Travel and First Day in Aswan

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It all started with the late "drinky" NYE with Dorianne and Jamie. I had intended on a very quiet night but how could you not bring in the New Year with some sort of celebration?

We had the house to ourselves; we went in the pool, drank lots of bubbly, made some delicious experimental pizzas from scratch and eventually made cocktails, as the night's plan had intended. I have a small regret about drinking as much as we did, the night before an international flight, but it was a fun night so that definitely outweighed the flicker of a hangover I had the next day! A couple of Panadol solved the problem mostly and I spent the morning cleaning out the rabbit cages and finishing the last bits of packing that needed doing.

Stuart and Erin had come home at some ridiculous hour after attending Origin for their celebrations. Stu had a cold to begin with so was an absolute wreck when I went to say goodbye - he sounded terrible! His girlfriend, Erin, was much better off and so I received a goodbye from her as opposed to the grunt I got from my brother.

I had to make copies of my passport and travel documents to leave with mum so Jamie, in Dorianne's car, drove us all to dad's place where I made the copies. We then swung by McDonald's and KFC for some lunch and back to mine to drop off the documents. Took about 30-45 minutes in the end so I started getting a bit nervous that we were becoming too late for the airport. Dorianne was directing and I made the passing comment, "Make sure you don't head to the Domestic Airport like mum did last time!" and it was lucky I did as that was exactly where she was leading us!! Eventually we arrived at the International airport and I was dropped off. I'm thankful for their help as I didn't really want to foot the cost of a taxi.

Leonie and her parents were waiting just in side the sliding doors and we preceded to go through the quickest international check-in I've ever had! We had the traditional, albeit rushed, beer at the airport bar and before very long at all we crossed the "threshold" in to the security check and gate area. We only had about half an hour or so before boarding, so we definitely cut it fairly close this time. I put it down to the fact that we're "Seasoned Travelers" now, so we know it doesn't really need 3 whole hours for the process!

The flight to Singapore was about normal: 5 hours/2 movies. I watched "The Social Network" and "The Expendables". TSN wasn't quite as good as I had expected, an interesting movie nonetheless. The Expendables was pretty fantastic as far as a deliberately cliche action movie with all the big names, new and old, goes. I quite enjoyed it and loved Arnold Schwarzenegger's cameo! I usually deliberately choose fairly brainless movies when flying, so it was perfect 😊

We had 3 or 4 hours at Changi. I left my darn earphones at home, and surely I would die going a whole month on holiday without any, so paid way too much for a new pair. Now that the trip is over, I'm quite fond of them because they're ones that cut out external sound, excellent! I also purchased some more memory for my camera. Again paying too much, but after reading that Mike and Patricia, our tour guides, had used 18GB one year I started to worry about the fact that I only had 4GB! We had the traditional iced milo at Burger King and the traditional pint of beer at the sports bar. You've gotta have tradition :D

Eventually, we boarded for our 7 hour long flight to Dubai. I'm not yet sure if I prefer the single, very long flight or the multiple not quite so long flights. The stopping and starting, as opposed to the constant long flight, may well be a killer! Sadly though, on this flight, we didn't have 'On Demand' movies and I really couldn't be bothered with it so I actually managed to sleep for the majority of the flight. I'm sure it came in handy! I did manage to catch most of "Life As We Know It" though, which I had seen before but again, a nice light movie for the flight.

We landed in Dubai and had the option to get off, but with only half an hour until the boarding time, we decided to stay put. They cleaned up around us, eventually the new passengers boarded, and on to the 3 hour flight to Cairo. I dozed through most of that flight too so was quite refreshed on arrival in Cairo. As we walked off the plane we noticed two ladies with Ma'at Tours tags on their backpacks and said hello. Turned out to be two very friendly sisters, Adrienne and Deb, from Tasmania. We also discovered later that Deb had worked with Mike for several years too.

We'd been told horror stories of the horrible treatment we could expect at the airport but we had a very quick and pleasant pass through customs , collected our bags and were straight through - too easy!! On the other side, we were met by Patricia with the Ma'at Tours sign, who directed us to where Mike was waiting for the group off to the side. Once the group had assembled we headed upstairs and met Kevin and Amy, who had been in Cairo for a few nights before going in to the tour. Kevin was from Maine in the U.S., but we didn't hold that against him. Amy was from Sydney and a very brightly dressed lady in her blue top and pink scarf - it definitely suited her bubbly personality. We started the introductions to other fellow tour group members while we waited for all to gather.


Not all in the wait, but eventually we met Adib and Shahrukh, and their daughter Aneeqa, hailing from Ballarat and Melbourne, with origins in Bangladesh, Chris from Brisbane and two friends from Townsville, Ellen and Julie, Lynne from Tasmania, Roy and Val from Wales, now living in England, Andrew and Sylvana from ? and Brian from ?.

