Aswan and Abu Simbel

When we left Siwa, we headed down to Aswan to catch a glimpse of Abu Simbel --two glorious temples rescued from the waters of the Nile when it was dammed just north of Aswan. Unfortunately there really wasn't much else to do there. Abu Simbel was definitely just a day trip and Aswan is a serious tourist trap.


We got up early and caught a bus to Abu Simbel (just across the border from Sudan) but were a little unsure of whether we could get one back. (A guy working at the bus station said there were no evening or afternoon return buses but our book assured us there were...?) In the end, we hopped on a minibus arranged by a soldier in town and took the 6 hour drive back with a car full of Egyptians. There were two cute girls (twins) age 24 behind us and we had a great time talking. They were both teaching English out there in remote Egypt.


On the way back to Aswan it became quite clear that our 30 Pound bus ticket was a rip off. One of the girls behind me told me that the fare was 16 Pounds so that's what I handed up to the front but the driver didn't like it. He started yelling at us in Arabic and the locals started yelling back--defending us!! He eventually pulled over, got out, opened the side door and really started laying in to us. The Egyptians seemed to argue passionately in our defense but to no avail. It seems we were E-gypt again!!

Back in Aswan we hurried out to the Nubian village/island to get me a henna tattoo (not a real tattoo, just some herbal concoction that stains your skin). When we arrived we discovered that we had been dropped not at the village but at a closed museum and had to walk a ways in the dark to get to the village. That's when we met the village "chief." Ha. Right. He took me to "The Nubian House" (a reputable place for henna) but of course, it wasn't the real thing and they wanted me to pay 100 Pounds for a tattoo!!! Now way! I said I would pay 40 which after a bit of haggling they accepted. Unfortunately, the peacock the girl was supposed to draw was really back (looked kinda like a chicken) and I had to go wash it all off before it dried and stained my skin for weeks! I paid them 20 for their time and material and left a little disappointed.

But ruthless touts is about all there is to Aswan. Our only way to really escape them was at McDonalds where a police officer was hired to chase those pesky touts away. Finding a felucca captian was pretty difficult. We spent lots of time wandering up and down the corniche looking for someone to take us down the river. They mostly wanted us to go alone on the boat but we were looking to make new friends and preferred a boat with some people already booked. After several hours of haggling and being chased by those annoying critters, we finally found one.

When the day came to load up and set sail, we found ourselves a bit confused. There were more people than we were told, the boat was different from the one we inspected, and the captain had changed--twice! Eventually everything got sorted out and it was indeed the right boat, and like everything in Egypt, what you pay for isn't always what you get. We decided to just roll with the punches and were pretty glad we did. The trip down the Nile was excellent.