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Published: March 19th 2011
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Hotel ground floor
Our hotel in Aswan, Which had completely redone rooms on our floor complete with HD LCD tv's and all new furnature, flooring and bathroom. It has been awhile since I have had access to internet so I have been typing entries up below are the entries for day 3 & 4, I have much more written and to write about but without further ado:
DAY 3 - Aswan
Our hotel in Aswan was under renovations and in a lot of parts in the world would be closed while the ground floor is gutted, but hidden above an entrance of mud and missing walls is a very nice set of hotel rooms on the third floor with everything brand new, and a balcony overlooking the Nile, they say don't always trust your first impression and this hotel may be the best example I have ever seen. Once settled into our hotel we did a brief walk about through the local bazaar, and went and had lunch on a raft floating on the Nile the food, atmosphere, company and cold Egyptian beer made it a lunch I will remember for a long time, I remember at one point looking over the Nile as someone commented as if we are really here, I couldn't have said it better.
I could have stayed at that restaurant
On the Nile
Floating down the Nile on our way to the Nubian village. all day but alas it was time fora boat ride down the Nile to a little Nubian coffee shop where we sat in a circle and smoked shesha (tobacco from a hooka) and Nubian coffee a very flavourful coffee roasted on site and boiled over coals that I doubt I would ever be able to find anywhere in North America. While relaxing in the sun a few of us decided to climb the local sand dunes which was far more difficult than it looks in movies. I definitely have a much greater understanding of what it would be like to climb dunes of soft sand every step sinking back down the dune, the sun beating down on you we didn't even walk that far but I will certainly never look at any desert scene in a movie the same again.
Boating down the Nile to our next destination we discovered the captain was selling 500ml Stella beer for 15 EGP (2.50 CDN), and were able to sit on the boat during the sunset enjoying the Stella. Finally we were invited to have dinner with a local Nubian family after a walk through their village. It is amazing to see
Coffee
Nubian Coffee and Sheesha. Hoda is on the right with her hair covered. how people with so little are so eager to share, the dinner was fantastic starting from the lentil soup, to the okra and everything in between. The children and family in the Nubian village were definitely a highlight of the day, the children were so happy and really enjoyed getting their picture taken.
Day 4 – Ramses Temple
On our fourth day we had to wake up at 3:30am to take the three hour bus ride to Abu Simbel, this was one of our optional activities on the tour but the chance to see Ramses the third's temple was worth it. In the 1960's the temple had been moved with the help of the US government because a new dam was going to make the original location of the temple a lake. The temple itself had lots of incredible hieroglyphs of Ramses slaying his enemies and Hathor blessing his wives. There were also some markings of Anubis that I recognized on the walls. When leaving the temple Hoda came back to the tour bus with two freshly made felafel sandwiches for each of us and they were amazing, not sure how I would have made it
Sand Dunes
Adrian running down the sand dune we climbed the three hour buss ride back without them.
Once we got back from the 3 hours bus ride back some people went to the Nubian museum while we went shopping and picked up a few things in the local market. Walking through the market with 3 young woman caught the attention of shop keepers as I was asked very frequently how many camels for one of my wives. You find walking around in the these markets the methods the shop keeps use to attract tourists can get repetitive very fast, for example they would ask where you are from and when you say Canada almost every single person would say “ahhh Canada Dry”. We finally figured out it was due to the fact that all the Pepsi bottles say Canada dry in fine print on them. It was so refreshing when a single shop keep said “Tim Hortons” when he found out we were from Canada that we decided to shop in his store and probably made his day.
We had some more free time after shopping so we decided to check out the duty free shop and buy some vodka for the boat the next day. While
Dinner
Dinner in the Nubian village, it was amazing. walking to the duty free shop one of the shop keepers fixated on Amy, and would walk with us down the street multiple times over the afternoon trying to convince her to come back to see him later. While out and about we were hungry and stopped at KFC on the Nile for a little taste of home before we went out for dinner with the main group at one of the local restaurants.
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