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	Egypt continued... I put my boots back on and proceeded to Ralph up my shoes for several hours, well into the morning. The food had created a worst case traveler's scenario. Wednesday, May 31, 2006 At about 3am, my body had nothing left to hurl and I finally got to sleep, feeling terrible and somewhat scared that this was going to get worse. I prayed not. Woke up at 6am feeling wanted but not nauseous, thank the Lord! Even last night I wasn't really nauseous, the stomach just came right out without the usual preliminaries. I flipped from one side to another and drank little sips of water to keep complete dehydration at bay, as it's easy to become dehydrated with diarrhea and vomiting at the same time. Couldn't drink too much, though, since the stomach was still torn up. At 8:30am, breakfast was served and, hooray, it was all pre-packaged pastries and tea, nothing to kill me there. I couldn't eat them then because I had no appetite and was afraid to force anything down. Got to Aswan at 9:15am and was only hit up by five hotel touts and four taxi touts, not bad. Funny thing - the hotel touts said 30LE ($6US) for their hotel and they all had the same beautiful picture card for their hotel. All five of them. Haha, Lonely Planet warned of that. Dragged myself and my food laden (snagged the breakfast goodies and put them in the pack for later use) backpack down to the Cleopatra Hotel (3 star, $37US), got the different tour information from Mr. Hassen and went to the room. The air conditioning was full blast and I was happy for it - it's freakin' hot outside and it is only 10am. Drank some water and juice and did my best to choke down the prepackaged croissant. It took an hour to do but my body desperately needed the energy. After about two hours of lying in the breeze of the room air conditioning and pondering over the options, I went with the 80LE trip to Abu Simbel and the $140US 2 night cruise to Luxor, covering all the main sights on the way down the Nile. This will keep me entertained for a few days. Glad the room has air conditioning because downstairs is stiflingly hot and going outside only changes the airflow and not the heat. People in Cairo were right, this place is a roaster. Went back and rested some more - my stomach muscles are sore from last night's unanticipated workout. Desperately wanted to go on the Philae Temple trip but not at the expense of being unable to make the Abu Simbel trip tomorrow morning. I chose to lay around like the pathetic sack I was. At 5pm, the body felt better enough to take a walk around and find a place to send some "I'm alive" emails. The afternoon is far hotter than the morning and that explains why the Abu Simbel trip leaves at 4am. The building housing the nearest Internet café right up the street was a wreck. It was something taken right out of a bad horror movie. Broken windows, completely dark stairwell, views to things once used 20 years ago and freely allowed to decay until now. The Internet café was bright and white in an otherwise condemnable building. No problems getting in there for 10LE per hour. Walked back and every little store vendor offered spices, naming saffron specifically. Lonely Planet says almost all of it is tinged with saffron and the rest is mixed in with dirt. Haha. Dinner wasn't served at the hotel until 7pm, when I wanted to go to bed for my 3am wake up call, so it was more rest time until then. Dinner here is simple but nice. Cooked carrots, potatoes with sauce, cooked chicken (but served cold? Maybe I was late arriving at 730pm), salad material of shaved carrots, cut cucumbers and quartered tomatoes along with a platter of cut melon. I ate what I could, a portion of everything. This was the recover or perish meal. It worked quite nicely. Ate with Russians who seemed nice enough but we exchanged little more than nods. Walking away from the table, my spirit instantly felt better. The energy wasn't there but the step was a little lighter. That's what I need. Went up and prepped for immediate morning departure and hit bed. Again. Thursday, June 1, 2006 Woke at 2am to find the AC unit had auto shut off and the room had become quite warm. A few button presses and back to sleep. 3am - Alarm time, get up, shower, put on old clothes since it's a sweaty day and get to the lobby to find a boxed breakfast of a few pastries, marmalade, cheese and a boiled egg. Tea was served, jammed down a croissant and the minibus picked me up at 3:45am to meet the city "convoy" at 4am. The first note that our driver was crazy is that he found it necessary to pass other convoy members inside of town. The second was passing another minibus, floating too close together and blowing off the driver's side mirror of the other van. The escort guy in our van and our driver got out and had a scream fest with the other driver for a minute, then our driver hopped back in, leaving the escort guy to continue the scream fest and then off into the desert we went, with about 12 big busses and 17 min busses. Convoy is a loose term, it's more like a strung out parade of whacked drivers. The big busses stayed in line but our driver derived particular pleasure from driving in the opposing traffic lane with no headlights on at 60mph over blind hills while passing other just as whacked minibus drivers. At first everyone timidly chuckled at the obviously unnecessary driver's side mirror removal event, but the attitude quickly turned to that of a white knuckle, sweaty palm, adrenalin rush ride no one had anticipated. You are initially scared, thinking this guy has had it with life and you've one of the unfortunate souls who will join him in his last minutes of life. Then you wonder if the driver has manhood issues and feels it necessary to prove he can get to Abu Simbel the fastest, with the moist points scored for the most dangerous of maneuvers. That seemed more plausible but then anger takes over and you really don't care what the real reason might be, you just wish the driver would