Day 7 - Aswan/Luxor

Mister is up and getting ready for his morning in Daraw.  He is going to the camel market there. The hotel sets out an early breakfast for him.


It's a half hour drive to Daraw, and the camel market is down narrow dirt roads. The driver and Mister chat on the way, and he is told about how people are adding their own "speed bumps" to the road. It is dangerous for drivers, but since the police are not doing anything about it (the revolution excuse) he has to slow down so as not to scrape. The driver was a guide, but with no tourism, he is now just driving people around. As we enter the "town" of Daraw, even the driver has to ask for directions from people sitting in their shops. How can you hide camels? Well, the walls lining each street really obstruct your vision.

The car passes through a gate and parks next to small trucks waiting to transport the newly purchased camels to their new owners.

The market is a large walled area, and the driver and Mister walk through a covered area with camel buyers and sellers sitting drinking tea and smoking water pipes in the shade.

Mister is the only non-local. The camels are just standing there, some hobbled by having a front leg tied up, but most just standing or sitting in small groups. Handlers are holding ropes and halters as buyers examine the camels (they check the teeth to determine age, like horses) and haggle for the best price. Some negotiations sound very heated, but the driver tells Mister it is normal and not a fight.

It is quiet and doesn't smell that bad. Cattle auctions in the US are worse than this. Mister walks into the crowds as the driver sits under the shade. Mister says he wouldn't have been surprised to see a manger, the setting puts you back in time. Without the occasional view of telephone poles in the distance, it could be thousands of years ago.


Mister takes pictures and everyone there accepts him. No hassles, no problems. The faces are just amazing.
 

The driver finds him and they get back in the car and head back to Aswan.

I get up thinking I'll  go shopping, but am unable to get the information that I need regarding the purchase of an Egyptian rug, so I go back up to the room and go back to bed.  Sleep sounds nice too.  I get up a little later and go down and have a wonderful visit with Hanan and her sister who is in town to vote in the election for President.  In Egypt, you have to travel to the city you are from to cast your ballot.  They vote and then are marked by having their finger dipped in purple ink so that they are unable to vote again.  Everything is going smoothly with the election -- no hassles or intimidation going on at all.  It is their first election in 30 years and the people are all very determined to share how they feel about it and who they are voting for.  We visit for awhile and then I return to the room to wait for Mister.  He returns and we pack, take our bags downstairs, and decide to grab some lunch. We go around the corner again to a little place called Farahat where we are the only customers in the restaurant for the second time in two days.  We have some baba ganoush, salad, and Mister has pigeon soup.

After lunch, we go back into the market and are fortunate to visit a bread bakery (of course it involved baksheesh) and we're taken into the back to see the whole process.  Between the ovens and Aswan -- goodness, it was hot in there.



It's time to head for the train and so we go to the hotel to pick up the bags and Hanan is just leaving to go visit her mother, so offers to give us a ride to the train station so that we don't have to call a cab.  She is amazing and we will remember this hotel and the wonderful service we received for a very long time.  The train is on time -- WOW -- and we are on our way to Luxor.

Mister calls and books a room in a hostel and arranges for us to be picked up at the station.  On the ride, we watch out the windows at the farmers at work -- we are shocked by how hard they are working in this heat and by the way they do it all by hand.

A tractor is a very odd thing to see -- donkeys, water buffalo, etc. are a more frequent sight.  The farms are immaculate -- such a difference from everything else in this country and we sight many different types of crops.  I am fascinated by the date palms that line the farms -- they are LOADED with dates -- looks to be a bumper crop.


Sugar cane and rice are also large crops along the route.  We arrive in Luxor and are met by the driver holding a sign that says "Cleopatra", the name of the hostel.  It is a long drive over to the west bank of the Nile where the hotel is, and is very rural compared to the east bank where the bulk of the city is.  We check in and Nasser, the hostel owner, tells us to head up to the roof deck for a late dinner. He helps us set up the following three days of tours and we work out a price.  Then we are joined by Ragab, the guide, who already has a group for a tour tomorrow. The plans change and we renegotiate.  The group turns out to be 3 American college girls staying at the hostel.

