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Egypt for 1 Month, then MexicoEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico
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Egypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

December 2022 - April 2023
A 114-day adventure by Ladyandtramp Read more
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  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    Ending Our Boat Trip in Aswan

    December 26, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 40 °C

    Today our boat trip ended after breakfast. All of us headed in different directions. We are staying in Aswan on Elephantine Island for 3 days. Chris and Marit went to Abu Simbel and will return to Aswan tomorrow. Hilary and Sal and their daughters were staying at the famous Cataract Hotel and will fly to Abu Simbel, tomorrow. Silvie’s French family were flying back to their respective homes in Paris, Berlin and Cairo. We wish that everyone has a safe trip home.

    Aswan is the starting or ending point of many Nile Cruises, but it’s also a destination on its own. With its Nubian culture, it feels different from the rest of Egypt. There are lots of places to visit - museums, temples, a monastery, Nubian villages, the high dam and local markets. It is also from Aswan that you can do a day trip to the famous Abu Simbel.

    We were dropped off at the ferry docks and taken across the river to Elephantine Island. The island is the largest of Aswan’s islands. It was once a significant trading post, particularly for ivory, which may be the reason for the name (elephantine means elephant in Greek).

    The island is small and we easily found the Mango Guest House. It was pretty early to be checking in but the owner Pook, from Denmark, met us, offered us tea and coffee and gave us tips for places to visit.

    She suggested that today we could take a ferry to Aswan, walk up the Corniche and get a motorboat that would take us across the Nile to the Tombs on the West Bank. After seeing the tombs, we could walk 4 km across the desert, or take a camel, to an old Coptic monastery, have lunch at the Sunset Place tent and then get a boat to bring us back to the island. Sounded like a plan.

    The Tombs of the Nobles located in Aswan are usually called the tombs of Qubat El ‎Hawa. They date back to the Old and Middle Kingdoms (2500 BC and 2000 BC) and are built following a simple plan - an entrance hall, a pillared room and a corridor leading to the burial chamber.

    The wall paintings inside the Tombs of the Nobles were quite different from others that we have seen. They were colourful and they ‎clearly displayed the daily life activities of the ancient Egyptians.‎ We had to climb a long set of stairs to get up to the tombs but then we had a great view of Aswan and the Nile looking east, and the desert looking west.

    From there, we had to make a decision about how to get to the Monastery of St. Simeon. The 4 km walk through the desert followed a camel trail. Hmmmn. It’s not so easy to walk on the fine sand with no shade…

    We decided to ‘rent’ a camel for the two of us but the saddles are brutal and camel riding is not the most pleasant. I decided to walk rather than endure the pain. Chris rode to start. I walked with the camel owner, who insisted on holding my hand, in the shade of the camel. My shoes and socks filled up with sand. We came to a steep hill that went up to the monastery and Chris and I traded spots.

    The Monastery of St. Simeon, also known as the Anba Hatra Monastery. Visiting this Coptic monastery provided us with a glimpse of the early days of Christianity in Egypt and how the monks lived as far back as the 7th century. Unlike some other Egyptian ruins, this attraction does not draw crowds, so it made for a pleasant experience. We had fun trying to guess the function of each section of the monastery by looking for clues. A giant grist stone indicated the mill. Small rooms with stone benches were probably the dorm. We could imagine people cooking in the kitchen. We even identified stables and washing areas, maybe toilets too?

    By now, we were hungry and easily found the Sunset Place near the Nile. We had a wonderful meal with a Stella beer under a big tent with cats and dogs for company. Everything was cooked from scratch so we had to wait a bit but it was worth it. The owner arranged to have a boat take us back to our island. All pretty easy.

    When we got back, I was pretty pooped out. We both just had a shower and relaxed in our room.
    Tomorrow we will explore Elephantine Island.    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    Mango Guesthouse

    December 27, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    While in Aswan we based ourselves at the Mango Guesthouse on Elephantine Island just a short boat ride from the mainland.

    On the island there are no roads or motor vehicles, just tiny sandy paths between houses. Lots of people were outside and everyone was friendly. It is much quieter and old-fashioned on the island. We are so happy that we made the decision to stay here.

    Riding on the ferry is a fun experience. We could easily and cheaply cross the river to busy Aswan in minutes. Two completely different worlds.

    Bu the way, we didn’t realize that men sit in one section of the boat and the women in an other and we just sat together, wherever. We got some funny looks but we get funny looks all the time. Oh well, we are tourists. From now on we will follow the rules.

    P.S. We just learned that the men don’t care but the women do not want to be touched by any men except their husbands. And heaven forbid if other women see a man touch you. The tongues would wag!    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico
    1

    Elephantine Island

    December 27, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Today’s weather. Low of 10C and high of 25C. Sunny all day.

    Mornings outside are surprisingly cold but our puffer jackets, buffs and layers have been awesome!

    There seems to be so much to see here. There is no way that we could visit all that Aswan has to offer in the time that we are here.

    We decided that since we have already seen so many temples and tombs, and we have travelled so much in the past 18 days, that we would just omit the trip to Abu Simbel. Hopefully we won’t regret it. Later today, we are meeting up with Marit and Chris from Holland who went there right after leaving the boat yesterday, so we will hear about their trip and see their photos later today.

    This morning, we went for a walk around the Island. There are two Nubian villages here. Many of the Nubians in the villages and farms on the Nile were relocated here during the last half of the twentieth century as construction of the High Dam in Aswan neared completion. The construction of the dam essentially meant that the Nubian communities had no option but to move as their homes were going to be flooded in the creation of the huge Lake Nasser.

    So what did we see as we walked around the quiet village we are staying in?

    - a shop with a man weaving on a loom and filled with lovely hand- woven cotton, linen and silk/linen shawls.

    - a primary school. The kids are studying for exams so they weren’t at school but we met teachers and the headmaster and could look around.

    - the inside of a Nubian house. The man took us on a tour of his house that was filled with stuffed and live crocodiles!

    We passed a group of ladies and Chris noticed a Mickey Mouse design on the front of an old lady’s dress. He pointed to it to make conversation and the old lady screamed and backed away, giving him a dirty look. Later we learned that women do not allow any man to touch them in any way. Only their husbands can do that. He didn’t touch her but she thought that he might. We passed this lady again later in the day and she gave Chris the evil eye and once again loudly scolded him, we think, in front of her women friends.

    The Aswan Archaeological Museum is close by and so are the 2 km square km ancient ruins of Abu with its Temples of Khnum and Satet. The temples date back to 1497 BC. and that’s where we met three of our fellow boat mates.

    In the afternoon, we crossed the river and went to the bustling city of Aswan.    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    Nilometer

    December 27, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    While visiting the ruins on Elephantine Island, we were on a quest to find an interesting instrument called a Nilometer – a staircase under a temple that was used to gage the Nile’s water level and its clarity right up to the 19th century. We weren’t sure what we were looking for but we did find it!

    The Nilometer on this island, under the old temple, had 52 evenly-spaced steps that led straight down to the Nile, and there were white indicator markings on the walls at different levels for each step. Before the Aswan Dam was built, in the 1960s, the river water must have come up pretty high as the staircase was long. Actually we found two Nilometers in the ruins but the other staircase was blocked off.

    Only priests and rulers, whether pharaohs or later, Roman or Arab leaders, were allowed to monitor the nilometers, and their ability to predict the behavior of the Nile was used to impress the common people. And also to determine how much money would be collected in taxes. This is why so many nilometers were built in temples, where only priests would be able to access the mysterious instrument.