be more reasonable, coming to the point of having the desire to crawl in the front seat and initiate a scream fest and if all else fails, knock the driver unconscious and take over. Realizing the folly of that approach, you move to the final state of acceptance, take a mental/psychological valium and try to get some sleep, since you were stupid enough to sign up for a six hour round trip with a two hour visit to the temple. The desert sunrise is beautiful, an orange ball of fire rising over the endless wastelands of southern Egypt. That delusion lasts for 10 minutes as you start to feel the sun's heat and mentally project yourself chiseling stone in the sun 3,000 years ago. My SDSU ID failed me again. Looks like the ISIC card would have been a better choice. Coming around a large dirt dome, you are confronted with the 3 ½ (one crumbled in antiquity) statues of Ramses II seated in front of his temple, once buried and forgotten in sand until rediscovered in 1818 and moved block by block in the 1960's, avoiding drowning by the impending Aswan dam. You can see where the mortar was used to replace the cut stone in a reconstruction. Quite impressive. Most everyone sits with their tour group, sitting in the sun for a good 40 minutes before being unleashed inside the temple. There is a second temple around on the next hill to explore as well. Photos and video are not allowed inside and there are many harpy men in cloaks and turbans running around inside enforcing this rule. Enjoying the moral dilemma, I took my Kodak digisnap and fired off a few shots (without flash of course) from the hip, hoping for the best until a harpy saw the lens open and told me to close it. Not interesting in testing less than friendly Egyptian rules, I complied. I need a stealthier camera. It was fascinating wandering inside the two temples carved out of a solid stone mountain, dug several hundred feet with a 60' high ceiling. Quite a planned out project and no room for mistakes since stone can't be glued back together and the entrance is far too small to bring in another statue. Plenty of the stone had the original paint and the reconstruction job on the inside was incredible, remaking the carvings in the mortar where the stone was cut. Two hours visit time was just about right as the air inside the temple becomes hot from all the people inside and, as you're not supposed to take photos (a few fools used flash and were easily busted), you have your fill after those two hours. Rather nice considering the time estimates provided for seeing a place in most countries is half as much as I need. Got back in time not to be the last person, not that it matters since the caravan forms leaving Abu Simbel. The exact same harrowing ride occurs on the way back but at least it's in the daylight so you can see which can you're going to collide with. You also learn the shoulder is a valid lane and two minibuses can push an opposing vehicle on the shoulder and not reduce their speed at all. Back at the Cleopatra hotel, I paid for my room, wolfed down a spaghetti bolognese and hibiscus (national drink of Egypt) drink and left to meet Waleed of waleedtravel@hotmail.com to take me to my cruise ship. He explained that Mr. Hassen at the Cleopatra Hotel only made 30LE business on my $140US trip, a 5% cut. Waleed pitched me a two night stay in Luxor with transport from Esna (which costs 120LE), two nights with breakfast in a three star hotel, transport over two days to all the monuments for 750LE. He initially said 600LE but I didn't make him write it down so I'm not sure but it was a learning experience. It was still okay because it keeps me set for almost three days with transport for $120US, just not lunch and dinner plus monument fees. And I do no work. Good. He also set me up for the Hurghada Hilton Plaza for $75US a night rather than the usual room rate of $160US. Less work again. That puts me to Tuesday morning when I'll have to get to Sharm el-Sheikh and figure it out from there. The cruise ship, Beau Soliel, is actually a five star, so Mr. Hassen didn't screw me. That was quite nice. The boat is pretty empty, just 17 or so Brits and 5 French. I paid Waleed off after four ATM attempts to find one that would accept my ATM card, Commercial International Bank (CIB) worked - that was a little stressful on short notice. Noticed, too, that Egyptians pay less than half tourists do for taxis no matter what. We sailed at 4:30pm for Kom Ombo at 7pm to view the temple and have dinner at 8pm. So far, so good but there's a Styrofoam block life vest in my cabin just in case. Keeping my backpack and things tight in case of an unexpected bail out. With the constant 5-10mph headwind, a felucca ride would have sucked, especially since it's close quarters, the beam is only 8-11' wide and you get to stare at people you can't or don't want to communicate with for 3 days, under power rather than sailing. Got situated, showered an cleaned up a bit before heading to the top deck to do some catch up writing. Let trips like this go for two days and you forget everything that happened. It was a blast furnace up there so I sat under an awning and watched the Brit kids have a riot in the pool and their parents enjoy the sun. Can't tell who the others are, though. Got to Kom Ombo at 7pm and dashed off the boat as it was only an hour until dinner time. I ended up buying two tickets stupidly (10LE each) for supposedly the next day. The temple is awesome, something right out of an Egyptian movie. A guard showed me a room with Cleopatra carved and I was automatically obliged to pay him 2LE. So the game goes. Sunset on the temple was great and there was a quarter crescent moon as an added bonus background. It gets dark quickly here, so the light was gone in short order. Got back to the dock and found my cruise ship missing. Crap! Thinking I had a very long walk ahead of me, I started asking around and found the Beau Soliel had moved a few docks down. Whew! Ran in to my cabin, showered with the handy soap pump dispensers and got to