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Aswan Again!

We took an early Egypt Air flight from Luxor to Aswan so we could arrive in time to get two full days of sightseeing! Aswan is Egypt's sunniest southern city and located about 81 miles south of Luxor. It is an ancient frontier town with a distinctively African atmosphere. Small enough to walk around and graced with the most beautiful setting on the Nile as it flows through amber desert and granite rocks, round emerald islands covered in palm groves and tropical plants. It was the country's premier winter resort from 910 to 24 BC, offering natural beauty, a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere and a warm, dry climate as it does today!

Mama Canuck loves Aswan! The pace of life is slow and relaxing. While days can be spent strolling up and down the broad Corniche watching the sailboats etch the sky with their tall masts or sitting in floating restaurants listening to Nubian music and eating freshly caught fish, we are only spending two days and nights in Aswan, so we have no time to waste!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Elephantine Island, the largest of the Aswan islands, is one of the most ancient sites in Egypt, with artifacts dating to pre-dynastic periods. It is also the location of our hotel, the Movenpick Elephantine Island Resort. We picked the hotel with relaxation in mind; unfortunately, there is lots of do and see in Aswan so we did not do much relaxing!

Elephantine Island, located at the first Cataract of the Nile, provided a natural boundary between Egypt and Nubia. As an island, it was also easily defensible. In fact, the ancient town located in the southern part of the island was also a fortress through much of its history. At one time, there was a bridge from the mainland to the island.

After Mama Canuck drove a hard bargain with the motorboat man at the Movenpick dock, we headed to the tip of the island where the museum and ancient ruins are located. Once on the boat, Mama Canuck arranged for Toma to return in his felucca for a sunset sail around the island. Seeing the Nilometer, ruins of the Temple of Khnum and Abu, and sitting on the banks of the Nile watching life on the Nile pass by was a great way to take time and chill out.

Our visit to the Aswan Museum, Nilometer, ruins of the Temple of Khnum and Abu was interesting, although Papa Canuck was getting a little hot under the collar since the guide was bugging Mama Canuck. To make things worse, Papa Canuck was ticked with our self-appointed guide of the Nubian village, when all we wanted was to buy a can of pop and he wanted to charge us 75 Egyptian Pounds for a 15 minute walk to and from the mosque. We could not drink the pop from the can since it was filthy. The people live in absolute sqaulor with chickens roaming in their living quarters. Bird Flu Alert! Mama Canuck could not get out fast enough!

We spent a lazy afternoon sailing the Nile in a felucca. The felucca sailing excursion around the islands in the Nile took about an hour. We enjoyed the sailing experience, viewing the East and West banks of Aswan and beautiful sunset.

We had afternoon tea at the hotel where we met a lovely couple from Germany.

In the early evening, we visited the Nubian Museum, which opened in 1997. Thousands of antiquities would have been lost under the waters of Lake Nasser had not a major international effort salvaged them during the 1960s and '70s. Among the highlights are scenes of Nubian life demonstrated with a range of life-size displays. This spacious museum with three floors of exhibits and open-air museum are housed in an impressive complex. The exhibitions represent all stages of Nubian history: Prehistory, the Pharaonic period, Graeco-Roman Period, Christianity in Nubia, Islam in Nubia, and Nubian Folk Heritage. We really enjoyed our visit of the Nubian Museum. It is a fantastic, modern and well-laid out museum. There were lots of interesting artifacts and dioramas in this museum. Although, 2-3 hours could be spent, we spent approx. 1 hour since we were exhausted after getting up at 5:00am to get to Luxor Airport.

After returning to our room, Canuck Junior chatted with her friends on MSN and Facebook til midnight. We finally have Internet Access! We were finally able to add some photos to our blogs we posted from Cairo and Siwa. So check them out!

While Mama Canuck blogged, Papa Canuck enjoyed the lovely views from our hotel room terrace overlooking the Nile, the hills across the river, and Kitchener's Island, an island that was given to Lord Kitchener for his campaigns in the Sudan, where he moved and created a garden full of exotic plants and trees from all over the world.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Bet el Kerem, located in the village of Nagh el Kuba on the West bank of the Nile River, is a hotel and restaurant within walking distance from the dock. Bet el Kerem offers marvelous views of the Nile River, desert, Nubian villages and historical sights. Their chef-cook, who has vast experience on 5-star cruise boats, offers a delicious and varied menu, in a relaxing atmosphere with a rooftop garden, where you find a sheesha (water pipe), and games like darts, backgammon, and dominos.