We invite Nasser and Ragab to eat with us and visit for awhile.  I ask for a cold vegetable dish and/or fruit. These have been rare in Egypt. The meal is cooked and served by Mahmoud, Nasser's nephew, and he visits a bit as well.


Everyone makes you feel perfectly comfortable in the hostels we've visited, like it is their home.  It's time for showers and bed -- very busy day tomorrow.

Day 6 - Abu Simbel

The alarm goes off at 3 a.m. and I cringe as I climb out of bed.  We dress and gather our things and go downstairs to the lobby where Hanan has coffee and tea waiting for us along with 2 very large breakfast boxes for us to eat during our 3 hour drive through the desert to Abu Simbel (30 miles north of the Sudan border).

We are picked up at 3:15 by our driver and settle into our seats on the bus.  We make several stops around town picking up others who will be going along with us.

Soon we head out to the meeting spot as all cars heading to Abu Simbel must be documented by the police, and must travel together in a "caravan" to the temple and back.


The caravan leaves at 4 and we try to sleep until the sun comes up and we can see the desert.

We smile at the "steep hill" signs on the road.  Where?  This is FLAT, with only slight grade changes.

We arrive in Abu Simbel around 7:30 and have 2 hours to see this magnificent place.  We purchase our tickets and enter the grounds looking for the English speaking guide and cannot seem to locate him.  The directions from the gate personnel are sketchy at best (we are getting used to Egyptian directions).  They just keep pointing and saying, "inside".  We decide that inside must mean inside the temple and not inside the gate so we start walking towards the entrance.  It is already hot out and we know it will continue to climb during our stay.  Abu Simbel is located on Lake Nasser and as we walk around the mountain, we are on it's shoreline, only high above it.

It is crystal clear and looks wonderful -- would love to jump in.  We continue around the bend and we stand in front of the Temple of Ramses II staring at how incredible it is. We discover that our guide is right in front, and he takes a picture for us.

Our group, about ten of us, go over to some small benches under a solitary tree for a little shade while he shares with us what we are going to see inside.

He is a wonderful story teller and sets the stage beautifully for us so that we know exactly what we are looking for inside and why (no cameras inside).  We enter the temple and are astounded at the vivid colors that exist to this day.  This is nothing short of incredible.  We are in awe.

Ramses II tells the story of his life here and the detail and color are not to be surpassed.  Then, to know that this particular structure was taken apart piece by piece and reassembled higher on the mountain due to the creation of Lake Nasser -- oh my.  What a place.

We venture over to the smaller temple adjacent to Ramses' that he built for his queen, Nefertari.  Her temple is also resplendent with color and is a very romantic temple with many engravings of tender moments and painted beautifully.  She is shown as a beautiful, sexy woman and one whom Ramses adored.  I am blown away by the act of building this for her.

As we exit the temple, the sun has now risen high in the sky and it is stifling out, so I go back to the benches to sit in the shade and cool off while Mister finishes up with the pictures. We wander around the other side of the mountain back towards the main entrance and stop for a snack and juice before we head back to the van, snaking through the merchandise hawkers as best as possible.   The 3 hour trip back to Aswan is back though the now very-hot desert. We close the curtains in the van and try to settle in and nap.


 We arrive back in town and the driver pulls into a gas station. There are empty pumps in the front (petrol) but also a long line of trucks out into the road waiting for diesel. Some yelling starts as we try to sneak in line for diesel. We are told to get out of the van and a military guy stands with us. We assume since we are tourists, we were able to jump the line.


