A Long, Hot Day in Southern (Upper) Egypt

I'm currently at an internet cafe that sits merely 75 feet from the mighty Nile. Here in Aswan is where the Nile is at its best. Yesterday we took a 3 hour sailing trip on a felucca, swaying from island to island and stopping off at a few places on the way. It included a stop off at a 3000 year old Nubian village, but my expectations were definitely not met - even though we had a tour of the village with the supposed chief. In reality, it was a 5-10 min walk down a few trash filled dirt roads followed by the "chief" asking for money for the tour. We also made stops at the botanical gardens...which were not execptionally special, but did offer some absolutely amazing views of the Nile with the shining dunes of the Sahara behind it.

It is in the lower 90's here in Aswan, and it is now 9pm. Today, Maria and I were up at 3am to catch a minibus for Abu Simbel. Because of the location and the route, tourists are required to go with a police convoy. This sounds scarier than it is because were actually in a line of about 30-40 buses and vans and rarely even saw the police. But we were in some kind of protective convoy, which is why we had to be on the road by 4am today. Abu Simbel was a 3+ hour journey that definitely had its share of inconveniences, but we arrived around 7:30am to venture over to the amazing temple of Abu Simbel with the towering statues of Ramses II and his wife Nefertari. While we only spent about an hour at the site and the trip was over 7 hours total round trip, I definitely recommend this visit to anyone who is in southern Egypt. Way out of the way, but one of those things you will kick yourself for years if you don't go. Lot's of pictures to show of course!

Unfortunately the heat, continuous interactions with in your face salesmen, fees for absolutely everything (including the bathroom and seeing anything, aywhere) and the inconvenient "tour" operators that make you swap vans and drivers at their whim, has left us exhausted, out of energy and in much lower spirits. By the time we got to the Unfinished Obelisk today, half the group was so done with everything that we did not even get off.

Up rather early again tomorrow to take a 7:30 mini-bus for Luxor. It will include hour long stops at Kom Ombo and the temple at Edfu. Then, we hope to find someone to act as a tour guide for us in Luxor so we can quickly and efficiently see the West Bank one day and the East Bank the next - hoping for minimal hassles. I also secretly still hanging on to the vision of getting to take a hot air balloon ride over the Nile, but we will see if we can fit it in.

Ok - it's still crazy hot, dusty and overall exhausting sitting here in this net cafe. Time to get some actual sleep so I can be awake early again. Hope you are all enjoying the blog posts, I try to get them up when I can!

Just remember - when you get approached every 30 seconds by people hustling everything from boat rides to hotel rooms, just say "La!"....or no in Arabic.