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Published: February 25th 2008
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approach to Philae
This is the approach to/from Philae - on the water. Philae temple is another beautiful temple, built similarly to Edfu. This one is dedicated to Isis. It hasa beautiful setting, but it is still too crowded. From Aswan, you take a ferry across the Nile to the island where the temple has been moved. It's previous island is underwater now, but the spot is still visible from its new location. It looks so natural in its new location that it's hard to imagine that it was moved so recently!
I really got annoyed with the giant Japanese tour group that showed up. My group of 15 waited patiently to enter the small inner sanctum so that we could learn about it. After another group left, we filed in. A Japanese tour group started to push and bang past us - one little old lady actually knocked me back a few feet. They all pushed into the inner sanctum so that we had no room to breathe. I had to run out because i was getting claustrophobic. I was so angry at them for being impolite (and although I won't write a whole entry about it here, I actually got into a fight with a similarly composed tour group of Japanese
My stepdad
Leaning out of the boat because it was funny...hard to describe WHY it was funny, but it was! senior citizens at the airport check-in a few days later - when they pushed past me in a line to check in, including rolling heavy suitcase over my foot, until I physically stood between me and one of them - who started to yell at me and push me and I just kept saying "No, not acceptable, not okay. You have to wait your turn.")
Anyway, the cafe at Philae temple is the best. The capuccino is delicious and you can sip it while looking out at the Nile. It was a nice day when we were there, and I really enjoyed both this and the ferry ride to/from the island.
For lunch, we went to Aswan Moon, a fairly famous tourist restaurant serving Nubian food. The service is very slow, but the manager is a grat guy who entertained us with various tricks and jokes. It's a breezy location, a tented barge tethered to the corniche. The dishes included everything from pizza to Nubian dishes, so I tried the meatball in tomato sauce dish which is a Nubian specialty.
Unfortunately, it was too windy and too strange of a wind to go on a felucca ride
- according to our tour company - so we didn't. Many other captains were offering us rides but we felt scared to do it if our tour leader said that it wasn't safe. I somewhat regret that, but I didn't want to break away from my family and go on a felucca alone. So instead we visited the HUGE Nubian market. It went on for street after street, much bigger than the one in Luxor. The thoroughfare is wider too, and the stores have generously sized spaces. My mom bought some more pashminas, and I found myself some musical instruments - a child sized tambourine and tabla. I hope someday my future kid will learn to play these instruments. While I know the Middle Eastern rhythms and the concept of Dum and Tak, I didn't find them so easy to play in reality!
I definitely felt we didn't have enough time in Aswan. After this short day there, we had to get on a filthy, miserable, disgusting overnight train to Cairo (and that was the first class accomodations!) This is where my mom got very sick, and Alli and I were so disgusted by the filth on the train
Philae Temple Pylon
Not a particularly inspired photo, but gives you an idea of what the temples look like. that we could hardly sleep. We ended up sharing the lower bunk, holding eachother. I did get some sleep but I will never book a sleeper train again.
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