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PIRATES OF THE NILE
I wish Johnny Depp was here DAY 22
We alight from our train in Aswan at about 9am and go directly to the Nuba Nile Hotel. This is not even a three star hotel, although it is clean and we have a fridge and air conditioning. That's all that matters. This morning is free and we head off to the souq to explore. We are approached by every shopkeeper to buy. Angie finds her Egypt collector pin and we have had enough. The temperature is climbing. We head back to the hotel. On our way we see the milkman doing his deliveries. He has his donkey with a metal milk can on either side. He has a metal ladle and pours some into a plastic bag, ties a knot in the top and hands it over. The egg man is doing his deliveries and the back of the pick up truck (ute) is loaded and sitting in the midday sun. Many of the side streets are dirt and rocky. Many of the streets have deteriorated to this state. Dry and dusty.
Midday and It is now 38 c. or 95 f. We are indoors. Angie speaks with the man on reception who knows about computers
EGYPTIAN CRUISIN'
Crusing through the reeds he has a look at Angie's notebook computer and discovers it has a virus. Don't worry we have been sending out blog via another site, so all good. It only cost her $4usd to have it fixed and a virus protection programme installed. So now we are back in action and typing our stories and choosing photos at night, ready to upload to our travel blog whenever we have wifi access.
OUR GROUP consists of 1 American (Angie) 1 Australia (Francine) 2 UK living New Zealand for the past 20 years (Ray & Wendy) and 4 French Canadians (Samantha, Stephanie, Pascale & Stephanie).
WE'RE OFF TO THE BEACH. At about 4pm & 40 c & 100 f, we meet our tour leader Ahmed and head to the Nile to be collected by the crew of our felucca named the Jamaica Family and Bob Marley playing in the background. We take a ride up river to the Nubian part of Aswan. We pull into Nobian Beach where the water is very clear and cool. We put on our swimmers and take a dip. It is so cool as our bodies are so hot. As usual Angie is straight to
it and submerges. Francine takes her time and half an hour later is in up to her middle whilst splashing water over herself. Some things never change. Pascal and Stephanie joins us whilst the others paddle on the edge. We are told the water is very clean. Not sure about what to think about the lonesome water buffalo on the other side of the river? Too hot to bother.
Next it is a tour of the river and then drop off the young ones to take their camel ride to the Nubian village. Us four more mature travellers have done a camel ride before and our bottoms still remember the experience. We cruise to the village and are taken to a local Nubian family home to have tonight's dinner. We sit in the shaded reception area with bench seats around the walls and sand on the floor. We are given chilled hibiscus tea, delicious and refreshing. We are shown the wood fired ovens and then are given the freshly baked bread straight from the oven.
We sit on mats on the floor and dinner is brought out in various pots and plastic containers. We had spiced chicken piece,
fish, chick pea soup, vegetable soup, brown rice, mixed salad, and some sort of green spinach type soup that slimed from the ladle when lifting it from the pot. Smelt good, tasted good, but too slimy to eat more than a tiny taste. The consistency was very strange. The food was steaming hot and extremely satisfying. After a night trying to sleep on the train we were all enthusiastic to head back to the hotel and get some sleep so that is precisely what we did.
The Nubians are more African in appearance. When the Aswan dam was built and the lands flooded the Nubians lost their homes. They had to make the decision to move south to Sudan or North to Egypt. Nubians have their own language and culture. It is not a written language and is passed on through the generations and is difficult for other cultures to learn. They also speak Arabic and are of the Islamic religion.
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Brother Dave
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Fashion statement in Egypt
Angie, you look good in flags! Isn't it amazing you can find a computer technician in the middle of nowhere?! Enjoying reading the Frangie blogs. Your travels are giving Shanna and I good ideas on where to go in the future. By the way, our home in Panama should break ground this month, so we'll have a Central American stop for your next trip to that area of the world. Stay safe and treasure every moment!!