55 Miles Down the Nile

---

First things first, the whole 55 mile statistic is more or less a vague estimate based on using my thumb and the scale in the Lonely planet book. I had noticed lately that my blog titles were rather unimpressive and thus attempted something a tad more poetic.

My time in the desert came to an exciting close when my cab from the bus station ran out of gas en route to downtown Cairo from the "bus station" and I had to push it across several lanes in what felt like the fires of hell while endless wafts of exhaust subsequently destroyed my lungs. I had no sympathy for the cab driver whatsoever after learning that gas here costs about 1.3 Egyptian pounds per liter. That works out to roughly 33 cents USD.

After that little debacle I filled up a couple more days in Cairo exploring the sights, sounds and tastes of downtown which was headlined by my trip to the Indian High Commission for my VISA. I attempted a slightly different approach to experiencing Cairo than I normally take for a city its size. Instead of seeing the much needed and popular sights (except for the Pyramids of course) and hanging out in the Hostel (I didn't even stay at one here) I cruised down the lonely alleyways and sat in the shaded but filthy streets at several local establishments and just absorbed. I explored every street food imaginable and concluded that given the heat, Ice Cream trumps everything. It's likely a mixture between wanting to save money and avoiding the heat (and subsequent long walks) at all costs, that led me to spend hours on end sitting on rusty chairs smoking sheesha, sipping shai tea and nibbling mint leaves. I spent the better part of an afternoon in a wonderful discussion with a retired Arabic/English translator that used to work in Saudi Arabia for Exxon and a local professor from here in Cairo. Since it's too hot to do anything else but sit, their company was more than welcome.

From Cairo I hopped aboard a night train from the Ramses train station which headed southward along the Nile river before arriving in the lovely riverside town of Aswan. The train station was certainly an experience since my train came late and I had to decipher the scratchy Arabic voice over the PA system in an attempt to learn the new platform my train would arrive at. All that was a complete failure so I just followed some Japanese guy I suspected was also en route to Aswan and managed to find the right platform. The train ride down was very pleasant, easily being the best train ride of my trip so far. Winning that award was certainly not difficult as most of my previous train experiences were rather ugly. I shared a compartment with a Mexican and Brazilian, reminding me that I did still know some Spanish and Portuguese and will always hold many fond memories of both their respective countries.

The train arrived 4 hours late in Aswan and after checking into a hotel I immediately sought transportation to the nearby dams and the Philae temple. While marveling at the wonders of man and his ability to clog the illustrious Nile river, I learned about the successful British and Russian projects for the upper and lower dams, and how they subsequently buried many wonderful ancient ruins with the heightened water level. Philae temple was quite something, after being dug and dragged up from the bottom of Lake Nasser they erected things back to the way they were (sort of) on a nearby island. This was a wonderful sight to behold cruising out to the island on a speedboat and watching the sun go down over the lake.

The next day I woke up at 3am and drove in a bus accompanied by an armed police convoy to roughly 40km from the Sudanese border to see the Temples of Abu Simbel. Again, the huge statues and stonework were a sight to behold and I enjoyed them immensely as the sun rose opposite them over Lake Nasser. Later that same day I embarked on a felucca boat and we set sail on the Nile river heading northward. For the next two days and two nights I relaxed on the boat watching farms, Egyptians, cows and mules pass by while I took frequent naps and chatted with my boat mates. One highlight includes the tale told by two fellow boat cruisers about someone they chatted with in Cairo who also had a friend who lost their passport. I was pleased to learn that I'm not the only one to experience such a misfortune and felt I could relate to his troubles quite easily and immediately held a soft spot in my heart for the victim. After a few more minutes probing, I then learned the poor fellow whom they spoke of was actually me, and the person who told the original tale was Jord when he must have explained to the same fellow travelers the sob story of his cousin in Tanzania back some time ago in Cairo. Small world anyways.