I talk with a couple from Australia about our impressions of Egypt and discover that the same issues that bother me (which is the "in your face" aggressiveness of the sales people) plague her as well.  She and her husband, though, share some great stories and I tease them about wanting to go to Australia but that it is so dang expensive.  It is amusing, but they agree. We are dropped of at the hotel and head straight for showers and a rest. Hanan goes above and beyond in her customer service as we have rose petals and a heart towel sculpture on our bed.

It is 1:00pm and already over 115 degrees outside.  After a cool shower (yes, even I, queen of the hot shower, learned how wonderful a cool shower could be while in Egypt) and a nap, we are ready to go again.  (Oh, I also never complained about the air conditioning and spent most of my "room time" with little or no clothing on --- that tells you how hot it was.)  We decide to walk to the train station and get our tickets for the following afternoon to Luxor. Mister queues up (actually it's just a mob in front of the ticket counter, with everyone holding out money and yelling in Arabic) and gets our tickets to Alexandria.

We walk through the souks (markets) and determine to only shop where we are not hassled.

That sure limits our choices.  I find a shop with dresses, select one after some time and the owner running back to other shops looking for one that I like.



We find another quiet shop and Mister picks out a small box for the living room -- our little memento of Egypt.  With backpacks, we are so limited in what we can purchase -- I've decided that that is both good and bad.  We snap pictures and talk with shop owners whenever we can.  The meats, spices, fruits, and breads are in abundance and the shops are so interesting.

After a quick stop back at our room, we go to Estacoza, a great little fish restaurant just around the corner from the hotel.  Our table is laden with food -- grilled fish, shrimps, veggies, the obligatory coke, etc.  All of it is so delicious and we partake with joy.  The owner is delighted that we are there, things are really slow here -- not many tourists at all.


After dinner, back to the hotel and Mister arranges for a trip to Daraw the next morning while I make plans to sleep in.  YAY.  Off to bed.

Day 5 - Aswan

I wake to find Mister already up and moving about the cabin.  He says he slept well, even with the pretty rough ride and loud stops.  I didn't hear a bit of it and slept like a rock.  It was great.  Breakfast pastries arrive along with some coffee for Mister.


We arrive in Aswan and as we leave the rail car, there is a gentleman holding a sign with our name on it.  He introduces himself as Mohammed and leads us to the van that takes us to the hotel.  It is a quick drive down the Corniche and stops in front of the Philae Hotel.  We enter the doors and instantly are refreshed. The place is amazing and we are introduced to Hanan, the manager, who speaks perfect English and is an amazing hostess.  We are served lemon drinks from her mom's lemon tree and taken to our wonderful room.

The room has a balcony and the view of the Nile is so beautiful.  I love Aswan already.  I aim for a rest and Mister heads downstairs to set up our plans for our stay here.  He returns having planned out 2 days with tentative ideas for the third.  I am thrilled --- we have a plan!   We leave within 1/2 an hour for Philae: The Temple of Isis.

The driver is a friendly Coptic who points out the new Coptic church and wants to talk, as usual, as we drive to the landing where we will take a boat to the temple itself as it is on an island.  He drops us off and goes to park and wait while we explore.

We head down to the boats and have been told ahead of time by both Hanan and the cab driver how much to pay for the ride out and back.  The boat people are trying to charge much more and I haggle with them (I HATE haggling) but cannot get them to back down.  I am committed to spending no more than 80LE including the tip and the guy won't budge. I tell him 60 plus tip -- he says 80 -- so I say 80 with no tip and we are given to another person who will be our boat driver (typical Egyptian ways) and off we go towards the temple.

It is majestic sitting out on this island that is surrounded by the clearest, bluest water I have seen in a very long time.  It is VERY HOT and we leave the boat and climb the stairs up to the temple.  We love it -- we walk the entire place and read about each section and study the details on the walls and columns.  It is a beautiful setting and we are shocked as usual at the ability to have created this.  It is from around 300BC -- and still standing.  We go back down to the docks and find that our driver has been out swimming and is refreshed -- I secretly wish we could do the same -- it is over 110 degrees in the shade.  When we arrive at the docks, the negotiator from before is nowhere to be found, so we give some other guy the agreed upon 80LE -- he then wants us to give "baksheesh" to the driver and Mister explains that that was not our agreement --he could find the other guy and work out getting his tip from him as we arranged.  Ugh -- I dislike this whole system.

