September 12-14, 1999 - Aswan~Nile Tour, Egypt
Yes, that's right. The word "tour" is
up there in the heading. And why? It was basically our only way to get out of Cairo. We
had been to the train station, bus station, tourist offices, and were continually told
that all trains to Aswan were full today, tomorrow, and after tomorrow. So when the front
desk guy at our hotel in Cairo brought up the possibility of a tour, we actually paid
attention. It would be no problem for the agency they worked with to get us on that
night's train. Hmmm... Yes, we decided. That was worth it right there.
So, we signed up after some haggling and
negotiations on price. It wasn't a completely-lead-by-the-hand tour, but included two
nights in a hotel in Aswan, two nights on a felucca plus all meals, two nights in a hotel
in Luxor, and three days of guided tours. Plus, the much sought-after train ride out of
Cairo.
So, we boarded the overnight train (funny, look
at all of the empty seats) and arrived in Aswan the next day at 10:30. As with most of
Egypt, the journey there was an experience in itself. Throughout the 14 hour train
ride, the lights were permanently on, the sound of the Arabic 1950's sitcom was on high,
and at every stop people would board the train and yell "Shay" (tea) or try to
sell chocolate drinks and facial tissues. We felt this was some sort of Egyptian slumber
party since all through the night, the Egyptian men were awake, drinking lots of tea and
chatting. We got off the train and felt quite important; a guy was holding up a sign
with our name on it. That hadn't ever happened to us before! We were full-fledged tourists
now. We said hello to a Magic Johnson look-alike named Omar, and for the next couple of
days, we didn't need to think. We were whisked away to a waiting minivan, past hagglers,
touts, and through a metal detector. Past clusters of backpackers looking at maps trying
to figure out where to go next. We looked at them a little wistfully, but knew we'd be
back to that routine soon enough.
We got to our hotel without feeling that sense
of accomplishment we usually did, and had the day free to catch up on our sleep. We
wandered around the posh Old Cataract Hotel where Death on the Nile had been
filmed. We climbed up to a hill in a nearby park to watch the sun set. There a man walked
by and asked if there was any good news in the papers we were reading. Of course, we
ignored him. Later he came by and asked again, and where we were from. And he wasn't
selling anything. Just a nice older man who was a dive instructor, a former teacher, and
just liked to talk to visitors. He said his home was Aswan and he always returns to the
park to see the sunset. We sat and chatted with him for about a half hour, and he invited
us to tea at his house, but we were getting ready to find dinner. We realized how easily
and completely we ignored the voices of strangers after just a couple weeks in Egypt. We
had almost missed out on a nice exchange.
Day two was filled with activity. We took a
ride on a felucca (single-mast sail boat) to a couple of nearby islands, Elephantine and
Kitchener's Island. We decided one good thing about planning stuff like this is the other
travelers you meet. Our boat was filled with a Kiwi couple (New Zealanders), a Belgium
couple, and a guy from Korea. We spent the most time on Elephantine Island, at the Aswan
Antiquities Museum. There were pots and jars from 4500 BC, a mummy head from 2500 BC, and
all sorts of common items like mirrors and tweezers found in tombs thousands of years ago.
We also explored ruins of stone temples while trying to avoid the touts wanting
"baksheesh" for showing us around. We crossed the Nile again and stopped at
Kitchener's Island, a natural exhibition of equatorial and tropical trees and shrubs.
That afternoon we saw the High Dam and visited
the Isis Temple of Philae. The High Damn was..well a big damn. It did create Lake
Nassar behind it which is the world's largest artificial lake. Apparently, if the
damn would ever be destroyed, the Noah-proportioned flood would wipe out all but two
percent of Egypt's population. This is why nearby hills have radar installations and
anti-aircraft missiles. Next we traveled to Agilika Island to see the Isis Temple of
Philae. The temple and relics of Philae Island used to be submerged by the waters of
the High Dam for most of the year, so the entire temple was dismantled and re-assembled on
this island about 5 meters from the original island.
Dave started having stomach problems the
evening before we were to get on the felucca boat. We decided a small sailboat with no
facilities wasn't the place to be when fighting an upset stomach, so we
"upgraded" to a small Nile cruiser boat. Heck, we were on a tour, why not go all
the way? The boat was nice, but we would have preferred the openness of the felucca.
We stopped enroute from Aswan to Edfu and saw
the symmetrical Kom Ombo temple. It was built to honor two gods, Horus and Sobek. The
temple stood on a high dune overlooking the Nile, so it easily withstood the fluctuating
depth of the river.
Our boat docked at Edfu for the night.
Since we had been told by Omar, our "coordinator" in Aswan that we would see the
Temple of Edfu after breakfast, we slept in. As we were getting ready to head to
breakfast, we looked out the window and thought, "gee, the boat's moving pretty fast,
wonder where its going?" We were perplexed, but went up to breakfast. We learned from
Nathalie and Laurent, a French couple who were the only others in our "group"
that people who wanted to visit Edfu had to be off the boat at 6:30 a.m., as the boat was
taking off at 8:00 a.m. Wish somebody would have told us that. We were NOT pleased to say
the least. The French pair learned about it at the Gallibiya party the night before (which
we blew off) at around midnight. They set their alarms--and were going to wake us--but
they didn't go off.
We four were the only ones on the entire boat
without a guide along with us. There wasn't even anyone to complain to. We had checked the
other tour schedules, (in Greek, Spanish, and German) and only one of the five even
mentioned Edfu, and it wasn't there when we went to sleep the night before. This is why we
don't like tours!!!! And big impersonal boats. Overall it was a nice way to relax
for two days as we leisurely cruised up the Nile. We ate well and Dave got sun
burned. After two days, we docked in Luxor.
