Egypt: Aswan to Edfu

Day 5 (March 13, 2007): This morning why not join our fantastic optional excursion to Abu Simbel - the most complete example of ancient Egyptian architecture. Built by Pharoah Ramses II more then 3,000 years ago, the temples were moved over a period of years to their new site safely above the waters of Lake Nasser. After lunch, we cruise to Kom Ombo to view this unique temple, shared by two gods. Continuing, we reach Edfu, where we spend the night on-board. (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner included)

This morning our wake up call was at 4:30, we had to leave at 5:00 for Abu Simbel. Sherif arraigned for box breakfast for us, it consisted of a couple types of bread, some with cheese, a banana, cucumber and a drink. Our flight to Abu Simbel was at 6:30 and was supposed to take a half hour but we didn’t land until 7:20. I had a little trouble with security (as did bunch of other people), they didn't seem to care about the bottles of water I had, but they picked up on the hand sanitizer I had. It took me a minute to figure out the issue and then they didn't understand hand sanitizer. Finally I just said hand cleaner and I was set. On our flight we got drink service, they flew down the aisle giving us juice boxes and then collecting them just as fast – I guess you have to be quick when you only have half an hour. When we got to Abu Simbel we had to take a bus from the plane to the terminal, which was about 20 feet away. Apparently there is a rule that you can’t walk on the tarmac; however, it would be much faster if they let you. They were so strict that you couldn’t even walk to the bus that was waiting behind the bus that was loading.

When we arrived at the entrance we went through metal detectors and Sherif walked us to a shady spot and told us a little about Abu Simbel. There are two temples: one is for Ramses II the other for Nefertari. Ancient Egyptians thought quite highly of there Pharoses, Ramses II even more so. Not only is he considered one of the best Pharoses, he also lived twice as long as the average Egyptian - into his 90’s. I’m sure his portrayal of himself in temples didn’t hurt either. One of his wives, he had many, was Nefertari.

The Small Temple was built to Hathor (a goddess) and Nefertari, the Great Temple was dedicated to Ramses and 3 gods: Amun Ra, Ra Harakhti, and Ptah. The temples were built into a mountain over 20 years. When the Egyptians built the High Damn the temples were at risk of being flooded and the Egyptians approached several countries for assistance in saving the temples. The Swiss and Germans proposed to move the temples by cutting it into smaller pieces and guaranteed the safety of the temple. Between 1961 and 1964 they moved the temple; they even maintained the integrity of the axis of the temple. The temple was designed on an axis so that on February 20 and October 20 the sun would shine into the back of the temple and illuminate 3 of the 4 figures on the back wall (Ramses, Amun Ra, and Ra Harakhti), the 4th figure, Ptah, would not be illuminated because he represented darkness. The other thing of note about this temple is that is was intended to greet “visitors” from the South, the 4 Ramses II in the front were intentionally HUGE to scare away any would be invaders.

First we went inside Nefertari’s temple, which was quite amazing; the engravings in the wall were pretty cool and showed scenes from Egypt. Ramses II’s temple was even more amazing with a lot of little rooms and scenes from wars and showing Ramses II’s victories. Sherif was not allowed to guide us inside, but had told us a few things to look for inside so while some things were just cool pictures, other things had a lot of meaning. We were not allowed to take photos inside, though I managed to sneak a few little videos with my camera.

At 9:40 we met by the exit/entrance and even though I had my little videos I still bought the professional photos they were selling. Our flight was at 10:30 from the airport and we were back at the ship with time to get Tara's ATM card back.

Tara, Ed and I went straight to the bank since we only had an hour until the ship was leaving Aswan. The guy at the bank was giving Tara a bit of a hard time. First he didn’t think he could do it within the hour and made it sound really hard and complicated. Then he started with needing a copy of her passport (she had her passport, but not a photocopy on her). So we had to go across the street to get a photocopy, which was fun since they were doing construction and there was a bit of ditch in the middle of the road. Then when we got back he had her right down her info and sign for it. Then he takes the card out of the ATM machine and realizes he needs to photocopy that. But now he wanted to count a stack (over an inch tall) of money first. Ummm, hello, our boat is leaving soon! So Tara talked him into doing the photocopy first. The whole process should have taken 5 or 10 minutes, but he managed to drag out it, it was like he was punishing us for HIS ATM eating Tara’s card. After that we tried a different ATM but Tara wasn’t able to get money out of that one either. We were back at the ship with plenty of time to spare.

After that we hung out on deck until it was time for lunch at 1:30, which was just enough time for me to get a bit of sunburn on my shoulders. After lunch it was time for a nap! Tara had fallen in love with the beds on the ship, they were comfy and the bedspread was even better. I slept until 3:20 and we had a stop in Kom Ombo at 4:00.

