An Egyptian Excursion - Day 9

Today, we were up by 7am. Had a pretty heavy breakfast and the nervous waiter nearly spilled his entire tray of coffee on Mum. He did apologize profusely though. The driver and guide were already waiting for us. In Aswan, the drivers don’t stop all the time and give pedestrians priority when they’re crossing, quite unlike Cairo. Here you have to be a bit more careful when you’re crossing the road.

Our first stop was the old dam in Aswan. Built by the British around 1902, later seized in the revolution of 1952 and all the power dam produced was henceforth used for Aswan alone. Then we drove to the Aswan High Dam. This one was newer and supposedly built with money seized from the Suez Canal during the war. This was the dam that submerged the land of Nubia (hence the migration of the Nubian population to Sudan, and regions like the Nubian village in Egypt which we saw earlier) and several temples of Ancient Egypt. This massive dam powers pretty much the whole of Egypt. Neither of the dams have any locks (not the kind you put on your door), so boats can’t pass through either one.

We headed to the boat dock for a ride to Philae Island. This was one of the numerous Islands that the dam had submerged. However, a coordinated effort was organized to disassemble the underwater temple and reassemble it on a nearby island that still remained above water. An amazing feat by any measure, considering how deep the water is. The Philae Temple, built in Ptolemaic times (time to dust off that old history book) is dedicated to the Goddess Isis – wife and sister of Osiris (yeah, the Egyptian Gods and Pharaohs were pretty messed up that way). The courtyards, pylons, statues and pillars were all covered with ornate designs and carefully preserved with not a hint of any mess left behind by tourists – which is, sadly, hardly the case in monuments back in India. We took our time walking through the temple and caught a boat back to the docks where the map seller followed us around saying “India India, Sholay very good, Shahrukh, Amitabh, Salaam Namaste, Kareena Kapoor, Salman Khan, Rajesh Khanna, Amir Khan” and went on and on even when it was apparent we weren’t interested/didn’t need a map (all the regions were stored offline on my N79). He could probably named more Bollywood actors and actresses than I ever could. Then there was the souvenir seller who tried to sell us something for 12, then 11, then 10 egyptian pounds, then for the heck of it, dad said 9, then he said 8, 7…and counted down to 1 laughing all the way while waving us goodbye.

Driving back from the docks, our first stop was the EgyptAir office (to check on the status of our flight back to Cairo) and then the quarry of the unfinished obelisk. Soon we were back at the resort. For these 3 hours of sightseeing inside Aswan, the cost was around Rs. 4400 (exchange rates around May 2010), by no means cheap. The previous 2 days’ trips came to about Rs. 20,000 each (no, not a joke). So be prepared to shell out a lot when touring Egypt, especially in the tourist towns of Luxor, Aswan and Edfu. If you have plenty of time, you can even take one of the cruise ships that ply the Nile and stop at the major attractions.

This was our last day in Aswan, so we took our riverside walk yet again, and stopped at the same Aswan Moon Restaurant from yesterday for lunch. The friendly old waiter was there and we had fresh mango juice and strawberry juice to go with our meal – no water, no essence, just pure and awesome juice. Once again, the food was simply marvelous. There was a bit of packing to be done back at the resort and we did that while I watched some cheesy Punisher flick from the 80s. I checked my mail after what seemed an eternity and found an IEEE Project idea of mine had been shortlisted for funding. Looking out my room’s window, I found a mother cat walking about the Nile’s banks followed by her 6 kittens and threw some cheese, butter and any other edible stuff I had in my room. The kittens were happy enough with this. Had to shave today, what with the face fungus growing rather unruly.

Around 8.15pm we took a walk down to McDonalds, had a big combo and a KitKat McFlurry (McFlurry Ice Cream blended with bits of KitKat chocolate). There are always so many more women out at restaurants here than men. Plenty of kids too in their early teens. Everyone seems to eat so much, yet they get to maintain perfect skin and a pimple-less face. Today however McDonalds was a bit too crowded – I suppose it was some kind of holiday. Mum had an ice-cream from a nearby shop on the way back. It was apparent that he’d overpriced it at the last minute when he saw we were foreigners.

And so began our last walk back to the resort along the famous Nile. Finished packing and ended the day with End Game on television (starring Cuba Gooding Jr.).

