Aswan and Abu Simbel

Day one
Not the best nights sleep in the world, but not the worst. We arrived in Aswan around 9 am and went straight to our accommodation, Keylany Hotel. It was noticeable just from the short walk there that Aswan was a much cleaner and nicer place than Cairo. We walked through a lovely souq, much wider and easier to navigate, it was quiet first thing in the morning, shop owners were out cleaning their shop fronts and the streets were also being washed down.

We took a Feluccia water taxi over to Elephantine Island, which sits in the middle of the Nile just North of the first Cataract. We wandered through he Nubian villages of Koti and Siou, there were children and animals running about everywhere. The houses were made with red dirt binding them together and they were painted in bright colours.

We were looking for a cafe called Baba Dool, which came highly rated in the Lonely Planet, we had mint tea in what we thought was it, only to find it round the next corner. Once we found the correct one, we agreed with what the Lonely Planet had to say about it. It was a very colourfully Nubian decorated house with lots of verandas and rooms, in a beautiful location overlooking the Nile and Kitchener’s Island. We had lunch and sat drinking coffee, watching feluccias sail past for hours, we saw a young boy paddle by on what could be described as a surfboard, he was singing his heart out!

Day two
2:30 am start today, the minibus picked us up at 3am for the three hour drive to Abu Simbel. We had a couple of hours to look round the very impressive Great Template of Ramses II and the temple of Hathor, once you see them it is hard to believe they were lost to the world under shifting sands, only to be found in 1813 by the Swiss explorer Jean-Louis Burkckhardt and then later moved, piece by piece to their current location to avoid being lost underwater when the new dam was built to stop the Nile valley from flooding.

Once back to Aswan, we spent the afternoon sitting on the roof terrace of our hotel relaxing in then sun, more like falling asleep after the early start that morning! Our hotel was lovely, very clean and the owners were very helpful, giving us recommendations of tour guides and things to do. Our stay included breakfast, which was served on the roof terrace overlooking Aswan’s rooftops all the way to the Nile.

Visiting Giza’s Pyramids, the Sphinx and the Museum of Cairo

My Mum and I flew Edinburgh to Cairo, via London with BA. On arrival in Cairo we had to get our visas, which was not very obvious… but we got them in the end.  My Dad had been in Egypt for a few weeks cycling from Cairo to Aswan, so he met us at the airport and we got a taxi to our accommodation, Arabian Nights Hotel.

Day one
We had a nice relaxing breakfast in the sun on the roof terrace of your hotel before getting a taxi to Giza which is located on the West Bank of the Nile, about 13 miles SouthWest of central Cairo.  We visited a papyrus factory where they showed us how its made, by taking strips of papyrus reed and laying them out in horizontal and vertical crosshatched layers to form a mat and then pounding it.  The paintings were so detailed and very colourful, I bought a painting of a tree of life with my name in hieroglyphics beside it.

We went on to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx, and took a camel ride out in to the dessert to get a good view back over Memphis, its Necropolis and the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur.  It was great fun on the camels, and very hot! It’s pretty tricky getting on the camel, especially staying on it when it gets up, I nearly fell off… It wasn’t a cheap trip on the camels, you have to be prepared to barter with them to get the best price, and be prepared to walk away for them to give you a cheaper price. We took a taxi back to the hotel, which was an adventure in itself, the traffic is mental, very busy and there doesn’t seem to be any rules or lanes on the road! Very glad we weren’t driving ourselves!

In the evening we headed to a nearby square beside the Al-Hussein Mosque, there were lots of restaurants to chose from for dinner.  The square also had lots of small narrow side streets going off it where we found lots of market stalls and shops!  The markets were great! But… you get harassed to buy for each of them… When we got back to our hotel, we found our street decorated with banners and fairy lights with traditional Egyptian music playing for a wedding ceremony which was happening.

Having spent the day in and around Cairo, it is hard not to notice how dirty a place it is, with piles of rubbish al over the place, the smog is also very noticeable, but given the number of cars on the road, it’s not surprising.  I’d also recommend to women travelling, ensure you have long sleeved tops and trousers or long skirts, there were very few women out in the evening.

Day two
We visited the Museum of Cairo which is a huge and fascinating museum, stacked full of ancient Egyptian artefacts, some of the rooms are just stacked high with tombs, statues and carved representations of historic figures.  It’s well worth a visit, if not only to see the contents of the tomb of King Tutankhamun, but there is so much else to see!  After the museum we took a walk along the Nile and had lunch on one of the boats moored on its banks.  Then it was back to the hotel to collect our bags and catch the overnight train to Aswan.

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