We find our driver and he takes us back towards town and we stop at the Unfinished Obelisk.  Now this really helps the mind understand the work that went into these items and how very tall they really are.  This is an obelisk that they found that had been partially cut from the stone but it cracked and so was left in the ground.

This particular obelisk would have stood 137 feet tall if it had been raised, taller than any other known one.  By now, I am melting and so head inside to cool off while Mister explores further.  When he finishes, we find our driver and head back to the hotel.  Our clothes are soaked with sweat and we head for the shower and then to a wonderful lunch downstairs which Mister had set up ahead of time.

It is koshary with tahini and bread and water, water, water.  It is delicious and I want to learn to make it when we are back home.  We take a little nap and then decide to walk over to the Nubian Museum.
 
The Nubians were a people from Northern Sudan who also had a historical impact on Egypt.  We get directions and start down the street.  We manage to get lost and pass the Coptic Church, a mosque, and go entirely around the museum before cutting through and up some stairs to reach it.  We go to get tickets, but there is no one at the window.  A guard looks for the guy and tells us that he is at prayer and we will just have to wait for a few minutes.  It turns out to be about 10 minutes and we get our tickets and go into the museum.. It is very well done, but warm inside.  We learn a great deal about the Nubians.

It is dark as we leave and we walk down the street towards the new Coptic Church.  It is buzzing with activity so we go in and check it out.  When you enter the gates, it is like a small market with stalls and people hawking their goods, children running and playing, and people gathered in social groups visiting.  There is a service going on inside and so we peek in and find all the women on one side and the men on the other.  The speaker is sitting up front and there are tv screens throughout the large room so that all can see him.  We quietly leave and Mister gets offered 1,000 camels for me from an Egyptian man -- way too funny.  Finishing our walk, we arrive at the hotel and are definitely ready for bed.  The heat just saps everything out and we are beat again and have to rise at 3 a.m. for our trip to Abu Simbel.

Day 4 - Cairo

We sleep in a little and have a repeat of breakfast on the rooftop deck.  Franco isn't around so Mister gets a taxi on the street and arranges our trip to the Coptic (Christian) area of Cairo. We pack up our stuff and leave the bags for the day while we go off to explore our way -- without a chaperone.  We head into Cairo and our nice Coptic cabbie chats the whole way in.


We have discovered that people like to talk about the revolution and what they want to see happen in the upcoming elections. They are enjoying the ability to speak their minds without fear of being hauled off somewhere by the very corrupt police.  We have met several Coptic Christians and they are all really proud to let us know who they are and that they are oppressed by Muslims.  Many have a cross tattoo on their wrist to show us.  We are dropped off in Coptic Cairo and Mister settles up with Michael, the cabbie.  We start down the road that goes to several churches - the Convent of St. George, which was closed, and the Church of St. Sergius, which was under construction. So we wandered the cemetery and grounds.
 

We are able to go into a small alcove of  the church and discover that Saint George is depicted as a dragon-slayer in many images of this church.  Interesting.  From there we walk to the Coptic Museum, passing ancient Roman Tower ruins along the way.  The Museum is wonderful in that it is very clean, the artifacts well protected and labeled, and climate controlled (they take our camera again).

We spend about 1 1/2 hours wandering and reading all about the origination of the Coptic Church and the role that it played in Egyptian history.  Next door to the museum is The Hanging Church (it is built on top of old Roman fort, so it "hangs" above the ground. There are children running everywhere in the courtyard and the place is very active.  There is a little store off to the side of the main Chapel and so we stop in there and grab some sodas and sit outside and drink as it is already getting hot out.  We go in and explore the church.

