Aswan and nile boat cruise
Trip Start
May 13, 2008
1
8
16
Trip End
Jun 26, 2008
Aswan,
Nile River Valley,
Egypt
Monday, May 19, 2008
We later found out how much the granite in this quarry was used in the various temples. It was remarkable how important this hole in the ground was to ancient history was, even though it was not much to look at and we just played and climbed around it like little kids. Of couse as you exit any tourist site there is no other way out then through the mini bazaar where you are attacked like a flock pigeons. Jenn got seriously grabbed and dragged into a shop and cornered with this crazy Egyptian shoving mini Egyptian figurines in her face and inquireing after her marital status. Jill had to run in and rescue her by yelling NO! NO! NO! Get away from us!" and pulled her back out into the throngs of other Egyptian salesmen. We got through the rest of it by not making eye contact and practically running out. We finally made it to the bus, whew safe and sound.
As we continued the bus ride further through Aswan, we saw more and more of Africa at it's purist. Soon after our quarry visit we arrived at our boat and got to see our rooms and have a buffet lunch. It was at the least amazing! The food was supurb and we had most of the rest of the day to chill out, go on the internet and meet back at the boat around 6pm. At 6pm we had our felluca ride where we saw the Sahara and Arabian deserts meet at a point on the Nile. The felucca is a traditional Egyptian sailboat that has been in use for centuries for transport down the Nile as it moves a little too slowly to just use the current. We made a stop along the Nile to see a giant sand dune. The Nile is home to tons of Crockadiles and we got to meet and hold two baby ones that were being held captive near the dune. The ones we held were about a foot or so long and we found they can grow up to about 10 meters long. Woah! We then had the opportunity to run up and down a sand dune. It didn't look so hard to run up but the Sahara desert is hotter then you may think and it took our breath away. It was slow going up and the dune was really steep. The view at the top made it worth it tho! It was amazing as we could see the nile valley run for miles behind us. On the otherside was just massive seemingly endless desert! It was quite a sight! Shiriff told us that if you were to go that way through the desert, you would see nothing but sand for 400 miles and you would hit ocean before anything else! That would be the Eastern coast of Africa!! After returning to the boat and having another scrumptous dinner, we were told the secret place where we could buy some duty free alcohol. We also had the chance to take a ride on the local ferarri...aka horse-drawn carriage ride to the Aswan Bazaar. It was a nice ride...not quite how I imagined my first Ferrari ride but goood all the same. It was more scary than anything else tho as the traffic around Aswan and all of Egypt is insaine. We were reminded of our brush with death, 2 years prior, during the rickshaw ride behind a Chinaman riding a bicycle in Beijing. We later found out that some of our group members had their own brush with death when a car hit their horse and their buggy tipped over! They were able to jump out to safety, no harm done, we hope the horse was okay and at least got a day off! Our buggies took us to the local bazaar (much bigger than the ones at the tourist sites!) Our mission was not souvenirs (we don't have any space, or money, for them) but were buying authentic Egyptian attire for our Contiki Egyptian night bash. We spent about an hour in the bazaar. We haggled and fought to get the best price for our bellydancing skirts/scarves (they jingle when you shake it). After also buying some "Egyptian cotton" scarves that we know were actually from China (like everything else they try to sell) we could not take anymore men trying to pull us into their stores. Between the two of us we were offered around 100,000 camels shipped to Chicago for our hands in marriage. What do you think Dad? As cool as that sounds, are we really only worth a bunch of nasty camels?? In the end we really think that they just yell out the camel thing to get attempt to get you to buy something. Sheesh!!! Our other favorite line was "I give you money to just come in and look!" Trust us...they don't! After our escape from the bazaar, we bought some duty free alcohol and some special extra strong beer. It actually tasted a bit like wine but it was good and fun! Back on the boat we had a fun night of learning new international drinking games (Bagawk) before retiring to our cabins for the night. PS did I mention they were really nice!?! Compared to the Carnival cruise lines these had a balcony and were quite spacious. At least we get a shower before our next tour Abu Simbal tomorrow morning at 6am! Goodnight!
