James' in the UK

Although we spent a few days cruising on the Nile Treasure, our first Nile experience was on a Felucca boat - a traditional sailing boat used on the Nile. We were sailing to a Nubian village just as the sun was setting and it was very calm - so beautiful and relaxing. The Felucca had an esky of beer and we all had plenty of room to spread out on the mattresses. It did get a bit to calm so we needed to be towed most of the way there but it was still a pretty cool ride.

The tour on a Felucca
Adrian, Hayley, AJ, Nicole, Kelly, Kevin, Rose, Karen, Jac, Mark, Chris, Bec, Dave, Janet, John

Before we got to Aswan our tour manage said that when you got down south to the areas that the Nubian people inhabited it was where you felt like you were really in Africa. Our evening in the village certainly did feel like that. We got off the boat and walked into the village, feeling a bit like we were intruding some where we shouldn't have been. The family that we visted was really an extended family with multiple adjoining huts making up one dwelling. We sat down in one of the court yard type areas and shared some drinks and cake while some of the group got henna tattoos and we all looked at the hardcarved jewellery and ornaments. It was a wonderful warm night and a nice way to spend an evening and find out out more about the local people.

Back on the Nile Treasure we were not sailing until midnight so we had free time to look around the markets in Aswan again, but we felt like we had already experienced that enough so we retired early.

Up early again the next morning for our first stop - Kom Ombo temple. This temple was probably more of a ruin than most we had seen but there were still very interesting things to learn. Of interest was the split interests of the temple - half devoted to Horace the falcon headed guy and half to crocodiles. I think it was originally for Horace, but the locals were finding they had a bit of a crocodile eating people problem so they converted half the temple to crocodiles to try and reduce that problem. I'm not sure if it worked but it made for an interesting temple. Anyway being more of a ruin there was a bit less to look at but it was one of the first example we saw of the remaining colours in the hyroglyphics and murals. I never realised before coming to Egypt that a lot of the carvings were actually painted in their time but most of that colour has since faded away. There are however sections of temples where the colours have been preserved due to being covered in sand or something. It was pretty amazing given how old some of the walls were, incredible that the colour was still visable.

Column at Kom Ombo Temple

Back on the boat we had a a good few hours before we were going ashore again so we enjoyed the sun deck and watched the banks of the Nile go by from sun lounges. It was amazing the scenery I saw when I looked up from my book, the very lush greenery and the lifeless desert all at once. I had the camera with me all the time and zoom lense came in handy more that once.

The Banks of the Nile

Next stop was Edfu temple around lunch time. I think while we were at Edfu it was the hottest we felt in Egypt, very hot sun and not much breeze inside the walls. So we were happy to be inside the temple in the shade. The temple was quite interesting in that the exterior wall seemed to illustrate one of the stories we had heard many times before - the story about the god who built a sarcophagus that fit his brother, then got all the gods around for a BBQ and said who ever fitted in the sarcophagus was going down. His brother fitted and rest went down in dismembered-by-a-hippopotamus history. As we had heard the story a few different times it was interesting to see it illustrated on the walls, including some interesting dismembering scenes.

We got back to the boat to see it was not docked but floating out in the river as the boat it was tied up to had since left. They tried to get ig back into the shore but it really wan't happening so we had to wait then walk along the bank to where the boat could pull up.

That evening after dinner we were warned that the cleaners had demonstrating their handiwork with towels in our rooms.....have you ever seen a crocodile made of towels wearing sunglasses? After dinner there was a lame ass dress up party, as is the norm with cruise boats. As most of the people on the boat were a fair bit older than ourselves and the DJ was absolutely terrible it was a very lame ass night but we made it bearable with a few Sakkaras and ended the night with more drinks on the deck. During the night we went through the lock and docked at Luxor in the early hours.

After a few early mornings and late nights we had the opportunity for a sleep in which was much appreciated. The boat was pulled up right infront of Luxor temple so we had a great view from the sun deck when we did get up. The only activity we had on the list for the morning was a quick walking tour around Luxor and the markets, time enough for our guide to show us the jewellery shop where he would get a cut of what we spent. Unfortunately something I hadn't eaten the night before hadn't agreed with me and I spent the whole walk wondering if I needed to run back to the boat to the toilet. I had taken something for it and once that kicked in I felt a lot better.

