Ramses Hotel Aswan

... you got to move.<br> <br>Several Pharaonic monuments had to be moved as a result of creating Lake Nasser. The monuments had to be cut into pieces and rebuilt at new sites above the risen water line. One such site was the Temple of Philae which was located on Philae Island but the rising waters from Lake Nasser forced its removal and reconstruction to another island only a few hundred meters away (sorry Philae, you got to move). We visit the ...

... in record time, they are incappable of laying a level stretch of road to walk on to get there - go figure. Poor mum has suffered on the walks and has had a few rest days as we also have needed to board tenders to get to the rocks to walk through the sand to climb the steps and stones to cross the rope ladder to see the monument! I am as nimble as a gazelle - to my continuing suprise and delight! Haven't had much chance to exercise, but even with my ongoing ...

... getting up at 2:30am!!!!!!!!!!!) and were at this amazing temple for only 2 hrs! I was not impressed. And the guide spent 45 mins explaining the history while we sat in the hot sun. I didn't care too much for the explanation, plus i always thought he could do the explanation on the bus in advance so that when we got there we maximised our time on the ground. <br><br>The tour group was 19 people - all Australian's or English. I was the only solo male, which ...

... went to freshen up and change and in the meantime the guys had set up our dinner table on the back deck under the stars and laid the most beautiful table cloth upon it. Stunning.<br>Next I knew a head dress similar to the one's that belly dancers wear was thrown on to my head which I figure was just like my party hat.<br><br>Dinner started with soup, this time noodle soup and followed by a beef dish and some pickled vegetables and a potato dish which was yummy ...

... but i was annoyed even though it turns out i got an amazingly good deal.<br><br>Any how, hotel was a **** hole. The door didn't close properly which was very worrying and it had a beautiful view of a waterless pool full of rubbish and old cigarette butts. Classy. I spent a bit of time in my room watching bad Egyptian soap operas featuring women who need to scrape their make up off of an evening after showering. I ventured downstairs to have an older man who worked there show me the ...

... could use the toilet but who knows what the state of those toilets would have been. Considering one of group was already sick (and a few others weren't feeling great I found out later) the cruise was a great upgrade.<br>Also consider the fact that that day in Aswan it was about 42 degrees Celsius. Very hot and there was no air conditioning on the felucca.<br>After the felucca, we got a different boat that took us to a beach area on the Nile. There we had the opportunity to swim ...

... it drips slowly into the bucket making it perfect to drink. We were served Nubian bread or solar bread that is made outside in a large mudbrick oven using only the heat of the sun to bake it. It only rains once every 4 years here, so the mudbrick houses have little chance of being damaged by the rain. I don&#8217;t want to paint the picture of a technologically devoid village. There are satellite dishes and power lines all over from the hydroelectric ...

... was no way quarantine officials were going to let him bring it back into Australia. He decided it was best to leave it by the Nile where it had given him two days of musical nirvana. After some final strumming for nostalgia&#8217;s sake, he ceremoniously dropped it on the fire. It took a little while for it to catch alight, but when it did, I think Melissa summed up the mood best when she muttered &#8220;Thank goodness for that&#8221;.<br>

... government edict that the prices of all hotels and tourist attractions in Egypt were to double on the 1st November, the expected free admission to get in was no longer free. With no Kev to smooth the way for us we debated amongst ourselves whether we thought the new admission price was worth it, and whether it was just an attempt by the men on the door to rip us off, before deciding against going in and climbing back onto our transports to continue our journey. <br><br>I ...