Category: Travel

A set from Medinat Habu.

This temple is interesting for a couple of reasons.

• it is not heavily visited. No crowds!
• It is very well preserved.
• The colors on some of the carvings are still intact and then are pretty spectacular

Trying another one of photoshops web formats.

I can’t find one that lets me enter in text for the individual photos.

I may end up going back to Picasa.

Let me know what you think.

I am trying something new. I am using the web page generator from PhotoShop to create a Flash based web page.

Here it is.

If you love it, hate it or tolerate it, let me know. Trying to decide if I will switch to a new presentation format or not.

Thanks

Gee. Has it been 2 months since we were in Abu Simbel? And still no post.

I slack, therefore I am.

We went to Abu Simbel in “the convoy”. [They even had a bear in the air]

For “safety” reasons, all tourists are required to ride in a convoy between Aswan and Abu Simbel. [Between Aswan and Luxor too, I have been told]. There are 2 convoys per day in each direction.

I don’t know what the government was thinking, but if I wanted to safeguard tourists on a road, I certainly wouldn’t bunch them all together and have them travel the road AT ANNOUNCED TIMES. But maybe that’s just me.

“The convoy” is a bit of a misnomer anyway. There is a common meeting place where all the buses, mini-buses, taxis and private cars assemble. They are all then let through the checkpoint together.

After that, it is every man for himself. It becomes the cannonball run!

We were in a mini-van. At the checkpoint a policeman with a rifle got in. Looked to be a Lt or so.

I thought “hmm, do they put a cop in each mini-van”. I looked around, “no, just us”.

“Why are we special? Is it because we are in a short-bus?”

After a few minutes of observation and listening, I realized the cop needed a ride to the other side and he knew this driver. So he climbed in. And promptly fell asleep.

Many Egyptians seem to have an amazing ability to sleep anywhere, anytime.

So, off we go. Our driver was quick. I think we beat everybody else to Abu Simbel.

We stayed at a “resort” about a 20 minute walk from the temple complex. It is a nice place. But the travel agent and everybody else was right: staying over night in Abu Simbel is not really worth it. We were staying 2 nights.

Not worth it, UNLESS you want to be there for sunrise or see the Sound and Light show. We got to be at the temple when the sun rose on Christmas Morning.

One night would have been enough, but we were unable to get flights out on Christmas Day, so we spent 2 nights. Which means we spent one day doing ABSOLUTELY nothing.

The temple was amazing. One fact is that the temple was built such that on Ramses birthday, the rising sun shines through that door at the bottom, all the way back to illuminate Ramses’ face on the back wall.

Side note:

I was more amazed the the modern Egyptians got it right when they moved it (when the dam was built) than I was amazed that the ancient Egyptians were able to get that right.

Granted the Egyptians had UNESCO help the second time. BUT I just found out that they (UNESCO) got it wrong! They are off a day. So the sunshines on Ramses’ face on his birthday+1. LOL. Welcome in Egypt.

This interesting bit of, um, “reporting” has some interesting “facts”. They say that the day that the light shines on the faces in the back of the temple is on the equinox in February and October.

Last time *I* checked, the Equinox was in March and September. Now I know the earth’s orbit has changed some, but I don’t think it has changed THAT much in the 4 or 5 thousand years the temple has been built.

And then the article goes on to say that the new location is off a day because they had no choice during the move. An American archaelogist/egyptologist of my acquaintance says that it was a mistake. They had all the calculations to do it right, but somebody screwed up somewhere along the line.

Who knows.

Regardless, I may have to make a trip back on the “egyptian equinox” to see it for myself.

So we got up at 4 am, put on every piece of clothing we had and marched off to the temple. Kaddee’s mom decided to sleep in.

It was REALLY cold that morning. We froze. I kept one hand in my pocket, the other had worked the shutter release. The skin on that hand dried out and cracked and the cuticles bled from the cold.

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

A friend who has been here in Cairo a few years longer than us asked:

“So, I haven’t been to Abu Simbel yet. It is just a pain to get to. Am I nuts if I leave Egypt without seeing it?”

The answer is “Yes. You would be nuts not to go.”

It is one thing if you are only in country for a week and are trying to squeeze in to much (but even then, I urge people to go) but being here for multiple years and missing it is inexcusable, IMNSHO.

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.

We were excited about this, because it meant a full moon at Abu Simbel in a few days time.

We roamed around the temple, and I took a few photos. Kaddee was tired but determined to see as much as possible before collapsing in exhaustion.

We left the temple as the sun started to set. Our time in Aswan draws to a close.

While we slept, the boat chugged up river towards Kom Ombo. It arrived some time during the night and moored somewhere nearby. Early in the morning, it sailed to Kom Ombo itself.

We were there shortly after sunrise. The light was nice, the air was cold and the crowds were sparse. Perfect.

It is in pretty good shape.

Sunlight peaking in through columns and such made for some neat highlights

From there is was a short sail to Aswan harbor. The cruise boats are stacked up 3 and 4 deep in places. Not a particularly pleasant sight, really. But luckily there are other things to keep ones eyes occupied.

The tombs of the nobles is across the river on the west bank

And there are always the pretty boats

and the not so pretty boats

Next up, the high dam and Philae

After the locks we sailed towards Edfu and the Temple of Horus.

We passed many bucolic Nile river scenes.

And many feluccas

We drank lemon juice and vodka.

As the sun was getting ready to set, we reached Edfu and headed off to the Temple of Horus.

Guarded by statues of an angry looking Horus

The temple was well preserved and looked great under the lights

Deep within the temple is a chamber that holds the ceremonial barge

We left Horus and his engravings and returned to the boat for dinner, drinks and sleep.

While we slept, the boat sailed on to Kom Ombo….

As part of our Christmas break, Kaddee, her mother and I flew to Luxor and boarded a Nile cruise boat for a 4 night, 5 day fun filled adventure.

The cruise includes sight seeing at some temples as well on board entertainment Which we mostly slept through since we were all tired from sightseeing and coming down with colds.

I can’t say I was sorry to miss the “galabaya party” or the “nubian drumming”. The belly dancer might have been interesting in a bad-train-wreck sort of way. But alas.

[pause]

I started to type up a “we went here and did this” sort of post, but that seems like too much work. So instead, some highlights and lowlights.

We basically sat on the boat, watched the sunset

We went to Medinat Habu

which is spectacular.

It is also where Kaddee got to take a motorcycle ride.

We went to the Valley of the Queens which was only mildy interesting. There are only 3 tombs open and the most famous one, Queen Nefetari’s tomb, is closed to regular tourists due to damage caused by humidity and dust.

We skipped the Valley of the Kings tour (we did that last year) and decided to stay on the boat to ride through the locks at Esna.

That was neat in a we-are-such-geeks way. I have never been through locks before. We have spent many a sunny Sunday afternoon at the Ballard locks in Seattle, watching the boats pass, but this was my first time through a set.

Next time:

• Edfu and the Temple of Horus
• More cruising and drinking on the sundeck.

Hello all.

We have been traveling and haven’t posted much.

We flew to Luxor and spent a night there. Then we boarded a 4 night Nile Cruise to Aswan.

We spent an extra night in Aswan, then got in a minibus to join the convoy to Abu Simbel.

We spent 2 days, Christmas Eve and Day, in Abu Simbel. Got up in time for the sunrise at the temple.

It was butt-chapping cold, but the lighting was beautiful. And, as always, the company was enchanting.

Merry Christmas.

In celebration of the fact that Lebanon has been without a president for a whole day and nothing has blown up yet, a small handful of photos of the places we visited.