    Earlier, we did see another Nilometer in the Temple of Kom Ombo, but had no clue what it was. An Egyptian man try to tell us what it was by throwing a rock into a dark staircase and we heard a splash. But we thought that he was saying, millimetre, so it didn’t make sense. We thought that it was just a flooded stairway. Anyways, the water in that one came from the Nile by way of a canal that deposited it into a cistern. And again, the indicating markers were carved into the wall, accessible by staircases for the priests and rulers who predicted the fate of the Egyptian crop.    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    Aswan’s East Bank

    December 27, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Today we were surprised to see all of our fellow boat travellers in various places in Aswan! The American family in the Elephantine ruins. The Dutch couple at the Mango Guesthouse and the French family on the ferry. It’s a small world.

    The Dutch couple, Marit and Chris, arrived from their trip to Abu Simbel at around lunchtime and we all went to eat a jerk chicken and tagine lunch at the Bob Marley restaurant near the ferry landing. We ate home-cooked food on a colourfully decorated terrace overlooking all the activity on the Nile River and Aswan city. The food was good and the experience was relaxing. We will go back.

    We crossed the river to the bustling city of Aswan where we split up. Chris and I wanted to visit the award-winning Nubian Museum which is close to the Old Cataract Hotel where Agatha Christie’s book, Death on the Nile, took place.

    The museum was a treat to visit as the building is lovely. It showcases the history, art and culture of Nubia and serves as a reminder of what was lost beneath Lake Nasser when the Aswan High Dam was built. Exhibits are beautifully displayed and explanations in Arabic and English clearly told us what life was like for the Nubians from 4500 BC through to the present day.

    We tried to visit the Americans we met on the boat trip who were staying at the Old Cataract Hotel but security was tight and we were told that we had to pay an entry fee of $35. Well that wasn’t happening so we moved on. Little did we know that they would give us a voucher that could be used for food and drink once inside. Actually it isn’t a bad way to control the crowds that want to see this old and famous hotel. Scenes from the Death on the Nile movie were filmed here.

    Next door to the hotel there is a public garden called the Feryal Garden. What we enjoyed the most was the quietness of the park as it was hassle-free. There wasn’t anyone trying to sell anything or offering to guide you so it was a very pleasant change from the streets just outside the gates.

    The park is built on a granite hill. It's multi-level with winding paths, big trees and terraces overlooking the Nile. It has good views over the river and we enjoyed seeing the local people relaxing there while the sun went down. I think that we were the only tourists.

    Once the sun goes down, it gets dark fast so we went back across the river to our guesthouse where we ordered a Nubian pizza with Marit and Chris.    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    Motorboat Trip Through the Cataracts

    December 28, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    We are getting a little tired of tours featuring tombs, ruins and temples, so we decided to do something a little different with our Dutch friends, Marit and Chris. We found out that we could easily rent a motorboat with a driver to take us further up the Nile through an area known as the Cataract.

    Pook, our landlady, kindly arranged to have a motorboat ready to pick us up at 10:30 a.m. It cost us less than $15 an hour and we could stop wherever and whenever we wanted to. What a deal. We started out by going around Elephantine Island, watching young boys on surfboards, singing the Macarena song while hitching rides on the sides of tourist boats. They will do anything for a buck, or a quarter.

    Once again we saw the tombs of the nobles but this time from the river. The ramps that the sarcophagi were pulled up on to the tombs, were clearly visible.

    Aswan’s botanical garden is located on a nearby island. Until 1916, it was the property of a Lord Kitchener who was a commander of the British forces. He had a passion for beautiful palms and plants and transformed the whole island into a botanical garden. We asked our driver to drop us off at the entrance and then pick us up at the other end of the island.

    The island covers 6.8 hectares or 16 acres and is full of plants from the Far East, India and parts of Africa. Because of the plants and the island’s location, it is full of birds, and vendors. Of course, you can’t visit any part of Egypt without the usual and somewhat annoying vendors asking, “Where you from?” and “What is your name?” before starting the sales pitch. We just try to ignore them.

    We got back into our boat and continued on into the cataract area.

    Upstream from the island, the Nile is ‘interrupted’ for about 5 km by different sizes and shapes of granite blocks. Before the dam was built, the river used to rush through these blocks throwing up “high plumes of spray in a deafening roar”. That was the way that travellers in the 1800’s used to describe it. Now the cataracts look much different and the boulders are high and dry, creating little islands in the river. It was a very pretty.