Our afternoons activities were a trip to Karnak Temple. This was a few miles away from Luxor so we covered that distance in a horse cart. We were glad that we were in the cart and not next to the drive when Nicole experienced a 'golden shower' along the way.

I think we were probably feeling a bit templed out when we got to Kanak, thinking that this was going to be a bit same old same old, but we were wrong. Karnak temple blew us away. We had a really good guide (who was also taking us to the Valley of the Kings the next day) and we just loved the hypostyle hall with it's 134 columns. It was supposed to be built to be like a forest with big tree trunks, and it was. There were also some fantastic sections of original colour in the paint work, we just couldn't stop taking photos. It was very cool and we had a great time wandering around the temple before it was time to find our horse and carts and go back to the boat.

Karnak Temple

In the evening we found a great bar along the banks of the Nile for a couple quite drinks. The seats were surrounded by hanging rugs and large fans, and our bartending was a crack up. We had an early start the next morning so we called it a night.

After yet another early morning wake up call we collected breakfast boxes (again) and headed out for our hot air balloon ride. First we had to cross the river on a ferry type boat, then a mini van to the balloon lauching area. Unlike other balloon rides I'd observed, the balloons where pretty well inflated and ready to go when we got there. Within a few minutes we were in the basket and ready to go. The balloon ride was amazing, the view was incredible and we took a million photos. The landscape was half desert and half lush green fields with villages dotted in between. We floated over ruins and a temple and just generally enjoyed the fantastic view.

View from the Balloon

The balloon 'pilot' was pretty impressive also. He got the balloon up in the air and kept us down closer to the ground as we floated over villages heading towards the hills. As we got closer to the hills he sent us up higher, caught a different breeze and landed us pretty much exactly where we took off. If was definately a fantastic place to experience a hot air balloon.

After the balloon we jumped back in the mini vans and went to where we were meeting our donkeys. At this point Adrian was feeling a bit off and wasn't sure if he was up to an hour on a donkey, but he recovered enough and was soon saddled up with the rest of us. The guy seems to pick a particularly tall donkey and I wasn't sure how I was going to get up on it but I found a step and managed some how. Adrian first donkey - Silver Soverign - was a little spirited and reared up a few times so one of the handlers swapped donkeys and he finished the trip on Silver Soverign 2. As number 2 was actually one of the guides donkeys it wanted to lead the group the whole time and if any donkey tried to get ahead it bolted until it was out front again.

My donkey on the other hand was a bit more of a back of the pack donkey, which meant I was subject to the middle of the pack donkey behaviour i.e. if it saw a gap athead it bowled through anyone or anything to get to it, but if there was no gap it walked along very slowly ending up last. Being in the middle of the pack also bought with it donkey poo and projectile donkey sneeze. Luckily my donkey was the one providing the projectile sneezes so I didn't wear any of that but I wasn't so lucky on the poo front.

Anyway I absolutely loved the dockey ride, it was soooooo much fun. I think I laughed for most of it because I would look up and see some one legs spread over the saddle (tatty looking cushion) trying to keep balance. Anyway I had absolutely no control whatsoever over my donkey, it went where it wanted at the speed that it wanted. The guides kept telling us to keep right and away from the oncoming buses, but even when I was pulling my donkeys head way over to the right it kept running to the left.

Anyway it was a fantastic way of getting into the Valley of the Kings. Once we got there our guide was waiting and she took us in to the valley. After a bit of an explaination we had free time to go into three of the tombs. The tombs were pretty amazing, a bit sad to think most of them were never seen in their original state due to tomb robbers. There were some amazing paintings preserved by being underground, we just couldn't quite believe the colour. All to soon we were heading back to the exit and the bus.

