Round the World 2008

Abu Simbel

After taking an overnight train from Cairo to Aswan we finally got a little bit of a break from the hectic pace of the first few days of the tour.  While in Cairo, we saw the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum all in one day .  Our hotel in Aswan is a resort where we spent much of yesterday and today relaxing by the pool.  All activities are early to avoid the heat of the afternoon.  It can easily get to over 100F in the desert.  

Last night we took a felucca (sailboat) ride on the Nile and stopped at a Nubian village on Elephantine Island for a homecooked dinner with a local family.  It was the best meal I’ve had since coming to Egypt. We also smoked a “shisha” Egyptian water pipe.

This morning we got up at 3AM to drive to Abu Simbel which are two enormous temples carved into the side of a mountain by Ramses II.  The size of it and the fact that the entire temple was carved out of one piece of stone was hard to believe considering the site is over 3000 years old.  To get there, our bus was escorted by a military convoy because the site is very close to the Sudanese border. 

Today we have a free afternoon to lay by the pool again and then tomorrow we head to Luxor, again by felucca. The trip will take the entire day and we’ll sleep in the boats before arriving on in Luxor on Tuesday.