to the nile!

APRIL 9: A SERIOUS TREK TO ASWAN

waddling away from the breakfast buffet for the third day in a row, we were happy to see our newest friend, wafeek, who came to see us off.

our driver took us one hour southwest to a meeting point. here, we met up with several other vans to be flanked on all sides and separated by police vehicles and armed guards. such was the police-escorted convoy from hurghada to luxor! zoinks.

lucky us, our friend wafeek didn't stop looking after us. he called a friend in luxor who took good care of us. he set us up in a five-star hotel lobby with couches and crystal chandeliers for our "layover." he went to the train station, bought our tickets and delivered them to us in the lobby. he didn't fail to offer us camels, either. (thier edition of a marriage proposal) but we had places to go...

a few hours later he took us to the train station. unfortunately, the trains don't exactly respect a timetable. so we waited two hours for our train to arrive. the worst part was that sheena had a stomach bug and she had the entire egyptian army force across the tracks watching her be sick. although we were the main attraction at the train station, we did have a silent guardian angel. one train station guard kept walking past us and giving us evil eyes, but he stood next to us when a train passed us slowly to defer some of the cat-calling, he was shooing young boys away when they got to close, and he helped us find our seats when the train finally arrived. hours and hours later, we arrived at the aswan train station. luckily, a man from the hotel was waiting for us. we practically ignored the front desk, walked to our room and crashed. somehow, it was an exhausting day.

APRIL 10: CRUISE, DAY 1

as it turned out, we had another travel agent we didn't know about. he picked us up at the hotel and took us to the cruise boat! he bought us a drink in the bar while our rooms were prepared and left us to enjoy the sun deck! at lunch we met the couple we would spend the next four days with. they were a young couple, taking a vacation from their studyies in florence. teddy was an english bloke and beth is from milwaukee!! what are the chances?!

after lunch our tour guide, mido, took us to the high dam and philae temple. we realized quickly that he was a dipshit, but didn't have much of a choice, we were stuck with him for four days. his stupid jokes and arrogance aside...

the high dam, built in 1899 and rebuilt in 1958, caused the creation of a large reservoir called lake nasser. the dam is the most significant source of electricity in egypt and has mitigated the effects of floods in the region. philae temple, built from 380-30 BC, is located on an island in the nile river! we took a boat, captained by two young egyptians, to the island and explored the ancient re-built temple, built for the goddess isis.

back at the boat we had another welcome drink before dinner. we jumped off the boat to walk around aswan and through the markets. we were looking for alcohol to take back to the boat, but an hour-long walk was totally unfruitful. turns out it is hard to find alcohol in a muslim country!

APRIL 11: CRUISE, DAY 2

after breakfast we enjoyed a two-hour felucca ride on the nile! we sailed around a large island which used to be a british army camp but has since been transformed into a botanical garden. we rode past a nubian village where two young boys paddled out to us in a misshapen boat, using pieces of driftwood just larger than their hands as paddles. they grabbed onto our boat and sang us songs as we floated along, hoping for baksheesh, a tip. we also sailed past a mausoleum, a camel trading post, and several ancient watchtowers.

the sun deck was calling our names, so we abided for the whole afternoon. until we arrived at kom ombo, the city where they used to train elephants for pharaohs. we got off the boat to visit the temple of kom ombo. it was built between 180-45BC - half of it is dedicated to horus (the god of protection) and the other half is dedicated to sobek (the crocodile god). in fact, we got to see three ancient mummified crocodiles! yikes!! this was also the only site where you can see elephants carved into the hieroglyphic stories. as well as male organs. ha.

walking back to the boat, we saw our first good african sunset. just how i imagined it -- a golden sky with an orange sun setting on a dusty horizon, falling behind several palm trees. when it got dark we found our way up to the sun deck to watch the stars, smoke cigars and drink beer. at the end of the night, we were walking back to our rooms and one of the housekeepers stopped us to tell us there was a problem. he accompanied us to our room and let us open the door to find.... a hostage bound on the floor! in fact, they made a very realistic person out of our clothing and the fresh towels! holly screamed and i ran away. i almost had a heart attack. they got a good tip.

