Aswan

---

Today we went to the Philae Temple, the high dam, and the unfinished obelisk at Aswan after a 14+ hour train ride. Aswan is a beautiful town located right on the Nile, with feluccas sailing all around. We are very tired and very hot, even though we had a short day.

Tomorrow we wake up at 2:30 am to join a police convoy headed to Abu Simbel. Most of the transportation in southern Egypt for tourists must take place in a convoy for alleged safety reasons. On the safety note, although we have never felt unsafe, there are TONS of police in Egypt. White uniformed "tourist" police officers are everywhere - no matter where you are, you can always see several of them. They keep track of where all the tourists are at any given time using lists kept at the various historical sites. There's also black uniformed "special forces" carrying assault rifles. They are also fairly common, but not as common as the tourist police.

After Abu Simbel we check into our Nile cruise boat, where we will be for three nights. We may not have internet during that time.

---