Recovering by the Nile
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2007
1
31
115
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Aswan,
Egypt
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
We were pretty pleased with the set up actually. Nice big seats with some good recline going on. The toilets were another matter, but aren't they always? Other than that and the creepy staff, it was a pretty good set up. Our cab was mostly filled up with other foreign travelers, so everyone was pretty keen for sleep, however to break some of the monotony of the 13 hour trip, we did have a balloon animal making lesson by our local magician - Paul. Paul is a Canadian guy who actually works in real-estate, but used to be a professional magician. We all learned to make the classic poodle, Gabrielle's coming out rather successfully sans oddly disproportionate ears and mine looking like a wiener dog with a tail longer than the whole rest of the dog put together. We gave them to the first kids we met off the train, they were stoked.
(Again!... EVERYWHERE in the middle east plays 'Gangsters Paradise' by Coolio! Every bleedin' five minutes!)
Paul did have a problem with one of the train staff who continued to make bizarre hand gestures and hissing noises before dismantling the pink balloon poodle that Paul gave him to give to his probable kids. He came back later and kept asking Paul for a tip. Unsure of exactly what minor task he had performed which warranted said tip, Paul declined paying money and instead offered good Canadian advice of 'don't eat yellow snow'.
We don't think it was the kind of tip he was after, but hopefully it will be of use one day.
Probably not in Aswan though. This is the hottest place we've been so far. It's well into the 40's C here today, also described as "$#!~% *% hot" by some of the members of our group. We arrived at midday here and, after grabbing some food, hibernated in our hotel till the sun wasn't directly over head before adventuring out again. We're looking forward to a brief excursion to the bazaar tonight when it cools down before an early night tonight for recovery purposes. Yesterday most of the tour was feeling pretty ill - probably a combination of being run down after a month on the road, dodgy Egyptian food, and the climb up Mt. Sinai plus early wake up.
Tomorrow involves another wake up of much to early. At 3:30am we wake to head out to the famous Abu Simbel - the monumental temple of Ra built by Ramses II. It's only 50km from the border with the Sudan, so we've got about 280km to get there.
All our best from Egypt
Dan and Gabrielle
