I bought a bottle of Ouzo, as I wanted to try it, reading about it from a travelogue written by someone who went to Egypt. Elizabeth bought the bottle for me as I didn't have my passport with me. When the dealer looked at the passport, he said that she is 21 (years old). She said no she is 19. They said that the drinking age in Egypt is 21. I realizing what the man was saying, nudged Elizabeth and said to her, yes you are 21. She got it then and agreed. We paid, received the liquor and left.
Further down the street we met Marty and Natalie, another couple from the group. We joked that every 30 seconds some Egyptian would ask us to buy some liquor, just then another Egyptian approached us and said 37. We found that extremely funny, the Egyptian didn't know what we were laughing about. We asked the Egyptian if it was illegal for a tourist to buy for a native, the Egyptian saying no, but we decided to ask Sameh later. Sameh did say that it was not illegal but it was up to the people if they wanted to.
Before dinner the photographer came with photos. For 3 LE we each got a small (5 x 3.5) photo which was crooked. Several other of the group also said that they noticed that he was holding the camera crooked. One can correct it on printing though he did not. We were not impressed.
After dinner I went to pick up the gold cartouche. The next door storekeeper tried to sell me some papyruses. I said I already bought one, he then offered to sell me 3, no 4 for 20 LE. I refused and went back to our campsite. We talked and drank until 11pm. I had bought some Ouzo, so I tried it. It was OK.
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Sunday, May 17
Luxor to Aswan
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We got up at 5:45am. Last night there was music playing until about 2am. At 4am the mosque nearby started to play Arabic hymns for the usual 20 minutes. Following this a rooster woke up and started to crow a lot. We had a quick breakfast of bread, cheese, and oranges. We then put the cooks equipment and tents in storage as we were not going to use them for the next few days. We managed to arrive at the police checkpoint, which was only 1 block from the campsite at 6:05am and we started down south for Aswan. Lots of the tour group suggested that when we got back to the Luxor campsite we have a rooster for dinner, the one that crowed that morning.
At about 11am we arrived at Aswan. Just before arriving Sameh asked what extra tour if any that we wanted to do this afternoon. We had a choice of Philae temple of Isis, the Aswan Dam or both. The Dam was 20 LE, the Philae temple of Isis was 30 LE. We referred to the LETS GO book which said that the Dam was not very interesting more than a few minutes so Elizabeth and I decided to go to the temple. Sameh also passed over a sheet for us to order drinks for the felucca. All meals were included but no drinks and everything must be bought ahead of time. Options were water, pop and stella. Some of us brought hard liquor, I brought my Ouzo.
Once arriving in the hotel, the 'Happi' hotel, we checked in and get a glass of cold hibiscus tea as a welcome drink. While we were drinking the tea in the lobby, the local guide who was going to show us the local sights came in. He offered us to show both the Dam and the Philae temple for 35 LE. This produced a consensus. About 10 of us decided to go, the rest either stayed at the hotel or went out to the markets or other sites, primarily Elephantine Island.
We started on the tour at about 1pm. We were delayed for an hour for some reason. We got in a mini van and drove about 10km past the 1902 British Low Dam, to the Aswan High Dam. This was built between 1960 and 1971 with help by the Soviets. The dam was immense. 3km long and close to 1km thick at the bottom. It provides 50% of the power for all of Egypt. We drove to the center of the dam, looked at both sides at the power poles, and Lake Nasser. We then drove back close to the entrance to the Egypt-Soviet friendship memorial, a huge monument about 300 ft high. Ironically the Egyptians kicked the Soviets out just when the dam was completed. The monument was in a sense more impressive then the dam because of that fact, as it had glowing friendship comments in Russian and Arabic with Nasser and Breshnev. When we were there a guard came out of a door of the monument and asked if we wanted to go to the top. We said yes, he then asked if we had military permission. We said no, then he said for 5 LE each he will take us up there to the top lookout. We debated but thought that we did not have the time either, so we declined. Interestingly the elevator in the monument was an American 'Otis'.
We then went to a place close to the British Low Dam where we got a ride on a boat to Philae. This is the Isis temple that got flooded by the construction of the British Dam and would have been completely by the High Dam. The government and UNESCO moved the temple to nearby Agilka Island and made the island look like the original.
By this time it was mid-afternoon and 40c in the shade, 50c in the sun. We spent the next 90 minutes exploring the island. Inside the rock temples it turned out to be quite cool and pleasant. The temple contained a lot of hieroglyphics for offerings to Isis, and included a sacrificial slab. There were also temples for Hathor and Trajan. There was also a Nilometer but it was covered with sand. A Nilometer measured the height of the Nile, in Pharonic times a high Nile meant that there was a large area to be flooded down the Nile which meant that more could be grown that year so the Pharaoh could tax the people more.
