Aswan – David and Yanmei

May 26, 2015

Luxor, another view

[Bonus post from Yanmei.]

Until now, David and I have traveled 45 days and went to Hawaii, Taiwan, China, Korea, and Egypt. During the one and half month trip, today is another bad day I feel.

The first day was in a morning of Tainan, Taiwan. Living in a place with no kitchen and dark(first floor), it was raining heavily outside and no drinking water, no kitchen, and no umbrella inside room. I felt so frustrated and regretted I did not look at their on line description carefully. The worst feeling came to me after I found all other destinations would rain, rain, and continue to rain for one week. Our plan of travel around the Taiwan Island had to stop. What a waste of time and energy! Super frustrated!

Today is the second day that I feel very bad. This morning, we got up early in order to catch up the 7am train to Luxor. I took a picture of the beautiful view from our balcony. David wants to go to Luxor earlier, and even though I wanted to visit the museum, dam, or have a boat tour in the beautiful Hotel area, I agreed to leave.

No wonder no one suggested us to take the train, even if it was first class, it was absolutely dirty! The seat's cloth covers must have not been washed for at least one year, the window was big but full of dust and dirt. The bathroom, you do not want to see it. David told me he would not drink water as he smell some terrible from the bathroom. After sitting on the seat awhile, I started feel itchy of my arm and back. Hope there were no fleas there.

Every choice has the bad side and the good side. I took several great pictures of local people inside the train and at some small train stations passed by. And I saw the beautiful countryside life of local people. Many people use donkeys as transportation. I saw more than 10 donkeys rode by people with plants through the window. Banana trees, corn, mangoes, Nile river, fields, horse wagons….Three and half hour was fast and we arrived Luxor station. I thought everything bad passed, but NO! It just started.

Yesterday, we asked the hotel information desk about how far from Luxor train station to Hilton Hotel, should we ask hotel arrange a taxi for us. The guy told us it's not necessary just need to take a car only 20-30 Egypt pounds and it is a very safe area.

When we just got out of train, a guy told us in English the exit was that way. We said thanks to him and he asked us to take his taxi and I refused and told him do not follow us. However, he did not listen and even called another younger guy follow us as well. I told him again, I want to find a taxi myself, do not follow us. However, they followed us anyway. Then we went out and I found a taxi I like and was about to talk with the driver and open the door. These 2 guys and another younger guys quickly moved towards the car and yelling something at us. David said to me “what are you doing? Just sit into their car.” ” I just want to find a taxi I like and I do not trust that guy.” I thought I had the right to chose a car I like. However I was wrong. I guess they would not allow another car to leave if we sit in the car. It was scary, I wonder if I sit into the car they would hit the window or beat the driver.

Looking at the tense situation I caused, I realized this is Egypt and I gave up. I sat in the car with anger and fear. Ridiculously, the “tourist hunter”, the old guy who is not a driver but he sit into our car beside the driver and will go to Hilton Hotel with us. What he is going to do? I asked him to leave and he refused. He introduced himself and asked our nationalities and wants to help us to arrange our trip in Luxor and even shook hands with David. I guess David was about agree with him and said we would think about it and just leave the phone number for us. [David: I was never going to agree, I was just pretending to be interested until we got to the hotel.] We already had been hunted and had a bad tours from Cairo airport. No more, “We will think about it.” We will not pay now. One lesson is enough.

Feeling very itchy, I had a shower right away when we arrived in our room. I felt better but still itchy even now I am writing my diary. After the shower, we went to a hotel restaurant to eat some food. Unfortunately, the only Asian restaurant is closed at lunch time and we went to another one. After ordering, another guy came to us and asked us to move to upstairs, then I found 2 died flies or moths on the table. Then I looked at the table, it's dusty! I used the napkin moved through the chair arm, the napkin had a big dirt mark on it. I asked a guy to move back to downstairs. David must think I was trying to find troubles, but I told him, I am starving and just want to find a clean table to eat some clean food. I know he has the personality of being nice to others, I do not. I worked in 5 star hotel before, I know how an international hotel are supposed to be, especial Hilton is international, they would know. David was reluctant to ask for moving, I just left and went back to downstairs room myself. I found it is much cleaner and I messaged David and asked him to come back. Then, I found the kitchen and told the guy to bring food to downstairs instead of upstairs. After a while, David walked to the downstairs room. Food came and the pasta was good but with a very small portion, I was not full at all. I would just eat more plain bread. The waiters asked me if it is ok to cook more. I guess they would charge us more money! I said no. Then they said they would not charge more money, who trust them? Also I felt the pasta was not as fresh as bread, just have bread then. Looking around the hotel, few tourists here. What's wrong? Although it is a low season, should not be this low. [Yanmei: Later I realized, the specialty of the hotel is cooking less for you first, if you are not full, they would cook or bring you more, without paying more money].

