "Canada Dry?" will forever be word reminders of my time here. Who knows what I'm going to be faced with at the next stop.
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Dress shop or rubbish store-take your pick!
But Kenya has always been a dream, so I'm looking forward to waking up, nice and fresh somewhere new.






Additional photos below
Photos: 40, Displayed: 33


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The Nile

Horse carriage anyone?
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The Monastery

I'm sure many tourists have this same photo, but the image is lasting regardless!
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Luxor

The Monastery
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Luxor

Guarding the Monastery, you must cross your heart...
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Luxor

Valley of the Kings, can you believe that the colour remaining is original?
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Luxor

Temple of Karnak, an obelisk standing this time


21st June 2005

Hi Fiona, Great yarn as always. Looking forward to your stories from deepest darkest Africa. Love, Ian
22nd June 2005

Distant follower
Hi Coffeecat, Im a UK gal who stummbled across your blog while searching the net for things. I have to say im enjoing the reasd very much and can't wait for thenext instalment. I emigrated to kuwait 8 weeks ago and will be starting my own blog soon. Hope its as amusing as yours. All the best and good luck x Lucy x
22nd June 2005

Hello CoffeeCat
Hi Fiona; Thanks for the updates of your journey, you're a very entertaining and talented writer. You're diary of travels is so colourful. I'm really in awe of your courage. Hope you are well and keep up the writing. Love Doug, Chris and Evy
23rd June 2005

Have fun in Africa
Hey Fiona, sounds like your having a blast. Hope you have a great time in Africa, you have been waiting a long time for that. The kids think that it is great that Auntie Fiona is going to be seeing lots of animals there. They want lots of pictures. Be safe. Love Kathy
28th March 2006

LOVELY! LIKE NEVER ENDING STORY!

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