Day 2 Aswan - Sehel Island

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We were allowed a bit of a sleep in today and it was definitely appreciated! Breakfast was at a very civilised 0900 and new to me was having lettuce, tomato and cucumber with natural yoghurt as a breakfast option! I also tried something new in 'Ful medames' (.."mashed fava beans served with olive oil, chopped parsley, onion, garlic and lemon juice".. thanks Wikipedia) and well... I can't admit to really loving it, but it was definitely edible.

After breakfast, and before we were due to meet in the foyer, we were shown to the money exchange place by Amy, who had done this tour once before. It was no more than 50 meters from out hotel and the amount of tourist police planted along the way was quite amusing to me! I didn't really need any more money at the time, I just really needed smaller notes! I asked for street money, as instructed by Amy, but still received nothing smaller than a 20 so all I had was extra cash! No baksheesh money for me that day. It was definitely worth it for the experience though, not so scary! On the way back we grabbed a few bottles of water from a very friendly little hole-in-the-wall store - LE 3, for 1.5L - nothing!

We met everyone else in the foyer and headed down to board our Felucca over to Sehel (or Suhayl) Island, in the First Cataract, to see my first Ancient Egyptian inscriptions. We had been forewarned about ladies trying to sell Sehel beads, but what made me laugh was that, "Remember me, I am Nadia" had been used as an example, and that was exactly who got to us first! She was out of breath so had really worked to beat all the other ladies but we had also been warned not to buy until we were leaving or they would never leave us alone.

The island was covered in mounds of rocks and the many inscriptions on them were pointed out to us by Mike. What I thought was quite interesting, and maybe it was just me, but at one point we reached a large 'wall' of boulders and I saw one inscription, believed it to be amazing and completely random but upon paying closer attention to the boulders surrounding it - mostly above, I'm short alright - you gradually took in multiple others and it seemed like they should have jumped out much quicker than they did. Like I said, maybe it was just me!

We worked our way up to the peak of the island and I was completely flabbergasted to view the 'Famine Stela'. Of course I knew there were going to be lots of firsts for me on this trip but this was my first full hieroglyph text and it was very memorable. Mike told us of how leaders, in this case Ptolemy 5, created stories to link themselves to the gods, so that the people would follow them more readily. Here, he called himself "The Follower of Horus".. i.e. his successor. Who could argue with that for a leader of Egypt! Thinking back, after having seen the wonders to follow, this little rock with a story on it seems to be fairly quaint. The image of it though will be one to stick with me forever - the boulder with the horizontal crack across it!

On the way back, as warned, we were completely bombarded by ladies trying to sell the Sehel beads. There were vibrant necklaces and bracelets amongst many other nick nacks on the side, including dolls and wooden toys. It was fun but I still believe it to be the worst harassment I suffered the whole trip. They were very forceful, they grabbed your arm and separated you from the group, but despite being the worst, it was still not all too bad. Eventually, the repetition of "La, shukran" (No, thank you) got the message through and they moved on to someone who was interested.

I'm not a bead person so didn't buy anything, although I will never forget the moment I shared with a young girl. She was trying to sell me a wooden doll; at this point my normal, "Don't even bother buying anything wooden because of Perth customs" mentality was still with me and it was a strict no thanks from me but she held the doll to her heart and gave the most fantastic "please" puppy dog face of my whole trip... and I just laughed. What makes it so memorable was that she instantly recognised that I had seen through her, and laughed with me - taking my hands as she did so. It was completely obvious that she was not seasoned in bluffing like some of the kids we came across later. I will never forget that, because she was probably the cutest/most beautiful girl I've ever seen (maybe 15, 16?) with the cheekiest smile, combined with the guilt I feel now, thinking back, of not purchasing from her just to give her some intake for the day! Oh, she was so cute!

I did buy a purple Nubian hat though later on, for LE 10. I figured it would do well to keep me warm later on since I had committed to shaving my hair off for cancer funds! We were stalked back to the Felucca by the women and they literally started throwing things at us so we would buy them. I saw an older lady's beaded necklace miss the boat and end up in the river. It was then quite a sight to see her raise her galabeya above her knees so she could wade out and fetch it. The look on her face was sheer determination. That necklace was income for her and there was no way she was leaving it there!

