Egypt
Aswān

Discover travel destinations of travelers writing a travel journal on FindPenguins.
Travelers at this place
    • Day 5

      Die, die auf den Bus warten...

      April 10, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 37 °C

      Viele what's App Nachrichten hatten wir in unserer Gruppe schon geschrieben. Gefühlt kannten wir uns alle schon von den Vorbereitungen zu dieser außergewöhnlichen Reise. Und dann war es für uns alle soweit. Heute sollten wir uns endlich live und in Farbe treffen, aus allen Ecken angereist.

      Claudi, Birgit und Helga: Um fünf klingelte uns heute Morgen der ⏰ aus unseren gemütlichen Bettchen unseres die letzten drei Tage bewohnten Airbnb's. Effizient Deutsch sprangen wir raus, zogen uns an, wischten noch einmal feucht durch und standen wie vereinbart um 6 Uhr unten mit unserem gesamten Geraffel. Zwei Zigaretten später - um das Eintreffen des Fahrers heraufzubeschwören - war er immer noch nicht da 🤷🏻‍♀️.

      Nach einer halben Stunde Suche nach unserem Apartment hatte er sich der Einfachheit halber spontan umentschieden und erst Constanze im Mövenpick abgeholt. Sie bekam dann unseren Standort per Google Maps und navigierte ihn zielsicher durch die Straßen von El Gouna zu uns. Sonst hätte er wohl noch ewig gesucht ⏰. Wie einen Jenga-Turm puzzelten wir das Gepäck in den Kofferraum des Minibusses. Dieser war schon voll mit dem Gepäck von uns vieren. Kathrin, Seb und Stefan incl. 🧳 🧳 🧳 fehlten auch noch.

      Nach dem Einsteigen wollte der Fahrer uns wohl etwas Gutes tun und versprühte ein arabisch anmutendes Parfum im Fahrzeug 🚗, was zu akuten Hustenanfällen bei Helga und Constanze führte - gepaart mit Ausrufen: „No, stop it!“
      #dasgegenteilvongutistgutgemeint

      Die nette Agentur entschuldigte sich für den Fahrer mit den Worten, El Gounas Straßen seien zu kompliziert. Leider kannte er sich in Hurghada auch nicht besser aus. Er musste noch zu Kathrins Hotel und anschließend zu Stefan gelotst ▶️🔼◀️🔽 werden 🤣. Als er dann noch fragte „Luxor?“ und wir im Chor „no Assuan“ waren wir den Tränen nahe vor Lachen. #keinwitz

      Der Fahrer 👩‍✈️ sorgte im Laufe des Tages noch für ein paar Überraschungen. Zwar sicher mit dem Schaltknüppel in der Hand, aber mit denkbar schlechter Orientierung und ohne Navi unterwegs. Zeb nahm den Beifahrersitz in Beschlag und überwachte unsere Reise bis nach Assuan.

      Kathrin hatte für uns allen wunderschöne Kaffeebecher anfertigen lassen, die uns an unsere Reise bestimmt noch lange erinnern werden. Mit Namen drauf, so dass es nicht zu Verwechslungen kommt.

      Pünktlich zum Sonnenuntergang kamen wir in Assuan an. Wir stiegen kurz aus dem Bus, um den Blick auf die untergehende Sonne zu genießen. Dann wurde der Minibus fix ausgeladen und alles zu unserer Feluke getragen.

      Unsere Äuglein waren völlig begeistert von dem schönen Metallschiff. Wir nahmen oben an Deck Platz, wo wir unseren Aperitif genossen. Nach dem Essen auf den gemütlichen Matten auf der unteren Etage ging es noch auf einen kleinen Spaziergang über Elephantine Island, wo wir festgemacht hatten.

      Nach einer halben geteilten Flasche Weißwein und einer aufgegebenen Bestellung von 4 weiteren Flaschen vom Schwarzmarkt fielen wir in unserem Frischluft-Gemeinschafts-Schlafzimmer ins Bett. Die Boards warten aufgepumpt auf uns und der Wecker ist gestellt - mal wieder auf fünf Uhr 🕔.
      Read more

    • Day 164

      Aswan, Egypt

      September 1, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 108 °F

      Miles: 2.5 Steps: 6686 Flights: 7

      My oh my was it hot today! Most of the day it hovered around 115°! We took the little ferry across the Nile (10 Egyptian pounds or 50 cents for both of us) back to the city.

      We went to the “unfinished obelisk”. It’s basically a giant monument, or obelisk, cut out of stone on the ground. This one is the largest obelisk ever found, dated back to 1490BC. They figure work was abandoned on it when cracks started appearing in the granite. This thing was huge!