Next stop was Hatshepsut's Temple, the last organised guided tour of our holiday. The temple itself was not in great repair but it was interesting just for the overall look of it. It was very different with it's multiple tiers of rows and rows of columns and ramps between the tiers. It was getting pretty hot so we were glad to find some shade at the cafe before heading back to the bus.

The rest of the afternoon we had free time. Some people were going on a camel tour but we stayed in Luxor, firstly getting cleaned up in the hotel room we had for the afternoon, then heading out to the markets for a look around. Walking around the touristy markets was genarally pleasant as we weren't getting hassled. Next we continued our walk through some food markets, which was an eye opening experience. The fresh (and not so fresh) fish, meat and poultry (some of it not yet dead) was on display along with fruit, veg and herbs. It was very colourful and exciting and it smelled wonderful and horrible at the same time. At some stage we started getting followed by some one trying to get us to go to his market, and to start with he was persistent but didn't bother us but eventually he got a bit to weird and we felt quite uncomfortable, expecially when he told us he was protecting us from other people in the markets. Eventually we lost him and were feeling a bit weirded out so we found our favourite bar for a drink.

After a quick break we went for a last trip through the markets to get the last few things that we wanted and headed back to the hotel for tea. After a very ordinary meal we went to the train station to catch another overnight train. We were all pretty tired and passed out pretty much straight away.

Unlike the train down this one actually arrived on time, so after leaving the train station we went back to the hotel and showered/freshened up and headed out again for lunch. Bec and Dave took us out for a very yummy carb packed lunch, then we caught a taxi to a bizzare on the other side of town. After a bit of confusion with where we were trying to go and some serious horn blowing (at one point we ended up in the middle of a traffic jam and our driver got out of the taxi, left us there and tried and sort it out) we got out somewhere near the market.

The market was quite fasinating, very traditional and we really felt like we stood out. People were staring at us and calling out to us all the time which I found quite surprising as it seemed like somewhere tourists would find themselves now and then. I would have loved to have taken some photos because it was all so different and interesting but we already stood out more than I would have liked so whipping out the digital SLR wouldn't have helped. After following the lane - really a pedestrian street that people drove down at will - for ages we tried to walk towards the mosques. We kind of got there but at the same time we got really lost and some guys were trying to tell us go this way not that way, I've got a taxi if you need it etc. We tried to walk in the direction we though was towards the hotel all the while walking through little streets where we were getting more and more attention. Eventually we came out to the river, got our bearings and got back to the hotel.

Our last meal out together was great, very expensive in a very lush and styling restaurant. Unfortunately we were all feeling pretty tired and some people were feeling off colour so we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we did come last minute shopping and made our last trip through the crazy traffic to the airport. Overall it was a fantastic holiday, once in a lifetime and definately worth it.

Food of choice in Egypt: Some carb loaded dish that Bec and Dave introduced us to

We were meeting our tour on Monday afternoon in a hotel in Cairo, so the only thing we had to do on the first day was get from the airport to the hotel and check in. We had arranged for a transfer so we were met by a guy before we even went through passport control. This was going to be our first experience with Cairo traffic. We eventually learned to love the craziness of the traffic in Cairo but when you first experienced it you just aren't sure what strategy the drivers are going with. Lanes seem irrelevant, even when the road was 4 lanes wide. You don't actually get in another lane to overtake, you just sqeeze your way around. The horn is the most important part of the car, more important that the steering wheel even. Traffic lights are optional, if you at an intersection where traffic police issue tickets you might stop for a red light but otherwise it's really up to you. The streets of a city with a population of 17 million is the PERFECT place for a horse/donkey/sheep/goat etc. The ring road is a great road to walk accross.

Anyway the van managed to take on the traffic and win, and before long we were seeing our first glimpses of the Nile and navigating a maze of backstreets to the hotel. We met up with the tour group and tour manager, then hit the streets to find some tea. It was then that we met Mahommad, a local perfume seller who befriended Australian tourists and sold them perfume or papyrus from his brothers shop, or somthing else or other from his cousins shop.....anyway he was a harmless kind of guy and he showed us where to get some food and boughts us a lovely fresh mango juice each.