After taking the boat ride back to the shore to meet the mini van we visited a couple of tourist stands. I bought a roll of film since we used a lot more than I figured. One of the girls on the tour bought a small amount of herb called 'half-burr'. This was a medicinal herb, looking a bit like straw that was good for upset stomachs.
We got back to the hotel and had to wait a couple hours for the rest of the group to arrive. The hotel was nice, although it seems that most of the plumbing in Egypt leaks a bit. The air conditioner was very noisy so we had it on for just a bit. We relaxed a bit in the room looking out at the street scene.
When we first arranged the tour we were to include a drive down to Abu Simbel in the following morning as part of the package. The Egyptian government decided, since there were a lot fewer tourists, it would improve the only road to Abu Simbel. With the same logic they also closed Cheop's pyramid in Giza. As a result we could not drive down there. As a compensation the tour operator provided a tour of the new Nubian museum and a ride to a Nubian village for dinner. Those who wanted to could fly down to Abu Simbel and see Ramses temple the following morning. The extra cost was a bit over $200CA per person. About 1/3 of the group decided to go, Elizabeth and I declined, figuring that we will see enough temples and the money could be used better elseware.
While we were waiting Jade, Chara and Mark came in. They went to Elephantine Island, met a man who showed them around, invited them for tea at his home and took them to the Kitchener Island, the botanical island. That did sound as good as our dam and temple visit. We thought it might be a nice place to go the next morning which was free as we were not going to Abu Simbel.
We didn't start for the Nubian museum until 7pm as that is what time it opened after the afternoon siesta. Many places were closed here mid-afternoon due to the heat. When we got into the museum it was very cool, being air conditioned. The museum was a chronological display of the Nubian (southern Egypt) history and its involvement from pre-pharonic to present time. The displays were well done and there were a lot of description on each exhibit.
After the museum we drove to the shore of the Nile and boarded a felucca boat. This boat took us to one of the islands close the Aswan where the Nubian village was. Joining us on the boat was some Nubian drummers and dancers. They encouraged us to sing along and dance with them on the felucca. It was very crowded but we had a good time and by the time we got to the island we were in a party mood. We walked to a village hut roof, took off our shoes and sat on carpets. The nubians presented us with hot hibiscus tea and a multiple course dinner of pita, bread, rice, vegetable sauce, fried chicken and cucumber and tomato slices. The bread pieces were very good.
After the dinner the nubians came with things to sell to us. They had square hats, pot mats, and Jewelry. They also did henna tattoos for 5 LE each. Most of the group had one done, Elizabeth had one done to her ankle, but I declined as I am not much for jewelry for myself. Elizabeth asked Sameh if she could pick which group she is going with the next day as the next day we are going to split up in 3 groups and go on a 3 day Nile cruise on small felucca boats. He said that he already assigned the list. After this the group went back to the felucca. The Nubian entertainers returned with us dancing and singing, and we returned to the dock close to the hotel and we walked back to the hotel for the night.
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Monday, May 18
Aswan to Kom Ombo
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We got up at 8am and had breakfast in the hotel. The Abu Simbel group were just about to leave for the airport for the flight to Abu Simbel. Most of them we leaving by the time we arrived. The waiter was very slow arriving with our breakfast. I watched him as he brought my egg, bread and cheese. He put brought my egg on a saucer and when he got close to the table dropped it on the floor. He looked at it, picked it up, brushed it and put it back on the saucer and continued to the table. I looked at it, there was a large break on the egg. Not everyone had eaten theirs and some were still on the table after they left. I then swapped my egg with another.
We had until 1pm before we had to leave for the felucca session of the tour. We had looked at the LETS GO book and decided that a visit to the tombs of the nobles on the other side of the Nile was the most enticing. The LETS GO book recommended catching a ferry for 2 LE per person per person down by the bank of the Nile. While walking by the bank we met several felucca touts. After talking to them we decided to go via a felucca. We could get a felucca to give us a ride over to the other side, wait for us for 1.5 hours and give us a ride back for 10 LE, not much more than we would pay for the ferry.
We caught the felucca to the bank, gave him 5 LE for the one half of the ride, and then walked up to the ticket booth. Elizabeth took her camera, we paid 12 LE for me, 6 LE for her as a student and 5 LE for the camera. We went up the hill to the tombs. We met a man who was sitting down. He pointed that we should follow him. I thought that he was a self appointed tour guide who was going to charge us a lot. He instead turned out to be a guard of the tombs. He had the keys to the tombs, he took us to two of the tombs, of Sarenput II and and Nikhu and Sabni. Sarenput's tomb had a a lot of chambers. He turned on lights and showed the sacrificial slab and the bones, although it is not clear what the bones are of. Some of them don't look human. He could only speak Arabic but from gestures we could understand something. At Nikhu and Sabni's tomb he showed the drawings and chambers. We gave him 1.5 LE and said that we wanted to go to the top to look at a temple ruin at the top of the hill. He showed the direction. |
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