      We had decided to walk the 20 minutes to the obelisk - mostly to see the surroundings. Was a mistake. The people here are very insistent on trying to sell you things. They literally will throw items ONTO you and not take them back, grab your wrist and place bracelets on your arm .. it’s pretty intense. Between that, the young children running beside us with their hands out screaming “money?” at you, and the intense heat - it was too much! I was in pretty bad shape.

      After we toured the obelisk site, we decided to take a tuk-tuk back to the ferry dock. Cost us a whopping $1.50 - worth not getting heat stroke. Had we known it was only $1.50 we wouldn’t have walked in the first place.

      There’s only one American restaurant in Aswan - KFC - which sits at the ferry dock. When we asked the tuk-tuk driver to take us to KFC, he didn’t understand and finally said “Kentucky”? Kind of funny. All the way across the world and here’s a KFC.
      Read more

    • Day 17

      Se perdre et s'émerveiller

      October 20, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

      Avec Ayrun et une petite chinoise qui rit pour tout (trop sympa cette attitude😆) et pour qui je fais la traduction de l'anglais américain à l'anglais "ralenti"
      Ça fait progresser aussi d'expliquer une autre langue👯‍♀️

      Les petites îles du Nil
      Le café Bob Marley
      Les détails des petites rues
      Et des choses à regarder qui resteront à jamais gravées
      Aswan est étonnante
      Read more

    • Day 72

      Assuan

      November 13, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

      Philae
      Nubien Dorf (weder Ägypter noch Sudaner, lieben es zu zeichnen, mussten sich wegen Staudamm umsiedeln, Krokodil mitgenommen als Erinnerung an den alten Standort)
      Älteste Militärschule, jetzt Moschee
      Stadt Assuan
      Read more

    • Day 163

      Travel day

      August 31, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 109 °F

      Miles: 2.2 Steps: 5361 Flights: 5

      Spending time in Cairo left me with such mixed emotions. On one hand we saw the amazing pyramids - the last ancient wonder of the world still standing. It was awesome. But on the other hand we saw such terrible conditions: filth, immense garbage, poverty, people pouring over the garbage every night in the streets, much too young child labor, starving & injured stray cats and dogs everywhere - and the abuse of the horses was almost too much to watch. They were VERY underweight. They had bloody sores where the harnesses rubbed & scabbed over abrasions where they had fallen and injured themselves. They are used to haul tourists around at the pyramids in carriages. The problem is they are made to gallop up these steep cement hills in unbearable heat, and then made to literally slide back down them - all the while being whipped and beat with sticks, some falling and getting injured in the process. We watched their care after the long day (as our hotel was next to where some of the horses were kept). Their reward for a hard days work was to be tied up next to a cement wall in the rocks with little to no food or water. It was heart breaking to watch, and as women in a country where we had probably the same amount of freedom and rights as that horse (maybe less), we were unable to say or do a thing. So … we left the pyramids today with very mixed emotions. I’m glad I saw them - they were amazing. And I suppose it’s good I saw the rest too - very eye opening, but we left with heavy hearts.

      We flew to Aswan - that’s at the far south of Egypt, Cairo being at the far North. It is HOT here - not just a little, but a lot. Luckily it’s a dry heat, but dang. It runs 115-120° during the day, and our LOW tonight is 88°!

      We are staying in a guesthouse on Elephantine Island - surrounded by the Nile River - only reached by a tiny ferry. The vibe in Aswan is completely different from Cairo, at least the little we saw so far. It’s laid back, quiet, almost peaceful. Once we got there, they immediately took us out on a Felucca - a traditional Egyptian wooden sailing boat - for a sunset two hour trip around the island. It was a beautiful way to end the day, and cooler being on the water. We touched the Nile, and it was surprisingly very cold. Didn’t expect that.

      There were little boys on surfboards paddling around. They would catch up to your boat and grab ahold and ride next to you - then sing you a song for money.

      I believe I will have mixed emotions on this entire trip through Egypt. 😢
      Read more

    • Day 16

      Fin de journée beauté

      October 19, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

      Aller au zouk
      A la gare
      Manger partager et avoir le gérant qui veut nous entuber
      Tenir bon et donner ce que ça vaut!
      Avoir une envie de fruits qui vous fait saliver rien qu'en le prononçant à haute voix 😅

      Négocier et parler présidents (Miterrand, Chirac,...) avec le vendeur de l'étale et avoir un bon prix

      Les gars des échoppes sur le chemin adorent deviner d'où tu viens et rajouter derrière (quand t'as répondu) ce qui caractérise le pays pour eux et parler la langue (s'ils la connaissent)
      Je challenge Julien et lui demande de répondre à chaque fois autre chose
      Super drôle!

