Day 145

Friday June 13^th

Today started off way too early. We woke up at 3:00 in order to catch the convoy heading down to Abu Simbel. Ever since the terrorist attacks in Luxor, the Egyptian government has increased the security of their precious tourist sites. So with Abu-Simbel being so close, 60 km, from the war-zone of Sudan, they make sure all the busses leave together in a convoy. After dragging ourselves downstairs and into the bus, we got good seats in the front with lots of leg-room, and settled down to have a good 3 hour nap. However, after we arrived at the convoy, we were interrupted by another tour-guide who needed a group of two in his bus. Since we were the only group of two, we had to give up our perfect seats and sprint, literally sprint, over to another bus, where we were forced to sit in the Middle fold-down chairs, where the back rest only went to your middle back, and there wasn’t any foot-room or place to rest your head. Basically there was no way were going to be comfortable much less sleep. However, we did get to eavesdrop on a conversation held by two knowledgeable people of Egypt, and although I didn’t learn any actionable information I was able get an idea of how the smart tourist travels in Egypt.

The convoy was the biggest joke ever. I never saw a police presence, and we were spread out and passing other busses. It didn’t make me feel secure at all. In fact, I feel like it would help the terrorists, because they know that every day busses will be passing on this road at 4:00 AM. What better place to camp out? I never thought much of Egyptian security though.

Abu Simbel itself was kind of disappointing. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe because we no longer had a tour group, it made it less informative. Maybe because we already saw the awe of Karnak temple that this seemed not as dramatic. I mean don’t get me wrong, these are some big impressive statues. But was it the best place in Egypt, hardly. After walking around with our guide-book, Megan and I found our Australian friends who had just shown up and were also without a tour-group. However, not wanting to through it all again, we just picked out a bench that overlooked Lake Nasser and hung out and waited. We made sure we were the first people back to the bus, so that we wouldn’t get stuck with the crappy middle-seats. This was a successful endeavor, although sleeping on the way back did not prove so successful. It was bouncy, loud, warm, and I think my shoulder is too small of a pillow for Megan’s head.

After getting back to Aswan, we were taken around to the same sites as before. First, the tour-group that we were stuck with went to the High Dam. Not wanting to spend the six pounds to see it again, we got dropped off and bought some cold water instead. We hung around for awhile, and then the bus came back, picked us up, and then we headed off to Philae Temple. Luckily we didn’t have to wait around for the couple hours that the Temple takes, and the bus took us back to the hotel. We got dropped off around 1, walked down past the biggest Mcdonalds I had ever seen and were once again the only people eating lunch at this really nice restaurant along the Nile. We started the walk back, avoiding people who wanted to take us on a Felluca ride or carriage ride. We saw the street cleaners, which consisted of a 30 year old dude who would drive the car, get out and smoke, while the 10 year old kid would actually do the work. Kind of pisses me off.

We got back to the hotel and then headed off on the train to Luxor. This train was much faster, for some unknown reason and we slept or chatted all the way there. Arriving in Luxor, we were picked up again by Walid, who took us back to the hotel. After the enjoyable pre-arranged experience of the Nubian village, we decided to take Walid up on his offer of a romantic dinner, much to the chagrin of Megan. More importantly though, he gave us the option of transportation, either get a cab, or we can get the special deal of the motor-bike. We opted for the motorbike as it was free, but the best part of it was definitely cruising through Luxor as Egyptians and Tourists alike turned their heads as we cruised by. Dinner was delicious, although slightly awkward. If we were trying to go for romantic, it would be have been thrown by the fact that since we were the only people there, we had 4 waiters around us all the time. One guy’s sole job was to replace the tiny candle they had on the table every 30 minutes when it was about to burn out. You would think they would just get a bigger candle, but no. Walid returned, and finally became aware that we were just friends, which clarified things for him a bit. After dinner we took a drive around town, which was incredible, and then headed off to the local bar/lounge thing, where we listened to an Egyptian women sing old-fashioned music. A cute elderly couple danced to it, and Walid asked Megan to dance. Apparently, Walid is not the best dancer, but I give him props for trying. It’s not music that I would ever want to dance to.

Walid would later show us the club which looked nice and fun, but we were simply to exhausted from traveling to want to stay up any later. So we hopped back on the bike and headed to the apartment, where we found another club, that was empty and had people desperately wanting us to stay. However, instead we called it a night and went to bed after a long day.