Day 10 Kom Ombo
Trip Start
Oct 14, 2008
1
10
23
Trip End
Nov 05, 2008
Kom Ombo,
Egypt
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Another great day to be expected. I still can't believe I woke up on a cruise ship on the Nile!
After the pretty standard breakfast buffet we head out on the bus to Philae Island..It's about 7:00 am.
First we arrived at the dock where there were hundreds of boats ready to take you to the Island. It is crazy ! the boats are bumping each other trying to dock to pick up passengers, street vendors everywhere selling post cards, maps, jewelries, shirts and other tourist junks. The strong smell of diesel from the boats will make you sick easily.
Our group got on a boat arranged for us for the 10 min ride
West Colonnade
. On the way a vendor hopped on board selling jewelry hand made by the locals. They were very cheap, I bought 2 necklaces for about $4.00 each...The temple at Philae Island is another one of many temples being relocated due to the building of the Dam.
You can see the Dam from a distance. The sun is shinning, the sky is clear and blue , you see the temple entrance in the distance with the first pylon on one side and these awesome columns covered with hieroglyphics dating back over 3,000 years ago. What a fantastic sight!
Looking closer the craving seems to be 'erased' or scratched out.. This was done sometime after to 'denounced' the God. The temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis is covered with craving of Isis and offerings to her by others. The row of columns over the West Colonnade are very impressive. Every column was craved with different hieroglyphics topped with flower like cap on top. There is also 'graffiti' on them . saw one that said 'Romana 1841' which obviously is not 3000 year old also the 'christian Cross' ..and Greek symbols... kind of shame that the original column/walls were 'vandalized'.
We followed our tour guide to different parts of the temple and listen to him explaining the craving and the stories.
Graffiti on the column
. I don't quite heard all the pieces because I was too busy looking at all the craving in awe. The 'gauntlet', that's what Mohammad our guide calls the vendors lined up at the exit before the parking lot where our bus is waiting. Sure enough after our short trip back from the island, they are waiting for us. 'Canada Dry !' they yelled as they saw my Canadian flag patch on my backpack.. I was walking along with Dwane ..'Obama !' they yelled at Dwane who is a black dude from NY.. It was funny...We kept looking straight and walk quickly toward the bus.
I spotted a white cotton embroidered shirt, I barely made eye contact the vendor already saw me and came out yelling '50 pounds !'... Irene stopped as well as we were both looking at them.. We do need to get back to the bus quickly. '40 pounds I said, the vendor then 'pretended' to be insulted, I started to walk, another vendor came out agreeing to 40 pounds. I got one and so did Irene. I am sure I paid too much but it is Can $8.00 .. oh well.
Next stop the Aswan Dam. The story of the Dam is very similar to what is happening in China now. Build the dam to control the annual flooding of the Nile and to create more land for agriculture. This was completed in the 60's. The result is that the ancient temples will be underwater
Cross and Greek writings
. Not all of them were moved especially the Nubian ones. The Nubian is a group of people that is more related to the black Africans. Nubia was invaded and enslaved by the ancient Egyptian.. (yes that the history behind the Broadway play 'Aida').The Nubian villages were relocated as well.This is very much like what is happening in China where the new 3 Gorges Dam will control the flood of the Yangtse river but thousands of villages will be relocated along with temples that are thousand years old.
BTW the rules in Egypt does not always make sense. You can take picture here but no video or news camera.. AND no zoom.. huh? Oh make sure you check to see if you can take pictures first ahead anywhere.
Back on the bus after a short stop at the Dam. We headed back to the city of Aswan.
Next stop the Aswan Quarry. The granite used to build the temples came from Quarry like this and often had to travel a long way to the location. No one really know how this is done but they believe they are transported using the Nile during the annual flood.
The unfinished obelisk is what we come to see. 120 feet long and would have weighted nearly 1,200 tons was left on the ground
Get on the bus
. It was uninished because a crack was found midway, so it was left on the ground. This gave great insight on how the obelisk get craved out of the ground. The stay here was not very long but yes you have to face the 'gauntlet' again as you exit.. The merchance here are less aggressive.. They kept saying "No Hassel " as they gesture you toward their store. The El Sultan Palce Perfumes factory is our next stop. First you watch a demo on how the bottles are made, then into the show room where you sit and get serve tea while the owner explain how it all work. I never knew that most perfume in the world uses the esscence - flowers grew along the Nile as main ingredient. Alochol is mixed in to make perfumes but here is where they sell the undiluted essence. To demonstrate he lights a match to it, if there was alcohol it would burn but it did not.Then the girls bring around the some sample to put on your arm to smell. Very interesting!
You get a list of fragrances where they tell you what the name brand perfume is made from. I remember Lynn liked Oscar de la Renta so we got her a small bottle of essence as well as a perfume bottle that shaped like a camel.
We were back on board by 1:00 pm and start set sail north while we have our lunch.
We sat on the top deck to relax and watch the great scenery as the boat makes it way to Edfu
Boats waiting at the dock
. There is a lot of activities on the river, many small fishing boats with fishermen using traditional method to fish, felucca, kids playing soccer on the beach, men riding on donkey and horse drawn cart carrying farm products. We arrived at Edfu around 5:00 pm. This morning we went to a temple at sun rise, now a differnt temple at sunset, how great is that! The temple is just a short walk off the dock. The evening sun hits the temple making the building glow in a lovely orange colour. Not everyone from the group went to the temple. A number of them went to the market to shop for something to wear for Egyptian night on the boat. Who cares! you come this long way and you go shopping for some tourist crap instead of visiting history...!
The temple is not very big and it is not in the best of shape. It is however on the original site, i.e. not moved because of the Dam. The cool thing was there is a display of 2 mummified crocodiles in a small buiding. Yes it smelled like something is dead inside.. creepy... you can see the teeth. Apparently the Egyptian liked the process of mummified stuff so much they started to do their pets and whatever they can think of.
We took a number of pictures and have to head back to the boat by 8:00 pm for the Egyptian dinner.
Dinner was not as good as I thought it could be... I was thinking we are going to get lamb but there was no lamb. Some stirred fried dish which we all thought it was beef/lamb with veg.. it turned out to be liver.. yuke!. The soup was good and the dessert as well. It was quite fun to watch some of the people from our group 'dressed like an Egyptian' to dinner. After dinner there is a 'tacky' Egytian theme dance at the lounge. We stopped by for a while , had a beer , got group pcicture and head back to our room. It has been a long, full and wonderful day.
Comments
Sweet!
What an awesome trip! Glad you're having such a a great time, it's a pleasure to read your casual writing style. Keep it up.
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager