Aswan, High Dam and Philae Island

We spent a night in Aswan on the boat and another at a hotel.

We used part of that day to summon a doctor for the doctor. Kaddee’s cold and cough were sounding worse and worse. The doctor spent an awful long time listening to her lungs and pronounced that she did not have pneumonia yet. She did have a rather high fever. High enough that he made her take a cold shower, which really made her very unhappy.

He gave her an injection of anti-biotics, prescribed more anti-biotics, a fever reducer and a decongestant.

He recommended bed rest, avoid drafts and cold.

So what did we do? We went off to the High Dam and the Island of Philae!

But first a minor rant about our hotel as reminder to us and a warning to any that may read this and use it as info for planning a trip.

We stayed at the Marhaba Palace hotel in Aswan. What a joke.

It was recommended by Lonely Planet, but either somebody from the hotel paid off Lonely Planet, or the hotel has faded HARD and FAST since the last issue of the guide.

It is ok. It is a typical mid-level Egyptian hotel. It looks like it used to be nice, but there has been zero maintenance done on it for what appears to be a couple of years. Walls need paint, the cable for the satellite TV was a bare wire, the bathroom flooded, the restaurant food was abysmal, the roof top terrace was filthy etc. The service was, at best, indolent.

All in all, this is mostly typical for Egyptian mid-level hotels. But the write up in Lonely Planet built up our expectations. It was disappointing to say the least.

But anyway..

We took a quick trip to the High Dam which is interesting in a major engineering kind of way. But not much to look at, really. The authorities get a little nervous with photo takers at the dam. Zoom lens and video cameras are not allowed. So I didn’t really take any good photos of it.

We then went of to the Island of Philae.

Strolling through the grounds, we noticed that he moon was almost full.