    Before we turned to go back to Aswan, we stopped at a little, colourful Nubian village and did a walkabout. The Nubian houses are painted with bright colours, the floors are covered with sand, and the domed houses have lots of windows and an open roof. This island’s livelihood depends on tourists so upon disembarkment, we were greeted by little boys playing drums and singing and hoping for money. As we walked further into the village, we passed riverside restaurants and lots of stalls selling clothes, spices, handmade cotton scarves and trinkets made in Egypt. It wasn’t what we expected to see but it is what it is.

    We went into a primary school where a teacher, for a tip, demonstrated teaching a lesson. We were the students. He taught us how to say the numbers from 1 - 10. I’m afraid that we didn’t do very well with our pronunciation or remembering the words. Chris was asked to recite the Arabic numbers from one to ten. An impossible task! So he had to go to the front, put his hands in the air and was lightly ‘spanked’ with a ruler by the teacher every time he mispronounced a word.

    In general, the Nubians seem friendly and hospitable. They usually welcome people by offering them a cup of hot tea, either Egyptian tea (Hibiscus tea or Karkade) or Kenyan tea and it is considered rude to refuse. Time is different here.

    Just an aside - most of the people we met had teeth that were in very bad shape. I don’t think that they ever brush them. The dentists’ sole job is to pull teeth.

    After our visit, we boarded the boat and headed back down the river to Aswan. We asked to be let off at the old Cataract hotel, where Agatha Christie wrote her famous book “Death on the Nile”. Our boat trip lasted 2 1/2 hours and it was a perfect way to spend a few peaceful hours.

    From there, we walked through the non tourist area of Aswan (thanks Chris for the tour, lol ) to the granite quarry where an unfinished obelisk is located. More about that in the next footprint.

    At the end of our little trip, we felt that we had done enough so we took a taxi back to ferry docks, crossed the river and had lunch once again at the Bob Marley restaurant.    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    Unfinished Obelisk in the Granite Quarry

    December 28, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    The captain of the boat we were on dropped us off at the dock near the Old Cataract Hotel so that we could walk to the old granite quarry where Egypt’s giant obelisks were made.

    An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top. For Egyptians, the obelisk was a monument that was very erected to commemorate an individual or event, and honor the gods.

    We wanted to go there to see what would have been the largest of all Egyptian obelisks (1280 BC) but … it’s construction was abandoned due to the appearance of a crack in its shaft. Theories say that it could have cracked during an earthquake. If it had been finished it would have stood 42.5 m tall and weighed about 1,200 tons.

    Apparently, workers carved the obelisk using very hard dolorite balls to pound the granite rock into shape. I cannot imagine how hard the work would have been in the searing summer heat. To release the obelisk, depressions were made around the obelisk and wedges of palm wood were placed under its edges. These were soaked in water so they would expand and crack the rock.

    Once the obelisk is released, the hard work of transporting the tower to the shore and then up the Nile to the the great temples of the north, started. Then, raising it upright. The four of us tried hard to figure out how in the world they did it! An amazing feat.    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    Travel Day - Aswan to Luxor

    December 29, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Today is a travel day. Usually a little hectic but I would say, a little more hectic here. Haha. Everything is in Arabic and we are on our own. A bit of an adventure.

    I don't want to bore you so I am suggesting that you stop reading here. To us, the afternoon was full of crazy experiences that can't be explained. You had to be here... but here is the calm version.

    This morning, we ate breakfast packed up said goodbye to our Dutch friends, took the ferry to Aswan and then went into the souk to buy our grandkids some t-shirts. Negotiating a price in Egypt is a process that requires patience, good humour, conversation, some acting and a cup of tea. It can be fun as long as you aren't in a hurry. We did okay.

    We returned to the island, had some lunch picked up our bags, took the ferry back to Aswan, got a taxi to the train station and then had to figure out the train system as everything was in Arabic.

