Sunday, December 30, 2007
Nile Cruise: Balloon Flight Luxor
Another really early start: we had decided to take a balloon flight across the Nile's floodplains and below the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens as a special treat. And while we were promised at least 35 minutes we enjoyed a full hour's flight welcoming in the morning sunrise amongst the smokey haze from sugar-cane burn-off. And in the silent morning washed with the heat from the ignition flame to the balloon we traversed the sky. How can you express the imagery except maybe through pictures?
Nile Cruise: Abu Simbel
An early morning wake up call 3.45am was all we needed but today we flew Egypt Air from Aswan to Abu Simbel on the southern shores of Lake Nasser about 25km from Egypt's border with Sudan. Abu Simbel is IMPRESSIVE!!! The original construction, monuments to Rameses II and his favourite wife Nefertari, were carved out of the rock of the hills, but because they were going to be drowned by the rising waters of Lake Nasser, the structures were removed and built 90 metre higher up. Two artificial hills were constructed and the saved artefacts were reassembled in an exact replica of the original monuments. The rock-cut Temple of Abu Simbel is up there with Ankor Wat in Cambodia. The Pharoah Ramses II is shown at four different stages of his life while in the Temple of Hathor alongside (dedicated to Nefertari)the 10m high statues step out of the wall, their left feet forward, symbolic in Ancient Egypt of walking into the afterlife. After a 90 minute tour we were shuttled back to the plane for the flight back to Aswan. And lunch!! And a rest!! That night we sailed back towards Luxor, stopping at Edfu during the day and arriving at Luxor about midnight.
Nile Cruise: Aswan
Clive didn't fare too well in Aswan. We thought initially it was the Pharoah's Curse, but more likely it was reaction too rich and plentiful eating. Can't complain about the food! Shelley took in visits to the Temple of Philae (by felucca) in Lake Nasser; the Aswan High Dam (and we crossed the lower dam at a later point) and on to the Botanical Gardens. After lunch, and a kip, we took a tour to a local mosque in Aswan, where because it was 5.10pm and not many (five in fact) Muslims come to pray at that time, we were able to sit in and watch them at prayer in a mosue built about 25 years ago. Our guide explained to us his version of Islam and how accommodating and tolerant it is of other religions and from there we tripped down to the local markets where we were let loose for an hour. Very similar to the markets of Turkey and Istanbul in particular. Hassled all the way by shop owners (and their'vultures') we were encouraged to buy: 'Come and have a butcher's'; 'ASDA prices..'; 'We'll pay you to come and look'. Clive tried bartering with a book stall owner and was told to 'Go away' because his offer price was absurdly low. We met other members of our tour group in a local coffee shop where we had free drinks and Shisha - Shelley insists she didn't inhale the raspberry flavoured smoke that bubbled through the water! It WAS nice!
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