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Published: April 4th 2006
Cairo Mosque
This mosque was stunningwas that; Egypt, though a very beautiful and truley stunning place, has recieved more visitors than anyother place on earth. They have long been trapping tourists, learning foreing languages and picking up weird accents to imitate.
I guess, I don't hate egypt as a whole because I have met some incredible people who have been very kind and generous and most of all they haven't asked us for anything. In aswan, place I think is the hassel capital of the world, I met 3 people in 3 days who I could have hung out with for a week. These were local men, (women generally don't speak to foreigners unless its to ask for money) and they didn't stare at me or hiss or ask how many camels it would take to buy me.
Aswan was beautiful, the Nile there made all the hassel worth while. The first day we arrived via train, we headed straight to a hotel to settle in and do laundry and get some food. After this we wandered around getting used to the sights and smells of the souq (market). The market in Aswan specializes in spices so we were hounded for hours to buy cardamom,
Cairo Mosque
This mosque was stunning ginger, peper, and all sorts of stuff. Especially Karkedeh (hibiscus tea).
The tourists flock to aswan in the hordes. We could sit on a sidwewalk cafe and watch 25 emaciated horse drawn carts filled to the brim with tourist stampede through town. It was quite the spectecal. We didn't partake because the horses looked as if they were starving and were treated poorly. All the cafes over charge for things in Aswan, they don't post the price anywhere so when we order tea or sahlab the waiter only knows enough english to bring them to us but can't answerthe questionabouthow much they cost. When its time to leave he suddenly knows howmuch they cost and the argument ensues. The average price for a tea for a foreigner is about 2 LE in some places we are charged 10 LE. Argh.
The next morning we wake late and head off to the other side of the river to visit the tombs of the nobels and the monastary.We hike up to the tombs (up a steep embankment) and visit a few really neat tombs, including some with chopped up mummies in baskets. Next we treked across the desert for about 40 minutes to the monastary, which we thought was free but found out otherwise and deicded to look at it from the outside. We tried to get the ferry to The island inthe middle of the river, Elephantine, but no ferries (probably a scam) so we took a little row boat. Our captain was a 10 year old who demanded baksheesh inthe middle of the river. Since we had already paid for the boat ride we didn't pay again.
On Elephantine island we visited the Aswan museum and saw mummies of a gazell and some children (or very small adults) and read that they remove the brain of the mummy through the nose before they wrap it up. My worst nightmares comming true.
Finally we headed back to town for the sunset and a nice relaxing bottle of water by the banks of the nile. The next morning at 3 am we woke and borded the bus to abu simbel. Abu simbel is located 20 kms or so from the Sundan border on the edge of lake nasser. They actaully moved this huge temple and attraction 50 meters to avoid the riseing lake waters. Besides being huge and magnificent the fact that they moved and reconstructed this temple was absoultly astounding.
The next day we had a felucca trip booked for 3 days and 2 nights to Edfu. The morning was spent (suposed to be spent) sailing around the island close by and visiting the botanical garden. WE did a little of this and hung out with our felucca for a few hours while we waited for more people to show up. Finally at about 2 pm we headed off down the river towards Luxor and we pull off for a while (to wait for better wind, we were told). About 1 hour later an american runs up to our boat and hops on. Apparently we were wating for him.
We sailed for another 2 hours and pulled over made dinner and went to sleep. Sleeping onthe deck of the felucca was quite nice. This is when the captain decided that one of the really pretty aussie girls was his new girlfriend. He cllimbed over one woman made her role over and sqeezed himself between her and the aussie. He then proceded to wra his legs around her and try and cuddle with her. It must have been 2 am or so, becuase I was sleeping next to Jane (aussie getting molested) and didn't wake up. In the morning we had a group meeting and decided no one was going to tip them for the boat ride and further to that we were going to tell him (one person spoek arabic) that he was most certainly going to hell for this. In Islam the local men don't even address women who are not in their family, it is considered sinful and the womens family is likely to beat that fellow to a pulp. Anyway, he told us we were his family and we told him we were not. Long story short, nothing came of it. We all took pictures of him and will post his picture on lonley planets thorn tree as a warning.
Enough about the felucca. We made it to Kom Obmo temple around sunrise and it was stunning.
We traveld via minibus to Edfu and finally to luxor inthe afternoon.
By the time we reached luxor I was miserable cramped and bitchy. And stinky.
Luxor is a messy city with lots of horns blaring. EVERYONE HONKS THEIR HORN ALL THE TIME, drives a person a bit mad. I can sleep through it no problem but it certainly raises the stress level alot.
Thats where we are now, this morning we looked at the mummification museum, and this afternoon at Karnak temple. Tomorrow we will visit valley of the kings, queens, and numerous templs before we catch the trian back to our temporary sanctuary, Cairo.
For the record, We are staying in egypt 5 days longer than we orginally planned so we could get everything in.
Pictures will come.
Sorry about the rant yesterday.
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deleted_9521
deleted_9521
Rant away my dear! I can see that you are ready to come home and at that stage, little things become irksome, let alone a fellow passenger getting raped! Maybe you all should have ganged up on him and beat him to only an inch of his life. Save enough for the driving the boat and the Pallbearers. I shall see you in a week and one day. I hope I will not keep you waiting at the airport too long. Can't wait to see you.