An interesting thing happened at the end of day 6, we were headed out to the upper deck at night, when the guy at the gift shop says, don't stay out there too long, it's going to get windy. We laughed, thinking how bad could it be? Just as we settled into some chairs, the winds began to gust, and of course the winds carry desert sand with them. We lasted about 2 minutes before the lounge seemed like a better location. So now, I've experienced a real Sahara Desert sandstorm. Overnight the boat pulled itself into Aswan, and after breakfast we were told it might still be too windy to take our outing for the day. We did eventually leave, and met up with Sayed for a trip out to the Aswan High Dam. The air was still really stirred up, and it was downright cold out there, but it's one of those been there done that sort of things. That's the story of m
y travel life; whenever I have one morning someplace the weather there will be crappy. After our walk on the dam, it was off to see the
unfinished obelisk. If you're interested in ancient construction methods, this is actually pretty interesting, but visually it's not all that exciting. The important thing to note here is that an obelisk has to come from a single piece of stone, and this one cracked while they were getting it our of the bedrock, so it just got left there. With a couple more hours there I could have gotten myself some nice granite counter tops, but alas I forgot to bring my measurements with me. The last part of our journey took us to
Philae temple which is out on an island and requires a little boat ri
de to get to. You sit around the outside the boat, and running down the middle there was something suspicious covered by a cloth. Once we were underway, it gets uncovered, and you get to shop while you're riding out to the temple. There were lots of bead necklaces and bracelets and things made out of camel bone. The temple itself is really beautiful, and the setting of the is
land itself is gorgeous. We took a short hop back on the boat, and then we made a stop at a perfume factory. This is one of the difficult parts of Egypt tourism, frequently as part of your tour you'll stop at a factory where they make something tourists typically like to take home. You get a little demonstration of how the product gets made, you get the obligatory coffee or mint tea, and then the hard sale on whatever product is being made there. In all of our touring we visited a papyrus shop, a stone works, a rug factory, and this perfume shop, where they pin you into a little booth, or even try to separate you so you won't be influenced by the rest of the group and really press you to buy. The perfumes were w
ay expensive, and we ended up not buying, and ran as quickly as we could for the door. It's part of all the tours, as soon as you leave another bus pulls up. The tour guides must get a kickback, so you just learn to play along, drink your tea, and not to ever show too much interest. We went back to the boat for lunch after that, and were all excited about our planned
felucca ride. Unfortunately the winds were still too high for feluccas to sail that day, so we got a motorboat instead to cruise around the islands and the cataract. Sayed had talked us into a little side trip to a Nubian village and camel ride, so we took a ride farther south in our motorboat, and it dropped us off for our camel ride. The ride was beautiful, right next to the river and through the village. Getting up and down on a camel is a wobbly experience, and there's no stirrups, and sometimes you're awfully close to the edge of the river. When the dam was built,
Lake Nasser flooded the former nubian lands, so they were all moved to this area. We visited a Nubian home, ate some typical foods that included an interesting bread, some really delicious cheese and some thick dark honey that tasted like a honey/molasses mix and some sort of crystalline sweet thing that I still don't understand what it was, and of course a cup of mint tea. We got to hold a nile crocodile, and the little girl in the house would let you take her picture (she was adorable) but would insist on
reviewing your photographic work for quality, it was the cutest thing. Angie of course looks sort of Nubian so she was quite popular in the village, and people who wanted us to come shop at their place would immediately invoke the name of Obama to get our attention. We went to a school too and got a little Arabic lesson. I got points for knowing the correct response to the Arabic greeting, but lost points for not memorizing my numbers quickly. We did a little shopping buying up some spices including some saffron that I'm not entirely sure is real, and then finally made it back for our little motorboat ride. On the way to the villaige there were lots of rocks, and the current moves faster than anyplace else, so I was a little nervous navigating all those rocks on the way back. On the cruise they
had a set menu for the night, and it was a welcome relief from 4 days worth of buffet. We had to make a run out to town to meet Sayed to get some cartouches made, and he got us a Turkish coffee at one of Aswans many outdoor coffee places. The coffee shops are mostly the realm of men, so with a mixed group you should make sure you know where you're sitting. We were due to leave the boat by nine the next morning, and after a full day we were back to the ship to crash.