Eventually we set off from the shore and started slowly zig-zagging down the cataract. Our capt'n left our Egyptian guide, Adbul, to steer the Felucca while he made tea. As a tour group, it's the law to have an Egyptian guide and I think we had the best one in Egypt! He was the friendliest and funniest guy ever, and he took great care of us. Unfortunately, Abdul is no Felucca driver and we started heading dead on for the rocks on the shore. Fearing for our lives, we watched as the fella trained and licensed as such casually made tea and gave a few seemingly casual instructions to Abdul. He said to pull the steering 'pole' one way and Abdul did, but not enough, and we were on a collision course! Thankfully, the driver came and used all of his body weight and strength to push the pole so that we turned sharply, missing the rocks. I was very impressed by what a sharp turn the boat was able to do, although I do sometimes wonder how much of a ploy that was, haha.

It was explained by Mike that the general rules around here were: the motor boats give way to Feluccas and every body gives way to the water police. That was it.. fair enough.. and it seemed to work well! Except for the moment when we were passed by the water police and Abdul ducked down so as not to be seen by them as he wasn't licensed. I thought it would be funny for them to look over and see the boat being driven by an invisible person!
We were provided with very strong, but nice, Karkade (Hibiscus Tea) and slowly made our way toward shore. I leaned back against the ropes weaved along the side of the boat and took in my surroundings, exceedingly happy to be on a boat on the water. The ropes gave way as such that I was leaning out over the water a bit and Adrienne made the comment that I looked way too relaxed and she was very tempted to push me in. I dared her to but of course she didn't.

Once we were on dry land, we were given a short while to freshen up before regrouping. As we crossed the road to the hotel though, I watched in horror as a couple within our group followed the others blindly across the road and did not watch the traffic at all. Luckily the drivers in Egypt are exceptionally aware of what's happening and the car that almost hit them was able to break early enough to not do so. The sound of the tyres screeching on the road was not a nice one though and the culprits were definitely shocked - they wouldn't do that any time soon, I'm sure! Also on the way back to the hotel, since I was wearing my "<3 VINO" shirt, one guy turned his head as we walked passed and said, "Wowww Senorita!". Inflated head much?

We were then taken to be introduced to the Souk. Patricia said the idea was to, "wind you up and let you go", so they introduced us to a couple of good stores and made mention of one that would rip us off. On the way we stopped in to a jewellery store that was right near our hotel and Mike told us about their loaning him an unpolished elephant tusk, back in the day, from up in their attic so he could use it for a photo shoot he was doing over on Elephantine Island. They asked for no money for it and patiently awaited it's return, so he introduces all of his groups to the store to repay the favour.

Once entering the Souk, we were introduced to Ashraf, the owner of a seriously impressive spice store and the friendliest guy you'll ever meet. This was tagged as our safe shop and I could see why. He welcomed us all, served up fresh orange and sugar cane juices (YUM!!) and took us through some of his product. As well as spices, he had perfumes and soaps and the dates stuffed with almonds that were shared around. Great guy, great shop.

As well as Ashraf, we were shown to a scarf store and met a guy who I can't remember the name of now for the life of me, but he became known as Chris Rock because of the resemblance! This was also a safe shop, but the prices were quite high. And we were shown a statue and Nubian antiquities store, specifically where Mike buys wooden bowls from. I noted a few statues on the shelves that I would have to return and see about.

Going through the Souk we were hit with every line going, some included -

"Ooh nice eyes, will you make my night?"
"I don't know what you want, but it's in my store."
"Everything is free tonight."
"How can I take your money from you?"

It was all in good fun, and I really enjoyed it all. An ironic thing too were the stores with owners who would jump out at you and claim "No Hassle".... too late! At some point that night I believe, Kevin was called Casanova because he was accompanying 4 or 5 females on their (at least my) first Egyptian shopping adventure!

After a while of wandering, and being advised against the flashier section toward the end of our walk, we stopped for dinner in a quaint little restaurant within the Souk. The description given was that it was a "local eating place that tourists had discovered".

I ended up ordering the Shish Kofta and fresh mango juice. The mango juice was absolutely delicious and Kofta, I found out when it arrived, was just minced beef from a skewer. Every meal came with "sides" of rice, salad, bread and dips. Each part in a separate bowl, one for each person, but the dips were shared. It was so much food, and so much good food at that! The serving of food in several bowls per person is traditional style and, for those that know me well, it certainly is the way I like to eat - none of this mixing of foods!! I was lucky enough to observe the storage place of the bread we were eating, but I won't go in to that because it was delicious and completely fine! Above all, it was all so cheap. I could afford to eat out every night at home with these costs!

We were left to our own devices after dinner. We could continue to shop or got back to the room and we, without question, chose to go back to the room, and die, basically. We only saw one site today and were exhausted. The first full day after our travel day/s though so I don't feel bad at all! That ended my second day in Egypt and if this was a sign of things to come - it couldn't be bad!

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