Aswan Adventures

Hello from the very sunny city of Aswan in Egypt!

We managed to catch our night train the other night with only a little bit of panic. Claire (our tour leader) had organised the bus to come and pick us all up from the hotel at 9pm, allowing an hour to get to the train station in case of really bad traffic. Problem was that because of really bad traffic the driver was held up getting there on time, so he arrived at 9:30pm.
There was a little bit of a panic as we threw everyone's bags onto the bus and piled on, Claire stressing a bit making sure that we hadn't left anyone behind. With everyone and their pack safely on board we teared off towards the train station, our driver doing some fantastic and scary driving to get us there on time. We were worried to start with because there were quite a few traffic jams, but we got there at 9:50pm for our 10pm train. It didn't end up arriving on the platform until about 10:15pm anyway so we had nothing to worry about.

The train itself was a lot more comfortable than was Sarah and I were expecting, especially after our train trip from Bangkok to Surit Thani. The seats were roomy, reclined a good distance and there was also a lot of leg room. The aircon even worked, though I'm told it gave out in the night at some stage for a couple of hours. That's about where the good stuff ended though, the whole carriage smelt like cigarette smoke and the toilet was the most digusting thing we've come across so far.
Sleeping wasn't too hard to do, all of us being pretty buggered from the busy day of Pyramids, but we did keep being interrupted by various people selling tea, coffee, chips, chocolates and newspapers. Who the hell wants a newspaper at 3am? This didn't seem to stop them though, marching up and down the train with a 30 minute regularity.

Finally though 11am rolled around (I love my Playstation!) and we all piled off the train. Claire had recounted a story to us during the night how for the last trip she'd said "this is not our stop" only to realise as the train started moving that it was. People were jumping off a moving train! Nothing so exciting for us though.

We piled into 3 cabs and found our hotel. It seems that there'd been some mixup with the rooms, however Claire chatted to them while they served us Hibuscus Tea and got it all sorted out. Our room is pretty good though it's on the 4th floor. We seem to have gotten lucky though, we have a TV and a fridge as well as working AirCon. Quite a few people were complaining today that their AirCon didn't work very well/at all.

We had a bit of free time until lunch was served so Sarah and I had a quick walk around and bought some postcards. Lunch in the hotel wasn't as I'd been wishing, a whole chicken each, but it was roast chicken, rice and tasty salad which was very tasty.
Afternoon was also free time, Sarah and I walked up to the markets only to be harrassed by many many street vendors. Sarah got talking to one of them and we ended up in his store haggling over the price of a top she liked for about 15 minutes. A great experience and lots of fun, George was a character and we were all happy at the end of transaction. The markets were pretty amazing though of course quite tourist oriented. There's lots of spices on display though I think far and away the most interesting one is the Indigo power they have. It's bright blue, they say it's very good for adding to your washing to make it brighter and whiter. Either way it certainly catches your eye as you're walking past all the spices.

Once free time was over it was time for a small ferry ride up the River Nile. The ferry was really cool, quite small but a double decker version. You could climb up on the room and walk around, you just had to be careful not to fall off. It was such a lovely sunny afternoon (though I'm sure they all are) as we cruised up the Nile, cold beer in hand. The contrast of the city on one side of the river, then a small group of trees and beyond that only desert is a sight to see.
We arrived at our first destination and we all got to go swimming, jumping off the top of the ferry into the river and swimming around.

Our second destination was dinner at a traditional Nubian house. The house is made mostly of mudbrick and we were given a small talk then a tour around. Then the feast stated as well as a birthday cake for one of the girls in our group. It was a really wonderful night, the singing and clapping that went on as the Nubians bought out the birthday cake was awesome. The ferry ride back was probably the best though, just Sarah and I and another couple sitting on the roof of the ferry as it slowed putted back towards our hotel, full moon shining.

This morning, our 3am wake up call! That's right, 3am bugger it. 3:30am though our bus arrived to take us down to Abu Simbel to see two of the temples there that were relocated after the flooding/daming of the Nile occured in 1960s. We had to get us so early because our bus joins a convoy of many buses that are escorted by the Police (though I never saw any) to the site.
The site was quite amazing, I think for me more so because they managed to move it and recreate it perfectly. The detailed carvings and statues are also quite amazing, especially the colouring that has survived so long, even being flooded!

So that brings me to now! It's almost 1:30pm and time for lunch. There's probably a lot of typing mistakes in this because I bashed it out so quickly, but I want to try and remember everything that we do because it's all so much fun. The Oasis trip is excellent because it really packs so much stuff in, there's hasn't really been much down time. We don't do anything for the rest of today, tomorrow though we get on board a Felucca and sail for 2 lovely days...

Tim