Abu Simbel

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Friday July 14, 2006 - Got up late today and packed up and checked out. I still am carrying around three bags - my backpack, my daypack, and the bag I bought to carry snacks in for the airport stint but now has some souveneirs. Put this all in storage and then went out for a bit. Came back and met Roger for lunch. He had a new friend - Declan, from N. Ireland. The three of us got some lunch at Felfela and then decided to see some more of Cairo. Got a taxi to take us to Khan al Kahlili, the big market place near Islamic Cairo. Here felt like real Egypt -all the random shops and markets you'd expect down winding alleyways. Here we ran into the Canadians. After walking around here for a bit, we all went to the nearby City of the Dead, where people essentially live in a cemetery. But it was different and much bigger than we had anticipated. Not to mention we barely saw any of what they were talking about - where was the cemetery part? Saw some mosques and climbed up some spires for views of the city - and through the smog, the pyramids - and then we headed to the citadel and a huge mosque but it was Friday and therefore already closed. It had taken forever to get there in a cab with another driver who didn't speak English. And then back to the downtown the same way. Amazing. It was funny sitting behind Declan though - he was very nervous in the cab, ducking his head this way and that to avoid being hit by another car.

We met the Canadians for dinner and then Roger and I had to run off to the train station, literally. Got the metro there and got on our train with little time to spare. It was an airconditioned overnight train, and we were in a compartment for 6, though they were only seats, no beds. We shared it with two loud obnoxiuos English girls and two quiet Asians. It was a long night and not very easy to get any sleep. They played pranks on the weird attendant on the train that I found distasteful, but what could I do? Uncomfortable.

Saturday - We finally arrived in Aswan and Roger and I followed this guy to his hotel. We got an air-con room with bath for about $3.50/night, total. Not bad at all. Spent the afternoon walking by the Nile where we kept getting asked if we wanted to take a felucca ride. A felucca is a traditional Nile sailing boat, used more for tourists now that anyone else. It was a never ending proposition - when one guy ended another began asking. We walked over to the Old Cataract Hotel to check it out - another hotel boasting Agatha Christie wrote here. Hit the internet and got an early sleep.

Sunday - Today is my nephew Cristian's birthday as well as my good friend Sean - Happy Birthday Boys! To celebrate I went to Abu Simbel. This required getting up at 3:00am, leaving in a convoy at 3:30am, and driving until we nearly hit the Sudan border. It was in this minivan that I met Ilan, a South African who had been in Israel for some time, after having lived there last year. We got along well and chatted the rest of the day. I also met Andreas, a doctor from Austria who would be traveling for the next three months from Egypt down to Tanzania. We also got along well. Egypt has been a wonderful place for meeting new friends.

Abu Simbel is a temple of Ramses II and a nearby temple of his wife Nefartari. Both temples sit on the Nile and had to be moved to higer ground by UNESCO to prevent them from being engulfed by the Nile after the Aswan Dam and then the High Dam were built. They are fabulous structures and really amazing to see. Even more so considering they were taken apart and moved and put back together. His temple has four enormous statues out front and is beautiful outside and in. This was the first thing in Egypt I saw that really made me excited to be here and seeing the history of the place. You can feel the Indiana Jones aspect of discovering it for yourself.

After leaving Abu Simbel, we drove back to Aswan with a few other stops along the way, including the High Dam (dull), the unfinished obelisk (not worth seeing), and the Temple of Philae (much better).

Back in Aswan, we said good-bye to Ilan as he was leaving for the train and had dinner with Andreas. Then we ran into Ilan again - the train had sold out so he had a couple of hours until the next one. We put his pack in our room and headed for a stroll down the Nile. Even ended up sneaking onto one of the MANY cruise ships docked along the Nile. Even saw some poo float by in the Nile - interesting. Sat near their pool for a bit and then Ilan got some dinner before we said good-bye again. Afterwards I walked around town with Andreas for an hour or so, and then called it a night.

Monday - Roger and I met Andreas early in the morning to take a felucca ride to some of the nearby islands. We only went onto one, and then our two hours were up. Andreas and I got off nearby and went to the Nubian Museum and Roger went to the Sudan embassy to get a visa. The museum was great - really beautiful and well put together. Take a lesson Cairo. Then we met Roger for lunch. First Andreas went to buy his train ticket for that night, which took an hour, Lord have Mercy. Meanwhile I put his bags in my room while my chivalrous campanion Roger waited in the shade outside. We had some lunch and then headed to the internet cafe before just going back to the air-con room and relaxing until Andreas' train left.

Tuesday - Today we had planned to leave on a felucca ride for two days and two nights to Kom Ombo, a temple from which we would take a minivan to Luxor. Well, eventually our hotel guy told us that the others had canceled and if we still wanted to go we could pay more, lots more, for our own felucca, or we could wait until tomorrow. We eventually talked him into not much more - and it was the same cost we had already paid without transport from Kom Ombo included. He said it would be easy to get to Luxor from there. So we got on the felucca and waited for two hours or so until we left and then sailed 30 min before stopping for lunch. And the wind. Lunch was goo dbut became quickly disturbing when I realized all of our dished and cups were being washed in the Nile. The same Nile that had poo floating in it! But what could I do now? So I ate. So we stopped from 2pm - 5pm and then carried on again until 7pm or so, when we stopped for the night. Met some Australians on the felucca next to ours and spent some time talking to them. They were too loud and young and opinionated for me so at dinner I went back to our boat while Roger took his dinner over to theirs. Tried to get some early sleep but awoke to a poor rendition of Build me up Buttercup. Not good sleep after that.

Wednesday - Today we sailed for about 30 min after breakfast and then stopped for hours. We even went into our felucca driver's house for tea while we waited for the wind. Then we sailed another hour or two before stopping for lunch at 2pm. And we stayed in that spot all night. When I signed up for this tide I assumed we would actually be sailing - this was getting ridiculous. But today at least we were parked next to a boat full of nicer and more fun Australians, so we hung out with them a bit. That was much better. The worst part was that the place where we stopped is where they always stop, and all the bushed are filled with toilet paper and more unpleasant things, making a toilet break unfortunate. After it was dark I went to the toilet with three of the girls and we just went out of sight from the boats, not even to a dirsty bush. Interesting days.

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