Sunset over the Nile
Trip Start
Mar 07, 2006
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12
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Trip End
Jun 07, 2006
An uneventful week spent in Aswan, further down the Nile. We'd seen so many temples and tombs in Luxor that we just wanted no sightseeing whatsoever so spent our days reading, catching up on some writing and eating at the barge floating restaurants on the banks of the river oh and watching the gorgeous sunsets. Idyllic place really if you can set aside the incessant tooting of car horns that is constant in any Egyptian town. Watching the river traffic, motor boats, feluccas (sailboats) and the odd bit of rubbish float by was a nice way to relax for a few days. We stayed here a few days longer than originally planned due to me having a bit of a fever and tummy bug but I eventually came good after a few days. We spent a lot of time in the hotel over the time that I was sick as it is heating up more each day, and got chatting to the cleaning lady. She didn't speak much English but we established that she got paid 50pt(5p) per room and with about 20 rooms to clean averages at about 10 Egyptian Pounds per day or 1 English Pound. It's no wonder the generalised view that westeners and tourists are all rich permeates the culture here. Even though we would never consider ourselves to have a lot, when you really compare what someone actually earns you begin to get a different perspective on life here