An Egyptian Excursion - Day 8

Got up at 4.30 am. The minivan and the guide were ready and it was already light outside by 5.30am. There was the usual name-taking by the police on the way out of town. The road out had plenty of greenery on either side – one side was decidedly rocky and on the other the Nile flowed. Passed Kom Ombo and Edfu (all these places I’ve only heard of till then in Egyptian legends I’ve read as a child). Stopped at Edfu briefly for a cigarette – no, not us silly, just the driver and everyone else around. Plenty of people smoke here. The route to Luxor abounds with military and police checkpoints. We made it to the ancient Pharonic town of Luxor by 9.10am, despite the traffic being heavier than the road to Abu Simbel. Then again, Abu Simbel lies near the ancient region of Nubia (and towards the border with Sudan), hence being a tourist spot in a desolate location away from other cities – so the lack of traffic was understandable.

The first stop was at the Colossi of Memnon (meaning Ruler of Dawn) – two large statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Both statues were affected by a large earthquake around 25-30BC. These colossi stood guard to the once-massive Mortuary temple of Amenhotep III – of which little remains today. After a brief jaunt through the Ramesseum, we headed to the Valley of the Kings – large complex of burial chambers (obviously of the Pharaohs) cut into the mountains and spread over a wide area. Several of them were pretty deep and well preserved with even the paintings retaining their color. The tomb of Thutmose III was pretty high up – a steep climb followed by a steep descent, and hence my parents opted out while I took a shot at it. Few people come here, thanks to the daunting climb and subsequent drop, but it was well worth the effort. We visited a few more tombs, with paintings and wooden sarcophagi surrounding the inner metal/stone sarcophagus containing the mummies. Photography inside isn’t allowed.

Our next stop was the Temple of Hatshepsut – erstwhile Queen of Egypt – which had 3 distinct ‘steps’ in its construction. The courts were adorned with images, statues and reliefs of Hathor and Anubis and scenes of Somalia (not quite the war-torn, impoverished country it is today). It was obvious Hatshepsut fancied herself a God and apparently, her son-in-law and stepson got fed up with her behavior, and after her death several of her cartouches and paintings had the faces chiseled off. No doubt she must have been like a certain chief minister in India whose name begins with M, has a Y in the middle and ends with an I – the one that keeps building monuments in her name ;) .

If you ever visit Egypt, be sure to take along plenty of sunscreen, a pair of sunglasses and a cap or hat. Else you’ll be hit with a terrible headache – like the Pharaohs would have had when they had holes drilled in their skills through which their brains were extracted before embalming. Of course they were already dead at that point.

Loading up with quite a number of souvenirs (the sellers had a field day) we left the complex and drove to the Karnak temple complex (once the largest in the world) on the opposite bank. Here we found courts with HUGE (and I mean bloody freaking HUGE) columns supporting massive slabs of stone high up in the air. The temple had many sections expanded by different Pharaohs. The entrance itself has small sphinxes on either side. In ancient times, the temple was connected by canals (which have long since closed and disappeared) to the Nile River. The sacred/royal boat was kept in the temple and each flood season it would be able to make its way onto the river when these canals filled up. After a long walk through all the sections, we went over to the Luxor temple, similar to Karnak but smaller. We were pretty tired after all the time we’d spent in the heat and sun and left Luxor a while later.

The rule of the land here is that foreigners HAVE to be back inside Aswan (not outside the cities or on highway roads) before sunset and the police are pretty strict about enforcing this. On the drive back, we found from the guide that he had to take formal exams and such and a course of a few years before he could become one. While he was good with English (which was what we preferred), his wife was a Spanish guide. They must make a pretty penny with the tourist industry in Egypt booming even off season and the prices for tours what they are.

Back at the resort, we freshened up and took a walk by the riverside. We bought more bottled water from the resident Amitabh Bachchan fan (from the other day, remember?). Unlike London or Bangkok, there was no commission or tax here to change our dollars to Egyptian Pounds. We stepped into a nice restaurant by the river (literally ON the river actually) and had fresh Mango and Banana Juice. I must confess it was among the best fresh juices I’ve ever tried anywhere in the world. The resident kitty (very pregnant) was there (plenty of cats around Aswan) and we took a few pictures of her. Her man came along soon enough and sat by her. He chose to meow politely at us while she ate whatever we gave the both of them. Some damned foreigner (probably Spanish :P ) didn’t like kitty and co being around their table (where she headed next) and so the owner carefully picked them up and led them into the kitchen, all the while petting them gently. Kitty was back soon enough though :D . What I’ve noticed here is that, even the locals who are supposedly highly conservative go out and enjoy themselves much more than folks back home. The food was excellent and we headed back to the resort where I watched “The Ghost and the Darkness” (a Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas starrer about a hunt for man eating lions in Africa) and then “The Fast and the Furious” before calling it a day.