Aswan, Egypt
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
The dreaded train ride turned out to be one of the most comfortable i've ever had! It felt totally strange at the start being on another overnight train without Dave and a bottle of wine and Vodka to share between the both of us. I had the entire first class cabin to myself, and ended up sleeping the majority of the trip. Got to a lovely 40+ degree day in Aswan at about midday. Shit it's hot trying to lug the old backpack around in that heat! Anyway, got to the hotel, showered up, then headed out with this Argentinian dude, Julian, to see what the city had to offer. First impressions were good. A lot smaller and quieter than Cairo and the air was breathable! Time for the lungs to recover. We went and checked out these 2 islands in the middle of the Nile. They were ok, although they stank pretty bad as the locals breed goats and chickens on one of them. After this, we went for a feed of kebabs and falafel, followed by a few long sort after beers at one of the only places in town that sells them
. It was actually a resort, so as you could imagine , a bottle of beer was just as much as you'd pay in London. From 15th of October, lasting for a month, is the muslim 'festival' Ramadam. For me, this is not good news. During this time, the muslim's fast during the day and only eat after sunset, so it's pretty hard to get a meal, AND, more importantly during this time, it is illegal for them to sell alcohol!! I really should've done a bit more research before coming here! I would 've changed the dates accordingly. Luckily, some hotels and resorts are allowed to sell alcohol to tourists, it's just an effort trying to find the ones that do!
So anyway, after a few beers and deciding that one night is Aswan is more than enough, knowing that we both want to get to the Red Sea as fast as possible, we organise a Felluca (Egyptian boat/yacht) to sail up the Nile to Luxor the following night. I'll also organise a morning trip to Abu Simbal for the following morning.