The next morning we met the rest of the tour again and jumped on a bus to the pyramids. Now I always expected that the pyramids would be miles out into the desert somewhere, but as it happens you just jump on 'Pyramid Road' from central Cairo and a few donkeys later the pyramids start appearing from behind the roadside buildings. The immediate area is all sand/desert, but only a mile or 2 away are suburban streets.

Now visitng the pyramids is interesting, you have seen so many pictures of them so you already know exactly what to expect. It is kind of hard to stand back and look at them and appreciate them for what they really are because they are so familiar. I felt like I could have spent a couple hours there without really seeing or appreciating the architecture of them. Our first stop was the inside of the second pyramid which we were told was a lot easier to climb into than the great pyramid. Inside it was very hot and humid, and anything of interest inside the pyramid was long ago plundered by grave robbers, but it was interesting to head in there anyway. Next we spent a bit of time wandering around the great pyramid, climbing on the bits that weren't guarded by tourist police and generally trying to take in the size of it and the scale of the construction that must have gone into it.

The Great Pyramid

We then drove into the desert a little way to a viewing area that allowed you to see all the pyramids on the plateau, and also allowed you to get harassed by men trying to take a picture of you and ask for money. We managed to avoid that but did get a few good photos ourselves.

Me and the Great Pyramid

Next stop with the Sphinx, which really wasn't very far away at all, just at the bottom of the valley. Again you got a sense that it was all so familiar that you had to try really hard to actually see what was arround you instead of just snapping a couple photos and moving on.

The Second Pyramid and the Sphinx

The rext of the afternoon we had free so we bought some papyrus, found a supermarket with the best chocolate cake ever and went for a bit of a walk along the Nile and the nearby river islands. For tea we went on the bus with the rest of the tour to a restaurant on a hill that sits above most of Cairo.

The next morning we were off on the bus again, heading for Sakkara. This was not somewhere that I had heard of before (other than on out itinerary) so it was good to be going somewhere totally new. The drive there followed a canal that made life and a livelyhood in the area possible. This was an area where most farming seemed to involved a donkey or a camel and buildings where mud huts - quite that same as you imagined it has been for many years. However technology did reach these people in some ways.....it was not unusual to see some one sitting on the back of a donkey chatting on a mobile and every building (from elegant mansion to mud hut) had a satelite dish.

In the general area of Sakkare there were mutliple pyramids that looked a bit different to what you'd expect. One looked like a pile of rocks and sand (this was the one that we went into) and one seemed to be made of several layers or rocks forming steps. But before visiting these we went into a fascinating noblemans tomb, made interesting because apparently it was one of the few places where the hyroglyphics and scenes on the wall depicted everyday life along the Nile instead of gods, mythical battles, and overly attractive pharoahs. The scenes showed fishing, animal rearing and some of the birds and animals of the time. This temple had at one point been covered in sand which was how it was preserved so well.

Next we went into Titi pyramid, the one that looked like a pile of rocks and sand. Looking back on what we saw on that day, it was a bit of a preview into what we see in many of the other tombs - the stars on the ceiling, the hyroglyphics on the walls, the cartouche with the name of the person spelled out.

We then went onto the Step Pyramid and wandered around that for awhile. There was obvious restoration work going on here though I wasn't sure about the 30 seconds on 2 minutes off schedule of the workers or the dodgy looking scaffolding. All in all it was a fascinating spot to stop and have a look around.

The Step Pyramid

We were on to Memphis next, which was the site of an ancient city and so was of interest from that perspective, but in reality today it is just a yard with a few statues poked here and there - the only remaining from the city. Having said that the statue of Ramses II that was inside was pretty impressive. It was laying down rather than standing as it originally would have been, and it has some parts missing, but it was huge and the detail of the carving was amazing.

After Memphis we headed back into Cairo to go to the Museum of Antiquities. This was one place where it was definatley worth having a guide. The museum itself seem a bit dissorganised and lot many things were labelled well or in English, but out guide cut a path through the place that pulled together important people and events from the sites we had already seen. Most memorable would have to be to Tutankhamun section, complete with the gold mask and many many jewels and decorations that he was buried with plus the beds and chairs and other items that were in the tomb to make his afterlife comfy. It was amazing stuff, so well preserved and quite extreme e.g what was considered important to be buried with.