      Visite d'une église orthodoxe
      Donner les restes du repas à des enfants de la rue

      Retour à l'auberge

      Je motive les troupes avec un "Ici les gars ce n'est pas bateau à moteur c'est felouque svp!"
      Pas besoin de dire plus
      Julien embarque sur le plan
      Et Geoffrey (un gars d'Angers, ingénieur du son qui vit à Margate) aussi
      Je vous laisse admirer la beauté de tout ça

      Ah oui et déguster des mangues (dont une mangue foss) à bord de "notre voilier"
      Très important...
      Le goût était complètement modifié 😛
      Read more

    • Day 22

      Aswan…a long and varied day

      October 13, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

      Our day started at 3am (or before as Amr woke before then in anticipation..) so we are totally wiped now - 8.45pm - and I won’t write up all the intricacies. Will leave that till we have a leisurely time…but not sure if that is tomorrow as again we get up at 3 to leave for Abu Simbel at 4am (3.5 hr bus ride) but am very excited to see this wonderful temple.

      We flew to Aswan, and immediately boarded a bus which took us via the high dam to the temple of Philae on an island (we get there by boat)…then the unfinished obelisk in a granite quarry (by this time it was very hot), then on to an oil essence shop, where they make the oils to smell nice, to cure illnesses…that was a lovely visit in a cool room, and some people indulged in buying oils…Amr bought some argan oil. Then we were delivered to our hotel for the night - a very short one - and that was utter chaos, but won’t elaborate now! After a bit of downtime mainly trying to get the internet to work, we had a sail in a felucca at 4.45 to watch the sunset. Quite a few people chose not to come as by then they were tired, but the hard core of us did and it was just beautiful - so peaceful and perfect, specially with so few of us!! That is the basics, and we have just had a drink in the bar, where a Nubian band were playing traditional music, and a dancer whirled very spectacularly….will put a couple of photos - there are so many amazing ones - but the very weak internet may not allow it.
      Read more

    • Day 36

      Temple of Philae & Upper Nile

      July 7, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 108 °F

      These photos are from our final day in Aswan. We visited the Philae Temple devoted to Isis and we took a smaller boat up the Nile to visit the Nubian Village. The colorful spice market and views along the way were highlights. Kai also went for a swim in the Nile! Fortunately no 🐊!Read more

    • Day 23

      P.S. for Thursday, more photos

      October 14, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      The temple of Philae was so beautiful, and the felucca sunset sail was lovely. Checking into the hotel where we stayed last night was a Fawltey Towers experience!! Everyone was exhausted from being up since 3am and arriving at a rather nice hotel on an island should have been great - but the chaos was Monty Python! I thought it was funny, but some were rather annoyed…and we were very frustrated as the wifi did not function…but it did come to life eventually and I could publish part 1! Anyway, it was only our home till 4am, as we set off in the early hours again to get to Abu Simbel.

      Now will add more photos.
      Read more

    • Day 23

      Abu Simbel, just amazing!

      October 14, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

      Up again at an indecent hour, and on the road soon after 4am…not sad to leave the crazy hotel, and the bus had all our luggage with us as after Abu Simbel we came straight back to our cruise boat - the Royal Lily. I think everyone dozed off on the long drive - a straight road through the desert going south to about 50 kms from the Sudanese border. I think it was a bit over three and a half hours, but when we got there WOW! It was still cool enough - and it is always a clear day - and you walk down the path, Lake Nasser huge like a sea - you can’t see the other side in some parts - and suddenly you see the huge figures carved up in the rock. So impressive, and so worth the trip. Huge statues of Ramses II, and there is a second temple for his queen…not as big of course! There are many inner sanctums in the temples, all carved on the walls…It is all carved out of the rock, not put there separately, and it is impossible to imagine how they moved the whole thing in the 60s to save it from flooding when they built the dam.

      We spent a couple of hours there, and hopped back on the bus for the ride back. Slightly more awake on the way back, and amazing to see a green patch of sunflowers in the middle of the desert. They are working on irrigating and building canals to make more fertile land, and are building new cities out there to try and decentralise the cities. Greater Cairo’s population is more than the whole of Australia’s. It felt like late afternoon by then we had been up so long, but we got back to the boat in time for a late lunch!! Lovely boat, cabin and everyone is now settled in. Some have gone off on an optional Nubian village tour, but we are here relaxing and watching the sunset over the Nile again…SO lovely. On the boat for 3 nights.
      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Aswan, Assuan, Aswān, أسوان, Горад Асуан, Асуан, Asuan, Asuán, Ασσουάν, Asuano, اسوان, Assouan, אסואן, Asszuán, ASW, アスワン, ასუანი, 아스완, Eswan, Asuanas, आस्वान, Assuão, Aswán, Asvan, 阿斯旺

    Join us:

    FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android