There is a marble pulpit that is really beautiful and amazing carved screens with mother of pearl in them.  We are surprised at the noise level inside - unusual compared to the many churches we stop in during our travels.  Outside the church is the station for the Metro, so we decide to give it a try instead of hailing a cab. For 1.5 LE each (about 25 cents), we buy our tickets and head to the platform.


We find that there are "women-only" cars and we move down to a car that we can both travel in.  We zoom into downtown Cairo and come up onto a very busy street corner lined with vendors of all types selling everything imaginable. We also run into a herd of sheep...

We laugh and then are shocked at a stall selling bras as it is such a contradiction in our minds.  The women here all dress so conservatively and yet on the street corner they buy bras from a young man, odd.  We head off in what we think is the right direction of  the Windsor hotel, our destination.  As we cross the street, I spot a pastry shop called Etoile Pastry, and call for Mister to check it out -- we go in and are delighted with the offerings.

I select a yummy treat from the case, and the man carries it upstairs to their little cafe. We order a soda and bottle of water and take a nice little break from the heat. Even though I am grumpy (waited too long to eat again) we enjoy the atmosphere and our treat is very delicious.  Once we are rested, we venture out onto the street again in our quest for the Windsor Hotel.  It is easier said than done and we get turned around and confused many times.  We ask locals repeatedly for directions and even though they all know where it is, they send us in different directions. I want to give up, but Mister has determined that we are not going to let this beat us and plows ahead.  Another 1/2 an hour and voila -- it is finally located.  We enter and are immediately directed upstairs to the bar by Phillip, the man behind the check-in desk We take the stairs although there is this great open air elevator which remarkably still operates.  We settle in to comfortable seats at a table near the window and order baba ghanoush, bread, and a beer made in Egypt called Sakara.

As we are eating, a woman comes in and starts pointing out a crooked shelf  behind the bar with the bartender.  We put in our 2 cents and continue drinking. The woman returns a short while later with several other people and has a meal at the table next to us.  She introduces them and we discover her husband is Wasfi Doss, the owner of the hotel.  They are from Chicago and have returned to Egypt to run the hotel. We visit with her for quite awhile and then we realize that we have stayed a bit too long and need to get back to the hotel to get our bags and get to the train station.  We say our good-byes and go downstairs and ask Phillip to get us a cab.

We make a deal with him, but it takes forever for the hotel's van to arrive and I am concerned.  I have to give the driver credit -- he zooms to our hotel and Mister goes up to get the luggage and I snap a few local photos, causing a camel owner to yell and get upset with me because I did not give him baksheesh to take his picture.  Funny.  We get to the train station about an hour before our scheduled train and sit down to watch.  It is all fascinating and after awhile a family sits down beside us.  Mister starts talking with the children and soon we are visiting with the whole family for about an hour (a few trains come and go, but not our train yet).


We have a great conversation, take some pictures, and give the kids some American coins as souvenirs.  They are all smiles.  Our train arrives at 8:30 p.m.(an hour late) and we find our quarters and settle in.  It is actually quite nice for Egypt.

Dinner of chicken, tahini, rice, potatoes, and an orange is served shortly after we leave and we are so hungry that we eat quickly.  We are told drinks are extra (and an exorbitant amount) and we say no.  The porter leaves and we remember that we were told by the ticket agent that we were to spend "no money" on the train.  Mister goes out to find the porter and lets him know that.  It doesn't change anything, but the porter asks for us to write a note explaining what happened so that it doesn't happen again.

Mister calls the hotel in Aswan (cell coverage on the train is good) to make reservations and arranges for us to be picked up at the train station the next morning.  The porter sets up the bunks and Mister climbs into the top bunk and is snoring within seconds. I am still sitting on my bunk -- too funny -- oh well, I just lay down without undressing and am also asleep instantly.  We are beat.