We were catching an overnight train that night so we all got back to the hotel, showered and had tea and then headed for the train station. Now I don't think anyone had that greater expectations of what the trains were going to be like. In some ways it was good, quite spacious and the chairs reclined way back - but it other ways it was very grotty....the seats had tray table that you wouldn't even think of touching and the toilets where a little rough around the edges. The train was supposed to be 12 hours but I think by the time we pulled into Aswan it had been closer to 15 hours.

After checking into the hotel we quickly freshened up we jumped on a bus to Philae Temple. The story of this temple was quite interesting. It was located on an island not that far from where we saw it and when they built the dam wall just a couple miles downstream the water level rose and it got flooded. Then they decided to pull it apart and relocate it to another island that was still above water level. So the whole temple was a bit of an oversized 3D jigsaw puzzle with all the pieces numbered and water damage up to a few feet.

Obviously being on as island we had to go by boat. The whole boat arrangement was very crazy, made even crazier by our driver who plowed into another boat and then had trouble starting the motor again. Anyway when the boat was going it was great view of the temple. The temple was the first example we saw of hyragliphics that came out instead of receeding into the wall. Apparently this was done where there was low light to make it easier to see, but it was also alot more work while doing the carving. We also learnt alot about temples in general and the common themes we would be seeing in all temples.

Inside Philae Temple

So back on the boat we got, then back into Aswan where we could finally have some lunch and some free time to look around the markets and Aswan in general. The markets in Aswan were full on in that you couldn't walk down the market street without people yelling at you or stopping you, trying to get you to buy somrthing from their shop. Most ironic were the men who would chase you down the road claiming ' no hassle - no hassle to look in my shop'. They didn't seem to get the irony of that. We all learnt 'la shakrun' pretty quickly which means
'no thankyou' , but quite often that didn't work so you'd try an sharp 'la-ah'. I think this was a less touristy way of saying 'no' and people tended to listen to it a bit better.

The markets were colourful and amazing and cheap, but it was also very full on being harrassed by men contantly so we could only handle it in small doses. When we got sick of it we walked along the riverbank which is where you got hassled about riding a horse carriage or a felucca instead. We tried to find a beer along the river bank but this is when we discovered the hideous tasting non-alchoholic beer. It seemed Aswan was a non-alchohol city and we wern't able to buy a beer anywhere. So we made do with the hideous alternative and watched the sun go down and the feluccas on the Nile. While I call it a sunset this isn't an accurate description. You never see the sun get to the horizon, it just kind of 'dissolves' into the layers of sand or smoke or whatever hangs in the air.

Feluccas at Aswan

The next morning was a very early start, even though we had only slept lightly on the train on the way down. The reason for the early start was our trip to Abu Simbel. In an attempt to appear as though there was some secuity, there was a convoy that met at 4:30am and drove the 3 hours out to Abu Simbel. Then we had a couple hours to look around before the convoy met up again and went back to Aswan. A bit of a different experience, and all a bit of a front because I don't think we saw any police and it was a pretty loose convoy.

Abu Simbel itself was amazing, another 2 temples that had been relocated due to the construciton of the dam, although they seemed to move this one before the water level went up. The temples where carved out of a solid rock hill, which was even more impressive given that it had been moved. Rather than building from the groud up these were dug out and carved away. It was a very impressive site and we were endlessly fascinated by the interiors and exteriors as well as our tour guide Yoda. This temple had a strong connection with the sun god, with the statues outside looking incredible in the morning sun and the statues inside being positioned so rays of sun reached them at certain times of the year. We had a bit of free time at Abu Simbel so it was really good to chill out for a bit and soak up the surroundings.

Abu Simbel

We took the bus back into Aswan before getting onto the Nile Treasure, our river cruise boat and base for the next couple days.

Food of choice in Egypt: Anything that wasn't fresh salad, Mango juice