Dear All,
After re-reading the last blog I reminded myself why I should check what I write just in case it dosn’t make any sense in between going from my head to the paper. Apologies (:
After we finally arrived in Aswan we went for lunch and we have discovered Egyptian food is amazing! Lunch consisted of a range of breads and dips, hommus, tahini, babaganoosh etc, and salads, bean dishes, vegetable soups and a meat dish of your choice. Really good food.
In the afternoon we hopped on a boat on the Nile and heard stories from a Nubian man (These are the traditional people from south of Aswan however when the area was flooded they moved up to Aswan).
We then visited his village and had dinner with a family in their home. Their home was surrounded with a concrete wall, but only 3 rooms had a roof (bedroom, kitchen and bathroom) with concrete floors covered with sand. Dinner was lentil soups, bread, grilled chicken and salad. The village boys then came over and we had a song and dance. The kids danced with such rythem to the songs, we must have all looked like uncoordinated puppets trying to dance compared to them..was fun though.
The 3am wake up call for Abu Simbel the next day was a little rough but once we had bundled onto the bus with our pillows and packed breakfast we were off. It is a 3 hour drive to Abu Simbel and for security purposes all the buses and cars travel from Aswan together in a convey. So before we even left Aswan we joined the queue of approximately 50 coaches and mini buses (what amazed me was that the convey to Abu Simbel runs everyday!that many buses and tourists make the trip daily). It seemed all our details and numbers were recorded..just to ensure our driver didn’t dump us in the middle of the desert, and then finally we were off. Dozed off for a while and then we were there by 7.15am while it was still cool! Hooray.
Abu Simbel was built by Ramses II (I’m pretty sure, we have been bombarded with Egyptian history and I could very well be confused) and was originally 4 figures including him and his wife cut into the side of a hill, there is then a small temple inside the hill behind the figures. However when the Aswan dam was built Abu Simbel would be flooded, so they moved the entire structure up the hill in the 1960-70’s. The figures on the outside are amazing and the inside is just as impressive. There is still colour on the walls..over 3000 years old! At the far end of the inside of the temple is a statue of Ramses II and every year on October 22nd the temple was built so that the sun would hit his face just for that day, which was the day of his coronation. Very impressive. Apparently that was the biggest problem in moving Abu Simbel, ensuring that the sun would still hit his face on the same day…I think its actually a day later since they moved it, but still I’m impressed.
The bus ride home seemed longer as I was busting for a wee and the desert seemed to stretch on forever even though our bus driver was sitting on 130km per hour..we were overtaken several times by coaches.
By 1am we were back in Aswan and the heat was horrible, must have been over 35 and we standing in the sun waiting for a boat to take us to an Island to see Philae Temple. We organised the boat ourselves and on a group decision we picked a driver..however in retrospect we have all decided that we should have seen his boat before we decided on him. Amy stepped onto the boat and a floor plank bounced up and smacked her on the leg and then we were half way across and we all had to shimmy up the back of the boat because he was running low on petrol! A little dodgy, but we finally arrived. The temple is in the Greco-Roman style and the influences were obvious. We wandered and sweltered in the sun for an hour or so and then dan and I found a corner with a security guard who was very keen to describe the pictures to us..must have been a quiet, boring day…and then for his descriptions he asked for a tip!we tipped him 10 Egyptian pounds..around $2 aus. The tipping here is out of control, we have to tip everyone from the man if he carries our bags, to every driver and tour guide to the cheeky ones who stand just asking for tips for pointing us toward the entrance that we already know is there!
After nearly melting at Philae Temple and the early rising we were in bed early for a good nights rest…even though the next day was all about relaxing!
The next day we were on the felucca, a traditional Egyptian sail boat, for the entire day. Our bags were stored in the hull and we spent the day under a shade on a huge mattress, around 10m by 6m with pillows and a slight breeze. There was a captain and a cook. We had lunch, dinner and brekkie all cooked for us, so spent then day sailing down the Nile towards Luxor to only be interrupted by the huge noisy cruise boats pumping out black smoke behind them. Spent time playing cards, reading, napping and taking photos of the palm lined shore with huge sanddunes behind or the kids swimming in the Nile while their donkeys are watching. An all together very very relaxing day. We couldn’t sail at night so we stopped on a bank and built a toilet tent. A hole was dug and then a frame with cracked seat put on top. However the seat and hole didn’t match up very well and as one of the first to try out the toilet I ended up weeing on my own feet…eeeww. Slept on the felucca under the stars.
We were off the felucca in the morning after banana in pancakes for brekkie. Had a bus ride to Luxor, around 3 hours away and drove through several small villages were people were busy tending to crops, riding donkeys and smoking shisha. Luxor is bigger than Aswan but not as big as Cairo. We spent the afternoon at Karnak Temple, which is the largest excavated temple site in the world. Its huge site and was very impressive..but once again stinking hot so it was all very tiring. The temple was built for an Egyptian god (name escapes me at the moment) but over the years all the Egyptian Pharoes contributed to it. There are 2 obelisks at the site and there originally were 5 however, one is in Istanbul, the other Rome and the final one in Paris (Mum, we saw this one!). It seems amazing as dan and I have now seen all the obelisks from the Karnak Temple. The obelisks in Paris was traded with a tower clock that’s in Cairo that no longer works..dodgy deal. There were also 134 pillars at 14 or 25 metres high ina huge hall, it is the biggest collection of suck pillars in the world. Made me feel very small. Once again there is still coloured paints on parts of the pillars.
Once again almost melted at Karnak but this time made our way back to our hotel which has a pool! Woohoo, so watched the sun go down while I swam in the pool and chatted to the older couple Russ and Lou. It turns out Russ use to drive an overland tower from London to Kathmandu, so it was really interesting hearing all their stories, especially of places like Afghanistan and areas in Pakistan and India that are now not accessible to travellers.
Tonight were off to dinner with the group and then tomorrow is another early start as we are off to the Vallley of the Kings. The early starts are a killer but it is worth it to escape the heat.
Love lots,
dan xoxo
