Abu Simbel and Cruisin' the Nile

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From Cairo we took a 14 hour, overnight train to Aswan in Southern Egypt. The city did not have any ancient pyramids or temples but it is where we were going to start our trip up the Nile. We also had the option of taking a 30 minute plane to Abu Simbel, which are twin temples carved out the mountainside as a monument for Pharaoh Ramesses II and his queen Nefertari during the 13th century BC. The ancient Egyptians realized that building huge pyramids with gold and valuables inside was just asking for anyone who traveled by to rob them, so the later Pharaoh's built temples as monuments to recognize their rein and hid their tombs and posessions inside caves constructed at the Valley of the Kings (Near Luxor). To give you an idea of how far we traveled, Abu Simbel is about 30 minutes away from the Sudan border.

Abu Simbel has some of the best preserved carvings and statues of ancient Egypt so the trip was certainly worth it. Besides, the pyramides were spectacular from the outside but the insides were not nearly as impressive as some of the temples we saw along the Nile. If you were traveling to Egypt and just went to Cairo, you would see everything that you saw in postcard pictures of Egypt, but you would miss some amazing temples and statues that are way more memorable than the pyramids.

Besides Abu Simbel, we also spent a day in Aswan sailing on a faluca, hiking up some sand dunes, and checking out the night baazar. It was surprising how green the land was around the Nile and how clean the water was. However, once you travel a couple hundred yards away from the banks, its all sand and rock. The night baazar was an interesting experience. It goes on for blocks and every vendor that sees you pass has to say something, usually something inappropriate directed at the girls that were with us. At first it was funny when they would jokingly ask "how many camels for the girl" or tell you that your a "lucky man", but after a while it was just annoying. Plus, trying to bargain with these guys is a lot of work. The minute you show interest they lock on and won't leave you alone. Plus the first price they quote you could be as much as 5x as high as the actual price you should pay and you have to go through round after round of countering before you get to a reasonable price. Plus most of the stuff is junk anyway, so I didn't really buy anything except typical Egyptian clothes for the party we were going to have the next night.

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