Ellen at Bet el Kerem also helped plan our Nubian experience on the West Bank, including a guided tour of the Tombs of the Nobles, camel ride from the Tombs of the Nobles to St Simeon Monastery, tour of St Simeon Monastery, tour of Aswan souk, and motor boat rides as required.

We were picked up by motor boat from the landing stage of the Mövenpick Hotel on Elephantine Island at 9:30am for our trip to the Westbank, where our guide, Sally, explained the history of the Tombs of the Nobles. The northern hills of the west bank (Kubbet al-Hawa meaning windy dome) are filled with the rock-hewn tombs of princes from the Old Kingdom to the Roman period. The 6th Dynasty tombs, some of which form linked family complexes, contain important biographical texts. Inside, the tombs are decorated with vivid wall paintings showing scenes of everyday life, hieroglyphic biographies and inscriptions telling of the noblemen's journeys into Africa. It was quite the climb up the hill that overlooks Aswan, but the bird’s eye view was great.

We then mounted our camels for our 1 hour camel trek into the desert to visit St. Simeon's Monastery. The Monastery of St. Simeon, which housed 300 monks and could lodge up to 100 pilgrims at a time, was surrounded by a 10 metre high wall, and doubled as a fortress. The history of the monastery of St. Simeon dates back to the 7th century, and survived as a Christian stronghold of southern Egypt until destroyed by Saladin in 1173. Apparently, the monastery did not return to its original use after Saladin's destruction. Our guide walked us through the ruins and showed us the kitchen area and sleeping quarters with stone beds.

We remounted our camels and rode to the base of the Mausoleum of the Agha Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismailis, a Shi'ite sect (as were the Fatimid) based principally in India but with followers around the world. It is a very elegant pink granite structure of late 1950 origin, which also resembles the Fatimid tombs in Cairo. Members of this sect consider themselves to be the direct spiritual descendants of the Fatimid. Unfortunately, the Mausoleum is no longer open to tourists.

Check out our travel blog titled: Canuck Camelmania for videos and more photos for camel lovers!

Our camel excursion was great fun and a fantastic photo op! It’s not that the monastery is so fabulous; it’s more about the camel trekking to it. After dismounting our camels and happily saying goodbye to the cameleers who had to boost Mama Canuck (no small feat) while her screams of fear could be heard across the desert, we were picked up on the river bank and taken to the hotel restaurant where we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the restaurant Bet el Kerem.

After lunch, we toured another Nubian village which was far more pleasant than our last encounter. As we headed towards the banks of the Nile to take our motorboat across to the East Bank to visit Aswan’s souk, we were introduced to a one year Nile crocodile. So cute! Another great photo op!

We walked through Aswan's souk, which is full of the scent and color of spices, perfumes, scarves and baskets. The Aswan market is much less frantic than the Khan El Khalili Market in Cairo. After doing some hard bargaining for Nubian souvenirs, we said goodbye to our lovely guide, Sally. She was lots of fun to spend time with and made our day in Aswan a memorable one. We then headed back to the Mövenpick hotel to freshen up before heading back to Bet el Kerem for dinner. The dinner was fabulous. We would highly recommend eating at Bet el Kerem. Before we returned to our hotel by motorboat, we enjoyed after dinner conversation with two young couples from Quebec whom we shared travel stories with.

Staying in Aswan

While there have been few upscale hotels in Aswan other than the Old Cataract Hotel of Agatha Christie fame, several hotels have undergone or are currently being renovated, including the Old Cataract and the Movenpick Elephantine Resort.

We enjoyed staying at the well-managed Movenpick Resort, which has just completed a major renovation. The newly renovated rooms are decorated with Nubian motifs, clean and service is top notch. Since the hotel is located on Elephantine Island, there are views to the West and East banks of the Nile. We requested a garden view room that overlooked the West Bank and offered a large terrace and spacious room.

The facilities and grounds were well-maintained with a large infinity pool, although it was too cool to take a dip. The restaurant and bar were well serviced and offered a delicious breakfast buffet. Mama Canuck claims they have the best French Toast. The bar atop the tower provided lovely panoramic views of Aswan and its surroundings, as well as afternoon tea from 4:00 - 700pm. The Panorama Bar was jam packed when we arrived around 5:30pm.

We really loved Aswan. We stayed for a total of three nights, 2 nights at the hotel and our first night on the cruise ship which stays in port for the first night, although outside the city centre. We probably could have spent a couple more days in Aswan, especially if it was warmer since time could be spent in and around the lovely infinity pool. Although the temperature warmed up in the afternoon sun, the water in the pool was not heated!

Once again, we are heading to the airport to catch our flight to Abu Simbel for our one night stay!

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