Upon arriving to Aswan we noticed a slightly hotter temperature but were so happy to breathe clean air, we didn’t care about it. We got our ride to the Memnon hotel and were so excited to find that we had a room with a view of the Nile. The river almost looks like a painting. We walked around town and found a very persistent felucca boat (traditional Egyptian sailboat) captain following us around making us promise that if we wanted to take a felucca ride, we would go with him. As we sat by the water, Nicole and Luke pulled up on a felucca after coming back from a tour around the island off the coast of Aswan. We all had lunch and then we found Makhmoud, our felucca guy and went on a ride. The felucca is so relaxing! Its interesting cause the river flows south to North but the wind blows north to South. So going down river you have to tack the boat (zigzag across the river) but going upstream you can just sail straight.
We stopped at the Nubian village on the island and walked around. The village was pretty much just like a poor area. It’s weird to be a tourist. So after the felucca ride, we were set to go on an overnight trip. We did some haggling with Makhmoud and were set to go the next day after visiting the temple Abu Simbel.
We found Nicole and Luke and went through the market. The market in Aswan was the pushiest market we had been to. I bought some “saffron” and then found out from another guy that I had been sold fake saffron. So I went back and demanded my money back…it was kind of exhilarating actually.
The next day it was up at 245am to take the 3 hour drive to Abu Simbel. The temple was incredible. So enormous and it had to be moved when they damned the river about 30 years ago. I wish we could have taken photos inside because the paintings and carvings were incredible. My favorite was an image of a man and woman holding hands. Even with the simple lines, you could see the love between them. While there we met this guy, Martin, who has been traveling for 6 years on his motorcycle. He has been to 6 continents and 100 countries. We talked to him on the entire bus ride back. He had great stories.
Once we were on the felucca time slowed down. Makhmoud had an assistant, Amr, who cooked and cleaned on the boat. We were a little on edge throughout the ride because everything in Egypt is a little sketchy but all turned out well.
The first night, Makhmoud took us to his village. We walked through these fields to this little house of his. There was no door and lizards on the ceiling but there was cable and internet. We watched ‘Three Men and a Little Lady’ just thinking how freaking weird this was. Then had dinner which was quite good (no, none of us have had any stomach problems). After dinner all the neighborhood kids came out and we had about 8 7-13 year olds all over us. It was really fun actually. We gave them gum, wrote their names on paper, sang the ABC’s…unique experience to say the least.
Sleeping on and waking up on the felucca was the best part. It was so relaxing. The next day we sailed a bit more. We kept stopping and that’s when we realized that it was probably only one night to Kom Ombo (the town where we would disembark and transfer to the bus to Luxor) rather than the 2 we had paid for. But it was ok, we got some sailing in and had another nice night. I will never forget Makhmoud sitting on the beach with us with my mp3 player singing No Woman No Cry…haha.
We were off the boat the next day and onto Luxor where we found the Sherif Hotel (another recommendation from Nicole and Luke) was also known as the Bob Marley Hotel. It’s hilarious and pretty much the most relaxing place we have been in all of Egypt. It’s so cheap (about $4 a night each) and the people who run it are awesome. After dinner we headed up to the rooftop lounge and just relaxed. They make dinner most night and lay around on the roof smoking pot. It’s weird to see in Egypt.
Yesterday we got up early and went to the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple (aka Hatshepsut). We decided to go on our own instead of booking a tour which was nicer. We took the ferry across the river and found a taxi driver who would take us from temple to temple and wait for us for a good price…and in a Peugeot to boot!
The Valley of the Kings was first. We could go into only 3 tombs with our tickets. It was cool but hard to choose which ones to go into when you don’t know a lot of the history. We chose Ramses IV, Sety II and Thutmes IV. The tombs were beautiful. Some were very deep and plain and others more shallow and decorated. And then we paid extra to go into King Tuts tomb. That tomb is so famous because it had not been ransacked so they found all of the treasure in tact. But when you go in, you find it is a very small tomb. They had his mummy in there as well as the gold sarcophagus.
Al Deir Al Bahari Temple was really neat. I love the statues and the carvings. I had a good time playing with the pentax there…I am getting a little better with the camera.
Then onto the Valley of the Queens which is much smaller. It was still interesting but by that time we were so hot we just couldn’t care very much anymore. It was about 105 and direct sun…ug.
We were pretty much done for the day and stayed in our room until sundown when we could go to the roof. We had dinner at the hostel which was really nice and then just chilled out. Morgan and I have booked our ticket from Cairo to Berlin (we were going to go to Istanbul but there was very bad flooding). We will be there for a week and then meet G and Helen in Greece. And then onto Istanbul before Croatia.
I am excited for the culture shock of a major city and cool air.
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