No wonder local people are crazy about asking tips and money, tourists are so few! They would not care about the image or reputation of their country, they just want money right away without thinking about anything else. Feeling so bad, coming to a …country and met …people.

In the afternoon, David went on a tour to somewhere, I just stayed in hotel room and washed my dirty clothes and had a rest.

In the evening, David came back. As we think the outside restaurants might be not clean, we decided to have a dinner in the hotel. We went to the Asian restaurant, I ordered wok fried vegetables and steamed rice. Omg! What they brought to me, a small plate of steamed veggies with some salty sauce, I could not see any oil in the dish. Why did they call it “fried”? How did they fry it without oil? But they were nice to bring a second plate of veggies and bowl of ice. What I can say? I should appreciate it, at least I am full but not hungry this time.

I felt this was a bad day as I was itchy and hungry nearly the whole day and traumatized by the scene in front of the train station. 🙁

-Yanmei

Posted with Blogsy

May 26, 2015May 26, 2015

Luxor

From Aswan to Luxor we decided to take the train. This way we could see the countryside along the Nile. Some people recommended against this. One guide recommended we hire a car and drive to Luxor. In fact Egypt Rail will not sell tickets to foreigners for most trains. We arranged for the hotel to buy tickets for us, 1st class. We had two options 7am or 3pm. I voted for 7am because I thought Luxor has more interesting stuff. Yanmei agreed to go on the 7am train, only later did I find out she really wanted to stay in Aswan longer. 🙁 Anyway, 1st class from Aswan to Luxor is only 40 Egyptian pounds (~$5.30 US).

The train was old and dirty, but the first class seats were roomy and the car had air conditioning, which is important. Yanmei took some great pictures. The train is nice because you can see the scenery and normal life along the banks of the Nile, outside the tourist spots. The donkey is still a popular means of transport outside the cities. Yanmei was having fun counting the donkeys.

It was about 3.5 hours ride to Luxor and the train was on time. As soon as we got off the train we were approached by what Yanmei calls a “tourist hunter”, similar to what happened in Cairo airport. She hates these guys thinking they are just trying to get our money. I see them as hustling to make a living in a severely depressed economy. We did end up using his taxi to drive us to the Luxor Hilton.

After checking in we went to one of the hotel restaurants for lunch. After ordering one of the staff came over and suggested we move to a lounge upstairs because they were doing maintenance on the dining room we were in. So we went upstairs. This wasn't to Yanmei's liking, she felt it was dirty, and to make her point she wiped her white napkin on the arm of her chair and it left a big dark streak on the napkin. I also had two dead bugs on my napkin. So we went back downstairs. By the way we were the only ones in either location even though it was right around noon. Hardly anyone staying at the Hilton. Finally they brought the food and the portions were too small. Suffice to say Yanmei was not impressed with the Hilton. She was already in a bad mood from the tourist hunter and this didn't help at all.

After lunch I wanted to take a tour. This is why I wanted the early train, so we'd have 1.5 days in Luxor instead of one. There are tons of sites to see. Yanmei wasn't interested so I went by myself on a tour of Karnak and Luxor temples.

The Karnak temple complex was build over the course of more than a thousand years. They kept adding more until they got conquered and stopped. This is why the left wall is lower than the right, it is not finished. Inside is still the remnants of the mud brick ram they used to build the wall.

Remnant of mud brick ramp, and on the left an unfinished column

The temple complex is massive and impressive.

Section of remaining roof, painted blue with stars

The Obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut is interesting. When her husband the pharaoh died, her six year old son was supposed to become king. Because he was so young she usurped him and ruled Egypt for 18 years, during which time she raised this obelisk. When she died and her son finally became king, he wanted revenge on her so he destroyed many of her works. However the obelisk is a monument to the gods so he couldn't destroy it without offending them, so he ordered a huge wall built around it so no one could see it. Ironically this is why it is the best preserved obelisk today.