We were the first group inside Kom Ombo Temple, which allowed us to get some really good pictures. By the time we left there were people everywhere. This temple was built for the crocodile. Ancient Egyptians were afraid of the crocodile and people could come to this temple to make sacrifices to the crocodile. The Temple was built in two different stages, the first phase around 180 BC by the Egyptians and the second phase around 30 BC. The later stage has a Greek influence in the Temple. The front façade of the temple is missing; apparently it fell into the Nile. Despite the lack of façade and the fact that the roof is missing in places, I thought it was in pretty good shape, it’s probably in better shape then any of the building we’re building now will be in 2000 years. The last thing that Sherif showed us was a room with mummified crocodiles, they’re just as pretty as mummified people, I took an obligatory picture and left. After that I walked back to the ship with Tim through the market. I noticed a lot of belly dancing outfits that were nicer (and less revealing) then the one I had bought. Other then that I wasn’t too interested in anything I was seeing. Besides, every shop you walked by, the guys (there aren’t any women selling stuff in the markets) were hounding you to buy their stuff. It made it a bit intimidating to even look at there stuff for fear that they would try to suck you into something you didn’t want. They might sell a lot more stuff if they didn’t hound everyone who walked by. I’ve never been a fan of high pressure sales techniques; it only makes me think they are trying to sell me crap before I realize it is crap. Needless to say, I probably didn’t spend nearly as much as I could have in Egypt because of this. It’s a shame; I’m usually a sucker for cheesy souvenirs.

After that I went out on deck and worked on my journal. On my past Contiki trips I would use time on the bus to write in my journal, but we spent so little time on busses that I found I had to make time to write in my journal. Anyway, I worked on my journal until dinner, which happened to be around the time when it got cold outside. It was really nice during the day this time of year, but at night it got fairly cold. While I was downstairs waiting for dinner to start I noticed Tara going to the gift shop. She had tried on the top of her belly dancing outfit and it simply didn’t fit her right and she went to buy a scarf to use in place of it.

After dinner it was time to get ready for the Egyptian Party. I pulled out my belly dancing outfit and went into shock when I realized that most of it was see through. Tara suggested I just wear my bathing suit bottom and bra underneath it, which is a look that I hate, but at this point was my only option and it was all for fun anyway.

Everyone from our group dressed up and even a lot of the Germans (the other tour groups on our ship were older Germans) were dressed up. One thing that Sherif didn’t mention to us was that we basically were the entertainment for the party. There was a lot of dancing with the staff to start. Had I known how the night was going to go, I would have had a drink before coming to the party. It took me a little while to warm up to the party, but once I was forced to do some dancing and the guys played Egyptian soccer I was starting to get into it. Even some of the Germans got up and danced by the end of the night. At 11:30 the music was shut off and we headed up to our room. Apparently the plan was to go up to the pool, I resisted for a minute or two and then finally relented and went up with everyone else, except I didn’t bother with my bathing suit. Jenna, Ed and Reid all went in the pool and as I already knew, it was freezing cold. Tara was sorda pushed in the pool too. I ended up talking to some German guy; I don’t remember what was said, though it wasn't much since he didn’t speak much English and I don’t speak much German. I did try to say to him (with the German my sister taught me when I was like 8 years old), “my name is Crissy,” he laughed at me, so god only knows what I really said. After that Tara was frozen and I was ready to go to sleep so we went back to the room.

Egypt: Aswan

Day 4 (March 12, 2007): Arriving in Aswan mid-morning we view the unfinished obelisk and visit the High Dam. We sail on a felucca to the Botanical Gardens before joining our cruise ship for a sumptuous lunch. (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner included).


I woke up around 6am and heard Tim talking, I was never able to get back to sleep so I worked on my journal and enjoyed the scenery a bit. At 7:30 we got our wake up knock and then a few minutes later breakfast was served, a variety of unimpressive breads, it was a good morning for snacks. Tara and I managed to get ready in our cabin with both beds open. Overall the overnight train experience wasn’t too bad. The bathroom, while not great, was ok and the rooms were about what I expected. Jacqui has traveled on overnight trains in Turkey and Russia; she rated Egypt as worse then Turkey but better then Russia. After getting ready we hung out in the hallway and watched the little villages go by. Rumor has it that someone drank too much last night and got sick in the bathroom, unfortunately the guy assigned to our car had to clean it, which explains why he wasn't too happy this morning. A lot of the land was lush and green for farming and there were a lot of mud brick houses. Apparently, the mud brick keeps the houses cooler in the summer, so while they may not be pretty they probably make daily life tolerable, especially since many of them looked like they had been built before air conditioners, not that I happened to have noticed any air conditioners in the houses. Anyway, many didn’t seem to have roofs, or if they did they were made of palms or something like that. I guess if it doesn’t rain you require a lot less out of your roof then we do at home.