The felucca was fantastic, the deck was level and covered with rugs, cushions and a homemade canopy over the top for shade. This, without a doubt is simply the best way to travel. Constant breezes off the river allowed what was essentially a floating bed to glide down the river for hours on end. Frequent stops were made of course to dive in the river and cool off before most meals and nights were spent on the shores with a campfire. One night actually, we managed and invitation to a nearby Nubian wedding at a local village. The small towns in Egypt have a lot of character and I found it quite entertaining to visit their local camel market, the muddy streets and simply rub elbows with the local toothless sheesha smoking Egyptians. These smaller venues for Egyptian life are quite different than the busy streets of Cairo. The felucca ride was over far too quickly for my liking, and after a few more temple visits I wound up in Luxor Thankfully some friends from the felucca ride were staying at a neighboring hotel and we were able to hang out on the roof of a nearby establishment drinking beer and enjoying the late night breeze. Peter, Katie and Sarah Steinberg from B.U. all kept me company, even though they didn't particularly enhance the prestige of their school by making several outlandish claims one of which being that Mexico City was situated below sea level.

Luxor is quite overwhelming and reminds me much of the overflowing tourist towns I've seen far too many times elsewhere in the world already. Peddlers hawking so much useless garbage and swindlers swindling whatever they can all force the use of establishments that keep you separated from such unsavory characters (which are typically more upscale hotels and restaurants). Traps and scams are common, horse drawn carriages tend to follow you and are far too demanding and local shop owners giving generous offers to "look around their shop for free" all leave the typical foul aftertaste far to common in cities such as this one. The main attractions here are the Luxor Temple and the Karmac temple. The later one being quite impressive because of its sheer size and obelisks that pierce the sky far above everything else. I was blown away at how many tourists were there, apparently it had been awhile since I've been around such a large volume of people. The sea of humans overtaking the sight was a bit much to handle. The English fellow I went with and I had to abandon the mobs in search of an "ice lolly" just to maintain sanity. It was however entertaining to pay the guards to take you to the closed areas where things are still being excavated and you can escape the crowds, the overall feel of the temple and surrounding ruins felt more like Disneyland. Thankfully with my hot shot student card I receive 50% off all the aforementioned sites even though I quickly grew tired of temple after temple. In the end, I felt Cairo was great along with the tiny communities along the Nile where Nubians wandered about on unpaved roads and mules carried everything from meat, to ice, to produce, but cities in between the two such as Luxor should be avoided like the plague.

After Luxor I managed a train back to Cairo and found my way back downtown via the subway system. My clothes were quarantined and given to the hotel for washing even though I'm not staying there, quickly ending a 35 day laundry free hiatus. I return to pick up my passport in one hour before killing some time here in Cairo this afternoon and then braving the freeway back out to Cairo International Airport for my long awaited flight to India and rendezvous with Jord. All in all Egypt is great, and a fantastic place to visit anytime but in the summer. I feel that I adequately saw about half the country and was pleased with my brief exposure to Middle East culture.

---

Photos

The Felucca
Laying around has never been so much fun. The trip was flawless, great food along with frequent swim and prayer breaks took us the entire way from Aswan to Luxor effortlessly

Camel Market
Pay by the pound. Egyptian pound. 10,000 apiece.

Hanging Out
If they don't see you photograph them, they don't ask for money! Suckers!

Meat Market
No, sadly its not camel but some kind of buffalo. I'm sure it will keep fine sitting out in an August afternoon in Egypt. Hoof anyone?

Searching
While Jordans intuitive search for the Holy Grale took him into Jordan (call it a hunch) mine took me into the upper Nile region of Egypt. Sadly I did not find the grale, nor the ark, but I did find several great pictures inside various tombs of a topless Isis.

Beer
Shot from One of the 3,591 floating restaurants in Aswan.

Enterance to Abu Simbel
The glorious entryway into the temple of Ramses II, as of now its more or less an entryway into a dark stuffy room that reaks of europeans and sunscreen.

Enjoying the Felucca
Life aboard the "Ahmed" is very stressful. Propping my body up from the floating bed for the sake of this photo was probably the most grueling thing I had to do.

Philae Temple Columns
This picture was taken at my first temple, while sights like this were still a novelty. Boy that changed quickly.

Preparing for Transport
I was pleased to learn I could actually afford one of the strange beasts. I'm still in the middle of planning how to transport him, but I figure he should be a real hit around Pinecrest.

Comments

[nolan]

55 MDTN
Hey Jay Nice to see some normal travel out of you. Well as normal as you get. Some great pic's.. Have some fun in India.....nolan