    We were told that there were no seats left in the first class cars at 3 pm so we saved ourselves a few Egyptian pounds and bought 2nd class tickets. We could deal with dirt for 3 hours. Lysol handiwipes came in handy.

    We recognized the Luxor train station but rather than get hassled by all the touts we took a cab to the river. Our guesthouse sent a boat to meet us and to take us across the river to the west Bank where the house is located. We were in for a pleasant surprise when we saw our apartment!    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    The Luxor Guesthouse

    December 30, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We lucked out by staying in this lovely, clean guesthouse with great service on the West Bank in Luxor.

    From the train station, we took a taxi to the last king’s Winter Palace, now a hotel, and waited for a boat ride across the Nile to where we are staying. Our host, Ahmed, met us at the pier after praying at the mosque. He has been to Mecca on a pilgrimage three times and said that the experience was very meaningful.

    We arrived in the dark so some of the photos were taken then. Most of the pictures were taken from our balcony    Read more

  • LadyandtrampEgypt for 1 Month, then Mexico

    Luxor’s West Bank - Habu Medihat

    December 30, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    The morning was glorious. The big Egyptian sun came up over Luxor and the Nile, and it was beautiful. Thanks Ra, (the sun god), for rejuvenating us after a long travel afternoon yesterday.

    We have only one full day here before heading to the Red Sea. The guesthouse that we are staying in is excellent and it is very peaceful here. Birds are singing, donkeys braying, a variety of boats are going down the river and here local people are going about their business in a casual, laidback way. Here, it is a lot quieter and peaceful than in Luxor, which we can see and hear across the river!

    The East Bank has a lot to see but the West Bank is where all the main archaeological sites are located. A village on this side, Gourna, was expropriated and villagers were moved when important statues or temples were discovered under their homes. Villagers were using tombs as their septic tanks! I think though that for years the villagers didn’t tell anyone about anything that they found in their backyards. By being moved, they lost their livelihoods, I.e. selling trinkets to foreigners.

    We really thought hard about whether we wanted to visit another temple site while we are here. The apartment is so roomy, the terrace is lovely and we are getting lazier. But reading about Medihat Habu, a site not usually seen by tourists, intrigued us. So, we arranged to visit it in the afternoon with Ahmed, the lovely man that has made our stay at the guesthouse so special. While we visited the temple, our laundry was being done.

    Ramesses III, who reigned from 1184—1153 BC, was the last of the great pharaohs of Egypt. During his reign, Medinat Habu functioned as a walled city with the temple and an administrative center inside of walls that protected the inhabitants of the area during hard times. Later on, the complex became a walled town for Coptic Christians living in the area.

    We decided to use Ahmed as a guide. He was an expert on Egyptian history and was able to explain and answer many questions that we had unanswered during out trip so far. It was the perfect time to get a guide!

    Our first impression of the temple was awe. It is in such good condition and imposing. The carvings are exquisite. We entered through a massive stone gate (18 m) that once had huge wooden doors. And I mean it when I say massive.

    The complex behind it, the Temples of Ramesses III, has relief carvings depicting the king defeating Egypt’s rivals from Libya and the Sea Peoples and what was done to prisoners (hands and penises were cut off while scribes recorded the numbers). In fact, the whole temple illustrated his warring successes. Etchings in the stones were very deep so that they couldn’t be scraped off without destroying the stone. It would be a permanent record for future generations.

    From the two main temples we continued into several holy courtyards with more well-preserved reliefs and columns, many with their coloring still intact, and then leading into a final very sacred hypostyle hall (a room with huge pillars supporting the roof).

    We are always amazed by the vibrant colours ( green, red, blue, yellow, white, black ) in the reliefs. How in the world have the colours remained so vibrant? Ahmed didn’t really know but seemed to think that the coloured mineral pigments were rubbed right into the stone.

    We were so happy to end the temple part of our trip with Ahmed. He was great!

    But it wasn’t quite the last temple… See the following footprint.    Read more

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