Crazy Brazillian, annoying Aussie and a Felucca
Trip Start
May 08, 2006
1
68
108
Trip End
Mar 07, 2007
Aswan,
Egypt
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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 music and bob marley, as do all the Egyptians. At the station it was insane trying to find a train. My ticket was in arabic and had lots of arabic numbers on it
a. Abu Simbel
. There were plenty of platforms and plenty of people and trains. All the numbers of the platforms were in arabic too. Asked around and asked round eventually worked out that my platform was on a backwards 7. Got on the train. Quite comfortable compared to what you would think. Massive seats and massive leg space. Foreigners have to go on special foreigner trains for safety, so they put guys with ak's in certain carriages. All the eggs in one basket. I sat next to an Egyptian guy. I think he was reading the Kuran but im not an expert. Periodically from about 8pm to about 1am in the morning he was singing from the book. It was really frustrating!!! Especially when i was trying to read and then sleep. It was hard to sleep on the train because they never turned the lights off. Thats why it was second class. Apparently second class is better than first class. The only difference is the lights go off their and their seats dont recline.
I was talking to this Brazillian guy called Leonardo in front of me. He was in a way doing the same trip as me. Going the reverse, usa, europe, asia, and was a uni drop out as well. Soon i realised though we were very different people, his entire trip had been spent getting stoned and doing drugs (his words) every night, and he had spent a great deal of time in amsterdam and Ibiza
b. Temple of Hathor
. He was obsessed with sex too. All he wanted to talk about was all the girls he scored, then he is like, where is the best sex you have had in your travels? Im just going OMG. This was a pretty full carriage, mostly foreigners and i know everyone is listening. I answer ges i dont know man, i umm yeah, asia has this place called pataya you prob like. It was an interesting conversation. Next day arrived about 11am. 13 hour train ride. Found a place called the Nubian Oasis in the book, was glad to say goodbye to leonardo, he was a nice guy, just we are like opposites. He was bizarro brett. Although he ended up coming to the same place.
I slept all arvo at the hotel. Woke up at night, got food for about 2 bucks at a local place. It was great they give you chicken, soup, rice, bread everything. Walked through the souq, market street thingy. Insane amount of people coming at me, hey amigo, ola, where you from. I forgot to mention in cairo that everyone hear thinks im south american. Ola they all say, Hey amigo. Its great beacause i dont feel guilty for not answering. Leonardo thought i was brazillian. Said it was my tan. Everyone always says im something else.
At night i payed to go on the door the next morning to Abu Simbel
c. Abu Simbel up close
. The giant statues they moved up the river bed. Had to wake up at 3 in the morning and leave at 3:30. They make you go in a massive bus convoy. Dozens and dozens of buses and mini buses with police escort. Its not really a safe thing because if someone wants to get you they know what time you are leaving and where you are going. Also, it sort of ruins the visit because hundreds of tourists are all there at once. The brazillian guy came too but he was too tired to talk about sex. My big biff though is that people suck at taking pictures. At Abu simbel i asked 3 people to take a picture of me in front of the massive statues. They were awful. Like i say put me in it and make sure you get the whole thing. They just put me in front of a leg. Its not that hard. I asked a japanese girl to take a picture of me at the Temple of Hathor. Excellent picture. The Japenese are great at pictures. I saw one couple take about 20 doing all different poses and changed lenses and cameras and different angles. They really are perfectionists.
Never ask a old man to take your picture, he dosent understand digital, never ask a person with a non digital camera, they dont how to focus. If in doubt use a tripod i say. I also have pics of me at the pyramids with just me and the top half of the pyramid cut off
d. Me at temple of hathor
. Comon! its common sense. They ask if its ok, you have to say ohh yeah great thanks. One day im going to call one of these people back and just have a go at their inteligence level for making sure they get my feet in the picture and not the whole pyramid. Time wasters. Sorry. After the mini bus went to abu simbel, a few hours drive, it spent a hour or so there then went a few hours back. Part of the transportation thingy took you to a high damm, it wasnt high, and a unfinished obelisk which no one in the van wanted to see, so i had to say i didnt want to see it either.
After that epic, got back about 4pm. Slept a bit more. Went to another local place and ate for 8 pounds. Bartered down a Nike watch, spelt "Naikee" and with a backwards tick. Found out it was missing a button, went back and traded it for a "adibas" watch. It even has a back light that lights up and says adibas, i love it. When they try to sell it they say its adidas. I wouldnt have bought it if it wasnt adibas.
At night Leonardo asked if i wanted to go out and have some dinner with some spanish and smoke some weed. I passed. Had a little nap. Woke up pretty late at night and went down to tell the manager i was going to go on a feluca (boat) trip he told me about. Turns out Leonardo was sitting there with the manager and another worker there. First thing said to me by Leonardo when i sat down was, "the manager wants to know why its a good thing for a women to have lots of sex before she is married". Leonardo said that women like to have a good time before they are married, he continued to say his mother was a sex therapist and he wants his daughter to have lots of sex when she is young too
e. The convoy
. He would be worried if she didnt because then she might not be happy. He asked me if i had an opinion. I just said, i just woke up this is a odd discussion. Im like WTF is going on. The egyptian guys were intrigued. No wonder the middle east and stuff has a distorted opinion of Western women. Stupid "westerners" talking crap like that. He reminded me of the guy from Die Hard. You know Bruce Willis' wifes co worker the one who goes into the office thinking he is cool and shooting his mouth off and then gets shot. Thats how i felt at the time anyway. When walking around town and through the souq (market) people kept calling out. A couple of guys said "Ayye F*ck you!!!" was pretty funny. This little kid also said why not why not why not why not, for like 5 minutes following me. Eventually i clicked and yelled "because i dont want it!!" He clicked it back at me and said "then go away".
People at the hotel were nice, and people in the restuarants and stuff. Not all bad in the touristy areas. Its sort of saddenning though that people have to hassle so hard because they need the money. Kids say hello and you think they are nice and then they just go "money 1 pound". Then when some kids come up just to say hello, i grunt a hey am not that nice to them, thinking they are about to ask me to buy something
f. Philae temple
. So i agreed to go on the felucca boat. 90 pounds (18 bucks) for 2 nights, 2 days including food. Egypt is definatley cheap. The guy said at the moment it was me and leonardo and 2 people from other hotel. He said a maximum of 8. Next day i slept in, woke up with 20 minutes before we had to leave, packed by bag, ran out and bought much needed snacks (Happy time biscuits and expensive pringles) not to mention water as on the boat they charge quadruple.
Got on the boat at 11am, it left at 2pm. 13 people! Dodgy. Was a big boat anyway. Cruised up the nile. Everyone on the boat spoke pretty much only spanish except for a candanian/english couple and another australian guy. So it made it easy just to read.
The food on the boat wasnt too bad. Basic, Pita bread, rice, tea. But i like basic. There was like matresses all put together to create a giant bed. There was no bathroom, so you just used the bushes. It seemed though all the Felucca guys were related, they put there boats all in the same place at night and shared food.
At night the spanish guys and leonardo bought some weed
g. Stuff on the wall
. They said it was the worst they had ever had in their lifes. It got completley dark at like 5:30 and began to get a bit cold. Mohamed the driver said i could have a blanket for 10 pounds. Thats like 6 bottles of water. I thought no way i will just wear a jumper and pants. Everyone else had sleeping bags or paid for a blanket. Every other night was so warm in egypt, but the boat was parked right next to the dessert. I froze, woke up and put double jackets, singlets, double pants, socks. Still froze. One of the spanish guys ended up giving me his blanket.The next night i asked for a blanket!We all swam in the nile the second day. Mohamed said it was ok in the section we were. Im still waiting for some kind of new disease. The higlight of the trip though was a visit to a village called Tarwla or something like that. It was the first time i saw the real egypt. Everyone was nice. People saying hello just to say hello. Prices of things werent tourist prices. Kids ran up and stared at you. There was a camel market and there were even Tuk Tuks!!
The aussie guy on the boat called Darius was a annoying aussie. He fit my stereotype of the aussie that goes to england because he dosent like australia. Then goes to a few countries in europe and thinks he knows the world. He wouldnt shutup. Theres some trees, theres some kids, narrating everything! He was a nice guy though. Just had a factual comment on everything and always complained about there not being enough food.
The boat didnt travel far in its 2 days. Instead of going up the nile it did a zig zag from one side to the other. Im sure it only did about 20 k's. Because at the end you meet up with the road convoy from Aswan and they said it was only a half hour drive.
Sadly at the end Mohamed and his assisant asked for Bakshesh (tips) at the end. I didnt pay because they charged 10 pounds for a blanket. A lot considering a room is 15. We joined the convoy at the port. I will continue this story another time in another entry.
The felucca trip was worth that one town. Changed my whole perception on Egypt people.
