Nile Cruise

I know, I know, it's been a while. We've been pretty busy.

Turns out the AD's needed some time to breakdown scripts 6 thru 10, so we had a 4-day weekend! With 2 days notice, we furiously tried to put a trip out of Cairo together. With the help of the set doctor (and medical advisor), Dr. Khaled, and his myriad of connections, we booked a 4-day cruise up the Nile from Aswan to Luxor, with a few stops along the way.

We got back on Monday, and it's only been a few days, but already things are blurring together and fading. Chris and I decided to leave the computer behind, and part of me wishes we had brought it so that I could have written everything down while it was still fresh. I look back now and realize that we really crammed a 7-day trip into 4, but I regret nothing. This was the most amazing trip- I saw things that made me realize the true meaning of the word 'awesome'; things that made me feel thoroughly blown away and insignificant at the same time. The sheer age of these places made your head spin. The technology and engineering skills needed to create these colossal installations is unfathomable. Looking at the ancient acheivements made me wonder if there wasn't another hand involved in all of this. I'm not saying aliens or anything, but it really makes you wonder how they did all that thousands of years ago.

Chris and I flew into Aswan Friday afternoon and were met at our boat, The Nile Shams, by our very own tour guide, Sayyid. We went over the itinerary for the weekend- so much to do! We were going to start with a Felucca ride on the Nile, then a visit to a Nubian Village. Sayyid spoke excellent English and we found out he holds a degree in Egyptology and his wife works in restoration of the temples in the area.

The ride in the Felucca (a type of sailboat that's been around since the time of the Pharoahs) was a wonderful way to ease into vacation-mode. The first thing I noticed about Aswan was the absolute stillness. Not a car horn, no loud radios, no yelling. Nuthin'. Total peace and quiet. And the air smelled so wonderful- not an ounce of taxi exhaust, no dust, nothing.

As we glided along with the wind, Sayyid showed us various points of interest. Then a teeny red flag: the 'captain' of the boat pulled out a bag with jewelery for us to 'browse'. Ech. I was afraid of this. We must have 'tourist' written on our faces. Sure it was all pretty inexpensive, but we were on a sightseeing trip, not a souvenir-quest. We picked up a few cheap pieces and landed back on the dock for high tea on board and a little rest.

A little later we met up with Sayyid for a trip to the local Nubian Village. We had to take a motorboat to get there, and we passed through some really beautiful scenery. When we arrived on the shore close to the village, we were greeted with a chorus of grunts and strange bleating- we looked out on a sea of camels, all saddled up and ready to go. Chris and I each 'hopped' on a "ship of the desert" (they're called that because when they walk they move both legs of each side together, creating a rocking motion like a ship)- as much as you can 'hop' on a camel- it's like sitting on a seesaw. NOW we're tourists. It was a 15minute trek to the village, all along the Nile. Our guide took the motorboat. Smart guy.

In the Nubian village we visited a traditional home and saw the school where we learned the difference between Arabic and the Nubian languages. Walking back we ran the gauntlet of vendors asking us to come and see, come and buy. We stopped at a spice vendor's stand and were agog at the variety, smells and colours. We got to taste a bunch of them and walked away with some fresh cumin, dried hybiscus flowers and a few custom blends for different meats. There would have been more, but when the vendor gleefully tallied up our choices, it came up to more than 100$ and we more than a couple selections back, much to the guy's disappointment. We had to pull Sayyid aside and say, 'listen, we're not here to buy a bunch of tchotskies in a mad rush to cram as much purchasing of souvenirs as possible- we're here for 5 months! we're "workin' folk" and just want to see stuff'- he was completely understanding and assured us that we were not to feel obliged to buy anything and just politely say so when confronted by any avid seller. So the tone for the trip was set we were cool again- Dr. Khaled set us up with a straight up guide. Nice.
The following morning we got up at the butt crack of dawn (2:30am) and headed for Abu Simbel, 3 hrs away across the desert, very close to the border of Sudan. In order to ensure our safe passage, we had to travel as part of a police convoy that left Aswan at 4:30am. Thankfully our tour guide had found us a very comfy car with shades that could be drawn against the intrusive sunrise. A few hours later we arrived in dusty parking lot in front of a large hill. There were crowds of tourists pouring out of the other vehicles in the convoy, so we beat feet to be the first though security. The hill was between the parking lot and Lake Nasser and the sun was just coming up over the water- absolutely gorgeous. Lake Nasser is the largest man-made lake in the world, the result of the building of the Aswan High Dam. We followed Sayyid around the big hill to be confronted by a sight that literally made me gasp. There was Abu Simbel, built into the side of the hill. The sheer size of the place was incredible, and the way it looked in the early morning light made it look all that more awe-inspiring. Like the museum in Cairo, picture-taking is not allowed inside the temple, which is unfortunate because the walls were covered top to bottom with carvings- and these walls were over 40ft tall! It's amazing how so much detail can be crammed into one space. I have never felt so insignificant before, and not minded one bit if the face of such amazing sights. And that feeling never changed in intensity with each ancient site we visited.
Sayyid had so much information to tell us of each place we visited. It turns out that the hill that Abu Simbel was built into is a man-made hill: when the lake was created, the temple was in danger of being swallowed up by the water. So, archeologists took the temple apart piece by piece and moved it 300 meters to higher ground and rebuilt it exactly as it was!
Later that day we arrived in Edfu and visited the second-largest and second-best preserved temple in Egypt. The place was huge! You could still see the bright shades of red, blue, yellow and orange on the walls of the temple. Amazing. The tour guide said that the ancient Egyptians had over 6500 colours in their choice of paints. Like every temple we saw after that, every inch of the interior and exterior are covered in carved images; mostly of whichever king commissioned the builiding of the said temple. In many cases, it took several 100 years to build a temple, so a few different pharaohs were involved. As you can imagine, most of the images on the walls depict the king demonstrating his power, his devotion to the gods, his vast progeny, etc. The monuments are as much dedicated to dieties as to the pharaohs themselves.
Later that day we sailed further up the Nile to Kom Ombo, Sayyid's hometown. We visited that temple. There was carvings on the walls of that temple showing early evidence of surgical tools. Whoa. This temple was also distinct because it was devoted to two gods instead of just one: Horus and Sobek. The temple has two halves, identically mirroring themselves in every detail, save that one side is dedicated to Horus, the hawk-headed god, and the other side to Sobek the crocodile headed god. In ancient times, Kom Ombo's area waters were infested with crocodiles and people were not safe. They figured if they built a temple for Sobek, it would please him and he would call off his 'minions'. Notwithstanding, Sobek was an evil god, and you couldn't build a temple for an evil god, so they balanced it by making a equal temple for Horus. Got to cover your butt, right?
We moved on to Luxor and saw the Karnak Temple and Luxor's temple, each one more and more impressive in detail, artwork, history and size.
I'll save that for the next posting. My fingers are cramping...