An interesting thing happened at the end of day 6, we were headed out to the upper deck at night, when the guy at the gift shop says, don't stay out there too long, it's going to get windy. We laughed, thinking how bad could it be? Just as we settled into some chairs, the winds began to gust, and of course the winds carry desert sand with them. We lasted about 2 minutes before the lounge seemed like a better location. So now, I've experienced a real Sahara Desert sandstorm. Overnight the boat pulled itself into Aswan, and after breakfast we were told it might still be too windy to take our outing for the day. We did eventually leave, and met up with Sayed for a trip out to the Aswan High Dam. The air was still really stirred up, and it was downright cold out there, but it's one of those been there done that sort of things. That's the story of m
y travel life; whenever I have one morning someplace the weather there will be crappy. After our walk on the dam, it was off to see the unfinished obelisk. If you're interested in ancient construction methods, this is actually pretty interesting, but visually it's not all that exciting. The important thing to note here is that an obelisk has to come from a single piece of stone, and this one cracked while they were getting it our of the bedrock, so it just got left there. With a couple more hours there I could have gotten myself some nice granite counter tops, but alas I forgot to bring my measurements with me. The last part of our journey took us to Philae temple which is out on an island and requires a little boat ri
de to get to. You sit around the outside the boat, and running down the middle there was something suspicious covered by a cloth. Once we were underway, it gets uncovered, and you get to shop while you're riding out to the temple. There were lots of bead necklaces and bracelets and things made out of camel bone. The temple itself is really beautiful, and the setting of the is
land itself is gorgeous. We took a short hop back on the boat, and then we made a stop at a perfume factory. This is one of the difficult parts of Egypt tourism, frequently as part of your tour you'll stop at a factory where they make something tourists typically like to take home. You get a little demonstration of how the product gets made, you get the obligatory coffee or mint tea, and then the hard sale on whatever product is being made there. In all of our touring we visited a papyrus shop, a stone works, a rug factory, and this perfume shop, where they pin you into a little booth, or even try to separate you so you won't be influenced by the rest of the group and really press you to buy. The perfumes were w
ay expensive, and we ended up not buying, and ran as quickly as we could for the door. It's part of all the tours, as soon as you leave another bus pulls up. The tour guides must get a kickback, so you just learn to play along, drink your tea, and not to ever show too much interest. We went back to the boat for lunch after that, and were all excited about our planned felucca ride. Unfortunately the winds were still too high for feluccas to sail that day, so we got a motorboat instead to cruise around the islands and the cataract. Sayed had talked us into a little side trip to a Nubian village and camel ride, so we took a ride farther south in our motorboat, and it dropped us off for our camel ride. The ride was beautiful, right next to the river and through the village. Getting up and down on a camel is a wobbly experience, and there's no stirrups, and sometimes you're awfully close to the edge of the river. When the dam was built, Lake Nasser flooded the former nubian lands, so they were all moved to this area. We visited a Nubian home, ate some typical foods that included an interesting bread, some really delicious cheese and some thick dark honey that tasted like a honey/molasses mix and some sort of crystalline sweet thing that I still don't understand what it was, and of course a cup of mint tea. We got to hold a nile crocodile, and the little girl in the house would let you take her picture (she was adorable) but would insist on
reviewing your photographic work for quality, it was the cutest thing. Angie of course looks sort of Nubian so she was quite popular in the village, and people who wanted us to come shop at their place would immediately invoke the name of Obama to get our attention. We went to a school too and got a little Arabic lesson. I got points for knowing the correct response to the Arabic greeting, but lost points for not memorizing my numbers quickly. We did a little shopping buying up some spices including some saffron that I'm not entirely sure is real, and then finally made it back for our little motorboat ride. On the way to the villaige there were lots of rocks, and the current moves faster than anyplace else, so I was a little nervous navigating all those rocks on the way back. On the cruise they
had a set menu for the night, and it was a welcome relief from 4 days worth of buffet. We had to make a run out to town to meet Sayed to get some cartouches made, and he got us a Turkish coffee at one of Aswans many outdoor coffee places. The coffee shops are mostly the realm of men, so with a mixed group you should make sure you know where you're sitting. We were due to leave the boat by nine the next morning, and after a full day we were back to the ship to crash.
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