Sailing the Nile

Living Between Two Worlds

Traveling independently brings immense freedoms. There is no programmed time to be anywhere. You decide where you sleep, eat, and travel. You can change you mind on the lightest whim and find yourself in situations and new experience that would never be possible on a tour. Simply using the public transport network permits you a clearer glimpse into the daily lives of the people whos country you are visiting. Independent travel also means just that. During difficult times you often find that there is only yourself and your immediate traveling companion in which to lean on for support. Your usual support network of family and friends are thousands of miles away and even a short phone call is no easy, or cheap, task. Above all else we miss our families and friends dearly. (This is a small plea to everyone out there: We LOVE e-mail!!! Just a quick two liner saying we saw this movie or we went here today makes ALL the difference in the world!).
However it is also this unique freedom that makes independent travel what it is. There is no tour guide to smooth over the red tape of visas or border crossings. Hotels, food, and even water must all bargained for, often at great lengths. There is no air-con bus waiting for you at the end of a long day and public transport can take its own toll.

Daily life for the package tourist and the independent traveler (or independent "tourist", there really is no difference) are worlds apart. We must bridge two very differant worlds. One is the Western world with its comforts of white pillow covers, air-con, clean toilets, and safe food. On the other side of the bridge are the local people, who rely on over crowed buses, water that is often tainted with contaminates, and lodgings that is often just simple and sparse concrete room with dirty shared bathrooms. While I wish I could write without passing judgments, I am writing for a "Western" perspective.

Its not only the basic amenities that make the two worlds difficult to bridge, it the underlying social fabric that often seems worlds apart. An example of this can be found watch the metro system. When a train comes to a stop you can see the people inside looking as if there are straining to get out. When the doors open there is a scrum of elbows and bodies working to get in and out of the train. As an American I watch is disbelief. Why not wait until everyone is out then get on board? Seems it would be lot easier and a lot more pleasant in my eyes. Buying a ticket is similar. There is no line of any short. You shove your money into the booth, pushing aside others who where there before you. You must grab your tickets before someone else does or you're really out. I can not understand why not just get in line in and get your tickets in order of who got there first? These are all western judgments of better and worse, these are the perspectives that make constructing a bridge between our worlds more difficult.

But then again, these are exactly the cultural differences that make the world the wonderful dives place that it is. This is why we travel independently. Katelyn and I have chosen to immerse ourselves in these cultures so that we can experience and begin to understand the differences and similarities in a world of such immense humanitarian diversity. No, it is not always easy. In fact it can be extremely stressful and disorienting at time. Culture shock is a part of travel, and not an easy overcome.

We subject ourselves to this because we see a world at war with itself. These battles are fought for no other reason than misunderstanding. So often we just burn the cultural bridge and build immense impenetrable walls, physically and mentally. We create an "axis of evil" instead of attempting to understand the cultural differences that have divided us.

This is not easy, and many times I have want to come home where I can walk down the street without comments, sales ploys, and stares focused on me. Back in the States I can get good Mexican food no problema. But there is no place to get a good kushari and we defiantly do not have any 4,000 year old pyramids lying around. We will keep traveling, experiencing and, getting disoriented. Most of all we will keep learning. Bridges are difficult to build, but worth the time and energy.

Down the Nile

Aswan

We boarded the 2nd class train with great excitement. Not only are we headed somewhere new, but we are getting there via train! The journey by rail took 12 hours. We got off the train blery eyed and half asleep as we began our march down the streets of Aswan in search of a hotel. After checking into a cheap one (and quickly checking out again as dishonest service and constant yelling insued) we found a piece of paradise. There is no way to describe the feeling of a great hotel. The Kenlay was honest, comfy, and safe plus it had towel, soap, and TOILET PAPER!!! They even folded the towels into swans for our amusement.

The next day we were on our way to Abu Simbel. This journey is interesting from its 3:00 am start. You groggily make your way out of the hotel to your minibus that then joins a convoy headed to Abu Simbel. All tourist vehicles must travel in this god awfully early mix of buses, taxis, minibuses, and whatever else is headed that way. When its time to take off it’s a free for all. Cars and buses swerving and near misses are all apart of the daily ritual. If the grand prix style driving is not enough, the fact that they travel with the lights OFF is enough to make anyone just close there eyes and pray to Allah!! .

Finally we arrive and walk around the colossal stature of the egotistical Ramsis II. What makes this temple all the more awe-inspiring is that is was moved, block by hundred ton block. When the high dam on the Nile went in, the temple was to be flooded. It was saved by UNESCO by moving it to higher ground (anyone who has been here will probably agree that they could have moved it a little closer to Aswan). Then its back in the bus for the three hour ride back to Aswan. On the way back we stopped at the high dam of Aswan. While yes it is the dam that produces the largest lake in the world, its about as interesting as a mound of dirt can be. The next stop was much more intriguing. The island of Philae. While it had the novelty of being excessable only by boat, the temple proper was one of the best we had seen yet. And by now we have seen a LOT of temples!

Down the Nile, in Style

Sound and Light Show
Every momument has its own version of the sound and light show. This involves very lound melodramtic music and corney scripts. However its unforgetable to walk through the temples while they are spotl... [more]

After weeks of travel its time to relax. We headed down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor by falucca. We set sail for three days and two nights with Captain Ata, our Nubian guide, and his mate. Also along for the ride were two Aussies, a Kiwi (yea they got along), two Czechs (who brought there own distilled herb liquor) an Irish girl, and an American. We swapped travel stories to lighten our mental load, talked some world politics, then tossed about in full bellyed laughter at the follies of cultural emersion. There's nothing like having others to finally relate to, a momentary circle of friends with which to spin the world. And what better place than on the confined island of a falucca, free from all our worries for a day or two.
Our river tour ended as we approached the temples at Kom Obo where we were whisked way by minibus convoy to the temples of Edfu and then onto Luxor.

Luxor
In Luxor we found the Happy Land hotel just that. With in room air con and our own bathroom for less than 9 bucks, tears filled by eyes. We were also happy to have the added accompaniment of Tim, the American we met on the felucca. Visiting the Mumufication Museum together, touring the ancient temple of Karnak, and fitting in a Sound and Light show (as the temples are famous for these) was about all we had energy for in Luxor. Yes, there is so much more, but we opted instead for some down time, as all the traveling is wearing and it's not worth breaking the Spirit for!

We are now making our preparations for Ethiopia. The flights are reconfirmed and we are practicing yet anther new language. We will try and keep the blog up to date, but the pictures will probably be less, as internet is slow in Africa. We will do our best!

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