Aswan, Egypt - Day 100 - Boots on the Loose

Train from Cairo to Aswan took around 12 hours, thus arriving at about noon. Sleepers were rather expensive so we signed up for first class instead which has nice, spacious seating that’s semi-sleepable.

Aswan is quite a nice looking town – it sits on the Nile and is the starting point for the felucca ride back up north towards Luxor; the hotel we stayed in sits right across the street from the river and had a beautiful view from the rooftop patio. Despite Aswan’s beauty, it has some of the worst hassling we’ve come across so far (and they say Luxor is worse!). Everyone wants to take you on their felucca and if you so much as acknowledge them, they think you’ve committed (walking down the market street was no better either).

I wasn’t there but Alissa’s dad (Brant) bought some pistacchios at a store (1 kg), thought they felt light so weighed them at the next store and sure enough it was only 1 pound; went back to complain, shop owner came over (as opposed to kid running the store) and apparently was none too happy with his hired hand. After hearing this, I’m pretty sure the same thing happened to me at the post office in Cairo, mailing a parcel back home.

Went to the tourist info centre to see which captains they recommended and he pointed us to Captain Washington whose been in the business for close to 30 years (felucca business, that is). Met his nephew Ahmed at a restaurant (who’d eventually be our captain) to go over the ropes with us. His price was well over double what the other guys were telling us on the street, but they’re price was so low, it just seemed risky to go with them (the more expensive one was still under $20/day including beer which is well within the budget). So we were set to board at 10am the next morning.

Took a ferry over to Elephantine Island afterwards which is a smallish Neubian island on the Nile (Neubians are the people that live here; they have their own distinct language and stretch all the way down to Kartoom, Sudan). Got off the ferry and started walking through the old town and were immediately picked up by one of the locals who assumed we wanted to pay 5 pounds each to have a guided tour of the island which apparently included tea with the chief. We told him numerous times we didn’t want a tour but he just didn’t seem to understand this (well, I’m sure he did) and persisted with us so much that it quickly became a game of cat and mouse trying to lose him. After about 10 minutes of walking we decided to head back to the harbour to leave the island. Anyway I’ve been having a pretty tough time with this because it’s obvious that the group didn’t want to pay the money on principle (and I don’t disagree with that… although it is only $1 each), but our stubborness made the experience so miserable that I’d just as soon forget the day ever happened. It seems I’m on my own about this but I’d likely rather pay the 5 pounds and have a good time (or, don’t start walking until the local guy understands we’re not paying and chooses to leave us alone).

Got on the felucca around 10am, didn’t actually depart until around noon, but that was quite alright by us… it was sooo nice and peaceful being down on the water away from it all. The trip turned out to be a wonderful experience; we did 3 days and 2 nights but if we had a bit more time I think we all would have been happy doing a 5 night stint. I was surprised at how little ground we actually covered – we only did about 40kms over the whole 3 days… but the wind blows south (against us) down the Nile this time of year which means the boat has to tack back and forth up the river the whole time.

First day we basically just made it out of sight of Aswan (where we started); Ahmed the captain went to a nearby village to visit a friend (who just had an accident and lost a few fingers) for the evening, so we basically hung out by ourselves and a little with Shahat, the first assistant (who doesn’t speak English all that well). Every meal on the trip was FANTASTIC; almost entirely vegetarian (except some camel on the last day), and so delicious.

Next day was spent lying on a cushion on the deck of the boat in the sun, drinking Stella beer, listening to Bob Marley, napping, watching the shores of the Nile float by… not far from perfection. Peeing in the river is forbidden so we had to make a number of stops for that, a stop for lunch, pulled ashore for the night around sunset. The river is actually quite clean this far south; a couple crazy Aussies in the boat next to us actually went for a swim, and if it was 40C I certainly would have joined them (all the croc’s are stuck south of the damn at Lake Nassar, so it’s safe at least in that regard); I think all the food/tea we had actually used water from the river, and as well Shahat went for a bath on the 3rd day.

The second night was great; we built a nice big fire (out of wood that we traded with a local kid for food, a little ways upriver), and all the felucca drivers brought out their drums for songs around the fire. It was so great to just sit and watch them have such a great time, such big smiles (seems really cheesy and touristy as I write this but that’s definitely not how it felt).

On the third morning after breakfast we hopped across the river and took a taxi into town to visit the camel market. Jamie stayed back on the boat because it’s true, we’ve seen quite a few camels on the trip so far, but I’m glad I didn’t miss it! Somewhere up around 2000 camels all sitting around waiting to be bought; most come from Sudan and go further north into Egypt – a good camel costs around 6000 pounds ($1200CDN), and not a deal goes down without a massive argument (despite the requirement of a mediator for every deal). It’s been interesting meeting people from Sudan – they’ve all been so friendly and like Libya was, the country has such a bad rap, but it means nothing when you meet some guy trying to make a living selling his camels, or taking tourists on his felucca, or whatever.

Got back on the boat, spent a couple more hours heading north before lunch, and after lunch had a minibus pick us up in the middle of nowhere; from here you have to travel in a convoy down to Luxor, so flew like a bat out of hell through the desert to get to a village called Esna to where the convoy starts (but of course missed it so had to wait 15 minutes for the next one).

Convoys. Good idea. Egypt had a “terrorist attack” at a temple in Luxor back in 1997, so let’s take all the tourists, put them together in a line up, and advertise the time the tourists speed down the highway to Luxor to anyone who wants to know. Smart.