The Hathor Hotel Aswan

Sorry, back later soon..

After our short holiday in Dahab it was time to move on and what better way than a short 18 hour overnight bus ride, followed by a couple of hours on a train.

Upon arriving at the bus station we were greeted by our driver who from the outset seemed very angry. This proved quiet true as at 4 on the dot he started beeping his horn and yelling at everybody to get on, unfortunately two other backpackers hadn't yet collected their tickets, then got a dressing down in front of everyone by t...

Yes, I did...

I arrived in Aswan and - as it was hot - I found out, that I have left home for two and a half weeks to join that great adventure trip of my friends Marvin & Nicole (Cape-to-Cairo and futher to Germany!).

* change horrible hotel
* better one has roof-top pool
* friends arrived fron Sudan
* souq is great
* on Friday no business, so boat trip to island and botanical garden
* no car downloaded on Saturday
* Sunday all is organised and paid, so we...

Hello from Aswan! I believe the last time I wrote we were still in Cairo. Well, we are now in Aswan in the south of Egypt. Tuesday evening we took the overnight train from Cairo to Luxor, a 14 hour expedition. It was loads of fun, actually. We had sleeping cars, so our beds unfolded from the wall and we slept, albeit not so cozily. (The bed cushions were about as thick as a thin paperback novel). Our car attendant was an Egyptian teddy bear named Hassim. He was a gentle giant, though not very...

We arrived in Aswan at 11pm and headed to our hostel of choice which was only a 10 min walk away. Unfortunately it was an absolute dump so we headed back to a nice hotel we spotted on the way only to have the reception guy look us over and proceed to tell us that the hotel was full. We were furious that he would judge us just because we had backpacks on. So after a quick look thru the bible (Lonely Planet) Damo called the Hathor Hotel which is situated on the banks of the Nile and we finally ...

We arrived in Aswan in the early morning. We had acouple of hotels picked out to stay in so ew set off on foot from the train station. On the websites each hotel said they were a 10 to 15 minute. As we walked away from the train station we were immediately followed by all manners of transportation- men with taxis, horse carriages and minbuses. They were all shouting "taxi taxi taxi" and making hissing noises at us. The art of the hissing noise has been perfected in Egypt. The men make"tsss" n...

I have had a meal a day at McDonalds for five straight days now. I've tried Egyptian food, but it just hasn't been working out. For that reason, I don't plan on ending this streak any time soon. While McDonalds food here is just as ****** as it is back home, the restaurants themselves aren't that bad. For one, they all provide free wireless internet service. Secondly, they all have great views (at least the ones I've been to do). The three story McDonalds in Luxor has a view of Luxor Temple w...

For some reason, Egypt has a severe shortage of dollar bills in the lower denominations. There are supposedly 5, 10, 25 cent coins, but I haven't seen them yet. In fact, many consider them to be collectors items. On the other end of the spectrum, most people here do not accept the 100 LE bills. The few that do accept your 100 LE bills will do so angrily. Yesterday, I went to the pharmacy and purchased 39.90 LEs worth of goods. The cashier handed me back 39.50 LE and 2 pain relief tablets to m...

Wadi Halfa to Aswan Last days in Wadi Halfa, until December 16th While we were waiting for the ferry to arrive we had to let the boys do their homework. On Monday this involved a play on Egypt. They had about two hours to prepare and it had to last about ten minutes. This is what was performed only once, on the beach of Lake Nasser, and for a limited and very select audience. Sander played the pharaoh, Jasper took the other roles. A typical day of a pharaoh. Narrator. Egypt, 1336-1327 BC In o...

Hi everyone, Sarah and I are in Aswan now, having caught the overnight sleeper train down from Cairo on Thursday night. The train ride was lots of fun, with our own little cabin and two decent beds. We got dinner (probably worse than airline food) and a basic breakfast and passed the time sipping at a pretty bad bottle of Egyptian red wine until we went to sleep to the clackety-clack of the train. We arrived in Aswan about 8:30am and immediately hoisetd our bags, avoided the touts that try to...