It's 7am (Cairo time) on Sunday May 11th, and we've just returned from our 5 day trip to the southern cities of Aswan and Luxor. I've never done so much in one week, so there are plenty of stories to tell.
I could write an entire posting on the overnight train ride, but I'd rather get to the more important stuff. Imagine the worst food you have ever seen in a very small cabin with two pull out beds that was probably smaller than a jail cell, not to mention the trip was probably around 12-14 hours (luckily I slept most of the way).
Tuesday May 6th: Once we got to Aswan though, things were looking much better. A great "villa" style hotel right on the banks of the Nile with a nice pool and bar. After a long trip, we all hung out by the pool for most of the day (which was awesome since it was probably about 110 degrees out!). Later that night we took a great Fallucca ride from our hotel down the river a little ways. Some local Neubians were sailing the boat and entertained us with some singing and dancing on the boat. Absolutely amazing views of the banks of the Nile, we were there for sunset, and huge tombs across the river were lit up at night. (Pictures to come...I'm going to upload my pictures to another site, so see the link on the side of the page) After the sail, some of us went to a restaraunt near the hotel for dinner. Great place to eat, we were on a dock on the river and I had a great mixed grill with kufta (a local meat, like an un-cased sausage), chicken, beef, and rice, and a great fresh banana juice. The fruits here are amazing, but you have to take your chances with them cause you might end up regretting it (I've tried to stick with only fruits that can be peeled, since these don't need to be washed). After dinner, we went across the street to the "souk" (a sort of bazarre with many different shops). For a little while, it was me and five girls, which was quite an experience since all the locals always haggle the women, and so I ended up getting a lot of comments too. For those of you who don't know, the culture here is very male-dominant, and not much (if any) respect is given to women, especially those from America. There will be more to come about this and other parts of the culture in a later post. It was a lot of fun to walk through the bazarre, though. Everyone is trying to haggle you to buy things, but you can barter with them to get a good deal. Sean and I both bought soccer jerseys, and the store owner wanted around 140 pounds for 2 jerseys, and we ended up getting both for 70 pounds.
Wednesday May 7th: After breakfast, we went to the Unfinished Obelisk of Aswan. A huge 5000 year old quarry loaded with some of the best granite in the world, this was a place where ancient egyptians found their granite that was used to build a number of structures. This area was very important to learning about methods of the ancient Egyptians, as this is the location of an obelisk (a tall pointed structure, like the Washington Monument) that was never completed. We could see though how they moved objects of this size, and I continued to see the intelligence of these people.
Next, we took a motorboat to the Philae Temple. This was an amazing temple, located on an island surrounded by amazing views and high rocks that kept it somewhat hidden. We then learned that this temple was actually moved from one island to another, which made it even more amazing. This Greek-Roman temple dated back to about 3000 BC, during Alexander the Great's reign. The architecture was different than other sites, and clearly Greak-Roman, as every pillar was unique and the flower-like tops of the pillars are a staple of the Greek-Roman architecture.
We then drove to the High Dam. An incredible structure, this is the second largest damn in the world, and the largest made by rock (most others are made by concrete). Constructed during the 1960s, the dam was built for electricity production and to control the flooding of the Nile River, which is crucial to the production of crops thoughout Egypt. We learned an interesting story about how the United States was initially contracted to construct the dam, but political difficulties between the U.S. and Egypt forced the U.S. to withdraw their contract to build it, and it was then built by the Soviet Union. However, the U.S. recently replaced all the turbines once relations between the two nations were improved.
For the rest of the day, we went back to the hotel and hung out by the pool (it was extremely hot down there, so we did all our site seeing in the morning or evening to escape the heat).
I could write an entire posting on the overnight train ride, but I'd rather get to the more important stuff. Imagine the worst food you have ever seen in a very small cabin with two pull out beds that was probably smaller than a jail cell, not to mention the trip was probably around 12-14 hours (luckily I slept most of the way).
Tuesday May 6th: Once we got to Aswan though, things were looking much better. A great "villa" style hotel right on the banks of the Nile with a nice pool and bar. After a long trip, we all hung out by the pool for most of the day (which was awesome since it was probably about 110 degrees out!). Later that night we took a great Fallucca ride from our hotel down the river a little ways. Some local Neubians were sailing the boat and entertained us with some singing and dancing on the boat. Absolutely amazing views of the banks of the Nile, we were there for sunset, and huge tombs across the river were lit up at night. (Pictures to come...I'm going to upload my pictures to another site, so see the link on the side of the page) After the sail, some of us went to a restaraunt near the hotel for dinner. Great place to eat, we were on a dock on the river and I had a great mixed grill with kufta (a local meat, like an un-cased sausage), chicken, beef, and rice, and a great fresh banana juice. The fruits here are amazing, but you have to take your chances with them cause you might end up regretting it (I've tried to stick with only fruits that can be peeled, since these don't need to be washed). After dinner, we went across the street to the "souk" (a sort of bazarre with many different shops). For a little while, it was me and five girls, which was quite an experience since all the locals always haggle the women, and so I ended up getting a lot of comments too. For those of you who don't know, the culture here is very male-dominant, and not much (if any) respect is given to women, especially those from America. There will be more to come about this and other parts of the culture in a later post. It was a lot of fun to walk through the bazarre, though. Everyone is trying to haggle you to buy things, but you can barter with them to get a good deal. Sean and I both bought soccer jerseys, and the store owner wanted around 140 pounds for 2 jerseys, and we ended up getting both for 70 pounds.
Wednesday May 7th: After breakfast, we went to the Unfinished Obelisk of Aswan. A huge 5000 year old quarry loaded with some of the best granite in the world, this was a place where ancient egyptians found their granite that was used to build a number of structures. This area was very important to learning about methods of the ancient Egyptians, as this is the location of an obelisk (a tall pointed structure, like the Washington Monument) that was never completed. We could see though how they moved objects of this size, and I continued to see the intelligence of these people.
Next, we took a motorboat to the Philae Temple. This was an amazing temple, located on an island surrounded by amazing views and high rocks that kept it somewhat hidden. We then learned that this temple was actually moved from one island to another, which made it even more amazing. This Greek-Roman temple dated back to about 3000 BC, during Alexander the Great's reign. The architecture was different than other sites, and clearly Greak-Roman, as every pillar was unique and the flower-like tops of the pillars are a staple of the Greek-Roman architecture.
We then drove to the High Dam. An incredible structure, this is the second largest damn in the world, and the largest made by rock (most others are made by concrete). Constructed during the 1960s, the dam was built for electricity production and to control the flooding of the Nile River, which is crucial to the production of crops thoughout Egypt. We learned an interesting story about how the United States was initially contracted to construct the dam, but political difficulties between the U.S. and Egypt forced the U.S. to withdraw their contract to build it, and it was then built by the Soviet Union. However, the U.S. recently replaced all the turbines once relations between the two nations were improved.
For the rest of the day, we went back to the hotel and hung out by the pool (it was extremely hot down there, so we did all our site seeing in the morning or evening to escape the heat).
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