Not long after we moved to check in for our flight to Aswan. Heading to one wrong gate first, we found the right one and Patricia's plan to be able to go through the security check as a group didn't work as the guard wanted us to come to him individually so he could check our eticket names against our passports. Patricia had collected them all with the impression we were able to go through in bulk, so it was a slightly longer process having to hand them out to everyone when he changed his mind. That was ok, we got through. We then checked in and even though our group wasn't a large one we still managed to congest the check-in desks with we 18 (plus Mike and Patricia making 20) and all of our luggage! They wanted to check us in individually so that we all received the barcode to match the one placed on our suitcase, which was fair enough. The whole process so far I had thought wasn't too bad, and I had come in with the mindset not to stress about a thing on this trip, so I was more than happy to just go with the flow and do as instructed, when instructed.

We moved to the security gate to board our flight and were warned of how it was "pretty feral", with pat down searches possible. I guess preparing for the worst was the goal but, again, I had no problems.. and it definitely wouldn't have been the first time I'd been patted down if it had happened! A short wait, a bus ride to the plane with loud and obnoxious American kids (I'm sounding old, right?) and we boarded for the 1 hour 20 minute flight to Aswan.

My first impressive sight in Aswan was the outside walls of the airport that faced the runway, which were made to look like an Ancient Temple with pillars carved in to the walls. I thought it looked very cool. We had been given "Ma'at Tours" tags to put on our suitcases prior to checking in at Cairo and these were used as identification for some men hired to collect our bags for us. I felt a bit inept walking out of an airport with someone else lugging my suitcase, a first for me, but it was kind of nice. The bags and the group eventually loaded on to the bus and we headed to our hotel.

I watched out the window as we crossed the dam bridge, heading towards the city, and took in my first views of Aswan, in fact Egypt. I definitely felt a slight tickle of excitement, I think it was that point that I started to realise that I was actually in Egypt. For real. Mike went on to the microphone and said, "If any of you are sitting there, after all that flying, wondering if it was worth it to come to Egypt - check out the view around this corner!" And a view it was! We rounded the bend and I saw the Nile for the first time. With the palms, the blue water full of Feluccas and the desert dunes beyond that, who could not be in awe? We drove along the Corniche, the road alongside the river's edge, and eventually came upon our accommodation for the next 8 nights - The Philae Hotel. Not much to look at from the outside, in fact some of the letters were tilted or falling off, but once we were seated in the soft, enveloping chairs in the foyer and welcomed by the friendly staff with fresh lemon juice and sugar, I knew we would be very comfortable here.

As our bags were organised and sent to the rooms, we were shown to the first floor restaurant and seated for a delicious buffet late lunch. Amongst many delights, the things that stuck in my mind were the traditional Yellow Lentil Soup and the Fried Eggplant. And to think, I was worried about the food in Egypt! After a filling meal, we were given a short period to freshen up and meet back in the foyer for our first Felucca ride on the Nile.

We had our first Egyptian "road-crossing" experience, not too bad, and meandered down toward the river's edge where we boarded the boat. We passed Pigeon Rock (named so because of all the pigeons.. wonder what genius thought that up, haha), circled Elephantine Island as well as Plantation Island, and watched the sun set over the desert, silhouetting the houses and palm trees before us. It was gorgeous and so relaxing to be on a boat - my favourite thing.

Whilst on the Felucca ride, we were met by a young boy floating on a small foam board using small cut-out squares of something as paddles, who held on to the side of the boat and sang interesting versions songs like Row Your Boat etc. for Baksheesh (tips). As well as him, we met a man with a row boat full of scarves and nick nacks for sale. He ended up making a fair amount of money from us as Patrica mentioned how good the price of the scarves were so we all swooped and starting going a bit crazy over them. Only 30 Egyptian Pounds (LE) and some very pretty patterns, so I couldn't resist. I bought a purple, glittery one and it will always have the fond memory attached to it as my being the first scarf I bought in Egypt! That was where it all started; where I developed my fetish!

As the sun disappeared, we headed back to shore and were shown to a lovely restaurant, floating right on the river. Mike told us about how at times you can be sitting and eating on an angle because of the tide. I played it shamefully safe and ordered the Lentil Soup and Fried Eggplant. Sad, I know! The soup was delicious but the eggplant was fried with massive chunks of garlic and although it started off very nicely, the garlic became a bit much after a while. Still, not bad at all and combine that with a bottle of the local beer, Stella, all for a total of LE 32, I was perfectly happy.

A group of what appeared to be human beings, but we will never know, wavered back up the Corniche to the Philae Hotel and I don't know about anybody else, but I'll admit to being completely over and out before 8pm. A beautiful and suitably lazy introduction to Egypt. Patricia had promised me, via email before we left Australia, that all your worries would go away on that first afternoon watching the sunset over the Nile on your first Felucca ride and she was spot on!

I was in love already, and we still had 25 days to go!

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Comments

[sunrise2 shanghai]

baksheesh
I had to giggle when I saw you comment about the boy on the floating board, I saw exactly the same the same and that was 15 years ago. Well it must pay off is all I can say.

[JustTez]

Re: Baksheesh
That's so great that some things never change :) P.S. wish I'd run over this entry a bit better before I published, I've spotted a few typos... damnit!