Blogs from Aswan, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 21

That overnight train trip... To get to Aswan was a mission in itself. It takes an overnight train to get there. And not any overnight train, an EGYPTIAN overnight train. The selling point of the train is that the seats recline to 45°. That's it. Oh, the other advantage....there's A toilet at the end of the carriage which you really really really don't want to use. The boys checked it out and were themselves extremely relucant to use it, but when you drink lots of Egyptian vodka on a 13 hour train trip, like they did, you kinda need to use it. Now might be a good time to mention that our lovely train driver somehow managed to get us 3 HOURS BEHIND SCHEDULE. Talk about smelling the roses...meaning our bladders had to hold on another ... read more

Cruising down the Nile is a magical experience, we moored at Edfu, received a wake up call at 7ish and ducked down for a buffet breakfast. After breakfast we headed ashore to visit the well preserved Temple of Horus, considered one of the finest examples of temple construction! Later on that night we enjoyed a fancy-dress party with of course a Egyptian theme. By the end of the night we arrived at the city of Luxor, truly a beautiful city. ... read more

Memphis, Saqqara & Aswan Egypt For my last afternoon in Cairo I decided to squeeze in a visit to the ancient sites of Memphis and Saqqara located about 30 miles south of the city. Memphis was one of the great cities of the ancient world but has now all but disappeared from centuries of pillaging and floods. It’s a fairly unimpressive site with only a few significant monuments and statues of Ramses II. Nearby at Saqqara is the Step pyramid built for Zoser. The step pyramid is significant because it is Egypt’s (and the worlds) first stone monument. At most of these sites, the tourism cashiers like to double dip...they charge you to enter the grounds which you assume is the full admission, then once you park and walk up to the actual site, they charge ... read more

I got the title for this blog entry from Lawrence of Arabia. And yes, it's hot, hotter, hottest here. Today, according to the hotel thermometer by the pool is was 48 degrees Celcius. That's 118 degrees Fahrenheit. But it's an incredibly dry heat, it's so unlike any weather I have every experienced before. It's as if I were standing in front of a fire, well two fires, one behind and one in front. And when the wind blows, it blows hot air, not a cooling breeze. The hotel is of course air conditioned, and there is a pool, both of which I've taken advantage of. I don't know if there is a trick to staying cool here. I drink water as often as I breath. I wear long trousers, wear a hat with side flaps and ... read more

Arrived in Aswan after an interesting trip on the train. Apparently it was first class but the seats weren't even bolted down properly. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel and after about 4 hrs of sleep, we were up at 3.00am to board the bus to Abu Simbel. All the buses leave at the same time and escorted by police. Our tour leader said it was for organisational reasons but our tour guide said it was because terrorists operate in southern Egypt. The bus did the 300km trip in about 2hrs 40mins. Lets just say they were going quite fast and it made us reach for our seatbelts! Anyway, we made it there and back safely. Abu Simbel is two massive temples which the Egyptians moved 55 metres up and 210m back before they flooded the ... read more