Abu Simbel Aswan

... sights of Aswan from our riverboat. Tomorrow is going to be a really big day.<br><br>We barely get to sleep before the wake-up call arrives at 2:45 AM. A half an hour later we are corralled into our bus. In 10 minutes, we rendezvous with the rest of the convoy for the 280 km. (174 mi.) trip to Abu Simbel (mercy sake alive, we&#8217;ve got ourselves a convoy). An armed military escort boards our bus and remains with us for the duration of the ...

... the Nubian village today - as I explained to Mohamed when he asked why, I know it helps the villiagers with ready income, but I feel uncomfortable to take advantage of the local people's poverty to satisfy my own curiousity - I'd much rather buy their handicrafts and help the economy in that way. Mohamed has done a great job informing us about the beliefs and art in the various temples - much richer than my pop-culture understanding - I have some fabulous ...

... not unusual i know), but i was here to enjoy the sights, not sit on a coach or back in an air conditioned hotel room twiddling my thumbs or sleeping. <br><br>The accommodation was a mixed bag. Sleeping on a coach bus (the train got canceled) was hell, but after the second time i was getting the hang of it. At one hotel, the elevator got stuck and we had to climb out like that scene from the movie Speed. To use the toilet (WC) cost money pretty much everywhere and ...

... it would be a nightmare for all the tour operators in the country but the predictability of the convoys leaves it open to a potential attack.<br>What happens is the police close the road, a police vehicle leads the convoy (driving as fast a possible from what I have read), with a few police officers on a few buses throughout the convoy and there are some police on the last vehicle in the convoy.<br>Nothing has happened on the road to Abu Simbel in many years so maybe the convoy is ...

... We asked where we could buy them, and the man at the desk told us we could buy everything at the market next door. We wandered up and down the market looking for water, soda, and beer or alcohol. We found the water and the soda, but no alcohol. Southern Egypt is very conservative, and most restaurants don't even sell alcohol. We were a little embarrassed to ask the man at our hotel, as he had the dark mark on his forehead that men get from touching their ...

... pencil graffiti all over the wall..destinations, email addresses and slogans. I add our little part of the world to the wall before we go. The pizza was good, the gelato was good :) The annex has 7 floors of stuff..souvenier shops, shoe shops, junk shops...I at least bought some postcards..will get around to sending them before we leave Egypt.. we go to the local store out in the street for some pepsi max and water for tomorrow..smiling nicely seems to drop the price a bit!

... a guy coming up to you and saying. "We've got this great project for you, all you have to do is move these two 4000yr temples from down here up there, you might have to build some artifical mountains"! It must have been nuts to do this, but I tell you you wouldn't know if someone didn't tell you. The first big temple was built for Pharaoh Ramesses II while the smaller one was built for his wife Queen Nefertari tragic this is she never saw inside her temple as she was too ...

... on the island called Philae. Built by the Romans, the rich greenery contrast with the lovely golden monuments and seeing it during sunset made the it really beautiful.<br>More pictures and we are off to our next stop - Perfume Factory. Rifyat's advice not to touch anything was held very tightly by our group - we declined even the offer of drinks Finally, we were back at the Ramdsis and had a lovely dinner and got all ...

... the long return journey back to Aswan, a late lunch on the roof of our hotel beckoned, looking down on the crumbling walls of the buildings around us. Then a lazy afternoon debrief by the swimming pool of a posh hotel by the Nile drew the daylight to a close. But, even though the sun had gone down, the day was far from over. There was shopping to be done. Now ordinarily that would excite me about as much as watching underwater hockey, but as a ...

... to admire the view. No, not of my swelling spuds, but a view down onto the Nile below and an appreciation of just why it is the lifeblood of the whole country. For a couple of hundred metres on either side of the river the land was irrigated, fertile and densely planted with crops. But beyond that tiny ribbon of green, without any transition, was the desert, stretching across the whole width of North Africa. <br><br>On heading back down out of the hills and skirting around ...