Kalabsha Hotel Aswan

... Easy and similar trips in Wilmington. I doubt you would make a lot, but Easy, you would be in paradise, I promise. The weather here in November is perfect - a little warm, about 30 C, but there is a nice breeze by the water. My guide today, took me to see crocodiles- I kissed a baby croc and then he put it on my head saying "ha! crocodile on you head!" lol. Off to see the Big Dam. cheerio.<br><br>Back from ...

... who had opted to fly to Abu Simbel, so we left at 8am and were chaufferred to the airport for our 30min flight to Abu Simbel (on a rattly old DC9!)<br><br>Abu Simbel is quite simply astonishing, then you realise they moved it as well! THe 4 statues of Rameses II are over 20m high and the inside is amazing, unfortunately, you can't take cameras inside most of the monuments and tombs in Egypt now due to everyione ignoring the no flash rules.<br><br ...

... workmanship evidenced there - the tooled engraving and inlays were so fine and yet made by hand. Likewise the statues and paintings are so lifelike and fresh after 3000 years - you see the people and their lives so vividly. One statue when I didn't expect it to be so startling was of a local dignitary nearly 3700 years old - when the workers found it it looked so much like to contemporary 20th C town mayor called named it after him!<br><br>The museum is crowded ...

... after dark, the food, the amazing and iconic things to do and see...i could go on and on. The pyramids were superb and while the sphinx is a little like the Mona Lisa (much smaller than you think it will be), to be there standing in front of it took my breath away and made me realise how young our white, western civilisation in Australia is when compared to places like Egypt. I could not help wishing that i could see the pyramids in all ther\ir former glory as they were so impressive ...

... scorpion and we obviously came across many small crocodiles in the inscriptions. Definitely a good temple to visit and we really did enjoy it. <br><br>When we returned back to the boat and visited our cabins, we found the pillows &amp; towels had been dressed up and mine was dressed to resemble me, complete with tank top and stuffing for breasts! So funny that they did this and upon looking in everyone else's cabin, they had done the same. There was no wind to set sail to ...

... papyrus he was selling (we had been to a papyrus shop a couple days before) but he was trailing us as we walked and kept chatting. Then he offers me 1 million camels for me. We all had a laugh. Maybe I should consider it, after all a camel is worth quite a bit of money.<br>In the end I refused his offer but he did give me one of the papyrus he was selling. A good keepsake.<br>It was another extrememly hot day in Aswan but we were going to Philae Temple, which is ...

We are now officially with a tour group . We are known as the American cum Malaysian group , though we also have a Syrian couple with us but then the Malaysians and Americans form the bulk. The American were an Aunt and niece from Buffalo, an old couple from California who kinda reminds me of my mum and dad. Our tour leader Rifyat is certainly IN CHARGE and gave us many many useful tips like how to shoo away the peddlars ...

... at the airport. We said our good byes to especially to Mahmud , my ever patient "personal trainer". I was actually quite fond of him as I felt he was probably the most genuine - never even expecting a tip from me for assisting me up the mountain. Despite his low command of English, he really tried to talk to us about football, Obama , everything just wanting to know us better.<br><br>We were waiting in the domestic ...

... so they could show off how to milk it, but it responded by sitting down fully. When the boys then tried to get just the rear legs up the camel stood up completely. With this cycle continuing repeatedly over numerous attempts, the camel became so annoyed that it turned its head to face the boys, a loud rumbling emanated from its digestive system and it proceeded to spew all over them. And I can&#8217;t say I blamed it for doing so. <br ...

... amazed that the fore-runners to CDs were still very much in vogue here. And that was not our only musical accompaniment. In the market the night before Hoges had bought a very cheap rubbaba, which looked like a small, make-shift violin with two strings. Pretty quickly he discarded the bow and plucked the two strings with his fingers, regaling his captive audience during the day with such classics as Smoke ...