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You are getting this late again as the stupid net connection is down on the boat. So I had to wait to do the entries...here they come...
So another early rise...seem to be getting used to it. We had to be ready for 3 am for a 5 am flight. Ick......we managed to pull it off though. Our guides have made the travel part so easy....we just follow them around and they cut through lines and paperwork like a hot knife thru butter. They even made sure we had a box breakfast waiting for us at the car, So we got on the plane....pretty uneventful and after about an hour we were in Aswan.
Another chap was waiting for us and he took us to the boat err ship errr whatever you call these things. It's pretty big and our suit is really cool. We have a wicked shower and Jacuzzi tub with a rainfall shower head too. The room is huge....we sat in the lounge watching the feluccas going by very surreal.
Our new guide found us, Ahmad, Oh we thing we figured it out for about 90% of the guys here your name is either Ali, Ackmed, Ahmed, or Mohammed. Bahgat must have had rebellious parents. Try to lose your guide and holler his name in a crowded place....
Either way our guy (Mohammad) is pretty cool, he took us first to the High dam of Lake Nasser.....it's really big....what else can I say. Egypt and the Russians built it so I didn't want to stand on it too long.....on the one side crocodiles on the other no crocodiles. This is officially the head of the Nile in Egypt. They made a huge friendship statue between Russian and Egypt to commemorate it we checked it out, most impressive....
Next stop Phileau temple....very freakin cool. They moved the whole temple because of the flood waters...so its on a higher island next to where it used to be. It was a hoot to roam around it and our guide knows whet every freakin symbol means....lot of tourist hit this spot of course. I think there are 300 cruise ships on the Nile....and a lot of asian tourists also. Translation, your guide need a keen sense of timing to avoid the crowds...our guy is really good at it. Did I mention most of the folks on our boat are French so the staff keeps babbling in french to us. They totally apologize and its all good.
To get to the site you need a boat, they are driven by Nubian's...pretty neat looking folks and they drive the boats like bumper cars. Either way we made it in and out and not a drop of water on us.
From here we checked out the unfinished Obelisks in the granite quarry. Every granite statue the Egyptians made came from here.
So how would you feel if you got a big ole chunk of granite all cut up with one cut to go (about 25m by 2m weight a freakin lot) and you take a second look and notice that its cracked.....what are the first words outta your mouth? Not sure if I've seen Pharonic swear words on the walls yet....amazing how they did it. How did they cut massive blocks of granite without metal tools.....first clue they used water....see if you can figure out how. For us tourists we call the site the Unfinished Obelisk, unlike the poor b****** that screwed up about 4000 years ago. We walked around for a while and tried to get a feel for the place...history happened right here.
From here we caught a fallucce and cruised down the Nile with the power of the sail. It was so relaxing, Shauna fell asleep after a while I was close behind. Next stop boat to chill....
Okay, so we are so not good at chillin....off we went to the Souk market....by ourselves. It wasn't far from the ship. Pretty weird walkin around here....people praying every where. Seriously...everywhere....like on the sidewalks in the Mosques, etc etc...and the call to prayers, now that we know what they mean are actually pretty cool, unless you are standing next to the speakers when they start doing it. 5 times a day and they do not miss a beat.
So we made it to the market and unless you wear some local garb and have a wicked tan with black mustache you are a pretty good target for all the sales guys at the shops and they are very aggressive, but friendly...it does wear ya down so we parked it at a lil cafe and had some Turkish coffee and people watched....very bizarre clothing around here. Ohh lil tip ya gots to let the coffee settle out as the Turkish coffee is pretty gritty if you don't. You can wear anything on your head I think and nobody gives it a second glance...cept us I guess. Back to the boat cause we gots another early flight to Abu Simbel to check out another very cool temple, the temple of Ramses the 2nd..........Ohhh our boat isn't leaving till tomorrow...it's kinda of a hotel in Aswan for us right now.... Get this we fly to Abu Simbel check out the temple and we will be back to Aswan for lunch....heh heh.
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