Nubian Oasis Hotel Aswan

The train is comfortable, and sleep comes easy, dinner is as described - "similar to an airplane meal" I wake up thinking how incredible Dahab was, and how awesome it was to explore the underwater worlds there, I really think I am gonna do more diving Now we are going to Aswan for 2 reasons 1 Abu Simbel - one of the highlights of Egypt 2 Felucca up the Nile to Luxor The trip to abu simbel is 4 hrs by bus, and you don't want to stay there ie day trip only So its either organised trip by police...

Up at 3am, bus picks us up, we join the convoy which departs Aswan 4am, we are near Sudan, so all trips involving tourists can only be made in police convoys, everyone drives like mad through the desert, so all us tourists can see Abu Simbel, 280km from Aswan Abu Simbel... An incredible Temple built by Ramses II over 30 years from 1274 BC, hidden from the world by shifting sands, rediscovered in 1813, and spectacularly moved in 1964 when the rising Nile threatened to end it for once and all S...

Aswan After getting a late maccas in Cairo, I went back to my hostel got my gear and easily got a taxi from the main round about out the front of the hostel. I think in Cairo there is more taxis than people. Its crazy. I was to eager to get to the train station to barter for a fare. Its easy to barter when you just want something, but when something is a necessity and time is an issue you dont want to go nah. Got to the station. Taxi driver was pretty funny guy, good english, loved his arabic...

So to begin from where I left off. Got off the boat and met up with the tourist convoy. The mini bus went to Luxor with stops at temples of Kombo Ombo and Edfu on the way. The brazillian and 2 other spanish guys stayed back in a town they went to the night before, after a search for weed. The other stupid spanish people spent too long in the temples and the convoy left without us. Our minibus driver took it upon himself to catch up at death defying speed. We caught up and made it to Luxor. Th...

Coming into Aswan this morning we passed some pyramids, a Monument to Soviet-Egyptian Cooperation, and then sitting tall and proud on the cargo ship in the pier was FOXY! We were so relieved. It was 10am but we still had to wait another 5 hours before being allowed to disembark. All the passports had to be inspected, stamped and recorded by Egyptian Immigrations. You had to line up and give in your passport in, have the officer ensure you were the one in the passport, go back to your cabin an...

Is it wrong to assume that if I want to buy a can of Coke, I would just hand over some money, get the drink, be given change (depending on if the exact amount was given or not), and be done with the transaction? Apparently it is in Egypt. Here, you must bargain for even the basics like food and water. It's ridiculous. One usually expects a set price when you buy a loaf of bread or a bottle of 350 ml water. Not here. You have to fight and argue your way to a fair price. We're already fed up. M...

This morning Matt and Christoph went to the police station to get our cars registered and to have our chassis and engine number verified by an engineer. Chiho and I stayed in our rooms getting caught up on emails and blogs. The rest of the day was a blur of reading, writing, snacking and sleeping. Oh, and we got some laundry done. ~ Happy Wedding Steph and Marvin!! So sorry we can't be there with the rest of the family to celebrate your big day. I promise to play violin for you anytime you wa...

After spending plenty of time in Cairo I headed down on an overnight train to Aswan, Egypt's most southern city. I thought the train would be quite dodgey but turned out to be really nice. I was sharing the cabin with a guy room Korea. The train ride was brilliant with the sunset and sunrise being beautiful with the orange sun gleaming over the yellow landscape and the Nile valley with its riverside greenery. I woke up in the morning after an excellent nights sleep and was served breakfast be...

Oh. My. Gosh. I'm having the time of my life in Egypt. So after 4 truly amazing days in Cairo, I sadly departed as said in the previous entry. I arrived in Aswan around 12:30pm, probably the hottest time of the day. I am staying in a double room at a hotel a block away from the museum. The hotel served a complimentary hibiscus tea, of which I am a HUGe fan. My guide and I did a run-down of my activities in Aswan. The group changes a little bit for each activity since everyone has their own it...