We pulled into Aswan at 9:45 and were taken to a bus that we would use for a tour of the city. Sherif told us a little about Aswan: since it’s in the South it is used as a winter resort area and it’s an industrial city. I thought it was a nicer city then Cairo and had some pretty landscaping around the city.

On our way to the Aswan High Dam we passed the Aswan Low Dam which was built by the English between 1899 and 1902. I think that was the first time I realized how much the English had colonized around the world and I have the distinct feeling the Egyptians liked it as much as the Americans did – don’t the English know when to take a hint??? The Low Dam didn’t really cut it for the Egyptians so in the 1950’s they started work on the High Dam just a few miles up the road, which was our next stop. Most people on the tour weren’t really excited by this, but I found it interesting enough to be worth the stop. Perhaps it is because I had seen the Hoover Dam a few years ago, and this one was quite different, shorter and more sprawling. On our way out of the Dam complex we stopped at the Soviet-Egyptian friendship monument (the lotus flower tower) and this was, at least for the guys, a highlight of the trip. Inside the monument was packed with teenage girls (Sherif says they are on school trips and many are from little villages where they don’t see tourists) and they just LOVED us. They were all crowding around the guys to take pictures, like they were movie starts. I was hanging back just
watching it all go on when I was “swarmed” by a bunch of girls, they immediately started asking me questions about where I was from?, where I had been?, did I like Egypt? And then they wanted to take pictures with me, it was really sweet, but overwhelming at the same time.

Our next stop was a stone quarry where we saw what was to be the largest obelisk, except that it was broken in 3 pieces and had to be abandoned. It’s really big but it’s hard to picture it as an obelisk since it’s lying down. It was pretty this day, probably the low 90’s, which was stunting my imagination. Near the exit from the quarry there was a market that you had to walk through and it was a little intimidating. The guys were yelling out to everyone to try to get them to buy thier stuff. Fortunately we were walking out at the same time as an older group (who were apparently from Austria) so they took the brunt of the attention. I guess we looked like poor young people The last shop in the market sold books about Egypt that Sherif recommended as the best book about Egypt. At this shop I found a puzzle for my nephew Lucas (who likes puzzles) and a book for my nephew Max so this was a fruitful stop. What I didn't realize was that pretty much every tourist attraction here is setup this way - with the market by the exit (which is sometimes also the entrance) so that you basically can't hide from them. After that we finally got to go to our Nile cruise ship.

Our cruise ship, Nile Sapphire, was a bit like a hotel. The rooms were designed like hotel rooms instead of traditional cruise ship staterooms. There was a lobby, bar, gift shop and restaurant. On the top deck was a pool and lounge chairs. The staff was very excited to have Contiki onboard. After we boarded we had a few minutes to drop our stuff in our rooms and go to eat lunch. Meals are served buffet style and offer a wide variety of food.

After eating lunch I decided to go into Aswan to use the internet. I went with Jason, Chi and Gary. The first place we tried was closed (apparently siesta isn’t only for the Spanish) so we tried some other random place, a few minutes after we got there Adam showed up. The internet was really slow here and we complained so the guy took us to another place. First he tried the first place we had tried, which was still closed, so he took us through some dirt alleys to another place, I was a little nervous on the walk over, but this place was cheaper and the internet worked. After 30 minutes we left and went back to the boat. Back at the boat I went out on deck for a few minutes where Adam and Tim talked me into changing and going for a swim, when I got back upstairs only Tim was around and the water was really cold, actually more like frigid. Adam apparently decided to take a nap. I decided it was time for a shower, I took a really long relaxing shower, one of the best in my life.

At 3:30 we met for our Felucca ride. It was so relaxing, we just sat and talked (Sherif did most of the talking) and sailed along the Nile. Sherif tried to convince us that the Nile is clean here, no one believed him so he had the Captain get a glass and filled it with water from the Nile. I have to admit that it looked clear. But I drew the line when Sherif suggested someone drink it. We all said we would drink it if he did, but then he was claiming his body wasn't used to the water, excuses!!! But the Captain drank the water and seemed fine after. Brave man! Anyway, Aswan looked even nicer from this view. Eventually we stopped at what is best described as a little café by the desert, here we were able to walk up a dune in the Sahara. The walk was a little tougher then it looked, but worth it for the great view of the city. Adam decided it would be fun to go sand surfing, only he didn’t have a board. Instead he found some cardboard and wanted to try that. So about half way up he tried and basically did a header into the sand. After coming down off the dune Sherif bought us drinks and had a baby crocodile and turtle brought to us. Since I’m not much of a fan of animals and have seen crocodiles and turtles I didn’t really jump on the opportunity, though they were really cute.