APRIL 12: CRUISE, DAY 3

we were disappointed to have a 7am wake-up call. is this vacation, or what?! after dinner we walked off the boat and onto a horse-drawn carriage to the edfu temple. there were horses and carriages everywhere and i thought the smell would knock me over (nice aroma after breakfast). anyway, edfu temple is the second largest and the best-preserved temple in the whole of egypt. if that is important. the temple is dedicated to the falcon god horus and was build between 237-57 BC. unbelievable.

the rest of the day was ours to enjoy! we spent most of it on the sun deck. we relaxed, bonded with our new friends, and watched our cruise boat go through some locks at esna. after dinner we went back to the room and found another surprise -- an alligator wearing sunglasses with an orange in his mouth! we crashed early to prepare for our last long day in egypt.

APRIL 13: CRUISE, DAY 4

our day started with a 6am wake-up call. we took our bags to the lobby, ate our last buffet breakfast and met mido to explore luxor and its surroundings. our fist stop was the valley of the kings where they have found 63 tombs of former egyptian kings and nobles who lived from the 16th to 11th century BC. some of the tombs were breathtaking. the pharonic artists used semiprecious stones to color the walls and ceilings of the tombs and some of the colors are so vibrant they look like they were painted yesterday.

because guides love to take us to government-run and monitored stores, we had to make a stop at an alabaster store. we learned about the sculpting of alabaster goods and how it was used in ancient temples and tombs. ramses, the owner, took a liking to us and he offered each of us a scarab, a sign of good luck. then he offered me a proposal. since we hadn't had much time to get to know each other, i said i would think about it. to show me he was serious he offered me a chunk of alabaster and told me to come back, that he would be waiting. i wonder if he is still waiting...

near the entrance to the valley of the kings is queen hatshepsut's temple. she was Egypt's only female pharoah...self proclaimed, about 1460BC. well done, lady. we visited this site in the sweltering heat of mid-day. next, we stopped quickly (not daring to be out of the ac for too long!) to take a few pictures of the statues of memnon. they are the only remnants of the temple of amenophis III.

our drive back into luxor took us past wheat, banana and sugar cane plantations. several fields had straw huts built in the middle of them, suggesting very humble housing. and there we were, driving past in our air conditioned van...

we went to a local restaurant for a quick lunch before we drove to karnak temple. this was perhaps my favorite thing we saw. it is a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings built between the 16th century BC and 30BC. woah. it is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. woah. a must-see. finally, we visited luxor temple. not that old, it was founded in 1400 BC. pfah. the neatest thing about this site was that at the entrance we saw a 25 metre-tall pink granite obelisk: it is one of a matching pair. the other was taken to paris in 1835 where it now stands in the centre of the place de la concorde.

plenty sweaty and exhausted, we drove back to the boat. because our bags were in the lobby, we shuffled through them to find our suits, changed, and jumped immediately into the cool pool water! this would have to suffice for a shower. our driver took us to the bus station where we caught our 7pm bus back to hurghada. it was supposed to take four hours, but almost seven hours later we arrived in the downtown. guess who met us at the bus stop?! yes! wafeek! he took us to another bar for farewell sheesha and drinks before he took us to the airport. at the airport all of us had watery eyes. he was a really kind man. i hope to cross him again in this life.

much like the train departure, 3:30am was a mere suggestion. we didn't leave until almost 5am. we were bordering 24 hours of wakefulness. and we weren't done traveling yet... we arrived in paris about 10am and had to part ways. i really connected with sheena on this trip (although we just met in february in munich and had only spent about 36 hours together before we traveled to africa together!) and i will certainly see her again. we're going to see how many continents we can see together! north america is next on the list since she is canadian. anyway, we sent her off with some milk money for the metro and holly and i jumped on the bus to montparnasse train station. we happened to arrive about ten minutes before a fast train home. it couldn't have ended any better.