Blogs from Aswan, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 11

Another long, but exciting day! Up at 6:00 a.m., dragging ourselves to the lobby to check out. Forget breakfast!! It was either sleep more and eat less, or visa versa, and we’re not 20 any more!!! We needed our sleep!!! Our guide and driver were waiting for us. We were running a few minutes late, but the drive back to Cairo wasn’t as bad as yesterday (was it just yesterday?). Today was some type of holiday, and the highways were relatively chaos free. However, as our driver pulled up to the airport (brand new as of five months ago), we were met with a VERY long line of cars edging their way up to the departure gates. Our guide came up with Plan B … and we swerved over to the arrival gates and went through ... read more

Arrived into town at about 9.30am on the train, didn't get much sleep last night, mainly because egyptian train drivers don't know how to brake properly.Got a pick-up from the station to a hotel just around the corner, now I have a day to waste in Aswan. The tour organiser told me to go sleep, so I went done the road to a large 'hassle-free' market, saw far too may pasty white faces for my liking, so didn't stay long.I am beginning to think that due to the wealth of amazing historical monuments in Egypt the egyptians are undermining their other great assets of hospitality and character in order to push as many tourists through the walking ATM treatment that they can. And they truth is there is no way to avoid it, except to try ... read more

Confusing?? I’ll Explain… Egyptian History 101 Egypt’s Pharaonic history dates over 3500 years and is split into three kingdoms, Old, Middle , and New Kingdoms. During this time and even until today, Egypt itself is separated into five regions. Upper Egypt where the Nile river flows from, Lower Egypt including Cairo, Alexandria and the Nile Delta, The Western Desert from the Nile River West, The Eastern Desert from the Nile River East (obviously) of which both are populated by the Bedouin Nomads, and Sinai Peninsula which is part of the Asian continent and not part of Africa. Hence South being Upper Egypt and North being Lower. These two areas were where the great civilisations of Ancient Egypt were concentrated, along the fertile banks of the Nile. This river not only provided sustenance for the people and ... read more

I left Hannah looking very red and flustered at the gangplank of the ship. All we wanted to do was board the bloody thing and find somewhere to sit down, just anywhere to collapse in the blistering sun, waiting to set sail for Sudan. Instead, the policeman guarding the door insisted that the 6 hours that I had been running around collecting paperwork from various offices just wasn’t enough - I had one last piece that I needed to complete the collection. Hannah was wilting, but I had no choice but to leave her looking after our luggage while I went back to collect the ‘tasjil,’ which apparently was another essential form which nobody tells you about until after you need it. It took the best part of half hour to wait in an Egyptian non-queue ... read more

We got up early to head for the new dam and Lake Nasser. The "old" dam was built by Sir W. Wilcock on behalf of the British authorities in 1898. It was constructed from granite quarried in the Aswan area and the official opening took place in 1902. Mayer told us how the United States refused to help Egypt with money or construction of the dam in the 60's, but Russia jumped at the chance. Of course they could not give them money, but they helped engineer the dam. There was a beautiful lotus monument to show Egypt's appreciation to Russia. We also learned that since the dam was built the crocodiles stay in Lake Nasser instead of the Nile. We were not lucky enough to see any during our visit. Lake Nasser is the world's ... read more