Aswan and Return Up the Nile
Sightseeing
Friday, January 4, 2008
The Nile from the hotel terrace.
This morning we got to sleep in until 7:30 a.m. Part of the
group got up at 2:30 a.m. to take a 6-hour trip to and from Abu Simbel Temple.
This temple had to be relocated after the Aswan Dam was built. Julia had
been there once before, and I was not interested in getting up at 2:30, so we
opted out. Instead, Julia, I, and a few others from our group took a taxi to one of the posh
hotels here in Aswan. We had some more bad coffee, but we enjoyed spectacular
views of the Nile from the hotel terrace.
A felucca with water and sand.
After this, Julia and I stayed in the hotel lobby to use
their free wireless internet. As it turned out, my bank had shut down my
access to online banking, likely because I was trying to access the
account from an Egyptian IP address. I used Skype to call them and get
it turned back on. Thank heavens for Skype, as I was on the line with the
bank for an hour, which would have cost me a fortune if I had made the call
via a regular telephone connection. The lesson here is: when traveling in
eastern countries, call your bank before you start your trip.
After this, Julia and I walked through Aswan, found an
ATM, a pharmacy, and had lunch. We were really starting to tire of the
food on our boat, so lunch in an unknown Egyptian restaurant seemed worth the
risk; unfortunately, this food was not much better than the ship's. After returning to the ship, we
joined the group to sail the Nile on a felucca, the typical sailboat used on the Nile. The weather was very pleasant, making our trip
wonderful.
The felucca dropped us off at Kitchener Island, which is a
botanical garden and one of the most beautiful spots on the Nile, in my opinion. We
walked the park observing birds and enjoying the fresh Nile air.
From the island, we took the felucca once again to sail
the Nile a bit more until our motorboat pulled alongside, allowing us to
transfer mid-river. The motorboat took us further upstream to a Nubian village where we were
scheduled to join a Nubian family in their home to have tea and dinner with
them.
Me at the Nubian village.
The Nubian village has been the most rewarding experience of the whole trip for me.
The Nubians live very modestly, in a medieval style, but
they welcomed us and seemed very happy with their lives. We learned some
Nubian history in broken English from our Nubian guide. We ate dinner; some
people had henna tattoos, which they assured us would wear off in several
weeks. We bought some of their crafts and then left on our boat to
return to our ship. Wonderful!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Here we are on our mounts.
We rose at 6:30 a.m. this morning to take a short boat ride across the Nile to
join our camel ride to the Saint Simeon monastery. This is one of the oldest
known Christian monasteries and reflects a time when Christianity was an
influential religion in Egypt. Riding camels is fun except when they go
downhill. Then you have to lean back hard, and things can tend to get
squashed if you are not careful.
Julia and the monastery.
From Julia: Camels are smelly, dusty, and make the
strangest gurgling sounds from time to time (David says it reminds him of
*Star Wars* episode 3 *Return of the Jedi* on the Ice Planet). I was very glad
that the price of the ride included a saddle and camel boy. David was a
natural-born rider and took off for a run with his. On the other hand, I
paid off my camel boy with a large baksheesh to stay in control of the
beast.
The Philae Temple.
We returned to our boat on the Nile via our trusty camels
and headed to Philae Temple on the island of Aglika. The temple had to be
moved from its original island after the building of the Aswan Dam, which
was a mammoth task, as the temple is enormous.
From Julia: Since being in Aswan we've seen so many
varieties of birdlife, we wish we had a bird expert with us to tell us what
they all are. We've seen so many herons and egrets that we are almost blasé
about seeing them, along with lots of other strange waders and long-legged,
brightly colored birds. At Philae Temple we saw a group of several hawks
circle over our heads. We couldn't identify their type, but they were very
beautiful and graceful as they soared around the rocks.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
An egret.
As my American friends would say, "there is no free lunch." In some sense,
this was true for Julia and me on our return up the Nile from our
magnificent experiences with ancient Egyptian treasures. In this case, it was
not lunch but dinner that cost us dearly.
After our dinner on Saturday night, and might I add the
last meal we ever ate on the boat, we both became terribly ill with vomiting
and explosive diarrhea. Before we left England for Egypt, my English friends,
who had been to Egypt, all explained to me the perils of what they
referred to as "gippy belly." What a quaint name, I thought, as I listened
politely to their stories of woe. Well, after 36 hours of hell on earth,
their stories no longer seem so quaint. In fact, we were both so sick that I
have nothing to report since Saturday evening except pain and suffering,
of which I am sure you do not need mine to add to yours, so I will not bore
you with the details. Let me just say if I were to ever return to Egypt, I
would bring my own bag full of dehydrated food and not eat any food prepared
for me by an Egyptian.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Praise be to Allah, we were finally well enough, able, and
believe me, willing to leave the tour boat behind us. We staggered down the
gangplank, falling into a cab in Luxor, to collapse at the Luxor airport as
we waited for our flight to Cairo and on to Sharm El Sheikh. Yes, we are
still in Egypt, but now we are in, as Julia put it, the "Vegas part" of Egypt,
staying in a five-star resort for 7 days with nothing but SCUBA diving, sunbathing,
and resting before us. The big question is "can we trust the food at
the resort?" Who knows, but I do wonder just how long one could live on cough
lozenges?
From Julia: It feels as though I am in a dream—it's so
gorgeous here, especially after our suffering!
Kitchener Island Video
Nubian Village Video
Saint Simeon Video