Day six had an exciting looking itinerary, because we were starting with a carriage ride from the boat to
Edfu temple. We were also to meet up with a new guide, who seemed nice, so it looked like a promising day. We enjoyed our carriage ride, pulled by a horse named Rambo, with a driver who pointed out interesting sites and buildings along the way. Wendy and I were lucky enough to get a carriage just for the 2 of us, and ended up being the first to arrive at the temple. When everyone else arrived we started our tour. For reasons I can't explain edfu was much more crowded than the two places we'd visited the day before. Our new tour guide was also quite soft spoken, and had a much thicker accent than our previous guide. He also insisted on doing a lot of his talking in really really crowded areas. In some of the tightest places we even had a few members of the group drop out due to the stress induced by the crush of people. The temple had some nice well preserved places and
lots of stuff scratched out by the
Coptic Christians who used it as a hiding place when fleeing Roman Persecution. As we were leaving the temple the guide walked us to the front gate, and offered no real help in finding our carriage (you were supposed to go back out and find the carraige that got you there). We found ours, but some others in the group were not so lucky, and had to find a new one and negotiate a price with the driver. Needless to say they were not pleased. I forgot to mention earlier, that there are lots of boats on the river, and they all do the same exact stops, so they are frequently tied up 3 or for deep at the docks. When we arrived back, the boat we knew that ours was on the other side of was pulling away leading us to think we'd actually missed our boat. Some people from our boat in the group from Hong Kong ass
ured us that no, our boat was still there, and then we started breathing again. When the rest of the group arrived they were noticeably perturbed about having to pay for their carriage ride, and immediately demanded a new tour guide when we got back on the boat. We had some lunch, and the boat began it's cruise again, and we wondered how much the guide would be apologizing on the afternoon tour, or whether we'd actually have a new guide. On this day the boat served it's one local only cuisine meal, and it was very very tasty, we honestly wished they'd served more. As we gathered up downstairs for our scheduled visit to
Kom Ombo Temple, a new tour guide appeared. So began our jour
ney with Sayed the Egyptologist/tour guide/travel agency. Kom Ombo was really beautiful, much less crowded, and had interesting wall reliefs of a calendar and of early medical equipment. It is also rare in that it's dedicated to 2 sets of gods one on the north side and one on the south side, with symmetrical images in many parts of the temple. we walked back to the boat as the sun set, and i tried to get myself left on the dock while trying to negotiate to buy something, but I eventually safely made it back on the boat only moments before it pulled away.
Day six had an exciting looking itinerary, because we were starting with a carriage ride from the boat to Edfu temple. We were also to meet up with a new guide, who seemed nice, so it looked like a promising day. We enjoyed our carriage ride, pulled by a horse named Rambo, with a driver who pointed out interesting sites and buildings along the way. Wendy and I were lucky enough to get a carriage just for the 2 of us, and ended up being the first to arrive at the temple. When everyone else arrived we started our tour. For reasons I can't explain edfu was much more crowded than the two places we'd visited the day before. Our new tour guide was also quite soft spoken, and had a much thicker accent than our previous guide. He also insisted on doing a lot of his talking in really really crowded areas. In some of the tightest places we even had a few members of the group drop out due to the stress induced by the crush of people. The temple had some nice well preserved places and
lots of stuff scratched out by the Coptic Christians who used it as a hiding place when fleeing Roman Persecution. As we were leaving the temple the guide walked us to the front gate, and offered no real help in finding our carriage (you were supposed to go back out and find the carraige that got you there). We found ours, but some others in the group were not so lucky, and had to find a new one and negotiate a price with the driver. Needless to say they were not pleased. I forgot to mention earlier, that there are lots of boats on the river, and they all do the same exact stops, so they are frequently tied up 3 or for deep at the docks. When we arrived back, the boat we knew that ours was on the other side of was pulling away leading us to think we'd actually missed our boat. Some people from our boat in the group from Hong Kong ass
ured us that no, our boat was still there, and then we started breathing again. When the rest of the group arrived they were noticeably perturbed about having to pay for their carriage ride, and immediately demanded a new tour guide when we got back on the boat. We had some lunch, and the boat began it's cruise again, and we wondered how much the guide would be apologizing on the afternoon tour, or whether we'd actually have a new guide. On this day the boat served it's one local only cuisine meal, and it was very very tasty, we honestly wished they'd served more. As we gathered up downstairs for our scheduled visit to Kom Ombo Temple, a new tour guide appeared. So began our jour
ney with Sayed the Egyptologist/tour guide/travel agency. Kom Ombo was really beautiful, much less crowded, and had interesting wall reliefs of a calendar and of early medical equipment. It is also rare in that it's dedicated to 2 sets of gods one on the north side and one on the south side, with symmetrical images in many parts of the temple. we walked back to the boat as the sun set, and i tried to get myself left on the dock while trying to negotiate to buy something, but I eventually safely made it back on the boat only moments before it pulled away.
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