After Karnak we went to Luxor Temple. My guide told me they used to have a monthly parade from Karnak to Luxor carrying an idol of the god Amun on a wooden boat down a road lined with rams head sphinxes. They are currently working on recreating this road between the two temples. It is about 2.7km and they had to demolish several buildings.

Entrance to Luxor temple, the missing obelisk is in Paris

Over the centuries Luxor temple was covered with sand. Although they must have known something was there, because the tops of the obelisks were not buried, they built a mosque on top of the temple in about 1200 AD.

Door to the mosque showing the depth to which the temple was buried

Temple wall added by Alexander the Great when he conquered Egypt

Another long day in Egypt!

I went back to hotel and we had dinner at the asian restaurant. Yanmei was not impressed by the wok fried vegetables. I think the hotel staff was becoming afraid of her because they brought out a second serving for free.

-David

Posted with Blogsy

May 25, 2015May 25, 2015

Temple of Abu Simbel

The whole purpose of coming to Aswan was not to see the dam, but to visit the Temple of Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is 280km further south of Aswan, near the Sudan border. To get there you need to take a car. There are two tourist convoys across the desert per day from Aswan to Abu Simbel, and they have police escort for safety. The first convoy leaves at 4am to beat the heat of the day. The second convoy leaves at 11am. I wanted to take the first convoy so we'd be back by 1pm or so, but Yanmei didn't want to wake up that early, so we scheduled for the second convoy.

The second convoy is less popular, and was low season, so they didn't want to send a police car. Instead they asked us if the police officer could ride in our car. I'd read about this possibility online so I agreed, although I'm not sure what would have happened if I said no. I felt like they were asking as a courtesy. The policeman rode in the front seat with Yanmei and I in the back. He had a compact sub machine gun, after googling it later I think it was a Heckler & Koch UMP with folding stock. Most of the police seem to have AK-47s, but this was much easier to travel with in a car.

We left Aswan through a checkpoint and headed towards Abu Simbel. Our driver Usama told us we were the lead car in a three car convoy. The road goes away from Lake Nasser so we were surrounded by desert. I've read that Aswan is the third driest town in the world with less than 1 millimeter of rain per year, but at least they have the Nile. Out in the desert there is nothing. It isn't like the Arizona desert where there are scattered cactuses and hardy plants. In the Egyptian Sahara there is nothing but sand and stone, not one single weed or anything.

Finally we arrived at Abu Simbel. We let the policeman out at a checkpoint. At this point Yanmei finally noticed he had a gun and became nervous. We continued to the Temple. I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the convoy because we were the only car to arrive there.

The driver told us to be back by 3:45pm. After three hours in the car we wanted to use the bathroom. Yanmei rushed off ahead to use it. After using it, of course there was a guy who wanted to be tipped. Unfortunately I had no small change. After arguing for a while I asked if he had change, he only had chinese money so I assumed Yanmei had tipped him, I said I'd come back later. I started looking around for Yanmei. Suddenly she came running downtown the path shouting “David! David!”. I could see she was frightened. She'd gone back up to the car, and it was gone, so she started thinking I was kidnapped and she was abandoned. So she was pretty glad to see me. 😉

Once again we had the place to ourselves. There were not even many vendors to bother us. The Temple itself is pretty spectacular. It was build by the pharaoh Ramses II as a temple to himself in about 1264 BC. There is also a smaller one built for his wife Nefertari.

Temple to Nefertari with 4 statues of Ramses and 2 of Nefertari

No pictures allowed inside, but you can see a bit of the interior

Inside are various inscriptions depicting Ramses II winning battles and being treated as an equal by the gods. The ceilings are high and it is very spacious. There were no photos inside and they were pretty strict because they wanted to sell us pictures of the inside.

The temples were completely buried in sand and lost until rediscovered in 1817. Unfortunately some explorers or travelers carved graffiti into the stone, you can see some dates in the 1800s.

The other interesting thing is both temples were actually moved in the 1960s. Originally they were on the bank of the Nile and they would have been flooded by Lake Nasser when the Aswan dam was built, so they moved them back and up 200m from the original location. That must have been a massive project. The broken statue occurred from an earthquake in 27BC, not the relocation effort.

Finally we returned to our car for the trip back to Aswan. No policeman ride with us this time, instead we seemed to be giving a ride to some random guy. Anyway the trip was uneventful. We did get to see sunset in the desert, but it was remarkably dull with no real colors.

-David

Posted with Blogsy