dinner. Looked to be about 27 people on the boat, though it looks like it could handle 3-4 times that many. Had a small table to myself with several other groups spread around. It was funny to sit there, staring at an unused napkin and place setting directly across from me. The six person table next to me, as I overheard, seemed to be asking the waiter if I spoke English and they debated who to send over and ask, afraid sending a woman might be construed as being forward and then they thought about sending a man and worried I might be gay and thought it would be forward, too. Hahah! Finally one chap came over and asked if I would like to join them. I did, sat down at the table and said, "Yes, I speak perfect English". I received great laughter as the response. Quite a few Brit families on the cruise up and down the Nile. Had an excellent dinner chat. They invited me to the evening festivities and of course I accepted. The night's activity was a treasure hunt plus some acting. The teams ended up being men versus women. The men ultimately lost only because the two male judges were seduced by the two pretty French girls doing their best belly dance. Our dressed up guy, Stewart, had an excellent belly for the dance but couldn't ultimately compete on looks. It was a wildly funny time and a good way to pass the evening anyway. These British folks are very nice and fun, retaining their amiable dry sense of humor. The entertainment ultimately ended up being provided by the guests of the boat. Riotous! The dinner was an excellent five course meal, one of which, oddly, was a fancy presented flaky rolled taco. Hahaha! 17 hours of flying for, though admittedly tasty, rolled tacos for an appetizer. Great brochette meat skewer, soup, veggies, a fruit plate and fancy presented desert with a great idea for candles - cut bell peppers. Got to bed at 1am and clocked out hard for the full night. This is only the third time I slept fully the whole trip thus far and it's week three. During dinner, I received a call from my pick-up agent that scared me. It was just to tell me the particulars for my arrival to Luxor on the third. Friday, June 2, 2006 Woke up refreshed and feeling great, thinking it was 3am due to the darkness but the room shades are too good. It was 7am! So much for a second visit to Kom Ombo at sunrise. Glad I hit it yesterday. Got breakfast, a beautiful buffet of pastries, cheese, juice make to order omelets and all the fixings. Several of my table mates were wasted tired and dragged themselves in. They're happy today is a long cruise and relax day. It's a laundry and clean up day for me. Until we reached Edfu. It only took two hours of cruising. The front desk called me and said we stop for two hours before continuing on to Esna, so this is my chance to go see Horus temple. I ran, grabbed my fortunately charged batteries and reformatted cards and ran to the front desk to ask for directions. It's too far to walk, so I have to get a horse carriage and go, and not pay more than 25-30LE. Expect a hassle. The carriage drivers start off at 100LE. I laughed. I say 30LE both ways with one guy while two others tug on my arms. After five minutes of dueling, he agrees and says "okay". I know that means nothing so I spend another minute until I can make him say "30LE both ways." Three minutes into the ride he says 35LE there and 35LE back. I laugh, tell him he's insane, no deal, keep driving. Time is short and they know you need them. We get there and I tell him one hour, memorize the carriage number because they all look the same and look for the ticket booth, something you actually have to walk to. The actual temple is 250 yards away from the parking and the entrance to the temple is even farther. When you walk around it, you are blown away by the sheer size of the structure and artistry. Finally getting there, I ponder over the Lonely Planet for a few seconds and then realize looking at them map will waste all my time so I stuffed it in my waist band and get the camera out and start firing. The columns and statues are awesome, a little shrine to the Falcon God Horus. A temple harpy invites me over the ropes (for a fee of course) to get a closer look at the inner shrine. Seeing police in view, a bad, dark and grainy pictures isn't worth getting arrested over. The harpy was pretty handy with his aluminum reflector in the dark but he didn't like my tip of 2LE and wanted 5LE. I capitulated but realized this is going to cost a small fortune quickly for each act so I cut it to 1LE. Time was dangerously short so I returned the 0.1 mile to the entrance. It looked different because I rushed in and didn't look at my surroundings, causing me to almost get lost! At last I found the carriage parking lot, ran over to the driver (in 100+ degree heat) and told him to get going. On the way back, the driver said 30LE for the carriage ride and 10LE baksheesh for the driver. I huffed and ignored him, preparing for a fight. Sure enough (Lonely Planet warns of this), the driver's "buddy" shows up at the dock to see what the argument is about. I say this driver is trying to squeeze me for more. I raise my voice way up and get in his face for kicks, telling him I know how it work here and just walk away for the boat. Raising my voice gives me a headache (in addition to listening to myself in general) but it was fun to test the theory of aggression out. Once on the boat, as I was the lone person out, we were under way in 10 minutes. Nothing like cutting it close! Another download, recharge cycle for the camera. Showered and went to the Jacuzzi to visit with the Brits for several hours. They are a very nice lot, the entire group really. The French seem to be nice enough, I think they're a university group, but the language barrier really kept us from mixing at all. We got docked in Esna just ½ mile from the dam lock, closed from June 1 for 45 days for cleaning. Didn't get off the boat, just rested and prepped for dinner. Previous page   Next page
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