Nefertari Abu Simbel

... A few years back a group of German tourists were kidnapped on their way to the temple, so they require everyone to drive in one of two police escorted convoys. Also there is no cell reception and very little civilization so if you car breaks down you really are stuck in the middle of nowhere, which is this type of heat can get dangerous very quickly. We were in the early convoy which arrived at 7am and ...

Today was an early day, very early. As in wake up at 2:45 a.m. early.<br>We were off to Abu Simbel, a few hours south of Aswan. Located there is a huge temple built by Ramses II, the pharaoh who ruled for 66 years. We had to be on the bus by 3:15 a.m. as we were meeting up with a convoy of buses. The convoy is led by the police as the road to Abu Simbel is a long and isolated one, so it could be an ideal area for a terrorist attack on tourists, who pump a lot of money into Egypt.<br>The ...

... The men make"tsss" noises and depending on the context the noise can have many meanings. "Please take my taxi" or "I like your face" or "I can see your forearm so I'm pretty sure that means you are willing to bed me."<br><br>After walking for over 20 minutes we dropped our bags with Tom and Sarah Lindsey and Brittany went to inquire about hotel room rates. We found a hotel with air conditioning and a nice rooftop pool overlooking the nile for approximately $8 ...

... seem too happy about this..and the bus is a dump..no air con, it looks like a converted school bus. We get to Abu Simbel and die of the heat, its boiling hot..we trek over the mountain and thankfully Mohammed finds us shade under the ONLY tree there! He tells us of how the temples were moved, which 4 countries helped (and got temples in thanks!) and the reliefs inside as he was not allowed to accompany us. The temples outside are magnificent..the insides are lovely and ...

Added some more pics from Makely that he happened to still have on his camera. Also, added more info about the temple to some of the individual pics.<br><br>CMB<br><br>Abu Simbel while much smaller than Petra is equally or maybe even more amazing to see. You could only take pictures on the outside but the inside hieroglyphics where really incredible as well as the ...

Zeya and I left Aswan - very happy - because we left! It really wasnt all it was cracked up to be.<br><br>We got on the bus which picked us up at the ungodly hour of 3.30am. We were waiting at 3.25am after the hotel guys decided to wake us at 2.30am and the bus driver was blasting his horn like crazy!! Even when we were right next to the bus. He even had the cheak to shout hurry up - we were 5 mins early!!<br><br>once on the bus we ...

"My soul's gone funky, my soul's got soul" oh now the alarm is going off, what's the time?........Bugger it's 2:30am time to get up! Thats right we had to be ready to leave by 3am as that's when our armed convoy leaves for the 3hr trip down to Abu Simbel. So we borded our mini-van for the day and headed off to meet the convey went through the first check-point no problems, we were stopped at the second check-point (as everyone is) as they check the boot and under the vehicle ...

We flew south from Aswan, the furthest South I've been, to see the stupendous Abu Simbel.<br>Back on the boat I opened presents. At lunch all the staff came out singing carrying a huge chocolate cake. The cabin boys had outdone themselves in decorating our cabin. In the evening we went down the cateracts to have dinner in two nubian homes.

Upper Egypt has been fun largely because of time spent with a few other travellers. The World Cup is obviously a big thing here and I watched the Australia-Brazil match with a few residents from each country and had a good time. I must admit to already being a bit tired of Egyptians. The number of times that I have been directly lied to is astounding. I have a huge dollar sign over my head for many and nothing else. As a result, there have been times when I have been rude ...

... this was, as the escort seemed to be miles ahead of us and anyone wanting to cause some unrest by taking a pot shot at some tourists had a long procession of dozens and dozens of buses to choose from. The drivers themselves were busy playing their own game, continually overtaking each other along the road like a pursuit cycling team hurtling around a velodrome, sliding back into a single lane only to avoid the occasional oncoming traffic. And bear ...