After that we sailed back to Aswan and were dropped off by our ship and had some free time before dinner. A few people went to use the internet but I went with Tara, Ed and Jason (SLC) to try and get money from the ATM. Tara had previously been unable to get money and wasn’t really sure why, when she wasn’t able to get it again Reid suggested checking her account on the internet. When she did she was locked out, apparently her account was totally locked by her bank. She got the phone number for the bank and bought a phone card. The 4 of us went to a phone booth and after a couple tries figured out how to get the card to work, but she couldn’t get the bank on the phone with the number she had gotten. Then we were trying to figure out the phone numbers on the back of the ATM card, at which point an Egyptian boy came to help us, too bad he was telling us what we already knew and wouldn’t take the hint. I guess 4 Americans in a phone booth on the side of the road for an extended period of time screamed “tourists who don’t know what they are doing.” Eventually we gave up and tried using Ed’s cell phone, but after trying a couple different ways that didn’t work. So then she tried my cell phone (which is $3 a minute) and finally got through to the bank. Apparently there was a fraud alert on her card and they deactivated the card, it might have been nice if the bank had mentioned that when she was at the bank on Friday to tell them she was going to Egypt. After 20 minutes she finally convinced them that she was starving in Egypt and needed money and got them to reactivate her card with a $200 a day limit. It had gotten late and it was almost time for dinner so we went back to the boat.

Back at the ship we had a few minutes before dinner so Tara, Tim and I looked around in the gift shop, the guy dressed the 3 of us up in an attempt to sell us stuff for the Egyptian Party the following night. Tim bought his outfit, but Tara and I had something different in mind.

After dinner Sherif took us to the market and showed us where to go. Then Tara, Ed and I went back to an ATM so she could get money, the ATM ate her card. Yup, sucked it in and wouldn’t give it back! Fortunately there was a guy inside the bank, but he couldn’t give her back the card, he told her to come back the next morning when the bank was open. Very handy since we were leaving for Abu Simbel at 5am and were sailing out of Aswan in the afternoon. Tara took the news like a trooper and we went shopping. Almost immediately Tara saw a belly dancing outfit that she liked and bargained the guy down to 200 LE. However, she didn’t have much cash and wanted to pay with a credit card and ended up having to pay an extra 20 LE to use the credit card. Then when we went back to the shop the top didn’t fit her right (no matter how hard the guy tried to insist that it would fit when she didn’t have clothes underneath), he gave her a different outfit, I thought the bottom was nicer, but the top wasn’t nearly as nice and was actually kinda goofy looking. The market is a little intense with everyone trying to sell you crap from both sides. In one shop I saw something, but when I looked closer it wasn’t really what I wanted. I found something else at another shop that I kinda liked, but then found a second one I liked better. I tried it on and the bartering began. The guy was putting a Cleopatra hat on me and trying to sell me that and wanted 350 LE. I managed to get him down to 200 LE without the Cleopatra hat thingy, but I had heartburn and was in a sweat by the time I left. It was much more stressful then I thought it would be to bargain and I probably wasn’t thinking totally clearly, I was hearing prices in the hundreds and it sounds like so much but 200 LE is only about $35 (350 LE is $61). In hindsight 200 LE was really low and according to bargaining etiquette you’re supposed to find a price that both people are happy with so 250 LE to 300 LE was probably what I should have paid. The American bargain hunter in me is proud the worldly side of me I thinks I went to far. Either way, I was the proud owner of a belly dancing outfit. After buying that the guy kept trying to get me to buy the Cleopatra hat thingy and I just wasn’t having it, he was trying every ploy I had heard they would use. Telling you 5, but meaning $5, not pounds. I was too freaked out by how much I thought I had just spent (and really had no idea how much I had spent) to think clearly and all but ran out of the shop. The guy followed for almost a block trying to sell the dopy thing to me but I just ignored him. Next time I would have to have a better idea of what I should/wanted to be paying before I even started.

Back at the ship we ran into Sherif and told him about Tara's ATM card and we were told by one of the staff members that the ATM's get hungry at night, gee thanks! Sherif said we should go right over when we get back from Abu Simbel. We went up to the top deck of the ship after to see if anyone else from tour had gotten back yet, but it was just the 3 of us, but slowly people started to come up. Jason (SLC) was the first person to come up, a bunch of other people were still out at the market looking for Karen. Karen had told people she was going to go with Jason, except Jason didn't know and never saw her. Shortly after they found Karen safe and sound and a bunch of people hung out on deck. Tara and I went to our room around 11:00 since tomorrow would be an early day.